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“Sometimes I wonder about it, too,” I said. “But I’m okay.”
“I can’t believe you arranged to meet her,” Lulu said.
“No other choice,” I said. “We’re running out of time. We managed to identify the hot spots, and we had to take a chance. We also had CPD backup and very shitty weather, which is very good weather where Petra is concerned. That had no effect on Rosantine. But we got a hand flick,” I said, and told them what we’d figured out.
Lulu just stared. “It sounds really freaking obvious when you say it out loud—sure, they need to have a connection to their magical key in order to do the magic.”
“But also counterintuitive,” I said. “It’s her weakness—her true name in symbolic form. Superman didn’t wear kryptonite on a chain around his neck. Anyway,” I said, moving on from superheroes before Connor tried to correct me about a story in issue something or other from this or that series, “we’ve got a video search underway. Hopefully, we’ll find shots of her and can use that to sketch out the sigil.”
“You’re getting close,” Connor said.
“Yeah.” I checked the clock automatically. “I just wish we’d do it a little faster. What’s been going on here?”
“Books,” Alexei said. “Humans have very weird beliefs about supernaturals.”
I smiled. “Yeah, they do.”
“Per my assignment,” Lulu said, gesturing to the books, “I’ve been trying on how to seal the demon once you find her sigil.”
“Thank you again for helping,” I said.
“Yeah, well.” She pushed hair behind her ears, the movement almost bashful. “Sometimes you have to claw your way outside your comfort zone because a demon has sent your parents into another dimension.”
“Put that on a motivational poster,” Connor said, and she smiled a little.
“I thought I was helping protect me and my mom—and the city—by avoiding it altogether. But now there’s a demon in Chicago, so I’m stepping up.” She shifted in her seat. “Anyway, I reviewed the spells created to seal the seventy-two demons Solomon identified. Each demon has a different spell, but chunks of the spell are similar across all of them. Each chunk is correlated with a certain skill or attribute. So, for example, demons who can predict the future always have obsidian in the spellworking. Demons that are fast need laurel and certain chanted words.”
“It’s like a recipe book,” I said.
Lulu nodded eagerly. “Kind of like that, yeah. Some cookies have white sugar. Some have brown sugar. You change the ingredient and the amount depending on the cookie you’re trying to make. I think, if I keep looking at her attributes, we can figure out the magic we need to seal her again.”
“And how are things at the Pack?” I asked, glancing between Connor and Alexei.
Alexei looked at Connor. Connor just growled.
“Uncles or interlopers?”
“Both,” they said simultaneously.
“Uncles still have no opinion,” Connor said, “and Cade threw a party in a bar downtown. Got half the Pack members in Chicago good and drunk.”
“You mean more to them than booze,” Lulu said, turning a page of her book. “But they aren’t going to turn down free drinks.”
Connor grunted, ran a hand through his hair. “Word isspreading. Other NAC members are coming into town because they think they’ll get to witness a challenge. Other Packs are calling because there’s business that needs to be done, and they need to know who’s going to do it.”
“What do you want to do?”
He looked at me. “What?”
“If you had to make a decision today, what do you want to do?”
He blinked. “I’d accept the challenge and send Cade running back to Memphis, tail between his legs. And that would put Dad in a hell of a spot.”
“Sometimes it’s okay not to decide.” We all looked at Lulu, who lifted a shoulder. “I’m just saying. Running out the clock is a tried and true strategy.”
“Smart girl,” Alexei said, but Connor made no comment.
I rose, intending to head back to the office, but Connor met me before I reached the front door.
