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“What?” I ask.

“It’s just that after a while, celebrating Devil’s Bay gets old,” she says, chin resting on steepled fingers.

“It’s such a choice name…Devil’s Bay,” I remark.

“It’s named for the cove—well cave really—right below the cliffs of the estate.” Tania makes a show of shuddering. “Apparently, the curves of the shorelines around here all mimic that of devil horns. The cove however—” she pauses, brow furrowed.

I glance at Chloe, whose head is now angled toward the storefront. Her wide eyes trace snow flurries.

“What about it?” I press, eagerly.

“The cove is one of a kind. There are no others like it,” Tania continues.

I lean forward, chin resting on my hands.

“Have you ever explored it?”

“God no…my husband”—she rests her teacup on the table with a slight tremble—“my husband was an avid collector and dabbler of the occult…so much so he was entirely convinced the cove was a portal to another dimension.”

She was married to Victor Lazarus, of course. I figured Tania and Kieran had a close relationship, I should have guessed mother and son.

“I noticed the occult part when I was exploring.”

Tania huffs, then leans back into her seat. Beside her, Chloe resumes the sipping of her tea, ear trained on our conversation.

A chill spreads across my neck and then down to my toes. I incline my head for Tania to keep going.

“The Lazarus Estate was once filled with so many books—it still is, some have been burnt—from around the world.” She wraps her hands around her tea cup.”Kieran seems to have added to that collection as well, although I haven’t seen them laying around anymore.”

“Seems like your household is obsessed with Hell, if the painting on the Great Room’s ceiling means anything.”

“I promise you, my son is nothing like his father.” Her brown eyes twinkle beneath the warm lighting.

“You know what they call him right?” Chloe joins the conversation again.

Tania turns, her eyebrows creased. “They talk about him?”

Town gossip, just what I need.

“They call him the Demon of Devil’s Bay.” Chloe gives a dismissive wave.

“A demon? My son?”

“Why?” I interject. If I was living under his roof, I think I deserve to be involved in this information.

“Original lore from the townsfolk claimed that within the depths of the cove is a hidden passageway leading down into the Earth. A path to the Devil,” Chloe answers.

I shiver at the thought, excited at the prospect. That would make the house a sort of barrier between Hell and Earth. And its owner is, by extension, a demon. I could see it from the eyes of a small town. But why hadn’t his father been given the nickname? The man abandoned his young family.

“Do you both think anything of it? The tale, not the moniker,” I prompt.

Chloe waves it off. “Nah, I think a lot of small towns create stories to make their lives more interesting. What else do you have to do when the sun goes down and there’s no one around?”

I hum, thinking of the stick figure effigy drawn on the banner outside. “Is that why there’s a fair every year?”

Chloe rolls her eyes again.

“During this time of the year, closer to Halloween, the townsfolk created a tradition of chasing away the Devil. A chosen person is to light the flames that will take the Devil back into the Earth and down to Hell. It’s actually quite fun,” Tania chirps.