pay attention to Anthea’s spells.
“What grimoire are you talking about?”
I started. I’d forgotten Ezra was there.
“It’s, um …” I cleared my throat. “It’s my family’s grimoire. Claude wants it because it has the name of the Twelfth House, as well as some ancient spells.”
I doubted Ezra could preternaturally detect lies, but that didn’t mean Eterran couldn’t. Better to offer a partial truth than a lie.
Focusing properly on the mage, I sat forward, subconsciously gripping the cushions to brace myself. “Ezra, you saved our lives and I’m grateful, but I haven’t forgotten that you want something from us. You still haven’t told us what.”
Leaning against the wall beside the door, he weighed me, then turned his focus to Zylas and performed the same assessment. A deep magma glow ignited in his left eye.
“We want the Amulet of Vh’alyir.”
Silence pressed down on the apartment, then Amalia pointed at the demon mage and half shrieked, “What the actual f—”
“The imailatē belongs to my House,” Zylas growled. “Not Dh’irath.”
“We do not want to keep it.” Eterran’s accent bled into Ezra’s voice. “We want to use it.”
“What we need,” Ezra clarified, “is information on how it works and how to use its power. Then we just need to … borrow it.”
“You have knowledge of it,” Eterran added. “You can tell us what we need to know.”
My fingers bit into the cushion. In light of Tori’s terse questions about the amulet, I wasn’t entirely surprised, but it wasn’t what I’d expected.
“We don’t have the amulet,” I told the demon mage. “We’re hoping to find it, but …”
“But you lost it after Tahēsh’s death.”
“How do you know about that?” Amalia asked suspiciously.
“Tahēsh tried to give it to me.” Eterran’s power blazed in Ezra’s left eye. “Our Houses have always been allied. He tried to free me. Together, we would have been unstoppable. We would have found a way to return to our world—or we would have spent our years in this world punishing all hh’ainun who have ever dared to enslave a demon.”
His vicious smile morphed into a disgusted grimace. “But I didn’t let him take the amulet,” Ezra said. “Though I didn’t know it’s power then.”
“Back up a hot minute,” Amalia interrupted. “What power?”
Ezra was silent for a moment. If he and Eterran had been separate beings, they would’ve been exchanging a long look—an unhappy one.
“You do not know? Vh’alyir’s imailatē grants its holder immunity to contracts. It is why hh’ainun do not summon the Twelfth House. They believe the Dīnen et Vh’alyir still possess it and would slaughter any summoner.”
My mouth hung open. Zylas looked just as shocked.
“How do you know that?” I asked unsteadily.
“It is known by the Lūsh’vēr and Dh’irath Dīnen. I thought it was a mere story until Tahēsh offered it to me.” He looked at Zylas. “You did not know this?”
The demon’s lips pulled back. “Who would teach me the stories of my House, Dh’irath? You and Lūsh’vēr have killed all who know them.”
“Then you do not know how the amulet works.”
Anger buzzed across my nerves at Eterran’s cool reply—his complete lack of remorse for his House’s slaughter of Zylas’s. How many Vh’alyir demons had Eterran killed before being summoned here?
“It sounds like you already know everything you need to know,” I said frostily. “If you possess the amulet, you become immune to your contract and you can split with Ezra. All you have to do is find it.”
“And good luck with that,” Amalia muttered.
“We need to know more,” Eterran growled. “The amulet—”
He broke off, a snarl twisting his lips. He slapped his hand over his left eye, shoulders hunching, tendons standing out sharply in his neck. The temperature dropped, a bone-deep chill permeating the air.
The tension slid from the mage. He straightened and lowered his hand—revealing a pale eye with no hint of crimson. “The part Eterran skipped over is that I won’t let him—or rather, us—anywhere near that amulet until I understand exactly what will happen. The best-case scenario is it breaks our contract and Eterran can leave my body. I’ll be free of him.”
“Does he even have a body anymore?” Amalia asked. “How long can a demon possess someone before their body just … stops existing?”
“He should be unchanged.” Zylas’s tail snapped against the floor. “Demons have disappeared into Ahlēvīsh for years and returned no different.”
“What’s an Ah—” I began.
“What is the bad case?” Zylas asked before I could get the question out.
“That the amulet will break the contract but not break whatever magic binds Eterran inside my