“Ash?” Ember called.
“Coming…” I picked up the plates and slowly made my way to the living room.
Caring for our physical bodies, I could handle. Finding Chaos’s skull might be an issue, but I could go it alone. Freeing him should be as easy as trapping him was. Battling a witch who had a Prince of Hell in her pocket…that was Ember’s department.
Well, shit. “I can’t do all this alone.”
“You must tell Ember what you’ve done. Her skills may be required to retrieve my skull. I doubt it was left unguarded.”
“But you’re a demon,” I whispered right before I entered the room.
“She is your sister. She will understand your mishap.”
Would she? I wasn’t so sure. “Here’s dinner.” I set our plates on the coffee table and darted back into the kitchen to grab two bottles of beer. After today, we needed something stronger, but beer would have to do.
Ember twisted off the cap and downed half the contents. “Thanks. The Chief was none too pleased when I told him what happened.”
“I bet.” I shoved a forkful of spaghetti into my mouth. “He still blames us?”
“I think I’ve convinced him we aren’t involved, but he’s suspicious. He agreed to let us talk to Jason tomorrow, though, so that’s a plus. Hopefully he can give us enough info to piece all this together.”
“What about the rift? The patch I put on it won’t hold forever.”
She finished chewing before she answered, “I already sent Shade and Chrys to take care of it.”
Great. Yet another excuse for him to gloat over me. He had the energy to repair the rift correctly when I didn’t. Forget the fact I’d done a huge amount of spell casting and helped battle a demon. That wouldn’t matter to Shade. Him fixing something I couldn’t do properly would be all he needed.
My thoughts must’ve been clear on my face because Ember patted my knee. “Since it’s been on the news, curious humans will be swarming the place. They’ll need to hide what they’re doing, and Shade is the best at shadow magic.”
“I know that.” I shoved another forkful into my mouth, but I wasn’t hungry. Chaos was right. I needed to tell Ember what I’d done. I had pertinent information that she, as acting High Priestess, needed to know.
Telling her the truth was the right thing to do, but that didn’t mean it would be easy. My screwup had almost gotten her killed today, and now I was about to inform her that her baby sister had a demon inside her who would take over completely if she didn’t vanquish him ASAP.
“What a day, huh?” Ember took a swig from her beer. “I’m sure glad it’s over.”
My mouth went dry, and I felt like I’d swallowed a wad of cotton. “It’s not quite done yet. I need to talk to you about something.”
She spoke around a mouthful of food. “If it has to do with the library or the shop, it can wait. I’m beat.”
“It doesn’t. I…” Deep breath in. Let it out slowly. You can do this, Ash. “I accidentally summoned a demon. Not the shedim. A different one.” I clamped my mouth shut, my shoulders drawing toward my ears.
Ember laughed. “Tell me, dear sister. How did you accidentally summon a demon?”
She didn’t believe me. If Chaos hadn’t been talking to me all day…helping me solve this mystery…I wouldn’t believe it myself. I made mistakes all the time, but not like this.
“Show her my mark.”
“You’re right. I’ll start with the worst and move backward from there.”
Ember’s brow furrowed. “What?”
I shoved my sleeve up to my elbow and held out my arm. Chaos’s sigil glowed deep red. “I found this page of sigils in Cinder’s room. This one is for power over chaos…or so I thought.”
I ran my finger over the mark, and Chaos’s growl vibrated in my chest. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have said he was purring. That sounded way too content to be a growl.
“It’s beautiful. You definitely got all the artistic talent in the family.” She ate another bite.
“Yeah, well, it turns out this sigil belongs to a demon called Chaos.”
“A Prince of—”
“A Prince of Hell to be precise. He’s one of the highest-ranking demons in the realm, and I somehow called him over and trapped him inside my head.”
She laughed again. “You’re joking.”
“I wish I were.”
“You…” She took a giant bite of food, her right cheek protruding as she chewed.
I turned toward her, folding one leg beneath me. “I know it sounds nuts, but it’s true. He’s been talking to me all day. How do you think I knew so much about the shedim?”
“You read tons of books. You know just about everything.”
“Chaos told me what we had to do. Pierce the two hearts. He also told me about the poison claws, so I knew to get you to Patrice to draw out the toxin.”
She set her plate on the coffee table and chugged the rest of her beer. “If there were a demon inside you, you’d have vanquished him by now.”
“I tried, believe me. The only way I can get him out of my head is to find his. A witch vanquished him way back when, but she kept his skull so he would be imprisoned in darkness across the veil. I have to find his skull in order to set him free.”
