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“Speaking of fae magic, we’re a few days away from Moving Day,” Esme said as she stood with her large bag on her shoulder. “Can you catch the creature before the fae’s arrival?”
“God, I hope so.” Sky sighed.
Nolan didn’t need to fully understand what they were facing to know that was bad. Fae and a demon running loose in the city. No, they didn’t need that at all.
Chapter 5
Skylar Wallace
It took them more than an hour to return to his place after they settled the witches with the idea that he had a plan of attack for dealing with this…thing.
Ugh. First step was figuring out what the hell was disturbing the dead in the living’s realm and getting it sent back to where it belonged.
No. The first step was coffee.
He was running on fumes.
Thank God Nolan was there to drive, because he would have fallen asleep behind the wheel. As it was, he caught a few z’s while Audrey drove them to his car and then again while Nolan navigated to their street.
“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.
