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She’d used a brush and ink, so the circle and series of marks inside it were dark and fluid against the white paper.
“Scanning,” Petra said, then pulled up the photo from the Cadogan House lawn as a comparison. Lulu’s drawing matched the general outlines in that one nearly exactly.
“Searching,” Petra said, as she looked for a match to the images in the catalogs of supernatural and demon lore.
Two minutes later, Petra hooted. “I fucking found her,” she said. “Her name is fucking Andaras.”
I mean, it was “Andaras,” not “fucking Andaras,” but close enough. She wasn’t one of Solomon’s seventy-two demons, but Solomon’s list of demons was hardly the only one out there. Medieval influencers loved their demon lists.
According to those guides, Andaras was a demon of “most wondrous chaos” and esteemed for her beauty and ability to “moveth the heavy things.” Such as vampire Houses, one would assume.
We had the wards, which the CPD was monitoring. We had the sigil, which we could use to seal Rose when we understood the process for doing so.
Which meant I was heading back to the town house to help Lulu finalize the spell. I brought printed copies of the sigil, and while we plied Lulu with kale-and-lemon smoothies, I explained to Connor and Alexei how we’d managed to find its shape.
“It took a while, but we did it. Down with Korkath!”
Connor’s grin was boyishly charming. “How do you know about Korkath?”
“Hugo Horner is aJQfan. I’m sure you can find him online.”
His brows lifted. “How do you know Hugo Horner?”
He said it like the name was common currency. “Wait—how doyouknow Hugo Horner?”
“He’s famous inJQcircles. He’s played for years. I watch his streams sometimes.”
Connor had tried, once and unsuccessfully, to explain to me the point of watching someone else play a video game, but the concept eluded me.
“He’s the Machinist,” I said. “His family has guarded and repaired the warehouse machine since it was built.”
“No shit.” He put his hands on his hips. “I wondered if he had a day job. Maybe I’ll invite him on a quest.”
“Maybe after we nail the demon?”
“Afterward,” he said with a nod.
***
There were more smoothies, some curses, and our often frustrated efforts to find weird ingredients in Chicago in the middle of the night. Anything we couldn’t find required Lulu to retool the spell again.
And because demons were inherently untrustworthy, we had to ensure we had the House back—with everyone safe—before we sealed Rosantine away. That was going to require negotiating.
“We need a lawyer.”
Lulu looked at me, surprise in her expression. “Why would we need a lawyer?”
“Because we need to get a supernatural to do something, and Sups are weird about contracts and agreements.” I’d already learned that lesson once this week. “We need a lawyer who can draw up a contract Rose can’t weasel her way out of. Maybe with a magical binding.” If vampires could use a magical summons on me, I figured we could use a magical contract on a demon.
“You have someone in mind?”
“Surprising no one, my dad has several lawyers,” I said. “I’ll give the firm a call.”
I did that, and let Lulu and the lawyer speak to each other about the necessary terms for a demonic contract. As you do.
I kept looking at the clock, as we were down to less than twenty-four hours. I knew I wasn’t fighting alone, and that helped. That I had a group of amazing people to rely on, and they were actively working the problem. I could breathe. I could rest. Which was good—because I knew I’d need all my strength tomorrow.
***
