Page 17 of Blood & Ice

The spell was loosely knit, and I only needed a fraction of my power to unravel the working. The scarlet wax peeled away with unnatural ease, leaving an ordinary manilla folder behind. I flipped the folder open and almost immediately wished I hadn’t. I wasn’t even sure what I was looking at. The shape in the photo was mottled dull red and purple, and so hunched in on itself that it looked misshapen. I raised the glossy photo for her inspection.

“Any idea what’s going on here?”

Taliyah peered at the picture intently. There was a slight flinching around her eyes.

“It’s got to be Vivian,” she said at last. “I’d say they didn’t locate the body until it had gone through active decay. The positioning is odd too. It looks like she might have been bound with rope or a cord of some kind to keep her still.”

I flipped through the folder, skimming the contents. There were more photos, each more grisly than the last, and finally, a preliminary findings report.

“She was sedated,” I read aloud. “So, whatever did her in didn’t make her suffer long. That points to remorse. Maybe she knew the killer.”

Taliyah tapped her foot, starting up a fast, tense beat as she thought. She wanted to pace but refrained because her pacing usually worried me. Anything she angsted about enough to elicit that response was sure to be unpleasant.

“Or maybe the killer knew he was dealing with a witch and decided to keep her too groggy to cast. Did she die of an overdose? That’s pretty common with a kidnapping gone wrong.”

I skimmed the report, quickly locating the autopsy file.“Preliminary results indicate that she died from massive blood loss. Most of her blood volume was gone, judging from the lividity marks.”

What little she’d had left had pooled beneath her, darkening her skin from ivory to burgundy in places in only a matter of days. The longer I stared at the photos on the table, the sicker I felt. Vivian Grimsbane had been an annoying pain in my ass, a bully, an obstructionist piece of garbage, but she wasn’t a villain. She hadn’t deserved to die like she had.

If the description disturbed Tally, she didn’t show it. She tossed her snowy white braid over one shoulder as her timer went off. She bent to retrieve the casserole. Her voice was muffled when she said, “Exsanguination points to a vampire as our culprit.”

“Or someone trying to make it look that way.”

Taliyah waved a dismissive hand. “Occom’s Razor, Mav. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one.”

I hated it when she was right. A vampire was the most likely culprit, but I was desperately hoping for some other explanation. Because this revelation made Aurea’s choice to blackmail Tally make a hell of a lot more sense. If one of Valserek’s loyalists somehow survived the purge, we had a bigger problem than one dead witch.

The targeting of Vivian hadn’t been random. It was a message. And that message was:we’re still here. We still want to kill you. No one is safe.Put in that context, Aurea’s actions were more understandable. She had a disaster of Biblical proportions brewing in that hell pit she called a school. If Vivian’s death became a public spectacle, tensions between the vampires and witches would reach a fever pitch. Blood would run in the halls, and a lot of people would die. Maybe strong-arming Tally into the job had been the least messy way Aurea had found to deal with the mess. I didn’t want to have to pity Aurea. I didn’t wantto consider what harebrained logic had led her to this juncture. But now that the idea had latched onto me, it wouldn’t let go.

“Okay, let’s say you’re right and it was one of the sick freaks who took Astrid,” I started.

“I don’t understand why Aurea came to me,” Tally almost interrupted.

I shrugged. “You’re a kickass detective.”

“But there had to be others closer to the school who could look into this. You know, someone on the same continent. Coming here seems a bit… extreme.”

Tally set the casserole carefully aside and began taking plates and cups down for breakfast. Her kids would be up soon, and she was making damn sure breakfast was done right. It was one constant. Come rivers of blood or rains of toads, Tally would always prioritize her kids. It was one of the reasons I loved her.

I hid a grimace by swigging the glass of water she’d set in front of me. There was that word again.Love.It was an incredibly small word to mean so much. Just four honest letters that could destroy my world. She had to feel the same about me, right? I’d seen the way she looked at me. But I also knew she’d never confess before I did—if she even felt the same as I did. Yet, when I tried to say the word aloud, it stuck in my throat. If I was misreading the signs, I wasn’t sure I could handle the fallout. No, it was better we stay as we were.

“That doesn’t change the fact that you’re the best at what you do,” I answered.

Tally turned and flashed me a brief smile that made my heart squeeze tight. “I’m glad you think so, but I’m no Columbo. There are people who have been in the crime-solving game a lot longer than I have.”

“But none of those detectives have your experience with the supernatural.”

“Fox does.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, because that dickhead is always so helpful when he arrives in the Hollow. Come on, Tally, you’re better than he is.”

Taliyah just smiled and began dishing up plates of casserole. She set a steaming piece in front of me and ordered, “Eat.”

“We have a case to solve.”

“We can think while we work. Food will get your blood sugar up and help you feel less groggy. You’ve been up all night. Eat, call into work, and then get some sleep.”

I didn’t want to close my eyes. If something happened to her while I caught eight hours of sleep, I’d never forgive myself, if I lived to tell about it.

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