An ID on the killer would crack the case wide open. The surveillance tip was good, but this would be gold.

“It was so pretty,” she whispered. “I just wanted to pet it.”

Pet it? That was not what I expected her to say. “Tell me everything you remember.”

“We were on a camping trip with my Junior Conclave troop. There was swamp on either side of the path we were hiking, and Mrs. Dial said not to go out there or the gators would eat me.” The blanket shivered. “But I heard… I thought the gators were after it. I didn’t want it to get eaten.” Her fingertips vanished into the folds of material. “I waited until Mrs. Dial stopped to help a kid tie his shoes, and then I sneaked into the swamp. That’s where I saw it.”

“It?”

“A white horse.”

Chills swept down my spine. That piece of evidence was damning on so many levels. “Did you?”

“I didn’t see any gators, but I thought maybe its foot was stuck in the mud. That happened to my friend Jenny’s pony once when it got out of its pen.” Her breathy voice trembled. “I walked over, and it nuzzled my arm like it wanted a pet. So I did. I petted it, but its fur was sticky. I couldn’t get my hand back. I started yanking hard, and the horse got mad. It started walking toward the water.” Liquid eyes peered out at me. “It was a trick. The horse wasn’t stuck in the mud at all.”

Confirmation of his hunting pattern was as good as confirmation of species. I knew what he was, or what he pretended to be. How could Charybdis be both the humanoid fae in the surveillance video and the horse? Kelpies—and she had just given me a textbook description of one—weren’t shapeshifters. “Is that when you set the marsh on fire?”

Elizabeth stared into her lap. “I couldn’t let go of it.” Her eyes filled with tears. “It couldn’t let go of me either, but the fire scared it, and…” She raised her left hand, the one she had touched earlier with sad eyes.

Magic peppered the air, and her personal glamour vanished. Her hand did too. She had been amputated at the wrist. Her fair skin was puckered and pink where it disappeared into a bandage capping her arm.

Dull shock roared in my ears. She had survived, but gods it had cost her. “Can you show me where you found the horse?”

“No.” A violent sob wracked her body, and she dissolved into tears. “P-p-please don’t make me go back. Please. I don’t want to see him again. Please.”