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Lucien shook his head. “No,” he said, “They want what you have, and I’m going to let them take it.”

The shadows moved closer to Mason, who raised his sword and aimed it at his son. “Stop them, or I’ll kill you where you stand, boy.”

“No,” Lucien said, a finality to his voice.

Mason went to swing the sword, but a demon swooped down and ran through him, the shadow pushing through Mason’s body making him grimace as if he had been shot. His eyes widened, and all the blood drained from his face. More demons swooped down, some of them pushed through him as the first had, but others tried to snatch the crown from his head.

And Mason was powerless.

Lucien took my hand and called out to Max. “Let’s go,” he said.

Max came out of hiding and joined us.

“Are you going to help him?” I asked.

Lucien shook his head. “Let the demons have them both.”

He tugged my hand, and moved me toward the portal, out of my family’s vault. Max followed, and the three of us stepped outside.

Once there, the portal sealed itself, and my aunt Persephone’s amulet settled into the palm of my hand. What was going to happen to Mason and Carla Diaboli now, I didn’t know.

But they deserved it.

Chapter

Thirty-Five

Aweek had passed since that night. A week since I was reunited with my brother, Max. A week since I returned to my family home after the night my parents were murdered. A week since I left Mason and Carla Diaboli locked in my father’s vault to suffer their fate at the hands of their own pets.

A fitting end to them, really.

After the confrontation, the three of us left the house and booked into a hotel for the night. I wasn’t ready to sleep in my own room again, and I certainly wasn’t going back to the Diaboli house. Max and Lucien shared the same opinion.

I decided to book into my own room, to spare Max from having to spend even a minute thinking about what was going on between Lucien and I behind closed doors. I wasn’t sure how long he was going to take to recover from all of this, but to his credit, it didn’t take long.

The next day, we went back to the house, and we braved the vault. None of us were sure what we were going to find on the other side of that portal. The three of us were shocked to find… nothing. No Mason, and no Carla. The crown and what was left of the Infernal Engine were there, but of the two Diaboli there was no trace.

They couldn’t have escaped, which left the only conclusion being, they were taken.

Where, exactly, I wasn’t sure. Was there another realm demons could go to that I didn’t know about? Possibly. Lucien seemed to think so. Whatever the case may have been, they were gone, the engine was destroyed, and already my home was starting to feel a little brighter.

It took a few days for Lucien to get his families assets in order. The people who had previously worked for his father worked for him, now. Everything the Diaboli owned was his, in fact. Though he suspected he wasn’t the only Diaboli still living, for now, at least, his father’s mansion was his.

Of course, that wasn’t where he chose to spend his time.

Most of his time he spent with us, back at my house. Max and I had been busy… rearranging things. We wanted the memory of our parents to live on, but we didn’t want their ghosts to linger. So, with a combination of loud music, cleaning supplies, and a bit of elbow grease, we moved furniture around, cleaned up, and made sure wherever our parents were right now, they knew we were okay.

Maybe one day we would see them again. Maybe not. For now, all we could do was move forward. Right now, though, we were taking a moment of respite. Max was back at the house, while Lucien and I took a drive in his car. He said he wanted to go and meet an old friend who lived somewhere up the coast, up by Salem.

It was a beautiful day.

The sun was high in the sky, the ride was smooth, the music just low enough that it was comfortable, and soothing. Lucien drove with one hand on the wheel, and another on my lap. I placed my hand on his.

“How long do you think it’ll last?” I asked.

“How long will what last?” Lucien asked.

“The quiet… I doubt we’ve seen the last of the Recondites.”