Pet Psychic Mysteries Boxset Books 5-8 (Magic Market Mysteries Book 2) Erin Johnson (good books for 8th graders .txt) 📖

I frowned. “Why? You said you’ve been friends with the family for ages.” I smirked. “Weren’t you invited?”

Her gummy smile faded, and her lips pinched together. “Chaz disinvited me the night before, if you must know.”

I scoffed. “Well, those two are the police, so yeah, they kind of must know.”

She glared at me.

“Why did he disinvite you?” That crease appeared between Peter’s brows.

She shrugged. “Who knows?”

Peter and I both reflexively glanced at Daisy, who just whined.

I don’t know… smells like… She sneezed, and Rachel recoiled.

“Ew. Is your dog sick?”

Peter cleared his throat. “If you had to guess?”

She sniffed and flipped her long hair. “I suspect his bride made him do it. She was such a fragile, insecure thing. She was probably jealous of the longstanding connection Chaz and I had.” She blinked at Peter, a smug smile on her face.

“So.” I drummed my fingers on the white tablecloth. “If he disinvited you, why were you there?”

She licked her lips. “Chaz’s mother, Marcy, heard about that and insisted I come. She adores me.”

I looked at Peter and took a deep breath. “Yeah, I suppose a wedding crasher could be pretty annoying.”

Peter leaned toward her. “What’s the other reason you can think of?”

She pinched her lips together but looked like she was fighting a smirk. “Letty might have been a bit upset at my fashion choices.”

I frowned and thought back to her outfit the other night. She’d been wearing that insane hat—which might have driven anyone to run quickly in the other direction. She’d had on a dress and—

I shot her a flat look. “The mink stole?”

Rachel gave a sly smile and shrugged in a way that told me it was exactly why Chaz had gotten upset with her. I gave the thin socialite a harder look. Was Letty a mink shifter? If so, did that mean Rachel knew?

Peter looked from me, back to Rachel. “Was Letty into animal rights?”

Her lip curled. “You could say that.”

When we didn’t say anything, she rolled her eyes. “You haven’t seen it yet, have you?” She dug around in her large, designer bag and pulled out a thick, glossy magazine—La Mer, one of the top magazines in the Kingdoms for fashion and politics.

17

La Mer Magazine

Rachel tossed the magazine onto the table in front of Peter, and I leaned over to get a better look. Several people adorned the cover in a magically moving photograph. I recognized a few—there was Chaz and Letty, hand in hand, and beside them, Sam Snakeman, the prominent shifter and monster rights activist.

A headline read:

Attitudes in the Kingdoms are Shifting.

I rolled my eyes at the pun but reached across Peter and pulled the magazine closer. I flipped through until I found the relevant article. It appeared to be profiling several prominent people fighting for shifter rights, including Chaz and Letty. I scanned the article—she was coming out publicly as a shifter. Wow.

I glanced up at Peter, then read a line.

“Candidate for Bijou Mer Councilor, Chaz Harrington, says he’s proud to be marrying bride-to-be Letty Jones and even prouder to help serve the shifter community. Says Harrington, ‘Even though I come from an upper tier, Letty helps ground me. She’s taught me so much about the struggle of those on the lower tiers and knows firsthand the hardships shifters face. I hope to serve all of Bijou Mer and level the odds.’”

I looked up from the page at Peter. He frowned and turned to Rachel. “You purposefully antagonized her by wearing that fur.”

She shrugged. “So what? I may have wanted to ruffle her feathers—” She smirked. “Or fur, more like it. But I didn’t kill her. She took care of that herself.”

I glared at her. I couldn’t imagine if someone showed up to my wedding wearing an owl hat or something. It’d be disturbing at best, but considering Letty didn’t have any friends or family there to support her, it could have driven her to extreme measures. “If you drove her to it though, you’ll be guilty of manslaughter.” I raised my brows at her, and she paled.

Peter nodded. “No more questions for you tonight, but don’t leave the island. We’re still waiting on testing the food, and we’ll also need to get a writing sample from you.”

She blanched. “A writing sample? For what?”

“We need to test it against a letter delivered to Joe Santos, the caterer.”

She shoved back from the table and lurched to her feet. “You’ll have to speak to my lawyer.”

Peter lifted his chin. “Gladly. We’ll do that.”

She dug around in her purse, handed him her lawyer’s card, then huffed and stomped off.

“Wow. She’s a real piece of driftwood.” I shook my head as my gaze slid back down to the magazine. With all the high-level changes in governments around the kingdoms lately, there’d been murmurings of a shift towards more transparency and inclusiveness.

I ran a finger over the glossy page—I’d never seen shifters coming out in such a public way. I bit my lip—maybe the winds were changing. Maybe there was hope that life could get better for shifters—that maybe we could come out from underground.

The profile of Chaz and Letty occupied the left-hand page, while on the right side of the spread, a photograph of Sam Snakeman hung his head, his chin disappearing, and pushed his glasses up his nose. I scanned the text. It described Sam as an ambassador to the island of Kusuri for the new administration and a public advocate for shifter, animal, and monster rights.

What sets Sam apart is his unique origins. Born a snake, Sam developed the ability to shift to human form later in life. All other known shifters are exactly the opposite—born human, they can shift into other creatures. Sam has adopted the surname Snakeman, since, as a born snake, he didn’t have one. He’s using his connections to royalty to push for equal rights for all and an end to discrimination against