Page 101 of The Devil and His Ghost

“What was that?” she demanded.

“A demonic seal meant to keep other lesser demons out,” I answered in an annoyed grumble. “There’s definitely something down there that this demon doesn’t want disturbed.”

“Ghosts.”

Kendyll and I looked up at the sound of Maria’s small voice.

She stood in the hallway outside of the elevator, and her hands fidgeted in front of her. Catsper was rubbing his face against her legs, but she didn’t seem to notice his affection today. Her big brown, translucent eyes bounced between Kendyll and I to the same tempo in which she shifted from foot to foot. “That’s where he keeps them.”

“He?” Kendyll asked calmly.

She nodded. “He’s been here a long, long time. He went away for a little while, but he came back.”

“A demon like me?” I asked.

She nodded again, albeit a bit slower this time. “Master. He has a lot of us.”

“Where is this demon right now?” I questioned as gently as I could.

“He’s out right now, so I snuck away.”

I barely managed to refrain from narrowing my eyes. Mischief demons who had hordes of ghosts under their command had favorites. The favorites were typically spirits who generated the most power from the fear and games they played without relying on the demonic master’s own energy. Those same ghosts often had more freedom than the other spirits, such as being allowed to roam as they liked. This was a ghost child who seemed timid and friendly, yet she “snuck away?”

“You snuck out?” I snapped, unable to keep the harsh suspicion from my voice. “How’d you manage that when you have such a powerful master who surely knows how to keep his toys locked up?”

The little ghost jumped at the sound of my biting questions. Her lip trembled, and she immediately curled in on herself as though to shield herself from my verbal lashing.

“Xander,” Kendyll admonished.

Maria sniffled and started to turn away with tears in her eyes. “I don’t know when he’ll be back, so you’ll have to hurry. You can’t go down your demon way. You have to take the elevator. There’s a hidden button for the bottom floor.” She vanished the second the words left her mouth.

Kendyll sighed in clear frustration and turned to me. “Why did you yell at her like that?”

“I don’t trust her.”

Kendyll’s brow rose as she shot me a disbelieving look. “Don’t trust her? She’s a little girl. And she saved me last night. I was about to be … I don’t know. Attacked by that Monster of Mountview thing when she knocked me out of reach and opened up a way for me to call for you. Why would she have done that if she wasn’t trustworthy?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t trust anything about what’s happening here at Mountview.”

While I stewed in my uneasy suspicions, Kendyll put her back to me and rubbed at her forehead. With a heavy sigh, she scanned the number panel and felt around, most likely searching for this hidden button that Maria mentioned.

“What are you doing?” I asked, grabbing her arm. “You can’t seriously be trying to go down there!”

“Of course I am,” she replied calmly. “There are ghosts trapped down there.”

“There’s nothing you can do for ghosts that belong to a Mischief demon, Kendyll. They’re trapped unless he frees them or dies.”

“We’ll figure something out. First, we need to see how many ghosts there are and get a feel for what we’re up against.”

I frowned and bounced my attention between Kendyll and the panel. “Do you not find it odd? Maria was out somehow, which means the demon she belongs to favors her. She wouldn’t have that ability otherwise. It’s like they want us to go down there.”

“Yeah. Maria probably wants us to go down there to help them.”

“You don’t know that, though.”

“I trust Maria,” Kendyll argued unwaveringly.

I wanted to grab Kendyll’s shoulders and shake some sense of danger into her. This was all fucking suspicious, no matter how you looked at it. “Why are you so sure this isn’t a trap?”