Page 36

“Behind the stairs,” he said gruffly before walking off.

I looked back at Dylan. “We moved here yesterday and this place still feels like a museum to me. I don’t know where anything is.”

Dylan nodded once and followed me. Sure enough, we found a pleasant room containing an unlit fireplace, two big chairs flanking it, and four walls lined with empty bookshelves. I suspected they would not be empty for long.

I forgot about Dylan as I looked around in awe. This room was like something out of a dream. When I came back to my senses, I shook my head and sat in the chair Dylan hadn’t already taken. We were both so short that we had to pull out the fabric-covered footstools from beneath the chairs to keep our feet from dangling.

My sigh was loud. I refused to spend the rest of my time in this place with my feet off the ground. I would buy furniture that fit me as soon as I could go shopping. And I’d buy doubles for when Mulan came to visit.

“You’re nothing like what I expected,” Dylan said.

I gave the far darrig the answer I gave everyone. “I’m worse than ya heard but ya caught me in a rare moment. It wouldn’t be to yer advantage to lie to me, Dylan.”

“I didn’t fight my way past your demon guard to wastemy timelying to you. I came to explain myself so you wouldn’t wasteyour timetracking me down. The troll thief told me all trolls are quaking in fear that you’ll come after them next. Stories of you are getting around.”

“Yer troll thief has reasons to quake because I’ll be chasing him down today.”

Dylan sighed. “Would it help my case if I guided you to the troll thief’s lair? I put the coordinates in my phone.” He reached into his coat and pulled out a red phone to show me. “I’ll even send them to yer demon king.”

I grinned at his eagerness to save himself. “Why would betray yer informant? Is there no honor among thieves these days?”

Dylan rolled his eyes. “I am not a thief—I’m a man on a mission. And I took him a bottle of mead as a bribe so he’d talk to me. It contained a sleep potion that knocked him out, which allowed me to safely search his cache of stolen goods. Unfortunately, what I was searching for wasn’t among any of it. I left the troll sleeping peacefully with no actual harm done. I also left all the goods. Trolls aren’t the most selective of thieves.”

It was a clever story but one that also smacked of truth. Dylan was eager for me to believe him and eager to continue his search. “Tell me more truth, Dylan. What are ya looking for?”

He didn’t hesitate. “I’m looking for a relic that was stolen from my family. Well, it was actually stolen from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston where we were storing it for safekeeping.”

I chuckled. The door opened and a young demoness dressed all in black rolled a tea cart into the room. I nearly frowned at the formality, but it wasn’t her fault Henry had decided I required the full lady-of-the-manor treatment. I thanked her for the tea. She nodded and left without saying a word. This was the kind of service ya got in the snootiest of restaurants.

Dylan and I both watched her leave with the same incredulous expression. Finally, I shook my head. I reached out a hand and pulled the cart between us so I could pour for us both. I waved a hand to the treats and the condiments on it. “Please fix yer drink how ya like, Dylan. This isn’t a real tea party. I think Henry is having a laugh at my expense.”

“Your demon butler is stern and unrelenting.”

I shrugged. “I can’t say what he’s like yet. I only met him yesterday. And he’s not my butler. He’s a caretaker without a proper title.”

“Is Henry not the demon king?”

“No, that was most definitely not the demon king. If ya ever met Conn, ya would remember him.”

Dylan laughed at my revelation. “Okay, let’s get back tomystory. Hiding something in plain sight is often the best way to protect it, especially from family members who’d like to sell it for a profit. My parents said the power the relic holds could be dangerous in the wrong magickal hands. Before they sent me looking for it, my parents made everyone we knew drink a truth potion. No one they tested took it. That meant the theft was likely an outside job. I checked all known thieves in Boston and found nada. My uncle’s a diviner so I asked him to help. He said our family relic was here in Salem.”

“What does this relic do?”

“The short answer is that it controls animals. It might do other things as well, but controlling animals is its primary magick.”

I thought of the snake hydra we fought and glared at Dylan. “Can it turn a normal animal into a hydra?”

“I honestly don’t know what it can do,” Dylan said with a shrug before sipping his tea. “I’ve not seen it used in my lifetime. What I know is that my parents are afraid of it. So were my grandparents.”

“What does this relic look like?”

“It looks like a tiny megaphone made from stone. It lived in our home for a couple of centuries. The museum decided it belonged in a Viking kitchen, which was the exhibit where it has rested since the first day the MFA opened its doors. Either my grandmother or great-grandmother put that Viking idea in their heads because we’re on record as the donating family.”

“Why is it not with someone of the Abrahamic faith? Did yer family convert after they moved to Boston?”

Dylan chuckled. “If I told you the story, Aran of The Dagda, you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Ya would be surprised by what I can believe. Call me Aran andtell me,” I ordered as I sipped my tea.