Chapter 2 #2
Behind said register stood my friend Comenius, the shop owner, muttering under his breath and tapping at the keys.
At his shoulder was Noria Melcott, a human redhead dressed in denim overalls, a loud t-shirt, and an aviator’s cap.
An annoyed scowl was stamped all over her freckled face as she watched Comenius try to ring up a purchase for the customer standing in front of the counter.
She was the younger sister of an Enforcer friend of mine named Annia, and a college student who paid her way between a scholarship and the wages she made working at Comenius’s shop.
“Com,” Noria huffed as she rolled her eyes. “Would you please just let me do it?”
“No,” Comenius said, his crisp, throaty Pernian accent tinged with annoyance.
He impatiently brushed back his ash-blond bangs with one long-fingered hand that was stained with herb residue, drawing attention to the strong bones of his face.
“I’ve been operating this register long before I hired you.
I am perfectly capable of ringing up a sale. ”
“Not when the machine’s broken, you’re not.”
“Look, can I just come back later and pay for this?” the customer whined. “I’m going to be late for my shift.”
Amused despite my dire mood, I leaned up against the counter and tapped the table to get Comenius’s attention. “Com, let the geeky girl have a go at it. You don’t want to lose a paying customer, do you?”
Comenius’s pale eyebrows shot up as he glanced over at me.
“Naya? What are you doing here?” He took a step toward me, and Noria used the opportunity to dart in front of the register and open up the back end to unstick whatever little gears had jammed inside it.
He hardly noticed though – his cornflower blue eyes were firmly fixed on mine.
“You’re usually asleep this time of day… or did you get the night off?”
“Not exactly,” I muttered. All the dark emotion, which I’d pushed down somewhere behind my lower intestines, came bubbling up into my chest again. “It’s more like I took off.”
“Why would you do that?” Noria asked. The bell jingled as the customer left the shop with his purchase in hand.
It had taken her about two seconds to fix the machine and ring him up – which was not surprising, as she had a real bent for machinery.
Narrowing her coffee-colored eyes, she hopped up on the counter, placing herself directly between Comenius and me so she couldn’t be ignored – a tactic that was both endearing and annoying.
“I can’t imagine that they’d be able to forgive you leaving in the middle of a Friday night crowd. ”
“Yeah, well they’re just going to have to deal.” I shoved my hands into my hair, promptly tangling my fingers into the black ringlets. “Roanas was murdered.”
“What?” Comenius and Noria both gasped at the same time, their eyes huge.
“When?” Comenius asked.
“How?” Noria demanded.
I sighed, exhaustion dragging at the edges of my brain.
I hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours – it had been nearly midnight when I’d gotten Roanas’s cry for help – and on top of that, I was emotionally exhausted.
Comenius, sensing my fatigue, had Noria lock the front door and flip the ‘OPEN’ sign around to ‘CLOSED’, then brought out a pot of his soothing tea and had us all settle into the small sitting area in a corner of the shop so I could tell them the story.
I told them everything between sips of tea, silently thanking Magorah, the All-Creator, as the herbal concoction soothed my ragged nerves and bolstered my flagging energy levels.
Comenius was a hedge-witch; all of his spells, amulets, concoctions and devices were created using nature magic, and he made some of the most killer herbal remedies around, amongst other things.
Hence why everything in the shop was made out of natural materials, and also the reason Comenius couldn’t operate the cash register to save his life.
It was like he had an allergy to anything remotely made of machinery.
“By the Ur-God,” Noria whispered. Her dark eyes shimmered with tears. “I’m so sorry, Naya. That’s terrible.”
“Silver poisoning?” Comenius’s eyes were narrowed as he pondered the issue. “And you say he told you the silver was some kind of solution that was undetectable by scent or taste?”
I nodded. “Do you know any herbs that might be able to do that?” I asked, leaning forward in my chair. I’d hoped his vast knowledge of plant lore might point me in the right direction. And since I was currently an outcast at all my usual haunts, he was the only person I could turn to for help.
Comenius tapped his square chin as he thought. “I might,” he muttered, his gaze scanning a shelf filled with jars of dried leaves and roots. “But most of them wouldn’t meld with silver.” He paused, turning his narrowed gaze back to me. “Are you investigating this in an official capacity?”
“No.” My cheeks flushed, but I stubbornly held his gaze. “The Guild sent two goons from the Main Crew to handle it. You know they wouldn’t let me investigate my own mentor’s murder.”
“Shouldn’t you –”
“Com,” Noria interjected, her brows drawing together as she cut him off. “You don’t really expect Naya to sit back and let those half-assed jerks investigate Roanas’s death, do you?”
“Well, no.” Comenius hesitated, uncertainty flickering in his eyes.
“But I can’t say I’m entirely comfortable putting my shop on the line by aiding Naya in an unauthorized investigation either.
” He leaned forward to pin me with a gimlet stare.
“Haven’t you considered that this might be the reason your mentor was killed?
Because he was sticking his nose where someone thought it didn’t belong? ”
“Yes,” I said evenly before Noria exploded.
While the kid’s outrage on my behalf was admirable, I didn’t need her losing her job over it.
“But that isn’t going to stop me from flushing out the bastard who killed him, and bringing them to justice.
Brin and Nila care more about getting their bounty than getting actual justice for Roanas, which means that whoever murdered him is going to keep on knocking off other shifters unchecked.
This is a lot bigger than a revenge kick, Com.
It’s about the safety of the shifter community in general. ”
Comenius sighed, running a hand through his pale hair. “I wish that you could go to the Shifter Council about this. That would be much more appropriate, and possibly more effective too.”
I scowled. “You know why I can’t do that.
” As a half-shifter, my word was worth significantly less than that of a full-blooded shifter, and on top of that my aunt Mafiela, the head of the Jaguar Clan, was on the Council.
Normally that would be an advantage, except that she regarded the shit stains on her underwear more highly than she did me, especially after my mother passed away.
There was no way the Council would allow me to participate in an investigation if I initiated one with them, not if she had anything to say about it.
“I know. And that’s why I’ll look into it.” He rose, and the loose fabric of his dark green tunic rippled with the motion. “I’ll be right back.”
“Thank you.” I sighed a little as Comenius disappeared into the back of the shop.
This reticence to take action, this stickler attitude about following the rules was the reason Comenius and I hadn’t worked out as a couple a few years back when we’d tried dating.
Sure, he had a pretty hot bod beneath those conservative clothes of his, and those long fingers were good for more than enchanting amulets and grinding herbs.
But I preferred to live on the edge, whereas Comenius tended toward camping behind the lines.
Sometimes it amazed me that a man who made his living by working with the forces of nature could be so rigid… but then again, it took all kinds.
“You know,” Noria interrupted my inner monologue. She leaned back in her wicker chair, a thoughtful expression on her elfin face. “I might have some ideas myself about how the silver could have been masked.”
“Oh yeah?” I leaned forward, hope sparking in my chest. Part of me knew that it was wrong for me to involve Annia’s little sister – she was a smart kid, not yet eighteen years old, with a bright future ahead of her, and I didn’t need to mess it up by dragging her into my bullshit.
But I was also desperate and without leads, and I needed all the help I could get.
“You think you might be able to track down who did it?”
Noria shrugged. “Sure, if I can figure out how it was done. I’ll jump on investigating how the silver could have been diluted. A couple of my friends at the Academy have done experiments with metals and electricity. It’s very likely that whoever did this was human.”
I nodded. “That makes sense. I couldn’t imagine it being one of our own.” Shifters didn’t use silver to kill other shifters – we preferred to settle things with our fangs and claws.
Comenius came back from around the counter, a bracelet clutched in his fist. “I couldn’t find anything in the books I have here,” he said.
“But I’ll check the Mage Guild’s library and see what else I can find.
In the meantime, you should wear this.” He held up the hemp bracelet to reveal a small, circular amulet dangling from the center.
“It will help quiet the spirits around you and sharpen your focus, so you can concentrate on the investigation.”