Poor kid.
“I’m good, thanks. How are you, Jade?”
She shrugged. “Same old, same old. You in between jobs?”
“Nope, I’m on one right now. Actually…” I pulled up a picture of Sage I had saved on my phone. “Either of you recognize her?”
“Not all witches know each other, Ronan,” Ambrose said flatly.
“I know that,” I replied with a sigh, putting my phone away. “Thought I’d ask just in case. Cindralis isn’tthatbig.”
“Three hundred thousand is still big enough for me to not know everyone,” he said with an indignant sniff. “But yeah, I know her.”
My head popped up. “You do?”
“No, dumbass!” he laughed, slapping my arm with his towel. “Anyway, do you want another drink? Otherwise, I’m going to start closing up.”
I chuckled to myself. It had been pointless to ask even if it just so happened that he and Sage had been best friends growing up. Ambrose knew what I did, and if I was asking forthe whereabouts of a fellow witch, there was no way he’d tell me anything. Even if I kind of considered him a friend myself.
“Nah, I think I’m good. Nice to see you again, Jade.”
Her tongue darted quickly in and out of her mouth, and in apoofshe was a frog again, sitting on top of Ambrose’s head.
7
Stake Me Out Tonight
The rest of my night was filled with fitful sleep, and I finally gave up once the sun began to peek through my curtains. The combination of stress from the case and the rut that just would not quit was turning me into an insomniac, and I couldn’t wait for this whole thing to be over.
Especially since with the money I’d make, I’d have the perfect excuse to turn my phone off and sleep for the next few months straight if I felt like it.
I filled the electric kettle and clicked it on, yawning and going over my plan for the day. The first thing I needed to do was head over to her parents’ house. Aside from their address, I couldn’t find much more about them online, which was unsurprising for older witches. They didn’t tend to have social media accounts.
I took a quick shower and filled my travel mug with hot water and a couple of tea bags before looking at the key hook by my garage door.
I needed to case the place out a bit before making a move, and my red Hellfire was just too beautiful to be sitting on their street all day without anyone getting interested or suspicious. Sighing, I grabbed the keys to my more inconspicuous gray Goblin, with its cloth interior, smooth handling, and quiet engine.
So boring.
Sage’s parents only lived about twelve blocks away, and I thought about what a small world it was. I had only moved to Cindralis three years ago, two years after Sage had disappeared, so I couldn’t have accidentally run into her before or anything.
But I kind of wished I could have. It was pretty bold to assume she’d even be interested in a guy like me, but maybe we could have become friends. Maybe I could have helped stop her from going down the road that had led to this.
Because thief or not, it was getting harder and harder to ignore that Sage wasn’t some criminal mastermind, and that someone else had set her up to take the fall for this. And with each passing second, I was feeling sicker with dread at the thought of returning her to the Premier, who would punish her for something she might not have had any control over.
What could I do, though? My life was literally on the line. And I also had to consider maybe I was just filling in wishful blanks that weren’t even there. That maybe this good girl image was all a ruse, and she was actually an evil villain who’d killed the two people closest to her and went underground to plan the heist of the century.
I had to keep my feelings out of this, because my job was just to deliver her to the Premier, not make any judgments one way or the other.
Because that’s what I was being paid unholy amounts of money to do.
When I turned on her street and saw at least three other houses with Goblins outside, I knew I’d made the right decision with the car. Even if this one sucked to drive.
I parked a couple of houses down, then pulled out one of the incuriosity charms I kept stored in the glove compartment and snapped it between my fingers. I’d bought a ton of them on sale last year, and while their potency was fading, they would help keep my presence easier to ignore.
It was still early, and I sipped my tea and cracked a window, lighting a vaporleaf roll, watching as the neighborhood slowly came to life. An older witch on a broom flew low in the street, tossing newspapers on front steps, while other witches with energetic familiars stretched in their lawns and took off on morning runs together.
The Hexwood house was quiet, the lights still off. The front yard was a hodgepodge of wild plants, but in the quaint way witches’ yards sometimes were, and I stared at the lone paper in front of their door, willing Sage’s father to come out and grab it.
