“I’ll send all my customers to your establishment,” Az said.
"Thank you, Azar.” He smiled at Az and then looked back at Sandy and Hazel. “I hadn’t expected to say yes so quickly, but it was exactly what I needed. Even the apartment above is included in the lease," Declan added, almost as an aside. "So that works out perfectly."
And there it was.
I kept my expression in place. Interested. Supportive. Entirely reasonable.
Inside, my wolf let out a sad little whimper and put his head on his paws.
The apartment above the old bakery was directly across the intersection. I could see the building's upper windows from my own. Which meant Declan would be close. Close enough that I'd be able to pick up his scent on a still night, close enough that I'd know when his light was on, close enough to be absolutely maddening.
My wolf's position on this was uncomplicated. There shouldn’t be a street between us at all. My wolf's position on most things involving Declan was uncomplicated in that way.
Declan was not, I reminded him, a wolf. He was a human—a witch, technically, sure, but raised human. He thought in human timelines, and three weeks was not the same thing to him as it was to a shifter who'd known his mate the moment they'd collided outside a coffee shop and spilled everything everywhere.
He needed time.
I could give him time.
I was perfectly capable of giving him time.
"It's a great location," I said. "Right in the middle of everything."
Declan looked at me. Something in his expression showed he'd heard more than what I'd said. He usually did. "You think so?"
"I think it's exactly right for you," I said, and meant it, even if my wolf was being dramatic about it.
Declan held my gaze for a moment, then nodded once, satisfied, and reached for another almond.
The class had moved on to its second demonstration, the one on food pairing, with Alvin explaining why a smoked porter required a different approach than a wheat ale, when Az set down his glass and said, quietly enough not to carry, "Should we talk about Roy’s death and about Nadia not inheriting the brewery?”
Nadia had told her friend Gwen about the brewery, and Gwen told someone else who told someone else, and in typical Ravenstone fashion, by the time Elwood and I made it back to town, everyone knew.
"Beckett's been arrested," Sandy finally said. "Everyone knows that. But I don't think he killed Roy."
"Why not?" Declan asked.
"Because he was so public about being angry. He wanted everyone to know Roy stole his recipe. That the ale that won was his," Sandy said. "He raged about it in front of the whole festival.He would have to be pretty stupid to be so loud about it and then turn around and kill him."
That tracked with my own read of the situation. Beckett's confrontation had been sudden, emotional, and public. That was the behavior of someone who wanted the world to know he’d been wronged, not someone with a plan.
"The hexes connect everything," Declan said. He'd pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and smoothed it flat on the table. I could see it was a list. "Elwood and I are certain the same witch cast all of them. Same signature. And they were all targeted at people who were expected to compete against Roy."
"So Roy hexed his own competition," Az said.
“Or had them hexed. We didn’t find any supplies at the brewery to indicate they’d been created there, besides Roy wasn’t a witch,” I pointed out.
"Right," Declan said. "So the question is whether whoever killed him knew that."
Hazel set her crochet down. That meant she was about to say something she considered important. "It seems to me that if someone discovered Roy had cheated his way to that distribution deal, they would have an apparent motive."
"The Kettlebrook contract was significant," I said. "Real money. Real opportunity. For a brewmaster who'd been working toward something like that for years, losing it to someone who'd hexed the competition wouldn't just be disappointing."
"It would be enraging," Az said.
"Ivan," Sandy said, almost to himself.
We all looked at him.
