Unearthed by Lauren Stewart

get rid of, don’t I? If you need anything—help, money, advice…”
    “I’m good,” Keira said. “Thanks. I should take off.”
    “Wait!” Parker said. “I have something for you. But you’re not allowed to judge me.”
    When they got back into the main room, Parker went to a shelf, pulled out a paperback, and tossed it to Keira. “It’s not my best work, but it has a little more about the most common demon breeds in there.”
    Keira turned the book right side up. There was a guy’s bare chest on the cover, flames behind him, and a pitchfork forming the ‘W’ in the title. “It’s…fiction.”
    “Not even very good fiction,” Parker said. “I’m a historian, not a writer. Anyway, the important stuff is there. Ignore the fluff around it—that’s just in case the wrong person finds it. But that won’t happen because you—”
    “Will guard it with my life.”
    The historian’s eyes softened. “I was going to say you won’t lose it. Because you don’t lose anything, do you?”
    “It’s been a long time since I had anything to lose.” Embarrassed by the empathy she saw in their eyes, Keira tucked it into her bag and left, thankful to know such great women and to be done with that fucking demon for good.

Eight

    After Keira left, Addison looked at Parker. “Wow. That’s not good.”
    “Could’ve been worse. Could’ve been…”
    “Yeah, that would’ve been a lot worse.”
    They were quiet for a while—neither of them would speak until both of them were ready. In six months, Parker had become like a sister to Addison, the only person she could count on one hundred percent, at least who was around and who wasn’t Graham.
    He’d appointed himself her bodyguard for some reason, probably because his king told him to. Even though Graham wasn’t a vampire anymore—totally Addison’s fault but for a good cause—she knew he was still completely loyal to Rhyse.
    She was lucky to have him. Even though he didn’t have any powers, he was still smart and knew the signs of danger. Not that Addison had gone anywhere lately. Not since making a decision that cost twenty seers their lives.
    Parker still worked in the histories department, staying so they could access information they wouldn’t otherwise be able to. After the disaster, Addison had tried to send both of them away. She was too dangerous to be close to, and she couldn’t handle something happening to her best friend. Of course, she’d completely underestimated their stubbornness. At least Logan was safe with Rhyse. What started out as advanced mind-shielding lessons had evidently become a paid position. It worked out for the best…kind of. A job on Rhyse’s staff was a million times better than being in a toy box, and it came in handy occasionally. Like whenever Addison needed to send a message to Rhyse asking for help, or when Rhyse wrote her back to say he’d do what he could and finish the letter with how much he looked forward to the day she’d deliver a message in person, so he could see her, touch her, breathe her in.
    It shouldn’t be possible to miss someone this much for this long.
    “He’s gotta be insanely hot.” Parker sat down in front of the enormous book she had ‘borrowed’ from work. Since it had to go back before morning, they couldn’t afford to stop looking through it and taking pictures of pertinent pages. “And no, I didn’t mean to make the pun.”
    “Huh?” Addison blinked her way out of the no-man’s land between what she wanted and what she could have. “What’d you say?”
    “A hunter and a Fosfer demon. That’s as bad as a dat vitae and a vamp.” It was the first time either of them had mentioned Rhyse since the demon attack, because it was too difficult for Addison to think about, let alone talk about. Parker was one of five beings who knew the full story of her and Rhyse. And who knew that the story wasn’t over, at least in terms of the Rising.
    “I heard good things about Keira