“Elaxi, this is Fee,” Max says, again, wisely leaving out my occupation. “We need your help.”
Elaxi spreads her arms to include me in a wide embrace she uses to usher us inside. When we’re seated on a couch across from a red painted coffee table — and I’ve clocked all the exits, including the small window in the narrow kitchen we might be able to wriggle through in a pinch — she clasps her hands in front of her and asks how she can help.
Max holds out the cookbook with a sparkling smile. “We need to try and find the guy who used to own this. We’re not sure if he’s still alive or not, but if I remember right, that’s not a problem for you.”
“We think he might be able to clear Max’s name,” I say as Elaxi studies the cover. “Or at least help us head that direction. So, we can get the bounty called off him.”
Elaxi flips through the pages, the movement lifting a few strands of her bangs. “Mm, speaking with the potentially dead. Tricky. Most tricky. I’ll see what I can do. Open that drawer if you don’t mind, there should be some candles and matches inside.”
As I follow her instructions, Elaxi slides a thick curtain across the front window, then pulls a colorful cushion out from under the coffee table and sits on it, cross-legged. I light the wicks and the witch sets the book between the twin flames, palm placed on the cover. Eyes sliding shut, her lips move without sound.
Goosebumps tickle my skin as the temperature in the room drops a few degrees. A gentle breeze coasts through the room and the twin flames flicker. I flinch instinctively closer toward Max as a golden glow slips out from under Elaxi’s lids. His hand darts out to grab mine and I squeeze it back.
“The original owner of this book is no longer in this realm,” Elaxi says in an almost musical hiss. “Nor any realm in which the living roam. Joel Smith is dead.”
Max’s grip tightens and he slumps back on the couch with a strangled groan. “She killed him. I’m such an idiot.”
I lace my fingers through his, at a loss for how to comfort him. Though this might clear his name, and give Iris some answers and possible closure, it also likely means his mother is a murderer. Not an easy truth to accept for any child.
“He is with us now,” Elaxi says. “And willing to answer any questions you might have.”
“Max?” I look at the water spirit, who now slumps with his head in a hand.
He heaves a heavy sigh. “I don’t know ... I can’t think.”
“It’s okay. I can ask.” I sit up a little straighter and face Elaxi. “What happened with Aline Avila?”
With a strange wheeze, Elaxi’s head coasts to one side. “We were together for years,” she says in a much deeper, harsher register than before. “I fell in love the moment she walked into my cooking class. Or at least, I believed it was love. When I died, I realized that was all a lie. She manipulated me with her magic, then, one day, told me to leave. No explanation. She just said it was over.”
Max and I look at each other at the same time, then back at Elaxi. “She told you to leave?” Max asks. “She didn’t kill you?”
“No,” Joel says through Elaxi. “That was my own, unfortunate decision. She broke my heart, and I couldn’t handle it. I spiraled into depression, one I couldn’t pull myself out of. And then took my own life, an act I regret now.”
I scoot to the edge of the couch cushion. “I’m sorry to ask, but how?”
It’s a morbid question, but if he killed himself, then where in all the realms did his body go? And why hadn’t anyone found it? Though it’s been a few years, locating that might be another lead we can follow. Too bad we can’t scry on the dead.
Joel laughs through Elaxi, a slight, wry huff of a sound. “I jumped from a cliff into the ocean. At the time I thought it was poetic. Withdrawal from water spirit magic makes a man do crazy things.”
I groan and rub my forehead with a knuckle. The ocean. Perfect. Not like finding a body in something that vast is going to be a problem. Okay, slow down, Fee. Don’t spiral. This isn’t the end of all roads. Figure out the next thing.
“Is there anything else you can tell us?” I ask. “Something that might help get your sister some closure? Like, did you leave a note, maybe? Or send Iris a message?”
“Unfortunately, no. If I’d been thinking more clearly, I might have written something for her, but at the time I didn’t make contact with Iris because I knew she’d try to talk me out of it and...” Elaxi shakes her head. “Will you tell her for me? Tell her I’m sorry.”
Max’s hand twitches in mine and he gags quietly.
I press a palm into the backs of his knuckles. “We’ll do our best. And if there’s anything else you can remember, anything that could help ... Did you talk to anyone after you left Aline?”
Rocking slightly, Elaxi’s face pinches, forming fine lines on her flawless skin. “Someone. A bar in Piracicaba called Machados I used to visit sometimes. I...”
A long sigh seeps out of Elaxi and she sways, catching herself on the edge of the coffee table. “I’m sorry. I’ve lost him.” She blinks at us. “I can try again, but I’ll have to rest in order to do so.”
Slumping forward, Max pinches the bridge of his nose. “I’m not sure we’re going to get much more information out of him. Even if he could remember who he talked to at Machados, it would be an insanely long shot to try and find them.”
“Unless it was the owner,” I say, fighting
