family.
I have two years still to tell you … two years before my soul is his.
To think I have set the final moment of my life makes my heart tremble, but if this astonishing, bold, regal Vh’alyir lord ensures your escape from the nightmare that has descended upon us … in that event, my dearest sister, I will go happily into the ether by his hand.
- Myrrine Athanas
My pulse beat hard in my throat. Myrrine had successfully summoned a Twelfth House demon—and she’d promised him her soul. She’d chosen to end her life to protect her younger sister and keep the Athanas legacy alive.
She had been far braver than I could ever hope to be.
Though Myrrine had survived summoning a Vh’alyir, and even made a contract with him, she hadn’t mentioned the grimoire’s dire warning about the Twelfth House. Had she learned anything from the ancient Dīnen? Was the warning wrong, or had she not yet discovered why her predecessors had so feared the demons of Vh’alyir?
Turning on my stool, I studied the link chart on the coffee table with Claude in the center. Why did every new thing I learned create more questions?
Chapter Twelve
“I give up,” I groaned, my cheek resting on my laptop keyboard. “It’s not here. Someone deleted it.”
“Don’t be so dramatic.” Amalia leaned a hip on the counter as she scooped a spoonful of yogurt into her mouth. “If Tori found the case, you can find it too.”
“I’ve looked at every single case about demons, summoners, and demon mages from the last thirty years. I’m seeing case files in my sleep.”
She scraped the last of the yogurt out of her bowl. “Or, like I suggested yesterday morning, you could just ask Tori.”
I flopped back against the sofa cushions. “If I ask Tori, I might as well tell her friends too. Aaron and Kai think I’m a rogue traitor. You haven’t seen the way they look at me—like I might sic Zylas on the whole guild any second.”
She threw up her hands. “What do you want me to say? Either you ask Tori, you spend the next three months sifting through every single case in the archives, or we move to the Bahamas and forget Claude exists. Those are our options.”
“Claude killed my parents,” I said quietly. “I can’t forget he exists.”
“Then take a chance.” She smoothed her hair. “How do I look?”
I glanced over her black skirt and mauve blouse. “Very professional. Where are you going?”
“Um … out. I’ll tell you about it later.” She grabbed her jacket and hoisted a tote bag over her shoulder. “See you in a few hours.”
“Sure …” I muttered dubiously as she breezed out the apartment door and locked it behind her. She’d been going out for “errands” a lot lately, and I figured it had something to do with the obsessive amount of sewing she’d been doing when she was home. She’d fill me in when she was ready.
Yawning widely, I looked again at my laptop. The MPD’s archive search tool stared back at me, mocking my lack of new ideas on how to find the case.
“Fine,” I growled under my breath. Picking up my phone, I opened my contacts. I’d looked up Tori’s number before our Odin’s Eye meeting, but I’d never used it. Gulping, I hit the call button.
It rang in my ear, over and over. Just as I was about to hang up, the line clicked—and sound blared in my ear.
As I jerked the phone away from my face, a voice shouted furiously, “Twiggy, turn the TV down before I throw your green ass out the window!”
The background noise dropped. A clatter echoed across the line, then a puff of air into the mic. “Hello?”
“Tori?” I queried hesitantly.
“Who’s this?”
“Robin.”
“Oh. How are—Don’t you dare turn that up again!” she suddenly shouted. “Wait until I’m off the phone. Geez! Sorry, Robin. Roommates, I tell ya.”
She had a roommate named Twiggy? I shook my head. “I just have a quick question, if that’s okay.”
“Sure. What’s up?”
“When we were meeting with Naim at Odin’s Eye, you, um … you had some MPD cases in your folder. I noticed a photo in one, and I was wondering … could I get the case file?”
“Oh?” A rustle as though Tori were getting more comfortable. “Sure.”
I relaxed. That’d been easier than—
“On one condition.”
I tensed up all over again. “What condition?”
“You tell me what’s special about that photo.”
I scrambled for an explanation that wouldn’t contradict the case details. “One of the men in the