Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
T he next morning, I woke up in my own bed back at Mercury’s mansion, with the white rat nestled against my neck. I felt so incredibly good. Like it was Christmas morning and the whole world was singing. I reached out to find Mercury, but the rest of the small bed was empty. My heart fell a little, but it was just as well since he didn’t fit in this bed. So why weren’t we still on his boat?
I must have drifted off to sleep. Had that really happened? Everything seemed so impossible. I’d gone to the prison to talk to Mr. Good? What kind of cocky idiot was I? Was he really my father, and had he actually seduced my mother? No, he’d said that she’d seduced him. For money. I was frowning as I stroked Vanilla’s soft fur. I didn’t want to think about the implications of that, but I wasn’t going to bury my head in the sand and pretend that nothing had changed. I had to talk to my mother. I had to get to the bottom of who killed me, and whether or not they were going to be a threat to Mercury.
Ah. My dark sorcerer. I smiled kind of idiotically while my heart warmed. Did he really want to court me? I touched my face. It wasn’t a perfect face, but most people survived just fine without perfection. What did courting me entail? Suddenly, I couldn’t stay in bed for another second. I had to see him, to make sure it hadn’t all been some wild and unlikely hallucination.
I threw back the blankets, sending Vanilla scuttling across the coverlet. I went straight to the armoire and then stared at the collection of clothing that was a world away from black armor. It was all spelled, whispering to me as I leafed through it, but also incredibly beautiful, like this skirt suit and boucle jacket, white and aqua with gold trim. Everything in the armoire would look beautiful with Daphne’s gem set. Apparently, we were doing an entire collection. Was this what courting me meant?
I hesitated, because the cost of this wardrobe, spelled with protection, would be astronomical, even for Cassandra Clarence, heiress. Was I comfortable accepting so much from Mercury when I’d given him so little?
Vanilla squeaked and leapt into the armoire, tugging down a dress onto her head, burying herself in a wash of aqua satin.
I laughed as I rescued the rat, holding her in one hand while I shook out the dress with the other. “Do you think I should wear this one?”
She squeaked, then leapt to my shoulder, ran down my back, dropped to the floor and disappeared under the curtains.
I dressed carefully, hesitating at the pair of kitten heels that were probably enchanted and therefore might be hard to take off. I shrugged and put them on, anyway. Mercury would help me. I bit my bottom lip at the thought of Mercury’s hands sliding over my feet, warm, strong, and so gentle.
I studied my reflection in the mirror when I was dressed, at my bright eyes, glowing skin, and general health and vitality. Mercury was courting me. Would he take me on magic carpet rides in other magical dimensions? Or would we go to museums and ancient ruins? Maybe we’d finally watch my favorite show and eat Neapolitan ice cream together.
I shook my head and went to the kitchen to find none other than Mr. Good’s lawyer with Retta at his side, Bones glowering at both of them.
“Miss Nova, shall I throw them out?” Bones asked, without taking his eyes off the two.
“I…What are they doing here? What are you doing here?” I corrected myself, focusing on Mr. Good’s employees.
The lawyer with horns and tail bowed. “I am here to deliver the papers. That is, it’s all digital files that are stored on this computer.” He raised a sleek model that reminded me of Mercury’s. “I’ll need your fingerprint, and then I’ll leave you to your breakfast.” He smiled the perfect lawyer smile, and my heart twisted. That hadn’t been a dream, then.
I studied the demon lawyer with those little curved horns while my mind raced. “I’m afraid I’ll have to talk to my lawyer.”
He smiled slightly and bowed again. “I am your lawyer.”
I raised a brow. “I never hired you, and I never will.”
“Yes, but all the same, I am your lawyer, and Retta is your bodyguard. It’s all explained in the papers.”
“I refuse to accept anything from Mr. Good, including people. Especially people. I’m not touching that computer or his papers. Now that we got that straightened out, Bones will escort you out. Gently,” I added when Bones looked a little too happy about that prospect.
“You’ll need a bodyguard,” Retta said, sidestepping away from Bones. “You’re good with your guns, and you’re fast with your fingers, but you’ll have to hide here forever if you don’t want Mr. Good’s enemies to skin you alive.”
I gave her a stiff smile. “I would never hire a bodyguard who had feelings towards my…” What was Mercury to me? We were courting. That was like dating. Which meant going out, and not with a goblin bodyguard breathing down my neck. I was dressed for going out.
Retta grinned, showing her pointed teeth. “It was a passing fancy, although if I thought he’d ever bend in my direction…”
I bared my teeth at her and pulled a gun. The holsters had fit so nicely beneath my bouclé jacket. “Bones will escort you both out, now!”
Apricots smiled slightly as Bones grabbed his shoulder and dragged him towards the door, rumpling his dark blue silk suit. “If you wish. We are still yours. If you should need assistance in any way, you have only to summon me with a drop of your blood. Retta can’t be summoned like that, as she has no demon in her, but I can connect you easily enough. It is my pleasure to serve.”
“That’s not going to happen. I’d rather die than get embroiled in Mr. Good’s business. There is nothing that could induce me to be involved in any way. I only went to see him to get answers about my death. He had absolutely no help for me. He’s a demon. You make a deal with him, but it ends up blowing up in your face.”
The lawyer dug in his heels while he smiled, showing teeth such white teeth. “Mr. Good is a demon at heart without any of the blood. Be glad that he is playing a gentle game with you as he wants you willing.” He bowed again, awkward from that position with Bones dragging him by the shoulder, then he twisted out of Bones’s grasp and left the kitchen, Retta at his heels. I’d expected him to disappear in a puff of sulphurous smoke, but no, he probably didn’t want to get his expensive silk suit smelly. Rumpled was bad enough.
I sat down in the chair at the table and then noticed the pile of hot waffles. I brightened up as I put three on my plate and used too much butter and drizzling syrup.
“Do you like the waffles? Master made them for you.”
I hesitated with the fork at my lips and then took that huge bite of the three stack in my mouth. I froze when the flavor exploded on my tongue. Mercury had made these? They were a mix of sawdust and hot peppers that had me sputtering and reaching for the glass of orange juice. I gulped that bite down and then gagged when the juice’s flavor knocked me sideways. So bitter! At least the waffles were sweet.
I pushed back the waffles and looked up at Bones, trying not to grimace, but my tongue was still curling from the taste of the juice. Not orange. “Mercury made me breakfast? Did you help at all?”
“No, Mistress. Master made everything for you out of this old cookbook he has, you see?” He handed me a very old cookbook with batter freshly smeared across the cover. I opened it and looked through to find old English instructions for curing common human ailments. The recipe for waffles was marked, but it was for pancakes, probably because waffles weren’t invented yet, and it was for the prevention and treatment of the common cold.
I started to smile at the image of Mercury, the dark sorcerer, working on some health elixirs for the live human girl he was courting. This is what courting meant to him? Philip would have ordered me a million roses or commissioned something for me, but this was so much sweeter, so much more personal.
I smiled up at Bones and closed the book. “I’ll have to go to the bookstore and get him a more updated health cookbook. It couldn’t have been easy for him to find great-horned owl claw powder.” I took a bite of the waffles, chewed thoroughly, and then swallowed a quick gulp of the juice while I tried to avoid any contact with my tongue. I started getting rough towards the end, but I powered through. I wasn’t going to let Mercury think I didn’t appreciate his efforts. I did. So much, but I was definitely getting him a more palatable cookbook in the very near future.
“Where is he?” I asked, standing up.
Bones studied my empty plate. “Are you still hungry? There are more waffles.”
“No, I am completely full, thank you. Where’s the Master?”
“Ah. He’s out.”
“Out where?”
“On business, I believe. Magical.”
“Magical business? What does that mean?”
He shifted uncomfortably, then clapped his hands while his eyes brightened. “It means that he’s going to meet you for dinner tonight at a very fine restaurant. I’m to drive you. But we have a few hours before then. Is there anything you’d like to do? Master has made it clear that you aren’t to leave the house today, so the bookstore will have to come to you. He has left his computer for you to use, to order from. Have you seen the online book stores? There are some very good ones.” He pulled out the black credit card, pressing it on me. He seemed slightly anxious, like I might not like the idea of being trapped in Mercury’s mansion with him.
I smiled brightly. “A laptop is exactly what I want. Thank you so much, Bones. And we’re going to dinner? The three of us?”
“Not me, Mistress. I don’t eat human food, and the restaurant will be very human. The Master wanted to make sure you’d be comfortable. He said something about making up for the waffles. What did he mean by that?”
I almost giggled, but held it back. “I have no idea how anything could make up for how lovely they were. I’m quite sure I won’t have any negative effects from my little swim after eating such a healthy breakfast. Where’s the laptop?”
It was in his laboratory. I was apparently allowed to go there without him. At least the shadows didn’t stop me, so I climbed the stairs, feeling nervous and like I was trespassing, but I really did need to do some serious research, right now.
When I got to the creepy carved door, I hesitated, but the thing swung in without me touching it, welcoming me as much as a creepy door could welcome someone.
“Oh. Thank you,” I said and ducked inside. I made sure to walk around the star burned into the floor and to the desk where the laptop with engraved marking waited for me. I opened it, and on the screensaver was the picture, the one of him standing at the top of a cliff with the undead all around, only it was a more extended version that showed more of the background, more of the lightning, and didn’t show off his chest quite so much.
“I apologize I couldn’t be with you,” Mercury’s voice said in my ear, low, melodious, but still rippling with danger.
I turned to look, but there was nothing there. “Oh, that’s all right,” I said, feeling weird. I’d just pretend we were on speaker phone. “I did miss you when I woke up alone, though.” Could I say that? We were courting. I was supposed to miss him while we were courting.
“I apologize for the waffles, but your health is my greatest concern.”
I frowned. That hadn’t sounded like a response as much as a recording. “My concern is seeing your bare chest as soon as possible. Are shirts a requirement at dinner tonight?”
“I’m looking into some different methods for assuring your well-being.”
Definitely a recording. I focused on the computer screen. “I feel the same way about you.” I typed into the search bar for news about the fire, the cast of The Detective Warlock , and all the chatter surrounding them. Were they going to cancel the show? Was it a sign? Also of great interest was the fact that Patricia Clarence had hired five different detectives from around the world to look into the fire and her precious daughter’s death. The news people tried to make it sound very exciting, like they might get an even better story than hundreds of people dead in a tragic accident.
When I looked up Mercury, I read about undead cleaning up the streets, and a photo of a particularly gruesome corpse holding a garbage bag and smiling with very few intact teeth. I shuddered in spite of myself and scrolled on. I stopped when I saw myself in Sebastian’s dress, wearing the Daphne gems and looking like the world’s most expensive prostitute. The ones where I was pointing a gun at someone were particularly evocative. I shuddered even harder at that. My mother would roll over in her grave, except that she wasn’t dead.
I frowned and after hesitating a moment, went back to nine months before I was born, and looked at everything I could find on Clarence Corp. I’d heard that there had been some instability in the company, but with good allies, Clarence corp had come through. The good ally that featured heavily in the rescue was Aquaco, a company I knew very, very well. It was the parent company of dozens of other companies that Clarence Corp had worked with my whole life, particularly in the welfare arm. Acts of Good. Mr. Good. An alliance bought with my mother’s soul and my life.
I held my breath for a moment while my stomach churned. Was Mr. Good right? Had everything I’d ever believed been a lie? I gritted my teeth and continued probing deeper into Aquaco and its subsidiaries. There were so many arms, so many webs wrapped around Clarence co, focusing in a way that one did when considering taking over a company, aligning values, shifting interests, cutting back on the shady imports and expanding into the medical sector. Aquaco ran a tight ship, was earning a place as a respectable company, even if it was run by a coalition without any proper representation. No figurehead. Why would Mr. Good want me to take over his business?
Everyone knew that he was cold calculation with a dash of sadism to give him some personality. Why wouldn’t he kill me the second he realized I was a threat to his immortality? There must have been a catch in the deal. I mean, that was the catch, that the most selfish person in the world would lose his immortality if he had children. Not a problem, since why would he ever have children? He wasn’t a womanizer. He was too cold to be seduced by something like passion. Except, apparently, where my mother was concerned. It was too bizarre. Impossible. And yet, I had come back from the dead.
I went back over my mother’s history, Patricia Watford as she’d been before she married my dad. He’d always be my dad, however many other men popped up claiming paternity. The Watford history was cloaked in tragedy, what with the fire that had killed both of my grandparents while my mother had been at a boarding school in Switzerland, and of course the goblin burglar who had messed up the job so terribly, ending up burned horribly in the fire he’d accidentally caused that had taken the two respectable humans’ lives. Was it more than just a tragedy? Did my mother actually have something to do with it?
“Impossible.” I closed the computer and leaned back in Mercury’s incredibly comfortable chair. My mother had spent her entire life dedicated to protecting humanity. She wasn’t the kind of person who would steal someone’s identity. Or have an affair with a mobster. And yet…
I shook my head and looked up the burglar who had started the fire and was serving in the same prison as Mr. Good. Cordy Hood. What a name. Pity I hadn’t visited him while I was…
I sat up and felt a chill creep down my spine. Mr. Good had said that my grandfather was serving in jail, and this half-goblin…No. That would be ridiculous. Impossible. My mother was absolutely respectable. She didn’t go around plotting taking over families like the Watfords, who were respectable, but with crumbling fortunes. She’d needed my dad’s business, his money. If she were going to take the place of some girl, she’d go after money and respectability.
I stared at the picture of a young Patricia Watford. She looked eerily like me at age fourteen after I’d had extensive surgery, only her eyes were sorrowful, haunted, weak. Those weren’t my mother’s eyes. She wasn’t ever weak or overly emotional. The blue was right, but those were contacts, the same ones I’d had. That was the only picture of the young woman as all the rest had been destroyed in the fire. What an amazingly convenient way to get rid of all the evidence. How lucky that the young woman herself was in a boarding school at the time. How lucky.
My stomach churned, but I swallowed down nausea and clicked on more information about the criminal Cordy Wood, but there weren’t many records about half-goblins online. His only prison record was from the time he was incarcerated for the fire. That was a dead end. What about the famous dancer I resembled? If that was my actual grandmother, there should be something to link her to Cordy Wood, and then maybe I could find out who he really was.
There was no shortage of images of the dancer, many of them embarrassingly risqué. I went back to the time around my mother’s birth, and carefully examined all of her escorts, of which she had a horrifying number, until I found the half-goblin, Cordy Hood. Not some random burglar. Actually, he was one of leaders of the Seven Sundry. An article about the Seven Sundry made my stomach want to throw up all those waffles, but no way I was tasting them twice. Murder, drugs, and even human trafficking were just the tip of the iceberg. The Seven were a group of men and women who profited off the weaknesses of others between wars and uprisings. Causing wars and uprisings. Did my mother actually come from that world? It wasn’t possible and yet…she understood evil. That’s why she was able to combat it so effectively.
Why would she defend humanity, allying with angels and gargoyles to save others if she herself had taken the lives of three innocent humans? Why would a mob boss go burgling some humans who, by all accounts, were completely broke? My mother had gotten scholarships to attend the prestigious school her mother had gone to. She’d worked hard, and then worked harder to turn my father’s business into the conglomerate it was today. She’d been fighting my whole life against the evil that threatened everything with the conviction of an angel. I’d met the Commander of the Holy Order of the Swords of Truth once. He’d asked me why my mother wanted to save. I hadn’t understood why he’d asked the question. Of course we want to save. What else would we do with our power and influence? He’d patted my head, his hand feeling very heavy before he moved on. He’d found it unusual that my mother would be so passionate about something that didn’t come naturally to her.
I took a deep breath and got out my phone.
It rang a dozen times before Fin finally answered.
“The creative scammer. What do you want this time?”
I sighed heavily. This wouldn’t work, but I had to try. “I’d like to know everything about Patricia Watford. I can pay you well.”
“You want to know about…” There was the clicking sound in the background and then she whistled. “Mrs. Clarence?”
“No, Patricia Watford. Specifically the boarding school she went to, the people who knew her, personal contacts she had when she was young up until age fifteen.”
“Until the fire?”
I nodded, then said, “Yes, thank you,” because she couldn’t see me.
“The thing is, people are really vulnerable after someone dies. You have to be on guard because that’s when the buzzards come around, and yet, I’ve been digging into you, Nova Star. Not that it’s hard with the way your public indecency makes you easy click bait. You came out of nowhere two weeks after Cassandra Clarence died, and are living with a necromancer who was rumored to be obsessed with said Cassandra Clarence.”
“But that’s just circumstantial evidence. I’m just a scammer. But I can pay.”
She snorted. “You think I’d sell my only friend’s mother’s respectability for money? It’s like you know me. When do you need this info? It’ll take some digging.”
“I’ll call you again tonight, after dinner.”
“Dinner? With the necromancer? Don’t you know he has zombie rats with him wherever he goes? You shake his hand, and you find teeth buried in your palm, desiccated, rotting, virulent teeth.”
“He has a few undead rats, all right, more than a few, but he also has live ones. The dead ones don’t ever bother me, but Vanilla is so sweet. She snuggles all the time.”
“You have a rat? Look at you, getting a familiar like a real magic user. So, what’s it like to be dead?”
“I don’t know. I’m completely reanimated.”
“The Necromancer’s that good? Did he stow your soul into that cabaret dancer’s body?”
“Why does everyone think that? No. This is me without surgery. Pretty, right?”
She gasped a little, then laughed out loud. “And you want to look into your mother? So it really was foul play?”
“Yes. The video of me chasing the cat back into the fire was completely fabricated. I wasn’t there during the fire.”
“It was a coverup? Like the fire at your grandparent’s house? The plot thickens! OMG, this is just like that episode on Detective Warlock where the ghoul was murdered and they had to lay to rest…I mean, it’s not just like that, because there was no heiress, but it’s close enough. And you got to meet the cast. I mean, did you?”
“I don’t remember anything past the train. But I did interview Winston.” I wrinkled my nose. She’d really get a kick out of my humiliation, and I was willing to humor her. “I was being fitted for the dress of shame and wearing the most garish underwear known to man. Tie-died leopard print. Fuchsia.”
She almost died laughing, while I almost died from embarrassment. Happily, I was in a Necromancer’s office, and Mercury had promised to bring me back if I died more permanently. We were courting. He liked me, and not because I looked perfect, or was an heiress, but just for me.
I gave her the credit card number. She promised to charge an exorbitant fee, and with that, I was left alone to sink back into my thoughts. Did my mother kill that girl to take her life? Why do that if she was going to be a human rights activist? Was it guilt? No. It was conviction, not guilt.
“Miss Nova?” Bones murmured, breaking through my thoughts as he peered in the door.
I got up and smiled at him. “Is Mercury home?”
“No, you’re going to meet him for dinner. Don’t you remember?” He looked so concerned, like I’d suddenly had a bout of amnesia.
I laughed and skipped over to him, giving him a long hug, before I pulled back to beam at him. “Of course I remember you, Bones. I’ll always remember you.”
He smiled back at me brightly. “Did you find the book you wanted?”
“Oh. No, I guess I did forget something. Perhaps I’ll go to the bookstore with Mercury after dinner.”
He patted my hand and walked with me down the stairs and through a door that led directly to the garage. He kept glancing at me, like he could see through my manic smile.
When we pulled up outside the familiar restaurant in Apple City, my heart lurched and fell down into my stomach. Les Gar?on was the restaurant where Philip and I had celebrated our engagement with my parents. We came back every year on the same day. And now I was coming here with Mercury for our first date? It would be fine. No one would recognize me like this.
The door opened, and there was Mercury, offering me a hand, his eyes flickering with lightning as he helped me out. The rest of the world faded away when his eyes met mine and my heart expanded back into the right place and my skin tingled.
“Hi,” I said shyly, as I stood there on the pavement, my heart fluttering with hope and nerves. I wasn’t Cassandra Clarence anymore, just bare, raw imperfection.
“You look magnificent,” he said, taking my hand and raising it slowly to his soft lips.
A rush of goosebumps went over me when he finally made contact, the barest brush of skin against skin, but that made me want to be carried away somewhere close and soft, warm and sweet.
I shook my head and resisted the urge to hide my face in his suit. “Don’t say that. I want you to like me even when I look horrible.”
He narrowed his eyes and looked at me quizzically. “I like you even when you look horrible, mutilated, undead, but I prefer you this way, healthy, happy…Are you happy, Miss Nova?”
I swallowed hard while I stared into those eyes, gazing up at him, lost in his absolute splendor. “I’m happy with you. Whether you like me or not, I’m happy with you. I always have been, even when I was mutilated, undead…”
He pulled me against him tightly for a moment, inhaling my hair deeply. “Let’s not talk about that anymore. It makes me queasy. I like you more than is healthy, Miss Nova. You are my heart, my soul, my beating wings that lift me from an eternity of madness and despair into heaven,” he murmured, his low voice sending a shiver down my spine. He pressed his lips to my hair and then stepped back, folded my hand over his arm, and led me towards the beautiful restaurant.
Maybe I should mention that I came here to celebrate my engagement, but I’d rather cut off my fingers. They’d grow back, but we’d only have our first date once. Maybe it wasn’t as romantic as some places, but the food was incredibly good and it was the perfect place to announce a merger. People who went there had money, were serious about showing it off, and also cared deeply about the quality of the food. Some places were more expensive but had less care for flavor and freshness. Philip had taken me to a place like that to propose. Very sparkly, a view overlooking the city and the bay, stars gleaming overhead, and then the fireworks. We’d had our own private balcony, still in view of other diners, so they could admire us, but overall…
“Is everything all right?” he asked, studying me too intently.
I sighed and wrapped my arms around his arm, snuggling against his shoulder as we walked, not caring if it smudged my makeup. I wasn’t here for a merger, but for good food with the man I loved. I wasn’t Cassandra Clarence anymore, and I never would be again.
“Yes. Everything is perfect,” I said, smiling up at him.
A flash went off in my face, then another and another.
“Miss Star, could you turn this way, please?” an assertively friendly reporter asked with blazing red hair that I’d helped her pick out the first time we’d met and she was wearing something with purple tints that did the most miserable things to her complexion. Was Miss Star supposed to be me? It was catchy. Nova Star. I sounded like a celebrity, not a businesswoman.
Of course, the reporters would love to see me. I was click bait these days, but today I wasn’t wearing anything sheer and I had no intention of making out with Mercury publicly. In private… I turned and gave them a polite smile, giving the shot she was after. She flashed her teeth in a greedy smile. “Miss Star! What’s your relationship with Mr. Good?”
I stared at her, my heart racing as I clung even tighter to Mercury. How did they know? They didn’t. They couldn’t.
“I beg your pardon?” I asked in my coldest, most polite tone.
She looked slightly embarrassed but pressed on because it was her duty as a journalist. “You inherited all of Mr. Good’s assets. Were you together before you took up with the Dealer? Is that why he hates Mr. Good? Did he raise you for Mr. Good, Viva the famous dancer, but then?—”
Mercury pushed past her, leading me towards the doors. “Apparently, Mr. Good has informed the public,” he murmured after we got through the press and entered the sanctum of delicious scents and impeccable service.
I frowned and nodded. But why would Mr. Good do such a thing? What was I missing? Had he actually given me his whole business? For what purpose?
“I should buy some networks so I can profit off my publicity. Nova Star is such excellent click bait.” I kept my body relaxed in spite of the impulse I had to run as far and fast as possible. I could handle public pressure easily enough. I was here to eat with Mercury, so that’s what I’d do. And maybe if I were very lucky, I’d get out of here without shooting someone.