Teddy wasn’t as skinny anymore. His limbs weren’t as gangly. He moved with precision, his body filled out with time. He was stronger and surer. Commanding. There were lines around his eyes that spoke of a life filled with laughter, and his skin was golden from the sun and glowing.
Wren saw traces of the old Teddy in him as he walked around the table and arranged case files in a neat row, from the earliest they had to the latest one Wren had brought.
His hands were steady and strong like before.
His fingers careful and gentle.
Wren remembered the feel of both on his skin, around his shoulders.
He closed his eyes and shook his head. He had no right…not anymore.
“Okay, so,” Teddy said, pointing at the timeline he had created, “twelve cases overall, between Arcstead and Slatehollow.”
Cyrus stood up as well and loomed over the table.
“Well, it’s pretty clear this started in Arcstead and spilled over to Slatehollow,” Cyrus said.
“Other towns?” Saint asked.
Cyrus shook his head. “Nothing for now. I put an alert out in case anything similar crops up.” He was silent for a moment as he visibly ran through the cases in his head, hand scraping over his scruff. “Snake venom in all of your cases. A snail over here.”
“Makes sense,” Wren and Saint said at the same time, and while Saint tried smiling when their eyes met, Wren pinched his lips tight and looked away.
“How?” Cyrus asked.
“Most snake venom is more expensive,” Wren said. “It’s also stronger. Makes sense that Arcstead citizens can afford that.”
“The level of destruction in Slatehollow is also significantly larger,” Teddy said.
“Also makes sense,” Wren said. “Snake venoms are more stable under curses. Coil snail venom degrades fairly quickly under a curse, so the drug made from it would have unpredictable effects.”
“Could be more of a poison,” Saint said. Wren found himself nodding despite the need to just pretend Saint wasn’t there.
“What the fuck do we do, then? We have no known sellers, no source, no way to get intel…” Cyrus asked.
“That…might not be the case,” Teddy said. “On our last case we found a button with a family crest. It had traces of a curse on it. Same curse that was on the venom we found. We think the person that button belonged to is the one causing all the damage under the influence. And we also think we know who they are.”
“Our plan is to do some undercover work and try to get some info out of him,” Saint said.
“You should have fucking led with that.” Cyrus clenched his fists by his hips as he glared at them. “You’re supposed to be better than the team I have here.”
“Fuck you!” came a voice from out the door.
“Black,” Cyrus growled. “Stop eavesdropping.”
“Did you tell them about the guy?” Black asked, still invisible to them but clearly somewhere close.
“What guy?”
“The guy who had his eyeballs eaten by a lizard!” Black said with a disturbing amount of glee in his voice.
“What the fuck does he have to do with anything?” Cyrus asked, one hand on his hip, the other pinching the bridge of his nose.
“The lizard was venomous, and the people close to the guy all swore up and down they had zero clue what happened. They noped out of coming to the police to talk, then bailed, never to be seen again.”
“That’s not—”
“That does have some similarities,” Saint said.
