Epilogue
1901 Words
Epilogue
The Drunken Turnip was busier than usual, but as soon as Sam set a foot inside, Lilith’s head snapped in her direction, almost if she’d sensed her arrival.
Sam made her way to the bar where Lilith was drinking her usual glass of wine and sat down on the chair next to her. The two stared at each other for a silent moment, both too nervous to speak.
It was Lilith who broke the silence. “You’re back?”
“I am,” she replied.
“Does that mean you’ve come to accept my proposal?” Lilith asked.
Sam took a deep breath before she faced the younger woman. “I have questions.”
“What kind of questions?”
“Why me?”
A frown tugged Lilith’s eyebrows together. “I don’t understand the question.”
“Why did you pick me? Why not someone else? What about another Warden? Your clan must have others.”
“We do. I guess I have some explaining to do.” Lilith gestured at the bartender. “A beer for my guest. No, make it a whisky. She’ll need it.”
That was worrisome.
Sam accepted the drink gratefully and took a big swig, letting the alcohol do its thing. “I’m ready, lay it on me.”
“I guess I should start at the beginning. Clan IF has been run by one family for centuries and the man running it now, the Boss, he’s my father.”
Sam nodded. “Catalina said.”
“Oh.” Lilith’s eyes widened. “What else did she tell you?”
“I guess you’ll find out.”
“Right…” She took another sip from her wine and hummed. “One day, I’ll be in charge of the clan. But I have to prove I’m capable, which means getting to know every part of the business. Like—”
“Bartending?” Sam teased.
“Exactly. There were plenty of other, menial tasks that took me painstakingly long to complete. Finally, Boss deemed me ready for my next challenge. That includes handling some of the accounts, delegating tasks, policing our members, and working with Wardens.”
“Ah, that’s where I come in.”
“Not quite.” A pondering look befell Lilith as she swirled her wine. “Despite my many attempts, I never quite managed to get a handle on the Wardens serving our clan. They wouldn’t work with me. It became quite clear I’m nothing like my father.”
Lilith’s somber tone made Sam sympathise, but she refrained from comforting the other woman. She wanted all the information before she made up her mind about her.
“Go on,” she encouraged.
“I made plenty of enemies in the clan. I know you think being a Warden is a bad thing, but in a clan like ours, they actually hold a lot of prestige and influences. Some of my father’s trusted advisors are Wardens.” She paused, looking pained. “After a while, it became clear I needed to recruit my own. There were… two women and three men before you. None of them were right.”
“Wait.” Sam held up her hand, interrupting the fascinating story. “What happened to the Wardens before me? You didn’t… kill them, did you?”
“Humans,” Lilith corrected. “And no, I didn’t kill them. I’m afraid I might have over-exaggerated a little about the death part. When humans aren’t ready to join the Nox world, we simply make them forget.”
“You can do that?” It took Sam a moment to process the new information. “What would happen to my hellhound if I chose to forget?”
“She’d return to our custody until she claimed another human again.”
“She won’t be killed?”
“No, I’m afraid I made that up too. Sorry.” Lilith pulled a face.
“Hmmm… None of that explains why me though.”
“The hellhound chose you.”
Sam tweaked an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yes, that part is true. She escaped and when I found her, she was standing over your unconscious, marked body. That’s when I started digging and figured you out.”
“You figured me out… Really.”
“You’re intelligent, quick on your feet, hardworking. Loyal to a fault. But most of all…” the Nox woman hesitated. “It looked like you were searching for something new to give meaning to your life. I thought we could help each other out, I just didn’t go about it the right way.”
“No kidding.” Sam pondered about everything for a minute. “I could walk away from this? Forget this all happened, forget about… you?”
“If that’s what you want… You could return to your old life, knowing nothing about the Nox,” Lilith replied softly. “Or… You could join and help me navigate this world from the top. If you’re overwhelmed by just our two clans, you haven’t seen anything yet. There are so many more subspecies, so many other clans and systems. There’s a whole world to discover, away from boring desks and sexist old men.”
“Appealing to my curious nature, are you?”
“Depends… Is it working?”
“It is.”
“So… What will it be?” Lilith looked over her glass at Sam, her eyes twinkling. “Red or blue, Neo?”
“Did you just quote—”
“Yes, I did.”
She chuckled. “Nerd.”
“Takes one to know one,” Lilith countered. “You don’t have to decide right now. No more pressure, blackmail, or ultimatums. Let’s do this the right way.”
Sam locked eyes with the other woman, desperate to suss out any lies. The blue flickered, almost tauntingly, just like it always did. But this time, there were no lies in her eyes.
A strange calmness fell over her, the nerves settling.
She nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay-you’ll-think-about-it-okay?”
“Okay, I’ll become your Warden,” Sam corrected. As soon as she said it, warm emotions flooded through her, reassuring her that she made the right choice.
A smile tugged on Lilith’s lips. “Can’t stand the mystery, can you?”
“I never could,” Sam replied before returning a smile. “And you’re right, I do need another purpose in my life. Plus, you’re too good of a challenge to pass up.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. It’s my turn to figure you out, Lilith Fatuus.”
The other woman’s smile broadened. “Is that a promise?”
Sam shook her head in amusement. “Let’s just sign your contracts.”
“Right this way.” Lilith waved her to the back.
The heavy door fell shut and the soft chatter of the bar disappeared as they ventured through the narrow hallway. With a sharp click, the lock opened and Sam followed Lilith into the stuffy office.
“Ugh.” She waved some of the fluttered up dust away. “You really need to clean in here.”
“That’s a lot of effort for the little time I spend here.” She rummaged through the drawer of the desk and pulled out a scroll. “There we go. Adoption papers. Shall I make that out to Demon Bite?”
“Don’t you dare.” Sam sighed. She couldn’t believe she was signing up for a life of magic, but what else was she going to do?
Lilith hovered the pen over the papers. “Alright then. What are you naming your hellhound?”
“Shadow.”
“Shadow?” Lilith tweaked an eyebrow.
“Yes, she keeps following me around like a second shadow,” Sam explained.
“Cute.” She scribbled the name on the contract and pushed it across the desk. “Sign.”
“Let me read it first.”
Lilith fake-gasped. “After all that, you don’t trust me?”
“You better believe I don’t.”
“Yet.”
Sam nodded. She believed in second chances. “Yet.”
After reading the contract thoroughly, twice, she nodded. “Alright, everything looks in order. Give me a pen.”
“As you wish.”
An eye roll later, Sam accepted the pen from Lilith and scribbled her name at the bottom of the contract. As she finished the last swish of her name, the ink lit up blue and so did Sam’s wrist.
“What the—” She stared at her arm, watching blue markings curl into intricate but familiar shapes. Just like the ones on Shadow.
A smirk played on Lilith’s lips. “Congratulations, you’ve just claimed a hellhound.”
“Never thought I’d hear that,” Sam muttered.
“That’s only half of our business.” She revealed another scroll and tapped it softly on the edge of the desk. “Your service contract.”
“Service contract?”
“A lifetime-of-service contract.”
Sam gulped, the nerves returning. “Do you have to call it that?”
“That’s what it is.” Lilith unfolded the scroll and pushed it towards Sam. “After you sign, the only way out of my world is death. This time, I’m not exaggerating.”
“Grim.”
“Just making sure you know what you’re getting into. I don’t want you to complain you were tricked again.”
“Hmm.” Sam studied the clauses and rules, cringing at how macaberly simple they were. “I pledge my life, loyalty, and service to Clan Ignis Fatuus on penalty of death? Yeah, I’m not signing that.”
Lilith sighed. “What’s wrong with it?”
“Wrong with it? This is worse than a slave contract.”
“I don’t think slaves had contracts.” She tapped her finger on a couple of other sentences. “You’ll be protected by the Law of Six, treated just like any other member. You’ll be one of us.”
“Listen, I’m happy to work with you on cases and stuff, but this is just… I can’t sign this, Lilith.” Sam pushed the scroll back, appalled by the terrible conditions. After everything, she thought it would be different. “You’re asking me to sign my freedom away.”
“It’s just the standard contract.”
“Standard isn’t good enough for me.”
“I… You’re right.” Lilith pulled the scroll towards her and struck a couple of words off. With a couple of scribbles and a decisive punctuation mark, she pushed the contract back. “There.”
Sam read the new line. “I pledge my life, loyalty, and honourable service to Clan Ignis Fatuus on penalty of death.”
“How’s that?”
“Who decides what’s an honourable service?”
“Both parties.” Lilith pointed to another adjusted line. “There.”
“What if we can’t agree?”
“Then we’ll work something out.” Lilith’s piercing blue eyes shimmered with conflicted turmoil. “Sam, this is a good contract.”
Samantha hesitated for a moment, staring at the scroll. Was she an i***t for trusting Lilith? Should she be more careful about signing her life away? What if this was all a trick and she was signing something else?
Then again, it wasn’t that much different from the oath she took to protect and serve.
She stared up at Lilith’s face, temporarily caught in the sincerity flickering through her eyes. Maybe she was a fool, but she believed Lilith.
With a shaking hand, she brought the pen down on the contract. The ink sizzled as she wrote her name in the box, glowing blue again once she finished. Now there was no going back.
Lilith examined the signature, nodded, and rolled the contract back into a scroll. “Perfect. Samantha Rain, I claim you in the name of the Ignis Fatuus family. You’re now officially a Warden.”
“I am?”
“Yup. Welcome to the world of the Nox. Let’s celebrate!”
Sam chuckled, dispelling some of the tension she’d been carrying. “I could use another drink, that’s for sure.”
“More Flying Deer?”
“Are you trying to get me drunk again?”
“Maybe. You’re a lightweight.”
“Hey!”
“Don’t worry. Now that you’re part of the clan, I’ll make sure you get home safe.”
Sam hummed. “You did that when I wasn’t part of your clan too.”
“I guess I’m just a good person then.”
“Yeah, sure.”
Bickering and bantering, the two women returned to the bar. If they’d had eyes for something besides each other, they would’ve noticed a familiar tooth-bearing necklace on the desk had started glowing pink, which could only mean one thing. There was a Pixie in town.
***
— The End —
***
Unravel more mysteries of the Nox world with Samantha and Lilith in the next book, The Case Of The Pixie Deal: books2read.com/thepixiedeal
***
There’s a golden rule when it comes to dealing with Pixies. Never give them a tooth or they’ll hold power over you forever.
Samantha’s next case brings her to the outskirts of town where a glitter-covered body is attracting the attention of unsuspecting humans. To solve this murder, she’ll have to follow the trail of pixie dust wherever it may lead.
Continue the series here: books2read.com/thepixiedeal
OR
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The Case Of The Pixie Deal
Samantha Rain Mysteries #2
Arizona Tape
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