Chapter 9

Two women from the Matriarch's list were nowhere to be found, but the third one and all of the men seemed to be all right. Ringabel and Edea had parted to search the city on their own. They had gotten detailed descriptions of the missing women, given by their husbands who had no idea what had happened to other husbands of previously missing women. Now some of Florem's guards were observing the men for their own safety.

"Can I have a word with you?" Suddenly, a cloaked woman grabbed Edea by the arm. When she lowered her hood, blue hair and a sad face were exposed. Somehow Edea felt she had seen the woman before, though she couldn't tell where.

"What is it?", she asked impatiently. The blue-haired woman didn't look like the ones she was searching for.

"I had the impression you are looking for someone. Your boyfriend, probably?"

"What? No." Edea crossed her arms. For some reason the other woman's presence made her feel uneasy. Maybe it was the strong parfume floating around her like a cloud. Sometimes less is more, she thought and wrinkled her nose. "I have no boyfriend."

"I beg your pardon, I must be mistaken. I saw you with a young knight earlier that day, but of course he is not your boyfriend. If he was, he wouldn't philander around every woman in this city, right?"

"He's doing what?" Edea grinded her teeth.

"I know boys like him", the strange woman nodded. "They can't be trusted. At first they try to make you fall for them, only to turn you into a weapon afterwards. But we women can do the same thing. Let me show something to you." The blue-haired woman reached for her cloak's pockets and pulled out a sparkling necklace. "Wear this and every man will do as you please."

"Why would I want to wear this?", Edea asked, looking sceptically at the juwellery in her hands. When she looked up again, the weird woman was gone. What was this about?, she thought in confusion, putting the necklace in her bag. Then she turned around with a shrug.

"Here you are." One hour later, Ringabel caught up to her. "Seems like I made it just in time for our rendezvous."

"Did you find one of the missing women?", she asked, ignoring his last comment.

"Unfortunately not."

"Maybe you were to busy sweet-talking to other women?" She looked at him expectantly.

"What are you talking about? Why would I do that, now that I finally got the chance to go out with the most beautiful-"

"You can stop that now", she cut him off. "I didn't trust that woman anyway."

"What woman?"

"The one who told me you were chasing skirts again. She gave me this-" Edea showed him the necklace, "-telling me to wear it. It is supposed to charm men around me or something."

"You don't need a necklace to charm me", he grinned. "In fact, the less you wear-"

"Shut it." She punched him against the upper arm. "Can we at least try to concentrate on the murder case? The strange woman I met before reminded me of DeRosa. Not because of her parfume, but because of what she said about charming people and turning them into weapons. If I am right, this necklace is supposed to work like the old, red man's parfume."

"Now women started to use his technique too?" Ringabel looked horrified. Edea sighed and meant to put on the necklace when he quickly jumped behind her and said: "Let me help you." He gently put her hair aside. The moment the necklace was closed around her neck, Edea felt like she was suffocated. Gasping for air, she reached for her throat, trying to get rid of the deadly jewellery. Then the world infront of her eyes turned red.

When she gained consciousness, she was kneeling on the ground, fighting for air. The necklace layed beside her, cut into pieces.

"What happened?", she asked and tried to stop her body from shaking violently.

"You ... wanted to murder me, I fear." Ringabel who was standing infront of her reached out one hand to help her up. She saw scratches on his arms and felt deeply sorry, even though she couldn't remember anything. "At least we know what happened to those killed men", she heard him say. "Their wives had to have the same necklace you got or any object being put under the same curse. They probably got them while being missing, and when they reappeared, they murdered their husbands without remembering it afterwards. What a tragedy. We need to find the person who gave the necklace to you." He locked eyes with her, looking concerned. "Are you well enough to search for her now?"

"Wait. You'll skip our date to search for another woman?", she tried to joke. "I did not expect that."

"I will get you to the most beautiful place in Florem", Ringabel murmured and leant his forehead against hers. His hands wandered down to her hips and he was so close that Edea thought she could hear his heartbeat through his blue jacket. "After we caught that shady jeweller. I promise." He lightly kissed her on the tip of her nose before taking one step back. Having been so close to him triggered something inside of her. Without giving it a second thought she shoved him against a brick wall that belonged to a house behind them. He gave her a surprised look but didn't object when she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

She enjoyed it even more than in the previous night, now that she got a feeling of what to do with her body, her lips, her hands. She discovered that wrapping her fingers in his hair, for example, instantly made him deepen the kiss, as well as gently biting down on his lower lip.

"Edea", he moaned against her mouth, eyes still closed. "We should stop for now. You make me ... forget myself."

"That's strange, coming from a person who once lost his memories", she smiled. Seeing what she was able to do to him filled her with confidence. At the same time it scared her how his presence alone made her throw herself at him, kiss him-

"I know." He carefully pulled away from her. Taking a deep breath, he continued: "As soon as we get the murderer, we'll have our date. And then I'm going to kiss you all night long, so let's better find the jeweller quickly."

"My mother always told me to avoid kisses on the first date."

"Then we start kissing after the date", he suggested and winked at her. She smiled back at him, then tried to clean her head in order to focus on their case.

"Do you remember the place where we found the secret passage to DeRosa's laboratory? That's where I met the weird woman who gave me the necklace."

"Coincidence?" He raised one eyebrow. "I'd be surprised if we didn't find her down there. Seems like someone continued his work."

"Probably", she nodded and followed him through the streets of Florem.