“Who’s she?”
Simon looked at his sister, giving her room to speak. Finally Lily sighed. “She’s Billy’s second cousin, the family black sheep. Because she actually went to college and made something of herself.”
I knew Lily well enough to know when she was holding something back. “And?”
She stared at the table, looking a little sullen. “And she’s my ex.”
Chapter 14
Lily decided that I needed food to go with my IV fluid, and everyone but Quinn needed coffee. She went to the apartment’s little kitchenette and began banging around, muttering under her breath, as Simon told Quinn and me the story.
Lily and Ardie had attended CU at the same time—Lily as an undergrad, Ardie as a masters student in ecology. They knew each other a little from witch business, but CU was the first time they’d met on neutral territory. Both were from old witch families, both were idealistic and optimistic about magic, and both wanted to break out of the family mold. The way Simon told the story, it was almost inevitable that they would start dating.
Unfortunately, both families objected. The Atwoods were homophobic, not to mention worried about dying out. They wanted Ardie to have babies as soon as possible. “They had actually tried to push Ardie at me a few times, hoping to increase their political capital, but I was with Tracy,” Simon told us. “Anyway, they got pissed about Ardie dating a non-reproductive option, even if she was a Pellar.”
Meanwhile, Hazel Pellar couldn’t care less about bisexuality, but she considered her children, and the Pellar line, better than the “backwoods Atwoods,” who would surely drag Lily down into the mud with them.
Tensions increased, and then the Atwoods made Ardie an offer: full tuition for as much education as she wanted, plus a down payment on a house anywhere but Boulder. And although women didn’t usually inherit in their clan, her family offered to make her the Atwood heir should anything happen to Billy—which was a safe bet, since he was already something of a cretin. All Ardie had to do was agree to leave Lily and have kids with a man.
When she heard about the offer, Lily got ready for a knock-down, drag-out battle for love, assuming Ardie would feel the same. But Ardie took the money.
“I’m not sure she ever cared as much about Lily as Lily did for her,” Simon said in a low voice. “But at any rate, she was Lily’s first big love, and getting dumped kind of crushed her. Especially because Ardie would sneak back into town now and then to, um . . . reconnect. And then she’d leave again.”
My eyes narrowed. “So she used Lily.”
Simon nodded. “For years.” He looked angry and sad, but also just . . . tired. This was an old story, one that all the Pellars had wanted to forget. Now we were dredging it up again.
“You said she studied ecology,” I said, trying to sound tactful, even though I wanted to slap this woman I’d never met. “Isn’t it possible that Ardie grows belladonna?”
Simon shrugged. “She’d know how, sure, but so would my mom, or pretty much anyone with a rudimentary understanding of gardening. Or an internet connection. Growing it is easy. The hard part is finding the belladonna seeds from the ancient strain.”
“But if Atwood had it on the property, and Ardie inherited . . .” Quinn spoke up.
“No.” Lily banged down a sloshing coffeepot. Simon hastily took a mug from the counter and began filling it while Lily set a couple of granola bars in front of me. “Keep eating,” Lily told me. To all of us, she added, “Ardie always said the fetters were too dangerous to dick around with. She’s many things, but she’s careful.”
“Calculating, more like,” Simon muttered into his mug before taking a long sip. Lily glared at him, but he just shrugged and swallowed. “She might have changed her mind about the belladonna, Lil. Or she might have moved to Finland, and she’s got nothing to do with any of this. We haven’t seen her in years.”
A guilty look flitted across Lily’s face, but Simon didn’t notice. I didn’t want to call Lily out in front of the others, so I got to my feet, not needing to feign the shakiness. “Lily, can you help me in the bathroom for a second?” I asked.
She looked a little surprised by the request, as did Quinn, but she unhooked my IV bag from the coatrack and led me down the hall, helping me weave around Simon’s piles of equipment. When we got into the small bathroom, I closed the door and sagged against a counter. “You’ve seen Ardie recently?” I said gently.
Her dark skin flushed, but she nodded. “She stopped by last year, after Billy’s funeral. But I still don’t think she’d mess with the fetters.”
“Do you have her address or phone number?”
Lily bit her lip. “Simon made me delete her numbers from my phone . . . but I know she works at the Denver Botanic Gardens. She’s a horticulturist.”
“Okay. Quinn and I are going to need to pay her a visit.”
“I know.” Lily switched the IV bag from one hand to the other, uneasy. “I should go with you.”
“I don’t think that’d be a great idea.”
“She might not talk to you.”
“Oh, she’ll talk to me.” Something in my face must have hardened, because Lily took an unconscious step backward, the IV tubing wobbling between us. “You can stay here and give Simon a hand, okay?”
She nodded again, and I turned to grab the doorknob. Before I could turn it, Lily reached out and touched my arm. “You’re not going to ask me about sleeping with girls?”