“She could’ve turned, had she crossed paths with this… this thing,” Amal croaked, her face blotchy from crying. “This is all kinds of wrong.”

“I’m sorry, but the fox could’ve taken her out if she was a snake when it happened,” Corbin replied. “They’re agile hunters. They’re fast, and their bite alone is enough to cripple an animal of that size.”

“Do you see any bite marks?” Esme asked Tristan.

He frowned, his gaze moving up and down her body, his cheeks red with embarrassment. Nethissis’s death had overshadowed the fact that she was naked, but it was all sinking in now, for everyone. “No… not that I can see,” he said slowly.

Valaine was compelled to take her delicate black veil off. She remained in her sleeveless green dress as she used the veil to cover Nethissis’s body. The fabric settled quietly over her humanoid form, but it did nothing to soothe our broken hearts. We’d lost our friend, and something deep inside me told me there was more to this story than the attack of a venomous fox.

“I’m not buying it,” Esme replied, shaking her head, her lips twisting with contempt and anger. “I’m not buying any of this.”

We didn’t even notice Zoltan and Petra joining Corbin, until Zoltan spoke. “A phillim fox, huh? She must’ve fought back. She must’ve killed it.”

“Oh, so Nethissis was out here in snake form when she came across a phillim fox. They struggled and wound up killing each other?!” Esme snapped, getting up and brushing the dirt off her dress. “Pardon me, but I don’t believe any of this crap!”

Tristan moved to her side, trying to calm her down. “Esme, please. Breathe.”

“Screw breathing! Screw all of this!” she shouted. “Someone killed Nethissis!”

Kalon and Valaine were both speechless, watching her as she paced around the scene, taking deep breaths and clenching her fists. Sofia helped Amal up, but the Faulty’s legs were still weak from the shock, so she leaned into my wife for a bit of support.

“This is odd, to say the least,” I said, looking at Corbin.

Petra was stunned, but Zoltan was downright annoyed. “It’s happened before,” he said.

“Not with Nethissis it hasn’t!” Esme replied, pointing an angry finger at him. “She wouldn’t have gone down like this. No!”

Part of me wished this had all been an unfortunate accident. It would’ve been easier to move past it. But I knew Esme was right. This wasn’t like Nethissis, to get herself into a tangle with a creature like this. She was extremely dangerous in her copperhead form, and she could’ve easily shifted back if she’d sensed a threat from the phillim fox. Her venom alone would’ve been enough to paralyze it, at least.

This was disturbingly foul, and it warranted a serious investigation.

One of our own had been killed, and the circumstances were beyond suspicious. Once again, I found myself wondering—was this where we drew the line? It had to be. Nethissis was dead, and no matter what the Aeternae believed had happened to her, none of us would rest until her killer was brought to justice.

I’d hoped we wouldn’t have to deal with such a terrible situation, but fate clearly had other plans.

Esme

It took me a while to truly wrap my head around what had happened.

I might not have been close to Nethissis, but her loss caused me so much grief. We protected one another in this crew, and when a team member perished, I couldn’t help but feel partially responsible. Maybe I could’ve done more to make sure she came back to us alive… but what could I have done?

In the end, the cruel reality stared us right in the face.

We’d lost Nethissis, and we had to find out what had really happened. Despite Corbin and even Valaine’s knowledge about the phillim foxes on palace grounds, I still found it hard to believe that Nethissis would’ve gotten herself killed like that.

I’d seen her in snake form before. She was fierce and deadly. I doubted a fox, even a venomous, alien one, could take her down. The dead fox didn’t do anything to soothe me, either. In fact, it reeked of staging—as in, a staged crime scene, with the creature left there to basically provide us with what the culprits must’ve thought was a reasonable explanation. Only, they didn’t know Nethissis as well as us. Otherwise, they would’ve gone about things differently.

The more I thought about all this, the angrier I got.

Telling Lumi had not been an easy feat. Derek had been the one to do it on our comms channel, and I could still hear her crying, her pain surging through me like a forest blaze, burning and destroying everything in its path. I’d listened to her being given the official explanation while watching Amal oversee the process of removing Nethissis’s body from the garden.

She’d had Nethissis and the phillim fox taken to one of the study rooms so she could perform a proper, in-depth analysis. None of the Aeternae had protested, but it had been obvious that they weren’t comfortable with it.

Derek and Sofia had spent the better part of the hour after the discovery talking to the golden guards, kindly assisted by Corbin himself. Kalon checked every single speck of dirt around the flower bush, while Valaine called for all the gardeners to be rounded up later for interviews.

My heart ached, but I had to admit, the Aeternae weren’t giving me much reason to doubt them. Well, at least not all of them. There had to be at least one among their ranks who bore responsibility for this heinous crime, and I’d just made it my mission to find out who it was.

Petra and Zoltan kept a certain distance from the scene, occasionally exchanging glances and short words. They watched me while I spoke to Lumi.

“I don’t believe a fox would’ve killed Nethissis,” the swamp witch finally said after a long and heavy pause. “I just don’t.”

“I’m with you there,” I replied, while my gaze wandered across the garden.

Its lushness and beauty no longer appealed to me. The red and orange blossoms no longer made my heart flutter. The smell of freshly cut grass no longer made me want to smile. I would forever associate this place with the murder of Nethissis…

“Do any of them seem deceitful to you?” she asked.

“You mean, among the Aeternae? Honestly, no. In the absence of hard, opposing evidence, I can’t really blame them for actually buying the phillim fox angle. They didn’t know Nethi like we did,” I replied. “Hell, in their minds, anyone who isn’t an Aeternae is somewhat inferior. Death by venomous critter isn’t exactly abnormal in these parts.”

“But someone did this to her, Esme. Someone conspired and got to her.”

“Yes. And I promise you, I’ll find out who’s behind this. I doubt we’ll get much help from the Aeternae, though. This is a diplomatic mess, and they will not take kindly to having one of their own accused of murder,” I said.

“You know, she didn’t have any family,” Lumi replied, her voice uneven.

Closing my eyes for a moment, I tried to picture Nethissis as a child, with copper-red hair and curious yellow eyes. “What happened to them?”

“Her mother died. She never knew her father.” Lumi sighed. “It was during a time when the Lamias and the Druids didn’t exactly get along.”

I felt sorry for Nethissis. She didn’t have anyone to bury her. “She’s got plenty of people who will mourn for her, though,” I said, thinking out loud. “Amal will preserve her body. We’ll bring her home to Calliope. We’ll bury her there, where she belongs.”

“Before that happens, I need you to dig deep into that world. Turn over every damn pebble, if you have to, Esme.”

“I will. I promise you, Lumi: Nethissis will be avenged.”

“I’ll speak to Taeral, in the meantime. Maybe he still has some Reaper connections he hasn’t told us about. Or maybe he can reach out to one of them,” Lumi said, her tone dropping to ice-cold levels. “One of Death’s people can go to Visio and find out what happened. Someone must’ve reaped her by now.”

I nodded slowly. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Perhaps we can get some answers.”

It pained me to hear Lumi like this, but I knew it was her way of coping. She had a tendency to detach herself from a situation in order to look at it from the outside, with a clear head. I wasn’t sure she’d be able to pull it off this time, but she was definitely trying. Her focus on speaking with Taeral seemed like the best she could do, given the circumstances.

I watched quietly as the golden guards placed Nethissis’s body on a gurney and carried her into the palace. Amal, Derek, and Sofia followed them, forming a quiet procession through the garden.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about what happened,” Kalon said, coming closer. He seemed cautious in his approach, as if fearing an outburst on my part—not that he was wrong. I was a bomb waiting to explode at this point.

I briefly glanced at him, noticing the warmth in his otherwise cold blue eyes. “Thank you,” I whispered. Behind him, Valaine and Tristan exchanged opinions and scenarios, neither of them convinced that Nethissis’s death had been an accident. At least I wasn’t the only one in our crew thinking that—though Amal had already voiced her own suspicions about this.

Petra, Corbin, and Zoltan made their way back inside the palace. I kept my gaze fixed on them, temporarily hypnotized by the shimmering folds of black velvet that poured down Petra’s back, undulating like a stream under the midnight moon.