Page 25 of Two Who Live On

Milo tolerated this club because all crime couldn’t be stopped. It was a part of human nature he understood. Either by impulse or necessity, there’d always be some layer of skirting the rules. And Milo didn’t think every rule should exist since many were implemented tooppress those with strong magics and weak resources. A sentiment I understood. After all, most of the enchantments sold under the table were to folks trying to survive, but there were definitely some used to commit heinous atrocities both local and global. Granted, the same could be said for enchantments legally purchased and handed out to the wrong hands with the right license. All arguments for another time. What I wanted to argue about was him walking right into a den of witches and warlocks who all knew him.

“Given the warlock fiasco a few months back, I thought perhaps you’d have sought my council sooner.” Cassidy grabbed her martini glass off the counter.

“I knew you weren’t involved.” Milo’s eyes fluttered playfully—not lost in visions—which was nice to see even from a distance.

“Don’t have to be involved to have a close ear to the ground.” Cassidy sipped her drink, leaving the faintest red on the rim. “I could’ve helped you find that hack of a doctor, if people insist on calling her one, and that spoiled rich boy summoning demons because of daddy issues.”

Theodore Whitlock and his associates were still echoes of conversation months after their failed warlock incursion.

“He was summoning fiends,” Milo said. A simple correction that resonated along the tether connecting us.

“Whatever, it’s all the same demonic garbage I don’t want in my business.”

There was a huge difference most didn’t grasp between fiends and demons. The sentience. The power. The magic.

Finn’s death cemented that difference in both of us. It clung to Milo’s thoughts, forefront and threatening to expose emotions he never showed publicly. Vulnerability, sensitivity, weakness—each held its right time for public observation, but working a case wasn’t one of those times. The anguished final expression on Finn’s stilledface faintly rose in Milo’s mind. A murky haze filtered through the morgue where Finn lay, and I couldn’t be certain if it was Milo burying the memory himself or me severing my magic entirely so I wouldn’t have to ever see that expression again. One I refused to cement in my thoughts.

Flashes of blood splatter, broken body parts, and a woman’s face vacant of life rattled in Milo’s head, pushing away his past and any threatening guilt, allowing him to remember what brought him here this evening. His most recent case. His most recent failure. But motivation to keep his demeanor from shifting as he pursued closure for this lost life.

“Maybe I avoided you because I didn’t want to cause you any trouble.” Milo grinned, grabbing a martini from the bartender, who quickly made themself scarce from earshot. “Little ole me, stopping in here, asking the right questions to the wrong people. It could’ve caused waves, and you know I only enjoy the ripples I control.”

“Please.” Cassidy fiddled with her bracelet, unsnagging it from a diamond-encrusted watch. “A few fiend-fucked warlocks wouldn’t have intimidated me, and you know better.”

“I know a woman of your caliber would never let a few warlocks or fiends rattle you,” Milo said. “But I’m here in search of something far bigger than either of those.”

“Here about that demon thing, I assume. Tragic.” Cassidy’s eyes remained locked on the stage as a new performer sauntered out. “You can speak to whomever you wish. Patrons, performers, Gavin. Though they already answered questions for the detectives.”

“I’m sure you enjoyed those leading questions on the case.” Milo had read the police reports and gleaned enough from those investigating that they were more interested in a welcome invitation to snoop behind closed doors of Gwendolyn’s Guns & Gals than search small leads on one of Cassidy’s employees, warlock or not.

“No one’s interested in that girl’s death, myself included. I barely knew her, no one here did, so if you’re hoping for one of the six degrees of separation visions, doubt you’ll find much.” Cassidy’s expression shifted from aloof amusement to vacant indifference. “Truthfully, she lacked in every way on and off stage and wasn’t much better at serving drinks or making conversation. The one saving grace she had was her magic.”

“A magic which appealed to the demon who devoured Melody Mauve.”

“Oh, you memorized her name.”

“Memorized a lot more than that.” Milo had read her file, learned her fate, found connections or lack of to any family, and learned she possessed a powerful arcane branch.

Milo held back all the potential possibilities that’d crossed his path when researching this latest victim. All the visions he’d stored in his massive vault of a person he’d never met and now never would. A simple life with nothing grand or glorious, so it went untended in his ever-growing list. No immediate danger should’ve lied ahead for her. But demonic interference was a difficult thing for Enchanter Evergreen to predict. None of that mattered. He clung to the seven visions he’d had of Melody Mauve, tucking them away in his mind, even though they were snuffed out since she’d died, and now simply took up space in his head. He held onto them out of guilt.

“She wasn’t involved in any extracurriculars, which is why I paid her no attention.”

“Then why’d you hire her?”

“Gavin has a soft spot for small-town girls with big-city dreams.” Cassidy nodded to the man posted at the end of the bar, fully alert and glaring at Milo. “Plus, as I said, she had a wonderful magic that would’ve sold high. Figured, a few months of waiting tables and she’d realize the benefit of selling her branch.”

I ground my teeth, nearly rousing and severing my link again. The Gardner Family enchantment schemes. Cassidy would find those with powerful and unique magics and assign them to work alongside a witch who possessed an enchantment branch, so the branch could be written through spell craft copies or bottled in potion crafts, then distributed. I’d skimmed enough off her surface thoughts when we were students to understand the inner workings of her family business. Not that my findings were considered admissible at Gemini or a court of law.

“I need to find out where Melody was when she was abducted. I already know where she wasn’t.” Not at work, home, friends, or her local haunts.

“Why does it matter where she was? You can’t exactly read the memories of the scene.” Cassidy’s comment skirted a reminder of Finn, which fueled my magic. Everything in the living room shook, and Milo’s thoughts became faint echoes.

“Not why I’m looking for it,” Milo said with a smile, unphased by Cassidy’s comment or better at hiding it in his mind than I was. Each of the victims had been unaccounted for, the same as Melody, and if he knew where she was, he’d know the demon’s hunting grounds. “But hey, if you can’t figure out where one of your girls, with a magic you never had a chance to taste, snuck off to, I understand. Guess there are still hidden nooks in Chicago Cassidy Gardner is unaware of, or maybe new ones.”

“Goading me because that works wonders.”

“Simply suggesting you might be out of touch.” Milo eyed the empty box office above the bar. “Sure, you’re seen here, but you’re still a mile away from everyone else in this club.”

“Christ, you’re annoying. Look, I’ll ask around, but do yourself a favor, Enchanter Evergreen. Don’t stress yourself out over this girl or a handful of nobodies.” Her expression shifted, stone cold, eyestightened, matching the cutthroat demeanor of her grandmother’s portrait proudly displayed on the bar wall behind her. “If any of these ‘victims’ mattered, they wouldn’t be dead. They’d have popped up on the great Enchanter Evergreen’s radar that much sooner. You should honestly leave the sweeping up of corpses to less impressive guild witches.”

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