Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

MARNIE

A s soon as the elevator doors slid open, the sole occupant snapped his shamrock-green gaze to mine. A tiny thrill of happy surprise swelled in my chest.

He was wearing the same clothes I’d seen him in before—all white, of course—and even though it felt like a lifetime had passed since we’d seen each other, I realized it was still Halloween. This was still the same day.

I stepped into the elevator beside Levi and turned to stare at the doors as they closed.

“How is your foot?” he asked.

“Very foot-like, thank you,” I replied.

Feeling his gaze, I glanced in his direction. He nodded his approval, as if I had explicitly stated that the magical stitches he’d put on my sole had done their job and kept me healed. They had.

The weight of his attention caused a tendril of heat to crawl up the back of my neck. I licked my lips, then immediately realized I’d done so, which doubled the size and intensity of the rising heat.

As I stared at the dented doors, I did my best to pretend Levi’s attention, his closeness, and the fact that the two of us were alone in a confined space had no effect on me.

I cleared my throat and asked, “Make any progress on the hunt for your missing friend?”

“I’m investigating a lead.”

Pretty much the most generic non-answer possible. “So you haven’t found him or her.”

“Him,” he said. “Not yet.”

Did I want to feel a blip of lightness in my chest at hearing the friend Levi was searching for in Nevermore was a man? No. Did I feel it anyway? Yes.

“I hope you find him soon,” I said.

“I appreciate that.”

It was perfectly normal to ride in an elevator with a man. I shouldn’t feel anything. I still hardly knew him, which was for the best.

Even if librarians weren’t allowed in Nevermore, Levi hadn’t flat-out told me he was not one of them. He’d avoided answering when I’d brought it up at my death site.

On that topic, Levi’d claimed with certainty that the person whose glove was in that alleyway was a murderer. It was Nie’s glove. I was half Nie, so when he put all of the pieces together, he’d think I was a murderer.

And if he was in fact a librarian, that could mean he’d throw me in magic jail.

As a general life rule, trusting people was dangerous. I couldn’t let myself forget that trusting Levi was significantly more dangerous.

“Did you get your hair sample delivered to your lab at The Library?” I asked, knowing the hair from Nie’s glove had to belong to an animal from the shelter.

“I don’t work for The Library,” Levi said, without missing a beat. “Did you and your friend have any luck finding your…Nie?”

He’d given me the denial I’d been looking for. Surprising.

I said, “We did find Nie.”

“I hope she’s all right,” Levi said. “What happened to the kidnapper?”

“She’s not. She’s gone. As for the shadow creature who broke into our rooms and took Nie’s head—I have no idea.”

Well, I had some idea thanks to Nie’s memories.

“Unfortunate.” Levi’s gaze felt even heavier than it had before. “When you say Nie’s gone….”

“Poof. She died.” Mar absorbed Nie. Now I was Marnie again, whole. So why did I feel like some part of me was still missing?

Levi shifted his weight. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

I was, too. It sucked. If this magic was going to be a part of my life, if I was going to sometimes spawn a clone and then she’d die, I’d have to figure out a way to numb myself the way I could with everyone else in my life. I had to stop caring about the loss, change my perspective. I gained double the memories, double the experiences.

We were all me, so there was nothing gone, only gained.

Why were these elevator doors still not opening? Was this the world’s longest vertical ride, taking us down not only three floors, but to the center of the earth? Were we trapped, the car not moving up or down, only standing in limbo to prolong my discomfort?

“Where is your friend now?” Levi asked.

“Napping.”

“After the murder of your not-sister, should you be walking around Nevermore on your own?”

Probably not. “I’m inside the hotel. And I’m not alone. I’m with you. Plus, the same could be said for your own situation with your friend being missing.”

I also had the ability to clone myself, and Rose’s petrification potions in my pocket. What did Levi have? Was he planning to magically heal any assailants' wounds for them?

He shrugged. “Fair enough.”

“You said you were following a lead today. What lead?” I asked.

The elevator doors opened, finally.

Except the scene before us was not the lobby I’d expected, but a dark and dank expanse. Levi had taken us to the hotel’s basement. A single dim bulb illuminated the space.

As we stepped across the threshold, I asked, “Is your lead a monster who lives underground?”

“No.”

The clammy stone walls seemed to breathe, exhaling a chill that penetrated to the bone. Cobwebs clung to low-hanging beams. The packed dirt floor was uneven. From somewhere in the darkness came a mechanical hum, the scratchy scurrying of unseen creatures, and the echoing drip of a leaky pipe.

Levi narrowed his eyes and scanned the small room before us. “There’s blood down here.”

Blood? Again?

“Which are you—a bloodhound or a vampire?” I asked in jest, but not entirely.

“No.”

No? His expression was tight, perhaps concerned, but most definitely cold.

I placed my hand over the pocket in my bag that held Rose’s potions. “It wasn’t a yes or no question.”

Levi didn’t respond. Instead, he began walking.

He crossed the room and headed down one of the hallways. His sense of purpose suggested he knew where he was going. I followed.

Hard and numerous turns suggested a labyrinth meant to confuse and entrap prey in the lair of some carnivorous hellbeast. As we left the light of the first room behind, another light came into view. It flickered and reflected off the slick coating on the stone walls and twisted shadows.

Eventually, still keeping his attention ahead, Levi told me, “The answer is still no. I’m neither canine nor bloodsucker.”

“But you’re particularly attuned to the location of blood,” I said as we entered another larger space, this one filled with huge rusty metal boxes. “This is the second time you’ve brought it up, sure that there was some spilled nearby.”

He didn’t say anything to that, which I took as agreement. There was definitely something magical going on with him, even if I had not yet correctly guessed what that something was.

I asked, “Are you an alchemist?”

“No.”

Levi stopped in his tracks. He put his arm out to stop me, too.

We paused there for a moment, his expression so intense it made a shiver carry up my arms.

Levi nodded toward what looked like an industrial water heater in the corner. “There.”

The area was fenced off, likely to keep people like us out. There was a gate, but it was chained off. I didn’t see any blood on the dirt floor, but the lighting was far from ideal. The damp metallic scent in the air felt normal for this kind of basement with so much metal around.

“What am I supposed to be seeing?” I asked.

Levi didn’t answer. He stood completely still, not saying a word.

I looked up at his face, a knot of concern growing in my stomach.

He was pale.

“It’s him,” he said.

I almost asked who he was talking about, but when I glanced back the way he was staring, I saw a set of legs on the ground. The pants covering the legs were black, making them blend into the shadows. The body was otherwise hidden behind the water heater. By Levi’s reaction, I knew whose body this had to be—his missing friend’s.

Another violent ending.

My heart broke for Levi. As much as I’d hurt as Mar for losing Nie, that loss had been temporary. Levi’s was permanent.

I went to touch his arm to offer my condolences, but halfway through the motion, movement caught my eye. I froze.

Someone was lurking in here with us, just beyond the gate.

Inside the gated off area was a door, and it flew open.

We needed to get in there, go after them—they probably killed Levi’s friend.

They probably killed Nie.

The gate was impenetrable, heavy metal. It could probably hold back a stampede of elephants. I looked around the room for another way into the fenced area.

In a sudden burst of motion, Levi lifted his boot off the ground and smashed his heel into the gate. A clang reverberated through the metal panels. The lock and chain shattered to pieces and fell to the ground.

Faster than I could track, Levi jumped over the broken gate and ran for the open door, chasing after whoever had run through it.

I blinked at the crushed metal pieces littering the dirt.

How was Levi so strong? What was he?

I blinked again, this time at the light pouring in from the outside. There wasn’t another moment to waste. I brushed off my shock and chased after Levi.

He might have unnaturally powerful thighs, and he might have a magical sewing kit, but neither of those things meant he wasn’t about to get himself murdered by the same person who’d murdered his friend, and very likely the same person who’d beheaded Nie.

There was a serial killer in Nevermore.

Levi and I were safer together. I couldn’t let him die. And I wouldn’t allow the murderer to escape, either.

Fortunately, speed was one of my strengths.

I caught sight of Levi’s all-white get-up a moment before he rounded the first turn. I took off like a shot.

The path behind the hotel led to a series of alleyways. I raced after Levi, running as quickly as the twisting paths would allow.

In high school, a particularly pushy and charismatic girl had caught me in her sights. She’d decided we would be friends and dragged me along for runs early in the morning and late into the night. She’d belonged to track club. I hadn’t.

But during our silent runs, I’d gained something more valuable than our limited-time friendship. I developed a passion for that point in a run when like a switch, my body felt weightless, and the aches in my muscles melted away. Every negative thought evaporated, and there was nothing but the bliss of the wind against my skin and the pumping of adrenaline in my veins.

I’d built a coping mechanism for life, and a level of stamina that I still worked to grow to this day.

I should have been closing the distance between me and Levi. I wasn’t.

Then Levi skidded to a halt.

I slowed too, taking a moment to realize why he was no longer moving.

The alleyway ended. The entire ground ended, at the edge of a cliff.

Levi stood by the ledge.

Breathing heavy but not winded, I stepped up beside him.

Waves crashed against a steep rock slope three stories below us. A cold, salty balm cut through to the bone.

Levi stood motionless, his gaze darting around as if searching for something solid in the water below, and perhaps also to anchor his thoughts.

His throat worked up and down. Softly, he said, “He jumped.”

The he Levi was talking about had to be the murderer. Clearly, Levi had gotten a better look at the guy than I had.

Levi peeled his gaze from the ocean and turned to look at me.

A furrow etched itself deeply across his forehead, disbelief clear in every line of his face. His mouth opened and closed without sound.

I reached a hand and took half a step forward before realizing what I was doing and stopping myself. His clear distress caused a boulder to form in the center of my chest.

“Do we…” I really should not suggest this. I hated the idea. Yet, I said, “Jump after him?”

“He didn’t hit the water. He’s not on the rocks,” Levi said, in a not-quite answer. “He’s gone. It doesn’t make sense.”

“So you’re not going to jump,” I reiterated, because this was a particularly important point. Further, I realized then that if Levi had planned to jump, I had been about to follow without hesitation. It was an unsettling thought.

“He’s gone,” Levi said again. His jaw tightened, his nostrils flared, and a glassy sheen washed over his eyes.

Devastation—I knew that look and the feeling that accompanied it all too well. The boulder in my chest shattered into sharp shards.

It seemed that he was no longer talking about the killer, but his friend.

Every fiber of my being yearned to take away that pain.

This time when the urge to reach for him struck, I didn’t fight it. I grabbed onto his shoulders. “We will find the person responsible. We will make them pay.”

His lips curved upward on one side in a sad, half-hearted smile. “Under that tough exterior, you really are made of marshmallow.”

I went to pull back, but he caught me and tugged me to his chest. Caught completely off guard, I stiffened. Despite my reluctance, as his arms wrapped around me, I couldn't deny the warmth spreading through my chest.

It was as if the heat of his body seeped into mine. It was as if I could feel safe with him. All the nameless emotions no one was supposed to make me feel—he was making me confront them. It was terrifying.

And he’d said I was made of marshmallow.

“I’m not,” I whispered against his shirt. “I excised every ounce of softness with a scalpel years ago.”

“You missed a bit. Don’t fret over it, though. It makes you stronger.”

Softness was a strength? That made absolutely zero sense, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t focus on rationality while our bodies were pressed together. He felt too good. Instead of pushing him away, I laid my hands on his stomach. The muscles beneath were firm, his skin warm.

This was the first hug I didn’t remember hating.

Ever.

Still, I couldn’t hug him back, which was well enough, because all too soon he released me.

The softness in his expression was gone.

He said, “I have to see him before a clean-up crew takes him away.”

Him this time definitely referred to his friend.

I asked, “What clean-up crew?”

“Without The Library’s interference in supernatural affairs, Nevermore has its own set of rules.”

“And what are those exactly?”

“The relevant rule to this situation is that muckwarts are allowed to take bodies so they aren’t left to fester in the streets.”

“Take them where?”

“You don’t want to know.”

Levi started walking back the way we’d come. It was a dismissal of my questions, of me.

I refused to be dismissed.

“Even if I don’t want to know, I have to know,” I said. “The rest of Nie could have been taken by these muckwarts. Where do they take the bodies, Levi?”

“To their lair. They eat them.”

He said the words so matter-of-fact, exactly as someone would deliver the washing machine is done or pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza.

My stomach twisted with a violence that made me feel like I might barf.

I didn’t say anything else as I followed Levi back to the hotel. He didn’t say anything either.

The basement door was still open. We stepped back into the dark space, and found the body exactly where we’d left it, thank goodness. He was facedown, with a colorful shirt that made me think of Imogen.

Along with that thought came a flash of guilt for sneaking off while she napped.

Levi knelt down, took a breath, and rolled the body onto its back.

What should have been a somber moment was broken when Levi barked a laugh.

“It’s not him.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “It’s not Otis.”

He’d seemed so sure as soon as he’d spotted the dead guy’s legs. Confused, I said, “That’s great.”

“Those are his shoes, which isn’t a great sign, but this isn’t him. That means Otis could still be alive.”

The shoes were fairly typical white sneakers. I looked harder and spotted small doodles along the rubber, like I used to do during classes in school. How old exactly was Otis? How old was Levi for that matter? I’d assumed mid-forties, like me, but I didn’t actually know. I knew almost nothing about him at all, yet I was allowing him to worm his way past my defenses.

“I hope Otis is alive,” I said.

He gave me a smile, this one less sad.

I looked at the dead guy.

There was a knife jutting out of his neck, likely his cause of death. But it was his face that kept me staring.

I knew that face—the crinkles next to his eyes, the thin lips, the regret so deeply etched into his being that it seemed to emanate from every pore.

A voice whispered through my head, the dead man’s voice.

“No other choice,” he’d said.

A color flickered—yellow.

I tried to make sense of the yellow. The only thing that came to mind was crime scene tape, but that didn’t feel right.

The rest of it did.

“This is the guy who broke into our hotel rooms,” I said. “He’s the one who took Nie.”

“I concur,” Levi said. “I noticed that mole on his forehead during the break in.”

Again, he’d sensed something beyond my own perception. I couldn’t say so now, or I’d have to explain the specifics of how I knew this was the Nie-napper.

If this man was Nie’s killer, and someone had killed him, did that mean there were two murderers in Nevermore? Or did that mean this guy was attempting to kill a second time, and his latest victim wasn’t as easy to kill as he expected?

Levi dug through the dead guy’s pockets.

I downloaded a blacklight app on my phone that Rose had used before and shined it on the body. The familiar glowing pattern appeared on his skin, vines wrapping up his neck and all over his face. They also wound down his arms, which was interesting. I’d bet the vines snaked all over his body.

Levi shot me a questioning look.

“It’s an Anchorbriar Chains,” I said. “It’s a curse that binds people to a location. It was on Nie, too.”

“What else did you learn from Nie?”

Lots. Not enough.

“Check his mouth,” I said.

Levi pulled down on the dead guy’s chin, reached in there, and pulled out a scarab, just like the one that had been in Nie’s throat. Since he was able to reach it with his bare hands, it wasn’t as deep in there as Nie’s.

“Serial killer’s calling card,” I said. That also implied whoever killed Nie the first time wasn’t this guy. The original killer was definitely the person who killed him.

Levi wiped a finger across the jade scarab. “There’s hair on it.”

I leaned in for a closer look. It looked like animal hair, and too light for the black shadow-like fur this guy had when he turned into…an underworld gorilla or whatever it was that he turned into.

“When you ran after the killer, did you get a look at him?” I asked.

“Black cloak. Average height for a man, or tall for a woman.”

Was this the same cloaked figure who had followed Nie on the train? Was our killer really Guy Jones, disgruntled client from the animal shelter?

I stared at Levi, both of us crouched in the corner over the dead body, and I made a decision. He was capable, fast, and one of only two people in Nevermore who shared my goals. I chose to believe Levi wasn’t a librarian. I chose to believe that he was worth trusting.

“I’d like to take you up on your offer,” I said. “Let’s solve this together.”

“I have an idea. It’ll be dangerous.” He offered his hand.

This time, I shook it. I tried not to worry that trusting Levi would end in regret. And I tried really hard to ignore the way my whole body hummed at the skin-on-skin contact.