Demon Heart (The Darkworld Series Book 3) (21 page)

idiculous,” said Howard, looking at me like I’d suggested we arrange a chess match with Lucifer. “You think Madame Persephone is a time-travelling ghost?”

“That’s not what I said,” I protested. I wished Claudia hadn’t decided to announce my theory to Cyrus, Howard, and Berenice at that week’s meeting in a way that made me sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist or something. “Look at this.”

Howard snatched the diary from my hand.

“Hey, don’t damage it!” I said.

“This is Melivia Blackstone’s?” said Cyrus. “You’re absolutely positive it isn’t a setup? Would anyone have a reason to trick you?”

“Not that I know of,” I said. “I know it sounds mental. But it fits with the facts.”

“It does,” said Cyrus thoughtfully, “but so do a dozen other unlikely theories.”

“I don’t see what this has to do with us anyway,” said Berenice, who as usual, looked as though she’d rather be anywhere than here.

“I didn’t expect you to,” I said.

“I think you’re trying to make unnecessary trouble for us. The Blackstones are dead and rotting in the earth, and it doesn’t matter if one of them survived. It’s hardly world-changing. The fortune-teller’s messed-up life isn’t any of our concern.”

“What about Lucifer?” I said. “If it is the same person who’s been living in the Darkworld all this time, he’s a pretty big threat to everyone.”

“Only if we provoke him,” she said. “I’m not getting involved.”

“I never said you had to,” I said. “I’m not proposing we join the Venantium’s fighting squad. I just want to talk to the fortune-teller.”

“You know they won’t let you,” said Cyrus.

I sighed. “Yeah. I know. If there was just some way I could convince them… someone I could talk to…”

But there
was
someone, I thought. Someone at this university who worked for the Venantium. David.

The thought of speaking to him again didn’t particularly appeal, but he
had
called the
venators
off harassing me the other day. Admittedly, I couldn’t really count on him to question his superiors, but I could try.

I didn’t stay in the meeting room for long. Howard and Berenice didn’t say much other than to bicker, and Berenice’s face flushed like a traffic light whenever she met Howard’s eyes. Once we’d exhausted the conspiracy-theory stuff, no one had anything else to say. I left to get an early night, and to mentally prepare to make a total ass of myself tomorrow.

After our lecture the next day, I followed David out of the lecture theatre, trying to tell myself that I wasn’t behaving like a creepy stalker, that I needed to do this.

“David,” I said. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

He blinked at me, as if unsure if I was having him on. “Um, sure. What is it?”

“Um… can we talk outside?”

Alex and Sarah stared at me as I walked with him out of the lecture building―Alex’s eyes practically bugging out.
Shit.
I had no idea what to say to them to excuse this. Still, I’d already done the difficult bit.

“I was wondering…” I took a deep breath. Might as well cut to the chase. “Do you know whether there’s any chance the Venantium might let me talk to the for―to Madame Persephone? It’s just that I have something I really need to ask her.”

“I don’t know.” David eyed me suspiciously. “What’s so urgent? I might be able to get a message to her, but I’m only admin. I don’t really know the staff questioning her.”

“It’s kind of something I need to ask in person. I know they don’t do visitors, but I think she wants me to speak to her.”

“Look, what’s this about? You look… I don’t know, agitated.”

“No shit,” I said, feeling a flicker of anger at how unhelpful he was being. “I’m not letting you know my business. Forget I asked.”

David hesitated. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want them to take her in, you know. I don’t think she’s an enemy. But I don’t have a say in the decisions.”

“It’s okay,” I said, relenting. “Last time I went down there, Dr. Philips told me I couldn’t talk to her, but if I had permission, or there was something I could do…”

“I’ll talk to my brother,” said David. “He’s higher up than I am. As long as you aren’t planning to help her escape, then I don’t see why they shouldn’t at least let you talk to her.”

“If she planned to escape, she could do it without my help,” I said.

“True,” said David. So he knew that much, at least. “Okay.”

“Thanks,” I said, and hurried to catch up with my friends and come up with a bogus story.

“I don’t trust him,” said Claudia. “He wants you to go there alone?”

“It’s not like they can arrest me or anything,” I said. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

The text from David had come two days after our conversation―an invitation into the Venantium Headquarters to speak to Dr. Philips about a possible meeting with the fortune-teller. Whilst I didn’t particularly trust either of them, this was the best chance I had.

Claudia and Leo had walked with me as far as the cemetery, and now we were waiting for David to show up. He’d said it was “urgent,” which sent alarm bells ringing in my head when we showed up and couldn’t see him anywhere. David and I might have once been friends, but I knew he’d always put the Venantium before anyone else―the prime reason why I disliked him so much now.

“Come on, the tosser was probably having you on,” said Claudia, the only other person who knew what had transpired between David and me last term. I wanted to keep it that way, if just because the past was the past.

But the way things looked at the moment, the past didn’t want to stay buried. Melivia Blackstone, for instance…

“Nah, there he is,” said Leo.

I looked up and saw David, just across the other side of the cemetery.

“Hi, Ash,” he said. “You ready?”

“Sure,” I said, standing up from where I’d been leaning on the wall.

Leo gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. Claudia narrowed her eyes at David.

“Hurt her and we’ll break you,” she said, looking ready to drop-kick someone into the next world. She’d never liked David, especially as she’d been the one to discover his secret.

David blanched. “No one’s planning to hurt her.”

“It’s okay,” I said with more confidence than I really had. Anxiety prickled up my spine as the tomb of the Blackstone family swung open, but I refused to let my nerves show in front of David.

This time, the drop barely fazed me. One second of floating in nothingness later and we stood on the red carpet of the entrance hall. David made for a door which I recognised as the one that led to the interrogation rooms. I shot him a glare.

“We’re just going somewhere quiet,” he said, looking slightly cowed. It felt oddly satisfying to think that I’d intimidated him. “You never know who might be listening in.”

Hoping I wouldn’t regret this, I followed him through the door and down the darkened staircase. In the corridor, a door lay open on our left, and Dr. Philips waited inside, her face in a familiar stern line. I wondered if she’d ever smiled in her life.

“Miss Temple. You are no doubt wondering why I wished to speak to you, after I told you last time that I did not want you to come to our Headquarters again.”

I said nothing. My insides felt twisted into knots.

“The truth is, we have need of your assistance.”

I met her stare in surprise. “Me… Why?”

“We have received a… message, which claims to be from Jude. It says that he plans to launch an attack on our headquarters tonight.”

“
Tonight
?” My heart jumped into my throat.

“Yes.”

“Why would he tell you that?”

“We do not know. But we cannot let it slide. Jude knows how to slip through our Barriers, as he did before. He may be possessed and unable to access this area, but we will nonetheless be alert in case he finds a way to send another emissary through. We are posting lookouts around the perimeter of our Headquarters, and we would greatly appreciate the assistance of yourself and your young friends.”

I could never have expected this, but her stern expression and obvious agitation proved her to be serious.
They must be desperate.

“But… what makes you think I can help?”

“We need all the combatants we can get.”

“
Combatants
?” I said. “I’m not a fighter.”

“You have encountered demons before, have you not? I understand that yourself and your friends played a pivotal role in defeating the Ghouls at their source.”

“That was the fortune-teller, not us,” I said. “And it was a higher demon that killed Mr. Priestley. I gave a statement.”

“But you did take part in the fight. I hear you also have some… unusual magic, Miss Temple.”

I shot David a look. Had he told her?

“I don’t know what you mean,” I said, standing my ground.

“You have an aptitude for manipulating the Darkworld. I am told that you have a particularly strong ability to create demon-proof shields, and to freeze things… do you not?”

“Who told you this?” I said.

“Madame Persephone herself told me. I was curious as to your relationship.”

Real fear coursed through me. Had they put her under some kind of torture? Why would she willingly reveal things about me when she’d already told so many lies to keep me safe?

What had happened to the fortune-teller I’d thought I knew?

“We’re… I don’t know her,” I said. “She helped us a few times. That’s all.”

“Be that as it may, will you not consider giving us your aid?”

“Consider what, getting myself killed?” I said, unexpected anger surging inside. I forgot I was talking to a senior member of the Venantium. The words flowed out without any control. “I can’t believe you’re asking for my help after what happened before.”

“We have many deep regrets as to the way you were treated on your last visit―”

“Regrets? You locked me up and blocked my connection to the Darkworld, thinking I was a demon!”

“We were under attack. We had to take extreme precautions. We offered you a full apology, and now we are asking for your help.”

“I…” Like it or not, I knew that if the Venantium was attacked, then we’d be the next targets. Maybe helping would be the best option. But would the others really go for it? I had my doubts.