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“You and I both know it’s not permitted. And they weren’t just diving. They were after the Lady’s Tear. I stopped them.”
“I mean, sure, we discourage night diving because it’s dangerous. And we try to keep the pearl rumors to a minimum so we aren’t flooded with treasure hunters. But we do not murder people!”
“Humans don’t,” he says, licking icing off his thumb. “I’m different.”
“Let me get this straight,” I say, taking a deep breath. “You’re here on the Lady’s behalf, meaning she sent you, yes? You stopped potential treasure hunters last night, but didn’t kill them. Instead, so as not to upsetme, you sank their boat and equipment, and then stripped them naked, gagged them, and tied them to the dock?”
“Yes.” He shrugs. “It seemed like an adequate compromise.”
Thank goodness for that. But I need to nip this whole murderous tendency in the bud. “Wick, you cannot go around killing people, no matter what they do.”
He straightens, suddenly seeming to loom over me. “I can, I will, and I do. I protect the lake and the Lady at all costs. Like that distasteful one a few months ago. He not only polluted the lake, but his soul was stained. Drowning him was a necessity.”
Oh my gods. “Are you talking about Evan Adler?Youkilled him?”
“I don’t know who Evan Adler is.”
I wave a hand absently in the air. It doesn’t matter. Evan is the only person to have drowned in Lake Eerie in years. He has to be the one Wick is referring to. I suddenly have a flashback to my near-drowning when I tried to rescue Len the workman at the beginning of the reno. Was that Wick’s doing as well?
“When the machine went into the lake in April, and I rescued a man—were you the one pulling him under?”
“Of course. He polluted the lake. I would have preferred to let him die, but that would have meant killing you as well, and I could not do that. So I let him go.”
“I need to sit down.” I collapse into one of the living room chairs, stunned by his revelations. “Wait, why couldn’t you kill me?”
He frowns, as though my question is ridiculous. “You have done nothing wrong. As you said, you do your best to safeguard the lake and you honor the old ways. I have no quarrel with you, Haven Bishop. I protect you as I do the Lady. And I thank you for your daily offering of honey.”
Hmm. Well. That’s kind of sweet.
But still. ACK.
I run my hands through my hair and try to reconcile the fact that this creature who has no qualms about murder is the same hot guy who made me pizza yesterday.
What does it say about me that I’m still attracted to him?
“Have I upset you?” he asks.
I choke out a laugh. “I don’t know. All of this is…a lot. Why exactly are you here, Wick? Why now? Spell it out for me.”
“As you said, the Lady sent me. There has been an increase in human activity at the lake recently, and she wanted to know why. Why this lodge is reopening. She also wants to know why the old ways are no longer being observed. Why the humans have broken their agreement.”
“I suppose that’s fair,” I say. “I told Griff we need to do something about that. In fact, we’re working on a plan to reinstate some traditions.”
Wick kneels in front of me and smiles. Who knew kelpies could be so gorgeous?
“This is why I could never harm you,” he says, taking my hands in his. “You respect our ways. You may be human, but you are a trustworthy one. I am sorry if I have caused you distress.”
I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, thinking things through. “No, it’s okay. All you did was give those dudebros a good scare. They’re fine, and there’s no evidence to trace anything back to you, I don’t think. They don’t seem interested in implicating you. Griff will placate the Wilsons and Heffermans with coupons and I’ll do some damage control with a cryptid spin. Everything will be all right.”
As for Evan Adler, hedidtry to kill Libra. I suppose he got what he deserved.
“They will not implicate me,” he says.
“How can you be sure?”
“I may have used a little magic to make sure no one found them before morning. And to make sure they could not identify me.”
“Oh. I didn’t know you could do that. I guess I don’t really know much about kelpies.”
