doesn’t all fit together. I just wish I knew how to feel about everything they just purged. I want to tell myself that I shouldn’t feel betrayed—I knew Rogan was playing close to the vest—but everything feels tainted with deception now, and it’s bothering the shit out of me.
I shake my head and fold my arms over my chest, as though the stance can somehow protect me from any more duplicity and hurt. “Nik Smelser,” I offer, my tone thoroughly pissed off.
“Nik Smelser,” Rogan parrots.
“I don’t know who it is or if they’re even involved, but it’s the name the bones gave me when I was scrying.”
Rogan’s head snaps to Marx, who is already writing the name down.
“Did you get anything else?” Marx asks, his dark brown eyes rising from the small magicked notepad in his hands and settling on me.
“No,” I declare, deciding to keep the flash I saw when I connected to all the bones on the property to myself. I’m not sure what it means yet, and these guys aren’t the only ones who can hold out until they know more.
“That’s a lie,” Marx declares, with a cocked brow, his tone a dead ringer for Maury Povich’s.
Shit.
I forgot Vox Witches could hear that. Stupid walking, talking lie detectors. Rookie move, Lennox. Rogan’s face clouds with anger, and for some reason that makes me feel better.
“Don’t look at me like that. If I’m holding back, you only have your own omissions and cagey behavior to blame,” I defend and release a resigned exhale. “I’m not sure what it means yet. If I decide it’s pertinent, I’ll tell you. That’s how you two like to roll, isn’t it?”
I turn and stride back into the house, dodging Rogan’s effort to grab me again and stop me. I duck out the door leading to the garage but get boxed in by the two of them before I can go any further.
“This isn’t a game,” Rogan growls as he lords over me, backing me into Marx until I’m pinned between them.
“I’m not playing one. This isn’t tit for tat. I need to see the other Osteomancers’ houses before I know if this is even relevant,” I defend.
“Fine, I’ll take you to them, but keeping anything to yourself right now is a stupid move. It could mean life or death in the end if it was pertinent,” he grumbles, his stare both angry and desperate.
I give a derisive snort, hating that he’s right. I take a deep breath and slowly let it out. “The pile of ashes inside the rowanberries are from the grill outside. I don’t know what purpose the presence of the smashed berry circle serves, but I think its only purpose is to throw anyone looking for Elon off.”
“How do you know this?” Marx questions, and I shoot him a glare. He holds his hands up in surrender. “I’m not saying you’re lying, it’s just a side effect of what I do, I question everything.”
“Because when I went into defensive mode, I tapped into every bone that exists on the property. I wasn’t picking up on anything unusual inside the house because the bones that had this information aren’t inside the house,” I explain.
“Your brother’s familiar is a corgi right?” I ask Rogan.
“Yeah, her name is Tilda,” he confirms.
I nod and continue. “Well, Tilda was chewing on a venison rib bone when she watched the ashes being moved into the house and the berry circle drawn around them. You’ll find a different piece of her burnt collar on the ground around the grill.”
“Did she see who did it?” Rogan asks, grabbing my arms as though he’s ready to shake the answer out of me at the first sign of resistance.
“That’s the thing,” I hedge as anxious butterflies riot in my stomach. “It was your brother.”
15
“Tell me again what you saw,” Rogan grumbles, the engine of his SUV growling ferociously as he stomps on the accelerator.
I try not to roll my eyes at the request or the maniacal driving, but I lose the battle. “I saw your brother dump the ashes from the grill into his living room. I mean, I saw it through Tilda’s eyes, but you know what I mean.”
Rogan’s hands clench around the steering wheel, his knuckles going white, and I grab onto the armrest on the door when he takes a turn a little too fast. Good thing we left Hoot at the house earlier. That furball would be a windshield pancake otherwise.
“Then I saw Elon hooking