I giggled despite the fatigue weighing down my limbs. My back ached so badly I couldn’t fully straighten my spine. I gazed at the demon in my bed, then sighed and climbed onto the mattress beside him, on top of the blanket while he was under it. He watched me, head resting on his folded arms.

Plumping a pillow, I propped it against the wall—I didn’t have a headboard—and leaned into it, legs stretched out. The ache in my spine lessened slightly.

My gaze turned, seeking the object I’d been pointedly ignoring. The infernus lay on my bedside table, the chain curled neatly around the disc-like pendant. And beside it, crumpled and stained, were my graduation photo and the notebook page I’d found amidst the “garbage” the vampires had discarded.

Something akin to panic boiled through my chest. I sucked in a deep, shaky breath and steeled my heart. Ignoring the tremble in my fingers, I carefully lifted the lined paper off the table.

Dear Robin,

Hey there, little bird. If you’re reading this, it means I can’t say those words to you anymore. And it means, whatever happened, I didn’t get to tell you some important things I needed to share. But I already told you the most important thing. I told you every day:

I love you, baby girl. Your father and I love you so much, and we’re so proud of you.

The other things, they aren’t as easy to say. They aren’t pleasant to hear. There’s so much I should have told you, and even as I write this letter, I know I should be saying all this right now, face to face. But how can a mother tell her daughter that her life and her dreams have to change? If I can spare you this burden for even one more day, how can I not?

It’s because of our desire to protect you, Robin, that we’ve hidden so much.

I guess I should start at the beginning. The Athanas Grimoire. I’ve shown you this grimoire, but I never told you what it really is. To most of the mythic world, it’s an ancient myth nearly forgotten. But for our family, it’s our past, present, and future. It’s our legacy and our burden—a burden that, if you’re reading this letter, is now yours. And because of my shortsightedness, you’re completely unprepared to shoulder it.

That’s my fault, and my greatest regret. I should have prepared you. I should have nurtured your love of magic and Arcana, not pushed you away from all power. I thought if you could leave magic behind entirely, the grimoire would be even safer in your care than mine.

I was so wrong. Instead of keeping you safe, I’ve left you unarmed.

But Robin, I know how strong you are. How smart and capable. You’re ready for this, little bird. Your inquisitive heart will lead you where you need to go. You’ll find the answers I never could.

I’ve written so much and I still haven’t explained the grimoire—what it is and what it means. It’s among the most dangerous books to ever exist. That’s why we’ve kept it hidden. Those who covet power nearly wiped our family out of existence trying to get it, and only by fleeing to America and changing her name did your great-grandmother end the bloodbath.

You see, Robin, our family aren’t merely Arcana mythics. We’re demon summoners—generation upon unbroken generation of summoners. We weren’t just the best. We were the first

I stared at the last word. Her handwriting filled both sides of the paper, loopy and so familiar, but the last sentence cut off, incomplete and unfinished. There must’ve been a second page, maybe several pages. Lost in the destruction, the fire, the collapsed ceiling.

My vision blurred, causing the final line to waver. We were the first … the first to do what?

A sob shuddered through me and I fought for composure. Zylas was watching me and I didn’t want to break down in front of him. He’d already called me stupid for crying from grief, and I didn’t want to hear it again. I rubbed my sleeve across my eyes and sniffed.

His gaze weighed on me, heavy and assessing. “What does it read?”

The quiet question caught me off guard. I glanced at his scarlet-tinged eyes and refocused on the page. Swallowing, I read the letter aloud. My voice trembled but I made it to the end without breaking.

“There’s no more,” I concluded. “The rest of the letter probably burned with everything else.”

“What happened to the other papers?”

“The other demon … Claude’s demon took them.” I slumped miserably. “You knew he was there, didn’t you? That’s why you tried to call me back.”

“I sensed his vīsh. I could have sensed it before he got so close but I was not paying attention.”

“It isn’t your fault. We weren’t in a position to escape anyway.” I glanced at my desk where the grimoire page and half-completed translation sat. “What kind of demon is he?”

“Dh’irath. Second House. He is very powerful.”

“Do you know him?”

“No, but Dh’irath is always powerful. He will be the same to fight as Tahēsh.”

Despair clung to me, filling my mind with doubts. Could we find Uncle Jack before either Claude or the vampires? Would I ever get the grimoire back? Maybe I could send Zylas home without it, but what other dangerous secrets did it contain?

“Well,” I said heavily, “Claude and his demon have all the important documents the vampires collected, and everything else was destroyed. We have nothing.”

“We have no less than we had before, drādah.”

I absorbed that. He was right. We hadn’t gained any ground, but neither had we lost any. It could’ve been worse.

My gaze drifted to the bite mark on Zylas’s neck. It could’ve been much worse.

Chapter Nineteen

I woke up with a demon in my bed.

Three seconds after I realized I must’ve fallen asleep curled up beside Zylas with only a thin blanket separating us, I was out of the bed, across the room, and through the door.

Maybe in the next century, the blush would finally fade from my hot cheeks.

Zylas noted my sprint from the room but didn’t seem to care. Not that I could tell if he was embarrassed. With the reddish undertone of his skin, a blush would be difficult to notice, and besides that, he had yet to show the slightest hint of self-consciousness. Maybe he wasn’t capable of embarrassment.

The thought occurred to me as I leaned against the kitchen counter ten minutes later, a spoonful of yogurt halfway to my mouth. What I would give to never feel embarrassed again. Shaking my head, I resumed eating my simple breakfast.

Amalia woke up half an hour later and we got to work discussing our next move. No matter how we looked at it, we had no significant leads to follow. Claude and his demon had all the information and we had no idea where to find them. Plus, if Zylas was right about the strength of Claude’s demon, a Second House Dh’irath, we didn’t want to chance a confrontation.

As much as I never wanted to see another vampire again, we didn’t have much choice: we were going back to the tower.

While Amalia prepared cantrips on flashcards for self-defense—we weren’t going near the vampire nest unarmed—I took a quick shower. Hair blow-dried, contacts in, and clothes on, I winced back to my room. I’d hoped the shower would ease the pain in my back from last night’s intimate meet-and-greet with a wall, but the bruises flared with my every movement.