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Tension diffused, Rade twisted the cap off his water bottle. “He hasn’t seen anyone in the family in years. What makes you think he’ll want to see you now?”
“Trust me.” Logan dug into his pocket and pulled out the leather bracelet. “He’ll see me.”
“Oh, shit,” Mace reached out and took the scrap of leather, turning it over in his hands as he studied the intricate weave Chaos had made with his own little fingers. “I thought you didn’t have it.”
“I didn’t. The person who had it gave it back to me today.”
Sabre punched the cork into the bottle and set it aside. “Is that…thebracelet?”
“The one Chaos gave to me for safekeeping and Stryke demanded I give him after he died? Yep. This should get me a meeting. Hopefully, right away. We need to know more about the Aegis weapon. Maybe—”
His comms buzzed. Aleka. Out of respect for Sabre and whatever had gone on between them, Logan excused himself and answered her call from the living room.
“Hey,” he said as she appeared in front of him. “I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon.”
Aleka spoke to him from her office at the British Museum in London. “I had some energy to burn off. Plus, we all got called in for an emergency meeting. My team will be looking into why blood fell on Temple Mount. We haven’t confirmed that it’s Harvester’s yet. Since all the blood is gone, no one has a sample.” Sadness shadowed her green eyes. “I hope she’s okay. And Grandpa too.”
“I know. I’m worried about them too. I’ve missed watching Harvester needle our parents.”
She smiled fondly. “And Grandpa Reaver always took her side. Anyway,” she said, “the reason I called is that I found your mystery glyphs, and I consulted with one of my colleagues who specializes in ancient magic.” She held up the drawing he’d given her. “So, the top side repels nightmare demons and keeps them from influencing dreams. Usually, that would be the only ward needed or used. But in this case, someone added glyphs that also tether the demon to an individual.”
Logan sucked in a harsh breath. “Why would someone want a demon both attached to themandrepelled?”
“Good question. Which is why I consulted with Linda. It turns out that the symbols are species-specific, and the demon attached to this tattoo is a symbiote. They feed off the nightmares they create, but in return, they grant their host good luck. What’s interesting is that the owner of this tattoo probably no longer has nightmares, but they’d still benefit from the luck, and so would whoever was responsible for the tattoo. In fact, Linda thinks several people are reaping the luck rewards.”
So, Eva was being used as some kind of…luck cow? Fury sizzled in his veins at the thought that someone—probably her parents—had saddled her with a demon and lied about it, all for personal gain. Eva hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since she was six years old, which had to affect her health. He was shocked she was even lucid.
“What would happen if the demon was captured or killed?”
Aleka sat back in her chair. “Uh…nothing good. There’d be an immediate reversal of luck. Really bad luck, to make up for all the good shit. It would detonate on an accelerated scale, potentially affecting everyone around the former host. Twenty years of good luck would turn into like, five days of shit luck, and might even end in death.”
Logan felt the ground shift beneath him. He’d captured the demon the night before Sig killed Shanea and Noah.
Had all of that happened because of him?
Andhow the fuckcould things get worse? It didn’t matter how angry he was at Eva for all the lies she’d told about his family. Right now, he just needed to make sure she didn’t die.
And then, once she was safe, he’d prove her wrong about his family.
“Logan?” Aleka tapped on her desk. “Yo. You were spacing.” She eyed him in that unnerving way her father did. “Does this nightmare demon problem have anything to do with that Aegi you brought to Aunt Limos’s place today?”
“Yeah.” He swallowed and ran his hand through his hair. “I fucked up, cousin. The demon was a spirit. I trapped it the other night. Before everything went to hell.” A potential fix popped into his head. “I’ll release it. It’s in storage, but I can—”
“You can’t,” Aleka broke in. “I mean, youcan, but it won’t help. Once it’s separated from its host, the bond is broken.”
Anger and panic winged through him. “How can we stop the bad luck? There has to be a way.”
“I don’t know,” Aleka said. “I’ll get back to you.” Her feed cut off, and Logan sank heavily onto the arm of the sofa.
“Logan?”
Lost in his head and caught off guard, Logan snapped his head up so fast his neck cracked. “Ouch, shit. Hey, Crux. ‘Sup.”
The kid cocked his head and looked at him, his baggy sweats falling low on his narrow hips, and his size-largeHella Goodrestaurant tee hanging loosely on his thin frame. He’d fill out and look like his brothers after his sexual maturation phase, but right now, there was little resemblance. Even his coloring differed from theirs. The triplets had gotten their father Shade’s black hair, dark eyes, and tan skin, but Crux was fairer like his mother, and he’d gotten her caramel hair and light eyes.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” he lied as he opened a link to Eva’s comms unit. She might not have a new device yet, but her chip implant would accept and store his message until she got access through any comms device she connected to. “Just tired.”
