Kade’s eyes shot from me to Agent Gemwood and back again, and though I thought he might try to make a run for it, eventually he sighed and sank back down on the bed beside me — probably because he realized he had no other choice. “I don’t know what those things are, I really don’t, but that’s part of the reason I was there. To document what we found.”
“We? Who’s we?”
Kade’s eyes drifted back to the photo, and he grimaced as if fighting with himself about how much to share with me and, by extension, an FBI agent. “A group of warlocks Mr. Marth hired to do some field research for him.”
My heart jumped into my throat. “What kind of field research are we talking about here?” I asked, because what I’d just seen in my vision seemed a lot more like an invasion than an information gathering session.
“Mr. Marth wanted the land near the peak of Mount Starcrest, but it’s protected by the government,” Kade said.
“Yeah, I’m aware, which I assume means this little excursion wasn’t exactly legal.”
“Not at all. Mr. Marth kept trying to pressure Mayor Nash into selling him the land, but Mayor Nash wouldn’t budge. In fact, he wouldn’t let anyone set foot on the property, not even to examine it, because he claimed it wasn’t safe, but he’d never say why.”
“So, Mr. Marth hired you and some other warlocks to trespass and document what you found?”
Kade sighed. “Yeah, more or less. Look, I’m not proud of it, okay? I mean, for Lilith’s sake, we killed one of those poor things, and for what?”
I shivered at the memory of the creature’s death I’d witnessed first-hand in my vision. “Then why did you do it? You could’ve said no.”
“When you’re a no-name reporter like me and someone like Mr. Marth offers you an exclusive interview for a bit of photography work, you can’t exactly say no,” Kade said, and another piece of the puzzle clicked into place. Despite what I’d thought before, Kade hadn’t come to Kindred Spirits to cover anything up, he’d come to collect what Leland owed him.
“The team captured a creature, didn’t they? Is that where this came from?” I asked, holding the tooth up to him.
Kade looked like he might be sick, but he nodded. “I found it near one of them after… After we attacked it. I think it fell out.”
My stomach flipped, but I held it together. “Where’s the creature now, then?”
“No one knows. I heard it escaped,” he answered, and all the air in my lungs rushed out at once. “Mr. Marth was keeping it locked up somewhere in the belly of Starforce Tech, but it broke free somehow.”
I turned to Agent Gemwood. “Well, I guess we got our answers after all.”
“Did the team at Starforce learn anything about the creature before it escaped?” Gemwood asked Kade, but he shrugged.
“I have no idea, honestly. They cut me out of the whole thing as soon as we got the creature safely back to Starforce, and demanded I turn over all the pictures I’d taken, along with my memory cards,” he said, and my eyes shot to the plastic squares scattered across the bed. I didn’t need to ask to know the answer: they were Kade’s. “Mr. Marth made me sign a non-disclosure agreement about the trip and promised me he’d ruin my career if I ever told anyone about anything I’d seen.”
Based on the fact he’d made everyone in the inn sign an NDA too, I didn’t find that hard to believe. “Well, I don’t think you have to worry about that being a problem for you anymore,” I said, gesturing at Leland’s now ownerless belongings. I let out a laugh, unable to stop myself. Brady and I had been so worried about Kade leaking news of Leland’s death to the press, but he’d turned out to be the least likely of us.
“No, I guess not,” Kade agreed.
So, did all this mean Leland’s visit to Kindred Spirits was about him trying to hunt down the creature that’d gotten away? Or was he really so arrogant as to assume that they weren’t anything to worry about and tried to plow ahead with a deal to buy up the land around Mount Starfall now that he’d disposed of them? Most importantly, what did he really want with the land, anyway? For every answer I’d gotten, another three questions had popped up — including whether Mayor Nash knew about the creatures. If he didn’t, why would he have been so adamant about keeping everyone away for their safety?
“Do you think…? Ah, never mind,” Kade said with a shake of his head.
“No, finish that sentence. Do we think what?” I asked eagerly.
“This is gonna sound crazy, but I haven’t been able to stop wondering about it since Mr. Marth, well, you know,” he said with an uncomfortable glance at the bed that Leland never got the chance to sleep in.
“This entire situation is crazy, Kade,” I said, and he laughed, which seemed to raise his confidence. “Whatever it is, just say it.”
“I’ve been wondering if all this might be that creature getting its revenge for what we did to it, and if so, I’m worried I might be next,” Kade said, and I would’ve been lying if I’d said I hadn’t thought the same thing, but because we knew next to nothing about the mountain creatures outside of what I’d seen in my visions, I couldn’t say for sure — especially since Zadie had also gotten killed. If it was really the creature behind Leland’s death, why would they target Zadie too? As far as I knew, beyond their competition for the land on Mount Starcrest and their rocky professional history, there weren’t any links between Leland and Zadie.
“I guess we can’t rule it out,” I said after thinking Kade’s theory over, and he grimaced.
“I was afraid you’d say that.”
“Sorry,” I said with a
