Murder Under the Moon (Paperback)

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I unlocked the front doors to the Indie Theater and pushed them open. Dust swirled in the early-morning light. The scent of stale popcorn and week-old butter hit me. I opened my mouth to avoid breathing in through my nose as I held the door open for Grace. She shuffled past me and meandered around the lobby, looking at the classic horror film posters lining the walls. She paused in front of the poster for Psycho and cocked her head to one side.
I wedged the door open with a rock to help air the place out and joined her. I studied her out of the corner of my eye. In some ways she looked so much like her mother, Dani, a member of my coven. They had the same dark-brown hair and slender build. She had the same habit of chewing on her bottom lip when she was in thought. From there, the resemblance disappeared. While Dani’s eyes were a light bluish color, Grace’s were so dark brown they almost looked black in the dim light of the theater. She wore bold black eyeliner that made them even more pronounced. She had an almost emo goth style, today expressed through black pants, a long-sleeved black mesh top over a tank top, and tiny silver coffin earrings.
“Thanks for doing this for me,” I said.
Grace shrugged. “I’ve got the time.”
“Still—”
She bumped me with her shoulder. Her lips pulled back in a mischievous grin. “And you know I’m better at this than my mom.”
I chuckled. “Don’t let her hear you say that.”
She barked out a laugh. “She’s the one who suggested I offer my services.” She waggled her fingers at me. “She might be the best at seeing what’s happening now, but I’m the best at looking into the past.”
“Humble much?”
Grace shrugged again. “Just stating facts. So, where’s the apartment?”
I smiled back at her. It was nice seeing her so relaxed and sure of herself. And when it came to looking into the past with divination magic, there really wasn’t anyone I knew who was better at it. While Dani could glimpse things that happened a few days ago with relative ease, anything further back was a bit more of a struggle. Grace, on the other hand, could peer back in time decades or centuries as easily as opening a book and flipping through the pages.
“Upstairs.”
“Lead the way.”
We crossed the lobby to a black curtain that hung across a section of the wall next to the ticket booth. I held the curtain aside and motioned for her to take the stairs concealed on the other side.
“So how long do I have you for?” I asked.
“A few hours.” Grace stopped on the landing, moving to the side to let me up next to her. “Noah’s picking me up for lunch at noon.”
I inched around her, stepping over pieces of splintered wood. The door to the apartment hung loose on its hinges. I swallowed down my nerves. The last time I had been here had been intense. I pushed the memory of the snarling, snapping face of a killer out of my mind as I gripped the edge of the door and pulled it open the rest of the way. “Oooh. A date with Noah.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s not a date.”
“From what your mother’s told me, you’ve been hanging out almost every day this summer.”
“As friends,” she grumbled, stalking past me into the darkened room.
I instinctively let my expression go blank. Did I tease her too much? Is she going to stop helping me? I need her here. King Kai is counting on me. I can’t have him mad at me. Oh god. A king of the vampires is going to be mad at me because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.
Grace sighed, her shoulders slumped. She hung her head and wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m the one who wants it to be just as friends.”
I blinked.
“I don’t regret applying to attend Cypress Hollow Academy. It’s the best witch school in the country. I… I didn’t think I would get in. But since I’ll be moving to Louisiana in two months, it didn't make sense to start anything. It’s not like he can come with me.” She shook her head and flipped on the light.
The living room was trashed. Broken furniture littered the floor. Chunks of couch cushion lay scattered among the cracked wood and shards of glass. The walls were covered in long gouges.
“Wow,” we said in unison. The night I had been here, the lights were off, and I hadn’t witnessed the devastation.
She tiptoed through the mess, running her fingers across the debris as she passed. “Huh.”
“Huh?”
She held up her finger to shush me and moved farther into the room. She crouched next to a pile of blankets on the floor. It almost looked like a nest. Tentatively, she reached out and brushed her fingers over the mound. She cocked her head. “Hmmm.”
I straightened and stepped to the side. I held my hands perfectly still at my sides as my eyes tracked her movement around the room. With each new item she touched, the sounds of confusion she made grew more frequent. I fought the urge to ask questions.
At last, she turned to me, holding the only undamaged pillow in the room. “It doesn’t feel right.”
“What doesn’t feel right?”
She gestured wildly around the room. “Everything. I… It’s hard to describe. Has my mom taught you much about psychometry?”
I blanched. Divination magic was my weakest school of magic. While I could charm people all day or reshape things to my will, somehow understanding them on an instinctual level escaped me. The few times I’d tried to read the emotional resonance—what was left behind after someone had touched an object—I had become exhausted so rapidly that it barely felt worth it to try again. “Some.”
She scrunched up her face as she turned the pillow over in her hands. “When I touch this, it’s almost like I’m looking at the emotion through water. It’s there. I can see it. But… it’s like it hasn’t settled.”
“What does that mean?”
Grace shrugged and threw the pillow at me.
What the— I stumbled back as the pillow sailed toward my head. I flung my hands up and grabbed it from the air at the last second. It smacked against my face. My heart leapt into my throat as I hastily lowered it.
She held her hand out. “Can I have it back?”
“What was that for?”
“An experiment.” She thrust her hand toward me. “Gimme.”
I stepped farther into the room and held it out. “Take—”
My stomach dropped, and I spun toward the door as footsteps pounded up them. I froze, my hand clenched around the pillow as a large man barreled into the room. It took a second for my brain to register who it was as he surged across the room: Travis Burrow, the head of the local werewolf pack.
His amber eyes were wide as he skidded to a stop a foot away. His brown hair was wild, and his flannel shirt was half untucked.
“What—” I began to say.
“You’ve got to help me,” he said.
“Huh.” Grace ran her fingers over the pillow.
My gaze bounced between his wide eyes and Grace’s confused expression.
Travis grasped my shoulder. “Please. You’ve got to come with me. Now.”
“I—”
“Huh,” Grace muttered again.
My mouth was dry. My heart was beating a mile a minute as Travis pulled me toward the door. Grace grabbed the pillow from my hands. She slid forward with us as Travis continued to yank me to the door.
“What’s going on?” I dug in my heels and leaned back.
Travis dropped my arm and gripped his hair. “They’re claiming he killed his wife.”
“Who’s claiming? Whose wife?” I babbled.
Grace’s hand darted out and touched Travis’s sleeve. “Huh.”
“Why do you keep saying that?” Travis bellowed as he loomed over Grace. “You think this is funny?”
“No.” Grace softened her voice. “This is a tense situation.”
“Of course it’s tense. The Wardens are trying to arrest my brother!”
My head swiveled between the two of them. The Wardens were the police force for the paranormal community. On Whidbey Island, they weren’t supposed to do anything until I had investigated and determined if a crime was part of their jurisdiction or the local sheriff’s. It didn’t make any sense. “What—”
Grace held up the pillow. “But it doesn’t feel tense.”
Travis furrowed his brow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It doesn’t feel tense. I… On the pillow, I mean. It should feel tense. She was touching it throughout all of that. The emotional resonance on this pillow should be screaming at me with how badly Megan is freaking out right now. I mean, look at her. Her shoulders are tight, her jaw is clenched, and I bet you dollars to donuts that her hands are sweaty from stress. And then there’s you. Your shirt should have been telling me how angry you are. But the pillow doesn’t feel like she’s freaking out, and your shirt doesn’t feel angry. The emotional resonance is all wrong.”
He scowled. “Is this some sort of weird witch thing?”
Grace nodded.
He rubbed his hand down his face. “I don’t have time for this.” He turned to me and held his hands out, his eyes pleading. “Please. The Wardens are going to take him away.”
My mind whirled. What am I supposed to do? King Kai… but Travis needs me. What does he mean the Wardens are trying to arrest his brother? No one’s called me. I haven’t triaged this case. I… But King Kai. The emotional resonance. I can’t.
Grace patted my arm. “You should go.”
“What?” I jerked my head up.
She gestured around the room. “This is going to take more time than I thought. He needs you now. Go. I promise to lock up when I’m done.”
I fished the keys out of my pocket and shoved them into her waiting hands. I squeezed her fingers. “Thank you. Call me if you need anything.”
She saluted. “Will do.”
“We’ve got to go.” Travis shifted his weight from foot to foot.
I nodded and followed him down the stairs. “Tell me everything.”
“My brother, Austin, just got married to Kenzie two weeks ago.” He strode ahead of me, taking the stairs two at a time. “She was found dead this morning. Murdered. And Austin is missing.”
“Okay. But why are the Wardens trying to arrest him? I haven’t looked into the case yet.” As the liaison between the Wardens of the West, the police force for the paranormal community, and the local town government, it fell to me to determine who had jurisdiction over paranormal-related crimes committed in Point Pleasant, Washington.
“They aren’t waiting for you to do your job. They’re claiming they have an eyewitness.”
I lurched to a stop. An eyewitness? “What are you expecting me to do?”
His shoulders slumped, and he leaned against the wall at the bottom of the stairs. “It wasn’t him.”
I stepped up behind him. My hand hovered over one of his shoulders as they shook.
“It wasn’t him. I know it wasn’t. He wouldn’t… He couldn’t. He loved her.” His voice broke.
“You know I can’t make you any promises, right?”
He nodded.
“If the evidence leads to him, that’s where it leads.”
“I know. But… it won’t. I know my brother.” He glanced at me over his shoulder. His amber eyes were brimming with tears. “Please.”
“Okay.” I pressed my lips together. “Do you know where he is?”
He shook his head. “The whole pack is looking for him.”
I exhaled slowly. “And Kenzie?”
“At the morgue. They moved her there an hour ago.”
I clenched my fists. The pressure of my nails against the palms of my hands centered me. “I’ll go talk to Victor. Call me if you find your brother.”
Travis nodded. We quickly exchanged numbers, then I hurried across the street so I could go talk to the local medical examiner. If it wasn’t a wolf that did it, this should be simple enough to disprove. As I climbed into my truck, I silently prayed that Victor had already determined a cause of death.

• Murder Among the Hives
• Murder Between the Stacks
• Murder Under the Moon