Page 113 of The Wolfing Hour

Again, we ignored him.

“From the very beginning, right?” My voice was a solitary headstone in the center of an empty cemetery. Quiet, hopeless, alone. “You let Mom’s death sink in, and when the time was right, you manipulated me to cross paths with Gnath on that lonely highway months ago.”

He said nothing, but it didn’t matter. I was right. “You’ve been controlling me all along. Did you even need the belladonna tea?”

“Yes,” he said.

Gnath chewed on his lower lip. Literally. His sharp teeth dug into the pulpy meat like it was a strip of jerky. His gaze went from me to Sexton and back again.

“Andyou.” I faced the nasty little monster. “Any truth to the bullshit story you gave me?”

“The best lies are twisted truths,” the monster replied, his teeth blackened with his own blood. “Yes, I have an ex named Elaine, and it was her garden your cat ripped off, which was another black mark on my record with her. But the part where you caught me impersonating Mictlantecuhtli with those dumbass rats? That was all me, baby. You really messed up that one—I had a great thing going. Another week, and I’d have had those stupid rats’ souls.”

Kale and Denzel weren’t the savviest rats in the colony, but they had good hearts and didn’t deserve the way Gnath had treated them.

I clenched my teeth. I had so many questions, but I didn’t want to hear either of their answers. Their truths were turning out to be far worse than their lies.

Still, I soldiered on. “Tell me,Grandfather. Could you have saved the wolf you planted on Ida’s steps? Bent time, or whatever it is you do?”

“I do notbend time, I merely experience it differently than humans do,” Sexton said. “The answer to your question is no. The young wolf's fate was sealed when I found him clinging to life on your street. I placed him on the necromancer's porch so he could provide the answers you needed.”

He made it sound like he’d done a good thing.

“And the Ronan mask?”

Sexton blinked. “It was a weak spell. I knew you’d see through it.”

“You also knew believing it was Ronan, even for a second, would nudge me into the sort of bleak fear that would drive me to let my demon side take over. You wanted to see the demon in charge.”

“It was not what I wanted. It was necessary.”

“Whatever. You can be happy with yourself. It worked—I’ve accepted her.” I spoke to Sexton but locked my gaze on Gnath,who was trying to disturb the salt-soil circle with his long, wriggling toes.

“I sense finality in your tone, granddaughter.”

I tore my gaze away from Gnath and set it on the being I’d finally allowed into my heart only for him to take a blowtorch to it.

“Sexton, you and I are as dead to each other as our families are to us.” I gave him a derisive look. “Did you pick up on thefinalityin my declaration?”

His brow bone lowered over eyes like an endless chasm. “Whatever I have done, I did?—”

“For me, right? You, Mom, and apparently my dad. Wish I had a nickel.” I left the adage unfinished. I didn’t have the emotional energy for snark.

“You must understand?—”

“What I understand is that you broke my heart,grandfather.” My voice shook on the endearment, title, honorific. Whatever it was, it would be the last time I used it in reference to him.

“I must reiterate, it was not my intention to?—"

“Is Rory alive?” I asked. “Understand that if she was a casualty in your campaign to draw out my demon side, you’d better kill me now, because there won’t be a corner of Hell dark enough to shelter you from my wrath.”

At least he had the decency to not pretend to misunderstand my question. His head creaked as it moved up, up, up and down, down, down. “She lives.”

My joints went limp with relief.Thank the goddesses.

“You lied to me about never having seen her,” I said. “You said it yourself. Time works differently for your kind. You knew who she was before I ever handed you that photo.”

“For a higher purpose.” His eyeballs rolled downward in a way that was probably meant to evoke shame but onlyrepulsed me. “I shall return her to you. However, I protest your repudiation of me. Granddaughter, you must?—”