Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

MAR

I mogen paced and talked while Levi leaned against the wall by the hotel room door.

I stared across the space between beds, into my matching set of eyes. Greta and I were supposed to be exactly the same person, just as the last iteration of Mar and Nie were supposed to have been.

Yet, Nie had ventured to Nevermore while the last reiteration of Mar had sulked.

Greta and I were both of them and neither.

We’d been separate people for one measly day, yet Greta had evolved lightyears ahead of me in magical ability. She’d effortlessly created additional copies, then without waiting for their deaths, reabsorbed them.

Taking advantage of the first break in conversation, I asked Greta, “How’d you do it?”

I realized after the words left my lips that I hadn’t specified what subject it referred to, but I could see the recognition in the slight twitch of her cheek. She knew exactly what I meant.

“Same circumstances as always,” Greta said.

Intense emotion.

“With a twist,” Greta said. “I was about to lose my head.”

“That makes it sound like you raised your voice in anger.” Imogen stopped pacing and turned to me. “The alchemist froze me. He swung his…machete? I don’t remember the exact weapon. Hmm.”

The weapon type was unimportant.

“Butcher knife? Hand ax?” Imogen twisted her lips and looked up at the ceiling. After a moment, she shrugged. “He was about to….”

Imogen swiped a finger through the air in front of her neck, made a swoosh sound, and frowned.

“Just like what happened to Nie,” Greta said, stiffening in her seat as if only just realizing the connection.

This was helpful, even if we were losing track of what I’d asked. I offered the obvious next question. “Was this alchemist the person who killed Nie?”

“No,” Imogen said. “It wasn’t in his memories. But he was hecka feisty. I didn’t spend too long in there so I didn’t get a lot, but I would definitely have caught the whole murdering-Nie bit.”

“Two decapitations of the same person isn’t coincidence,” Levi said.

It was unlikely for the events to be unrelated.

I said to Greta, “You saw the blade coming for your throat.”

“I did, and I understood what I had to do,” Greta said. “Instinct.”

An instinct that no Marnie had managed before her. Had our circumstances switched, would I have instinctively created two Marnies to save my own life? I wasn’t so sure. Reintegrating into one was something Greta and her clones had accepted without hesitation. I couldn’t do it.

She was different. Stronger.

I watched Greta gesture to Imogen, who tossed her what appeared to be a mostly-empty candy bag.

Then I watched with horror as Greta pulled out a piece of candy corn, looked me in the eye, and slipped it between her lips.

Why?

“I saw the whole thing in Alden’s—that’s the dead alchemist guy’s name—memories, when I was inside of him,” Imogen said.

I cringed inwardly at her description of her powers. I would never get used to her saying that.

I cringed outwardly as I watched Greta chew and swallow the waxy candy.

We had the same taste buds. I hated candy corn, so she did, too. I didn’t understand.

“You said someone else killed him,” I said to Imogen.

“Yep. He got hit in the neck with a dart and died immediately.”

“Did you see who shot the dart?” Levi asked.

“No,” Greta said.

“We ran,” Imogen said.

Since I didn’t see a butcher knife or machete on either of them, I assumed they’d left the weapon behind. Unfortunate. We could have used it.

“There were four of you standing around the target when he was hit,” Levi said.

“No one else was touched?”

Implying the shooter was skilled, that hitting someone amongst a crowd was easy for him or her. Another thought occurred to me.

“There were four of you,” I repeated to Greta. “If you and your clones weren’t afraid of death, why not go after this person? Why run?”

“I never said I didn’t fear death,” she answered.

“Could you not simply create more of us?” I asked. It seemed the obvious solution.

Greta didn’t answer.

As we stared at each other, I couldn’t understand how we could be the same person and so different. Maybe it was an unfair expectation. Had I been there, had I been able to create an army of us, maybe I would have run, too. But I didn’t think so.

When it became clear Greta had nothing further to say about the matter, I turned my attention back to Imogen. “This happened at the reaper’s house, did it not?”

Imogen sighed. “You don’t have to say it.”

“She’s the most likely suspect,” I said anyway. “She has been this entire time.”

“There’s a lot of weird going on in Nevermore,” Imogen said. “The suspect list seems pretty endless to me.”

“I’m going to assume you didn’t have time to check the alchemist’s face with the black light,” I said.

“We did,” Greta said. “He has the same curse as the others.”

“Did he know anything about the curse?” I asked Imogen.

Imogen shook her head. “Nope.”

If they’d fled right away, the serial killer wouldn’t have yet had a chance to leave a scarab in the mouth of the deceased.

“If there’s a scarab, it would suggest the same killer,” Greta said, as if reading my mind.

“If we don’t hurry, the goblins will take him,” I said.

“You want to go back?” Imogen blinked at me and then Greta.

“Now we have the petrification potions,” Greta said.

They hadn’t had those before. I’d had them. Aside from Imogen’s power, they hadn’t had any way to defend themselves against deadly darts, no matter how many Marnies there were.

Levi pushed off the wall and opened the door. “Let’s go.”

As we walked back to Bernadette’s house, Imogen kept complaining she was exhausted. She set our slow pace. Levi filled Imogen and Greta in on our day, including seeing a cat that was definitely not a fox, and finding a strange door. When compared to their day, ours seemed far less successful in terms of gathering information.

But the time alone, and our kiss, made it special to me.

We reached the reaper’s house. No lights were on.

Greta led us around the back of the house. She and Imogen split directions, looking beside the garage, around the sides of the house. A sinking feeling settled into my stomach, knowing they wouldn’t have to search if the dead guy was where they’d left him.

“He’s gone,” Greta said.

But the killer could be out there lurking in the darkness.

“Do we go back to the goblin lair?” Imogen asked.

“There’s no way to know if he’s there,” Greta said. “Bernadette could have?—”

“Or whoever the real killer was could have moved the body,” Imogen said.

“I don’t see a scarab on the ground,” I said.

“It’d be in his mouth,” Greta said.

She was probably right.

The sound of rustling leaves made everyone freeze.

Anyone could be lurking in the darkness watching us, listening to our conversation. Anyone could have seen Greta and Imogen here before, and think they were the killers.

“We shouldn’t linger at a crime scene,” I said. “Or near the reaper’s house.”

“Let’s return to the hotel until daybreak,” Levi said.

“Sure,” Greta said.

“Then tomorrow we can split back into the same teams,” Imogen said.

“I’m taking one of the potions,” Greta said to me. “You keep the other two.”

I nodded my agreement.

Imogen and Greta started heading back the way we’d come, discussing amongst themselves where to pick up their investigation in the morning. Greta was set on confronting Bernadette. Imogen, not so much.

I walked behind with Levi, watching Greta with an uncomfortable feeling of uncertainty in my gut.

The next day, I wasn’t surprised when I woke to find Greta and Imogen gone. I was surprised to find Levi waiting in the hall with coffees and a paper bag from the cafe.

His eyes sparkled when he spotted me. He pushed off from the wall. “Good morning, Marshmallow.”

“I’m going to have to think of something ridiculous to call you, too.”

“It’s only fair. Coffee?” He handed me one of the cups.

I thanked him and took a long drag of searing liquid energy. Today, I would enjoy the ease of walking beside Levi. I’d enjoy the pleasant lightness that accompanied his presence. I wouldn’t focus on the thoughts that had led to another rough night of sleep, like my inability to reconnect with the other versions of myself, or the fear that there was something innately broken about me.

If Greta and I had rejoined last night, we still would have had to split up today, so the only difference was the fact that we were already separate.

Was it the kiss that had made me lesser? Was I holding onto my time with Levi, selfishly wanting to keep him to myself? That was stupid. All Marnies were me.

“You all right?” Levi asked as we stepped out of the elevator.

I’d hardly noticed getting into the elevator in the first place.

“Peachy,” I said.

While Team Reaper was once again waiting for Bernadette to return to her home, Levi’s and my job, as Team Noodles, was to hunt down the fox. Since we had no idea where to look, we started by heading toward the strange door we’d found yesterday.

The sharp chill of morning air bit my bare cheeks. I inhaled slowly, taking in the crispness of autumn, the saltiness of the ocean, and the faint hint of ozone that always preceded rain.

I looked up at the sky, to the fluffy clouds that passed over us at a leisurely pace. While my circumstances had me trapped in perpetual motion, Nevermore itself was quiet compared to the city noise I was accustomed to.

This morning in particular, there was a palpable stillness, as if the world was holding its breath in anticipation. What it was waiting for, I couldn’t say.

“I hope you like bagels,” Levi said.

“Everyone likes bagels.”

“Egg or cream cheese?”

“Cream cheese.”

He pulled a large, paper-wrapped object from his bag and handed it to me. It smelled like toasted garlic, poppy, and sesame seeds.

I unwrapped it and found my favorite bagel flavor—everything. I thanked Levi and dug in.

We walked side-by-side, enjoying our breakfasts, without spotting a single cat or fox on the sidewalks in the back alleys.

Soon enough, we stood in front of the wall of dangling ivy and the mysterious round door with its intricate engravings.

We slipped our trash into one of the cans, then Levi worked to pull back the vines.

A dot of cold touched my nose.

I looked up.

Delicate flakes of snow drifted down from above. One hit my cheek, another my eyelash. Levi was focused on the markings on the door. The snowflakes that landed on his golden hair were lost to the pale color.

On my head, they probably looked like dandruff.

“First snow of the season,” I said.

“That means good fortune.” He flashed me a smile that stole my breath.

“Is that so?”

“If it falls after Halloween. Before Halloween, it’s a terrible omen.”

“Lucky us, then, that it’s November.”

“Lucky indeed.” He gestured for me to join him. “Come see.”

I stepped in close and spotted an upraised shape where I could swear there had only been carvings before.

That shape was a jade scarab.

“That wasn’t filled before,” I said, not quite believing.

“No, it wasn’t.”

With a small, unexpected flutter, a peculiar sensation spread through my chest. Was it hope? Excitement? My usually pessimistic heart daring to be excited about what our find could mean?

“Did you put it in there?” I asked. “Someone did.”

“I didn’t. Cross my heart,” Levi said.

I searched through my bag and found my pocket knife and two of Rose’s petrification potions, which meant Greta had taken one as she’d said she would. That was good. But where were the….

Ah, I found the two scarabs in one of the zippered pockets.

I held them out in my palm for Levi to see. “It’s not one of mine.”

“I found another carving of a scarab.” Levi pointed. “It’s the right size. Should we put one in?”

“This is a door, which means maybe the scarabs are the key,” I said. “How many holes for them are there?”

We scanned the carvings.

“I see three, including the one that’s already filled in,” Levi said.

What had first seemed implausible was beginning to feel like a warning sign of purposeful deception. Coincidences didn’t happen.

“Is someone messing with us?” I asked. “If these are the keys to unlock this weird door, who would leave one scarab here for someone else to use?”

“I don’t know.”

“It’s suspicious,” I said.

“Possibly.”

“Definitely.”

“Or fortuitous.”

“Maybe,” I said.

“Even so, we have to go in,” Levi said. “We need answers.”

He was right. If we were to compare opening this door to yelling at the grim reaper or charging into a people-eating goblin cave, the risk level here was practically nonexistent. It was silly for my resolve to waver now.

I placed the scarabs in their holes. They fit perfectly.

With the groan of stone grinding stone, the huge circular door began to turn. It rolled slowly to the side, revealing a dark room beyond.

With the flashlight on my phone to guide us, we stepped inside.

The room was fairly large, with stone walls and card tables lining the walls. There were no cobwebs, no dust, and seemingly no other entrances or exits.

“It’s clean,” I said, surprised. I wasn’t entirely sure what I’d expected to find behind the stone door, some forgotten storage filled with treasure, maybe.

“I didn’t expect the room to be regularly used because of the vines that lay over the door,” Levi said.

I nodded.

He turned on a lamp I hadn’t noticed by the entrance. Switching off my flashlight, I headed toward the first table.

A grinding sound came from behind us. We turned.

The heavy stone door clicked shut, cutting out the sun and our means of escape.

I hurried to the door and searched the smooth surface for a button or latch or some way to reopen it.

“We’re trapped,” I said.

“There has to be a way out,” Levi said. “For now, no one else will be entering in behind us, so we might as well complete a thorough search.”

“If snakes start pouring from the ceiling, I’m sacrificing you to buy myself time,” I teased.

“You wound me, Marshmallow,” he teased right back, with his hands over his chest. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“Every one of my bones is ruthless,” I said.

He smiled and made a face that suggested he disagreed. “I’d say every one of your bones is loyal.”

“That’s just because you don’t know me very well yet.”

“I take that as an invitation to learn more. Tell me something I don’t know about you.”

I rolled my eyes and approached one of the tables. “I like vegetable lasagna better than traditional.”

“Any vegetables in particular?”

On the tabletop was a corkboard with photos pinned. They were portraits. Many had Xs over them.

“X could be for those who are dead,” Levi surmised.

The gorilla guy who’d broken into my hotel room had an X over him, so that checked out. I didn’t recognize the rest. But there were plenty more photos that remained unmarked.

“Do you think this corkboard is a hit list? Like whoever owns this place cursed the people in the photos with a binding spell is slowly killing everyone off?”

“It could be.”

If so, where was?—

Levi pointed. “It’s you.”

My image wasn’t like the others. There wasn’t an X, or nothing, but instead a big question mark drawn over me in black marker.

“I guess I’m a mystery because I’m both dead and alive.”

“Like Schr?dinger's cat.”

“The quantum mechanics thought experiment?” I raised a brow. “What are you, some sort of science genius? You said you were a magician.”

“I am.”

“You’re both?”

“I am a magician. I don’t consider myself a genius. Now, about that vegetable lasagna….” he said with a smirk.

“You want to know my favorite vegetable, but you kissed me, so you have to divulge everything about yourself first.”

“I do?”

“That’s the rules.”

“But you’re the one who kissed me.” A grin overtook his face. “Twice.”

I wanted to smack his grin off, or kiss it off, but I’d do neither.

As he looked over my expression, he only smiled wider. “Full disclosure. I won’t hold anything back.”

“Perfect,” I said.

“I’m forty-six years old. I don’t have a favorite color.”

“That’s weird. Give me something deeper.”

“When your friend Imogen first arrived in Nevermore, I told you I was following my own lead.”

“I remember.”

“You were my lead.”

It took me a moment to process. “You saw me in Nevermore, where your friend Otis disappeared, and then you saw me in Piccadilly when you followed the fox. Of course you’d find me suspicious,” I said. “And now?”

“I trust you completely.”

“Even though we’ve only known each other a few days?”

“As soon as I laid eyes on you, I knew. Even when I tried to convince myself otherwise.”

The air caught in my chest at his admission. When we first met…he knew what exactly?

“I don’t own a house. I don’t consider anywhere my home, because I live my life traveling. It’s how I like it,” he said. “But if I had to choose a place, I’d choose Latebras, Ohio.”

“I’ve never heard of it.”

“No one who doesn’t live there has. It’s not on any map.”

“How is that possible?”

“It belongs in the family of secrets I’m still not allowed to tell you even though I desperately want to.”

“You mean your supernatural nature,” I said.

He nodded.

It was his family’s secret, or maybe his community even larger than that. By the imploring expression on his face, he wanted me to understand how deeply he wished to share everything with me, how much it hurt that he couldn’t give me this one final thing.

It was okay. I didn’t mind.

“Mushrooms,” I said.

“Pardon?”

“Mushrooms are my favorite vegetable.”

“You know mushrooms are fungi, right?”

“There you go with that science brain again,” I said.

“Is that a problem for you, Marshmallow?”

“I didn’t say that.” I considered my words. He’d laid everything he could out for me, shared more than I’d expected. The least I could do was offer honesty in return. “I like your beautiful nerd brain.”

I liked everything about him, but that felt too big and too scary to admit out loud.

It felt big to admit it to myself.

I was falling hard for Levi Rivers.

I moved away from him, because if I didn’t, the need to touch him would overwhelm me. I moved away because all of this emotional unburdening left me feeling vulnerable, like he’d knocked down my final defenses.

I moved to the next table with another corkboard filled with more faces I didn’t recognize.

Levi gasped.

He ripped one of the images off the board. “It’s Otis.”

He showed me the photo of a man with his same golden hair, a man who could be his brother.

“There’s no X,” Levi said, his elation completely changing the air in the room. “He’s alive.”

His relief, his excitement, his elation—all of it was contagious. I felt myself filling up with it.

“That’s great,” I told him. “I’m so happy for you.”

He pulled me into his arms. He lifted me like I was weightless and spun me in a circle.

I was as dizzy from the good news, from the startling quickness with which he’d grabbed me, from the way my entire body lit up like fireworks everywhere we touched.

“He’s alive,” Levi said again.

I nodded.

He peppered my face with kisses until those little pecks changed to something deeper. Maybe it was Levi who started it, or maybe it was me.

Everything was so confusing lately, but one thing was crystal clear—I wanted this man.

I abandoned my hesitation in favor of indulgence. I wrapped my legs around his waist and raked my hands across his back, reveling in the feel of him.

He met my desperation with a fresh and fiery fervor of his own, grabbing, tasting, claiming.

For the first time in as long as I could remember, sharing didn’t feel like too much or like a mistake. Intimacy, touch, his tongue—I needed more.