Page 37 of Truthfinder’s Promise

13

Meredith shifted and nudged the Porsche Spyder a little faster, but the smooth feel of her car hugging the asphalt as she sped around curves at inadvisable speeds wasn’t having its usual soothing effect on her. She hadn’t realized how nice it had been just being herself the past few months, until she was faced with the necessity of being something else again.

She parked outside The Poisoned Leaf tea house and touched up her lipstick in the rearview mirror. Jensen had shifted into his wolf form, his glamour on to show a big, friendly white dog.

Meredith dropped the lipstick into her purse and couldn’t quite bring herself to meet Jensen’s gaze. “Just remember that how I act in there, the things I say—that isn’t me.”

She got out and Jensen followed, the two of them walking inside. The tea house was a small affair, three storefronts down from Old Hank’s Hand Me Down Sound and directly across the street from the Knitting Needle, owned by Old Hank’s paramour, Betty Lou.

Despite the cafe’s grim name, it was as colorfully decorated as the woman who sat behind the counter. Ella Tremayne was somewhere in her late sixties, with black hair and olive skin. She wore a dress that bore every color in the rainbow. It would have looked ridiculous on any other woman, but on her it seemed almost severe.

She was Random’s great aunt, and Meredith had grown up calling her Aunt Ella. Meredith hadn’t dared to use the familiar address since she’d broken up with Jace all those years ago. Aunt Ella viewed both Random and Jace as her sons, and Meredith had more or less ceased to exist to the woman—at least in any positive light—after the way Meredith had ended things.

So for the last few years, she’d been relegated back to the ranks of Aspecters who publicly called Ella Ms. Tremayne, and privately called her the Queen of Death. While Meredith and Jace were on good terms again, she still wasn’t entirely sure where she stood with the Queen of Death, so she settled for a neutral, “Ella.”

Aunt Ella inclined her head.

Meredith cast a glance around at the empty cafe. When Valkyrie had told Meredith her mother-in-law had decided a tea shop was the thing to do with her spare time now that she no longer had the Council to keep her busy, they’d both had a good laugh envisioning it. Now that the store was open, neither of them were laughing. Mainly because Random forced them all to patronize the shop on a rotating basis, because ninety-percent of Aspect Society was too afraid of Aunt Ella to go anywhere near it.

Today the cafe was empty, but every single table had a triangular sign resting on the top. “Reserved?”

“Betty Lou’s having a knit-off across the street. They’ve reserved all the tables for the after-competition victory celebration.” She gave Meredith an appraising once-over. “Isn’t Monday your day to stop by? Or did Random think if he put you on a rotating schedule I wouldn’t realize he’s humoring my small-business plans?”

“No idea what you’re talking about.” Meredith smiled.

“I’m sure.”

“I need outdoor seating anyway.” She patted Jensen’s head.

The Queen of Death fixated on him. Quicker than a blink, a slip of power streaked from her. Meredith snapped a shield around Jensen. Ella’s Aspect bit into it. Meredith fed more power into the shield. “That’s rude,” she said mildly, “and you’re on probation.”

Aunt Ella sighed and her Aspect winked out. “What have you brought into my shop, child?”

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with. Can I get a poisoned earl and an arsenic brownie?”

Ella swiped Meredith’s credit card and handed it back. Tying an apron over her dress, she set about pretending to be a normal woman who ran a death-themed tea house. A couple minutes later she set an Earl Grey tea and a double-fudge brownie on the counter.

“Thank you.” To tell Aunt Ella she was bringing Julian Astor to her cafe, or not to tell her? Ugh. Never a bright idea to surprise the Queen of Death. “I’m meeting Julian. Would you send him outside when he arrives?”

Ella’s eyes narrowed and she took on a gentle tone. “Dear, I know you had hoped things would go differently with Jace—”

For the love of the goddess, if one more person mentioned the fact she used to date Jace a hundred years ago, she was going to discover heretofore-unknown-to-her Elemental fire powers and explode into a volcano of molten rage.

“—but you shouldn’t settle for someone like Julian. Oh, I know he was let off the Council business with a slap on the wrist like I was, but the difference between us is I was there to try to prevent worse harm from occurring. He was there to foster it. And besides, the man’s a wet towel. Ruthless, to be sure, perhaps a bit of cunning in the mix, but no real brains to speak of.”

Nice try, but I’m not going to tell you why I’m meeting him. “I’d be a fool to ignore advice from someone so old and knowledgeable.”

The Queen of Death chuckled. “You always did know how to play the game too well to be goaded into giving out information. I pray you know it well enough not to get yourself into waters too deep to swim out of.”

You and me both. She took her tea—in a bright yellow mug shaped like a cat, complete with little kitty ears—and her brownie outside. A large white oak dominated the center of the courtyard, its branches spreading wide. Of the tables scattered beneath its canopy, Meredith chose the one nearest the tree. She took the seat that put her back to the wide trunk. Jensen settled onto the ground next to her and dropped his glamour.

Julian emerged into the courtyard ten minutes later. Ella had served his tea in a pastel pink owl mug, and it grievously offended him if the way he set it on the table was any indication. She supposed it didn’t match his suit.

“Did you have to pick this place? That old hag is insufferable.”

“That old hag could kill you without lifting her pinky.”

“I doubt she remembers how. She hasn’t done anything interesting in years. All that power and she opens a bloody tea shop.”