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I reached out my hand. “We need to talk.”
Half an hour later, Never was standing at the window, staring out at the rather depressing view of her neighborhood. She’d taken the news of her bloodline in stride, but I had a feeling the implications hadn’t truly begun to settle in.
“Does it change things? Will the Brethren refuse to help now?” she asked without turning around.
Fortunately, Emerson and Theloneus had taken their leave while I shared the news with her.
“They’ll still help.”
She nodded. It was the only indication she gave that she’d heard me. I wanted to go to her, to pull her into me and tell her it would be okay. Her blood was the same as it had been when I’d first laid eyes on her. It changed nothing for me, but there was little I could do for her as she wrestled with her new reality.
She turned slowly, a haunted look shadowing her normally fiery features. “When do we start?”
“Whenever you’re ready.”
“It’s okay to take a beat, Nev,” Lily said, watching from her perch at the kitchen counter. “You were just hit with some pretty huge news.”
She nodded thoughtfully before shaking her head. “But that’s the problem; it’s just information. I can’tdoanything with it.” When she finally looked my way, resolve hardened her expression. “So, I’m going to pretend like I didn’t hear it. Going to hell, or whatever you called it, is officially a tomorrow Never problem.”
“The Alius,” I reminded her. Of all the ways I’d imagined she might deal with the news, disregarding it altogether hadn’t even made the list.
She waved a dismissive hand. “Let’s get those evil bastards back here and get this shit show on the road.”
There it was: the attitude. Her armor. As much as I wanted her in my arms at that moment, the woman needed to stand on her own. So, I let her have her space and sent out the mental call. Only a matter of seconds passed before Emerson and Theloneus reappeared.
Never’s expression was cool and determined as she took in both men. “What do we need to do to get that thing out of my brother?”
“You told her?” Emerson asked, ignoring her question to shoot me a doubtful look.
“Yeah, he told me I’m rocking some demon blood inside all this.” She motioned to her body. “It changes nothing.”
His gaze swung between the two of us before his shoulders lifted in a resigned shrug. “Very well. The first thing we need is a location. Outside but secluded, where we can draw the demon to us without putting others at risk.”
Never and Lily shared a look. “The park,” they said in unison.
“Where I saw the demon the first time,” Never added. “I was in a part of the park that was mostly overgrown, like people didn’t spend much time there.”
“I didn’t scent a lot of human traffic there either,” Lily said.
Right. I’d forgotten they were together during Never’s initial fight with Petra’s shadow.
“It might be an anchor point,” I said to Emerson and Theloneus. “When I was pulled from my world to this one, I arrived in that same park.”
Emerson narrowed his eyes. “You were pulled? You didn’t flash here?”
My gaze slipped to Never for half a second before returning to him. “I’d been trying to find my way here without any success. Then, out of the blue, I felt myself slipping between realms.”
He scratched the stubble along his broad jaw. “Interesting. It takes a good deal of power to cross realms, but it takes more to draw a being from one to the other.” His gaze roamed the room before settling on Never. “The pendant you and your brother used to return here. Do you still have it?”
She took longer than I expected to respond, but eventually she pulled it out from beneath her shirt to show him. “Right here.”
“Hmm.” He moved closer, studying it carefully without reaching out for it. “And what kind of magic is this?”
“Mine,” I said. “That is, quite literally, a piece of me.”
His eyes went wide, and he backed up a step.
“It’s kind of a family heirloom,” Never said.
