Wolves at the Door - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,13

pyramid, but I don’t know what they do. I’m trying to figure it out. And I am not a big fan of the council either, at this point. I know you remember me as a girl from a famous family with my big sisters ruling the school, but I always hated that world. I ran away from it. That’s why I’m here. And my brother has actually been disowned and became a Wyrd warlock. At this point my parents think I might follow in his footsteps.”

“This is serious,” Billie said. “I’m not sure you’re ready to handle it.”

“I’m already involved. I have one of the pieces you need.”

“You have one of the pieces?” Her face lit with excitement and perhaps, some fear.

“That’s right.”

“Fine,” Billie said. “Why don’t you come into my house?”

I finally got out of the car and so did Graham. “Anyway, my ghost lives in your house.”

“Your ghost? And who is this ghost?”

“His name is Byron…something. His last name is demon-y, I can’t remember.”

“Byron? Deveraux’s friend?”

“You’ve met?”

“No. We never met. I knew Deveraux, that’s all. You might have guessed by now. In fact, I’m a distant relation on my mom’s side. We’re just the poor cousins. Deveraux was worried about who would inherit his piece of the box when he died, but I think he was afraid to change his will. He didn’t want any record of his ownership of the map. Plus he was so old, it was hard to get him to do much of anything. He just always told me I needed to retrieve the map when he died and keep it safe. He mentioned Byron might help me to understand the map but he never told me Byron was a ghost!”

“Did he want to use it?” Graham asked. “Or just keep it safe?”

“He just wanted to keep it safe,” Billie said, taking a skeleton key from her pocket. “He was afraid of what it might do. I’m the one who wants to use it. I feel it’s my grand purpose in life.”

As she was moving to the lock, the door swung open by itself. Byron stood inside, waiting for our return.

“You must be Billie,” he said.

“Ohhh…so you’re the ghost.” Billie’s mouth opened. “Oh…gosh.” She laughed. “It makes sense that you’d be young, but Deveraux was so old, I was expecting an old man ghost too!”

“Ah, the perks of death,” Byron said.

“I guess we’ll be getting to know each other pretty well,” Billie said.

Oh no. Ohhh no. I wanted to stake my immediate claim to Byron, but my hands were tied. For one thing, I didn’t know where things were going with Graham. My head said I would have a much more realistic relationship with Graham, and I was already his sponsor to the magical world.

But there was something about Byron that compelled my soul. I wanted to solve his mysteries, ease his loneliness…

The second problem was that if I acted competitive to Billie she would take that as yet another sign that I was just a rich girl who thought I deserved to take things from her.

Byron glanced at me and patted my head. “I must warn you, I am likely to break your heart, Billie,” he said.

“What—are you two together? You’re not with him?”

“She’s with both of us,” Byron said.

“No, no…” I waved my hands. “I mean—I’m deciding. No, that sounds bad. I’m…I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“What about those other guys?” Graham asked, meaning the Sullivan brothers.

“Oh my goodness. Sounds like you do take after your brother then, from what I’ve heard,” Billie said.

“I don’t! And I’m older than him.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Graham asked.

“It means she was born in a year that came before the year her brother was born,” Billie said, freely working the sarcasm. “Her brother is in a bond marriage, I heard.”

Billie was just causing me all sorts of trouble. But who got me into this mess to begin with?

“It’s probably about time you were just honest with yourself,” Bevan said. Yes, he had been hanging on my shoulder the whole time without saying a word, which was pretty common for him.

“I don’t want a bond marriage,” I said. “Can we get back to the mission?”

“Your brother has multiple wives?” Graham’s brows were sharply furrowed, and clearly his mission right now was getting answers out of me. “Is that common in the magical world?”

“Actually, um, he just has one wife. It’s the husbands who…split tasks,” I said. “And it’s not common for wizards, but it is