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Leo coughed out an amused laugh, hiding it behind the back of his hand.
Lily glared between us, before settling her tired gaze squarely on me. “You want to help? Tell me how we exorcise a demon from a seventeen-year-old kid.”
19
NEVER
“You’re kidding, right?” What Hook was proposing sounded like a horrible joke.
He shook his head.
I stared at him, blinking like a fool, and feeling like I wasn’t truly comprehending the situation. “We seriously need a demon to drive out a demon? You can’t do it with your god-like powers?”
“Godly, not god-like.” His lips curled up in a smirk before he schooled his expression. “And no, I cannot.”
“Because only demons can yoink other demons out of humans,” I said, still not believing it. “Who made up that idiotic rule?”
He cast me a patient look that very clearly said it didn’t matter.
The tizzy I’d been working myself up into deflated because he was right. Knowing who was responsible for making up stupid rules wouldn’t change the fact that I was screwed.
I sank down on the kitchen chair and rested my forehead against the cool wood of the table. Five minutes earlier, I’d woken up feeling better than I had in days. Dare I say, weeks. Now? I was back to trying to swim upstream in rapids. Actually, this was worse. At least swimming upstream I’d still have at least a fighting chance.
“I may have a solution,” Hook offered quietly.
I lifted my head, barely catching and leashing the hope that tried to race through me. “May?”
As in possibly, but not definitely? I would kill for something solid to hang my bets on, but I was willing to work withmayormaybe. Or evenmightorpossibly. They were all better thanno chance in hell.
“The Brethren.”
He said it like I was supposed to know what it meant. “Is that a religious cult or something?”
“The Brethren is a brotherhood of demons here in the human realm. Eleven ancient and incredibly powerful demons, to be more specific, who were ripped from their world into this one thousands of years ago.”
I cast a glance at Lily who only shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I’ve been in this world for a while, but I was a dog for most of it. Remember?”
Like I could forget.
Turning back to Hook, I asked, “If they’re so powerful, why haven’t I heard of them?”
It seemed like a reasonable question. Magic wasn’t a common thing in my world as far as I knew. But Demons? I’d known about those fuckers since I was a kid.
“They typically only intervene when lesser demons get out of line,” Hook explained. “Though they were known to take down a witch or two back in the day.”
“So, they’re what, good demons?” The contradiction grated against all of my life experience. There was no such thing as a “good” demon.
He cocked one distractingly attractive eyebrow my way. “Perhaps it’s better to think of them as potential allies rather than trying to weigh their morality.”
Notthe good guys, then. Weirdly, that was a bit of a relief.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, with no lack of sarcasm. “And, uh, how exactly does a girl go about summoning one of these demons?” I held up a hand. “Nope. I’m putting the cart before the horse. What makes you think a brotherhood of demons would be game for helping us?”
He licked his lips, never taking his eyes off me. “As I said, they intervene when lesser demons get out of line. Petra’s shadow is kicking up a lot of dust in this world. If they haven’t been alerted to its presence yet, it’s only a matter of time before they catch wind of the situation.”
A new, rather alarming thought skittered through my mind. “What do they do with demons that get out of line?”
“Destroy them,” Leo said from where he was slouched in the chair by the TV, his arms folded over his chest. “I already told him this was a risky idea.”
