“We have a name. We have two options. I can send imps, which is the better option, or I can summon it and we can deal with it,” I said to the group.

  “Is this demon different than the others you summoned?” Miguel asked.

  “Yes, he’s one of Belial’s demons and that’s always iffy.”

  “How so?” he asked.

  “Belial’s demons are awful,” Jerome replied. “We have protection from curses and such, but still...” He shrugged. “It’s hard to explain. It will be scary, and the interaction will not be as calm and civil as it was with Dantalian and Bellatra.”

  “Unfortunately, I think we need to hear it directly from the demon,” Magda said with a groan.

  “Yeah, fuck,” I sighed, and walked over to stand by Jerome on the other side of the island. I shook my head and summoned the demon. Belial’s demons are green. He was snarling as he materialized in the kitchen and immediately ran for us. He hit an invisible wall that prevented him from coming closer than the island, and the snarling increased to include some dribbling foam.

  “What do you want, Exorcist!” he shouted at me.

  “I want to know about the person you cursed. While we talk, you have to stay on that side, but you can have pizza.” He was about to swear at me when he realized I wasn’t kidding about the pizza, and it was accessible to him. He took a piece and shoved all of it into his mouth. “You took possession of a woman recently and during your inhabitation, you cursed the person who summoned you. I need to know what you cursed the summoner with and what you know about him.”

  “I know he was non-magical. I cursed him to die a painful, horrible, violent death,” the demon snarled, and grabbed another slice of pizza. “Let me guess, you want me to lift the curse?”

  “No. In order to ensure the curse comes about, you had to mark him somehow. I want to know how and use it to track him down myself.”

  ”Yes, I did, and the curse has already been carried out; it happened soon after I cast it.“ The demon, who I remembered was named Marvarelle, told me. I considered asking how the person had died, but chances were the demon didn’t care enough to know. I sighed.

  “Take a couple of pieces of pizza back with you, I appreciate the information. I just need you to clarify one thing; you referred to the summoner as non-magical. Did you mean he was human, or was he a supernatural that had weak magic?” I asked.

  “He had weak magic, he could have been human or supernatural. His potion was weak, and he was weak,” Mavarelle told me. Then he grabbed two slices of pizza, and I sent him back to the Stygian. Miguel began to protest, but Magda told him the demon probably didn’t know how the curse had been carried out. He wouldn’t have cared about the details, just that it had happened. Miguel sat down with a look of shock on his face.

  Chapter Eight

  We returned to the AESPCA headquarters and got our car. Miguel Smith didn’t take me into custody, which was good. Jerome drove us home. I felt like I needed a nap, a really long one. I was emotionally exhausted, but I still needed to speak to Leviathan. I put my head against the window and sighed.

  “I have a pizza that says Magda and Penelope both show up at our house within two hours of us arriving home,” Jerome said with a small chuckle.

  “How did someone manage to connect my thoughts to a book without us knowing?” I asked him. “Or your thoughts, for that matter.”

  “They had to piggyback it with other magic, magic we were expecting,” Jerome said, his voice serious.

  “Okay, but how? I don’t consume things with magic in them from people I don’t know!” I said with another loud sigh.

  “Oh. Yeah, huh, yeah,” he said as if stuck in a loop.

  “Exactly.” I tried to stifle the next sigh but failed.

  “No one we know would be involved in something like this,” he said.

  “Are you sure? Didn’t Magda say that Remiel has obtained magical artifacts through illegal means?”

  “You don’t actually suspect Remiel of causing demonic possession?” Jerome asked.

  “No,” I said. “Yes,” I corrected myself. I sat silent, head against the window. “No,” I said, unable to make up my mind. “I believe if a magical artifact is dangerous enough, yes, Remiel would do what he needed to do to remove it from those that would use it for bad things. I do not think Remiel would cast a spell that linked you and I to books that record our every thought. Also, there’d be no reason for that. If Xerxes is the original creator of the potion, I’m sure Remiel could find a way to get that recipe without relying on the happenstance that maybe you will run across it in the Akashic record or that I will create a mass summoning potion.”

  “And Remiel would know the potion wouldn’t work by pouring it on the ground. I’ve seen some of his thoughts, and while he can be just as dark as the next person, he isn’t evil, and he isn’t going to put either of us in harm’s way, even to reclaim magical artifacts. That’s why he partnered with you; if he’s your partner, you won’t get hurt.” Jerome said. Despite being alive more than 200,000 years, Remiel had never had a child of his own. It wasn’t like he had one he didn’t know about or was estranged from; he’d never managed to have a child at all. The last few years, he’d latched onto me as a surrogate child—the daughter he wanted but didn’t have.

  “I say we loop Remiel and Raphael in,” I told Jerome after a few more minutes. “They may have ideas, and despite my internal doubt because I just don’t see how it could have been done, I still trust Remiel.”

  “I agree,” Jerome replied almost immediately. “Besides, one of them may have an idea of how we got bespelled without noticing.”

  “Without you noticing. I probably wouldn’t notice being bespelled unless it gave me polka dots to match Angel,” I said.

  “Yeah,” Jerome said, and sounded sad.

  “Hey, it was a joke, I don’t expect you to notice everything. You’re sixteen years old...” I said to him and put my hand on his arm. “I’m the one referred to as guardian; I’m supposed to protect you from this kind of shit.” I sent a text to Remiel and Raphael asking them to come to my house at their earliest convenience. “Jerome, that was an asshole thing to say, I don’t know why I allowed that to come out. You know I’m kind of a flippant jerk. I am so sorry.” Jerome had a need to protect people. Both his parents were murdered, and he hadn’t been able to do a thing about it. It was no wonder he felt he needed to protect me. It was even worse with Jerome because he had so much incredible magic at his fingertips. I was always surprised Valerie thought I was capable of raising a child with Jerome’s power and emotional scarring. No, not that she thought I was capable, but that she thought I’d be good at it. I wasn’t feeling very good at it right now. I felt like red algae, toxic, deadly, and out of place.

  “You are nothing like red algae,” Jerome said to me after a moment.

  “Shit, you need to spend less time with Remiel,” I said. That was true. Jerome was keeping the ability to read thoughts nearly full time, which as a mimic made sense, as he was seeing Remiel nearly every day.

  “Red algae doesn’t care that it’s hurting things, and you do. It’s one of your better qualities,” Jerome told me. We spent the rest of the car ride silent.

  “Well, damn,” I said as we got close to our house. Magda the Red was on my lawn. “I guess I owe you pizza.” Jerome laughed, and it was a good sound. Despite the bad things that have happened to him, he’s a happy kid who doesn’t hate the world. Because of his angel DNA, his laugh makes everyone feel good, even me. We pulled into the garage and Magda came in behind the SUV. A moment later, Remiel came in the same way. I wasn’t sure I could deal with Remiel and Magda at the same time, not right now. But this was my own fault, I’d texted him and told him to come over when it was convenient for him after Jerome told me he suspected Magda and Penelope would show up at our house.

  “Are you okay?” Magda immediately asked as we got out of the car.

  “I wasn’t arrested, so yes,” I told her. “In the event that changes, I want Jerome to go stay with Remiel.”

  “Me?” Remiel sounded startled.

  “Yes, you. My parents have a newborn. You don’t even have a girlfriend. You can dedicate the time to Jerome that he needs if I go to jail.”

  “Why are you worried you’re going to jail?” Remiel asked, raising an eyebrow.

  I ushered everyone inside the house and then called my dad. I wanted to explain this just once. I put the phone on the kitchen table and switched it to speaker phone, then I sat down with Remiel, Magda, and Jerome to explain what we’d learned about the Aphrodite Statue along with the other break-ins and the attempted mass summoning. It took close to half an hour to explain. At the end of the explanation, I heard my mom tell my dad that if this Miguel character arrested me, she’d make his life miserable. I couldn’t help but smile. My mother is a force to be reckoned with when she’s angry. Neither Mom nor Dad seemed to have any ideas on how we were dosed with the magic that connected us to the books. Jerome was focused on removing the spell from himself. After a short silence, Mom suggested it was given to us in food, since we eat out a lot. Jerome nixed the idea; we aren’t expecting magic to be included with our food, and he would have noticed that. I agreed with Jerome, albeit I was willing to admit to myself that I probably wouldn’t notice magic in my food, nor would I understand it. I really was an idiot when it came to magic. We disconnected the call having accomplished nothing. I made a mental note to ask Jerome about detecting magic in food and things.

  “It wasn’t me,” Remiel said after a moment.

  “I don’t truly believe it was,” I told my uncle. “I just can’t seem to think of another person who could have done it. That’s the problem; you could do it but wouldn’t. I can’t think of a person that could and would do it, so I keep swirling back to you. Because almost no one that would do it, could have that sort of access to Jerome and me.”

  “I can understand that. I feel like figuring out how you got magicked is important to figuring out who is doing this,” Remiel said.

  “I agree,” I said.

  “Me too, that’s why I came back. Like you, Remiel is the only person I can think of that would have that sort of access, but while Remiel’s conduct is occasionally questionable, I can’t see him doing something like this, especially to the two of you,” Magda said with a sigh.

  “I’m stuck on the fact that it’s a potion,” Jerome added, “because all the other magic involved has been potion-based. I know that’s what we are all thinking, but I have doubts. If it was a spell and it was done on a group of us, it would be easier to hide in other magic.”

  “Lay it out for me,” I said to Jerome.

  “Well, it’s been active for a while, if we are to believe Dantalian. He told us we were connected to something in March. We ignored it because he wasn’t more specific, and he’s a demon. But if he was correct, and I think he was, then this was done in March, two months ago.”

  “We dealt with the summoned dragon in March,” I immediately responded. Some teenagers summoned a dragon as a St. Patrick’s Day prank. They couldn’t control it because it was a fucking dragon and it got away from them, nearly starting a riot. There was a lot of magic being cast that day; by us, those assisting us, those pretending to assist us, and the dragon, because dragons have their own magic. It was fun in the same way getting a root canal is fun. Jerome and I were called in by the AESPCA, because dragons are a Stygian creature like an imp or gargoyle. There’d been about two dozen AESPCA agents there attempting to help us contain the dragon. A few others were there solely to arrest the teenagers who summoned it. Plus, it was a dragon and dragons draw crowds, and some of those in the crowd cast spells at the dragon because, you know, they could.

  “If it was a spell, that would have been a good time to hit you and Jerome with it,” Remiel said.

  “Or all of us that were there,” Jerome said. “Spells cast on a group leave less of a magical footprint because it has to balloon out to affect individual people who may not be standing close to each other. We probably need a list of every AESPCA agent there that day so we can check them out.”

  “And you guys,” I said to Remiel. Nearly all my uncles and my father had shown up at the scene, because as I already pointed out, it was a fucking dragon. Aside from having their own magic, dragons are huge, cantankerous, and ravenous. All of this makes them very dangerous. My attention had been focused solely on the dragon, who was trying to set me on fire with a Stygian flame spell. If we’d been bespelled by someone else during all that, I probably wouldn’t even have noticed. It was unlikely anyone else would have either. It wasn’t just trying to barbecue us, it had set a few buildings on fire and eaten a spectator. It is harder to send a cranky dragon back across the divide than a demon.

  “I’m gonna need to refine my ability to search for that particular magic, though, because it is hard to find,” Jerome said. “Magda and Remiel, you might feel me magically poking around for a few minutes,” he told them as he opened up his magic-sensing powers. After about ten minutes, I heard Magda gasp and saw her shake her head. Jerome nodded and a few minutes later, Remiel did the same.

  “Wow, I feel different,” Magda said after a moment. “I didn’t even notice until you touched it.”

  “That was how I felt as well,” I said. “That’s four, we really do need to check everyone.” I put my head on the table... fucking dragons.

  “Yeah, we do,” Jerome agreed. ”Magda, is there a way you can arrange for me to check all the AESPCA members that were there?”

  “I’m going to need to bring in Miguel Smith and it may take a day, but yes,” Magda replied after a few moments of thought.

  “Getting to all of the archangels without a dragon menacing the city will be like herding cats, so I might need a day to do that and recover.” Jerome smiled.

  “You ain’t wrong,” I said and dug out my cell phone. I sent one large group text to all the archangels, uncles, father, and sister; Jerome found a really awful spell tied to several of us that responded to the dragon incident in March. We need to break the spell as soon as possible. It would be easiest if you came to my house immediately. It has already been broken in myself, Jerome, Magda Red, and Remiel. He intends to do the same for the AESPCA agents that responded to the incident tomorrow, which is why we would like to cleanse the family of the spell today, please!

  I wasn’t hopeful that archangels would start showing up on my doorstep in a matter of minutes. So, imagine my surprise when the doorbell rang about a minute after I sent the text. I went to answer it. Before I reached the door, I knew it was my sister. I could feel the happiness trying to wash over my house and everything in it. That is my sister’s archangel power, happiness and joy. When I first realized that was her superpower, I was like ’that’s kinda lame, all angels cause happiness’ but then we had a fight and I realized I was too happy to yell at her, even though I really wanted to stay pissed as hell and shout the house down around her ears. It was still kinda lame as far as superpowers went, but I couldn’t throw stones, I mean, my superpower was controlling demons, which really wasn’t as useful as one might think. If I wasn’t me, I’d never have occasion to use it.

  “I got your text, what is it?” Helia said, as she blustered past me into the house. “Where is he? If I have it, I want it gone!” I thought she might be on the verge of hysterical. “Is it possible I passed it on to the girls?”

  “It’s a spell, not a cold,” I told her. “Spells aren’t contagious.”

  “But if it was a group spell, it could be,” she corrected me.

  “That seems unlikely.” I frowned at her.

  “If it was a group spell, it might result in leakage and the girls might have contracted it!” Helia told me sternly. I don’t know enough about magic to argue with her. To me, that sounded ridiculous, but maybe some spells did work that way.

  “Spells can’t leak onto others,” Jerome said from the doorway to the kitchen. “I promise you the girls were not affected.”

  “How can you be sure if you didn’t even notice it until today?” Helia asked.

  “That’s rather unfair of you,” I said to my sister. “Jerome is sixteen years old. He has school, homework, three sports, a girlfriend, friends of his own, a part-time job... He isn’t responsible for finding random spells cast on us, and I do not appreciate you accusing him of such a thing,” I scolded her. She paled.

  “Oh God, I am so sorry, Jerome. I’m just, really freaked out. Are we going to get sick or something?” Maybe I should have worded my text differently.

  “It records your thoughts into a book. I think they wanted Jerome and my thoughts specifically, but it would be hard to cast the spell just on us. If it hadn’t hit a group of people, we would have noticed it sooner. As it is, we didn’t discover it until the book my thoughts were being recorded in was discovered at a crime scene,” I told her.

  “That’s all?” she asked, the fear visibly gone from her. “You don’t know for sure that there is a book recording my thoughts?”

  “No,” I said.

  “How is that different than working with Remiel and Jerome?”

  “Uh, huh. Well...” I shrugged. “It’s not Remiel and Jerome,” I finally stammered out.

  “Yes, but my thoughts haven’t been solely mine for most of my life, and I don’t have evil thoughts or plan world domination, so it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. I mean if I have it, I’d like it gone, but it’s definitely not life-altering or reality-shattering.”

  “I don’t think about world domination either, but to me, it seemed life-altering,” I pointed out to her.

  “Okay, but we live very different lives. I don’t deal with demons or exorcisms or have secret meetings with hell princes. I have tea parties and answer phones and occasionally go on a date. Hell, my archangel power is to make people happy, all people. If they were recording my thoughts into a book, it probably made them feel better about their evil plans of world domination, because that’s what I do.”