by Lucy Auburn
Instead of answering she says, “We should get to the cafe. I want you to see it in advance so you can scope out the area. Then you’ll need to text Meyer close to your meeting time and ask for a change of venue—he should bite, since he reached out in the first place, and clearly he’s antsy. The secondary door is this way.”
I follow the headmaster slowly, drawing back until I can catch Petra’s ear while Sebastian and Mateo are distracting her with tall tales of things they’d like to do to the Grims in the cells we pass. “What does she mean when she says ‘transferred out?’ I thought this was the only prison for Grims in the country.”
“I don’t know everything.” At first it seems like Petra is going to shut me down completely, but the more I stare at her the more she seems to give in. “Fine, I may not know the details, but I can guess. You have to shut up about it though, okay?”
“Consider my lips zipped.”
“So like the headmaster said, the Grims are kept here in case we ever need to use them as leverage.” She keeps her voice low, while ahead of us the guys seem to almost get louder, as if they’re knowingly help cover up the sound of her spilling secrets. “The thing is, though, we sometimes trade them now. Or at least that’s what I’ve seen in my time working with her—she keeps the details to herself, but every once and a while a prisoner disappears, and then... we get information, or access to rare arcane texts we didn’t have before.”
“Huh. How devious.” Somehow, this makes me admire the headmaster more, even though I don’t always trust her.
“Yeah, it’s kind of a morally grey area, but it keeps us safe. Sometimes she even feeds her Grim contacts wrong information about where the campus entrance is. One time they attacked the fish market in Seattle.” Petra chuckles. “Of course, at least once or twice a decade the school’s entrance moves. Twice the whole academy grounds have been moved. They have to get mages flown in from the European schools for that... but we haven’t all been massacred yet, so it must be working.”
How cheery. On that note, I have to get right to an off-campus meeting with a murderous psychopath who claims to be my biological father. Let’s hope he doesn’t see through me and decide to cart me off to some dungeon somewhere to use me for his nefarious plans.
Chapter 10
The cafe Headmaster Towers wants me to lead Meyer into is a darkly-lit, modest corner store that turns into a wine bar at night shortly before closing. There’s one employee other than the owner, both of whom have been hand-picked and placed here by the headmaster herself. They know exactly where the “EMPLOYEES ONLY” door in the back leads to. No doubt they’re bought and paid for, maybe even former students of Phoenix Academy or Shifter Academy.
It makes me wonder just exactly how much money the Towers family has, because it seems like they own this place and Patel’s Grocery in addition to the academy.
“So you just need to bring him here,” the headmaster is saying, motioning towards the back door for probably the fifth time, “and the rest will be taken care of. Any questions? Worries? I have to go back to campus soon. Someone has to be there to protect the students in case everything goes wrong.”
I look to Ezra for support, and he gives me a confident nod. "We’re ready. We’ll go over our battle strategy thoroughly. I’ve got my sword, Sebastian has his poisoned knives, Lynx has a few hundred feet of rope, and Mateo could blow this whole city up by accident and turn it into a kind of Hell on Earth.”
“Sounds fun.” Mateo grins. “Can you imagine the number of explosions that would take? Maybe it wouldn’t be an accident.”
“We’ll be fine,” I tell the headmaster. “I’ve got Petra here, after all.”
“Not that I’ll be much use hiding in the back room with the owner the whole time,” she grumbles. “It’ll take seconds for me to intervene, and we all know what he can do in seconds.”
“He’s not a danger to me,” I remind her. “At least, not the way he is to you or the headmaster or even the demons. All I have to do is get him to follow me through the back door.”
“And do you know how you’ll do that?” Headmaster Towers asks, her arms crossed. “You’ll have to come up with a few different ideas. Depending on how the conversation goes and what he wants when he gets here, things may change in an instant.”
“I have a few ideas.” Licking my lips, I admit, “I think that what he wants, more than anything, is to control the demons. That, and he said he wanted to ‘explain’ things to me, whatever that means. I figure if I just get upset and run out the back door, he’ll follow me.”
Petra blinks at me, her brows drawing together. “And by get upset you mean...”
“You know.” I wave my hand in the air. “Cry. Sob. Get all hysterical. Get...upset. Why are you looking at me like that?” She’s biting her lip so hard I’m shocked she’s not bleeding, her shoulders trembling and shaking. “It’s not funny. I can cry. I cry all the time.”
“Dani...” Lynx is looking at me peculiarly. “It might be more convincing if you do something a little less, uh, out of character.”
“Yeah,” Sebastian adds, “like stab him to death.” Lynx elbows him in the middle. “Or you could just tell him that the headmaster died and you brought her heart here for him but had to store it in the back.”
Lynx shakes his head. “Also out of character. Meyer has known Dani long enough to know when she’s being sincere.” He frowns in the headmaster’s general direction. “Are you sure she can do this?”
“Hey!”
“It’s not your strength or courage I’m doubting,” he clarifies quickly, “just your uh... ability to lie convincingly.”
Headmaster Towers glances down at her watch, an absurd thing to wear in the 21st century. “I have to go. But Dani, I’m sure you can figure this out. Worst comes to worst, set a fire and pretend like the back door is the emergency exit. You can always change the signs around to suit your purposes. Make it look like the men’s restroom and convince him to drink a gallon of water for all I care.”
“Those are... both far better ideas than what I had,” I admit, which just goes to show it was a good thing I kept the headmaster alive. I’d be terrible at this on my own. “I didn’t even think of moving the sign on the door.”
“Good, I’m glad you figured it out,” she says as she heads towards the back door. “If anything goes wrong, you know how to send out the alarm. Just hit the power button on the side of your phone five times. Don’t forget, the door is one way from this direction. I hope to see you in triumph at the end of the evening.”
And then she’s gone, taking my only opportunity to back out of this harebrained scheme with her. Guess it’s time to put my big girl thong on—not grannie panties, fuck that—and get down to business.
The headmaster’s suggestion, combined with a certain demon’s constant overeagerness for violence, have given me an idea.
“So.” I glance over at Petra, who’s talking to the bartender, who will be part of this plan once we nail it down. “Anyone want to find a good place around here to set a bomb?”
I hope the Towers family has enough money to rebuild this place when I’m through with it, because it’s not going to be much of a café anymore.
The text I sent Meyer didn’t get a response, so it’s hard to know if he got it. If he didn’t, then I guess nothing will happen.
If he did, then he’ll show up here instead of his requested meeting location, and things will get underway.
Things, of course, being my counter-betrayal of him—serves him fucking right—and locking him up.
But there’s something else that could happen. Something I’m loathe to admit I want.
He could give me answers. He could tell me the truth: why he came here, what he wants, and most importantly, if he really is a centuries old vampire-like Grim keeping himself alive by eating phoenix hearts.
More than anything, though, I want to know what it makes me if I really am his daughter. And I want to know what excuse he has for abandoning me
the way he did.
I’ll settle for revenge, though. It has a nice ring to it.
“Do you want anything?” Gwen, the waitress here, hovers near the table I’ve picked in the back. “I mean, it might look more realistic if you’re drinking something.”
“I don’t suppose you guys check ID here.”
She shrugs. “As far as I’m concerned, if you’ve died at least once you’re over twenty-one.”
“My kind of girl.” I give her a wicked grin, wishing the demons were here with me and not waiting just beyond the door on the horribly-named Darkness Island. “Do you have anything stronger than wine?”
“I have a red blend aged in rum barrels. That and a flask I keep taped under the counter, full of cheap vodka.”
Tempting. But I should probably avoid drinking anything that tastes like paint thinner or nail polish. Meyer would smell it on my breath and might suspect something is going on. “I’ll try the red. Make it a heavy pour.”
“I’ll pour like we’re about to set off a bomb in here.” Her eyes flick over to her boss, who’s packing up his things and heading to the storage room in the back, where he’ll watch over the security cameras. He was none too happy to find out my plan—bully for him though, he owns the place in name only. “If you ask me, it wouldn’t hurt to put a second bomb in Javier’s office.”
“That bad?”
“His breath smells like moldy cheese.”
I wrinkle my nose in sympathy, glad for her conversation to distract me from everything that’s about to happen. Her boss disappears into the back room as she pours me a glass of wine, then glances up at the security cameras and pours herself a second. I take first one sip, then another, then kick back a third just because. I’ll need liquid courage and a little bit of foolishness borrowed from Mateo to pull this off.
My phone dings with a little message. The cafe works. See you soon.
He’s on his way here.
With his murderous secrets.
And nothing but my flimsy, pulled-together plan to stop him.
Chapter 11
He arrives outside on the empty street in a swirl of black energy. No one else will be able to see his magic the way my Grim eyes can; they’ll just see a man stumble into the street. It seems like a waste.
He could’ve just gotten an Uber.
But I guess that wouldn’t have any flare.
Yet another phoenix’s heart stolen from a chest and used for dark magic. If I ever thought he was capable of being good—that any Grim anywhere is—he’s proven me completely wrong. I just hope that I’m nothing like him. Especially the part where he’s apparently Nazi-adjacent in an 18th century paranormal way.
I drain the rest of my wine glass and hold it out for a refill. “As full as you dare.”
“A strong pour it is. I'll leave the rest of the bottle with you in case you decide you want to use it as a weapon.” The waitress empties wine into my glass until it’s three-quarters full. “I’ll be behind the counter if you need anything.”
She heads back just before the front door bell rings and Meyer walks through. My heart surges in my chest at the sight of him walking in, a heavy black trench coat wrapped around his shoulders, the overheads picking out the dusting of salt and pepper in his hair.
Looking at him now, I wonder how it is that I never noticed his age. At some moments, in the light, he looks impossibly old. His eyes have a dark cast to them; the fine lines that splay out from their edges are deep furrows. But then he takes a step forward and looks no older than his early forties at most, his face barely lined, movements easy and untroubled.
It’s as if his body is desperate to age and is being held back like a wild stallion with a harsh bit in its mouth. Without phoenix hearts he would be the Crypt Keeper. Something about it makes my skin crawl.
No, everything about it makes my skin crawl. He horrifies me.
But I still want his answers.
I ache to know where I came from.
What a fucking life. I take a long sip of the rum-soaked red wine and enjoy the warm way my vision fuzzes out at the edges. It makes being in the same room as Meyer less horrifying.
“Empty place,” he comments as he walks up to my table in the back and takes a seat opposite me. “I guess everyone in Santa Cruz is at the beach.”
“People here like clubs. And cheap vodka.”
“Good for them. I prefer the privacy of a place like this.” He glances up at the waitress as she stops by our table, her careful expression showing no sign that anything is going on other than a slow evening. “I’ll have your house red.”
“Got it.”
“Red wine,” I swirl the dark liquid in my glass, “is one of my favorite vices.”
“I can see that.”
My tongue feels thick and slow. Okay, maybe I drank too much wine. Let’s hope that phoenix regeneration ability really does come with a fast metabolism; Olivia swears I should weigh two hundred pounds more than I do, based on my eating habits.
“So.” I stare at Meyer, wondering how it is that a murderer can look so normal not even a whole twenty-four hours after I saw him pull someone’s heart from their chest. “You said you were going to explain yourself. The whole betrayal shit. And lying. And nearly killing the headmaster. And actually killing Laena. So explain it.” I feel reckless, on edge, incapable of holding back. “Fucking tell me why it is that I should be at all okay with anything you’ve done.”
Yeah, I’ve had too much wine.
But it was that or a nervous breakdown. Between the two, I think I made the right choice.
“That’s a lot,” Meyer says, voice the same smooth, patient timber from my classes with him, back when I thought he was my teacher and not my centuries-old evil bio dad. “So, first of all, I didn’t want to kill the headmaster. It’s like I said: I wanted things to be different. But you ruined my plan. Not that I should’ve expected anything less from my daughter.”
Anger flashes in me. “Don’t call me that.” I know I shouldn’t let him get a rise out of me, shouldn’t let the plan go sideways because of foolish rage, but I can’t help it. “You’re nothing to me, and I’m nothing to you.”
“But that’s not true.” I hate how soft and sincere his voice is, how his eyes stay fixated on me even as the waitress puts his glass of wine down along with the full bottle. He reaches across the table as if to take my hand, but I jerk back, disgusted at the thought of touching him now that I know what he truly is. An expression of hurt crosses his face, and my stomach churns. “You’re everything to me Dani. Absolutely everything. I’d give it all up for you. Had planned on it, in fact. But the best laid plans... Well, things change very quickly.”
I snort. “Sure, sure. Just tell me whatever it is you came here to say and let’s get on with it.” My fingers itch to put the plan into motion, to trap this man who has betrayed me and shares blood with me in a cage so I’ll never have to face him again. “You probably have some sob story you think will make up for all of it, but I have to tell you, I’ve heard them all. Every sad tale, every sadder song. And I’m not sympathetic.”
He studies me for a while, swirling the red wine in his glass over and over again without drinking it. The silence stretches on for so long that I start to get nervous, wonder if maybe I’ve given myself away. Maybe I shouldn’t have had so much wine; maybe I should have courage without the liquid part.
But finally he says, “I’m not here to tell you a sad story. I’m not even here for forgiveness. All I have is a warning.”
I resist the urge to roll my eyes. “Is the warning that you lied to me, weakened my powers, stole my demons, snatched the headmaster’s heart, and killed one of my classmates? Because I caught on to that one already.”
“No, Dani.” He doesn’t rise to the bait of my angry sarcasm, which just makes me even more frustrated. “I’m here to warn you that a dark force is coming. One far darker than you know, a woman who won’t rest until she has every type of phoenix heart the
re is to complete her collection.”
“So another version of you, basically.” I take a sip of my wine. “We’re prepared. Thanks for the warning. Is that all?”
He ignores me, mouth drawing into a thin line. “This is serious, Dani. You see, I thought I could stop her if I got the school’s students and faculty on my side, maybe if I even took the allegiance of a few hearts myself... a phoenix heart properly spelled while the bearer is still alive cannot be stolen by the undeserving.”
“You sound like a psychopath. Oh, wait!” I snap my fingers. “That’s right, you are one.”
“I know you hate me.”
“Do you?”
“But you should listen.” He takes a long pull on his wine glass, as if he needs the alcohol to deal with me as much as I need it to deal with him. What a narcissist. “The danger I’m talking about is real, Dani. This Vera woman plans on invading the school and adding to her collection as soon as she finds a new way in. Your heart is going to be top on her list—Black Phoenix rarely live long enough to die and be reborn. You’re one of a kind. You can’t ignore her threat.”
I snort. “Like I can’t ignore yours?”
“I would never take your heart.” I avoid his eyes, hating myself for wanting to believe his words, for my desperation to find a way to forgive him. “What happened the other night was avoidable, I’ll admit that. But I’d do anything for you. Up to and including taking all the power available to me in order to protect you from this threat. If I could’ve done it a more peaceful way, I would have.”
I’m getting tired of this. It’s time for the next part of the plan. “Okay, well, you’ve warned me.” I stand up, grab my wine glass, and frown in his general direction. “I think that’s enough.”
“I haven’t even finished the bottle. Surely we could at least stick around and have a conversation. I want to know how you are. I want to know you’re ready for what’s coming next.”
He looks up at me, hope in his eyes, and I despise myself for wishing it could be another way. A father daughter evening in a wine bar, drinking red blends together and reminiscing about old times.
