After the call ended, I felt jittery. I needed to bake. Something. Anything. So, by the time we made it down to The Den, with me carrying a large basket of muffins, it was a later start than normal.
Since the pub opened for the lunch crowd soon, Gideon’s employees were already here. I could hear Alvin clanging pots and pans around in the kitchen, and Sable was cleaning the shelves behind the bar. I loved how he had such great staff that they just did their jobs without needing a lot of oversight.
Then a movement by the windows caught my eye, and I stumbled when I saw the misfits assembled at the tables along that wall. Gideon caught my elbow and steadied me. Then we turned together to face the group. The only ones missing were Perry and Mellgren.
It was early, so the pub wasn’t technically open yet. It was strange to see them all here. On weekends, Gideon’s pack—who he still denied were his pack becauseI’m not the Alpha—sometimes gathered at the pub for a big brunch, but today was a Tuesday. This was something different.
Hazel had already pulled out her knitting needles, but thankfully, she’d kept her extra spider legs covered under her voluminous skirt. She was a sweet lady, but it was difficult to overcome years of being afraid of spiders. And those legs–so long, segmented, and hairy–still unsettled me.
Tulip was pacing in front of the booths, shedding water with each step. She must’ve been at it for a little while because there was a little puddle forming along her path.
Sandy was munching on sugar cubes right out of the box. I didn’t even know where he’d found them, but that couldn’t possibly be healthy. I shoved the muffins at him, and he hugged the basket to his chest like I’d just given him an early Christmas present. I’d brought them down for Gideon’s staff, but I didn’t think they were going to last that long. Not with all the misfits here.
“They aren’t all for you,” I said to Sandy, “but… just stop with the sugar cubes, okay?”
“Of course.” He sniffed the muffins and let out a happy sigh. “So much magic in this batch.”
My new friends were so weird.
Az was reading a book and didn’t look up, like he was pretending all of this was perfectly normal and always read a book in the pub on a Tuesday morning. He looked quite engrossed, though, so perhaps he hadn’t even realized Gideon and I had arrived. I dipped down to see the book cover, but it was hidden by a simple black book protector. Knowing Az, he’d probably say it was to protect the book, but I bet the real reason was to hide some bare-chested man, the muscled kind that often graced the salacious books he was rumored to prefer.
Even Elwood, George, and Eugene were here. And… I glanced out the window. Yep, Licorice was here, too. She didn’t look pleased about being outside while everyone else was in. Should I invite her in?
Ravenstone was a mostly supernatural town, but not everyone was a local. Someone might decide a wild bird shouldn’t be hanging out inside the pub, even during off-hours. Although no one ever commented on George, so maybe they wouldn’t care about Licorice either. Hell, familiars were magical, so maybe they had ways of disguising themselves.
Did she have her own glamour like some of the misfit monsters? I was still trying to figure out how all of thatworked. Obviously, I didn’t need to use glamour to disguise my appearance, so it was a bit of a mystery to me.
As far as I could tell, the misfits’ glamour seemed to be adjustable. The more comfortable Tulip was around someone, the greener her hair and the pointier her teeth became. And when Gideon and I visited her pond a week or so back, she’d had a tail. It made sense; she was a mermaid. But it was just so…unexpectedto see her with a big fish tail that I’d been speechless for about ten minutes.
Whereas with Az, his demonic traits were always locked down, but when he dropped his glamour, he had massive wings and horns and stuff. I still had no idea where they disappeared to when I couldn’t see them. It was wild. And I suspected Hazel could fine-tune her glamour, showing something different to humans versus other supernaturals.
So it’d make sense for Licorice, as my familiar, to have access to her own type of glamour, right? I was pretty sure familiars were meant to spend a lot of time with their witch, so they could probably disguise themselves to make that possible.
I really needed to start writing down all my questions because Elwood had a tendency to think I should just automatically know things. And I didn’t. I really, really didn’t.
Everyone stared at us expectantly.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Tulip cleared her throat. It made the gills on her throat flutter. “Sandy said your ex is in town?”
I frowned at the sprite.
“No one said it was a secret,” Sandy said around a bite of muffin. Then he brushed away a few crumbs that’d fallen to his bubble-gum pink t-shirt that read,I’m beer for a good time.
I pointed at Tulip. “Josh is off-limits. He doesn’t need to visit your pond…” I paused and thought about it. “Or any other body of water.”
“Right…” The mermaid winked at me in an exaggerated way, then she cracked the knuckles on her webbed fingers.Huh. Did mermaids have ties to the mafia? Those godfather types liked that whole “swim with the fishes”approach to conflict resolution, right? Yeah, I could see Tulip beingconnected. Especially now. She was giving off very murderous vibes.
I sighed. Would it be wrong to put a leash on her until Josh left town? Probably. I looked at my grandfather to back me up, but he didn’t seem too interested in intervening on Josh’s behalf.
“Why are you all here?” Gideon asked.
“We’re here to help with the investigation, obviously.” As Sandy spoke, he didn’t even look up from selecting another muffin. Would this be his second or his third? Tulip reached for one, but Sandy turned the basket away from her.
“Well, there isn’t much to do this morning. The brewers are all going to look around their properties for the hex bags, and other than that…” Gideon shrugged. “Declan and I are heading over for the tour of Black Feather Brewery. I’m hoping we can find something there.”
Sandy licked his fingers, then smiled. “I could go on a tour. I don’t have any shifts this afternoon. When do we leave?”
