Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
T hey were in limbo. Hyax had contacted Simon, but they were waiting to hear about a mysterious third person who would have enough juice to help move a dragon.
Gwil decided he would follow up on the lust potion incident, and Hyax had plans back in the fae realm that he offered Gwil the chance to attend, but he had declined because he could.
He was searching through the files he’d been sent around the different incidents, pulling up the details of those who’d been impacted, when he saw an email from a Katherine Chauncer entitled, Finished Sketches pop up. He opened it.
Dear Gwil,
Daniel passed on your email address. I was going to have paper copies couriered to you, but as you live with Prince Hyax, I didn’t want to risk spoiling the surprise.
Attached are the finished sketches of the piece.
I’ve also included the names of two jewellers who I’d recommend.
For the base metal, I would suggest platinum, with emeralds for the detailing.
I would consider two little rubies for the fangs, but I’ll leave that to you on whether it would be too cliché.
I hope you think it fitting for a prince.
If you’re happy with the design, Daniel said he could contact one of the jewellers—he’s likely to be able to get you a better price given his business connections.
Let me know your thoughts.
Katherine.
Gwil opened the attachment labelled sketches . The original drawing she’d done in the bar had been amazing, but this was beyond brilliant. The platinum spiral down an obvious fae ear, set with emeralds and the two vampire fangs at the point gave the design a uniqueness he knew Hyax would love.
He replied, gushing at her talent, and taking up Daniel’s offer of help. He would have had to call in a few favours to get the names of a jeweller, so he was delighted that he had another option.
Gwil returned to his research, finding the names of the two women the lust potion had worked on.
Emily Roas had been the bride-to-be, and her now wife was Lia Sprili, both dryads.
A few cursory internet searches later, and he had their profile on a paranormal social media platform, and he saw they both worked for a supernatural accounting firm in the city where he assumed they’d met.
They had shared interests in hiking and gardening, appeared to really like pasta and had a soft spot for Norwegian Forest cats, but nothing that would suggest they would be targeted for an attack.
He supposed they might have messed up at work, or there was something not obvious from the various things they posted about.
He checked Emily’s older posts, from when she was still engaged to her male fiancé and didn’t see anything that would have signalled she had the hots for her friend.
She’d removed pictures of her ex, but he was able to find them.
Fil Novos, who’d immigrated to the UK from Tallinn, was now working as a manager at a skincare firm in London.
The fact he was originally an apothecary was not lost on Gwil.
Fil’s social media had been quiet since the breakup.
A single post asking for space and understanding, and that life had a funny way of making sure things worked out the way they should.
Gwil was pretty sure if he’d found out that Hyax was wanting to play tonsil hockey with his best mate and bang them harder than a bass drum, he’d have been sending out burn the world messages, not this quiet acceptance.
He’d been an investigator a long time, and his gut told him that he needed to speak to Fil, as he was the one who would have the answers.
A few calls later, he had an address. It was late evening, and since Hyax would be out for some time, he thought he could get this part of the Dante case closed. He couldn’t move a dragon, but he could track down a jilted fiancé and have a chat.
Fil Novos lived out in zone four, not so far that Gwil felt he’d left the capital, but far enough to be in a place of suburbia and mundaneness.
He’d thought if he ever moved out of London, he’d do so properly, maybe up a mountain, and not this midway point that pretended to be convenient but was actually an expensive pain in the arse to commute from.
Gwil stood outside the Edwardian terrace, one of many that seemed popular in the area and were the mainstay of couples and young families.
He guessed Fil got to keep the house in the split.
The lights were on, and he saw a flicker from a TV.
He’d decided not to call ahead, preferring a surprise visit where Fil might talk to him instead of him legging it.
Gwil rang the doorbell. He’d seen firsthand that unexpected visitors weren’t welcome, but at least he was only here to talk and not collect a debt.
He was fifty-fifty whether Fil would answer.
He peered through the frosted glass pane of the door and could see someone hesitating at the end of the hall. He rang the bell again.
The figure moved towards the door, and Gwil heard a security chain being fitted, then the door opened a few inches.
“Are you Fil Novos?”
“Who wants to know?” He had a slight accent, but didn’t sound overly perturbed.
“My name is Gwil Hilt, I’m a private investigator. I’m looking into an incident on behalf of the department store, Dante’s.”
“I wouldn’t know anything about that.”
He wasn’t expecting any different response but took out his I.D.
and proffered it through the gap. “Your ex-fiancée was involved. Look, I’m not here to cause you grief, and you won’t get into trouble by talking to me, but I do need to see if I can rule out what happened to Ms Roas from some other things going on. ”
“You should talk to her.”
“You’re the apothecary, Mr Novos. I think you’d be best placed to answer my specific questions.”
His I.D. was snatched, and moments later, the security chain released and the door opened. Fil Novos was a lovely-looking lad, blond, blue-eyed, with a baby face, and despite his posture not being the best, he seemed to be in decent physical shape as well. “I guess I’d better put the kettle on.”
“You’re inviting me in?”
“Yes, oh, wait, are you a vampire? Not that it matters, but I thought that was a myth.”
“It is. I’m being polite and checking you’re happy for me to enter as it’s protocol.” He’d never understood the myth about vampires needing to be invited into a property; it made no sense, and he’d have had difficulty doing his job if it were true.
He followed Fil inside and was surprised to see packing boxes. “You leaving?”
“Yeah, I decided I wanted to move closer into the city. I’m downsizing to a flat since I don’t need a three-bed house.”
Fil pottered around his small kitchen making tea, and Gwil accepted a mug with a splash of milk and one sugar.
He’d read that Fil had signed a non-disclosure agreement not to go to the press, which hadn’t surprised him.
The surprise had been that he’d not asked for any money to do so, which had only made Gwil’s gut feeling stronger.
“I don’t want to cause further upset, and I’m not going to rake over the details of what happened after the potion exploded or the fallout.
I’m more interested in how a potion could be keyed to an individual and go off at a specific time. This wasn’t a random event.”
Dante’s had lumped the lust potion in with the other incidents, and until they’d discovered the dragon, so had Gwil and Hyax.
“Dante’s didn’t say anything to me. They should’ve had something in place to stop the potion spreading.”
“They do now. But they were thinking the potion attack was part of something else. Here’s the thing, I don’t think that was the case.
I think you set off the potion, I don’t know how exactly, but I could find out.
Or you could tell me and admit what happened, and I’ll see to it that Dante’s pays out to deal with the emotional suffering. ”
Fil’s shoulders seemed to sag even further. “What’s to stop you from going to the police?”
“Because I think the Met’s a bunch of muppets. Come on, Fil. You’re the one who lost out here. I’m not gonna shit on you further, but I need to make sure I’m right and not overlooking something.”
He sighed. “You’ve heard the expression, if you love someone, you should let them go?”
“Yes,” Gwil said, and he had a feeling he knew where this was going.
“Emily would have married me, but every time I saw her with Lia, she lit up. She talked about how making friends as an adult was hard, but I could see it was more. Both of them were in denial, neither of them acting on the obvious connection.”
“And you decided to do something about it?”
Fil nodded. “If I’d been wrong, nothing would have happened.
If I was right, then it was better that the truth was out in the air before we got married and not in a few years, as feelings are hard to keep hidden forever.
I used an old family recipe, and a charm to hide it in her handbag, timed to go off during her dress fitting with her maid of honour. ”
“You could have just talked to her.”
“I tried. She said I was seeing things, and when the potion acted and brought her some clarity, she said she was sorry and never meant to hurt me.” He sipped his tea.
“She’s happy, really happy, and I’m okay because I’d have been constantly watching and that would have been the start of the death of our marriage anyway. ”
Gwil had never been as self-aware as Fil, and never as altruistic, although Fil was also saving himself from future heartache.
Technically, he’d used a potion on his fiancée, and it could be considered assault and entrapment.
But he’d not benefited directly, just stepped back, let Lia and Emily have their love. “Do they know?”
“Yes. I told Emily the truth. I told her why I did it, and that all I did was open her eyes. She was angry, said I had no right. But a few days later, she turned up here as she’d gone to her parents and we talked. She was my friend before my girlfriend, and now she’s still my friend.”
Gwil had his answer. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for Fil; life dealt a load of shit cards, and sometimes there were only certain ways they could be played. “Sounds hard.”
“Hard would be watching her fade away, like a bird in a cage. There’s someone out there for me. I’m going on a date next week with a friend of a friend.”
“I couldn’t have done it, so fair play to you.”
“You’re a vampire; we’re built differently.” Fil finished his tea. “I’m a bit surprised no one came to ask before.”
Gwil thought that Hyax was right about the dragon’s magic acting as a mask, but he couldn’t tell Fil the reason. “As I said, Dante’s thought the potion was related to something else. They’ll be happy enough to have ruled the incident out of those investigations.”
Fil stood. “Unless there’s anything more I can help you with, I need to get on with my packing.”
“I’ll inform the team at Dante’s that you’ve helped in the investigation. I won’t be specific, but I will recommend that you should be compensated.”
“I won’t say no, but it’s not needed.”
Gwil knew what it was like to suffer for love.
He’d watched Hyax marry someone else, but had known Hyax loved him.
Fil had let his love go, given them the chance to be happy.
How he’d gone about it hadn’t exactly been legal, but Gwil had seen people try to hold on and control the person they said they loved, and this was far healthier.
While a few grand wouldn’t fix all the shit, it wouldn’t hurt either to have a little cushioning.
Gwil left Fil to his packing, pleased they’d resolved the red herring, but it wasn’t much comfort, and when Hyax got home, he was going to hug the fuck out of the blond bastard.