Tambie and Aella were two of several maenads who worked at the nightclub Bacchus and had forever been connected withDionysus. These two maenads in particular, though, were the only ones I’d witnessed that seemed like true sisters.
Now that Tambie had pointed it out, I couldn’t unsee how large I’d made the feet. Usually, my cutting and shaping skills were pristine, given the magical accompaniment, but then again, Iwasknee deep in distractions.
It had been two days since I left Jack in the woods with the ultimatum, only to look for me when he was ready to talk. It’d been agonizing to wait, but I promised myself I wouldn’t be the first to go searching for him this time. Was he still stuck as his monster? Did he not appreciate how I left things, and now did not want anything to do with me? Today would be the third day, and the impatient gnat flying circles around my head was starting to become unbearable.
The bell over the door chimed, and I snapped my gaze to the entrance, inconveniently hoping it’d be a certain blonde frosty stud.
“Evenin’, ladies,” Herb the sheriff greeted, tipping his ten-gallon hat.
Clearing my throat to keep my obvious disappointment from showing, I forced a grin and waved. “How are you today, sheriff? It’s been a while since you stopped by the bakery.”
Herb laughed and patted his round belly. “While I love your treats, Sylvie, my gullet can’t seem to handle them as often as it used to.” His spurs sounded as he walked toward the counter, his gait wide, legs slightly bowed.
Herb was a porcupine shifter, which was partially apparent in his appearance—a broad, blunt nose with thin nostrils, and midnight black, glossy eyes beneath wrinkled eyelids.
“Something wrong, sheriff?” Tambie asked, frowning.
She had reason to be skeptical. If the sheriff wasn’t arriving somewhere for a drink, food, or to strike up a conversation, it wasn’t usually good news.
“Welp, something alarming was discovered in the woods this morning. We’re talking so far in that most folks wouldn’t be able to get there on foot in these freezing temperatures.” Herb rubbed a knuckle under his salt-and-pepper moustache which stretched to either side like quills.
Warily, I glanced at my feet that had made that trek effortlessly days ago.
“Oh, no,” Aella said, sighing. “What’d you find, if I even want to ask?”
Herb tapped a hairy finger on the hilt of his six-shooter strapped at his side. “We ain’t seen them around the Cove before, but I swear they were some forms of goblins. Dozens of them—dead in the snow.”
Numbness coated my throat like hardening caramel, and I wrung the cloth in my hands.
“Goblins?” Tambie echoed. “In the Cove?”
“We figure it may have something to do with Sage’s murder, seeing as that too was out of left field.” Herb stared longingly at the treats in the display case.
Sage, the murdered pixie from months ago, was still not able to be figured out.
Without thinking, I blurted, “No. Couldn’t be.”
“I beg your pardon?” Herb’s bushy brows rose, and he smacked his lips together. “How would you know that?”
Tambie and Aella shot me quizzical looks, their arms folded.
Jack had arrived in the Cove long before Sage’s death, so that didn’t match up, and Jack wasn’t a killer unless prompted—unless he felt compelled toprotect. I couldn’t reveal any of this, however, because I didn’t want him tied to anything, especially when it was about me.
Rubbing the tip of my ear, I puffed my chest. “Serial killers normally have repeated motives. The acts are usually similar.Sage was killed from the inside out, by poison or magic. How would you say the goblins were killed?”
I’d almost fucked that up by stating precisely how they were killed when the sheriff had yet to reveal that.
Herb squinted at me curiously, but obliged by answering, “Dismembered. Beheaded. They looked like damn shish kabobs.”
Aella gagged, and Tambie patted her back, thoroughly intrigued by what Herb was saying.
Tapping my lip, I held out a hand to Herb. “Sounds like a blade of some kind. Opposite to Sage. How far have you gotten in that case, anyway?”
Deflection.
Herb shoved his hat up far enough to scratch his forehead. “I suppose you’re right. And the evidence on Sage’s case is about as empty as a bear’s belly comin’ out of winter slumber.”
“That’s a shame,” Tambie said, her tone somber. She continued to rub Aella’s back.
