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She laughed. “No. Not that either. And despite the display outside, I’m not broken.”
“I didn’t—”
“He didn’t have to say it aloud for me to see the look on your guy’s face. I know pity when I see it.” She leaned forward, keeping my gaze the whole time. “Here’s the thing. It’s not that I don’t want to help you, but I’ve learned the hard way that messing in the spiritual realm isn’t smart. It can do more harm than good, and from what I can see, you don’t need anything else going wrong.”
She paused as her mom brought over two glasses of lemonade and a tray of sugar cookies. “Thanks, Mom.”
“Anything for my angel.” She brushed a kiss on Samantha’s forehead.
She laughed. “I’ve got too much of Dad in me to be anyone’s angel.”
“Nonsense.” Her mom winked at me. “I’m going to leave you girls to it, but I’ll be in my room if you need anything.”
“Thank you.”
She left and disappeared down the hallway. A door clicked shut and I felt like I was missing something. Who was her dad? Or maybe more importantly—what was her dad?
“So what’s this about the end of the world?” Samantha asked.
“A demon named Astaroth—”
“Oh shit.” She leaned back in the chair. “You’re really in it.” Her voice was quieter, and her eyes seemed to lose focus as she stared at me.
“You know him?” This was good. I had a feeling she was going to be better than the pile of books we brought on the plane.
She blinked a few times. “No. I’ve never had the pleasure and I never want to.”
“He says that I’m the key to opening a portal from hell to here. Some sort of seal has been broken, which happened because the fey disappeared and there are a few missing members in the Council of Seven Alphas that rule all the werewolves. We’ve been looking into it and that seems to line up, but I don’t think I can fix either of those problems. So, it’s up to me to stop him, and I don’t think I can do that without breaking the tie.”
I tried not to feel disappointed as she closed her eyes for a second. I wasn’t sure what else I could say. “Please. You can see the tie, which means you can break it. Right?”
“I don’t know that I can. If it was some simple demon, sure. But Astaroth?” She finally opened her eyes. “Damn it. You’re really screwed, huh?”
That was pretty accurate. “How can you see the ties? What are you?” From the outside, she looked like a normal girl in a private school uniform. The navy polish on her nails was chipping off. She wore a little too much eyeliner, but besides that and the nude gloss, she wasn’t wearing any other make-up. Her eyes were as gray as a stormy sky, and as I watched, the storm in them roiled and turned dark.
I didn’t smell anything on her besides coconut, rose, and sage. Nothing flowery like the fey. No spice of a Were. Definitely no sulfur smell. And if she were lying about being a witch, she hadn’t brewed any spells lately.
“Don’t worry about what I am. Just know that I’m me. The better question would be what can I do?”
“Okay.” She was right. It didn’t matter what she was, even if I was curious. All I cared about was how she could help me. “What can you do?”
“You know how there are two planes?”
“Two planes?” I thought I knew what she meant, but I wanted to be sure we were on the same page.
“Like the living, mortal one. That’s where we are
now. And then the other one. Supernatural. That’s where the underworld is. Where the demons live. Ghosts. All those fun things.”
Ah. That I knew. “Sure. I’m following you.”
“I exist on both.”
Wait. What? “How is that possible?”
“I was born this way. It’s just how I’m wired. I’m part human, part something else, which amounts to something like a medium. Or a medium meets an exorcist?” She shrugged. “I don’t know what to call myself. I can’t really do magic, but I can see the ties as physical things. If someone is possessed, I can usually separate the demon from the human. If there’s a haunting, I can get the spirit to move on to their next life. Usually. Some of them are stubborn as hell.”
Fascinating. The more she explained, the more questions I had, but I kept my mouth shut. I was just thankful she was telling me this much.
