he argued, alright. But I told him Nightliss made it clear Justin was supposed to use them."
My forehead went tight. "She didn't say that."
Elyssa grinned. "I know that. But he doesn't."
"Elyssa," Bella said in a scolding tone. "Lying to your father is not nice."
"Oh, give me a break," Elyssa said, rolling her eyes. "After all he's done to me, he deserved it."
Bella's eyes twinkled. "I have the feeling this is just the beginning of your revenge on that poor man."
I checked my phone. It was three in the afternoon the week before Christmas. I could hardly believe how little it felt like the holidays to me. Everyone else would be doing last-minute shopping and preparing to put on the ugliest sweater in their wardrobe for a special visit to a relative. I wondered if the Conroys or the Slades celebrated Christmas. It was almost laughable to think of demon spawn or my evil grandparents putting up a tree and festive lights in their yards.
I chuckled as another thought occurred to me.
"What is it?" Elyssa asked, nudging me in the ribs.
"Every time this year, me, Harry, and Mark used to get together for a huge sci-fi marathon. We'd drink tons of hot chocolate and eat obscene amounts of candy."
Elyssa's mouth twisted sideways. "Do I even want to know what you watched?"
"Now that I think about it, all that make-believe stuff on T.V. seems pretty normal compared to my reality."
She laughed.
I shook my head. "It was so stupid, in retrospect, but I guess I kinda miss it."
"You miss your nerd friends, and running around with a foam sword?" Elyssa said, a smirk still on her face.
I nodded. "Remember the time you joined us and kicked ass?"
"You were into LARPing?" Adam said from behind.
"What in the world is a LARP?" Meghan asked.
Now they were into my area of expertise. "Live action role playing." I turned my head to face them. "We dressed up like fantasy creatures and beat the crap out of each other with foam swords and shields."
Adam nodded. "I used to LARP myself, back before my parents…" He looked out the window. "It was fun just being a kid. Not a care in the world."
My childhood was so far back in the rear-view mirror, it wasn't even funny.
The SUV pulled up a long driveway and stopped at The Ranch. I stepped outside and looked at the horses grazing in the pastures nearby. I briefly wondered if they bred unicorns here, too. Of course, it was all a cover to give the Templars a base of operations in a sprawling metropolis. My childhood home wasn't far from here—or at least what was left of it. Since the day hellhounds had chased me from it, I hadn't returned to see.
Katie tugged on my arm when we got out. "Justin, will you do me a huge favor and contact Ash and Nyte?"
I grimaced at the thought of my Goth friends. Besides Elyssa, they'd been the only other people at high school who'd taken me in after all my troubles had started. Katie had been one of those troubles. I'd crushed so hard on her I'd lost sight of everything else, and managed to alienate my friends and everyone else in school to the point where nobody else would have anything to do with me, not even Andy Dudowitz. Nathan Spelman and his gang of bullies had made things worse, once shoving Ash down a row of bleachers.
Now they needed me, and I hadn't done a thing to help. They had no idea what they were getting into with Maximus.
"Yeah, I'll call them right now," I said.
Nyte answered on the first ring. "Justin, oh my god, dude, where have you been?"
"Uh, travelling a lot."
Nyte chuckled. "You're never going to believe what Ash and I have been up to. Where we've been, man."
Another voice came on the phone. "Justin, it's Ash! We thought you were dead after that bus plowed into you, but the cops never found a body or anything. Are you okay?"
I smiled at hearing their voices, feeling a flood of relief. "I'm fine. In fact, I'm with Elyssa right now." I tried to think of a way to gauge their knowledge, though, from what Katie had said, they probably knew all about the Overworld. "Why don't we grab a bite to eat tonight?" I knew for a fact I wasn't ready to ram through Maximus's front door just yet. Besides, if Ash and Nyte really were considering joining him, maybe they'd have valuable