Excerpt: Oak & Thorns

Today’s excerpt comes from Oak & Thorns.

Series Page link: The Wild Hunt

Book Page for Buy links: Oak & Thorns

A thought occurred to me, given Ray’s recent behavior. “If Davis bought the hives for more than the going price, could he have a thing for Marilyn? If so, could that have led to Jona’s demise?”

“Good question,” Herne said. He motioned to Talia. “Any ideas? Was Marilyn having an affair? Or, were there any signs that she was having trouble with this man?”

Talia shrugged. “That, I don’t know. I doubt it, given she just had just had a baby shortly before Jona died. We’ve barely scratched the surface on our sleuthing, so there’s not a lot to go on. I did, however, discover that someone warned the editor of the Whidbey Island Gazette to back off from sensationalizing the story. I happen to know somebody up on Whidbey Island. Rosetta, a friend of mine, works part-time for the Gazette. She’s the society reporter. I called her to see if I could find out any dirt on the incident. She told me that shortly after Jona’s body was found, somebody called the editor. Rosetta happened to be listening on the line after she transferred them.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Small-town life, hmm?”

Talia laughed, shaking her head. “What can I say? It’s not like there’s a whole lot of action on the island and Rosetta is nosy. But what can you expect from a werecat? Curiosity, etc…”

“Rosetta’s a cat shifter?” Angel asked.

“Yes, Norwegian Forest cat. She’s a transplant from Norway. There’s a large Scandinavian population in the islands. Anyway, she overheard someone—a man—warning the editor in no uncertain terms that he was not to sensationalize Jona’s death, to tamp out the rumor mill as much as possible. Rosetta has no clue who it was, except that his first name was Roland.”

“Well, that’s an interesting tidbit.” Herne cleared his throat, riffling through the papers. “Is there anything else we should know before we hit the island?”

“The hippocampi are proud people,” Yutani said. “They like elegance, they’re usually well off, and they don’t like being lumped in with the rest of the Fae. They tend to look on both the light and the dark courts as their country-bumpkin cousins.”