Chapter Sixty-Two
Nicole
WHEN KYAN, NICOLE, AND HER FATHER GOT BACK TO THE hotel, they reached the lift at the same time as Remi and Dylan.
‘How did it go? Did you get it?’ Nicole asked once the doors closed.
The torc was well hidden in Kyan’s jacket, but she couldn’t smother her awareness of it. Sharp adrenaline and a subtle breathlessness had tapped in her pulse all the way here, but Remi’s grin singed away some of that fear.
‘Oh, yeah,’ her friend said, patting her own bag.
Inside it, then, was a real piece of the Dagda’s harp.
‘Thankfully, there were only humans working there and they didn’t have any supernatural guards or wards,’ Dylan said. ‘Probably because they don’t know what they’ve got. And probably a good thing.’
A look passed between him and Remi.
‘I got … a little mesmerised,’ she said.
‘For ten extremely stressful minutes,’ Dylan added.
‘But don’t worry, I didn’t touch it this time.’ Remi held up a gloved hand, feathers fanning out around the suede wrist. Her eyes glittered with excitement. ‘What about you?’
Dylan seemed to notice their tense energy then, but Nicole made herself smile. ‘Got it.’
Remi frowned, glancing at the three of them, but thankfully didn’t ask. As the lift reached their floor, Remi headed to her room. ‘I’m just going to call Mum and let her know all is well. I’ll meet you in there in a few.’ She pointed at them in warning. ‘No exciting news without me.’
Nicole found herself smiling as they entered and found Bells and Callum inside, the pair on opposite couches.
The fire was crackling and a decent pile of her mother’s books sat on the table beside the end of a midnight snack: some part-finished sandwich and the decadent sugar and cocoa scent of hot chocolate.
Their mother’s portrait sat secure in its case against the couch.
‘Bells! You’re still up?’ Nicole said in surprise. ‘Did you—’
She didn’t get to ask if Bells had a vision because Callum took one look at them, and was on his feet faster than Nicole had ever seen anyone move.
The next moment, he had their father by the throat and slammed against the wall.
The collision shuddered the panelled wood.
The whole room erupted in chaos.
Dylan shoved himself between them. Bells had upended her drink in the panic, and the sheer hatred and distrust in Callum’s eyes rooted Nicole to the spot.
‘What the fuck is wrong with you?’ demanded Dylan.
His hands were wrapped around Callum’s strong forearms, which looked hard as steel. From the shock in Dylan’s eyes, he couldn’t budge the other Empyreal an inch.
‘How the fuck did you hide it?’ Callum snarled around Dylan.
‘I won’t hurt you,’ their father said tightly, though Nicole was surprised he could breathe, let alone speak.
Callum let out a laugh. ‘I can feel it pulsing off you like a dark aura. You’re one of them.’
‘Them?’ Bells asked, frantic on their other side. She’d tugged on Callum’s left arm, and thankfully he didn’t try to dislodge her.
‘Let him go, right now!’ Nicole ordered.
‘Callum,’ Kyan said calmly. He didn’t haul his friend off, but approached slowly. ‘Why don’t we sit back down?’
‘I’m not taking my goddamn hands off him until he explains!’ Callum roared.
‘Callum,’ Kyan interrupted, a flash of anger in his tone.
Callum shot him a look of warning ire that said, You don’t understand.
But Dylan was the one snarling in his face when he returned that expression to their father.
Nicole could barely think over the pounding in her head.
He knew.
Callum had sensed whatever arcane power her father had used to torture the thief.
‘Let me go, and I’ll explain—’ her father said.
‘Back off,’ Dylan snarled.
He and Callum looked each other, and Nicole felt the tension glaring off her brother like a live forge.
This – threatening one of his family – was something Dylan couldn’t deal with.
There was such a raw, electric anger there, but it was the vulnerability that made Callum loosen his grip and take a step back, fixing his shirt to get a hold of himself.
‘Get talking,’ Callum said darkly.
‘It’s not what you think,’ their father said, and Nicole was distantly impressed that he didn’t rub his neck.
‘I take it from the reactions of your children, that they don’t know.’
‘Know what?’ Nicole asked, her shakiness reforming into impatience.
‘What’s going on, Dad?’ Bells whispered, staring up at him with worried eyes.
‘Your father,’ Callum began, ‘is one of the Wake.’
The world bent and fused around her. But Callum didn’t stop, because Nicole knew what that meant after what the Druid had revealed. It meant—
‘Your father is one of the banished Demon Gods that fought the Old Gods of Ireland. And somehow, he’s alive.’