When I finally found the courage, I turned and found Dom standing behind Jadis with his laptop tucked under one arm. Despite the hour, in his crisp tan suit he looked like he’d just stepped out to start his workday. How long had he been outside the door, and how much of our conversation had he heard?
Jadis hurried out of Dom’s way as he moved into the kitchen, heading for the same seat at the table where I’d spoken to him before. He set his computer on the table, pulled out the chair and sat, causing it to squeak under the weight of his tremendous frame. He locked eyes with me. “If you’re interested in talking business, I’m happy to chat — but I’m getting the sense that’s not what you wanted to ask me about, is it?”
Hesitantly, I made my way to the table and sat down across from him; there wasn’t any way out of having this conversation now, but I wouldn’t have dreamed of walking away, even if I could’ve. I felt like I was right on the cusp of putting all the pieces together, and of everyone who had any connection to Oliver, Dom seemed to me to be the one who had all the missing links — I just had to get him to tell me what they were.
“Petals & Potions burned down today,” I started uncertainly, and Dom nodded before steepling his fingers under his chin.
“I know; that’s why I stepped out. Since Oliver’s poisoning, I’ve been speaking with the police about my relationship with him and Giles. Understandably, they’ve had a lot of questions for me,” Dom said, and my head spun because if he’d really poisoned Oliver and burned down Petals & Potions, he wouldn’t have been willing to talk to the police; he seemed way too smart for that. Why hadn’t Officer Aimes mentioned that they’d been speaking with Dom, though? Then again, I guess I hadn’t really given her enough time before Thorn and I got back here.
So could Dom really be innocent? I’d seen nothing that directly tied him to either crime, and though he could’ve used his vampire super speed to set the fire and flee the scene, the more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed. It would’ve been far too risky because if he’d slowed down even for a second, he would’ve been unmistakable. No one would’ve missed a hulking vampire fleeing from a burning building, and besides, turning Oliver into a vampire via poisoning didn’t really seem like Dom’s style.
“Wait a second. You think I did all this, don’t you?” Dom asked bluntly, pulling me out of my head, but for several seconds I couldn’t get my mouth to form words. If Dom hadn’t hurt Oliver, and if he hadn’t torched Petals & Potions, then why had he given Giles the azalea? Dom chuckled. “I suppose it makes some level of sense to suspect me, given my relationship with Giles and Oliver — but why would I want to burn down a company that was about to make me a lot of money?”
“I’m still trying to figure that part out, honestly, but you sent Oliver and Giles a veiled death threat, so...”
Dom raised his eyebrows at me. “I’m sorry?” he asked, and I honestly couldn’t tell if he was playing dumb or if I’d genuinely surprised him.
“During the festival. I know you visited Giles’ table right after I did, and I know you handed him an azalea in a black vase,” I said, being intentionally vague to keep my visions a secret. “As far as I understand it, that’s a death threat in the language of flowers — a threat you made because Giles had talked Oliver out of taking your deal.”
Jadis stared at me blankly from across the table where she’d sat next to Dom. “Wait a second. Dom, can I use your computer for a second?” she asked, puzzling all of us. I expected Dom to say no, but he flipped open his laptop, typed in his password, and pushed it over to Jadis. “If it’ll help us make sense of all this, work your magic.”
Jadis hammered away at the keyboard, though I didn’t have a clue what she was looking for. After several moments where we sat quietly staring at each other and waiting, Jadis shouted, “A-ha,” then flipped Dom’s computer to point at a passage on the screen she’d highlighted. “I don’t think either of you understand the language of flowers very well.”
She’d pulled up an article on the various connotations associated with the azalea and highlighted one of its paragraphs. It read, “The azalea can have many meanings depending on its color, quantity, and presentation. Because the azalea is an all-female flower, it is most often associated with femininity, temperance, and maternal love. The flower has a darker side, however. If someone sends a pink azalea in a black vase, one can interpret it as a threat against their life. Despite that darkness, one of the most common meanings is to wish good luck to someone who’s about to face a decisive test.”
A persistent buzz started somewhere in the back of my mind as I re-read the paragraph several times and tried to fit everything into place. I’d made a critical mistake by believing Bella’s misinterpretation of the azalea at the crime scene and by carrying that misinterpretation into my vision of the confrontation I’d seen between Dom and Giles. When I looked back up at Jadis, she smiled smugly at me.
“You never intended to send a death threat to Oliver and Giles, did you, Dom?” she asked the vampire who shook his head vigorously.
“Not at all. I had no idea the color of the vase meant anything when I bought it. I was just trying to encourage Oliver to make the right choice in a language I knew he’d understand, but I guess I didn’t do enough research on that.”
“It was a test of loyalty, not a threat,” I muttered, more to myself than anyone else. Though the intended meaning of his “gift,” if anyone could call it that, didn’t change my opinion of Dom as a sleazy investor who’d pitted two best friends against each other with devastating consequences — and all for his own profit, no less — the gesture at least made more sense. Dom was right; I couldn’t figure out any believable reason that he’d want to hurt Oliver, physically or financially, given all the money Dom stood to make hinged entirely on Oliver’s decision.
“See what happens when you think you can solve things with me?” Jadis asked, deviling me, and I couldn’t help laughing despite the guilt her words had stirred up. I hadn’t tried to exclude her from all this. Things had just been moving so quickly that I hadn’t had time to slow down.
“Point taken,” I said. But if Dom hadn’t poisoned Oliver and set Petals & Potions ablaze, then who did? More than that, how did the same azalea Dom had given them end up outside Bella’s bakery — and what did it actually mean? Was it a death threat, or was it something else entirely?
Frustrated and confused, I wound both hands in my hair while my brain went into overdrive trying to keep everything straight. Where before I’d felt so close to figuring everything out, now I felt like all the answers were slipping through my fingers like sand.
Dom sighed. “I guess none of that matters now, though, does it? The police told me nothing survived the fire.”
“So that means your deal is …?”
“Dead on arrival, yes,” Dom answered with a sad smile. “Thankfully, though, we lost little in pursuit of it.”
“Who do you mean by ‘we,’ exactly?”
“Revenant Health, the national vampire healthcare company I work for. We’re based in Fort Fang,” Dom answered, as if I had any clue where that was or what any of what he’d said meant. Still, I understood enough to piece together why a company that specialized in vampire health would show such interest in a vaccine for their patients’ condition — no wonder they gave Dom free rein to throw so much money at Oliver.
“I take it that means you’ll be leaving soon then?”
“That depends on how long it takes the police to figure out what’s going on here. If I ran home now, that wouldn’t make me look very good.”
That implied the police must’ve also been considering other suspects, which got me wondering. “Do you know who else the police are talking to about all this?”
“No. Obviously, they can’t and won’t share any information about their investigation with me, but I have my own theories about what happened. Now that the deal’s toast and I can’t go home, I’ve had lots of time to do research,” Dom said and spun his laptop back to face him. He hammered away at the keyboard again, then turned the screen so I could see. He’d pulled up a picture of the ruins of Petals & Potions. “This is from the Starfall Valley Gazette. I’m no forensic expert, but I know enough about chemistry to say that the fire that burned Petals & Potions to the ground was magical, not chemical.”
My eyes drifted up from the photo to Dom’s face. “How can you tell?”
Dom reached around the screen to point at the scorched wall of Bella’s bakery. “From this. Magical fires, as far as I understand them, leave distinctive damage patterns on the things they burn. Apparently, they reach much higher temperatures than chemical or natural fires, and the soot they leave behind shows that. And since the damage seems to be worst in the center of the building, I’d bet my left fang that the fire started inside Petals & Potions.”
“Well, if that’s true, could it have been an accident? Like mismatched chemicals that ignited or something?”
Dom shrugged. “I suppose so, but I doubt it. From what I’ve seen since I started trying to get them to agree to a deal, both Oliver and Giles are far too precise and knowledgeable to make a mistake like that.”
Seizing his computer, Jadis navigated back to the article he’d found the photo in and clicked to open a user-submitted gallery of others, all taken on cell phones. As she clicked through them, my heart skipped a beat.
“Wait a second! Go back to that last photo,” I said with my entire body on high alert. As soon as Jadis clicked to go back, I thought I might fall out of my chair. A shock of pale pink hair stuck out like a lightning rod on the body of a young woman in black robes who had her back to the camera. I turned to Thorn. “Bella wasn’t mistaken. She saw Azalea, just like she said she did. This proves it,” I said, pointing at the pink-haired woman who was running away from Petals & Potions.
“You mean Oliver’s student?” Dom asked, puzzled.
“Yeah, exactly. Bella told us she’d seen someone with pink hair moving away from the shop after the fire started, but I didn’t believe her at the time since she was so upset and grasping at straws.”
Thorn frowned. “I dunno. I mean, there aren’t many people with pink hair like that in Starfall, but how can you be sure it’s Azalea?”
I jabbed my finger at the screen. “Look at her robes! If this woman were wearing anything else, I might give Azalea the benefit of the doubt, but she’s wearing her Institute uniform!”
“Yeah, I’m with Selena on this one,” Jadis said. “I mean, I guess someone could’ve stolen a set of robes or bought some that looked like the ones from the Institute, but who would really go to such lengths to frame someone like that?”
Thorn frowned. “But what about the photo Azalea sent you from inside her classroom at the Institute? You think it’s a fake?”
“I don’t know if it’s fake, exactly, but I definitely don’t think she took that photo when she said she did. Azalea has to be the one behind all this. I’m not sure how she pulled it off, but she must’ve poisoned Oliver for what she saw as a betrayal, then burned down Petals & Potions to cover up the evidence. She probably grabbed the azalea from the store on her way out, knowing full well what it symbolized, and left it at Bella’s bakery to throw everyone off her trail and send us on a wild goblin chase.”
“Hm, maybe. But then when you touched the vase, why wouldn’t you have seen—”
“I’m not sure,” I cut Thorn off, not wanting Dom to know I’d had a vision about him. Besides, I knew where Thorn was going with his question, and I didn’t have an answer. As much as I’d grown to lean on my powers, I still didn’t fully understand how they worked, so I couldn’t say for sure why I’d seen a tense exchange between Dom and Giles rather than an interaction with Azalea.
“I’ve run into Azalea a few times,” Dom chimed in. “I wouldn’t have guessed she was the murderous type, but now that you mention it, she seemed a bit too fixated on Oliver.”
“You aren’t the first person to tell us that — she admitted it to us herself,” Thorn said. “But anyway, I don’t understand how Azalea could have trapped Giles in the store before she set it on fire. Wouldn’t he have realized what she was doing and tried to stop her?”
“Maybe he did and wasn’t successful,” I said, cringing. “She could’ve killed him before she started the fire. Don’t forget, we don’t have a clue where she went after talking to us. She claims she had to get back to the Institute for class, but we don’t have any way of confirming she ever went back there — and this photo of her running away from the fire pretty clearly proves she didn’t.”
Thorn stared at the pink-haired woman on the screen and shook his head. “How do we even find her now?”
“I don’t know if she’ll meet with us again if I asked, but it’s worth a try. If she went so far out of her way to leave that plant outside Bella’s bakery, then she obviously knows Bella saw her. What if Azalea comes back to make sure Bella can’t tell anyone else about that? Or worse, if she finds out Bella told us what she’d seen, she might come after us next.”
Thorn gulped. “Then maybe you’d better send her a message,” he said, but I’d already pulled out my phone. I tapped into my message thread with Azalea and hesitated, unsure what to say without tipping her off until I re-read our last few messages and an idea popped into my head.
>>Me: Hey, Azalea. It’s Selena again. Have you heard anything from Giles yet?
Almost instantly, as if she’d glued her hand to her phone while waiting to hear from me — a thought that didn’t make me feel any safer approaching her — an answer popped onto the screen.
>>Azalea: omg no!!! i’m starting 2 freak out!!! i called like a zillion times but he never answered so I’m going CRAZY!!!!!!
I didn’t know what to say to that, but while I sat struggling to figure it out, another message came through.
>>Azalea: i’m done with class 4 the night. can u meet me in the square soon?? i REALLY need someone 2 talk 2
A chill raced down my spine as I read the message. Though Azalea could’ve genuinely been struggling to process what’d happened to Oliver and Giles and reaching out for help, as I stared at the back of the pink-haired young woman still on Dom’s screen, I couldn’t help wondering if she had ulterior motives. Had she figured out that I was on her trail and wanted to off me next? Still, I didn’t see that I had a choice. The only way for me to know for sure whether she’d been lying would be to confront her about the photo — and maybe prompt another vision to confirm it.
“What did she say?” Thorn asked.
I glanced up at him from my phone and gulped. “Lucky for us — or maybe not — she wants to meet with me.”
Thorn’s eyes widened. “Are you going to? I’m not letting you do it alone, especially not now.”
I tapped to open the camera on my phone and snapped a shot of Dom’s screen, then switched to my text messages. “I have to, and you won’t be the only one joining me,” I said and opened my thread with Officer Aimes. She’d never responded to all of my conversation with Azalea that I’d forwarded, but I didn’t think she’d ignore a message from me now — especially not since Thorn and I had left her hanging in the square to chase after Dom. So, I attached the photo I’d taken of Dom’s screen and started hammering away.
>>Me: Hey, Officer Aimes. It’s Selena again. I don’t have the time to explain all this, but I’m reasonably sure Oliver’s student, Azalea, is behind his poisoning and the fire at Petals & Potions. I’m heading back to the town square now to meet with her, and I have a feeling I might need some backup. Can you help?
“A sting operation? Good thinking,” Thorn laughed as he watched over my shoulder.
“We’ll never catch her on our own. Even if we somehow got her to confess to everything — which I doubt she’d do anyway — I can barely use magic, and no offense, but if she’s dangerous enough to poison Oliver and kill Giles, then I don’t think you’ll stand a chance against her alone either.”
Thorn shrugged. “No offense taken. There’s no telling what Azalea might do if she feels cornered,” he said as my phone dinged with a reply.
>>Officer Aimes: What kind of backup are we talking here?
>>Me: Surveillance, mostly, just to keep watch in case things go sideways.
>>Officer Aimes: Just gave the order to surround the square. Don’t worry, you won’t even know we’re there.
I glanced up at Thorn, who gulped. “Are we really doing this?” he asked.
“Yes, we are. Thanks for the help, Dom,” I said, and stood to pull Thorn out of the kitchen by his arm.