And the one who killed Merrimoth when he was jumping off the second-floor balcony of his house into the ocean, but I didn’t volunteer this information.

“Don’t worry about her,” Lon said.

“Sure, sure,” Evan mumbled. “Anyway, Merrimoth took it from Dare. He made it sound like Dare was clueless about the theft, but I guess Dare eventually caught on when he heard about stuff on the news with the robberies. When I heard, I knew Telly had been selling it. I tried to get it back, but he ran away again. Told his mother that a black car had been following him.”

Black car. Oh . . . fuck. I looked at Lon. Dare’s been trailing me.

Evan touched his nose and winced. “Once I found out Dare was looking for the elixir, I just wanted to get rid of it. So when I saw Yvonne was in town, I thought, well—she lives in Florida, and she’d take it with her. Get it out of Dare’s territory, you know.”

“Why didn’t you just throw it away?” I said.

Evan scratched his arm, avoiding Lon’s gaze.

“Because he wanted to sleep with Yvonne,” Lon answered.

“I’m sorry, man. You don’t understand what it’s like to be in that club and watch everyone else having fun. Everyone else making friends. Everyone else getting the good jobs. I’m a nobody. Useless. No family. Separated. I’m almost fifty, and all I do is crunch numbers in a cube all day. I just wanted to be part of everything, just once.”

We all sat in silence for a long moment.

“If Dare had Telly killed, he’ll kill you, too,” I said.

“Don’t you think I know that? I was packing when you showed up. I thought Dare had sent you here. I need to get out of town. Please, I’m begging—let me get out of here.”

“What about Telly’s body?” Lon said. “You’re just going to leave him?”

“I was going to call my wife after I left.”

“You have any more elixir hidden?”

Evan shook his head. “Telly stole the rest. All I had was what I gave Yvonne.”

Lon threw Yvonne’s vial of elixir on the floor and crushed the glass beneath his foot. Red liquid seeped into the pale carpet. “It’s not right to leave the boy like this,” he said.

“Police will be able to tell the bullet didn’t come from your gun,” I added.

“I know, but what am I supposed to do? Tell them Dare’s behind it? Who are they going to believe? I have no evidence. I don’t stand a chance against him.”

Lon’s horns spiraled away. His fiery halo receded to its normal gold and green as he let go of Evan. “You can run, but if Dare catches up to you, you’re on your own. Don’t contact Yvonne again.”

“I won’t.”

Lon tapped my hand and spoke in a low voice. “Let’s go.”

“Good luck,” I told Evan.

He made a small noise, but didn’t look up from Telly’s body.

Outside, Lon rushed me into the SUV before driving to the end of the block and parking.

“What are you doing?”

“Watching Evan’s house. I want to see if anyone’s been trailing us. I didn’t hear anything when I was transmutated, but I just want to be sure.”

I peered into shadows down the street, searching for movement. “He sent us to Merrimoth’s to find the leak.”

“What?”

“Dare. He said he wanted us to find out why Merrimoth’s knack was amped up, but he already knew why—had to. Maybe he realized someone had stolen his elixir when he started hearing rumors about Merrimoth’s knack getting wilder. But when he heard about the crazy crimes in Morella, he knew he had a bigger problem. That would explain why he was so angry when we failed to get any information out of Merrimoth.”

“Then he heard your bar had been hit and knew you’d go after the robbers.”

“I first saw the black car outside Diablo Market. And I saw someone at the car rally when I was chasing down Noel in the parking lot.”

Lon stared out over the steering wheel. “He was already following Hajo before we went to the trailer park. Probably trailed you to Hajo’s apartment.”

“We led Dare to Telly.” Sure, Telly was an asshole, and I had every reason to hate him, but he was just a kid. A dark, nauseating feeling bubbled up inside me.

“If it wasn’t us, it would’ve been someone else,” Lon said. “Dare is petty. He’s big on retribution. Killing Telly was sending a message to Evan.”

Dare. That arrogant asshole had done nothing but make my life miserable.

He was the one responsible for all this. For Merrimoth. For Tambuku being robbed. For Kar Yee being hurt. For Telly’s path of destruction. At that moment, I even blamed him for Jupe getting drunk, and for pushing my hand to do what I did to Yvonne.

“Cady,” Lon said.

“Don’t defend him,” I snapped. “What about us? If he finds out Evan gave a vial to Yvonne, will he send a message to you by putting a bullet in her head?”

“No, he . . . I don’t know,” he admitted. “Dare isn’t the man I used to know. I don’t know how far he’d go to protect his secrets, and I don’t know how far he’d go to punish people who wronged him.”

“He’s already got a hate-on for me. Maybe he’ll just take me out like Telly.”

Lon grabbed my arm. “Like hell. I’ll kill him myself before that happens.”