Now, with Considine as my partner, maybe I could finally do something about him…
“Do you have…a five?”Tetiana asked.
Juggernaut smirked as he looked over the tops of the cards fanned out in his hand. “Go fish.”
Tetiana smiled, her elongated fang teeth flashing. “I think not.” She drew a card from her hand and held it up.
The card had once been the ace of clubs—you could see the markings in the corners—but now it was adorned with a printed-out cartoon wizard glued over the center image.
“I’ll use my wizard to repeat my turn.” Tetiana tossed the makeshift wizard card—which was printed in black and white but someone had colored the wizard’s robe purple, likely after Juggernaut’s House Bellus—into the newly minted discard pile which already held another wizard April had discarded on a previous turn.
I watched the card game—everyone except Grove, Considine, and myself crowded around the battle, either playing or watching.
Grove was busy sorting out his poisons from his potions and restocking his satchel, while Considine and I were studying the whiteboard that showed everything we had about Gisila on it.
Officially, I was looking at the board for work purposes. In reality, I was trying to keep myself busy.
I’d sent a text proposing a rather…explosive idea to Sarge when I woke up that afternoon. He’d said he would take the idea to Captain Reese, and I hadn’t heard anything since.
I suppose I could go sit down. But Considine would sit right next to me. Even though I’d spent my entire existence on the night shift hoping one day someone would sit next to me, having Considine Maledictus scoot his chair closer and ask me to testhow easily I could draw my dagger from the spot he’d hidden it on his back was not what I was picturing when I had that dream.
When Juggernaut growled, he pulled my attention away from the whiteboard and back to the card game. “Come on!” Juggernaut complained. “That rule isn’t fair!”
“Juggernaut, do you have a three?” Tetiana sweetly asked.
Juggernaut scowled as he tossed three cards at her. “Whose idea was it to make the aces wizards and give them super powers?”
“Yours.” Tetiana added her three to the cards Juggernaut had given her and set them in front of her.
“No way,” Juggernaut said. “I like regular card games.”
“Tetiana is right.” April rearranged her hand of cards. “You made the case that wizards should be aces and should get a special power, since the fae kings and queens can be mixed and matched because of the Night Queen card.”
Medium-sized Robert shifted in his chair. (He’d drawn the old maid in one of the previous rounds and had gotten ‘killed,’ so he was sitting it out with the other players who’d gotten killed/lost, Binx and Brody.) “You said discarding a wizard for another turn made sense, because they sacrifice themselves for the good of the House.”
Clarence—the last player in the current game who I’d bet was also going to win it as he had some serious card skills—nodded in support. “Tis true.”
I turned back to the whiteboard—and Considine, who was frowning.
“I don’t understand,” Considine said. “Why hasn’t Tutu come for her sister? She’s stronger than Gisila and could surely take her to task for the attempted break in.”
“I wondered that too,” I agreed. “Especially since she comes down hard on any supernaturals who try to break into her businesses.”
“She must know what Gisila wants,” Considine said. “But why doesn’t it bother her that her sister is greedily eyeing something that belongs to Tutu?”
“I theorized they were working together, but that seemed too dangerous. If anyone figured it out, Tutu’s reputation would be ruined,” I said.
Considine nodded. “Tutu also wouldn’t bother to meddle in something like petty thievery. She has too much wealth to be that concerned. But her dragon instincts should be riding her hard about Gisila attempting to burgleherhoard.”
“We think Gisila might be interested in a specific item,” I said. “As we’ve established, the break ins follow the moon cycle. Elf weapons, artifacts, and spells are among the only types of magic that can be keyed to the moon cycle, so for now, it’s most likely she wants something of elven nature.”
I pointed to the spot on the board where we’d listed the objects as possible motives for breaking in.
“Sarge also told me that the week I had off after the hospital visit, the task force investigated the possibility that there might be an elven spell on the building that was keyed into the cycle of the moon, in case that was why Gisila follows the moon cycle. Crypta staff members claim no such elven magic is used on the premise.”
“Gisila must be after an elven treasure from her sister’s hoard, then,” Considine said.
“Come on, April,” Brody clapped her on the back, once again drawing my attention. “You are in it to win it!”
