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“It looks like your roses haven’t tried to eat any of the neighbors while we were gone,” Nolan announced as he parked the car in his driveway.
Sky rubbed his eyes and smirked at his companion. “You know, they’re not just a deterrent for thieves. They also keep Mrs. Jenkins’s dog from crapping on my lawn. That little annoyance is terrified of my house, and my sweet roses haven’t so much as snapped at it.”
“Not a dog person?” Nolan inquired, turning off the engine.
Sky lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. “I like cats and dogs, but I’ve never kept pets. Growing up with Grammy, there were ghosts, minions, and whatnot running around our place. You could never be too sure about what they ate. You didn’t want to worry about something taking a bite out of Princess Fluffybutt when you weren’t paying attention.”
Nolan stared at him before closing his eyes and slowly shaking his head. “You must have had the most interesting childhood.”
“It was definitely different.” Sky climbed out of Nolan’s car while Nolan did the same. When their eyes met over the roof, Sky caught his second wind. He wasn’t ready to say good-bye to Nolan yet, but it was likely the guy had to get to work.
“Is there anything else I can help with?” Nolan inquired. “Not magic, of course. But other things.”
“Yes! You can keep me company while I send a message to Zalramon.” He waved for Nolan to follow him across the street, his heart bubbling with joy.
“I get to see you summon an actual demon?”
That earned a snort. “Please, don’t get too excited. I’m going to write a quick note and include it with a sandwich in a brown paper bag. I’m going to make another sandwich and summon Frank to take the bag and message to Zalramon.”
“You pay demons in sandwiches, too?”
“Not quite,” Sky admitted with a wince that had his shoulders rising to his ears. “I can’t make demands of Zalramon. He’s the big cheese in the underworld. Making deals with him would be costly. Like my soul making him sandwiches for all eternity kind of expensive. But I figure the sandwich mixed with a polite ‘you fucked up’ message could convince him to send one of his people to do some legwork for me.”
“So, the head demon gets the sandwich, and he sends one of his minions to figure out what got loose. Not bad.”
Sky nodded. “At least, I hope it works out that way. I’m still going to dig around and try to find the info on my own, but I suspect Zal will get to the bottom of things faster.”
Zal could work much faster than Sky because he didn’t have a grumpy Grammy waiting for him to walk in the front door.
“Skylar Wallace, what the devil have you been doing?” Grammy shouted the second he stepped across the threshold. Her angry, ghostly visage instantly untwisted when she caught sight of Nolan standing right behind Sky. “Nolan, dear, how good to see you again. My troublesome grandson hasn’t dragged you into more nonsense, has he?”
“No, ma’am. I’m trying to spend some time with him.”
“Uh-huh. And would that explain why you both reek of earth magic? Not even Maddox or Redstone’s magic, either. What witches have been troubling you?”
Sky’s head was spinning from how fast she could shift from accusing to sweet to protective. She’d been like this when she’d been alive. Death had not slowed her down.
Sky led both Grammy and Nolan into the kitchen and gave Grammy the quick-and-dirty version of what had happened last night. Nolan settled at the table with a glass of iced water. Sky set about dragging out everything he needed to make sandwiches for Frank and Zal.
Sadly, they were going to be pathetic sandwiches because the damn demons had cleaned him out last night. Frank was going to be pissy, but there wasn’t much Sky could do about it until he got to the store.
Grammy paced the kitchen, jingling with each step. “I noticed the air seemed thicker and more…” Sky glanced up when her words dropped off to see her rubbing the air with her fingers. “Just more…”
“Heavy and crackling. Like someone left a window open between here and the underworld. A magical draft is being let in.”
Grammy sniffed and folded her arms over her bosom. “That’s what you get when demons force doors open. They break things.”
“Can Sky fix what the demon king broke? Or does the demon need to fix it?” Nolan inquired.
“Yes, I can fix it,” Sky answered, only to have Grammy huff at him.
“No, he can’t. Not properly, at least.” The ghost pursed her lips together and wrinkled her brow in thought. “Sky can create a patch that will stop the leak, but it won’t be as strong as a fix by the demon. It will allow him to still summon his minions for menial work, but if something as big and powerful as a demon comes through, the door will tear.” She turned to Sky and wagged her finger at him. “And that’s gonna be even harder to fix. A patch won’t work a second time. You need to get that demon up here to fix this mess he made.”
“Zalramon, Grammy,” Sky emphasized, leaning toward her. “It’s Zalramon, king of the underworld, who’s made this mess. I can’t just call him up here like I would Frank or Greg. I need to be diplomatic about this or I’m going to wind up in the underworld permanently, whether I’m alive or dead.”
Grammy clicked her tongue twice at him. “Only you, Skylar. Only you could get yourself into this kind of mess.”
He almost rolled his eyes at his grandmother, but that was a fast way of getting a house shoe to the back of the head. Given the amount of energy zipping through the air, that would freaking hurt right now.
