Truth seer book three, p.1
Truth Seer Book Three, page 1
Truth Seer Book Three
Odette C. Bell
www.odettecbell.com
Copyright
All characters in this publication are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Truth Seer Book Three
Copyright © 2024 Odette C Bell
Cover art stock photos licensed from Depositphotos.
www.odettecbell.com
Truth Seer Book Three Blurb
There can be no peace in Epista City for long. Not when Lord Omega lies in wait.
Harper might’ve had a couple of quiet weeks. That ends when Artie’s charged with murder. A desperate Virginia demands they find the real culprit before it’s too late.
But Harper’s clock is already ticking. A powerful vamp’s gone missing, and Vince must find her. His position on the council becomes ever more precarious. As the treaty threatens to break, Harper’s thrust into a desperate battle to find the truth. It won’t be easy. A mysterious new forbidden practitioner has risen with an ax to grind. Can she dodge them, save Artie, and stop Omega again? Or this time, will the truth die for good?
Truth Seer Book Three
Title Page
Copyright
Blurb
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Newsletter
About The Author
Reading Order
Guide
Front Matter
Start of Content
Back Matter
Chapter 1
I woke, gasping for air and covered in sweat, my sheets knotted around my legs and waist.
Had someone tried to kill me? No. Had I dreamed of Lord Omega laying waste to Epista City? No. Was my destiny catching up to me, just as he’d promised during our last fight a month ago? Also no.
I’d woken from a dream of a certain demon. And that’s all I’d tell you.
I sat up fast, kicked the sheets off, punched my pillow for good measure, and groaned under my breath. I hooked my sweaty hair behind my ear and surveyed my room. Sunlight spilled in from the crack between the curtains. A long line of it sliced across the daybed, shining over the embroidered pillows and the plush cream carpet beneath my bed. It was like an arrow pointing to me. One that demanded I get up and do something. And in this town, a truth seer could only do one thing.
When I’d ascertained Beth hadn’t witnessed me dream wrestling with my sheets, I slipped out of bed, dressed, and returned to surveying my room. One good thing about this house was I didn’t need to do much cleaning. The house mostly did it for me. It now had three live rooms, too. Two would be enough, considering only two and a half people lived here. Or two and a quarter – Beth wasn’t exactly alive.
But Beth might not have a body, a brain, or anything else you’d want in a human being. She sure did have an acerbic personality.
I crept out into the corridor. Beth didn’t race up the stairs, chortling at my dream.
Bangs emanated from the kitchen below, and soft, happy chatter filtered up the stairs.
Sighing in relief, I drummed my fingers on the banister as I slowly descended to the ground floor. A warm smile spread my lips. It was great to see Virginia and Beth reconnecting. After a lifetime of estrangement, they were back.
“For now,” I whispered. My brow compressed involuntarily. I twisted to the side as I jumped off the last step into the entranceway. I stared at the lounge room and out of the bay window. What was I looking for?
The next fight. Then the next fight after that. At some point, Lord Omega would come after me again. Beth could only live as long as I did.
I sighed, rubbed my chest, and gritted my teeth.
“Is that you, Harper?” Beth demanded from the kitchen. “You’re sighing already, first thing in the morning. You haven’t lost anything yet. Primarily because you never try particularly hard to get anything. It’s clear to the world what you want.”
I groaned internally. She definitely knew about that dream. God. I hadn’t said Lux’s name aloud, had I?
As panic surged through me, at least the smell of home cooking tamped it down. Virginia laughed, said something to Beth, then called out, “Come and eat your bacon and eggs. It’s fresh. Well, I found them uncooked in the fridge. Does that make it fresh? Look, as a necromancer, I can confirm it hasn’t been dead long. It’s also real. Fancy any?”
“When you sell it like that, 100 percent.” I walked into the kitchen. Virginia had made some adjustments. It was much larger. The kitchen table could now accommodate three people.
Sorry, three ordinary people. How about one demon?
I automatically turned and stared at the entranceway. My shaking heart told me Lux must be on his way. I hadn’t seen him much over the past several weeks. He was busy doing something. As for Vince, he was busy too, but he certainly made efforts to come and check in on me.
Beth bumped me in the face. “And what are you thinking of? A thousand points for the person who can guess it. Which means it’s a thousand points to me,” she snapped. “You’re thinking of one of them. Lux, I assume.”
Virginia chuckled softly. “Leave her alone, Sis. If anything is developing, just let it develop naturally.”
Beth snorted. “Naturally? Have you met Harper? That word does not come… well, naturally to her. She might be a good truth seer. She may be an okay fighter. When it comes to love, however, she is as weak and pathetic as a deboned fish.”
“Great image,” I grunted as a smiling Virginia handed me a steaming plate of breakfast. I placed it on the table, grabbed up a knife and fork, and tucked in.
Sunlight streamed in through the French doors to my side. A lovely refurbished white cast-iron outdoor setting sat there with pots of lavender, verbena, and blue cornflowers.
We were heading into winter. How the cornflowers were still in bloom, I didn’t know. Thank Virginia. She’d found the set, repainted it, and bought the plants, too.
It seemed there was little she couldn’t do.
Me? There were a lot of things I couldn’t do. I often woke in the middle of the night listing them. They filled my nightmares.
I still couldn’t put this case’s clues together, and I was no closer to finding Bethany’s killer. Sometimes I felt like a ticking clock floated above my head, counting down the last few moments until this case would blow up in my face.
I sighed and finished my bacon.
Beth banged me in the face again. “You’d think after your night, you wouldn’t be this melancholic. What, wake up to a reality where you realized your dreams aren’t real? There’s a solution to that, you know.”
I stared at her mutinously but said nothing. I finished my eggs and toast, tucking into the arugula salad too. Everything was perfectly balanced. Okay, I had a fridge that could cook me anything – and I meant anything. It was still nice to have someone make meals for me. It made this place so much more homely.
Virginia grabbed her own plate and sat it down at the table but paused before she sat. She sucked in her bottom lip and chewed it. When I did that, I looked like an idiot. When Virginia did it, she was like an artist taking a step back to appraise a scene truthfully. Good artists see what’s really there. Good truth seers do the same. But in the last couple of weeks, my skills had slipped.
This city was just too murky, and the connections between my ongoing clues too vague.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. Your powers are still new. They’ll develop with time. Also, it’s not just up to you to solve this case.” Virginia’s voice broke on the word case. Her suddenly teary gaze sliced toward Beth.
Case might sound impersonal. Her sister’s murder was closer to the mark. And while Virginia might’ve had nothing to do with Beth for years, they now had a strong bond.
I sighed and scratched my elbows. I sat back in the upholstered wooden chair. My shoulders shifted against the turned wood as I stared up at the chandelier light fitting above us. “It feels like it, though. Feels like I have to be the one to chase down the clues. But I’ve done nothing but dawdle this past month.”
“I couldn’t have put it better myself,” Beth replied sharply.
“Beth,” Virginia rumbled. “There are times to give people a kick up the pants. But that’s when they’re not trying. Harper’s clearly trying. Like I said, it’s not just down to her. We should all help.”
“Including me? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m dead,” Beth snapped.
Virginia rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, and leaned against the table. “It’s a lot more complex than that. Trust a necromancer.”
“I shan’t be trusting you to cook again. The bacon is now burning.”
“C rap.” Virginia spun and lurched toward the six-burner stove. She grabbed the heavy cast iron skillet off it and dumped it in the sink.
“You could’ve told her that earlier,” I grunted at Beth. She’d started the morning in full snarky mode. I still locked an elbow on the table, reached out to her, and let her settle in my palm. I arched an eyebrow as Virginia dealt with the smoke. “Beth, you aren’t disappointed in me… are you? I have been trying.”
We both sighed together. “I know, Harper. It’s just frustrating. Every time we think we’ve gotten somewhere—”
“It turns out we’re nowhere at all.” I groaned, ran my fingers through my hair, and went to flop onto the table for a nap. As if I’d get the chance.
I frowned as crunching tires filtered in from outside. The house was large and magically protected. Either I was getting better hearing, or the house magnified important sounds.
My frown turned into a snapped grin. I didn’t recognize the sound of the car. I still swore it was Lux. I shot up. I held Bethany, so she’d know I trembled. Not a big shaking-shoulder move. A tiny little quiver from my stomach up to my back.
She chuckled. “You really are desperate, aren’t you, girl? If it helps, I think the demon would be amenable to at least a canoodle or two.”
“Don’t say it like that.”
“You prefer the term sex?”
My cheeks reddened. Fast, too. It was like my body now had a super highway when it came to blushing around Lux. The dreams weren’t helping. They just reinforced it every night.
I grabbed the door and opened it.
Lux didn’t stand there, leaning against nothing, that knowing smile spreading his lips until I couldn’t glance away from his mouth.
I blinked. “Artie?”
Artie, his beanie in his hands, a downcast expression consuming his face, whispered, “Virginia in?”
“Yeah. Of course.” I opened the door in time for Virginia to skid into the entranceway and grab it.
Her face fell. “Artie, honey, what happened?” Virginia was easily the most compassionate person I’d ever met. You’d think that should be impossible. A necromancer shouldn’t be able to so easily connect to other people’s pain.
That’s the problem with biases. They stop you from seeing the real world. I couldn’t ignore how much Virginia’s heart went out to Artie.
He was a big guy. He took one step toward me, and I felt compelled to back off like a tiny car in front of a semi.
His shoulders shook. His fingers groped around the beanie’s edge, his short nails plucking a few strands of black acrylic yarn. “I’m being investigated for murder,” he spluttered, dumping that like a corpse on the kitchen bench.
I blinked, automatically sizing him up and down.
Virginia just pulled him into a tight embrace. “Like hell you are. You couldn’t murder anyone. Take it from a freaking necromancer. I’d know. You are incapable of this.” She pulled back, shoved onto her tippy toes, waited for him to bend, and kissed him. She gripped his face hard and looked into his eyes. Virginia could anchor you with a single stare. Some of Artie’s tension disappeared, but only a few grams.
He shifted his attention to me. “Sorry to come here, ma’am. I didn’t mean to bring trouble to your doorstep. I know your life is kind of,” he plucked one hand from the beanie, pointed upward, and twisted his fingers in a jagged circle, “complex.”
Yeah. That was one word for it. He was aiming for magical. He knew about this world now. Virginia had appeared in front of him as a harpy multiple times. The Council hadn’t punished her. Extenuating circumstances. She’d saved Artie, and now he knew about magic, they were still together, stronger than ever.
I smiled and meant it. “My life will always be complex. Whose murder are you being investigated for?” I spoke professionally. You can fake professional pretty easily. Stand straight, keep your diaphragm loose, and speak like you mean it. There’s an added sincerity when you know what you’re talking about, though. And for an ex-realtor, I now had a fair bit of experience with murder.
Artie dropped his downcast gaze, his eyes darting left and right as he followed the floorboards. “My boss at the dump truck company. He died. They still won’t tell me how. But they’re investigating. They dragged me in this morning. They said I could go. I get the impression next time, they’re going to arrest me and charge me. I didn’t do it, though,” he spat, sincerity spiking through his dull brown gaze.
I assessed Artie once. Was I a seasoned cop? How about a homicide detective? No on both accounts. But I was a truth seer. I couldn’t tell if someone was lying. I doubted I ever would; that would be too specific. I was also here to protect the truth, not just act as a lie detector.
I got the sudden impression Artie couldn’t do this. Virginia was right. It wasn’t in his personality.
He returned to clutching his beanie, further damaging the yarn around the hem. When people lose all external control, sometimes they get destructive. Artie was taking it out on a hat, though, not his ex-boss.
Beth shot into the room. After being initially frosty toward Artie, she now protected him like he was her own. “We will get you off this ridiculous murder charge, Artie. Come and eat some unpleasantly burnt bacon. Your mate made it.”
Artie’s lips twitched.
“Just use the word partner. Mate can be a pretty confronting word for ordinary humans. Come on, Artie. You eaten? You can have anything. The fridge can literally produce anything. You want a beer?”
Artie shook his head. His eyes traced toward me.
He was down in the freaking dumps, probably in the worst place he’d been since Virginia’s disappearance. Who was he looking to for help? Me. Sure, he’d come here for Virginia. But he made enduring eye contact with me.
I straightened. “What do you know about your boss? Do you know anything at all about the circumstances surrounding his murder?”
“An okay guy. Sometimes takes contracts he shouldn’t, that said. I think,” Artie scrunched his lips, “the guy has gambling debts. Sorry,” his shoulders dropped an inch, “had gambling debts.”
“I see. And the murder occurred where?”
“One of the truckers texted me this morning. He thinks it happened on the premises last night.”
“Firstly, do not go texting your friends about this case. The police will find out,” Beth snapped. “Secondly, leave it all up to me.”
Artie’s brow compressed. He momentarily stopped playing with his hat. “But you’re a….” He flopped a hand at her, incapable of describing it. “You don’t have arms,” he tried.
“Correct. But Harper does. And she works for me.” Beth gestured toward me with a bob.
I crossed my arms. I wasn’t defensive. Artie’s sudden appearance brought my mind back to one important clue. The dump truck company. When I first learned about magic, I found a clue about them.
I still didn’t know why and how they fit in with the rest of the case. I’d assumed at one point it was just because Lord Omega had been after Virginia and Artie was Virginia’s partner. What if it was deeper than that?
I stood on the kitchen threshold, watching Beth and Virginia trying to feed Artie everything they could find in the fridge. I drummed my fingers on my biceps, leaned against the door frame, and tried to tamp down my rising fear. It was slight for now, just a cold prickle at the back of my neck.
It promised to explode into something more. Because it promised the case was back – and Lord Omega wouldn’t be far behind.
Chapter 2
I showered and marched down the stairs, hair in a towel, to see Vince walking around the entranceway.
He frowned at the wall. “Perhaps there,” he muttered under his breath.
The door was open, midmorning sunshine slicing over the untreated floorboards and Vince’s side.
I didn’t care one hoot about the floor. I loved how the light played over his strong torso and the side of his chiseled jaw. It lit up one of his engaging eyes.
I leaned against the banister halfway up the stairs, pulled the towel from my hair, and dried my scalp. Then I just watched him. Which was creepy, by the way. Could I stop? No.
Vince stepped forward, appeared to size something up, then chuckled, his back still to me. “Are you just going to watch me from the stairs, Harper? Or will you come down and join in?”
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