day when I saw her again.”
Chapter Thirteen
A cloud passed over the sun, cloaking us in shadows for a few moments. Chilled, I shivered and tucked my scarf more securely around my neck. There was something about Charles’s expression that I didn’t like. Sure, I never liked it when he stared at me because it usually meant bad things were about to happen to me , but this felt different.
This felt ominous.
Philip, meanwhile, was spitting with indignation. “What do you mean, you saw her again? When? Why didn’t I see her?”
“It was when you were twelve. A few months after you had nearly died from that demon bite,” Charles explained. “I’d gone upstate to help track and dispatch a demon. Normally I stayed in the city and hunted with Liam, but after what happened to you, I was angry. And,” he said after a pause, “bloodthirsty. I wanted to kill as many demons as I could after nearly losing you. So when the call came for additional hunters, I volunteered. We tracked it to a park, and after killing it, I saw her.”
“Mom,” I said. “You saw Mom.” There were things Charles was saying, little facts that he probably didn’t think were important, but they were adding up to something huge and life-shattering.
Like the park. I knew exactly which park he was talking about.
“I saw her, and I also Saw what she had done. Have they explained magical traces to you, Gabi?”
If only Charles knew I’d just been discussing this same exact thing with Rafe. My mouth was dry, but I managed to answer, “Yes. It’s how you track down sorcerers who summoned demons—” I broke off with a gasp. “She summoned a demon ? The one you fought in the park?”
Besides me, Philip had gone white.
“No. That’s ridiculous. Of course he’s not saying that—”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Charles placed his shaking hands on the table. “She summoned a demon. Maybe not that particular demon, but she’d brought one of those fiends here and the trace was on her, clear as day. I quickly approached her, knowing what would happen if the other hunters saw her, but she fled. I chased after her and finally cornered her, but she refused to tell me why she’d summoned a demon. Instead, she attacked me.”
Philip and I exchanged uneasy looks. A part of me wanted to get up and run away so I wouldn’t have to hear the rest of Charles’s story.
If I don’t know what happened next, then it never really happened, right?
“I didn’t want to fight her.” Charles reached for Philip, but Philip snatched his hand away before his father could touch him. “Please, you have to understand. Hurting her was the last thing I ever wanted to do. Despite everything she’d done, I still loved her.”
“You’re lying,” Philip said, speaking through clenched teeth. “Because you did hurt her, didn’t you, Dad?”
“I didn’t have a choice.” Charles looked like he was having trouble forcing the words out. “She would have killed me if I didn’t stop her.”
“You attacked her?” I whispered, trying to picture Mom, my mom , fighting with Charles. No. That was impossible. She didn’t summon demons, she didn’t attack people, she—
“Only one of us was leaving the park that day.” Charles spread his hands desperately. “Philip had already lost his mother—first she left him as a baby, and now she’d gone rogue and was summoning demons. If I died, who would Philip have left? No one.”
What is he talking about? I thought, my sense of horror growing. Only one of them was leaving the park? What did they do, have a duel to the death?
Oh my god.
“No.” I stood quickly, my chair scraping noisily against the bricks. “No, no, no . You didn’t. Charles, you didn’t—”
Charles gazed up at me, imploringly. “She was relentless, using spells I’d never even seen before. I’d been holding back, but I knew I wouldn’t last much longer if I didn’t fight her at full strength. Despite the hunter
Chapter Thirteen
A cloud passed over the sun, cloaking us in shadows for a few moments. Chilled, I shivered and tucked my scarf more securely around my neck. There was something about Charles’s expression that I didn’t like. Sure, I never liked it when he stared at me because it usually meant bad things were about to happen to me , but this felt different.
This felt ominous.
Philip, meanwhile, was spitting with indignation. “What do you mean, you saw her again? When? Why didn’t I see her?”
“It was when you were twelve. A few months after you had nearly died from that demon bite,” Charles explained. “I’d gone upstate to help track and dispatch a demon. Normally I stayed in the city and hunted with Liam, but after what happened to you, I was angry. And,” he said after a pause, “bloodthirsty. I wanted to kill as many demons as I could after nearly losing you. So when the call came for additional hunters, I volunteered. We tracked it to a park, and after killing it, I saw her.”
“Mom,” I said. “You saw Mom.” There were things Charles was saying, little facts that he probably didn’t think were important, but they were adding up to something huge and life-shattering.
Like the park. I knew exactly which park he was talking about.
“I saw her, and I also Saw what she had done. Have they explained magical traces to you, Gabi?”
If only Charles knew I’d just been discussing this same exact thing with Rafe. My mouth was dry, but I managed to answer, “Yes. It’s how you track down sorcerers who summoned demons—” I broke off with a gasp. “She summoned a demon ? The one you fought in the park?”
Besides me, Philip had gone white.
“No. That’s ridiculous. Of course he’s not saying that—”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Charles placed his shaking hands on the table. “She summoned a demon. Maybe not that particular demon, but she’d brought one of those fiends here and the trace was on her, clear as day. I quickly approached her, knowing what would happen if the other hunters saw her, but she fled. I chased after her and finally cornered her, but she refused to tell me why she’d summoned a demon. Instead, she attacked me.”
Philip and I exchanged uneasy looks. A part of me wanted to get up and run away so I wouldn’t have to hear the rest of Charles’s story.
If I don’t know what happened next, then it never really happened, right?
“I didn’t want to fight her.” Charles reached for Philip, but Philip snatched his hand away before his father could touch him. “Please, you have to understand. Hurting her was the last thing I ever wanted to do. Despite everything she’d done, I still loved her.”
“You’re lying,” Philip said, speaking through clenched teeth. “Because you did hurt her, didn’t you, Dad?”
“I didn’t have a choice.” Charles looked like he was having trouble forcing the words out. “She would have killed me if I didn’t stop her.”
“You attacked her?” I whispered, trying to picture Mom, my mom , fighting with Charles. No. That was impossible. She didn’t summon demons, she didn’t attack people, she—
“Only one of us was leaving the park that day.” Charles spread his hands desperately. “Philip had already lost his mother—first she left him as a baby, and now she’d gone rogue and was summoning demons. If I died, who would Philip have left? No one.”
What is he talking about? I thought, my sense of horror growing. Only one of them was leaving the park? What did they do, have a duel to the death?
Oh my god.
“No.” I stood quickly, my chair scraping noisily against the bricks. “No, no, no . You didn’t. Charles, you didn’t—”
Charles gazed up at me, imploringly. “She was relentless, using spells I’d never even seen before. I’d been holding back, but I knew I wouldn’t last much longer if I didn’t fight her at full strength. Despite the hunter
Similar Books
