Banishing the Dark (Arcadia Bell #4)(17)

Since when did I get a nickname? Or had he called me that before? Either way, I was amused, and sort of happy that he wasn’t feeling as hopeless about all this as I was.

He glanced at the kid behind the counter before squinting down at me. “Maybe I’ve been thinking about this all wrong.”

Jupe nearly fell off his bed when the voice spoke.

May I show myself?

“No,” he answered. “Go. Away.”

For the love of God, couldn’t a guy have some peace and quiet? It was after ten. Not that he was sleeping; his official school-night bedtime was midnight, not that Mr. and Mrs. Holiday were awake to enforce it. He was, however, busy trying to crack the new password for the parental controls on their internet connection.

Important shit.

His dad used to use a brand of film for all his passwords. Like that was smart. Everyone knew his father was a famous photographer. Might as well have just used his own birthday. For that matter, might as well have just used “PASSWORD.”

When the telltale ball of light appeared at the foot of his bed, he barely had time to slam down the screen of his laptop before Priya’s gigantic wings materialized.

“Don’t you understand the meaning of ‘go away’? Hey, watch it!”

The creature’s wings created a brief vortex of wind that scattered loose pages of his math homework and fluttered his hair.

“You almost knocked over my Frankenstein’s Laboratory model,” Jupe complained as Priya’s wings folded behind his back. “It took me an entire week to paint that. And while we’re at it, you owe me for ripping the corner off my Foxy Brown poster last time you showed up. Dad got that signed for me by Pam Grier. Which means it’s one of a kind. Unreplaceable.” That didn’t sound quite right. He quickly corrected himself. “Irreplaceable. Whatever. It’s priceless.”

“I don’t have time for your nonsense, Kerub. This is important.”

So was free porn, but Jupe didn’t feel like explaining this to a being who didn’t understand the meaning of privacy. “What is it now?”

“Did you know our mistress carries your father’s offspring in her belly?”

“What the hell are you talking about now, birdbrain? Are—” Jupe stopped in mid-sentence. He stared at the gray-skinned creature as realization dawned. “Cady’s pregnant? You’re a big fat liar.” Had to be. She didn’t look pregnant. And she’d tell him and his dad before she told some stupid servant creature from another plane.

“I saw the threads with my own eyes a day ago. The Kerub’s seed is growing within her.”

Seed? Gross. He did not want to think about that. And what was more, if Cady was pregnant, how was she going to do her job? He’d never seen a pregnant bartender. And if she was pregnant, that meant—

“I’m going to have a brother? Or a sister?”

“Not if Enola finds out. Our mistress’s mother is a murderer. She will slaughter the child or take it from her if our mistress does not find the Moonchild spell and reverse it. Do you understand?”

Jupe barely heard him. He was too busy freaking out. If Cady was pregnant, it was either the best thing, like, ever or his worst nightmare. He couldn’t wrap his head around it. And why hadn’t she told him? For that matter, why hadn’t Dad told him? He felt sort of betrayed.

“She did not know,” Priya said, as if he could read his mind.

Jupe hated when he did that. It was worse than his dad’s knack. He crawled across his bed to reach for the bedside table. “I’m texting her right now to see if you’re lying.”

“Are you a boy or a man?”

Jupe’s hand stilled on his bedside table. “What?”

“I said, are you a boy or a man? Because if you’re a man, you will understand that our mistress is in grave danger, and you must protect her at any cost. But if you are only a boy, I will seek someone else who cares more for her life and will take steps to keep it safe.”

Oh, hell, no. Bird boy was insulting him? Heat rose in Jupe’s chest. “I’m more of a man that you’ll ever be.”

“Prove it.”

“You wanna fight? I’ll pound your feathered ass into the floorboards.” The guardian wasn’t much taller than him, and Dad said that nine times out of ten, people who wanted to pick fights were all talk. Dad had also been showing him where to punch someone in the face, because the antibullying campaign at school was a load of shit. Okay, not all of it, but the tattletale part. Mrs. Henry said to run away and tell a teacher if someone was acting like an ass; Dad said that advice was for savages—humans who didn’t believe Earthbounds existed—and that Jupe should learn to hit back if someone hit him.

Hit first, then tell a teacher. Basically. At least, that was how Jupe interpreted it.

“I am not challenging you to fight me,” Priya said. “I am challenging you to fight for your mistress. She is confused and not caring for her own safety. If your father will not heed my warnings, then you must take up the charge. It is your responsibility to protect her.”

Jupe started to argue that, actually, Cady had promised to protect Jupe, not the other way around. But he realized it made him sound kind of pathetic, so he kept that to himself. “What are you suggesting?”

“If she will not heed my warning to find the Moonchild spell, then you must find it for her. If you are a man, you are honor-bound to do so.” Priya held his chin high. “I once gave up my life to protect her. Are you willing to do the same, or are you going to cower like a small child and allow her to be killed?”