A Darker Past (The Darker Agency #2)(66)

When I opened my eyes again, the cave was back and Lukas stood in front of me, a horrified expression on his face. “Jessie,” he started, taking a step back. The guilt in his expression made my chest feel heavy.

I grabbed him before he got too far and pulled him close, throwing my arms around his neck and holding tight despite his efforts to move away. “Don’t,” I whispered into his hair. “It was all on me. My fear. I’m the one that’s sorry. It doesn’t matter anymore, though.”

“It matters,” a chilling, familiar voice said behind us. We jumped apart and whirled on the newcomer. “Because a house divided against itself cannot stand. And the House of Pride is, indeed, divided.”

My blood ran cold, and I tried to speak but couldn’t push the words past my lips. My tongue felt heavy and goose bumps sprang to life all along my skin. “Ma?”

Lukas took my hand and tugged me back. “Remember what you said to me earlier, Jessie. That’s not Klaire.”

I shook him off and took a step toward her. The cave was upping its game. The demon in front of us was Klaire Darker right down to the small, almost unnoticeable, uneven section of her left eyebrow. She’d been thrown through a glass door by a possessed football player four years ago. It’d never grown back. “No. I know it’s not her.”

She laughed. As with Lukas’s mother, her voice had a demonic echo. But where his mother appeared as she was in life, my mom was different. She smiled, and her lips parted to reveal jagged black teeth. Her eyes, so beautiful and blue in reality, were soulless and red.

“Smart little cookie,” she drawled. “The question is, how smart is she?”

“Smart enough,” I said warily. She was trying to bait me into something, and I wasn’t going to bite.

“Is that so?” She took another step closer. “Well, baby girl, I think you might be surprised. There are quite a bit of darker things infesting that prideful family tree of yours.”

“I know all about it.” But something told me I didn’t. She wasn’t hinting at the Belfair blood whizzing through my veins. This was something else—and it wasn’t good. This was a diversion tactic, but unfortunately, it was working.

More laughter.

“Jessie,” Lukas warned. He was still trying to drag me away, which was stupid. Where she was was where we needed to go. In fact, I had a feeling that we were close.

“Listen to Wrath,” Demonic-Mom said. “He’s not trying to deceive you.” She winked. “Much.”

“He’s not Wrath anymore,” I said. Was it stupid to argue with a demonic version of my mom? Totally. But there was a nagging feeling bubbling up in my gut. I remembered what the fake Mrs. Scott said about Lukas being my end. Now here was fake Mom implying he was deceiving me?

All the air left my lungs. I knew the cave was trying to sidetrack us and that I shouldn’t let it get to me, but I couldn’t help it. I whirled on Lukas. “Demons don’t lie. They can’t.”

“It’s trying to distract you,” he said. “Nothing more.”

“It’s working.” I studied him. He looked the same as he always had. Dark hair and liquid brown eyes. But there was a nervousness there. In his eyes and in his voice. Like he was afraid I might uncover something…

“Jessie, please—”

“This has something to do with my dad. With whatever it is that you refuse to tell me.”

Demonic-Mom still blocked our path, but she wasn’t actively keeping us from passing. She didn’t need to. Her plan had worked.

“Why must you know everything?” Lukas fired back. There was a familiar simmer in his gaze. He leaned forward, eyes narrowing to thin slits. “You push and push and never think that maybe there’s a reason—”

I bit down hard on the inside of my bottom lip and sucked in a deep breath. “Do not finish that sentence.” This was his transformation to demon making him act like an ass. That’s all. That, and the cave trying to pit us against each other.

Maybe it was my tone, or it could have been the look on my face—one I was pretty sure must have been a cross between hurt and feral—but he softened. “All you need to know is a single, simple truth.” His expression was fierce, but there was no more anger. He stepped up to me and took my face in his hands. His skin, normally so warm and comforting, was cold and clammy. “Damien loves you. He loves Klaire. There is nothing on this earth he wouldn’t do to keep you both safe. Right now, you need to focus on what we came here to do. Get that prison.”

Secrets were never a good thing, but as I was learning, they were sometimes a necessary evil. The thing you hated surrendering to, but occasionally needed to embrace to get by. Like making a deal with a particularly tricky demon in order to save a loved one’s life.

Dad did love us. I knew it as sure as I knew my own mind. And Lukas was right. Bickering with him over this now was giving this bitch demon what it wanted. Me. Sidetracked. I could let it go.

For now.

“Fine. But this isn’t over.” I turned away from Lukas and back to Demonic-Mom. With my sweetest smile, I said, “Move aside. We’re passing through.”

She smiled, but it was full of unspoken rage. Taking a single step to the left, she stepped out of the path, and I started forward. Lukas followed. She was silent as I passed, but when he moved by, she laughed. “Not this one.”