Page 5 of Royal Ransom (Princess Procedural #4)

Taliyah

Maverick had killed someone.

No, he hadn’t said as much explicitly, but a homicide detective knew the signs.

For one thing, Maverick didn’t dodge eye contact on an average day. Like his cousin, Wanda, he could be direct—to the point of rudeness at times. But recently, he’d been fidgety, sometimes even defensive, backing into the corner as though he expected me to slap him in cuffs.

The problem was, I wasn’t sure I could slap Mav in cuffs. On the practical side, I had no proof he’d done anything. All I had to go on was the ground-in blood under his fingernails and cuticles. That could have come from almost any source, and no lab was going to run it on my hunch that it was human or supernatural. Even if I managed to force the issue, what then? I was sure that whatever had happened, it hadn’t been Mav’s fault. Not directly, at any rate. If I didn’t blame Wanda for what she’d done to my brother under demonic influence, could I really do the same to Maverick under similar circumstances? Yes, someone needed to pay for this, but not here. Not now. Certainly not with the threat of Janara hanging over our heads.

I’d sample the blood, I decided, nodding to myself as I navigated the streets of the Hollow. They were nearly empty, just a few drunks staggering home after last call. I’d rescue Fox, and he’d owe me one. I could handle the situation privately. When I had answers, I could freak out then.

It chafed against my every instinct not to pursue this thing with Mav. Someone was dead—I was sure of it. It didn’t matter who they were or who was technically at fault. I should have followed up on it. But I wasn’t going to. Not now, at any rate. Did that make me a bad cop, letting Maverick go free just because I needed him for the mission ahead? Yeah, maybe. But I wasn’t letting him escape consequences. I just had to... delay them for the time being. Until I neutralized the threat from Janara and Winter.

Yes, I’d go with that.

My hands flexed around the steering wheel. It was taking all of my concentration not to spiral into a doomsday scenario. I’d dealt with supernatural problems like this before. Granted, none quite as grim as kidnapping and murder, but still.

“He’s not a murderer,” I repeated to myself for the umpteenth time. “And he didn’t do any of this maliciously.”

As he’d explained it, the options available to him had been either to cut a deal with Knox or let Morgana finish what Janara and her people had started. And Janara had intended to kill us all in our sleep. Mav had bartered his body for our safety. I should have been thanking him for that sacrifice, not picking apart his motives. But the part of me that was Chief of Police, Taliyah Morgan, couldn’t let it go. I doubted I’d feel better when I knew the identity of the person Knox had targeted, but it would at least be an answer—a step in the right direction. The doubt would eat me alive otherwise.

Maverick had looked wounded when I insisted on checking in on Darla without him. He hadn’t even protested when I told him to meet me at the Bar and Grill for the Council meeting. It wasn’t his fault, but he expected me to blame him anyway. Every other woman in his life had. I hadn’t been sure what to say to the questions in his eyes. I didn’t have a comforting lie to tell him. Whatever was going on had changed something between us, but I wasn’t sure what that something was or if it could be repaired.

Darla was supposed to meet me in my driveway, give me a report about the boys, and then hitch a ride home with me. However, with the weather turning worse, I figured she’d used her spare key to my house to allow herself inside. The wind had been buffeting the sides of my car the entire way home, forcing me to take turns at less than half the speed limit or risk going up on two wheels. Dark storm clouds loomed overhead, heavy with their burden. Rain, sleet, or even snow was going to slam the town in an hour. Maybe less. I could see the first flakes landing like soft, white confetti on my windshield, melting on contact with the warm surface. I’d cranked the heater as high as I could stand, trying to thaw the ice in my stomach. So far, it hadn’t worked.

“We’ll find a way out of this,” I said, speaking aloud for my own benefit. The only other person who regularly gave me pep talks was trudging through the chilly gusts of wind toward the Council meeting I desperately wanted to avoid.

I felt like a child hiding in a closet. If I didn’t acknowledge the monster, it would go away. Except that had never worked in my mundane life, and it didn’t work well as a faerie princess, either. I’d feel steadier once I had a workable plan—some grand scheme that would somehow keep me and the people I’d sworn to protect safe from Janara and her evil machinations.

A lecture from Cain would light a fire under my ass; I just knew it. My brother and I hadn’t always seen eye-to-eye, but he’d been one of my best friends. He’d know how to keep me from exploding into anxious fractals of ice all over my kitchen counters.

That thought was almost comforting… until the wind let out a fresh howl. It sounded almost human—a scream of anguish that stretched and softened as it battered my car. I recognized winter magic when it began to spiderweb across the windshield as I turned onto my street. Frost first, then a leaden sheet of ice that made the window groan in protest.

“Oh fuck,” I muttered under my breath, scrambling for my seatbelt.

I managed to get the belt off and my door opened before the safety glass gave up the ghost and buckled inward, showering my seats with small chunks of ice and slivers of glass. The scream was louder when I landed painfully on the ground and watched my cruiser continue for a few feet before landing in a ditch.

I could make the sound out with painful clarity. The voice sounded almost female and… familiar.

Darla.