Harley Merlin 12 Bella Forrest (100 best novels of all time txt) 📖

and silver inlay. Beautiful specimens, and, weirdly, not unsettling even in their multitude. They were too pretty to scream slasher-movie killer, and I didn’t see any random limbs or bits of bodies lying around.

“Do you make knives for a living?” Melody turned to Nash.

“It’s a hobby. Keeps me sane through the long winters.” He brushed his fingertips along the nearest workbench. I stayed alert, in case he decided to have another go at thrashing us.

“You haven’t always been here, though, have you?” I remembered the plane carcass with the spark fragments drifting off it.

He cast me a wary look. “This is my main base of operations, but it serves to have outposts and hideaways that I can retreat to, if needed. That’s the trouble with Canadian hospitality—folks always want to drop by and bring me pies and things, so I have to maintain a reputation for drifting in and out of town.”

“I take it you don’t give everyone such a warm welcome?” I gave him a sweet smile.

“I have to defend my property from strangers. Especially magical ones.” His face hardened. “There aren’t any magicals in this town. Huntress sensed you the moment you stepped on the path. That’s why you got the hostile treatment.”

I picked up one of his knives and turned it over in my hand. “I guess that makes sense. Is that why you hide out here, because there aren’t any magicals?”

“You ask a lot of questions.” Nash took the knife from my hand and set it back down on the workbench, as if I’d tried to snatch one of his children. “Before I answer any more, I want to know who you are and why you’re here. You can tell me while I get the coffee going.” He walked to a rustic coffeemaker and began to brew a pot, leaning expectantly against the sideboard.

“My name is Wade Crowley,” I said, sinking onto a varnish-stained stool. “You already know Melody, and that’s her guard dog, Luke Prescott. Not as menacing as yours, but he does the job.”

I had to lie about my identity, considering Melody’s former warning. If Nash got a whiff that I was involved with Erebus, and they did have bad blood, he’d be off like a shot. I didn’t want to risk him knowing who I was and what I’d gotten myself into.

Melody frowned at me but said nothing.

Luke, on the other hand, sighed. “I’m a bodyguard, not a guard dog.”

“Sounds like six and two threes to me.” I chuckled, swinging my feet like a kid. Thanks to Melody, the gremlins had gone underground. The mental freedom felt amazing, making me lightheaded. Even if I knew it wouldn’t last.

“Crowley, eh?” Nash folded his arms across his red-and-black flannel shirt, the uniform of any woodsman worth his salt. “Impressive name to bandy about. I heard you were involved in Katherine Shipton’s demise last year.”

“Ah, so you do get the news here?” It appeared he wasn’t quite the recluse he made himself out to be.

“I dip my toe in from time to time.” He lifted his shoulders in a half-assed shrug. “Now for the million-dollar question—what are a Crowley, a Winchester, and a bodyguard doing here, harassing me?”

Melody stepped in before I could say a word. “We need your Sanguine blood for a spell, to save our friend who’s being forced to live with a horrible and violent djinn. And we’re willing to remove the djinn curse on you, if you agree to help us.”

Whoa there, Winchester. That left me reeling. Melody had clearly done her research on Raffe, which I hadn’t anticipated.

Nash lowered his head, deep in thought.

“Nash?” Melody prompted.

He lifted his head. “Can you guys excuse me for a moment?”

“Of course,” she replied.

With a conflicted expression, Nash walked away toward the back of the cabin and disappeared through a doorway in the back wall. Huntress padded after him, leaving us alone in the kitchen-slash-knife-factory.

Luke jumped in right away, his tone hushed. “Wade Crowley? Are you serious? You think he won’t find out?”

“I couldn’t tell him I’m me, could I?” I hissed back. “The deal I struck to kill Katherine was supposed to be secret, but it got around.”

“That’s exactly my point.” Luke heaved a strained sigh. “If Nash has seen your photo in the news, he’ll wonder why you’re lying. Deception won’t get us anywhere. And, I hate to say it, but that goes for you too, Melody. Why didn’t we just tell him the truth, upfront?”

Melody leaned against one of the workbenches. “I did what I had to, based on my judgment of his emotions.”

Luke looked exasperated. “Is this about going to Atlantis again?”

“Huh?” I gaped at Melody. Evidently, they’d been having a lovers’ quarrel I hadn’t been party to.

Luke grimaced. “Melody is still determined to go to Atlantis, even now that Erebus wants to, too, which makes the entire endeavor ridiculously dangerous. I’ve been trying to dissuade her for days, but she won’t listen to reason.”

“Let’s shelve that for a minute.” I could only deal with one piece of stress at a time. “Why did you swoop in with that? I had an excuse ready and waiting.”

“Yours wasn’t going to work,” Melody replied bluntly. “Mentioning a spell to free you from Erebus would’ve made him suspicious, and Erebus explicitly told you not to say his name—he had to have a reason for that. We’re better off pinning this on Raffe, since Nash has been on the receiving end of a djinn curse, too. It’s familiar territory for him, and it’ll play on his sympathies.”

To my shock, that made perfect sense. “Oh, you’re good, Ms. Winchester. Very, very good.”

“I try.” She beamed and tapped the side of her head. “It’s not all a mess of information up here. Brilliance finds its way through, from time to time.”

“I still don’t like lying,” Luke countered, though he looked grudgingly impressed.

Melody gripped the edge of the workbench. “Neither do I, but sometimes it’s necessary, for the sake of the bigger picture.”

I shuddered. “Don’t say that.”

“What?” She