She grinned and adjusted one of the stems. “Marquis.” She cleared her throat and arched one eyebrow at me, changing the subject with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. “What’s going on?”
“A lot,” I said, taking a bite of my mashed potatoes and moaning at the buttery goodness. “Since it’s long, tell me about your day first.”
She shook her head. “Our delivery came without a single egg or piece of chicken. Not a single one. I had to scramble to change the menu, and we bought as many eggs as we could from the grocery store down the road to make the rest of the dishes work.”
As the food hit my belly, I relaxed. “I bet no one minded.”
Both because her food was delicious and magical.
She smiled. “No, luckily, there weren’t any complaints but if these problems keep up, there will be.”
She listed how many things had gone wrong recently, in between bites of her meal, while I let the calming effect of her cooking wash over me.
The list was long and included broken kitchen equipment, spoiled food, and a shortage of ingredients. The staff was overworked, and it was a complete miracle none of the customers had revolted.
It was a lot to take in, and it was clear that Deva was overwhelmed.
When she finished, I set down my fork, even while eyeing the cheesecake Noah had left on the desk between us. “Deva, I know it’s been hard around here lately, but you’re doing an amazing job. You have a real gift. Your food not only tastes incredible, but it makes a person feel incredible. You should be very proud of what you’re doing here and focus on everything that’s going well too. This place isn't a disaster, despite all the hurdles you've been having.”
She smiled and pushed her dinner plate away, drawing her cheesecake closer. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right. Thanks for talking me off the ledge again." She forked up a big bite of gooey cheesecake. "Now, you want to update me on the Karma situation?”
“Is that what we’re calling it now?" I chuckled and picked up my dessert plate.
She took a bite of her cake and waited with eyebrows raised.
It took most of our dessert for me to explain. She provided a captive audience for my day's tale, laughing and gasping when appropriate. By the time I finished, we were both finished with our cakes and stared at each other in silence. I didn’t know what else to say. I was worried and tried my best not to read too much into her expression.
She looked worried too. “Here’s the thing. I'd hoped all this stuff about the old Karma coming for you was a misunderstanding, but it sounds like there’s something here.” My gut twisted, but she continued, “However, I have a connection that might help us figure out what’s going on.”
“A connection?” I asked, feeling dumb.
She nodded. “She’s a librarian charged with protecting some of the more dangerous works in a secret area of the library.”
Seriously? “Why haven’t we used her before?”
Deva shook her head. “The librarian, she's seriously awful. Most of the time it’s easier to figure out things ourselves than have to deal with her when we're not even sure she can help. There’s so little known about Karma, so she might be our best bet.”
Okay, I could deal with an awful woman if it got us some answers to our questions.
Deva stood. “Let me see if my sous chef can handle things without me for a little longer. Lord knows I’ve covered for him enough times.”
She headed out to the kitchen, and I gathered our plates and took them to the dishwasher. As I walked away, a popping noise behind me made me whirl. I watched as the shelf containing the clean pots and pans broke off of the wall. What followed next was a cacophony of sounds like gunshots, if the guns were shooting panes of glass, until dead silence followed.
I turned to stare at the kitchen staff, who stood in frozen silence, staring at me as if I’d lost my mind. “The sh-shelf broke,” I stammered. "I didn't touch it, I swear."
Deva turned to Noah. “Add having a new shelf installed to my to-do list.” He rushed off to do it. She turned to another staff member I didn't know. "Please gather the pots and pans and pieces of broken shelf off the ground." Finally, she turned to Lucas, her sous chef. "I'm sorry, but I need to leave."
He easily could've gotten angry at her for taking off right now, but he looked completely unbothered as he nodded and went back to cooking. "I'll handle it."
Deva took off her apron and hung it by the back door, then called to me over her shoulder. “Come on, we have work to do.”
Thank the stars for Deva, she always knew what to do.
We headed to my car and then drove to the library, but Deva had me park in the back toward the woods. It was kind of eerie in the rear of the lot in the evening with no other cars around. One lone lamppost illuminated our car while the darkness crowded us from all directions. Maybe that was my fear talking. Ever since the vision of someone coming for my powers, the world had felt a lot less safe.
Deva headed out of the car, and I followed. “Follow my lead, and don’t let her get to you," she said softly as we walked across the lot. "This woman is our only chance at accessing these books, but she’s also the kind of person who deserves to get her butt kicked. She’ll try anything she can to get a reaction out of us. Don’t take the bait.”
“Ignore the needling witch, I can do that,” I said, flashing her a nervous smile.
