Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

MAR

M r. Eyes leaned casually against a brick wall, watching me with interest from across the cobblestone street. Crossing paths once could be a coincidence. Running into each other twice in a single day suggested one of us was stalking the other. It wasn’t me.

I had hoped to never see his face again, but here he was, darkening my day for a second time.

Also for the second time today, his startling green eyes arrested me as I approached him. This time I would not let him disarm me.

“Why are you following me?” I asked.

“I could ask you the same question. I take a train to a different state, and you take the one right after. Doesn’t seem like chance.” He slipped his hands into his pockets. “If this is an elaborate ploy to get my phone number, you could have asked this morning.”

I narrowed my gaze at him. He had been here before me, which was a check in his favor.

He pushed off the wall and offered me his hand. “Levi Rivers.”

I crossed my arms rather than accept his handshake.

He dropped his hand and narrowed his eyes with curiosity. “You prefer to skip past the social niceties. Interesting.”

“Like you don’t already know my name.”

“I don’t,” he said with the tilt of his head and a heavy dose of faux innocence.

“You stole my wallet and didn’t take anything, which means you were looking for information. So, I repeat, you already know who I am, where I live, and how much I weigh, Levi Rivers.” His name tasted like dirt on my tongue.

“I swear to you, I’m innocent.” He flashed a smile he clearly believed was charming.

I would not be charmed.

I dug my fingers into my upper arms. “Where did you find my wallet then?”

“On the ground by Kernel of Truth.”

That was the only possible answer that I could possibly consider believing, since that’s where I’d taken my wallet out.

“Did you buy popcorn, too?” I asked.

“I did. You think I’d go to the midnight market and not claim my kernel of truth? I’m not a monster.”

“What did it say?”

He waggled his finger. “Too personal. Would you want to share yours with me?”

Of course not. I clenched my jaw.

“I didn’t think so.” He smiled again.

And yeah, okay, he was charming. Also maybe not a thief.

I dropped my arms. “My name is Mar.”

If he was offended that I didn’t offer my last name, he didn’t show it.

“If you don’t tell me what Mar’s short for, I’m going to have to assume it’s Marshmallow,” he said.

A joke, cute. I wouldn’t laugh.

“Fine with me,” I told him flatly. It didn’t matter what he thought of me.

“All right then. What brings you to Nevermore, Marshmallow? If not to follow me.”

Like I’d divulge more than the minimum information to this suspicious stranger. I settled on sharing a benign piece of the truth. “I’m meeting a friend.”

I wasn’t sure which of us started walking first, but it seemed we’d both decided on taking this conversation on the road. Apparently, we’d also both decided on heading in the same direction.

“You know someone who lives here?” Levi’s tone suggested that was improbable.

The town was painted black. I wore black. Why wouldn’t he think this place suited me? Or was it possible that he personally knew everyone in town, and didn’t believe any of them would be interested in befriending me? There had to be something else, some other reason.

“No.” I again offered an honest but minimal answer. “Why are you here?”

“My best friend is missing.” Levi smiled a small, sad smile. “I’m trying to find out what happened to him.”

That hit me straight in the center of my chest. I didn’t want to feel anything for him, least of all empathy. But there it was, creeping its way into my heart anyway.

“Caramel?” he said.

“What?” Had he decided to stop calling me Marshmallow in favor of a different sweet?

“Would you care for a caramel, Marshmallow?”

I guessed not.

With a flourish of his wrist, a wrapped candy appeared in his palm, just like my wallet had this morning.

“Are you an eighty-year-old grandmother?” I asked.

“Do I look like one?”

Absolutely not. “Maybe.”

He grinned, and it was a full-out dazzling smile, the kind that sold expensive cars to people with no money. All of my I-will-not-be-charmed thoughts faded into a murky cloud in the back of my mind, which set my conscious brain on even higher alert than before.

“Grandmas are the only ones allowed to offer caramels,” I said. “Grandmas and perverts.”

His brows shot up. “You’re thinking of butterscotch. Caramels are for all people with good taste.”

Butterscotch is for perverts. I almost smiled at that.

Instead, I guided what was quickly approaching friendly conversation back to direct, relevant, and safe territory. “Does your friend live in Nevermore?”

“No, but he was here before he disappeared.”

Exactly like what had happened to Nie. I hoped Levi’s friend had fared better in Nevermore than Nie had.

I said, “Good luck with…”

A strip of yellow caught my eye and killed the words on my tongue. The tape was strung between two otherwise unremarkable buildings, with the words Crime Scene Do Not Cross written over it .

Levi took off without a word and slipped under the tape. I’d hardly had a chance to blink, let alone decide to move.

Stunned only for a moment by his quickness, I followed. His expression was blank, his demeanor completely calm. Was he not surprised to see a crime scene, not hesitant about what could wait behind that line?

A metal trash can lay on its side, a huge dent on the skyward facing surface, the lid twenty feet away. Scattered between, trash littered the cobblestone. Splattered burgundy stains coated everything in such volume I could only hope someone had dropped a keg of wine from the second story of one of the flanking buildings. But the twist in my gut suggested otherwise.

Something horrible had happened here.

“It’s blood,” Levi said, as if reading my mind.

He said it with such certainty, I wondered if he had more information than I did.

I asked, “How do you know?”

Levi remained silent as he walked around the alleyway, studying the ground. I took a breath and scanned the garbage for evidence.

My bag jostled at my hip. I froze.

I looked over at Levi, checking to see if he was paying attention to what I was doing. He wasn’t. He was busy scanning the splatter like he could learn something else from it.

I slowly lifted the flap of my bag to see what was going on with Nie. Was I squishing her? Had she seen something through the holes I’d made for her?

Nie snapped her gaze up to mine.

“Die,” she said, in a voice that sounded just like mine. “Die. Die. Die.”

I held my breath for a moment, my eyes darting to where Levi stood.

“Shh.” I snapped the flap shut. As a flush of heat crept up my neck, I backed slowly farther from Levi.

He looked up at me.

My breath caught in my chest, trapped beneath the pounding of my heart.

Inside my bag, Nie continued her chant, barely muffled by the canvas. There was no way Levi couldn’t hear her, no way it didn’t sound like a homicidal chant filling the alley with my voice.

Levi said, in a completely normal tone, “I found something.”

He pointed to the ground, like he wanted me to come see whatever it was. Was it possible…did he not hear Nie?

“You want me to walk over there,” I said, unsure what to believe.

“Not if you don’t want to,” he said.

“Die. Die. Die. Die,” Nie chanted.

I blinked at Levi, watching for any kind of reaction.

He just looked at me, like everything was completely normal, waiting to see if I would come over or not.

I stared back in astonished silence.

People who hadn’t personally experienced magic couldn’t see it. Was this a case of that rule in practice? That was the only logical explanation as to why he wasn’t running away from me right now.

I treaded carefully around the garbage and dried blood until I stood beside Levi.

“Die. Die. Die. Die,” Nie said. “ Here.”

My legs and lungs filled with concrete.

I looked down.

A black winter glove lay in the center of the spray, the only thing on the ground not covered in blood. A gasp escaped my lips.

I recognized the glove.

“Whoever committed the brutal attack that happened here owns that glove,” Levi said with complete confidence.

“No,” I said, equally certain that wasn’t the case.

No way would Nie physically harm another person. Tear them to shreds and drop them to their knees in tears with her words? Absolutely.

She could never do this.

“It was dropped after the attack. On top of the scene,” Levi said. “The glove belongs to the assailant.”

Why was he so sure? He shouldn’t be. Just like he shouldn’t be certain it was blood all over the ground.

“The glove could belong to anyone,” I said.

It belonged to Nie. I’d bought the pair for her as a gift before she’d set off for what was supposed to be an adventure of a lifetime. The thought lingered sour in my throat.

Levi assessed me like he could read my face, which was ridiculous, as my expression was blank. It was always blank or mildly annoyed. There was nothing to read, and yet….

“Die. Die. Die. Die.”

Levi knelt, snapped a picture with his phone, and plucked a hair from inside the glove. Based on the three-inch length, the hair likely belonged to a long-haired animal, a cat or dog from the shelter probably.

Levi pulled a plastic snack bag out of his pocket and tucked the hair inside.

“You think a cat hair has something to do with your missing friend?” I asked.

“Perhaps.”

“And you just happen to have a lab on call ready to analyze evidence for you. Who are you really, Levi Rivers? Law enforcement? Librarian?”

“Interesting questions, Marshmallow. I’m exactly who I said I am. Who are you? And why assume it’s a cat hair?”

Great questions.

“Die. Die. Die. Die. Here.”

This wasn’t just any crime scene. This was where Nie had died. My head started spinning. I needed to leave. I needed space and quiet to think. I needed to get away from Levi Rivers.

“Who am I?” I repeated. “I’m done with this conversation.”

“Give me your phone.” Levi held out his hand.

Why would I agree to give him more access to my personal information?

I recoiled. “No.”

“All right, give me your arm,” he said, seemingly unperturbed.

My arm? “What?”

He pulled a marker out of his pocket and continued holding out his hand, calmly waiting for me to comply.

I wanted to punch him in the nose. It was unsettling, the way he responded to me, like there was nothing I could do to make him change his mind. Not about the glove, not about this.

“Why?” I asked.

“We’re both looking for answers. We’ll find out more together than separate.”

I hadn’t told him what I wanted, or what I was looking for. I could tell him he was wrong, but he wasn’t, so I begrudgingly pulled up my sleeve and stuck out my arm.

I expected him to grab my wrist or to put his palm under my forearm. I braced for the unwanted contact. Instead of touching me, he simply scrawled a set of numbers over my skin.

The wet ink left a cold trail in its wake, and I shivered.

“Call any time,” he said. Then he flashed those gorgeous green eyes at me one last time before popping a caramel in his mouth and walking away.

My heart flip-flopped in my chest on repeat, long after Levi was gone.

“Die here. Die here. Die here,” Nie said.

I opened the top of my bag and gave her a small wave. “You died here.”

She sighed. “Yes.”

That was three different words she’d said now. I needed to forget about Levi Rivers and focus on my mission. Also, why hadn’t I heard from Imogen yet? Even if there were more train delays, she should at least be on her way by now.

I snatched the glove off the ground and slipped it into my bag, then pulled out my phone and snapped as many pictures of the scene as possible before it got too dark. On the way out, I went to text Imogen, and found a string of messages from her that I’d missed.

Imogen: I’m on my way! You can count on me!

Imogen: At the train station. They say there are no more trains tonight. I’m gonna bodysnatch this dude and see if he’s lying.

Getting his autonomy stolen twice in one day—I felt a little sorry for Ticket Guy.

Imogen: Fiddlesticks. He’s not lying. :(

Imogen: Looking up directions to drive to New Jersey.

Imogen: There are no roads in Nevermore???? How can an island have only one way in and one way out? And that way is by train of all things? Shouldn’t there be boats and stuff?

Imogen: How do they get their milk?

Imogen: I can’t be there until morning, when the train comes. Apparently I can’t charter boats or helicopters or anything, which is crazy. I’m so sorry I’ve failed you. Please forgive me. How can I make this up to you???

I pinched the bridge of my nose as I digested her rambling messages. If I didn’t respond, she’d keep freaking out until she got here tomorrow.

Me: Everything is fine. See you tomorrow.

Three dots appeared as she typed an immediate response.

Imogen: Please don’t die before I get there.

I typed: I’ll try to wait to die until you’re nearby. Then I deleted the snarky text instead of sending it. And I sighed, because caring about other people’s feelings was exhausting.

Me: Goodnight, Imogen.

Imogen: Goodnight, bestie.

“Die here,” Nie said, and this time it didn’t sound like she was talking about what had happened to her. It felt like a warning to me.

I frowned down at her. “Let’s hope not.”