Gray Witch (Black Hat Bureau 5)

“Evil as a marshmallow,” Colby mumbled under her breath, squeaking when I approached the SUV.

“Take it back.” I jabbed a finger in her face to hide my real target. “I demand an apology.”

Careful not to hurt her, I tickled the spot where her wing joined her torso, and she exploded into giggles.

“Okay, okay.” She rolled out of reach. “I’m sorry that your heart is as squishy as s’mores filling.”

For show, I waggled my arm, groping the cushion for her.

“Lies,” I hissed. “My heart is stone.” I growled. “Granite even.”

“Maybe until you met Asa,” she cooed. “Now it’s all ooey-gooey.”

“Do you hear the disrespect coming out of her mouth?” I clutched my chest and slumped in my seat, her laughter contagious. “I’m going to the nearest chain hotel.” I snapped my fingers at Asa. “Right now.”

“I’m not eating stale cereal so you can make a point,” Clay weighed in. “I say you confess to being a softy and check us in. Then you can ask about the breakfast menu so I can be prepared with my order.”

“Traitors,” I grumbled, unable to hide my smile when I saw how much Asa was enjoying himself.

Clay blocked the backseat while Colby climbed into his jacket pocket and settled in. Then we braved the crumbling path up to the crooked front door, which swung open and hit me in the shoulder. A guy who might have been in high school greeted us wearing star-spangled wizard robes straight out of a cartoon, complete with a pointed hat sewn from the same midnight fabric.

“Welcome, weary travelers.” He opened his arms wide, bells tinkling on his sleeves. “Enter, if you dare.”

“This is the Amherst Inn, right?” I noted the scraggly white beard slipping down his face. “We have a reservation, but if this is the wrong place, we’re happy to go.” I took a step back. “We might anyway.”

“Markus,” a breathless girl chastised as she shoved him out of the way. “Stop harassing the guests.”

“I’m Trinity.” She beamed. From within her silver foam helmet. Which matched her silver foam armor. I noticed a sword, a real one, in her hand and took another healthy step back. “You’re at the right place.” She lifted a gauntleted hand at us. “You’ll have to forgive us. We have a LARPing thing.”

“LARPing.” I heard the faux-comprehending tone I used when Colby mentioned Mystic Realms. “Cool.”

“Live Action Role Playing,” Markus explained. “We act out scenes from our favorite books and games.”

A quiver in my hair told me Colby was bursting with excitement over the idea.

“That a big thing around here?” I decided to play clueless. Because I was. “LARPing?”

“There are sixty-one members in our club,” Trinity bragged. “We’re one of the biggest in the state.”

“We lost a few members last night, after the Waffle Iron incident,” Markus reminded her, then confided in us with a wink, “Some people lack the constitution for the wizarding business.”

The crimp of her lips told me she wasn’t impressed with him correcting her.

Either way, we might have lucked into a pair of eyewitnesses for us to cultivate.

“That sounds like a good spot for dinner.” Clay jumped in with both feet. “The food any good?”

Never one to miss a trick, Clay’s thoughts must have aligned with mine.

“They’re decent.” Markus straightened his beard with mixed results. “Mostly, they’re cheap.”

“You can’t eat there anyway.” Trinity led us to the check-in desk. “It burned to the ground.”

Usually content in the background, Asa stepped up beside me, and the girl almost started drooling.

“Has anyone ever told you…” she exhaled a dreamy sigh, “…you’ve got the bone structure to be an elf?”

A laugh caught in my throat, and Clay had to turn his head to hide his smile.