Val shrugged. “At the moment? Not very—but that will change quickly.”
The knot in my stomach grew bigger. We’d been working with not very? I didn’t want to see him at full strength. “What do you mean, that will change?”
“He will be looking to break back into the Shadow Realm. He’s free, but trapped in the mortal Realm until he gathers his strength.”
I got the feeling a V8/Red Bull combo wasn’t going to do it for him. “Do I even want to know how he’s going to go about that?”
“You already know the answer. To gain power, he will have to ingest powerful souls. He’s already well on his way.”
Well on his way? My brain kicked into overdrive, going over all the information we already had—which wasn’t that much. Powerful souls. Powerful souls…
Hell in a hailstorm.
“The witches,” I said, gasping. “That’s why he’s taking out the coven witches.”
…
I shadowed Lukas home, and then, like a good little girl, listened to her dad. And by listen, it was go home—as instructed—then shadow back to the hospital to be with Mom as soon as I knew he wasn’t looking.
It was almost midnight when I got back to her room, and everything was dark, the only light coming from the soft glow of a machine beeping in the corner. I took two steps in and lost it.
Seeing the strongest person I knew lying helpless and still in a bed surrounded by tweaking machines and so much white turned my stomach. I felt the exact moment the tears spilled over, silently, and from there, it was like an unstoppable waterfall. Messy, ugly sobs and oceans of snot.
Nothing like this had ever happened before. A mindblower, considering the trouble we got ourselves into on your average week, but there it was. This was the first time damage had been done that we’d needed to outsource to fix. Just thinking about the possibility that this could have ended worse made me cry even harder.
“Oh no,” Mom said softly. She shifted up a little in the bed. Of course. Leave it to her to know I was here. She patted the blanket. “Come here, baby girl.”
I obeyed, crossing the room with my eyes down, and climbed onto the bed, snuggling up next to her. She smelled wrong. Like bleach and medicine as opposed to lilacs and coffee. She wrapped an arm around me and kissed the top of my head. This was the definition of lame. She was hurt, and yet I was the one who needed comforting.
“I assume your father told you to go home.”
“I’m not leaving,” I said, gripping a fistful of the thin hospital blanket. If I’d thought about it, I would have brought her blue one with me from home. Soft and warm. Not scratchy and stale smelling like this one.
“I won’t make you,” she whispered. “Besides, I feel safer with you here, watching over me.”
I knew what she said was true. She did feel safer with me here—but not for the reason she gave. She felt safer because, like always, she was able to watch over me. But this was different. She was the one Gressil had tried to kill. And now that he knew his attempt had failed, how soon before he tried again?
Chapter Seventeen
The next morning, I shadowed home in time to drive back to the hospital with Dad, to pick Mom up. When I asked him why he didn’t just shadow her home, he said she deserved a little normal, so that’s what he was giving her.
We wove through the crowded hallway and rounded the corner. She was dressed and waiting, sitting on the edge of her bed when we arrived.
She put her arm around my shoulders and winked at the nurse who was taking her blood pressure. “I’d love to say I’m sorry to leave, but…”
The nurse handed her a pile of papers to sign. “You should be,” she said with a sad smile. “The doctor thinks this is a mistake. You should really stay another night for observation. You’re a very lucky woman, Mrs. Darker.”
Mom nodded. “Noted. However, I think I’ll take it easy from the comfort of my own home.”
With a final nod, she disappeared into the hall, and a moment later, came back with a wheelchair.
“Damn right,” Dad said. “You’ll be relaxing for the next few days.” When Mom was finished signing, he helped her up and into the chair. The nurse pushed the chair into motion. They stepped out into the hall, and I followed. One quick stop at the nurses’ station to drop off the paperwork, and we were on our way.
“Lukas is watching the phones at the agency, and any major calls that come in will be put off until next week,” I said. “The rest we’ve got covered.”
Mom started to argue as we got to the entrance. I knew that look, but Dad gently clamped a hand down over her mouth as the wheelchair came to a stop just outside the main entrance. “Don’t make me tie you up, Klaire.”
A blush rose in the nurse’s cheeks as she helped Mom up. With a smile and a wave, she quickly disappeared back inside the building.
Mom flashed Dad a wicked grin, and I covered my ears. “Ugh. You guys scared the nurse off. Lalalalala. Not listening.”
A light smack at the back of my shoulder and a roll of her eyes. “Mind out of the gutter. Now.”
It was snowing again, but it didn’t seem to be sticking. The cars in the lot were just barely covered, and the blacktop was wet. People bustled back and forth, slipping in the slush and hurrying in from the cold.
“Hey.” I threw up my hand as Dad opened the passenger’s side doors. We’d parked right outside, in the pick-up area. “You two were the ones talking bondage. I’m way too young for that kind of thing.”
Mom sighed and gingerly eased herself into the car. “Where are we with the demon?”
I swallowed. While we didn’t want to impose any unnecessary stress, she had a right to know the score. “That whole thing is…complicated.”
She twisted in her seat and pinned me with the Mom stare. “Define complicated. What did you do?”
I feigned insult. “Why do you always assume I’ve done something?”
Her eyebrows rose.
“Okay, never mind. But, no, I didn’t do anything. We do have a serious problem, though.”
She sighed, and with a sideways glance at Dad as he got into the driver’s seat, said, “Why does this not surprise me?”
“Right after you went down outside the Archway, I was summoned to the Shadow Realm for a meeting. That’s why I wasn’t with you…”
“I figured that’s what happened. What kind of a meeting?” She glanced at Dad again, but it was obvious that he was staying out of it. He started the engine and pulled out of the lot without saying a word.
How much should I tell her? How much was too much? The thing about being Valefar’s Regent was going to set her off like a match to a pile of dead leaves, so that was out. It was the same job that kept her and Dad apart. I was half human, so he couldn’t make me stay in the Shadow Realm, but still… The idea of having her little girl follow in Daddy’s footsteps was going to go over as well as Smokey drool in her favorite boots.
“With Valefar’s boss.” I took a deep breath. “Lucifer.”
Mom’s mouth fell open. “Lucifer? The Lucifer is Valefar’s boss?”
Hah. I knew it. The exact same reaction I’d had. “Yep. He’s the one who trapped Asmodeus.”
Dad, who’d been silent until now, chuckled. He reached across the seat and took her hand. “I knew that’d get you going.”
Mom squeezed his hand and flashed him a grin that made the butterflies in my stomach go nuts. They were perfect for each other, my parents. Two twisted peas in a pod. Seeing them together at last made everything right in my world.
With a grin, Dad said, “I asked around, since it was well before my time, but apparently Lucifer grew tired of his brothers’ squabbling and rule breaking. Their thirst for power tore the Shadow Realm apart over the course of several centuries. He gathered his army, imprisoned his brothers, and took over as the High King.”
“Yep. And Asmodeus, being one of the demons Lucifer stashed away, is pretty pissed about it. The meeting was to discuss the…si
tuation.”
“There’s a bit more to it than that, though,” he added. He looked at me through the rearview mirror, and for a second I was sure he meant the Regent thing. Then I remembered Lucifer’s threat. “Isn’t there?”
I’d been hoping we could skip that part. “Oh. Yeah. There kinda is…”
Mom shifted back around to look at me. “Why does it sound like I’m not going to like this?”
“You’re not,” Dad said. He pulled the car into the driveway and killed the engine. “They’re holding the kids responsible for releasing him—”
“Which so isn’t fair by the way—” I interjected quickly.
“—so it’s their job to recapture him. They have to do it without the aid of Shadow Realm resources.”
“Resources,” Mom repeated, glaring at him. She unfastened her seat belt. “What does that mean, exactly?”
“It means Dad can’t help me. Valefar either.”
“Okay,” she said carefully. “Well, Charles trapped him once without help from the Shadow Realm. We can do it again.”
A can-do attitude was one of the things us Darker girls were known for, but she was forgetting a crucial piece of history. “Charles had Lorna Belfair help him, remember? Cassidy isn’t going to jump through hoops to repeat her ancestor’s mistake.” My heart hammered against my ribs. Still one piece of info to go. “Lucifer was obviously pissed about…that thing we accidentally did, sort of, but he said we wouldn’t be punished as long as we fixed our mistake…”
Mom closed her eyes and sighed. “How much time?”
“He didn’t say exactly, but you know… Soon.” I held back a shiver. “I doubt Lucifer is known for patience.”
…
After we got back to the office, we went straight into planning mode. Two hours into it, and we were no closer to figuring a way to fix things. Dad excused himself—he wasn’t technically allowed to help, so he couldn’t do much anyway—and took Lukas to run an errand with him, while Mom made another attempt to talk to Cassidy. Me? I got asked to do the most awesome job ever.
Research.
I’d been curled up on the office couch for about an hour, contemplating ways to make the whole thing less boring, when Kendra let herself in.
“Hey,” she said, sinking onto the couch next to me and grabbing the corner of the journal I was forcing myself to skim. “Bestseller material?”
I slammed the book closed, sneezing when a puff of dust exploded. “More like one for the Razzies. Charles Darker’s journal reads more boring that Simon’s, and trust me, that’s saying a lot.”
She frowned. “Nothing useful at all?”
“He mentions our guy, and says something about making grave sacrifices in order to take the demon down—” I looked up and rolled my eyes. “Shocking, right? But that’s about it. Nothing on how they did it, or what. The later pages are even worse. Less Monster Mashing and more mushy gunk about his family, particularly his nephew, Samuel.”
Kendra nodded to the door. “We could try the archives. I don’t know much because Mom is keeping quiet, but we know Lorna helped box up Gressil. Our historical documentation is insane. If there’s a chance of finding out what she did, that’s where we’ll find it.”
“But I thought Lorna had been ostracized by the coven? Would they really have any info on it?”
“Trust me,” Kendra said. “No matter where she was and what she was doing, the coven knew about it. She was powerful. They would have kept tabs.” There was a sadness in her voice. “Well? What do you say?”
“It couldn’t hurt, but is Cassidy really going to let me peek at your records?”
“She won’t even know. The archives are kept in a crypt below the Archway. Only a member of the coven can unlock the door.”
I hated to point it out to her, because of the soreness of the subject, but she seemed to be forgetting one major factor. “Ken, um, you’re not an actual member yet…”
I expected a sad face, or at the very least, a disgruntled pout. She’d been talking about becoming a full-fledged coven member for as far back as I could remember. Instead, I got sunshine and major bff beaming. “I am. Inducted last night.”
I jumped off the couch, the journal tumbling to the floor. “Oh my God. You’ve been here for like five minutes, and you’re just telling me now?”
People thought covens were a small group of witches that sat around and chanted naked under the moon. Not even close. The coven was more like an organized crime family—without the crime. In most cases. They banded together to increase their power and had their own set of laws, enforced by their own police. In order to become a full member, an eligible witch had to pass seven tests. I didn’t know much about them, or the actual induction, but I knew it was a huge deal.
She grabbed the journal from the floor. Handing it back, she said, “Bigger problems.”
“No way. This is huge.” I threw my arms around her and squeezed. She returned the hug with a squeal. “I’m so proud of you, Ken.”
“So,” she said, beaming. “Wanna have a peek at the archives? Go where no Darker has gone before?”
Oh, I wanted. I wanted, like I wanted chocolate.
…
Much like the hidden chamber below Saint Vincent’s, the archives were in a place no one would have ever expected.
The Dobbs Park public restrooms.
I stepped into the bathroom, taking care to avoid a suspicious looking puddle to my right. “Seriously, the coven couldn’t find someplace less stinky to hide their treasured history?”
Kendra giggled and pressed her hand flat against the full-length mirror next to the door—something even I wasn’t brave enough to do in here—and whispered something under her breath. When she stepped back, she was grinning. The mirror shimmered, and a ripple fanned out from the center like someone had dropped a rock into a tranquil pond. “Before we do this, I wanna say something…”
My stomach clenched. “Okay… But if it’s bad news, I think you should save it till later.”
Kendra snorted. “Nothing like that. I agree with what Lorna did, Jessie. She was right to help the Darkers. What she was doing with her power, it was right. Your family helps people. They make the world a safer place. The coven, they could do so much more with their power, but they don’t. It’s all about them, and I hate it.” She squared her shoulders. “You guys need a Lorna.”
“We need a—” It took a second, but when I realized what she was hinting at, I nearly choked. “Whoa. No way. Cassidy would kick our asses.”
“I’m getting better every day. Gaining more and more control over my powers. They wouldn’t have inducted me otherwise. I’m a valuable asset, and I want to help. I want to do the right thing. Like Lorna did.”
“Ken, maybe—”
Her eyes lit with a spark of determination. “We might not know the specifics yet, but one thing is positive. It was a Belfair that helped Charles trap Gressil in the first place. If he could have done it on his own, would he have asked for her help?”
Unfortunately, she had a point. But, point or not, the last thing I wanted was for my best friend to get involved in this. “This is serious stuff, Ken. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“In case you missed it, the demon isn’t exactly a fan of the Belfairs.” Her tone was sharp and her stance ridged. Squaring her shoulders, she said, “There’s no staying out of this one, and honestly, I wouldn’t want to. I told you, I wanna do good with my magic. I’m not giving you a choice here, Jessie.”
I didn’t confirm or deny needing her help, but nodded. I knew Kendra’s stubborn face, just like I knew she’d do just about anything to drag the Belfair name out from the dark hole her mother and ancestors had dug for it. “So, how do we get into the archives?”
Kendra’s expression turned mischievous. She stepped up to the mirror, waggled her fingers in my direction, and stepped right through.
Chapter Eighteen
If I lived inside a cartoon, there was an excellen
t chance my jaw would have crashed to the floor and shattered into a million shards. Sound effects, bouncing pieces—the whole nine. Obviously I’d seen a lot of creepy crap working with Mom, but this took the horror movie cake. It was right up there with clowns and talking robots.
I sucked in a breath and touched the surface of the mirror with the tip of my index finger. It was warm. Not quite liquidy, but definitely not solid—which was a good thing if I planned on walking through the thing. My finger met with the slightest bit of resistance when I pushed, like poking a hole through plastic wrap, but disappeared into the mirror. I counted to three and stepped through.
There were several seconds of disorientation, but when everything cleared, I couldn’t help gasping. Kendra was a few feet away, smiling, beneath a sparkling golden archway. With each step I took, the walls seemed to glitter. Like they were encrusted with a billion slivers of glass; they played off the light from the torches around the room.
I picked up the nearest torch and held it close to the wall to get a better look. On closer inspection, the glinting shards appeared to be stones that changed color depending on what angle you looked at them from. “Did you light all these?”
“Nah,” Kendra said. She walked back to me and held her hand over the fire as I started to protest. “They’re not fire in the sense that you’re thinking. It’s magic.”
“Well, bippity, boppity, boo.” We walked forward and stopped just beneath the arch. There was a subtle breeze, and I couldn’t tell which way it was coming from.
She came up beside me. “As far as I know, you’re the first non-coven member to ever walk past this gate.”
A profound sense of gravity settled over me. Honor that she would share this with me, but also fear that I wasn’t worthy. “This is kinda huge, Ken. You sure you don’t want me to wait here? I’d totally get it. Look who you’re talking to. My family has done some pretty insane things to protect our secrets.”
The room ahead was huge, with no visible doors other than the mirror beyond the archway. In the middle, there was a podium with a large book sitting open on the top, the edges of its pages fluttering every now and then, and along the walls, it almost looked like countless rows of drawers.