Page 41 of Autopsy of a Fairytale

“I understand how,” Bel huffed, wincing at the sharp pain the forceful breath shot through her ribs.Understand?That was an understatement. Until a few hours ago, she had refused to believe that magic existed outside of fiction. And Eamon…? She severed that train of thought at the root. Her mind could only process so much at once. “The impossibly clean crime scenes, the strength and skill required to kill those people. She used magic… like she did with me. Held me in the air and tried to rip out my heart.” Bel flinched at the memory, fighting nausea at the knowledge that Garrett and the others had endured such an end.

“She was no ordinary witch,” Eamon agreed. “Her power… it was darker. Stronger. Killing humans was easy for her.”

“We thought it was multiple suspects, but if you possess magic, assembling furniture around a body would be simple. Disrupting security systems and convincing deputies to cut wires would have been easy, and the lack of sedatives.” Bel wiped another tear from her eyes, knowing first-hand how Alcina’s victims felt as magic held them still while she tore them open. “Her true nature explains the how, but why? Why kill innocent people and desecrate their bodies by turning them into monstrosities? Why kill Garrett?

“Isobel.” He said her name as if she was his deity, his sovereign, his lover. “To explain her motive, I first must confess something unforgivable.”

“You tried to kill me in New York,” Bel said for him, and he stiffened against her back, his hand jerking softly against her belly as if unconsciously drawing her closer.

“You remember?”

“Only just last night… or tonight, actually.” The conflict in his eyes played out again in her memory. “I dreamed about the attack, about you sinking your teeth into me and trying to flay me open, but this time, I didn’t wake up like I usually did. The nightmare continued, and I remembered you stopping. I saw your face, the war you fought within yourself. It wore the same expression you did earlier when she forced you to drink.”

“Isobel.” This time her name was sorrow. “What I am… it is evil. Hunger. Death. It craves the darkness. It thirsts for blood. We are few, and I? I am unmatched. Alcina spent decades searching for one of my caliber, and when she found me in New York, she cursed me. She enacted an ancient ritual, one if completed, would bind me eternally to her. She would be my master, and I would have no choice but to obey. I refuse to even picture what this world would look like if a witch with Alcina’s bloodlust gained control of my strength.” Eamon shuddered against her, and the primal terror in his movement pricked Bel’s skin with gooseflesh.

“The ritual requires a sacrifice to seal the curse,” he continued. “One I had to slaughter.” This time, it was Bel’s turn to shudder. “Alcina set a trap, and a handful of officers arrived at the scene. The sacrifice could have been any of them, but fate chose you, and her magic trapped you. She began the ritual, and I lost all control of my body. My mind screamed for freedom, but then there you were, beautiful and alive, your skin impossibly sweet. The urge to kill you was so strong, your blood was on my tongue before I even knew I had moved.”

“You were supposed to kill me?” Bel’s voice was so soft, it almost disappeared on the wind. “But I saw you leave. You stopped yourself.”

“Because.” Eamon turned his face until his nose pressed against her jaw, and he breathed in deep. “You are the only person I cannot kill. I refuse to. The more I drank, the sweeter you tasted. I’ve never in all my years experienced anything like you.” His lips brushed her jaw as he spoke, as if even his words wanted to kiss her. “I can’t describe it. You wouldn’t understand, but I recognized something in your blood. Fighting her curse was the most excruciating thing I’ve ever done, but I had to resist her for you. The pain was unbearable, but I finally ripped myself free and fled. I hated myself for leaving you to die, but if I stayed, I would have killed you. So, I ran, and you lived.”

Eamon pulled back from her skin as if suddenly realizing what his lips were doing, and he cleared his throat. “It doesn’t excuse my actions. I almost destroyed the most perfect thing I’ve ever experienced, but it wasn’t my choice. I fought it, and even though I hate myself for harming you, I revel in the knowledge you lived.” He released her dog and reached for her necklace, his fingers brushing the book charm gently, reverently. “I learned you liked to read, and I paid a witch to bless this. It offers protection, and then I left it in your hospital room. I vowed to stay away from you after that. The ritual was incomplete, the curse still half embedded in my DNA, and all it would take was one mistake on my part for Alcina to win.”

“You gave this to me?” Bel reached up, their fingers brushing as they both gripped the pendant. Eamon didn’t remove his hand, and while she should be terrified of him, should scream for help, she held her skin against his comforting warmth. “I always wondered who left it for me. I never take it off.”

“I know,” Eamon rumbled. “And promise me you never will. The witch who blessed it isn’t the most powerful, but there’s protection in her magic.”

Bel nodded, lowering her hand as Eamon’s words suddenly caught her attention. “The curse? If you killed me today, the ritual would be complete?” Eamon nodded against her hair. “That’s why she forced you to bite me. She needed the sacrifice. Is that what you were arguing about when you said you would find a way?”

“Yes… and I’m sorry about how I behaved at the house. I was only trying to scare you. I wanted you gone, away from me and Alcina. I assumed you would get in your car since your dog was there, but then you ran into the woods.”

Bel remembered the change in his voice as she fled, the reason for the shift suddenly making sense. “I only trespassed because I heard a struggle. I was worried she had come to murder you.” Eamon smiled with a hint of triumph at her confession, and she squinted uncomfortably before adding, “Alcina was blocking my car door, so I decided to run to my cabin and call for help.”

“She wasn’t there when I came outside. I thought I scared you into that decision, but I should have known that even under pressure, you’re never foolish.” Understanding flooded his rough tone. “I left your dog in the car while I looked for her, figuring since you were heading home, you would be safe. It wasn’t until Vera shifted back into Alcina that I caught her scent again. It mingled with yours, and I realized my mistake. I let your pitbull out then, but I’m faster. Thank goodness for him, though. I might have killed you this time if it weren’t for that dog.”

“When this is over, I'm making you a steak.” Bel leaned forward and kissed Cerberus between the eyes, Eamon scratching his haunches. Cerberus practically smiled at her as the first greying signs of dawn encroached on the darkness. “So, she became Vera to hide her scent from you and get close to me, hoping you would complete the ritual. But why the other deaths? Why did they have to die?”

“Black magic always requires a sacrifice. She took their hearts to fuel her transformation. And the rest? Alcina was cruel, thriving on the suffering of others. It happens often to those cursed with immortality. What are humans with their decades-long lifespan to those who live forever? She was narcissistic and brutal, reveling in your fear. There is a reason they used to burn witches. Beings like Alcina, if left unchecked, will annihilate the earth.

“I also vowed to stay away from you. I never intended to move to Bajka, but I received word of an odd power here. I came to ensure you were safe, never intending to get close enough to scent you, but when I caught sight of Alcina in town, I decided to stick around and watch over you. She must have grown tired of waiting for my willpower to cave, and what better way to entice a detective into her trap than to give her unsolvable crimes? You are the only one with the experience needed for cases this bizarre. It was obvious you would be assigned to the investigation. She killed people I dealt with to force you to interact with me. She drained their blood to draw attention to what I am. If we met face to face, Alcina knew my control would eventually snap. She pushed you into my path, knowing you would be a dog with a bone if you found evidence of my guilt. And her predictions were correct, because there you were, invading my house in the middle of the night. Ever since that first day you interviewed me, my home has smelled of you, and it has driven me to madness.”

“Was Garrett the scapegoat?” Bel couldn’t focus on the constant reminders of his obsession with her scent, of the fact that he was not entirely human, and so she changed the subject, despite the pain Garrett’s death brought her.

“I assume so. My guess is that she would have continued to kill, aiming the evidence against me until I could no longer stop myself from harming you, completing the bonding. We would have left Bajka, chained together for eternity, leaving Garrett to take the fall. She most likely didn’t expect you to find the evidence in his bedroom so soon.”

“I wasn’t… we didn’t…” Bel trailed off, unsure why she felt the need to justify her actions. “Why were you at the station that night?”

“The more dark magic she used, the more it drained her, and maintaining Vera’s form would have been exhausting,” he answered. “She rarely revealed her true self, but over the past few weeks, I scented Alcina more and more. Only in her own body could I locate her, and her hold on Vera’s image must have been slipping. I followed her trail to the station, and I was terrified she had come for you.”

“You’ve been protecting me this whole time?” Bel twisted to see him in the dimness, thankful that he had attempted to wipe most of her blood from his blond beard. “That text? The one warning me to run? That was you.”

“Yes.”

“How did you get my number?”

“I have my ways, Detective.” He tucked her hair behind her ear, but she flinched, her mind spinning at his confession. She needed to escape his hold, to stop her heart from ruling her head. This man had tried to murder her twice, yet he was holding her like she was his entire world, his beloved beauty.

“I…” Bel pushed herself to her feet and stumbled, light-headed.

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