Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
We arrived at work to find Viktor there. He waved at me, a strained smile on his face. He looked tired but good. Guard duty for Herne had agreed with him. I hustled around the table to give him a hug.
“The old gang’s almost all back together,” he said.
“I miss Angel,” I said. “Any hope of her coming to visit?”
“That depends on how things are going with her and Sejun,” he said. “They work well together. And now, she’s pregnant. She said to say hello.”
We quieted down as Herne and Ember entered the room.
Ember was wearing a blue corset over a light chiffon skirt and a gossamer cape.
For the first time since she’d been through the Gadawnoin, she looked the part of a goddess—albeit a casual one.
I wasn’t sure what the difference was, but she practically shimmered.
“So far, no bodies reported this morning,” Herne said. “I think—”
“Excuse me,” I said, raising my hand. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but I have some info that could be important.”
“Oh?” he asked. “Please, go ahead.”
“I can’t tell you how I found this, because I made a promise, but I have information on who…
or rather what…might be committing the murders.
” I pulled out my phone, copied and pasted the info into another email, and then sent it to everyone.
“There’s a creature called an Aqcarian—they’re bound to saltwater, and they can…
well…dissolve people. And if they’re in freshwater, they need salt to stay alive. ”
“Aqcarians?” Talia leaned forward. “I’ve heard of them—I can’t remember where or who, but I remember hearing that name. I don’t know what they are, though.”
“Cripes,” Ember said. She was reading the email. “This is fairly long. Also…I’ve never heard of most of this.”
“I haven’t had time to look at it,” I said, glancing at the email, which had more information in it than I expected. “Somebody want to read it aloud?”
“I will.” Yutani cleared his throat.
Concerning the Aqcarian Society they don’t have any comfort in knowing what killed their loved ones.
I think we should give them something to hold on to.
Something they can use to close this chapter of their lives. ”
Talia spoke up. “Raven’s right. It doesn’t matter what we tell them—just something that can ease their pain. Even if it’s a lie.”
As I walked to the side, I thought that sometimes lies were necessary. Sometimes, they made life easier to bear, and that—that was a great gift. Especially when there weren’t any easy answers.
To my surprise, Ashera actually answered, and she remembered me.
“What have you been doing the past few years?” she asked.
“More than I can fit in a single phone call,” I said. “But I need to talk to you about something. Have you ever heard of the Aqcarians?”
The dragon breathed in so sharply I could hear it through the phone. “Why? What do you know about them?” Her voice was so abrupt that I thought she was angry.
“We have a problem,” I said. I told her about the murders and what we had found out.
“If they are the ones behind the murders, then we need to know why. What are they doing in Puget Sound? Why the string of murders in coastal towns? We were wondering if—since you’re a water dragon—you might be able to poke around the sound and see if you can find evidence that they’re here. I know it’s a lot to ask, but...”
There was a pause, almost to the point where I wondered if she had hung up on me, but then she said, “I’ll do it. I’ll drop everything and go now.”
The fact that she seemed so worried concerned me. “Why the rush? Do you know something that we should know?”
“Maybe,” she said. “Wait till I search the sound. I’ll talk to the elementals, too.”
“Are the elementals you talk to in the water related to the Elemental Fae?”
At that, Ashera let out a short laugh. “No, not at all. There might be some sort of overlap, but no. The Fae—even the Elemental Fae—are connected to the world, but they are not of the world, if that makes sense. They aren’t literally avatars of the elements, like elementals are.
Everything in the universe is connected, but some strands of connection are further apart than others.
I’ll call you back this afternoon, if not sooner.
” And without another word, she hung up.