Though it was just past 3:00 a.m., the thrum of music and chatter from the main street of the Darkmoon Night Market drifted through the warm summer air.
Slick. I peeled an eye open to find a couple of dark, almond-shaped ones peering at me from a slot in the door.
I twiddled my fingers in a wave. “Ig mee,” I mumbled around my giant mouthful of food.
The eyes crinkled in a smile. “Oh hey, Jolene!” The panel slid closed, three locks clicked in quick succession, and then pale, fluorescent light flooded the dark alley as Heidi pulled the door open. She stood slightly behind it and tipped her head toward the waiting room behind her. “Come in!”
I tugged lightly on one of her black braids as I passed, and she swatted me away but giggled. The locks clicked shut behind me as I shot my paper wrapper into the wastebasket behind the tall front desk—score!
“How’s your night going?” Heidi resumed her spot behind the receptionist’s counter. She fluffed her white lab coat out behind her and settled onto the tall stool. Below the coat, she sported black bike shorts that rose up above her bellybutton and a neon pink sports bra.
I ignored the several beat-up chairs that lined the wall beside the door, and instead folded my arms on the counter and leaned over. “Eh. Gave a reading to a witch whose cat familiar had gained unexpected weight.”
Heidi lifted a brow and grinned, her dimple showing. “Let me guess….” She tapped a slim finger to her lips. “He figured out how to open the cupboard and was getting into the tuna.”
I drummed my fingers on the counter. “He’d have also needed to learn how to open cans for that.”
Heidi giggled and pulled her half-eaten bowl of ramen closer. I don’t think I’d ever seen that girl when she wasn’t eating—I envied that about her. “I give up.” She twirled some noodles around her chopsticks.
“Turns out the he was a she, actually. And Mr. Handsome Face, who apparently needs a new name, got a little frisky with the tomcat next door and is now expecting kittens.”
“Aw.” Heidi pouted up at me before shoving the noodles in her mouth. “I wang a kiggen.”
I pressed my lips tight together as I thought over the “reading” I’d done for the witch. While I wasn’t actually a pet psychic, I could speak with animals, which amounted to basically the same thing. I just masqueraded as a seer, because the lovely magical community here on the enchanted island of Bijou Mer viewed my kind, shifters, as third-class citizens. And admitting to being able to speak to animals was akin to shouting, “hey, I’m a shifter.”
Most shifters could only speak to their own kind when in animal form. As far as I knew, the curse that had cost me my law career—and whole life, basically—had also given me the unique ability to speak to all animals… while also robbing me of all my other powers. It wasn’t a trade I’d have voluntarily made, but you know the old saying. When life gives you lemons, you move back to the slums and live in squalor. Or something like that.
And seeing as I was already barely scraping by, I wasn’t in any hurry to further stack the deck against me by making the world even more suspicious. So, aside from Heidi and Will, no one knew the truth about my powers... or lack thereof.
Recently, though, my luck seemed to be turning around. I’d landed a sweet gig as a consultant for the police when Officer Peter Flint had come to believe in my “psychic” abilities. I drummed my fingers again. Though it’d been a whole six days (not that I was counting or anything) since that first case, and I was itching for another one.
The money was better than my regular job, and it felt good to be helping people get justice again. It didn’t hurt that I got to work with Peter either… though I could’ve passed on his hard-nosed, truth-sniffing dog, Daisy.
I lifted a brow. “Well, not sure what the witch plans to do with the kittens, but I sure got to hear all about what she plans to do with their placentas.”
Heidi made a face.
“Oh, yeah.” I opened my eyes wide. “Guess they make excellent bases for stew.”
Noodles and broth poured from Heidi’s mouth back into her bowl as she gave me a disgusted look, mouth downturned. “Ew.”
“You’re telling me.”
Heidi pushed the bowl away. “I think I lost my appetite.”
I blinked in surprise. “That’d be a first.”
She nodded seriously. “I know, right?”
I frowned and pointed at the newspaper in front of her. A magically moving picture took up nearly the entire front page. Lights flashed in the image, and a crowd thronged around a woman lying on what appeared to be a catwalk.
“What’s up with that?”
She blinked at me, then glanced down at the local paper, The Conch. “Oh!” She looked back up at me. “Did you see the midnight news?”
I gave a slight shake of my head.
“Bel Hahn died during her fashion show. They think it was a heart attack.” Heidi’s face fell as she looked back down at the newspaper. “So sad.”
I mean… it was sad, but I couldn’t help shooting Heidi a slightly perplexed smile. Since when did she take a personal interest in the designer for the House of Hahn? My eyes drifted to the large leather bag on the desk beside her—a massive gold double H emblazoned on the side. Ah. There it was.
“Nice bag.” I lifted my chin toward it, and Heidi glanced over, then up at me.
“Thanks. Just got it.”
I nodded. “A
