Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Proposal
After relaxing in the warm water long enough to drift off for a few moments, I convinced Mindy to spend the night in my room. We snuggled under the thick down duvet, faces warmed by the fire. Unlike the last few nights, when my thoughts kept me up for hours, I fell asleep quickly.
I had no idea of the time when I woke since the thick curtains kept the room dark, but Mindy was missing.
I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and went to find her.
She wasn’t in the other bedroom or the kitchen.
I checked the den, which served as the front of the inhabitable portion of the house, but it too was empty, only a few embers left in the fireplace.
It was so like Mindy to go exploring in the devil’s lair.
And why did I think of him that way? Sure, he met the archetypal demon form, so why was I drawn to him?
Attracted to him, if I were being totally honest. Was it enough to have evenly proportioned features?
Of course, he would be pleasing to look at.
He had the ability to manipulate his looks.
Chaac had proven that when he changed forms. But there was something more there than attraction, a feeling that I had known him before, a strong familiarity beneath the foreign facade.
Something beyond even the bond that allowed me to sense his location.
I could admit that I wanted to be near him.
I let out a sigh and walked down the long hallway leading to the front of the house. I tried some of the doorknobs to rooms leading off the hallway, rooms I’d wondered about, but they were all locked.
“Mindy?” I called out, pausing my steps to listen for a response, but heard nothing except the birds singing outside. I leaned close to one of the long open windows. Bright light made me blink, the sun high in the sky. A crow flew above the tree line, and for a moment, my heart yearned to join him.
I kept looking for Mindy, coming to the giant front room spanning the width of the entire building.
When I had first seen it, I had been a crow, and last night there had been no lights.
Everything had seemed large, mythic in size.
Now I could appreciate just how big it was.
And how beautiful, despite its state of disrepair.
The high ceiling was arched, with the highest point in the middle running the length of the room, nearly two hundred feet, and supported by crossing beams that created an intricate pattern, like a cathedral.
The front tower was empty, and light poured in from the open spaces.
No bell hung from the top, only a thick beam and an arched ceiling.
He had basically admitted the run-down condition of the front of the house was to make the place look uninhabited.
Abandoned. This made sense to me. If he only used the back half of the house, then this way, he had a smaller area to defend.
But who did he need to defend it against?
I was still worried about my missing friend, but I wanted to see the right wing of the house.
It backed up to where my current room and his quarters were, but that left about a quarter of the house unaccounted for.
Where the left wing unfolded with a wide arched doorway, open and, if not welcoming, then at least easy to access, the right wing of the house hid behind a giant wooden door.
It had medieval-looking metal straps across its top, bottom, and center.
And, big surprise, it was locked. I tried rattling it by the handle, but the door didn’t budge.
The sound of approaching footsteps caused me a moment of panic, but it was only Mindy. She looked winded but otherwise cheerful.
“I left my power cord in the rental car,” she explained, breathing hard from the exertion of climbing the hill. “I get why you parked it near the bottom, but I hope we don’t have to get anything else out before we leave.”
“Power cord? Where did you plan on plugging it in?”
“Into the outlet in my room, silly.”
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“Nope. I’ll show you. Plus, I’m starving. Have you eaten?”
“Not yet. I woke up and went looking for you.”
“Oh, well, I’m fine. I do have a juicy bit of gossip for you, though.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I talked to Jessica, and she says Matthew and Cassandra spent the day locked in her office yesterday, but this morning, Cassandra was so worked up, half the office heard her.”
“What?” I asked, stymied by how she had gotten good enough cell service to make a call.
“Yeah, apparently the firm that won the bid had a major disagreement with the client, and now they’re opening up the bidding process again. They’re calling for all hands on deck. I bet you could get your job back.”
A pit formed in my stomach. This was my project, and they had no intention of including me. But the thought of marching in there and forcing them to do so sounded dreadful.
“We have to go back.”
“Yeah.” I tried to keep the fear out of my voice.
“You need to ask him to finish turning you back to your old self.”
“Right.” We smiled at each other, although hers was brighter. “Have you seen Benjamin today?”
She shook her head. “You go find him while I pack up. We have to thank him for welcoming us so warmly before we go.”
“Yeah.” My mind raced as I followed Mindy down the long left wing.
The second chance at the bid had me rattled; there were so many ways it could go wrong.
The memory of being kicked out, of losing my badge, plagued me as my steps slowed.
There was a good chance they might not take me back.
Now they had the updated plans and no longer needed me.
My salary alone was reason enough since the work was completed, so why would they want to keep paying me?
And I had been responsible for the original mistake, which could be reason enough to let me go.
Someone else could handle the small problem-solving and client requests moving forward.
That was something to consider before rushing back.
Cassandra could outmaneuver me in her sleep.
And besides, I had just arrived. I wasn’t ready to leave the mountain. Or my Monster.
I hadn’t been looking for him earlier, but now I focused on the inner tie between us. It pointed back to his room. Mindy turned into her appointed room, and I kept walking. Did he sense me coming?
I stopped in front of his door. It was larger than the others, and all the doors in his house were large enough to accommodate him.
The ceilings were higher than any I’d been used to, fifteen feet by my best guess.
I lifted my hand, made a fist, and knocked.
The sound was soft, lost in the muffled acoustics of the place.
Come in, Corvus.
I reached for the doorknob. It turned easily, and I stepped inside.
His room was large and airy. The walls were lined with bookcases, but he had many windows, some leaded and some newer, including a set of French doors that opened onto the central courtyard.
A lush jungle on the other side drew my eyes.
He sat at a large desk that would’ve made a grown adult look like a child.
His huge frame made it seem normal-sized, a desk built for a god.
An old desk lamp sat to the side, plugged in somewhere I couldn’t see.
He ignored me, hunched over a thick book with yellowed pages and strange print.
“Sorry to bother you, but did you listen to my thoughts on the way over here?”
He looked up. “Should I have?”
“Oh, no, of course not. You look busy. It’s just Mindy got a call from our work, and we need to go back.”
He watched me for a minute, otherworldly eyes seeing into my core. “You don’t want to leave?”
“No, it’s not that. This may be an opportunity to get my job back. Or it could get me into a lot of trouble. It’s too early to say which way it will go, but I should go back.”
“You want me to change you back to your former self?”
Did I? If I showed back up with my old face, then they could outright fire me for my initial screw-up. While they kept up the charade of not knowing who I was, my job status was technically still in limbo. Maybe I needed to slow down and think through my options.
“How about a compromise?” he asked, sounding almost sneaky.
It figured he was listening to my thoughts. But in this case, it didn’t matter. “What are you thinking?”
“How about I give you the ability to change yourself in exchange for you helping me prepare for the meeting six weeks from now?”
“Change myself? Into anything?” Was that even possible?
He chuckled. “Yes, Corvus, you can look however you want. You can even turn back into a crow and fly again.”
I stared at him in surprise. What an offer to throw out so casually.
Both parts of his bargain appealed to me.
Being able to change my physical body into anything, especially creatures that flew, sounded amazing.
Just as appealing was the chance to help him.
To stand by an ancient being while he took on others like him.
To match my wits against those other demigods or to even watch such a thing happen.
To spend more time with him. The thrill ran down my spine.
But then reality sunk in. What could I possibly have to contribute?
Then I wouldn’t have to leave him. I shut that thought down before it could lead anywhere embarrassing.
“I need to figure out why they want to hold this conclave in this specific location. The last time we all met there, deep in the heart of the Yucatán jungle, well, things didn’t end well.”
“And you think I can help you?” In the jungle?
“You’re good at research, aren’t you?”
“Well, I guess. Yes.”