Page 54 of The Hearth Witch’s Guide to Magic & Murder (The Hemlock Saga #1)

Saga

Naturally, with so much buzzing around inside her, Saga did the one thing she knew that would be both productive and calming: she cooked.

Too sweet for breakfast, her mother would have scolded, but it didn’t matter.

There was healing in apples—wisdom too. While she did not expect to stop missing Saoirse, perhaps she could at least find more clarity on the matter.

Saga took a few pinches of ground cinnamon and nutmeg and sprinkled them over the apples softly sizzling among the butter in the sauté pan. Nutmeg for divination and cinnamon to speed the spell as well as grant personal strength.

Then a knock at the door.

Saga checked the clock above the stove and frowned. She took the caramel sauce off the burner and turned the heat for the sauté pan to a low simmer before padding across the room to the door.

Avery leaned against the doorframe, her eyes alight. She was disheveled, wearing the clothes she’d been in the day prior. Impossibly, with her hair mussed and shirt undone, she was somehow even more devastatingly handsome. “I’ve had a breakthrough,” she announced, her voice hushed and husky.

Saga cleared her throat. “Have you slept?”

“I passed out in one of Hygge’s armchairs for about an hour,” Avery dismissed. “The point is, I believe I know our killer’s true motive.”

“How did you come to that?”

“Eira Goff’s body is missing!” She sounded gleeful.

Saga blinked as a million questions began to fill up her head. Instead of asking any of them, however, she politely offered, “Em… Do you want to come in?” She stepped aside invitingly.

“Yes. Well, no…” Avery eyed Saga, glancing toward the stairs, trying to decide something.

“All of my files are upstairs, so I would have to bring them down—would you…” She trailed off and lifted her head so that she could lean just a little over Saga’s shoulder, sniffing the air delicately. “What is that smell?”

“A German baked pancake?”

Avery ran her tongue along her lower lip, and her body slackened against the doorframe as if the mere mention of the dish had caused her to swoon. “Oh?”

“With chopped apples sautéed in a cinnamon nutmeg butter sauce and homemade caramel.” Saga could swear she heard the half-fey faintly whimper like a puppy. “Would you like to join me for breakfast, Avery?”

The effort Avery took not to jump at the offer was comical. “Oh… No, I couldn’t intrude.” She could. She wanted to. She wanted to so badly, Saga thought the other woman might be salivating.

Saga practiced her own restraint in biting back a laugh to a simple small smile. “It’s far too large for me to eat by myself. Please. Stay for breakfast. We’ll go over the case.”

“I’ll go get the files.”

***

Ten minutes later, Avery was sitting on the faux fur rug in Saga’s living room, her back against one of the chairs and two cardboard boxes on either side of her. As Saga had finished cooking, Avery had caught her up on her findings and what she and Esteri had figured out.

Saga emerged from the kitchen, two plates in hand, offering one to Avery. “So, when you say ‘bring her back,’ are we talking about necromancy?”

Avery carefully moved aside the mug of tea she’d been given shortly after settling in so that Saga would not have to maneuver around it to sit.

“Resurrection, specifically.” The German pancake was steaming, golden, and perfect, topped with sautéed apples and drizzled delicately with caramel. “This is a masterpiece.”

“Thank you.” Saga took a bite of her breakfast before taking a seat on the floor opposite her companion. “Can they do that?” She asked between bites. “Resurrect her, I mean? I mean, if that was possible, I figure everyone would be doing it, right?”

Avery answered with a content sigh as she took her first bite. Her lips smiled around the fork and her eyes closed. Her head leaned back against the chair and for a moment, Saga wondered if she’d passed out.

“Avery?”

A deep inhale at last and she was alive again, gathering up another bite. “This is divine. What did you call it?”

“Baked German pancake, I guess? It’s sort of a family twist on apfelpfannkuchen.”56

“Gesundheit,” Avery deadpanned before returning to the matter she deemed far more urgent. “Does Hudson’s serve this?”

Saga shook her head. “It’s my dad’s recipe from when I was a kid. Besides, they take nearly an hour to make, and once they go cold they aren’t really worth eating. I think it’s the amount of egg in it.”

Avery tapped her lower lip with the tines of her fork thoughtfully. “Pity.”

“Did you hear my question about resurrection?”

“What?” The moment she’d spoken the word, Avery remembered. “Oh. Truthfully? I’m not certain.” She took another bite, savored it, and continued. “It isn’t the first time I’ve seen something like this be attempted, it’s just…had varying degrees of success.”

“How so?” Saga asked cautiously.

“Are you familiar with the legend of the vampire?”

“Yes?”

Avery met her gaze pointedly and took another bite of apple and pancake.

Saga’s eyes widened. “Oh.”

“The last time I was around, London was dabbling with a rather macabre fascination with death, and it inevitably lent itself to a myriad of problems—vampires being only one of them.”

Saga had to chew on this knowledge for a moment. Vampires had been such a staple of fiction in her life, yet Avery had actually met one—several even by the sound of it. “So… What are real vampires like?”

Avery stabbed a bite of pancake with her fork. “Hungry.”

The word sent an uncomfortably cold shiver down Saga’s spine. She pushed her food around a moment before her appetite declared itself gone and she set the plate down beside her. “What’s the likelihood of Eira being brought back as one?”

“I don’t know.” Another big bite. Avery’s appetite was rather impressive considering how the food she consumed didn’t appear to ever go anywhere. “The number of undead things she could come back as is a regrettably long list. There are liches and zombies and wights…”

“Oh my,” Saga whispered to herself.

“The likelihood of them resurrecting her to something truly alive? Very slim. If they lack the understanding of the deeper workings of the fetch magic they’ve employed, I am not terribly confident in their skill to resurrect anything properly.”

“What do you mean?”

“Creating a fetch is creating something that mimics life. Like a mirror image. It looks like you, but all it can do is reflect you. It can’t interact with your reflection independent of you.

Then again, as far as we know, they have Eira’s body and living tissue organs, so they might have a better chance than others. ”

“But they don’t really have living tissue, do they?

” doubted Saga. “I mean, not really. Kidneys can only last about twenty-four hours on ice—hearts? They may be viable for six, maximum. Brain transplants are still a long way from being feasible, so as far as I know, the brain is pretty useless once it’s been removed from its original host.”

Avery shook her head as she finished her pancake, giving herself time to swallow. “You’re thinking within the bonds of your magic.”

“I’m talking about medical science.”

“As I said,” Avery agreed. “But fey magic is different. If the organs were extracted from a living creature and kept in proper stasis and care, they remain living tissue.”

“So if someone is trying to genuinely resurrect her… What else do they need? Do they have to replace all the organs or…?”

“I believe it depends,” said Avery. “Though truth be told I’m not terribly well-versed on the matter. But I am hoping now that we have the why, we can better ascertain the who. For instance, who stands to gain the most by bringing back Eira Goff?”

“Someone super screwed by the will, maybe?” Saga shrugged.

“To what end, though?” asked Avery. “To get her to change it?”

“Or gain access to something that only she could give them? People do crazy things for money.”

Avery leaned her head back on the tufted chair behind her. “We need to get a copy of that will.” She allowed her eyes to close for a moment. Her muscles visibly relaxed as she luxuriated against the cushion.

“Has the sleeping improved any?”

“Mm,” said Avery. “I occasionally sleep, so I suppose that would be an improvement.” Her eyes opened in thin slits and the corner of her mouth tugged at a smile. “Don’t be put under a sleeping curse, Saga, I just can’t recommend it.”

Saga smiled but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “How is adjusting otherwise?”

Avery allowed her lids to fall open fully, focusing her sight somewhere on the ceiling. “Feels impossible most days. Your apartment temperature is so much more amenable than mine.”

“Have you adjusted your thermostat?”

Avery’s lips mouthed the word. She frowned. “From the Greek?”

“I’m not sure,” said Saga.

“Thermo, likely derived from the Greek therme, meaning heat, and stat…standing or stationary?” Avery sat up straight, her head rising off the pillowy rest of the chair. “Stationary heat?”

Saga smiled. “That was kinda fantastic to watch you work that out.”

“Is it some kind of boiler? Keeping heat in?”

Saga shook her head and stood. “I’ll show you.

” She led Avery to the small box by her bookshelf.

“It’s pretty old, but what isn’t in this building?

See, you move this little lever…” Saga demonstrated, pushing it past its current position so it would engage the heater once more.

“And the heat comes on.” She moved it back to its place at a comfortable 22°C.

“Fascinating,” remarked Avery. “I’ll have to find where this fantastic little contraption exists in my apartment.”

“Don’t be surprised if you smell dust burning at first. Not sure the last time the heater was used up there. Should be all right though.” She scrutinized her own thermostat a moment before inquiring, “Do you know what the C stands for?”

“I would assume centigrade.”

Saga hemmed on this. She wasn’t entirely wrong. “We call it Celsius now.”

Avery’s eyebrows lifted, pleased. “Good for him.”

“Who?”