Page 74 of Werewolves Don't Howl
“Being impaled by a living branch in a library does sound distinctly Elven.”
I inhaled sharply, glancing around at all the masked and bejeweled Singsong City residents who might hear the man at my side’s shocking declaration.
“Senator Silverton, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Mm. Miss Era, will you dance with me?”
“I…” The last time we’d danced was at my brother’s wedding. He’d saved me from death by humiliation. And he’d said he loved me. I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there, staring at the most beautiful man in the universe who wanted to dance with me, even when no one else wanted me.
“Delphi, is that you?” Forsythia asked, breaking the spell. She came towards us wearing ostrich plumes with her heavy purple and teal makeup. Somehow, she didn’t look garish.
I smiled and took her hands, but Cross kept his arm around my waist, not letting me go. I liked that so much. “Forsythia! How are you? We only just got back home.” Oh. That made it sound like we were very together. Which we were, at least at that moment, and I’d slept in his bed last night. Was I blushing? Probably, but gnome cheeks were notoriously rosy.
She arched a perfect brow while her eyes glimmered. “I hope you two enjoyed your time away. Now you’re engaged to the Senator. Congratulations!” She took my left hand and gave a pointed look at my fingers before looking up at me, all polite sweetness. “Where is it?”
“I…That is…We aren’t engaged.” My throat felt weird, and I had to swallow twice before I could continue. I didn’t seem to want to tell her that we didn’t have a real relationship. “That was a misprint that needs to be retracted.”
“A misprint? Are you sure about that? Well, in that case, the announcement must be coming soon. Senator Silverton, you’re so lucky to have the affection of our beloved Delphi. No one in the world is sweeter and more charmingly simple than our precious girl.”
My wolf was starting to growl in the back of my mind. She made me sound like a child, a doll, or one of those tiny dogs that wanted to rip out your throat. I didn’t like telling her that I wasn’t engaged. I didn’t like the light in her eyes as she looked at him, knowing he was available. My beast wanted to take her permanently out of the equation as viciously as possible.
I gave her my sweetest smile. “Excuse me, Forsythia, but we were going to dance.” I pulled Cross away, noticing Leticia down the promenade, speaking animatedly in her flamingo mask. She kept taking it off to peer at the man she was with. Was that the mayor or someone dressed up like a butterfly? Did she really have ties to the mob?
A path on the left led to the African display. I pulled Cross into the shadows away from the party, veering around a couple who had come there for some privacy. Making out. How awkward to do that in masks.
I took a deep breath and Cross’s scent was everywhere, hyacinths and wind through the woods with an undertone of spicy carnations. Once we were far enough on the path to have complete privacy, I turned and looked up at him. Those eyes. So soulful and beautiful. He was so perfect. And he’d said that he loved me. After I’d staked him in his chair. Clearly, his confession had been part of the spell.
Oh.
Suddenly, the night didn’t seem so gloriously magical anymore. Of course it had been part of the spell that made me lose control and try to kill him. That’s why he’d let me.
I cleared my throat. It was time to stop feeling disappointed that Cross didn’t love me. What would I do with the love of some fancy lord heir of the night court? Try to kill him. Obviously.
“You think I was under a fear spell? And you think it’s connected to my beast coming out at Bram’s wedding? That makes a deplorable amount of sense. How would you set up such a spell? Would you need physical contact with me, because if so, I can tell you exactly how many people touched me.”
He frowned slightly. “Physical contact could work, but really, you’d just need to set up the spell somewhere a person was walking through.”
“Like a trap spell?” Why couldn’t it be as simple as counting the people who touched me?
He nodded soberly. “Yes, but you couldn’t have been infected by someone who wasn’t there. Someone had to infect you at that party.”
I stared into those dark, mystical eyes and ached for him to kiss me and make me forget about everything else. I didn’t want to think about all that negativity. Someone at the school for light creatures had infected me, a person with gnome blood? Who could be so cruel? “Right. And someone would have had to know where I’d be to set a trap spell. I haven’t been many places since we got back, just your pool house and Zephin Clay’s office. The suspect had to be someone who wants you dead, and wants to reveal my beast publicly. What would anyone get out of ruining my life?”
He shook his head slightly. “I can’t imagine anyone not adoring you. Unless they wanted you to go completely mad at the wedding and infect and kill your family and friends. That would get attention nationwide. You lost control after studying for months. If that spell had taken you before your training…”
I shivered, and it wasn’t because he was so otherworldly gorgeous. At least not all because of that. He really was so pretty, though. “Thank goodness I’m not very good at being an assassin. You were researching that mysterious potion at school, right? Who were your suspects then?”
“Everyone was a suspect. I never made a great deal of progress on the case. In the end, I started to think it’s tied to Lynx.”
“What about Loren? She’s an investigative reporter, but she’s also the one with my sweet kitty, the one whose face was on the body.”
“She’s certainly involved, but whether it’s because she’s searching for the truth, or whether she’s involved in the plot, I can’t say. What do you know about her?”
I frowned, trying to dredge up any useful memories that would help me understand her secret nature. After a few seconds of that, I shook my head. “I only know her as a driven reporter who will do anything to uncover the truth. That’s the sum total of her personality. That’s not very helpful, is it? She did go to my school, though. I don’t remember her because she was older. I don’t think we were there at the same time.”
“But she may have come back for the party.”
“I guess so. Who else is a suspect? It has to be someone who’s lived in Singsong City for at least a decade, someone I know, and someone who hates you and gnomes.”
