Five
Herbs didn’t speak to me the way plants did to Evie, but I knew them. They were as familiar to me as my own skin. I knew how they worked with and against each other, how they worked inside a human and a magical body. I knew how they tasted, whether alone or mixed with something else, what temperature they needed to steep at to ensure the most important flavor or medicinal aspects of the plants bloomed, and what to mix afterward to ensure they worked synergistically.
What I didn’t know was why someone I hired as a master blender was asking me if they should blend the chai with the chamomile.
I stared at her for a long moment. “Do you think you should blend those two together?”
The new hire, Marie, blinked and frowned down at the two piles. “Noooo?” When she looked up at me hopefully, I got suspicious.
I slowly pulled out my cell and texted Ari to ask if she could meet me at my shop. Whether she would come remained to be seen. When that was done, I smiled at Marie and gestured at the piles.
“Why don’t you move them together, mix them up, and see if the blend is pleasant?”
Marie frowned. “Oh. You think I don’t know what I’m doing?” She let out a nervous chuckle. “That’s not it at all! I was only testing.”
Liar, liar, skirts on fire.
“In that case, why don’t you get to work on the other blends we talked about?”
I’d hired her a few weeks ago during a particularly busy time when Ethan was sending me all over the place, and I had zero time to do my own blends. She came with all the right credentials, but I was about 98% sure she was lying to me.
Marie was good at it. Her words didn’t quite register as a lie, but they didn’t register as the truth either.
“Um. Sure!” She swept the piles into the trash at the edge of the table, and I had to stop myself from barking out something unforgivable.
Tea and herbs were expensive. There was no reason for her to get rid of anything other than the tiny amount she mixed to test the blend. Instead, I gave her a tight smile and went back to the front.
I needed to count to ten before I started yelling.
There were two scenarios here. Marie desperately needed a job and had lied about her credentials. Forgivable, especially in today’s economy, but still a fireable offense, in addition to not being qualified for the job I hired her for.
The other was that she wasn’t here for the tea. She was here to spy on me. With everything going on with my mother still being in the wind, this was possible. She’d want to keep tabs on me, but Rowan wouldn’t let her into the city. He and Evie both would know if she was disguised, so she hired someone to do it for her.
Marie didn’t seem evil or anything. Mostly just bumbling. She’d never be a good villain.
The door opened with a chime, revealing Ari. I had my back to Marie and raised my index finger to my lips to signal for her to be quiet.
“Ari is here with some jewelry I need to look at. You okay by yourself for a few minutes, Marie?”
“Totally fine,” she called back. “I’m working on the fog blend now.”
“Alright. We’ll be in the office if you need anything.”
I jerked my head for Ari to follow. When we were safely ensconced in my office, I lowered my voice into a whisper. “Can you set a sound spell?”
Ari looked intrigued. She waved her hand. A bubble rose around us, trapping all sound within.
“Your text was positively cryptic,” she murmured. “Something to do with that witch outside?”
I blinked. “She’s a witch?”
Ari stared at me. “Yes. Don’t you usually know that?”
I did. A thunderous frown took over my face. “How the hell did she manage to hide that from me?”
“Your mother?” Ari said.
The jewelry maker and in-hiding fae weapons maker was with me for much of the Soren debacle. She knew who my mother was, but not all the sordid details that came with her.
