“Darlington!” Alex said. It was almost dark and people were coming home from work. If they drew a crowd, they were going to have even more problems.
But he wasn’t listening or the monster in him didn’t care. He rammed into the demon with a snarl, severing its torso. Its legs dissolved into wriggling maggots, but it just kept on screaming.
“Darlington, enough!”
Her flame unfurled in a crackling blue wire, snapping around the glowing golden band that had appeared on his neck where the yoke had been. It snaked around Darlington’s throat and yanked him away from Not Hellie. The rest of the demon’s torso dissolved into squirming grubs.
Darlington fell back on his haunches with a growl. Like a hound brought to heel.
“Shit,” Alex said, batting at the blue flame leash, watching it recede. “I’m sorry, I didn’t—”
But Darlington’s horns had faded with the fire. He was human again, kneeling on the sidewalk.
“I’m sorry,” she repeated.
His gaze was dark and assessing, like he was studying a new text. He rose and brushed the dust from his coat. “Best we get inside, I think.”
Alex nodded. She felt nauseated and tired, all the gleam of carrying Darlington’s soul within her siphoned away. She’d let the demon feed on her like some kind of amateur. And what the hell had just happened?
“Is it really dead?” she asked, stepping over the maggots and trying not to gag.
“No,” said Darlington. “Its body will re-form and try to feed on you again.”
“And Anselm?”
“Golgarot too.”
Alex wondered what that meant for a creature like Linus Reiter.
In the doorway of Il Bastone, Mercy released a nervous laugh. “The demons don’t like him, do they?”
“Not one bit,” said Turner, the leaves of the oak clustered around him.
He’d called to his salt spirit. To help Darlington or to put him down? Maybe Turner was having doubts about the whole soldier-for-good thing after seeing those horns come out. “How was Spain?”
Darlington cleared his throat. He was human again, but the shape of the demon seemed to linger over him, a memory, a threat. “Hotter than expected.”
“Anyone want to explain how he got here?” Turner asked. “And why Alex just caught fire?”
But whatever spell had bound Dawes frozen on the steps had broken.
She descended the stairs slowly, then stopped.
“It’s … it’s not a trick is it?” she said quietly.
She was wise to ask, when friends and parents and grandparents and members of the Lethe board might all be monsters in disguise. When Darlington had just crushed a demon against the pavement. But this time the magic was kind.
“It’s him,” Alex said.
Dawes sobbed and lunged forward. She threw her arms around Darlington.
“Hey, Pammie,” he said gently.
Alex stood awkwardly to the side as Dawes wept and Darlington let her.
Maybe that was what she should have done, what someone without so much blood on her hands did. Welcome home. Welcome back. We missed you. I missed you more than I should have, more than I wanted to. I went to hell for you. I’d do it again.
“Come on,” Darlington said, his arm over Dawes’s shoulders, ushering them all back inside, slipping into the role of Virgil as if he’d never left.
“Let’s get behind the wards.”
But when he set foot on the steps of Il Bastone, the stones trembled, the scorched columns shook, the lantern above the doorway rattled on its chain.
Beneath the porch, Alex could hear the jackals whimpering.
Darlington hesitated. Alex knew this feeling, the fear of being banished from a place you’d called home. What had Anselm said? Are you so eager to be cast out of Eden? Another little joke for the demon, another puzzle she’d failed to solve.
The door creaked softly on its hinges, a high whine of anxiety, as if it was deciding whether there was danger on its doorstep or not. Then the house made up its mind. The steps went still and solid, the door sprang wide, every window came ablaze with light. Even the house could say what Alex could not: Welcome back. You were missed. You are needed. Part demon or not, the golden boy of Lethe was back, and human enough to pass through the wards.
“Where’s Tripp?” she asked.
“He’s not answering his phone,” said Dawes.
Alex’s stomach turned. “When did he last check in?”
“Three hours ago,” said Turner as they shuffled into the dining room where someone had set the table. “I went by his apartment, but no answer.”
Darlington looked skeptical. “I suppose this is a reasonable time to ask why you brought Tripp Helmuth, of all people, to hell?”
