A Darker Past (The Darker Agency #2)(49)
He waggled a finger at me. “No can do. Part of the deal is that I wouldn’t disclose the specifics.”
“Isn’t that convenient?” Lukas mumbled.
“Just an aside, I don’t much care for you, Wrath. But I put up with you for her sake.” Valefar’s face darkened. He turned to me and with a wink, added, “I can tell you this, Cupcake. Samuel Darker was a very bad boy…”
Chapter Twenty
We followed Valefar’s instructions and walked three blocks from Value Far’s building to the water. It brought us to an impossibly tall structure that reached upward as far as I could see, the top of it seeming to disappear into the cloudless sky. It wasn’t a building. At least, I didn’t think so. There were no windows or doors, and the front surface appeared glossy and flat. I waited for a moment of clarity, and when it came, unlike everything else here, this thing seemed to be exactly as it appeared. Some kind of stone surface. That’s it. Just stone.
“What is this place?” Lukas took my hand and stepped to the edge, peering down into the inky blackness of the lake. In front of us, a tuft of white drifted from the still surface and floated about knee-high before exploding in a sickening pop-scream. One of the poor souls condemned to spend eternity in the river. My grandfather was in this muck someplace. He’d refused to hand over my mother after she was born, welching on a deal he made with Valefar to save my grandmother’s life. He’d been dunked not long after Mom got pregnant with me. I had to wonder how many other Darkers were cooling their eternal heels in here.
“No idea.” I set the box down on the ground to my left and dropped beside it to balance on my heels. “I wish I knew what Samuel did to get dunked…”
“Jessie,” Lukas warned. He was beside me in a second. “Don’t even think about it.”
“How’s he going to know? One little question won’t hurt.”
“You’re a fool if you think he won’t know. He knows everything. Valefar has his hand in all of it.”
The bitterness of his words was like a bat to the head. All of it? That was pretty damn specific. I stiffened and looked up at him. “Why does it sound like you know something you’re not telling me?”
He sobered quickly, expression going blank, but I wasn’t fooled. I hadn’t known Lukas that long, but he was so damn easy to read. “Please, Jessie. For once, just do this the right way? Follow instructions.”
I wanted to argue, but didn’t. He was probably right. Knowing Valefar, we were on some kind of demonic reality show, and he was listening to the entire thing, waiting to hit me with the Shadow Realm equivalent of slime the moment I slipped up. I already had a pissed-off Regent of a full-blooded demon on my ass. I didn’t think I could handle two. At least not this week.
“Fine.” I took a deep breath and silently apologized to Samuel Darker. Whatever he’d done, I had a hard time believing he deserved to end up here. No one did. But there was nothing I could do. “I summon thee, Samuel Darker.”
The wind kicked up, and a flash of light lit the sky to our left. It was getting bigger, coming toward us. And fast. Lukas saw it, too. He pulled me back and stepped in front of me, spreading his legs and ready to fight.
As it came closer, I realized it wasn’t coming from the sky like I’d thought, but from the river. Just beneath the surface. It zoomed along and stopped in front of where we stood, then exploded from the water. It was huge. A shimmering, nearly translucent mass that vaguely resembled a man. It twitched several times, face taking shape for a second—maybe two—before jerking up, then down, and crashing into the wooden box Valefar had given me.
“Whoa,” I said, bending to pick it up. I hesitated, fingers brushing the surface, and pulled away because the box, previously a simple hunk of wood, now hummed with power. With life. It was warm to the touch and sent shivers of electricity zipping through me.
There was a sound coming from inside. A nondescript whisper. Once in a while I could make out a word or two. Pain. Help. Lost… I stuffed down the urge to try communicating and nodded for Lukas to follow me. The faster I handed this off to Valefar, the safer I’d be. I wasn’t good with temptation.
…
Before heading to the Archway to meet Kendra, I tried again to get Valefar to tell me what Samuel did to earn his Dunking, but he wasn’t spilling. He not-so-gently reminded me that time was ticking, and that I should be focusing on trapping Gressil rather than sticking my nose where it didn’t belong.
Sadly, he had a point. Gressil’s deadline, not to mention Lucifer’s threat, was ticking away, and if we didn’t find a way to draw out and trap the demon, both Lukas’s and my gooses were going to be roasting over a Shadow Realm fire. Not to mention Mom and the entire Belfair coven. Our best bet at the moment was Kendra and her mystery plan.
“I don’t like this,” Lukas said as we walked through the entrance to Dobbs Park. A gust of wind kicked up, making me pull my jacket tighter. I’d shadowed us to the edge of the park, into the brush, just in case someone was looking. “Whatever she has planned, no good can come of it.”
I rolled my eyes. “Overdramatic much? This is Kendra we’re talking about, not me. She’s the cautious one.”
He kicked at a stone as we went. It banked to the left, bouncing twice before hitting a large pine tree. He shot me a sidelong glance. “I think not.”