A Darker Past (The Darker Agency #2)(11)
Dad dragged over two of the folding chairs and gestured for me to sit. “Well, what exactly did you do?”
“Exactly what he told me to,” I said defensively, settling into the chair as he did the same. “He gave me the crystallized hair and told me in order to bring the guy back, I had to be touching him. The aforementioned guy wasn’t thrilled, and I had to take him by force, but I gave him the choice.”
“That sounds right. If he refused to come willingly, you’re within your rights to take him by force. How did you take him down?”
I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat. “Is…is that a trick question?”
Dad leaned back in his chair. “You brought him to Valefar alive, didn’t you?”
Completely at a loss, I opened my mouth, then closed it.
He gave me a sympathetic smile and brushed my cheek. “When a human dies, the soul detaches itself. It stays put, the body acting like a container, but the connection is lost. A detached soul is safe to bring into the Shadow Realm. An attached one isn’t.”
This was news to me. “How is it not safe?”
“In the Shadow Realm, souls are power. Think of them as a sort of currency. When attached to a body, a soul can be damaged, and a damaged soul is of lesser value. The Shadow Realm is a truly traumatic place for a human. The illusion you see doesn’t exist for them. They see it as it is.”
“That actually explains a lot. I get these moments when I can see what’s underneath.”
Dad nodded. “You’re part human.”
Lucky me. “Does that mean I’m damaged?”
“You know these things exist, Jessie. There’s no surprise. Most humans have no idea that there are other beings out there. To be suddenly faced with them causes trauma. And trauma causes damage.”
The weight of it all fell, hard, and I had a tough time moving the air in and out of my lungs. I knew eventually I’d have to do something that compromised my not-so-glowing morals, but killing people? “You’re saying on top of being at his beck and call for the next fifty-five years, I have to be a murderer?” Just saying it out loud brought me to the edge of panic. If that’s what it came down to, could I do it? Would I?
“Anyone you’re sent to collect knew the score when they made their deal. You knew the score.” He leaned in close and pinned me with a stern glare. “I understand why you did what you did, but what did you expect? This is why, no matter what’s at stake, you don’t make deals with demons.”
I jumped from the chair and jabbed my finger in his direction. Raising my voice slightly, I said, “So if it was Mom and me, you would have left us to die by Meredith’s hand?”
“That’s not a valid question. I’m a demon. I wouldn’t have needed to make a deal to save you.”
Oh my God. Semantics. “Fine. Hypothetically speaking, say you weren’t a demon. Would you have left us to die?”
For the longest time, he watched me. Didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Just sat there, staring. After a moment, he sighed and said, “It’s time for you to go home.”
And just like that, I was back in the office, sitting behind my desk.
Wondering what his answer would have been…
Chapter Five
“Good,” Mom said from behind me. She and Lukas walked through the door, making enough noise to wake the dead. The sun was setting, and the blast of cold air that came in with them made me shiver. “You’re back.”
I’d been back over a half hour now, but no sense in telling her that. She probably would have asked why I hadn’t done anything productive. Like, clean my room or do the dishes—a chore we both avoided. Once, when I was fourteen, we used paper plates and plastic silverware for a month so we could just toss them when finished. No fuss, no muss.
I’d meant to take a peek at the math assignment due Monday, but I’d gotten sucked into a frustrating round of an app called Whack a Mole. Really, that was all on Lukas. Mom bought him a cell phone a few weeks ago, and he was the one who got me addicted to the game.
I stuffed the cell back into my pocket and stood. “Did you guys figure out what they had of Simon Darker’s?”
Mom set her bag on the desk and sank onto the couch, lips set in a grim line. “It seems the historical society has gotten their hands on several trinkets belonging to Simon’s brother, Charles Darker.”
Several. My skin prickled. A scene where Lukas, Mom, and I were running through the streets, chasing a horde of assorted evil let loose from Darker trinkets, flashed through my head… “Anything you recognize?”
“Not on sight, but I’m sure I can find the items cataloged in one of the journals we found in my father’s storage unit a few months ago. Not that it matters. If someone were to pick one up and accidentally activate it, or let something loose, then we’ll have a lot of extra work on our hands.”
“Oh!” I exclaimed, darting forward to grab the electric bill from her desk. “That’s good. Bills are due soon, right? Guaranteed paycheck.”
That earned me the Mom glare big time, which was silly. I was just being practical.
I cleared my throat and set the envelope back down. “Um, so what do we do?”
She looked from Lukas to me, and a grimace spread across her face. “There’s only one thing we can do. We have to steal back our things.”