Page 3 of Devils Don’t Deal

I stared at her, the steady eyes with purple in their depths. “I punched a fairy.”

“Why?”

“He insulted my mother. It was her funeral.”

She sat back, crossed her arms, and scowled. “Wait, you’re telling me the police took you from your mother’s funeral after someone insulted her? Do you want to go back? I’ll take you personally, if you’d like.” She gave me a smile that had a tinge of viciousness to it.

I sniffled, because this wasn’t what I’d expected to get at the police station. Or anywhere, really. “I don’t want to go back unless my dad comes. He’s missing. Ever since she died. He said he’d take care of the funeral, and then he disappeared.”

She reached over the desk, undid the cuffs then clasped my hand in her warm grip, eyes concerned, compassionate. “Then you’re in the right place after all. We’ll help you find your father.”

I blinked rapidly and shook my head while the tears crowded closer and closer to the brink of falling. “It’s fine. I’m sure he’s okay, just doing something… He’s a goblin.”

I braced myself for her reaction.

I didn’t expect her warm smile. “Is he? How lucky to have a goblin father. They’re very clever. I’m married to the goblin king.”

I stared at her while my toes went kind of numb and weird and my tears evaporated. “Oh. That’s lovely.”

The goblin king was my number one person to avoid. Why? Because fairies and goblins weren’t supposed to be able to have children. I was an impossibility, particularly with a full-blooded goblin father and strong-blooded fairy mother. The goblin king’s half-brother had married a fairy, and they would love to have children, so dissecting me was something that could happen. At the very least, they’d want to study me. I’d put effort into staying under the radar for more reasons than keeping my job in the fancy department store that catered to the heavenly side of the spectrum. The dark side was just as prejudiced and twice as dangerous.

“I don’t really want it to get around, my dual nature. It’s problematic at the best of times. Anyway, if we could get on with the processing, that would be great.” I gave her my most polite customer smile.

She studied me. Was she sniffing me? She finally smiled and sat back in her chair. “I’ll issue a formal warning, Miss…?”

“Charles. Kesty Charles.”

“Miss Charles, be certain not to punch a fairy in front of any witnesses. You’re free to go.”

I stood up, relief washing over me. “Do I have to pay a fine?”

“No. You don’t. It’s hard enough paying for a funeral. I hope you have relatives who can help.”

I laughed, but it was choked and unpleasant. “Do people have relatives who help? I wasn’t aware. No, they helped hold me until the police came.” I sighed. “Sorry. I don’t mean to whine, it’s just been a long…” I bit my lip and held still, hoping the tears would stay inside instead of tumbling down my face like a leaky faucet.

She stood up, handed me a tissue, and walked me to the door. “Lewell will drive you home, but he’ll stop at The Cat’s Pause on the way for some sushi. You probably need it with your streak of goblin.” She grinned at me then held out her hand. “I’m Rynne. Maybe you’ll come sometime when I’m there and we can chat.”

I hesitated. I should shut down this offer of… Was it friendship? It felt like it, and she smelled like truth, justice, and empathy. Like she understood standing in two worlds and belonging in neither. But she was married to the goblin king, who I absolutely had to avoid.

But I really should eat. I didn’t want charity, but I had some strawberries in my fridge that I’d been planning on using to make strawberry shortcake for my mother. I could make Lieutenant Sato something sweet that she’d like, something enchanted to help her bear the weight of justice. I could thank her when I wasn’t feeling so delicate. And I needed to clean out my fridge, because the end of the month was coming up, and I needed to find another place, another job, another life.

So much to do when the world was trembling under my feet and the sky was falling. I took her hand and offered her a smile that felt almost honest. “Thanks.”

She grinned back at me. “Hopefully, the next time we meet will be under happier circumstances. Do you need to go to the hospital for a healing spell for your hand?”

I shook my head. The cost of visiting an emergency room was outrageous, and with my mixed blood, it was hard to get magic or medicine to work right on me. “I’m a quick healer.” That was a lie. I was a very slow healer, almost as slow as a full-blooded human, because my goblin side, which was practically indestructible and a very rapid healer, kept fighting my fairy side, which was also practically indestructible, but not as fast a healer. My flesh was constantly at war. The one thing all of me agreed on was baking. Baking magic was the only kind I’d really managed to use.

Maybe I’d find a place that had a better oven, full-sized, dual fuel, a real convection oven. There it was, that streak of optimism I’d inherited from my mother. Well, no sense in being less happy than you had to be.

“If your father doesn’t show up in twenty-four hours, come back, and we’ll help you find him,” Lieutenant Sato said with a professional smile as she handed me over to the nice officer, Lewell.

I nodded and left the police station feeling slightly better than I had when I’d gotten there. Except for my hand. That hurt worse. Still, finding some kindness in the world felt like a gift, maybe from my mother, a little spark of hope and happiness from beyond. And that made everything possible.

Chapter

Two

Iplaced the last sliced strawberry on the shortcake and sighed happily as I looked at my beautiful confection. I’d take it to the station for Lieutenant Sato. My smile faded. And while I was there, I’d file a missing person’s report.