by Jenn Bennett
“Come down and land, for the love of Pete,” I said nervously. “Stop flying. Whatever. Just quit wrecking the place. Lon’s going to be furious!”
He rubbed a hand over his injured forehead and lowered to the carpet, landing awkwardly as he folded up his wings behind his back. His grimace turned to a smile. “Hello, mistress,” he said, bowing his head briefly. The swinging pendant light above cast a moving shadow over his silvery gray chest.
“Thank God,” I murmured. “I was worried something had happened to you.”
His mouth tilted up. Black hole eyes softened as the corners crinkled. “You were worried about me?”
“Well, yeah. I didn’t want you getting killed.” I paused. “Again. And you were gone for so long.”
“I’m sorry to have disappointed you,” he said, hanging his head. “It was a longer journey than I expected, and I can’t travel as fast in this body.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’m just glad you’re okay.”
He brightened. “As am I. You look lovely,” he said, looking at me with unabashed interest.
New Priya was easily distracted. No wonder it took him so long. “Can you tell me what you’ve learned?”
His shoulders straightened. “Of course. But I fear you will not like what I have to say.”
“Oh, God.”
“Enola Duval is still alive.”
I closed my eyes as a dark disappointment weighed down my bones. I suppose I’d known it all along, since that first vision of her on the beach at Merrimoth’s house. I just didn’t want to believe it.
“I did not see her personally,” he continued. “But I spoke with many who have. I know of her general whereabouts on the demon plane. She has taken control of a citadel in a remote region that is on the brink of war. Rumors are spreading about her. The demons under her snare are threatening another group of demons—a strong legion under the command of a Grand Duke.”
My pulse went haywire. Surely there were many, many Grand Dukes in the Æthyr. But I had to know. “His name isn’t Chora, by chance?”
Priya was surprised. “You know of him?”
“You can’t be serious. It’s Duke Chora?”
“Yes.”
“Sh-h-hit.”
“What is wrong, mistress?”
“This Duke almost killed someone I love a couple of months ago.”
“Your demon child?”
“What?”
Priya pointed to my palm. “The one bound to you.”
“He’s not my child. I mean, I didn’t give birth to him. Anyway, I was talking about someone else.”
The door to the library swung open. “She’s talking about me.” Lon burst inside the room, all fiery halo and spiraling horns, eyes narrowed to slits.
Priya rushed in front of me and snapped his wings open. “Stay back, Kerub.”
Lon balked at the reference to his demonic heritage—or perhaps at the fact that Priya was protecting me against him.
“Priya, calm down,” I said. “This is Lon. He’s, uh . . . well, he’s the father of the demon boy under my protection.” I couldn’t think straight. I was still reeling from Priya’s news about my mom. “This is his home.”
Priya’s wings fluttered and drooped. He stepped aside and lowered his head, black halo trailing. “Forgive me.” I couldn’t tell if he was hurt or angry, but his mouth was drawn in a tight, straight line, and he was unwilling to take his eyes off Lon.
“It’s fine.” I put a hand on Priya’s arm, which was cooler and smoother than I expected. It was a simple gesture, meant to be casual, but it seemed to surprise both of us, and I quickly moved my hand away. I still couldn’t reconcile the familiarity I felt around him with the foreignness of his new body. I did my best to push away my confused feelings and cleared my throat. “Lon, this is Priya. He’s one of my oldest friends, so please stop glowering.”
Lon glanced at the spilled books on the floor. Yeah. Not happy about that. An accident, I said to him in my head.
He made a disgruntled noise then spoke to Priya. “What else have you learned about her mother?” He’d been listening to our conversation, which meant he’d heard me say the L-word. And now he was listening to me obsess over it. Awesome.
Priya glanced at me. “Would you like me to continue to discuss this in front of the Kerub?”
“Yes. Anything you tell me, you can tell Lon. He’s empathic, by the way. And he can hear your thoughts.” Only fair that he knew.
Priya nodded. Surely he was well acquainted with demonic knacks. Regardless, he wasn’t happy. He crossed his arms over his bare chest and turned to me. “As I was saying, rumors are spreading about your mother. Whenever there is a human in the Æthyr, it is momentous. But it has been said that she wields a great power. I am worried that this power is . . .”
“Yes?”
He blinked black, feathery lashes. “I am worried the power she wields is connected to you.”
“What power is that, exactly?” My voice came out squeakier than I wanted.
He shook his head. “I do not know. But there is talk that she’s given birth to someone who could decimate armies of demons.”
Oh, God.
“And since you are her only child . . .” Priya shrugged and narrowed his gaze at me. “You used your Moonchild ability recently.”
“What? Yes. A day ago.”
He nodded. “I thought I detected your Heka in the Æthyr. Not strong, but if I can sense it, then your mother may likely sense it, as you suspected. And because of this, I would be wary when you are drawing on those powers. Shield yourself. I think you are opening up a channel to the Æthyr when you use moon magick.”
I groaned.
“I do not know the repercussions of doing such a thing,” he said. “There are magicks that can track energy signatures. Creatures who can follow your Heka and use it to slip between the planes, or to spy on you.”
I thought about the spy in the shadows I’d seen at the racetrack after I’d used my moon power. Chills pricked my skin. What if it was something spying on me from the Æthyr? Although that wouldn’t explain the mystery sedan I’d seen at Diablo Market, or the one I thought I saw after Telly tore the bridge down. Æthyric creatures don’t drive cars.
“Perhaps it is not something to worry about,” Priya continued. “But I am concerned it will attract the attention of other beings in the Æthyr who are familiar with the scent of your Heka.”
“Like?” Lon prompted.
Priya glanced at him, chin tilted. “Any Æthyric demon she has summoned might remember her scent. I am connected to her. I carry a trace of her Heka in me.” He said this as if he were proud of it. Like he was goading Lon. And from the way Lon’s jaw tightened, I assumed it worked.
“Priya,” I said. “You need to be concerned about your own safety. Do not go near Duke Chora.”
“Chora is a respected leader.”
“He is also dangerous. Please stay away from him.”
“As you wish. I am following another trail that may bring me more information concerning your mother’s intentions. Once I know more, I will return to you.”
“Okay, but—”
A crackling energy emanated around his halo. He winced. “It is hard for me to remain much longer.”
“Crap.” I hated this. Now I was going to freak out about his safety, as well as my own. “Look, you’ve got to be careful. Promise me you will.”
A faint smile lifted his mouth. “I promise.”
“If you can find out what my mother’s intentions are, that would be great. But if you can find out anything about me, that would be better. You don’t know, do you? What exactly she bred into me? Whatever this is that can ‘decimate’ armies of demons?”
“No more than you do. But maybe she is sharing this secret with demons in the Æthyr. I will trace the rumors and see what I can discover.”
“Thank you.”
“It is my honor to serve you.” The air around him crackled again.
&n
bsp; “One more thing. What about my father?”
Priya lightly grazed the backs of his fingers over my cheek. “I’m afraid he isn’t alive.”
I nodded, unsure if this was good or bad, or how I felt about it. “Please be careful.”
“You, as well. Guard yourself and call if you need me.” In a flash, his entire body just disappeared. Gone. As if he was never there.
I looked up at Lon. He was unhappy. Maybe even a little shocked at seeing Priya’s new form—how could he not be? But whatever he was thinking about how my guardian looked, or whatever he’d heard inside his head, he had the good sense to keep it to himself.
“Lon,” I said in a voice that sounded smaller than I intended. “I’m scared.”
He shifted down, pulled me into his arms, and held me. But he didn’t tell me it would be okay this time. He merely said, “I know.”
After Priya’s unwelcome news, Lon and I rejoined the group and carried on like nothing was wrong. At least for awhile. Rose and Lon made a huge Caribbean feast for Christmas dinner: rice and peas, plantains, coconut snapper, curry, and some chicken that was so spicy, I nearly choked—much to everyone’s great amusement.
But when we were clearing the table, a knock on the door made my stomach flip. Jupe ran to answer it. A couple of seconds later, Yvonne entered the house: designer clothes, gold-framed sunglasses perched on top of her perfectly coiffed hair, arms filled with presents.
She paused in front of me. We stared each other down for several beats. Then she said, “Merry Christmas, Arcadia.”
“You, too,” I managed.
I didn’t talk to her directly after that, and I stayed my distance when she was showering Jupe with expensive presents, only hearing his excitement as I helped the Holidays wash up dishes in the kitchen. And when I’d towel-dried every single speck of water off the plates and had no more excuses to stay away, I lurked in the dining room and listened to her chattering with Jupe about new stores in La Sirena. About the pool in her tropical Floridian backyard. About her celebrity neighbors and the season tickets she had for the Miami Heat.
And she was apparently modeling for a national jewelry company, doing print and television ads, so I could look forward to seeing her face during commercial breaks of our family TV time. Maybe she’d even haunt me in Tambuku, too, her too-perfect face and body hawking diamond pendants during the bar’s weekly viewing of Paranormal Patrol. Then all my regulars could say, “Hey, isn’t that Lon’s ex-wife? Looks like she’s making a comeback.”
Everyone loves an underdog.
But how could I be anything but encouraging to Jupe? If anyone knew how he felt, being abandoned by her all these years, it was me. I couldn’t deny him a chance for a relationship with her. The Giovannis seemed impressed by her new sober life, and Yvonne might actually be stable and trying.
Even so, there was only so much I could take of her Celebrity Rehab success story. So when everyone decided to move the party outside on the deck, I excused myself and left the house for a couple of hours.
Kar Yee was glad to see me. Bob came over and after I gave them the update on my quest to find Telly, we watched Miracle on 34th Street on television. Kar Yee was healing up enough to drive. She’d made plans to get out of the city the next day and go upstate to visit an old college friend of ours. I don’t think she knew what to do with herself, since Tambuku wasn’t open. Bob neither. He told us he’d made a couple of appointments that week to do some minor healing on people in his group. I was glad. Seemed to keep his spirits up.
Life almost seemed calm for a couple of days. No winged Æthyric being popping up with news about my mother, no crimes fueled by bionic knacks. Just . . . normality. But two days after Christmas, some magazine bigwig called Lon up to San Francisco for the afternoon to meet with the president of an advertising firm. It was only a two-hour drive, and he’d be back early evening.
Meanwhile, I stayed in with the Giovannis. Rose was showing me how to make something called “black cake” when Yvonne called, wanting to take Jupe to the movies. Rose said she trusted her to spend a few hours alone with her son and thought maybe it would be good for both of them.
Maybe they were right. If Jupe wanted a relationship with her, I couldn’t stop him. I called Lon and told him what was going on. He said it was okay.
So we let him go.
After the movie ended, Yvonne called Rose and said they were stopping by a diner for a bite to eat. So we waited some more. Two hours later, they still hadn’t come back. Rose called her. Several times. No answer. I called Jupe. Texted Jupe. No response. That’s when I started full-on panicking. He’d never, never failed to respond to my texts. Rose couldn’t get a decent cell signal in the house, so she stepped out on the back patio and called the diner while Adella paced the living room.
His life wasn’t in danger. I knew this because the thread that connected us wasn’t visible like it was when he got demon-snatched by Duke Chora on Halloween. I considered sharing this with the Giovannis, but I wasn’t sure how they’d react to knowing he’d tattooed my sigil on his hip, and I didn’t want to get into the sordid events from Halloween. That would only make them more worried.
“I knew better than to trust her,” Adella said, as she paced, volcanic curls jostling beneath the blue-and-white striped scarf she’d tied to keep them off her forehead.
“I’m sure there’s a rational explanation,” I told her. And if the diner couldn’t confirm they were still there, I’d drive out to the Village to find them; I already had my keys in my pocket.
She snorted. “You don’t know my sister very well. Expect the worst, and you won’t be disappointed.”
How the hell I’d put myself in the position to defend Yvonne was beyond me. “You said before that you’d never forgive her. I don’t mean to pry, but I’ve been curious. Was there something she did to you specifically, or . . . ?”
Adella stopped pacing behind the couch. “She slept with my husband fifteen years ago.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I hadn’t even realized she’d been married. Lon and Jupe never mentioned it.
She gave me a tight smile. “We met in college, Samuel and I. It was love at first sight. We’d been married for a year when she came to stay with us. I think she’d been seeing Lon on and off at the time, but this was before she got pregnant with Jupe.” She stopped in front of a black-and-white photo of Jupe, one Lon took when he was a baby. “I, on the other hand, was pregnant. Three months. She seduced Samuel with her knack. He said he couldn’t stop himself. I believed him—you felt what she can do, right?”
“Yes.”
“Now imagine her when she goes all—” She mimicked horns with her fingers. “I confronted her. We fought. It could’ve been the end of it. Samuel and I would’ve pieced our life back together. But she was so angry. Petty. She slept with him again. He killed himself later that night. I lost the baby the next day.”
“Oh, God. Adella, I—”
She shook her head. “Don’t feel sorry for me. I survived—I didn’t let her pull me under. But maybe you understand a little better now. I know Lon probably keeps most of those old stories under his hat. He’s just that way.”
“He tells me some things, but it’s difficult for him to dredge it all up.”
“Oh, I know. I love Lon like a brother, but I think I’d go crazy if I had to live with him, all quiet about everything.”
I gave her a gentle smile. “He’s getting better.”
“You’re good for him. Good for Jupe, too. I’m really glad you’re in their lives.”
“Me too.” I wanted to say something more, but a silence hung between us for a moment. It was broken by the sound of the patio door sliding open.
Rose stepped inside the living room. The fringe of white bangs that normally was perfectly styled around her forehead was messily pushed to one side. Her glasses dangled from a slender chain around her neck. Her face was still as a stone. “Owner talked with all the waitresses. No pa
ir with their description came in.”
Fuck. What the hell was going on?
“Someone needs to stay here in case they come back,” I said heading toward the foyer. “I’ll drive down to the Village. There’s only one way here, so if Yvonne’s on that road, I should see her.”
“I’ll come with you,” Adella said reaching for her purse. “Mama, you stay.”
“It’s eight,” I said, glancing at the clock on the mantle. “Lon should be finished with his business dinner and on his way home soon.”
“I’m not calling him,” Rose said. “I don’t want him worried while he’s on the highway. He drives like a bat out of hell when he’s upset.”
That was true. “He keeps his ringer off most of the time anyway, so it doesn’t matter. I’m sure Jupe is fine,” I said, more for me than them. “There’s a logical explanation for why he’s not answering my texts, and—”
“Car!” Rose shouted out of the blue. “Someone’s pulling up the driveway.”
I didn’t hear it, but I didn’t have her knack. We all raced out the front door to find Yvonne helping Jupe out of her car. Relief washed over me. Christ, I’d gotten way too worked up.
“Why haven’t you answered your phone?” Rose shouted angrily at Yvonne. “It’s been two hours. I know you weren’t at the diner, so don’t tell me you were.”
“I’m sorry,” Yvonne said as shut Jupe’s door. Why was she holding onto him like that? I couldn’t see what was going on. The driveway lights were on, but they weren’t bright. Everything was cloaked in shadow. “Time got away from me. I ran into someone Lon and I used to know from the Hellfire Club. We were chatting, and I guess I didn’t hear the phone.”
She turned around and was mumbling something to Jupe, blocking my view of him.
“What’s going on?” I said. This was all wrong. Jupe should be bounding over to see us. Why was he so quiet?
“What the hell?” Rose said. “What did you do, Yvonne? What—”