Page 17 of Never Nix Up (The Arun Nixes #2)

17

Hazel

T risantona and I have made a pact of sorts. We’re going to try actively being friends, and see what happens. I’ve no idea how to really go about being best friends with a millennia-old Goddess, but there’s no harm in trying. Or at least, that’s what I’m telling myself.

For her part, she’s trying to ask me more questions about the artistic process when the door to the church slams open and Kit is standing in the doorway.

I’m not sure who’s more surprised: me, the Goddess, or Kit herself.

“Katherina…”

“Kit,” Kit interrupts. “Not Katherina. I’m Kit.”

Finn is hovering behind her, looking all apologetic and I have no idea what’s going on, but I’m just going to leave them all to it. I’m behind on my art, and now that I know that Trisantona sees these pieces as less compulsive, and more of a collaboration, I’m looking forward to trying out some new technique on the church’s old column.

“I’m not here for you, anyways.” She strides straight past Trisantona, who looks hurt—I’m starting to notice things like that now—and comes to stand next to me. “You. You need to tell me what happened to Johnny.”

Over her shoulder Finn pulls a face. “I didn’t say anything, I promise.”

“That’s okay,” I reassure her. “It wasn’t a secret.” But it is inconvenient. I don’t even know myself what I want to do about the nightmare I had, and now I have to talk to Kit about it—who is bound up in the whole thing in more ways than one.

“Johnny…” Trisantona sounds like she’s far away. “He was… he was the last of them. The last of them before the Veil lifted.”

Finn and I both manage to grab Kit before she hurls herself at the Goddess. “Not gonna let you do that,” says Finn. “Very bad idea.”

“I don’t ask them to that.” There’s water pooling about her, and moving within the humanshape that is the form she most prefers. “I never asked them for that, but you nixes… You like power.”

Kit kind of just slumps, and she lets herself fall into the chair that’s there from earlier. “You’re not wrong. There’s something about the way that magic just hums in your veins when you embrace it… It’s intoxicating. But I run a pub. I’ve seen what happens when people get addicted to that kind of a high. I don’t want anything to do with it.” She doesn’t even look up at me. “But Johnny… I need to know what happened. Was it…” She swallows and I realise that Kit is crying. “Was it them?”

I don’t need to ask her who she means. “Yes. I’m sorry.” She brushes a hand angrily across her eyes, and Finn is there, offering her a tissue and a shoulder to cry on. The butch takes the tissue, but refuses the shoulder.

“I hate them.” Her tone is completely neutral, as if she’s simply stating facts. “I hate them so much. They destroyed Marla’s family. They ruined my chance at…” She stops, taking a breath and then tries again. “How can I tell her that her brother’s death wasn’t an accident? That it was my father and my brother who did it? She’d never be able to look at me the same way again.”

It is Trisantona who speaks this time. “You are not your father, and you are not your brother. You are quite yourself, in the most frustratingly stubborn manner possible. But this was not your fault.”

“Yes it was. I let Marla and Johnny hang around with us nix kids. I knew it was dangerous, knew that my family hated humans, and I let them spend time with us.”

“You’re still friends with Marla now,” pointed out Finn, gently.

“Yes, because I’ve been protecting her and the rest of her family ever since it happened. Because Ryder knows that I’ll kill him myself if they ever come near them again.” Her voice cracks again. “We never even found his body. He was just… gone.”

That’s the one thing in all of this that I can help with. I look at Trisantona who shrugs in a very un-Goddess-like manner. It’s my decision.

“I think I know where his remains may be. I don’t know for certain,” I added hurriedly, when Kit turned her tear-stained face in my direction, “but I can certainly try. In the dreams I… I see it all. And I think I can probably locate it, with my Goddess’s help?”

Everyone looks at Kit and she grins ruefully. “Will this put me in your debt?” she asks Trisantona, not hiding her reluctance.

The Goddess looks thoughtful. “If I say no, will you come back and talk to me—on your own terms? You are the last nix in the village who refuses to have anything to do with me, and I find that I am curious about you, and about why.”

A shadow passes across Kit’s face, but she knows, as we all do, that this is far fairer an agreement than most could expect of a god. “Yes. I will come back and talk to you, on my own terms.”

“Then yes, I will do this because you have asked. And because you, dear friend,” she says, turning to me, “because you want it too.”

Finn and Kit goggle a little at the use of the phrase ‘dear friend’, but I ignore that and just smile quietly at Trisantona. “We can’t do this now, and Kit, I think it is best if you are not there to witness it. I vow that I will do my best to find him though. Finn, after work tonight?”

Finn and Kit exchange looks, but Finn nods, ignoring whatever concern Kit is sending their way. “I’m in.”