Darker Days (The Darker Agency #1)(94)

Just when I was about to start shaking him—because that would have done a world of good—his lip twitched. Then, a second later, his fingers. A twitch here, a flinch there. It was working. Slowly, his eyes opened. He didn’t smile or say a word. He only stared. Liquid brown eyes I’d been sure I’d never see again. I wrapped both arms around him as he struggled to sit up.

“This gift comes with a price, I’m afraid.” Dad stood over us, face grim.

I climbed to my feet and helped Lukas do the same. He looked from me to the box. “I don’t understand.”

“Wrath needed a live host. By killing you, I forced it out. Meredith was the angriest person in the room. The perfect candidate.”

Mom was looking at him funny. Hopeful, yet disappointed somehow. “You said there was a price?”

Dad hesitated. “A demon increases his rank solely by how many minions he commands. Those minions come to us two different ways. With our master’s permission, we can choose special individuals at the time of death. The resurrected is indebted to service for eternity. The other way is people seek us out and choose to serve for an agreed upon length of time in exchange for something. I needed only one more minion to gain myself freedom from Valefar. He granted it by allowing me to save Lukas.”

Dad turned to me, expression darkening. “Of course, that’s because he’d already found my replacement. How long?”

Mom spun around, confused. She’d seen the crystal but didn’t know what it meant. “How long, what?”

Looking Dad in the eye, I squared my shoulders. I’d made my choice. I didn’t regret it. “I did what I had to do.”

Mom’s face paled. “What you had to do?” She turned to Dad. There was panic in her voice. I’d seen Mom worried plenty of times. But panicked? That didn’t happen often. It made my stomach flop because it was about to get worse. “What is she talking about, Damien?”

“How long?” he repeated.

I took a deep breath. No apologies. Truthfully, I was terrified of what I’d done. Seeing Valefar with Meredith. Hearing the panic in Mom’s voice. Dad’s expression… It was starting to sink in. I’d condemned myself to Valefar’s vision. To his supposed destiny. I’d given away my free will. If I could get a do over, would I do the same thing?

Yeah, I would. Without thinking twice. “Fifty-five years.”

Then Mom understood. “Fix it,” she snapped, grabbing a handful of Dad’s shirt. If I didn’t know how truly panicked she was, I would’ve been worried. “Get her out of it!”

Dad reached out and pulled at the black cord around my neck. It still didn’t budge. “There is nothing that can be done about this.” While sad, his voice held the tone of acceptance. This was his area of expertise. If there was a way to break a deal, he’d know about it.

“How could you do something so stupid?” she spat. The panic was gone. Now came the anger. This was better. This I could deal with.

“I was what, supposed to let you die?”

She grabbed my shoulders and gave a good shake. “Do you know what you’ve done?”

“Yeah. I think I do.” I rushed on before she could stop me. “I made a choice. One that was mine to make.”

She let go and took a step back. She was angry, but there was something else. Pride, maybe?

Dad cleared his throat. Turning to Lukas, he said, “I’ll need a strand of your hair.”

Without question, Lukas complied.

Dad closed his hand around the hair and whispered something. When he opened his palm, a blood-red crystal with black veins on a black cord had taken the place of Lukas’ hair.

Something stirred in the pit of my stomach. It was the exact opposite of mine.

“Once around your neck, this seals our deal,” Dad said. He held the crystal out to Lukas. “You will be bound to me and bound to my will. Should you need me, you have only to speak my name, but be warned—it works both ways.”

“So you’re saying Valefar can just snap his fingers and pull me back to the Shadow Realm? Whenever he wants?” Okay. Maybe I was an idiot.

“This is why dealing with a demon is a bad idea. Unless you know what you’re doing, you never get full disclosure.”

I looked over at Mom. She’d seen me do it all. Jump from the roof. Kill my first demon. Have my first beer. Nothing I ever did fazed her. Now she’d seen me make—in her eyes—the biggest mistake of my life, and I think it might’ve broken her.

I tried to lighten to mood. “So, no fair. Lukas’ is a better color than mine. What gives?”

“Each hierarchy has its own color.”

There was a glimmer of hope in Mom’s voice. “Hierarchy? So that means—”

“I’m not tied to Valefar anymore.” He took her hand, and I could see it. Why regardless of Paulson’s years of devotion and endless waiting, it would always be Dad. “I can’t stay permanently, but I can spend a considerable amount of time out of the Shadow Realm. I am my own.”

Lukas slipped the cord around his neck. “So that’s it? I’m normal now?”

I took his hand and squeezed. “That’s right, Pinocchio. You’re a real boy.”

“With obligations,” Dad said. “You care about my daughter?”