Chapter 24
Islam my fists onto the counter. “I’m getting the fucking food, would you shut the fuck up?”
I glare at the unexpected visitor sitting at my feet.
He cocks his head and lets out an innocent meow.
I roll my eyes and go back to opening the can of cat food Percy sent to me.
She laughed her ass off when I told her a random cat almost killed me.
Then she sent me a hundred dollars’ worth of toys, food, and a fluffy bed for the thing.
“How are you even able to breathe? Your face is so squished I’m surprised you’re not wheezing,” I mutter. He doesn’t answer, because he’s a cat. As soon as I peel the top off, he jumps onto the counter. “How the hell did you get those stubby legs to work like that?”
I’ve never had a cat. Not because I didn’t like them. I was always pretty neutral about them. As annoyed as I am, I doubt it has much to do with the feline currently trying to eat food off my hand and everything to do with a demon who’s too good-looking for his own good.
“Should I forgive him, Kitty? Or should I make him suffer?”
I sigh, scooping up the cat and the bowl before placing them both on the floor.
He’s only been gone a few hours, yet it feels like a lifetime.
Disappointment crashes into me yet again.
The last twenty-four hours were the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
I was finally letting him in, and he had to go and ruin it.
My silence probably didn’t help things. Trusting him didn’t come easily.
Hell, trusting anyone doesn’t come easy to me.
I’ve spent my life pushing people away in the hopes I wouldn’t get hurt.
Then the one time I take a chance—betrayal.
Except I can see how he came to the conclusions he did, which makes it all the harder to decide whether or not I should care if he comes back.
“I’d be lying if I pretended like I didn’t,” I whisper, and the cat gives me a look.
The one only those of the feline variety seem to be able to give.
“Yeah, yeah. I know that didn’t make sense.
Still, I need him to come back. At the very least, so I can ask him how to find my sister. He owes me that much, right?”
He winds his way around and through my legs, then trots off toward the spell room.
I’d slammed the door earlier before the blackness could swallow me whole.
I have no idea where it would take me. Probably some random dimension filled with elephant-sized wasps.
Or sharks with legs that can breathe on land.
Or spiders the size of dinner plates that can fly.
My imagination has conjured up a whole host of horrors.
The cat distracted me for a bit, but not long enough to stop the thoughts.
Should I be questioning a random animal showing up?
Probably. I’ve gotten pretty used to the strange things that happen around here.
Now that I think about it, there’s been a lot of things I brushed off as merely peculiar.
From objects randomly moving to windows being open when I was sure I closed them, the list in my head is getting quite long.
“You realize I’m not going in there, right?” I mutter as he plops in front of the door and glances over his shoulder. He paws at the wood as if it’ll just pop open. “Uh, no. I mean, I’ll let you in, but I’m not following.”
I reach over and spin the knob and open it just an inch, then stumble back. He doesn’t move, doesn’t take his laser gaze off me.
“Nope.” I pivot on my heel and march down the hall.
Someone’s at the front door, anyway. I’m sure it’s Percy.
She mentioned something about coming over even though I told her not to.
Normally, she’d listen, but I’m sure she heard something in my voice.
She has a sixth sense about these things.
Except I can’t open up to her about Dimitri.
It’s not like she can do anything to help.
When I open the door, though, it’s not Percy. Providence stands there with tense shoulders and her back to me. She spins around, her eyes flashing from silver to black and back again.
“Sorry to bother you, but have you seen Dimitrius?” She tucks her hands behind her back and rocks on her heels.
“Um, he was here earlier, then he…left. I don’t know where he went. Probably Hell.”
She presses her lips together and narrows her gaze. “Are you sure?”
“Why would I lie about something like that?”
“Fine. Have you seen a cat?”
I glance over my shoulder, then back at her and jolt away. She’s considerably closer, crowding into my space. I’m about to smack her, or slam the door in her face, or piss myself. I haven’t quite decided which one when she sniffs me—long, deep, and incredibly awkwardly. I’m so surprised, I freeze.
“Oh,” she murmurs. “Oh, that’s interesting.”
“What’s interesting?” I whisper.
She shuffles back a step and shoots me a scheming look.
At least her smile feels smug and intrusive, like she knows something I don’t.
Obviously she’s smarter than me. She’s a demon…
or something. She’s nothing like Dimitri, but I’m pretty sure he said Providence was Omen’s sister.
And Omen’s a demon. Unless one of them is adopted.
Do demons get adopted? If she is, then we have something in common, I suppose. I shake my head, derailing my thoughts.
“Nothing. I’m sure you’ll figure it out sooner rather than later. And if you don’t, well, that’s not my department. Now, the cat?” She raises one perfectly manicured silver eyebrow.
I hold up a hand. “Wait, whose department is it?”
“Karma’s, of course. Dimitrius’s twin? Now, please don’t make me break into your house.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” I mutter.
“I was trying to be polite. I’ve been accused of not caring about…well, whatever.” She rolls her bright blue eyes, the most human thing I’ve seen from her.
I tilt my head. “When did you change your—I mean, how do you get your eyes—you know what? Never mind. There is a cat here. It showed up, but it went back into the spell room, which is acting very strangely, so I’m not entirely sure he’s still here. I fed him before—”
“You fed him? For fuck’s sake.” She throws her hands up and strides down the steps. She’s muttering curses under her breath as she paces back and forth.
I sag against the doorframe. I’m tired—deep down in my bones.
My sister’s still missing, things with Dimitri are a mess.
I don’t have a job, and I’m essentially homeless.
Being thrust into a world I don’t fully understand or am prepared for has thrown me off-kilter.
Everyone I’ve come into contact with gives me half answers.
They expect me to understand all the ins and outs of their lives.
It’s frustrating as fuck, and I just want to be done.
“You know what? Fuck you,” I snap, and she swings toward me.
“What was that, witch?”
“Fuck. You. All you fucking demons think you’re so much smarter than the rest of us.
You think you can just blast into our lives, stir shit up, then vanish.
And does anyone ask if we need something?
Do you care about the mess you leave behind?
Of course you don’t. Because you’re bullshit elitists.
I’m sick of this. I just want—” I snap my mouth shut.
She doesn’t deserve to know what I want. She deserves nothing.
“I’d be careful, witch. I have more power than you can comprehend.”
“As if I fucking give a shit,” I snarl. “I’m not a boarding house for cats. Or a temporary hospital for cursed demons.” Her eyebrows rise higher the more I spew at her. “Or a detective. Or a savior. Or even a very competent witch. So, just…fuck off.”
I slam the door, then immediately regret my outburst. I shouldn’t have done that.
Yelling at a demon? Bad. Yelling at a demon named Providence?
Catastrophic. She could smite me off the face of the planet.
Maybe she’ll send me to the dragon realm.
I’ve got some good memories there. Probably the only ones I’ll have if she gets ahold of me.
Mrow.
I tip my head back and groan. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” I spin around and find the squish-faced black and white cat. “She was here for you, ya know.”
He trots away, back to the damn spell room.
This time I follow him straight into the darkness.
Except it’s no longer dark. Grey perhaps, but not pitch black.
It’s as if all the color’s been sucked from the world.
When I glance at my bare arms, I realize there’s no color in me, either. A shudder rolls through me.
The cat saunters around the partially finished circle, the chalk seemingly embedded into the dark wood.
The blood red candles stay unlit, though smoke still curls from the blackened wicks.
I tiptoe closer, careful not to disturb anything.
Even though there’s an opening where the chalk smeared, I still give it a wide berth.
“Kitty, don’t you fucking dare.” I barely get the words out before he’s pouncing into the middle of the damn thing.
He lands on a small book, his paws curling over the edges.
I suck in a sharp breath and stumble away.
That thing shouldn’t be in the center of the circle.
A text titled Necromancy which was really about plants?
Yeah, fucking right. Lark probably spelled it so I wouldn’t be able to read it.
Then put a bullshit message in there for me to find.
Anger, grief, shame, and jealousy tangle together within my chest, making it hard to breathe.
How long had she been planning this? Why didn’t she talk to me?
Was our fight really that bad to warrant her going off and being reckless?
Or was she kidnapped like Dimitri so flippantly suggested?
Granted, he didn’t know about Lark, but still.
He planted the seed when I was so sure she’d merely gotten in over her head.
For the first couple months, I’d convinced myself she was still in this world.
It wasn’t until I’d popped open this very room that I knew it was something more. Something witchy.
Just get it over with.
“Fuck you, Lark,” I mutter. “I wouldn’t be in this predicament if it wasn’t for you.”
And you wouldn’t have fucked a hot demon if it wasn’t for me, either.
I roll my eyes, wondering if her voice will go away once I find her.
If she lives in my head forever, pointing out every ridiculous decision I make, I might…
I don’t even know what an appropriate response would be.
Nothing good. I’d probably suffer in silence as I have been for years.
It’s silly, but it’s how my brain operates.
As soon as I say something, people either try to solve my problems or dismiss them.
I learned to keep shit to myself. If I deal with my own shit, there’s no one else to blame when it goes sideways.
The cat leaps toward the other side of the circle and vanishes. The book slides toward me, stopping right before it hits my foot.
“Well, that was unexpected,” I mutter.
Gingerly, I nudge the thing with my bare toe, cringing as I do. It’s just a book, yet for some reason I’m afraid I’ll vanish along with the cat.
“Probably should be worried a Hell kitty is running around this plane, but whatever. It’s fine, Mari. It’s just parts of a tree repurposed into education on plants. There won’t be anything in it when you open it up.”
Manifesting never worked much for me, but it’s the only thing I can think of other than walking away. And I’ve done enough of that lately. I’m sick of running and hiding and pretending I’m doing something when I’m not. Even I’m fed up with myself. I can’t imagine how annoyed Percy must be with me.
I flip open the cover with my foot, then step back.
Disgust rolls through me. The fucking thing is blank.
Because of course it is. No divine secrets, no descriptions of plants, no notes from my sister.
Just a bunch of yellowed parchment with absolutely nothing printed on it.
One of these days I’ll be surprised by shit like this. Today is not that day.
Grabbing the book, I almost drop it. Except I can’t.
It fuses to my hand, heat searing up my arm.
I let out a strangled cry as I attempt to pry my fingers away.
A golden glow emanates from beneath my palm.
Sparks dance along the edges of the circle, turning the white chalk black.
When thunder rumbles overhead, I nearly let out a sigh of relief.
Thunder means Dimitri. Dimitri means safety.
And help and comfort and being seen. He’ll know what to do.
The grey room plunges into darkness, and I shuffle back toward the door.
At least, I think it’s behind me. In the complete blackness, I’m disoriented, and the magic in the book still hasn’t released me.
At least the heat is bearable. Still, tears fill my eyes as the full weight of the situation settles on me.
I scream out Dimitri’s name, hoping he hears my call wherever he is. My foot hits something soft—waxy. I let out one solitary keening wail as I fall in slow motion.
I never meet the hard floor. Instead, I fall into a void of nothingness. My last thought is a silent plea for Dimitri to save me. Except I know he won’t come. No matter how much I might want him to, I’m going to have to save myself.