Let them. She’d promised this wasn’t a romantic date that would involve kissing. I trusted her. He was safe.

I had other things to deal with.

I summoned as much courage as I could and climbed the spiral staircase to the second-floor lounge. As usual, there was a scattering of other grays—at least, I now assumed that was what they were. I scanned them to see if I recognized anyone from school, but there was no one. They looked older than me, now that I was paying attention. Stephen’s age at least. Natalie sat on a red couch in the far corner wearing a tight blue dress, and Stephen leaned against the glass barrier near her.

I walked toward them and ignored my racing heart.

“Samantha,” Natalie greeted me with a smile. “I’m glad to see you again.”

“Why am I so damn special?” I demanded.

Her dark, arched eyebrows went up. “Stephen, please leave us.”

“Yeah, sure.” Stephen eyed me warily as he moved to the other side of the lounge and out of earshot.

My heart pounded. My mouth was dry. And to top it all off, my stomach was rumbling. I’d meant to grab a piece of pizza from the fridge before I left the house, but hadn’t had the chance.

“Please, Samantha,” Natalie said. “Sit down. Make yourself comfortable.”

I didn’t sit. I didn’t want to be comfortable. “Why did you pick me? Why were you watching me in particular? How did you know about my gifts? Who am I? Who are you?”

This was why I’d come here. This was what I needed to know now that I’d learned I’d been adopted. I desperately needed another puzzle piece to snap into place.

She just leaned back in her seat and regarded me calmly. “Those are a lot of questions.”

“We look alike,” I said, when she didn’t immediately offer up all the information I needed on a silver platter.

“Do we?”

“I—I mean, we have the same hair color. Eye color.” I’d already started to doubt myself. It didn’t take much. “But—is that why you targeted me? Why you told Stephen to kiss me? Why you know there’s something special about me? Right now I don’t feel very special.”

“What would make you think that, Samantha?”

“I’m adopted. I only found out for sure tonight. I’m just reaching, I guess. Maybe I’m wrong. Am I wrong?” My voice caught. “Are we related?”

Natalie crossed her lean legs. Her silver stilettos glinted under the spotlights above the seating area. A small smile played at her lips that ignited both fury and doubt inside me.

“The moment I arrived here I searched for you,” she said. “Only you. I knew that you needed me as much as I needed you.”

I waited, holding my breath.

She held my gaze before she finally spoke again. “I’m your aunt, Samantha. And I’m the only person in the world who can tell you about your real parents.”

Chapter 16

The noise from the club swelled in my ears and my head swam. I’m sure what little color I had had drained from my face.

“You’re my…aunt?” I managed to say after several stunned seconds ticked by.

“I am.”

I tried to process this without passing out. We had a family resemblance. I’d seen it before, but this was confirmation that we were related. “But you’re so young.”

Her brown eyes, so much like mine, began to glow red. “Demons remain the same in appearance as when we died as humans.” Her lips curved. “You already guessed I was a demon, didn’t you?”

My mouth was so dry it was nearly impossible to form words. “I—I’d had a feeling.”

“Just you? Not your friend Bishop? I think he knows too much about me.”

I had to sit down or I was going to fall down, so that’s exactly what I did, slumping onto a plush red sofa. I forced my mouth to make words again. “Why should I even believe you? You could be lying to me.”

She gave me a steady, patient look. “Because I know your gut is telling you that what I’m saying is true.”

She was right. It was. It felt as if another piece of my puzzle had clicked into place. I suddenly wasn’t totally sure I wanted to see the full picture. But I had to stay strong. I’d wanted the truth. I’d pretty much demanded it.

This was the truth.

Natalie—she was my aunt. And she was a demon.

There was so much more I needed to know, I couldn’t just stop here. I was in it up to my neck, this swimming pool of truth I’d been thrown into. I’d either sink or swim now.

“My—my real parents,” I croaked out. “My father…my mother. Who are they? Where are they?”

Natalie had taken a seat next to me, but she made no move to get closer to me or try to hold my hand. That might have been too much and I’d have run away from this, away from her, before I learned everything I could. Her expression remained serious, but a small smile played at her lips.

“Your father is my older brother. His name is Nathan.”

I had to ask the next question, but I was afraid of the answer. “And if you’re a demon…”

Then what is he? went unspoken.

She looked me steadily in the eyes. “He’s also a demon.”

I shivered. It had been possible he was human, of course, but I’d had a horrible feeling that he wasn’t. I immediately wanted to push back against this information, but again it settled into me with a soft click. “And my mother? Was she a demon, too? Or a human?”