by Accardo, Jus
Thankfully, since I worked for Valefar, I didn’t need to pay the creepy piper to cross, but that didn’t mean Kheron didn’t freak me out. He looked normal. Cute, even—if you were into the deranged-looking type—but there was just something about him that sent the goose bumps jumping up across my skin. Maybe it was the way he stared, without ever blinking, or the way he stood so completely still.
The black river began to bubble and spit, and after a moment, a narrow concrete pathway rose to the surface. “A pleasure as always,” Kheron called as I started across.
I didn’t look back. Moments of clarity had revealed that Kheron was really a skinless, eyeless skeleton in tattered robes made of what looked like human skin. The less I saw of that freak show, the better.
I didn’t know how long it actually took to cross the river, but I lost count at four thousand steps.
Everything in the Shadow Realm was an illusion. The path across the river that looked to be about eight feet long was really more like a mile. Breathtaking foliage could literally take your breath—and pulse—away. Even the buildings were a sham. At first glance, they were normal brick and mortar. Every once in a while, though, the true nature of the place would shine through. I hadn’t made many trips here, but each time I did, there were more and more moments of clarity. I wondered how long it’d be before the illusion was gone altogether. A chill rippled through me. All I’d be left with was an entire realm of nightmare creepies.
By the time I got to the other side, I was sure I’d worn through the soles of my sneakers. I pushed through the door and stepped into the lobby of Dad’s building, surprised to see how empty the place still was. It’d been three months since Valefar had granted him freedom, and there was only a small, single desk at the far end of the room and three ordinary-looking blue folding chairs along the wall to the right. I made a mental note to get him a plant. Maybe a Venus flytrap. He’d appreciate the humor.
“Jessie,” Dad barked in surprise. He emerged from the door across from me with an armload of papers. “What are you doing here?”
“I was summoned.”
“By Valefar?”
I grinned. “Actually, it was Bert and Ernie, but I did stop to see good ole Val on the way over. He says hey.”
Dad’s face remained impassive. He didn’t appreciate my particular brand of humor as much as Mom did—especially where the Shadow Realm was concerned. And by the look in his eyes, he was trying to figure out the fastest way to get me out of here.
Until recently, he’d played only a minor part in my life. It was agreed—by him and Mom, I hadn’t gotten a say—that he would keep a safe distance and let me grow up far away from all the danger and drama that came with being a Shadow demon’s daughter. Because the agency was such a cushy gig, right?
Now, though? He was free to be the dad he’d always wanted, and wouldn’t you know, he was the seriously overprotective type.
“You shouldn’t be here, Jessie.”
Even though he was finally able to take an active part in my life, Dad still didn’t want me involved in this particular aspect of his. Funny, considering I was working for his old boss. Sometimes I was convinced he and Mom chose to block things out.
I rolled my eyes and leaned against the door frame. “I know you don’t want me here, but I was wondering if we could talk for a second?”
I could tell he was torn, and for a minute I was sure he’d send me on my way. Bouncing back and forth between wanting to be the there for you dad and the protective one. He sighed. “What’s going on?”
“So, I just went on my first collection for Valefar. I followed the directions he gave me—which were annoyingly vague. Now he’s saying I broke some kind of rule? Well, a few of them, actually.” I grabbed the edge of my jacket and gave the side with the book a wiggle. The material flopped down and a corner of the grotesque thing poked out just in time for a moment of clarity. A clump of thick red gel oozed from the top, and I choked back the bagel I’d eaten earlier. “I’d rather not have to go through this creepy thing to figure out what it is I did wrong.”
Dad dragged over two of the folding chairs and gestured for me to sit. “Well, what exactly did you do?”
“Exactly what he told me to,” I said defensively, settling into the chair as he did the same. “He gave me the crystallized hair and told me in order to bring the guy back, I had to be touching him. The aforementioned guy wasn’t thrilled, and I had to take him by force, but I gave him the choice.”
“That sounds right. If he refused to come willingly, you’re within your rights to take him by force. How did you take him down?”
I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat. “Is…is that a trick question?”
Dad leaned back in his chair. “You brought him to Valefar alive, didn’t you?”
Completely at a loss, I opened my mouth, then closed it.
He gave me a sympathetic smile and brushed my cheek. “When a human dies, the soul detaches itself. It stays put, the body acting like a container, but the connection is lost. A detached soul is safe to bring into the Shadow Realm. An attached one isn’t.”
This was news to me. “How is it not safe?”
“In the Shadow Realm, souls are power. Think of them as a sort of currency. When attached to a body, a soul can be damaged, and a damaged soul is of lesser value. The Shadow Realm is a truly traumatic place for a human. The illusion you see doesn’t exist for them. They see it as it is.”
“That actually explains a lot. I get these moments when I can see what’s underneath.”
Dad nodded. “You’re part human.”
Lucky me. “Does that mean I’m damaged?”
“You know these things exist, Jessie. There’s no surprise. Most humans have no idea that there are other beings out there. To be suddenly faced with them causes trauma. And trauma causes damage.”
The weight of it all fell, hard, and I had a tough time moving the air in and out of my lungs. I knew eventually I’d have to do something that compromised my not-so-glowing morals, but killing people? “You’re saying on top of being at his beck and call for the next fifty-five years, I have to be a murderer?” Just saying it out loud brought me to the edge of panic. If that’s what it came down to, could I do it? Would I?
“Anyone you’re sent to collect knew the score when they made their deal. You knew the score.” He leaned in close and pinned me with a stern glare. “I understand why you did what you did, but what did you expect? This is why, no matter what’s at stake, you don’t make deals with demons.”
I jumped from the chair and jabbed my finger in his direction. Raising my voice slightly, I said, “So if it was Mom and me, you would have left us to die by Meredith’s hand?”
“That’s not a valid question. I’m a demon. I wouldn’t have needed to make a deal to save you.”
Oh my God. Semantics. “Fine. Hypothetically speaking, say you weren’t a demon. Would you have left us to die?”
For the longest time, he watched me. Didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Just sat there, staring. After a moment, he sighed and said, “It’s time for you to go home.”
And just like that, I was back in the office, sitting behind my desk.
Wondering what his answer would have been…
Chapter Five
“Good,” Mom said from behind me. She and Lukas walked through the door, making enough noise to wake the dead. The sun was setting, and the blast of cold air that came in with them made me shiver. “You’re back.”
I’d been back over a half hour now, but no sense in telling her that. She probably would have asked why I hadn’t done anything productive. Like, clean my room or do the dishes—a chore we both avoided. Once, when I was fourteen, we used paper plates and plastic silverware for a month so we could just toss them when finished. No fuss, no muss.
I’d meant to take a peek at the math assignment due Monday, but I’d gotten sucked into a frustrating round of an app called Whack a Mole. Really, that was all on Lukas. Mom b
ought him a cell phone a few weeks ago, and he was the one who got me addicted to the game.
I stuffed the cell back into my pocket and stood. “Did you guys figure out what they had of Simon Darker’s?”
Mom set her bag on the desk and sank onto the couch, lips set in a grim line. “It seems the historical society has gotten their hands on several trinkets belonging to Simon’s brother, Charles Darker.”
Several. My skin prickled. A scene where Lukas, Mom, and I were running through the streets, chasing a horde of assorted evil let loose from Darker trinkets, flashed through my head… “Anything you recognize?”
“Not on sight, but I’m sure I can find the items cataloged in one of the journals we found in my father’s storage unit a few months ago. Not that it matters. If someone were to pick one up and accidentally activate it, or let something loose, then we’ll have a lot of extra work on our hands.”
“Oh!” I exclaimed, darting forward to grab the electric bill from her desk. “That’s good. Bills are due soon, right? Guaranteed paycheck.”
That earned me the Mom glare big time, which was silly. I was just being practical.
I cleared my throat and set the envelope back down. “Um, so what do we do?”
She looked from Lukas to me, and a grimace spread across her face. “There’s only one thing we can do. We have to steal back our things.”
Once upon a time, Lukas would have been mortified at the thought of stealing. Now, though? I might go as far as saying he kind of enjoyed it. The guy had really taken to life in the twenty-first century, and I was thrilled. He still had his Grandpa moments, as I liked to call them, but for the most part, he’d embraced modern living—and more than that, the Darker lifestyle. It took a special person to deal with our kind of crazy on a daily basis. I got warm fuzzies just thinking about it. He loved the chase as much as I did—the ongoing fight between us and the otherworlders. I couldn’t have dreamed up a better boyfriend.
“As much as I don’t like saying this, our best bet is for you to shadow in, Jessie.” Lukas probably didn’t notice, but I did—Mom was uncomfortable with this idea, and it wasn’t the stealing part that was making her twitch.
“You can shadow with an item if you’re touching it, right?” she continued, squaring her shoulders. “Even if you need to make two trips, it will be safer than the two of us, or even me, attempting to break into the building. Last week, Sheriff Barnes told me how the town had upgraded all its security measures.”
I nodded as nonchalantly as possible, but it was hard to contain my excitement—which freaked me out. The idea of shadowing both scared and elated me. “I should only need one trip. I think I just need to have physical contact. If I put everything in one big pile and touch it—”
“I’m going with her,” Lukas said, resolved. Mom nodded without argument, and I tried to ignore the tiny stabbing in my heart.
Why didn’t she insist on coming with me? Oh. Right. Because she was freaked out by the shadowing thing. Ever since we’d learned I could shadow, she’d sort of avoided the issue. She had no problem talking about Valefar and the deal I made to save her and Dad, but the basics that allowed me to make that deal? The fact that I’d inherited some of Dad’s demonic talents? Yeah, that had her sailing down Denial River. Which wasn’t like her. She was a face-things-head-on-no-matter-what kind of woman. We were going to need to hash it out sooner or later, but the idea that she wasn’t square about an aspect of who I was made me squirm more than the thought of having a week-long snuggle-fest with zombies.
She glanced from me to Lukas. “You might want to see if you can find that picture, too…”
I grabbed my jacket from the back of the couch and pulled it on. “Good call.”
Next to me, Lukas shifted, uncomfortable. I hated to point out the obvious, but we’d need to deal with it eventually. “But if the pictures are on display, isn’t the damage already done? What are we supposed to tell people that question the resemblance?”
“The truth,” Mom said without hesitation.
Lukas and I both paled.
Arms folded, Mom leaned back against the desk. “Your name is Lukas Scott, and you’re a relative of the Scott family. You’ve come back to Penance to get to know your roots. It’s not unusual to see strong resemblances, or names reused generation after generation. A lot of the old families do it.” She tapped the desk twice, then pointed to the door. “Get going. And please, for the love of God, don’t piss off Lucy.”
…
Shadowing always brought an odd—and creepy—sense of peace. Like I’d just eaten a plate of the best chocolate chip cookies and downed an icy glass of chocolate milk. Sated. I felt sated when I did it. Stepping into the cool arms of the dark and letting it wrap me up tight until we were one, was getting easier. There was a slight pull. A tug and itching deep in my gut. Then, boom. I was someplace else.
I still wasn’t sure how I ultimately felt about the whole thing. On one hand, it was basically the thing I’d wished for since I was a kid. Not shadowing specifically, but to be anything other than normal. But now that I’d gotten what I wanted? The jury was still out on this being a blessing or a curse.
I shadowed us to Town Hall, into the main room. All the lights were out except for the emergency ones, so getting in had been a breeze. “Let’s do what we gotta do and get gone.”
Lukas let go of my hand and took a few steps into the room. The exhibit tables were all covered with sheets, making them look like hospital gurneys touting corpses. “Klaire mentioned someone named Lucy?”
I unzipped my jacket and peeked under the nearest cloth. Nothing but old junk. “That’s the name we gave the ghost that lives here. She’s mostly harmless.”
I started to walk away, we were here on business after all, but Lukas grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him. He was so damn cute when he did that little shocked face. That’s probably why I went out of my way to try to surprise him as much as I did. “Mostly harmless?”
“I imagine, just like any other girl, she has her bad days. Not worth exorcizing. She doesn’t do any real harm. She’s been around longer than me. Longer than Mom, too. Grandpa supposedly found her and decided to just let her be.”
Lukas’s eyes went wide. “Joseph found her? Could he see her?”
“Nah. He brought in a necro, like Mom’s friend Paulson, to give him a hand. They decided she wasn’t worth the effort.”
“That doesn’t sound like Joseph,” Lukas said, looking around.
I shrugged. “Like I said, before my time. We should get moving. Don’t wanna be here longer than we need to be.”
We made our way to the other end of the room. The tables were stacked four across and three rows deep, all covered with the same standard white sheet. Lukas stopped at the second table to the end, and I flicked on the flashlight as he pulled back the cover. There was an array of pictures spread across half the table. I recognized Simon in several. I’d sort of met him a few months back when our necromancer friend, Paulson, summoned him to give us the skinny on the Seven Deadly Sins box. Granted, we’d been tricked and it wasn’t actually Simon, but it’d looked like him. In these pictures, he looked happy, posing with a slightly younger man who bore a striking resemblance. His brother Charles, if I had to guess.
On the other half of the table, there was a small cracked mirror, a saddlebag, and several other random trinkets. The name plate on the front of the table read Darker Family.
“Bingo!” I gathered the corners of the tablecloth together so I could carry the whole thing like a sack, then slung the makeshift bag over my shoulder and turned back to Lukas. He was staring dead ahead with his mouth open and eyes wide like he’d seen a ghost. “What is it?”
His left brow twitched. The number one sign that he was about to say something I wouldn’t like. “Elaine Davis.”
I readjusted the makeshift sack across my shoulders. It was heavier than I thought it’d be. “Who?”
Lukas was still staring at the wa
ll in front of us. “Her name. It’s Elaine Davis.”
I looked around the room. There was no one here but him and me. “Whose name is Elaine Davis? The wall?”
He sighed. “Lucy.”
I almost dropped the sack. “You can see her?”
He shuffled from foot to foot before looking me in the eye. Another twitch from his left brow. “Yes.”
Since when could he see the dead? From the look on his face, this wasn’t something brand spanking new, either. The guilt was etched like runes in marble. He’d been holding out on me.
“And she just told you her name?”
He looked from me to the corner, cringing a little. “Not exactly.”
I took a step toward the door and set the bundle down against the wall. It flopped over noisily, but the knot held together. “Not exactly? What does that mean?”
He didn’t answer.
I moved forward to wave a hand in front of his face. The whole staring into space thing was getting creepy. “Hellooo?”
With another sigh, he said, “I know her.”
“You…know her.”
“I courted her. Before my marriage to Meredith was arranged. I courted Elaine.”
“Courted Elaine,” I repeated like a parrot. When he didn’t answer, I understood. “Holy crap! You’re saying you dated Lucy?”
“Elaine,” he corrected calmly.
“Whatever. Are you serious? Like, seriously serious? You dated the dead girl in Town Hall?”
He rolled his eyes. “She wasn’t dead when we dated, Jessie.”
“Splitting hairs,” I mumbled and picked up the sack.
“It’s complicated,” Lukas said. I was about to tell him to uncomplicate it, but I realized he wasn’t talking to me. He was talking to Lucy. Or Elaine. “Yes. I’d have to agree.” A pause. “No. It’s very nice to see you, too.”
My mouth fell open. “Are you kidding?”
He turned to me. “What?”
“You’re really standing there having a conversation with your dead ex while we commit a crime?”
