shouldn’t be. He messed up big at the warehouse, and my understanding is that his punishment should have lasted longer than this.”
Her eyes widen.
“We’ll talk, okay?” I tell her. “Later. All about demon punishment and . . . stuff. But promise me you won’t freak out. Promise me you’ll stay calm if he comes back.”
“If he’s invisible, how will I know?”
“If I can see him, I’ll tell you.”
“If?”
“Without the halo my sight is . . . inconsistent. I don’t know why. You don’t have Canaan’s number, do you?”
She shakes her head. It was a long shot anyway.
“I have Helene’s.”
I think of Helene’s mangled body. I think of her disappearing from sight. She needs time to heal, but how long will that take? I think back to the warehouse. To the extent of her wounds there.
“Okay,” I say. “Here’s the plan. You keep calling. Jake and Helene. Just call until one of them answers. Leave a message on their voice mail too. And text your heart out, Kay.”
She clenches her phone to her chest. “I can do that.”
I laugh. It’s too loud, out of place here with a demon circling, but I do it anyway.
“Yes, I believe you can.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to pray.”
Her face is already pale, but now it looks all green and sickly.
“That’s it. That’s all? I’m going to text and you’re going to pray?”
I nod, her fear grabbing hold of me as well.
“No offense, Elle, but that’s a crappy plan.”
She may be right.
“Yeah, but it’s all I’ve got right now,” I say, pulling her to her feet. “You with me?”
“Okay,” she says. “I’m in, but what are we going to tell your dad?”
I twist around, and there, walking up the road back toward the house, is Dad.
“Holy heck. What is he doing back here?”
“I don’t know, but he doesn’t look happy to see you outside. You’re supposed to be in bed, remember? We’re going to have to tell him something.”
“Sitting Dad down and telling him we had a little visit from a demon this morning might not be the best way to handle this.”
“It’s what you did with me.”
“Yeah, well, you’re not as crazy as my dad. Or as hungover.”
“That’s saying something at least.”
Dad crunches through the gravel toward us, his ice chest swinging against his leg, his eyes squinting in the morning light. I hold my arms out, questioning.
“Truck broke down,” he says.
Of course it did.
“They’re towing it to the Auto Body.”
“So, no work for you today,” I say, glancing at the sky once more.
“I’m expecting an angry call from Cliff anytime now. What are you girls doing out here? Thought you were going back to bed, Elle.”
“I was. I am. Kaylee needed something from her car.”
“My phone,” she says. “Forgot it out here.”
“And you needed an escort?”
“You know girls,” she says. “Gotta do it all together. In fact, I think, yup, I have to pee. You wanna come, Elle?”
“Yes!” I say. “The bathroom. Yes.”
Dad narrows his eyes at us, but we’re around her car in a flash. We run up the porch stairs and back inside, through the kitchen and into the bathroom. I slam the door, and she falls onto the closed toilet.
“Okay, what now?”
I stare at my reflection in the mirror. Holy golden haloes, Batman. I’m hideous.
“You start dialing,” I say. “I’m going to brush my teeth and pray at the same time.”
“Does that work?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“You don’t, like, need to be on your knees or holding beads or something?”
“I’ll be talking to an invisible God,” I tell her. “He’s all right with me brushing up while I do it.”
I pull my toothpaste from the drawer. “But, Kay?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m new at this whole praying thing, so I’m going to do it silent-like, okay? In my head.”
“Whatever sharpens your pencil, girl. I’m pretending this is all in your head.”
32
Jake
When he exits the tattoo parlor, Jake finds Canaan leaning against his car door, his face hanging with emotion.
“I’m sorry, Jake.”
“You heard, then? Doctor Doom.”
“I heard,” Canaan says.
“Do you think that’s why Olivia’s come to Stratus? For some sort of generational revenge?”
“I’m not certain Olivia knows why she came to Stratus. I expect only time will tell.”
“And you haven’t seen her or Marco?”
“No,” Canaan says. “But I’ll keep an eye out for them.”
“And the halo?”
Canaan shrugs. Even on the phone he was strangely serene about the missing halo.
“We have no control over that now,” he says. “You’re more like him than I, Jake. If you stumbled upon it like he did, would you let