In the bathroom, I pulled out my toiletry bag and loaded it with the usual hygiene supplies. Zipping it shut, I opened my makeup bag and pondered its contents for what I might need. Fake eyelashes? Yeah, no. Been there, done that, and never doing it again.
My fingers drifted past a tube of mascara to a round powder compact. I picked it up, brushed some pink dust off the top, and flipped it open. My pale face frowned back at me in the tiny mirror as I lifted the spongy applicator puff.
Dark metal glinted beneath it.
The demonic amulet lay in the compact, neatly nestled on top of its chain. A ring of creepy sigils encircled a larger symbol in the center—a symbol that matched the one etched into the breastplate of Robin Page’s demon.
Vh’alyir’s Amulet, Eterran had called it. All I knew was that it could interrupt a demon contract. How the spell worked, why a demon had been carrying it, what the sigils meant, how it was connected to Robin’s demon—I had no answers. I’d spent a month searching for answers and found nothing.
Maybe the amulet could save Ezra, or maybe it would give Eterran full control of his body. I didn’t know, but if I couldn’t find answers in Enright, I would try it. How could I not? Ezra would die anyway. If there was even a tiny chance this could save him …
Replacing the puff, I snapped the compact shut and returned it to my makeup bag. With the two bags tucked under my arm, I walked out of the bathroom—and heard the faint ringing of my phone.
Twiggy’s game-show audience let out another eardrum-rupturing cheer as I dove for the counter where my phone sat, the screen alight with an incoming call from an unknown number.
“Turn it down,” I called as I fumbled for the phone. The volume didn’t change, and as I hit the answer button, I whirled toward the sofa. “Twiggy, turn the TV down before I throw your green ass out the window!”
With a rebellious scowl, he lowered the volume by half.
Returning his glare, I slapped my phone against my ear. “Hello?”
“Tori?” a female voice inquired with a distinct note of uncertainty.
“Who’s this?”
“Robin.”
“Oh.” Why on earth was the petite, mysterious demon contractor calling me? “How are—”
As I spoke, the cheering of the audience swelled.
“Don’t you dare turn that up again!” I bellowed at the faery, belatedly pulling the phone away from my face. “Wait until I’m off the phone. Geez!”
Shoulders hunching, Twiggy hit the pause button. The room went blissfully silent.
“Sorry, Robin,” I said into the phone as I stalked over to the breakfast bar. “Roommates, I tell ya.”
Twiggy shot me a half-pouting, half-pleased look over the top of the sofa. Despite his annoyance at my television tyranny, he loved it when I called him my roommate. It made his little green day every time.
“I just have a quick question, if that’s okay,” Robin said, her sweet alto voice hollowed by the phone connection.
“Sure. What’s up?”
“When we were meeting with Naim at Odin’s Eye,” she began, “you, um … you had some MDP cases in your folder. I noticed a photo in one, and I was wondering … could I get the case file?”
“Oh?” I murmured, sliding onto a stool. I knew exactly what she was talking about. Our ill-fated appointment at Odin’s Eye—which had ended in fire, steel monsters, and getting more up close and personal with her demon than I would’ve liked—had begun with a friendly interrogation of ex-summoner Naim Ashraf. I’d bluffed him with a folder of MPD cold cases, and as I’d flipped through the printouts, Robin had gone all gaspy over a particular page of photos.
“Sure,” I told her. “On one condition.”
A wary pause. “What condition?”
“You tell me what’s special about that photo.”
Another longer pause as she decided what she wanted to tell me. “One of the men in the photo looked like the mythic who summoned my demon.”
That wasn’t the answer I’d been hoping for. “It doesn’t have anything to do with that ancient amulet thingy?”
Ancient amulet thingy—by which I meant the very same amulet hidden in my makeup bag. She’d shown up to our meeting with a perfect drawing of it, claiming it was a medieval infernus she was researching.
“No,” she replied firmly.
Too firmly?
“Hm. All right, give me a moment.” I hopped up and returned to my room. Where had I left that folder? I wasn’t actually investigating any of the files and I probably should’ve thrown it out, but that would’ve required a level of organization I didn’t possess right now.
I shuffled through a stack of mail on my nightstand. As I opened the drawer, I stepped on a shirtsleeve hanging off my bed. It and my toiletry bag tumbled to the floor. Swearing under my breath, I nudged the makeup bag into the middle of my mattress before it fell too.
“Sorry,” I told Robin, pinching my phone to my ear with my shoulder. “I’m in the middle of packing and my place is a mess. I think I buried the folder.”
“Are you moving?”
“Huh?” I dug into the drawer, but it was frustratingly folderless. “Oh, no, not that kind of packing. I’m going on a trip.”
“Where to?”
Oh, nowhere. Just Enright—you know, the infamous location where the largest group of demon mages in modern history were found and brutally exterminated.
“South,” I said, turning toward my closet. “We’re leaving soon, so I need to—” As I stepped over my suitcase, my foot caught on the handle and the suitcase landed flat on its face, spilling all three things I’d managed to pack so far.
“Shit.” I picked it up, tossed the now unfolded clothes on my bed, and faced the closet again. “What was I … right, the folder.”
“Are you going with your friends?” Robin asked. “The mages?”
“Yeah.” I shoved a heap of shoes aside, revealing a brown folder lying on the floor. “Aha!”
I remembered now. I’d decided the papers should be shredded, not thrown out, so I’d put them somewhere “safe.”
“Got it. Let’s see …” I sat on the edge of my bed and opened the folder. “It was a photo of two dudes, right?” I flipped through cases until I found a photo with a pair of men talking. “Here it is. Case 97-5923.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem. So, you think your demon’s summoner is skeevy?”
“I know he’s skeevy. Just not sure how much.”
Oh, interesting. Did that imply her contract might be on the skeevy side too? Her demon was kind of strange. “Hope that case has some juicy details for you, then. Let me know if you need any help. I owe you one for taking me to see Naim.”
“He wasn’t any use.”
“Yeah, but you still shared your lead with me.” My gaze turned to my makeup bag, sitting innocently beside me. Robin was researching the amulet too. Had she found answers I hadn’t? What did she know?
When I’d first seen her drawing of it, I’d decided that pressing her for information was too risky—but after Ezra’s dip into madness three days ago, the time for caution was well and truly over.