"Of course the Sheriff is on a damn vacation," Ellie grumbled, unlocking the door to her small house as the sun disappeared behind the mountain. "At least we got you a few winter clothes and a decent hat, though."

"I must admit, I do like this one better than the knit one," Kaz said as he adjusted the wide-brimmed leather hat on his head.

"Looks good on ya," she said with a smile. "I hope they were tellin' the truth when they said they'd get the rest of your stuff up on the delivery truck tomorrow."

Though their trip to the Sheriff's office had been met with more setbacks than progress, Ellie and Kaz had at least managed to place an order at Mast General Store for a few things that Kaz needed. Winter clothes were among the most important, along with a couple of extra blankets and a basic portable camp bed. It wasn't fancy, but it would at least temporarily solve the sleeping quarters issue. Plus, if anyone found bringing in another small bed odd, Ellie could always say she'd bought it to use with her tent on long trips rather than the plain bedroll she was used to. The full load was too cumbersome to walk up the mountain themselves, so they'd arranged for it to be on the weekly delivery truck up to the village.

The bone door hanger jingled as Ellie shut and locked it behind them, happy to be in the privacy of her own home and to put down her load. The canvas bag wasn't too heavy, but it was a long way to walk carrying it and her shoulders protested the trip.

She tugged off her hat and overcoat to hang on a hook by the door, gesturing for Kaz to do the same, and got to work unloading supplies.

"While we wait for the Sheriff, it might be wise to question some of your witch neighbors," Kaz suggested, hanging his new hat beside Ellie's battered one.

Ellie paused, staring for a moment while her mouth opened and closed. "I'm not sayin' no, but I don't really get why a witch would kill Ben."

"I think we should investigate every possibility. Just to be safe." He leaned against the wall, eyebrows raised as if daring her to question him. Ellie raised her hands in surrender, wiggling her fingers just slightly before she went back to dealing with supplies.

"Not sayin' you're wrong, but... Most of 'em see humans as 'beneath them,'" she said, rolling her eyes. "They don't mind full-blooded humans as long as those humans don't mind them, but it's like they're... flies or something. Not worth botherin' with."

"Noted," Kaz said with a nod, "but I'm still curious if anyone saw something suspicious. The witch community spends more time in the woods than the average Boone resident, correct?"

"Fair point. I guess they could've seen something out on the road that day, but I'd be surprised if someone saw something obviously important and just didn't tell me."

"Why's that?" he raised an eyebrow as Ellie hefted their packages onto the kitchen table.

"We don't look like it, but witches are pretty organized, even out here. We have a formal code for communities under Council protection, and we all know that the most sacred rule is protecting our own." She refilled jars of herbs from paper packets and placed them neatly on the shelves, organizing dry goods and bread as she went. Kaz just watched, sitting down in a wooden chair and tapping his fingers absently on the table as he thought out loud.

"What makes someone one of your own?"

"Blood kin, most easily," Ellie said with a shrug. "Marriage, too. You can formally renounce someone or claim someone under the right circumstances, but it's hardly ever done."

"Did you plan to claim Ben?"

"Already had," Ellie said with a sigh. "I sent papers to the Council ahead of time— dropped 'em off at the post office myself instead of waiting for weekly mail delivery to town. The approval papers didn't arrive until... after, though."

She shook herself, fighting not to lose her faculties to the current of past memories speeding by. The papers were still in her house, and she knew exactly where. They were in a box with her old engagement ring, with a stack of old letters, with a few precious pictures. She wasn't ready to let go yet, and she wasn't sure she ever would be.

"I'll stoke the fire. You pick what's for supper," Ellie said, already kneeling in front of the woodstove. She'd banked the fire before they left, but it wasn't too hard to open the bank and stoke the smoldering embers to life.

"Anything with vegetables," he said with a shrug.

"Deer stew, then." She hoisted two extra logs into the stove and shut the door. "There. That should warm it up in here pretty quick."

"Deer stew?"

"Never had deer?" Ellie raised an eyebrow, but wasn't too shocked. "I know a lot of folks avoid it, but there's a lot of 'em up here and not much room for grazing cows. We eat what we can get. I promise there's veggies, too. We've got beans, carrots, peas, and potatoes to go in it, though we'll be eatin' it tomorrow too, probably. Makes a big batch."

"I didn't think you had a refrigerator. Will it keep?"

"I've got a cellar under the house for cold storage, and there's community cold storage with an icebox. In this weather, there's no need to worry about it, though," she said with a shrug. It would easily be close to or below freezing temperatures the next few nights. "I'll go get the meat from the cellar. You start choppin' potatoes."

"Yes, ma'am," Kaz said, already reaching for the potato sack.

Warm food always hit the spot after a long walk to and from town, and venison stew was no exception. It took a little time to cook, but it was worth it, and the heat from the gas stove and the fire together helped to ward off the chill.

Truthfully, it wasn't as cold outside as it could be, but Ellie had never been a fan of winter. She liked snow, but at this time of year they were out of the season of fluffy white snow drifts and into the season of sad, soggy, freezing rain. There was always the possibility of a late season snow storm, of course, but at this point she was just waiting for the mercy of spring.

"You're a good cook," Kaz said around a mouthful of stew. His spoon clinked against his bowl as he scooped up another bite.

"Thanks. I can make simple stuff, but Granny is teaching me some of the family recipes. Always said I needed to know how to cook for a big family..." Ellie sighed, the same familiar, dull ache in her chest coming back to life.

Kaz silently put a hand on her shoulder, briefly catching her eye with a look that didn't need words. There was nothing Ellie hated more than feeling like she had to explain herself over and over, always justifying her right to live and love how she wanted, always justifying her right to simply exist in a space with people who were different than her. With Kaz... he didn't need that explanation.

Even if he didn't understand, he hadn't pushed her to speak. He hadn't tried to pry open old wounds and peer inside for the sake of his own curiosity. She respected that. It made her feel secure in a way that she hadn't felt in a long time, and she found herself considering the calm warmth that sparked in her chest.

Ellie cleared her throat, trying and failing to push away the red flush to her cheeks. She'd known him all of two days. That shouldn't be enough to unlock anything she'd sealed away inside her.

But... Ben's kindness had broken her open just as quickly.

Briefly squeezing her eyes shut, she pushed away the memories and locked them down tight, along with any strange emotions she might be feeling. Kind people existed in the world. Maybe she'd just forgotten that.

"B— by the way, why on earth did you go spouting that you're my fiancé to the town?!" Ellie huffed in exasperation, dropping her spoon into her empty bowl. "I just went with it at the time, but now we gotta figure the rest out!"

"I thought we agreed we were together romantically as cover?" Kaz, to his credit, looked genuinely confused... so much so that Ellie couldn't help but feel a little bad for snapping at him.

"Being together isn't the same as seriously planning to get married," she said very slowly, careful to keep her tone even and patient. It might be different for demons. She didn't know.

"Would you prefer I said I was courting you?"

"No—"

"I could call myself a gentleman caller?"

"Please do not do that—"

"Boyfriend?"

"That sounds like a teenager."

"Or I could say I'm your long-distance lover," he supplied, gesturing vaguely.

"For the love of mercy, please do not do that," she sighed. "Okay. I get it. I accept fiancé. Just... give me a minute to adjust, and I've gotta figure out a plausible way out of it before you leave."

"Fine. We'll stage a public breakup if we need to," he agreed. "We can do it in town, if you want."

"... Maybe not that public," she said with a sigh. "Have you ever been in a place with this few Others around before?"

"I haven't," he said, shaking his head. "The witch population here is exceedingly high, but I'm certainly used to more full-blooded Others in larger cities. It's a little odd, but I'm perfectly capable of fending for myself." Kaz shrugged and pulled at the leather tie keeping his hair in a bun. White hair fell in rumpled waves just past his shoulders, softening the look of his sharp jaw and somehow making his blue-gold eyes look even brighter.

He was beautiful, Ellie thought momentarily, almost like a painting. That wasn't unusual for Others, though. Many of them had gorgeous appearances, especially vampires.

Realizing she was staring, Ellie picked up the dishes from supper and brought them to the sink. The water was ice cold and would take a while to heat, but she could at least rinse them for now before putting the stew leftovers in the cellar for tomorrow.

"Hey..." she said softly.

"Hmm?"

"What if we can't do this?"

"You're choosing now to doubt my abilities and not before the bargain?" he asked, but there was a slight lift to the corner of his lip, just a little humor in his tone. It was enough that Ellie's shoulders relaxed, but not enough to ease her mind.

"I'm serious, Kaz. What if we really can't figure out who killed him?" She bit her lip, avoiding his eyes.

"Then I suppose we'll need to start planning a ritual to nullify a blood bargain," he said with a sigh. "It's not easy, but it's doable. Or, supposing we don't want to bother with that, we officially agree to close the investigation and leave the unfinished bargain in place."

"Would that balance?"

Balance was the way of the woods, the way of witches. Everything had a give and take. Some people said that all magic had a price, but Ellie didn't think of it that way. All magic was an exchange. If you wanted to get something, you had to give something. It kept the cycle going, kept the world moving, and made sure nothing went so far out of balance that it couldn't be put back into place naturally, if need be.

"It should, in theory. Room and board in return for the investigation. A treasured item for finding the killer. The bargain is set in two parts, and neither of us added anything beyond the typical restrictions of not harming one another." He scratched at his jaw absently as he spoke. Ellie noticed the slightest bit of white stubble on his cheek and wondered briefly if all the hair on his body grew white.

Then she pushed that thought very, very far away.

"That... doesn't sound too bad," she said, clearing her throat.

"It doesn't, no, but it's still technically incomplete. It would require a second bargain to truly close the loop, unfortunately, and it would leave us... There would be a sort of unresolved tether in place between us," he said slowly.

"Never mind, don't like the sound of that," she quickly amended.

"Most people don't, myself included," Kaz admitted. "Blood bargains are favored for their binding potential, especially among powerful parties, but leaving one in place long term can have unknown and unintended side effects. Best to nullify it entirely if it comes to that."

It suddenly dawned on her that he didn't need to give her this information at all. He could very easily have twisted everything he knew to his benefit, but he chose not to.

"You know... y'ain't so bad. For a demon," she said softly.

"Think of it as saving my own skin, if it helps."

"You're thinkin' of me, too, though. I appreciate that," she said with a small smile.

Ellie slowly walked across the room, footsteps padding across the cold brick floors as she walked towards the bed and fished underneath it. There wasn't too much storage space in the house, but it was easy to tuck her camping supplies under the bed, and she really should have thought of the supplies tucked there the night before. Maybe exhaustion had scrambled her thoughts, but for now, at least she knew where the camp bedroll was.

"You take the bed tonight," Ellie said, pulling out the soft, rolled mat. "I can handle the floor with this till the camp bed we ordered comes in."

"It's your bed. You sleep in it," Kaz said, crossing his arms over his chest. He sounded grouchy, but that armchair did not sleep well. Ellie knew that well enough— she'd spent many long nights sitting there, too exhausted to move, too uncomfortable to sleep, and too numb to feel. She wouldn't wish that on anyone.

"Seems only fair we alternate," she said with a shrug, fluffing out the mat and grabbing a pillow from the bed. "I got it last night. 'Sides, can't catch a killer with a crick in your neck. I should'a got the bedroll out last night, but I... well, I forgot." She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.

"It's not a problem. I've slept on worse than an old armchair."

"Well, you'll sleep on better tonight," she said with a soft laugh. "Go get some rest. We got work to do."