Grim Haven (Devilborn Book 1) (13 page)

Cillian saw us and said something to Marjory. Then, as if they were a single organism, they all turned toward me, all their eyes—and their ill will—boring into me at once. It was all I could do not to break my stride.

Cooper immediately started toward me, his jaw hard, violence in his eyes. I shook my head and smiled at the same time, to let him know I was okay. It was unsettling, certainly, having all their dark focus on me. But I knew they couldn’t hurt me.

All are safe at the Mount Phearson Hotel.

Lydia touched my shoulder, and Phineas moved closer to me. We kept walking, first Cooper and then Wendy joining us, until we faced off against our enemies like we were in an old Western movie. But I knew better by that point than to expect your standard showdown.

Cillian gave me an awkward bow—his joints seemed stiff—while Marjory spoke the only words we would get from any of them that day.

“Verity. Thank you for your hospitality.”

They turned as one, and left the building.

I stared after them for maybe ten seconds before I realized I was holding my breath.

I let it out and smiled at Cooper. “Nice going.”

“I didn’t do anything,” he said.

“Exactly. And it looks like our restraint has just won us this round. They’re gone, your cargo is safe, and nobody got hurt. Point goes to us.”

All are safe at the Mount Phearson Hotel.

I had no idea how much I would come to regret those words.

As luck would have it, Lance was supposed to be testing the menu (and some of the staff) at Colonel Phearson’s that afternoon. So by way of celebrating our victory, he set us all up—Cooper and I, Wendy and the Murdochs, Agatha, and Lance himself—at a big semi-circular booth in the otherwise empty restaurant, and had plates of everything sent out for us to share.

The pub was softly, soothingly lit, decorated in dark woods and chocolate-brown leather, and I was surrounded by people who’d proven themselves friends. I found myself relaxing for the first time in I didn’t know how long. Probably since the day I’d met, and then stabbed, Kestrel Wick in another restaurant, in another mountain town.

“I’m especially interested in Cooper’s opinions, of course,” Lance said as he sat down to join us. But he paused in the middle of unfolding his napkin and gave Cooper a suspicious look. “You
are
really a chef, aren’t you?”

“I am,” Cooper assured him. “And I can tell you already that this pork belly is first rate.”

“But you’re not only a chef,” said Lance. “And you didn’t really come to Bristol to talk about food. I gather this so-called attack today had something to do with you.”

“Not just him,” I said. “Me as well. Marjory and her new friends would like… control over… the hotel.”

“Couple of pregnant pauses there,” Wendy said as she passed me a plate of homemade potato chips covered in pimento cheese, bacon, and green onions. “What are you leaving out?”

Cooper and I exchanged a look, and I gave him a little shrug.

“It’s not just the hotel they want,” he said.

“No, it’s all of Bristol, really,” I said truthfully. “But they’ll start with the hotel. And with Cooper and me.”

“Let’s just say we’re their biggest obstacle,” Cooper added, and that was true, too. Wick wouldn’t be able to do a thing without the seeds.

“I take it that means they’ll be back,” said Lance. “Will you be ready if this happens again?”

“Lance, do I detect some belief in things-we-cannot-see going on over there?” I asked, not so much for the fun of teasing him as to derail the conversation, which was skirting a little too close to Cooper’s true mission. “I thought you didn’t even think this attack was real.”

Lance gave me a disgusted look, which made Agatha laugh and almost choke on her sweet tea.

“The point isn’t whether I believe it,” Lance said. “It’s that all of you apparently do. Including our visitors.”

Agatha shuddered. “Including your wife, after what I felt in that lobby. Right when they were leaving? Come on, Lance, even you had to feel that.”

“Feel what?” Lance asked, although I suspected he was just being stubborn.

“Something wrong,” Agatha said. “Something weird. But then, I always said this town was weird.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” said Lydia, before I could say something similar. I felt a twinge of—what? Territoriality? Defensiveness, even?

“And
damn
, these chips are good,” Lydia went on. “I would drive all the way out here from Charlotte just to eat these chips, then turn around and go home.”

“You would not,” said Wendy. “You’d stop by The Witch’s Brew for shortbread first.”

“So how do
you
know the half of it?” I asked Lydia. “You guys aren’t from here.”

Lydia glanced at her husband and said, “That’s kind of a long story.”

“Yes, you’ve mentioned that,” I said.

But I thought it might actually be pretty simple, for all that. The absence of the Bristol devil. My conversation with Wendy in her office. Lydia’s references to things that had happened a couple of years ago, including a run-in with the Garden Club.

“A long story that involves my father,” I went on. “Which of you killed him?”

Agatha cleared her throat. Everyone else was silent. Beside me, Cooper squeezed my knee. I wasn’t sure whether he did it to show support, or because he thought it wasn’t a very celebratory topic for our victory lunch.

But for all I knew, it was. My father was a devil, after all. Killing him was probably a victory in its own right. I wasn’t angry at the Murdochs. At least, I didn’t think I was.

But I wanted to know.

After a few seconds, Phineas said, “I killed him.”

Lance groaned. “Now we’re confessing to murders?”

“Murders of
demons
, or whatever that thing supposedly was,” Agatha added. She stood up. “Which I’d say is a little out of our jurisdiction. I think we’ve had enough initiation into the world of the supernatural for one day.”

Lance stood with her. “I agree. I need to meet with the staff here anyway. Verity, why don’t you gather up everyone’s feedback on all these dishes when you’ve finished, and we’ll talk later.”

I nodded at both of them, and waited until they’d gone out of earshot. Wendy and Cooper made no move to leave, but I didn’t mind if they stayed. Wendy obviously knew more of the story than I did already.

“So,” I said. “Should I ask for more chips for this long story?”

“I wouldn’t say no to some cake or something,” said Lydia, and Phineas gave her a look.

“Actually, I’m going to be doing their desserts for them,” Wendy said. “So that particular deflection will have to wait.”

“Why did you kill him?” I asked Phineas.

“It was my job, for one thing,” he said. “I’d been trying to catch him for a long time. And there was no bringing him in alive.”

“What are you, a cop?” Cooper asked.

“Something like that,” said Phineas. “In a way.”

“Wendy said he was a serial killer,” I said.

“I’m afraid that’s true,” agreed Phineas. “There are a lot of things about your father you might not know. Or like.”

“I don’t even know his name,” I said. “I’ve only ever heard him referred to as
the devil
.”

“His name was Amias,” Phineas said. “And yes, he killed a lot of people. He stole some of their souls.”

“He did
what
?”

“He was trying to create his own version of Hell, basically, to rule over,” said Lydia.

“So he really was a devil,” I said. “Literally.”

“I wish I could tell you otherwise,” Phineas said.

I pretended to take a drink of sweet tea, so I could let my father’s Satanic aspirations sink in. But there was really no
sinking in
for a thing like that. At least not right away.

I cleared my throat. “And Bristol. He really was using the town to hide?”

“Until Lydia figured out how to break the sanctuary here, yeah,” said Phineas. “That was maybe six months or so before… he died.”

“Which was when?” I asked.

“It’ll be two years at Christmastime,” said Lydia.

I’ve been walking around an orphan for coming up on two years.

Cooper squeezed my knee again, and this time I was sure it was a gesture of support. I had a fleeting memory of our kiss, and with it came all the uncertainty about where we stood. But once again, it was a bad time to think about romance.

“There’s, uh, something else.” Phineas scratched at his ear, blushing suddenly, and I wondered what could possibly make him more uncomfortable than the things he’d already told me.

“Personally, I think you should have led with this,” Lydia said to him, then smiled at me. “This part isn’t bad. Notice anything strange about Phineas? I mean physically, not just that he’s a weirdo.”

“Around the eyes, maybe?” Wendy added.

I leaned forward and studied Phineas. His eyes were a strange color. Not orange like mine, but golden.

“You’re one of them,” I said, then glanced at Cooper. “Phantasm was the word you used.”

Cooper nodded, and so did Phineas. So did Lydia and Wendy, for that matter. I looked around at them all, suddenly resentful of these people who knew more about me than I did. “I don’t even know what a phantasm is.”

“I’ll take you to my world—our world—sometime,” Phineas said. “My parents would love to meet you. See, uh… I wasn’t only chasing Amias because of my job. He was my cousin. Which makes you and I second cousins, or however that works.”

Sure. My cousin. And he’s going to take me to meet his parents. My relatives in another world. We’ll just zip over to meet them sometime.

I was tired, suddenly. Balls, what a day it had been. And now this.

“Oh,” I said, not sure what the proper etiquette was.
Nice to meet you
was no good; we’d already met hours ago. I finally settled on, “I’m glad to have someone on that side who isn’t a serial killer, then.”

Phineas smiled. “You’ll like my parents, too.”

I felt like I was cracking up, but I kept my voice steady and asked, “You could do that? Just take me there?”

“You have the blood, you should be able to travel between worlds,” Phineas said. “Our kind can do it easily.”

“Can we?” That was good to know, I supposed.

“But since you’re also part human, I might wait until Halloween,” said Lydia. “The veil between worlds gets thin then, so even humans can travel.”

“What happens if humans go when the veil’s not thin?” I asked.

“Pain,” said Wendy.

“
Lots
of pain,” agreed Lydia. “I’ve done it more than once, and I don’t recommend it.”

“More than once,” I repeated. She’d been there more than once. I belonged there—partly—and I’d never even heard of it until now. “Is it like this world?”

“Some similarities, some differences,” said Lydia. “The big thing is the time. One hour there is like a day here, so you have to be careful how long you stay.”

“The time difference is why a lot of phantasms travel to this world,” said Cooper. “They age according to their own time, wherever they are. So they can live for centuries here.” He looked at Phineas. “That’s what I’ve always heard, anyway. Correct me if I’m wrong.”

“No, that’s right,” said Phineas, then looked at me. “But our children tend to age according to the world they’re born into. You might get a slightly longer lifespan, but probably nothing record-breaking.”

I shrugged and shook my head at the same time. I didn’t care about my life expectancy. What I cared about was the phrase Cooper had just used.
That’s what I’ve always heard
.

What he
always
heard?

Like it was common knowledge, even for Cooper. For everyone but me. The resentment came back, stronger, but it wasn’t Cooper or any of the others I was mad at.

I’d never even met my father. Not once. He was there in Bristol my whole life. Right there in the Mount Phearson plenty often, I would guess, since Madeline was his head witch, or his mistress, or whatever she was.

And he never bothered to tell me anything about who I was. Never even bothered to say hello.

Well, but he was a busy guy, wasn’t he?

A laugh bubbled to the surface, and escaped my lips before I could quite swallow it down.

My father had killed people and stolen their souls, and I wanted to throw a tantrum over being
neglected
? What was wrong with me?

“So,” I said briskly. “Not such a long story, after all. My monstrous devil of a father was hiding in Bristol. You figured out how to break his sanctuary so you could catch him. And then you caught him.”

“Well, there are a lot of details,” Lydia said. “But that’s not a bad summary.”

“Where did he die?”

“In our world,” said Phineas.

But Lydia made one of those
so-so
motions with her hand. “Sort of. It’s complicated. I’ll tell you everything sometime, but for now I’m guessing it’s already a lot to digest.”

I laughed, although I wasn’t feeling all that jolly, and took another drink of my tea. “It’s not, actually. Because I’m not digesting it at all. I’m trying…” I looked at Wendy. “Same as I was trying to take it in when you told me he was dead. But I couldn’t, quite.”

Wendy gave me a sympathetic smile. “Well, like you told me that day, you didn’t know him.”