After pouring Damien a glass of wine, Madam Knightley fished for something for Arion in her cabinets. He was about to tell her that just water would do when she raised a bottle into the air triumphantly and exclaimed, “Got it! Some kind of juice.”
Arion thanked her as she handed him a glass, then took a sip. If it was juice, he had no clue what it was made from. It was reddish and a little bitter, but he somewhat enjoyed the taste and as he drank more, the taste appeared to improve.
“This is nice,” he commented.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Madam Knightley said. “The label only says that it’s juice. I’m a vodka kind of gal, so I never drink anything else.” She giggled. “Apart from water, of course. I would be dead if I literally only ever drank vodka.” She turned to Damien. “And how is the wine, Your Highness?”
“Excellent.”
“That’s a relief. It would be devastating if I gave the crown prince something disgusting to drink. By the way, please just call me Cora. Makes me feel younger.” She winked at them. “Not that I’m old, of course. Anyhow, I’m sure you’re wondering why I showed up out of nowhere, despite being considered missing.”
“Can’t say we aren’t,” Damien said.
Seeing that Arion had finished his drink, Cora poured him another glass, then set the bottle in front of him. “Please don’t hesitate to help yourself, Your Lordship.”
“Ah, just ‘Arion’ will do.”
She flashed a smile at him. “How irregular. So, anyhow—Oh gosh, I already said ‘anyhow’ before, right? Anyway, it’s not a terribly long story, but I do need to go back a bit so you understand my involvement with Amelia.”
Cora drank half a glass of vodka and said, “Three days ago, I was in a tavern, drinking away my, well, maybe not sorrows, but more like little life nuisances—that alliteration was entirely unintended, by the way—when this gorgeous woman sat next to me. And she bought me a drink! So… what happened after that was that we talked for almost two hours and then ended up at my place, which is, conveniently, very close to that tavern. I will spare you gentlemen the details and will merely say that I had a good time.” She grinned, but then her face immediately soured. “Unfortunately, the morning brought with it a harsh return to reality as I found myself robbed!”
Arion finished his drink and poured himself another. It was a curious thing. How could the very same drink taste so much better with each subsequent glass?
“Excuse me,” Damien said to Cora, then patted Arion’s arm. “Is it that good?”
“It’s divine.”
Damien chuckled. “I would try it, but since it’s just this one bottle, I’ll let you drink it in peace.”
Arion drank the entire glass of the delicious juice in a few gulps. “No, no, you should drink some,” he said. “I can share. Sharing is caring?”
Damien tilted his head, a small frown on his face. “Sure is, but… Well, I really need to try this.”
Since Damien’s glass was already empty, he poured himself a tiny amount of Arion’s favorite juice and drank it.
“Hmm,” he said, “I don’t recognize the taste or smell at all. What is this made from?”
Cora picked up the bottle and smelled its contents. “My, I don’t know. Maybe some sort of exotic fruit?” She took the bottle away and put it on her desk.
“It must be very exotic because my husband-to-be is definitely high.”
“High?” Arion raised an eyebrow. “I am sitting.”
“Impossible,” Cora said, looking at Arion before she turned to Damien. “There is only one drug we keep in this building, Your Highness, and it doesn’t cause a person’s pupils to dilate. I swear I didn’t mean to drug your future husband.”
“I believe you,” Damien said. He left his seat and kneeled in front of Arion. Wow! Why would the crown prince himself kneel before him?
“Arion, my dear,” Damien said, “could you lean closer and look me in the eyes?”
Arion nodded, then moved forward, and his forehead slammed against Damien’s with a thud. He saw tiny bugs in front of his eyes. So cute.
“We connected and created something!” he said.
Damien rubbed his forehead. “Oh, we connected, all right.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Arion heard the tall lady ask. What was her name again?
“We wanted to ask you a few questions,” Arion said. There was something about questions.
“I’ll try to get him to heal himself,” the man whose name Arion had also suddenly forgotten said. “Arion? Can you use a healing spell on yourself?”
What? Arion huffed. “Excuse me, do I look like a healer? How I miss the little bugs.”
“Bugs?”
“Yes, let’s make new ones.” Arion thrust his head forward.
“Whoa!” the man said, grabbing Arion’s shoulders and pushing him back. “Arion, look at me.”
Arion pouted at the man’s lack of cooperation. Why would he kneel if he wasn’t going to obey?
“Arion.”
“Yes?”
“You’re not a healer, but you can use healing spells. Try using one on yourself.”
Really. Who was this man? Handsome though he was, what gave him the right to tell Arion what to do?
“Do we know each other?” Arion asked.
The man raised his eyebrows. “Um, yes. I’m Damien. We’re engaged.” He turned to the tall lady. “Could you bring a healer?”
“Of course,” she said.
“And please tell them to just heal Arion the moment they enter the room.”
“As you wish, Your Highness. I’ll be right back.”
When Arion finally recalled what the word ‘engaged’ meant, his eyes widened. “Ooooh. You and I. Engaged. To marry. So you… don’t much care for children? Because we can’t make babies, you know.”
Damien let out what sounded like an amused huff. “I’m aware. I don’t have strong feelings about children. We will have to adopt in the future, though, for the purpose of succession. Because I’m the crown prince.”
“Wait. Why don’t I know any of this? Am I suffering from amnesia? Also, I’m thirsty. Can I have more juice?” He stood up and walked in the direction of the desk, but Damien caught him before he reached it.
“You’re drugged. Again. And no, you can’t have more juice because it’s the reason you’re drugged. But I can pour you some water.”
“Let me rephrase that—I want more of that juice. I’ll get it myself.” Arion tried to extricate himself from Damien’s grasp; however, the man was as strong as he looked. But what could muscles do against magic?
“Please don’t use magic,” Damien said, as if he’d read Arion’s mind.
“Why not? I’m at a physical disadvantage here.”
“This isn’t a fight.”
“Then let me go.”
“Damn, your pupils just won’t go back to normal.”
The door opened, and as Arion turned to look, healing magic settled over him.
He blinked. Why was Damien holding him? And why were they standing in the middle of the room? They had been listening to Cora, and he’d been drinking that delicious—
“Gods, there was something in that juice, wasn’t there?”
“Yeah,” Damien said, letting go of him. “But don’t worry, you didn’t do any magic damage.”
“Thankfully, we have a healer on-site,” Cora said, gesturing to the young woman. “This is Lily.” Standing next to Cora, Lily looked tiny.
She bowed to them. “I am glad to have been of service.”
After Damien and Arion thanked Lily, and Damien convinced her to accept some money for the help, she checked the bottle, but couldn’t determine what kind of drug it contained.
As she was about to leave, Arion told her about Damien’s fever and asked her to use healing on him, too.
A moment later, Lily briefly held her hand in front of Damien’s chest, then said, “I’m sorry. It didn’t work. I do not mean to brag, but if my healing didn’t work, it means the temperature isn’t caused by an illness. Would you like me to look into other possible causes?”
“That won’t be necessary,” Damien said. “Thank you.”
When she left, Cora sighed. “I am truly sorry about all this.”
“It’s okay. Nothing happened in the end,” Arion said, then looked at Damien uncertainly. “I just hope I didn’t do or say anything weird?”
“You don’t remember anything?”
“The last thing I remember is Cora talking about a woman buying her a drink.”
“Well, you acted—understandably—a little strange, but the only serious thing was that you were about to blast me with some magic when Cora came back with the healer.”
Arion frowned. “You should have knocked me out. In the future, perhaps better knock me out the moment I start acting weird. Safer for everyone.”
Damien patted his arm. “Let’s, uh, just try to keep you from getting intoxicated from now on.”
Arion chose not to argue for now. They still had the entire case to deal with, after all.
As he sat down, he asked Cora, “Do you know any witches in this town? Since no one seems capable of recognizing the contents of the bottle, I think it might not be juice with a drug in it, but rather some kind of potion made by a witch.”
“Hmm, I honestly cannot think of anyone. There was this one client about a week ago who one of my employees claimed was a witch, but I don’t know any witch residents of Ravenholm.”
“A witch client?” Damien said. “A man or a woman?”
“A man.”
“Could you describe him?”
“Sadly, I didn’t see him. But I can summon the man who serviced him. If he isn’t currently busy, that is.”
“Please do.”
Cora pulled a wire behind her desk. A few minutes later, a man with long brown hair and blue eyes entered. He didn’t look like Arion, of course, but there were certain similar characteristics that made Arion wonder. A witch that had paid for a male prostitute who looked like that, in a town so close to that place…
“Samuel,” Cora said, “could you tell us what that gentleman you thought to be a witch looked like?”
“He was a witch, Cora,” Samuel said. “He told me so himself and he even gave me something that made me feel funny. As for his looks, he was handsome, quite tall, and had short, dark brown hair and brown eyes. And a scar on his cheek.” His gaze wandered to the bottle. “And he gave me that. Told me to deliver it to the mistress of the house so she would have something delicious to serve mage visitors. He said he would bring more the next time he visited.”
“All right, thank you. You may go.”
Damien reached for Arion’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “He’s dead. It was just some terrible luck that you got drugged by him even after his death.”
“I—I know. But I wonder what that drink would have made me do if he was still alive. I don’t think it worked as intended. He would have gained nothing from just making a mage feel a little weird.”
“You know that witch?” Cora asked. “I mean, used to know, judging from what you said.”
“Yes,” Arion said. “He kidnapped people and sold them to nobles. Now we are trying to find out where the remaining missing people are and if he was involved in their disappearances. One of them is Amelia Sands.”
“To be perfectly honest,” Cora said, “I am more inclined to believe that Amelia aided him rather than got kidnapped by him.”
“Oh, why is that?”
“Well, after the tavern, we spent a fun night together, but in the morning, it turned out that she’d stolen my watch. And it was not just any watch—it was a gift from my late father. She knew it was important to me because I’m a blabbermouth and had told her about it when she’d asked. Anyway, she later came to the brothel and gave the watch back to me and apologized. She said she was desperate to improve her life, and that there was a way I could help her. She sounded so convincing that I agreed. I was only supposed to act like she’d asked me to employ her and I wasn’t willing to pay her enough. That was all. Apparently, it was supposed to make her boyfriend realize that he needed to marry her as soon as possible or she would be forced to whore herself out.”
“Boyfriend?” Damien inquired.
“I don’t know who the boyfriend is if there even is one. I don’t really know much of anything because after she left, I felt this powerful urge to go. Like, I didn’t know where I was going, but I just kept walking and walking… And I ended up in this tiny cabin in the forest. And Amelia was there. With three thugs. They drugged me before I could understand what was happening, but I was lucky since they left afterward. Maybe they needed to get some sort of cart to haul my ass somewhere. I am, as you can see, a big woman. The cabin was difficult to get out of, but I managed to.”
“Because you shifted,” Damien said.
Cora’s eyes widened. “You know what I am?”
“We heard the theory about a werebear kidnapping people, and then I saw you, and you were unusually large for a woman, so I, well, smelled you. Because I’m a shifter, too.”
“Oh, that’s—Oh. The crown prince is—Wow. Okay. How do you even keep it secret?”
“It’s not easy. I obviously can’t shift as often as I would like to. But at least even the biggest asshole among shifters won’t reveal another shifter’s identity to untrustworthy humans, because that would bring danger to all of us.”
“I won’t tell anyone, of course.” She smiled. “It’s actually… a nice surprise. That one of us—Oh gods, is Her Majesty also…?”
Damien nodded. “We’re both werewolves.”
“Wow.” Cora turned to Arion. “And you don’t mind marrying a werewolf?”
“He’s a very nice werewolf.”
“My, crazy stuff.” Cora shook her head. “And now I forgot what I wanted to say. Ah! Right. I hope that what I told you clears me of suspicion. I’m aware that the business I run is controversial. But I swear I don’t sell people to any nobles or help anyone kidnap them.”
“But would you like to help us get to those who do that?” Damien asked.
“It would be my pleasure.”
"First, you could lead us to that cabin.”
“Of course. I’ll change into some more comfortable clothes and will meet you downstairs.”
When Arion and Damien left Cora’s office, Arion asked, “How are you feeling?”
“Hmm? Me? Fine.”
“But you’re still feverish.”
“Not ill, though. I’ll ask Remi if he has any idea what it could be. If it turns out that he doesn’t know, then maybe someone at home will.”
“All right,” Arion said, annoyed that there was nothing he could do. “You know, that juice was a witch’s work, but the watch sounds more like something an enchanter would have done. A mage.”
“Damn, this case is going to give me a massive headache.”
Arion smiled up at Damien. “At least I’ll be able to help with that, I think.”
“How convenient it will be to always have a mage by my side.” Damien kissed Arion’s head. He seemed to have a different idea of what ‘in moderation’ meant than Arion did, but it also seemed the action relaxed him, so Arion didn’t complain. It wasn’t exactly unpleasant, either.
“Let’s meet up with Remi.”
But downstairs, they were informed that Remi had found something that needed his immediate attention and that he would find them later.
Damien let out a sigh. “Yeah, that headache is inevitable.”
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