Demonglass (6 page)

I studied her face for a long time. Somehow, it had been easier to think of Alice as really possessed, a soulless creature using my great-grandmother’s body as a tool.

It was harder to think of Alice’s soul still being in her body when I sliced through her neck with that shard of demonglass.

I traced her features. What had she been thinking the day this photograph was taken? Had she thought Thorne Abbey was overwhelming, too?

For all I knew, she’d stood in this very room more than sixty years ago. The thought sent a shiver down my spine. I wanted to ask her if she’d had any sense of the horrible thing that was about to happen to her, if she had wandered the halls of Thorne feeling the same sick feeling of dread that coiled inside me.

But Alice, frozen in 1939, smiling and human, didn’t have any answers, and there was nothing in her face to suggest that she’d had any hint of what the future would hold for her.

For me.

D
ad wasn’t around the next morning. I woke up early and took a marathon shower. Trust me: if you’d spent the last nine months sharing a bathroom with all manner of supernatural creatures, you’d be pretty psyched about a private shower too. Sometime the evening before, all of my bags had been unpacked, and my clothes were neatly folded in the painted dresser. Remembering how nicely everyone at Thorne had been dressed yesterday, I briefly considered digging out the one dress I’d brought. In the end, I settled on another pair of jeans and a cranberry-colored T-shirt, although I did wear a nice pair of sandals instead of my ratty tennis shoes.

I stopped by Jenna’s room before heading downstairs, but she wasn’t there. Cal’s door was closed, and I thought about knocking on it before reminding myself that it was kind of early, and he was probably asleep. For just a second, the image of a sleepy, shirtless Cal opening his bedroom door popped into my head, and my face flushed as red as my T-shirt.

I was still kind of flustered when I practically ran into Lara Casnoff in the main hallway. She was wearing another dark suit and was somehow holding on to a sheaf of papers, a cell phone, and a steaming mug of coffee that smelled so good my mouth started watering. “Oh, Sophie, you’re awake,” she said with a bright smile. “Here”—she handed me the coffee—“I was just bringing this up to you.”

“Oh, wow, that’s really nice of you,” I replied, mentally adding Lara to my list of People Who Are Awesome. At Hex Hall, we were practically blasted out of bed in the morning by an alarm that was somewhere between a foghorn and the baying of hell hounds. People bringing you coffee in bed was a way nicer way to wake up.

“Also, your father wanted me to tell you that he’s been called away on business today, but he should be back later this evening.”

“Oh. Um…okay, thanks.”

“He hated to miss your first day,” she said, frowning slightly.

I couldn’t hold back a sarcastic laugh. “Well, Dad’s missed a lot of my first days, so I’m pretty used to it.”

I think Lara was going to rush in to defend Dad, but before she could, I asked, “So in which of the nine thousand kitchens could I maybe find some cereal? I skipped dinner last night.”

Immediately, Lara was all business again. “Oh, of course. Breakfast is being served in the east dining room.”

She gave me directions that included three right turns, another flight of stairs, and a “conservatory,” whatever
that
was. When I stared at her blankly, she waved her hand and said, “I’ll just show you myself.”

“Thanks,” I said, trailing behind her. “Maybe by the end of the summer I’ll actually get the layout of this place down.”

Lara laughed. “I’ve been coming to Thorne Abbey for decades, and I still get turned around.”

“Wow,” I said as we proceeded down a long hallway lined with pictures. I did a double take as I passed them. There were portraits of werewolves in eighteenth-century costumes, their silvery fur poking out from underneath knee breeches, and one image showed a family of witches from what looked like the 1600s—lots of lacy ruffs around their necks—all of them levitating underneath a tree, silvery sparks of magic dancing around them.

Then what Lara had said sunk in. “Decades? So you’ve known my dad since you were kids?”

She nodded. “Indeed. Your grandmother gifted Thorne Abbey to the Council before…before she passed away. Anastasia and I spent many summers here with our father.” She paused and gave me a fleeting smile. “Something we have in common, Sophie. My father was also head of the Council.”

“Wait, what?”

“Alexei Casnoff. You’ve never heard of him?”

All I could do was shake my head, so Lara continued. “Casnoffs ruled the Council for nearly two hundred years. However, my father made the decision very early on to pass his title to your father, due to his powers.”

I took that in. “But the title is hereditary. So if your dad hadn’t done that, you would have been the head?”

She gave an elegant shrug, like it was a subject that didn’t even warrant discussion. “Anastasia, actually. She’s the eldest. But we both agreed with Father’s decision, and Anastasia felt she could be of the most use at Hecate anyway.” She smiled at me and squeezed my arm a little. “Neither of us have ever regretted it. James has done an excellent job as the head, and I’m sure you’ll do just as well.”

I tried to smile back at her, but I think it came across more as a grimace.

“So…if you and Mrs. Casnoff are sisters, and your dad was a Casnoff, why is she a Mrs.?” I asked. “Makes it sound like she married into the family.”

“Anastasia was married,” Lara said, gesturing for me to walk down another corridor. “But we’ve always kept the name Casnoff. Her husband even took it.”

I want to know more about that, but by then we’d reached the dining room. I followed Lara inside.

I wondered if there were any rooms in all of Thorne Abbey that wouldn’t leave me gawking in wonder at the doorway. The east dining room was probably three times the size of the dining hall at Hecate. Like every other room I’d seen at Thorne, there didn’t seem to be a square inch of wall that wasn’t covered in paintings or gilt. Even the chairs were upholstered in gold brocade.

A long table that could have seated whole armies dominated the room, so I guessed this is where most meals at Thorne were served. But Cal was the only person there now. He glanced up as we came in and gave a tiny nod. “Morning.”

Lara practically beamed at him. “Mr. Callahan! So nice to see you this morning. How are you enjoying Thorne Abbey?”

Cal took a long sip of orange juice before replying. “It’s great.”

I don’t think it was possible for Cal to sound less enthusiastic, but either Lara didn’t pick up on it, or she didn’t care, because she sounded awfully perky as she said, “Well, I’m sure the two of you are welcoming the chance to spend some time together.”

Cal and I both stared at her. I tried to will her to stop talking, but apparently that power wasn’t in my repertoire. Lara flashed us a conspiratorial grin. “Nothing makes me happier than seeing an arrangement that’s a real love match.”

All the awkwardness that had vanished between me and Cal yesterday seemed to swoop back into the room with an audible
whoosh
.

I dared a quick look in his direction, but Cal, as usual, was doing his whole Stoic Man thing. His expression didn’t even waver. But then I noticed his hand tightening around his glass.

“Cal and I aren’t…we don’t…there’s not any, um, love,” I finally said. “We’re friends.”

Lara frowned, confused. “Oh. I’m sorry.” She turned to Cal, eyebrows raised. “I just assumed that was the reason you turned down the position with the Council.”

Cal shook his head, and I think he was about to say something, but I beat him to it. “What position with the Council?”

“It was nothing,” he said.

Lara gave a delicate snort before saying to me, “After his term at Hecate ended, Mr. Callahan was offered a position as the Council’s chief bodyguard. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you initially accept the assignment?” she asked Cal.

It was the closest I’d ever seen Cal to angry. Of course, on him, that meant that his brow furrowed a little. “I did, but—” he started to say.

“But then you heard Sophie was coming to Hecate, and you decided to stay,” Lara finished, and her lips twisted in the triumphant smile I’d seen on Mrs. Casnoff’s face dozens of times. I stood there, frozen in place, as she turned back to me and said, “Mr. Callahan gave up a chance to travel the world with the Council so that he could be little more than a janitor on Graymalkin Island. For you.”

A
fter that, I didn’t hear much more of what Lara said. I know she mentioned something about a meeting and being late, and then suddenly she was gone, leaving me and Cal alone.

Cal turned his attention back to his plate, so I crossed the room to the buffet. There were dozens of silver trays steaming with eggs, fried potatoes, bacon, and a whole bunch of other foods I wasn’t sure I could name. My heart was jumping around nervously, but I tried not to let it show as I filled my plate.

Then it occurred to me that I had no idea where to sit. The table could easily fit over a hundred people, so I didn’t want to sit right next to him, obviously. But it would also look weird if I picked one of the seats far down the table. I finally just sat across from him, and for a while, Cal and I sat in silence, munching on our respective breakfasts. The sound of our forks scraping across the plates echoed in the cavernous room.

Cal shifted in his chair, and I thought he was about to leave without saying anything. Then, quietly, he said, “I didn’t stay just for you.”

I kept my eyes down. “Right. Of course you didn’t. Duh.”

His foot nudged mine under the table, and I finally looked up at him. He was leaning forward, his face intense. “I mean it. I like Graymalkin. I like being close to the ocean and working outside. Working for the Council would’ve meant…” He sighed, lifting his eyes to the ceiling. “Offices and planes. And wearing a tie. It wasn’t for me.”

“Cal, it’s fine,” I insisted, even as my cheeks burned. “I didn’t actually think you were hanging out at Hex Hall because of your burning love for me. But that’s what I’m telling all the girls back at school,” I said, stabbing a forkful of eggs. “I’m thinking ‘heartbreaker’ might be a nice addition to my ‘avenging witch’ reputation.”

He looked like he was going to say something else, so I hurried on, even though it meant talking around a mouthful of food. “So, what do you think of Thorne Abbey?”

Cal blinked at the subject change, but then said, “This place freaks me out.”

“Me too,” I said. “Which is weird, seeing as how Hex Hall is technically a million times creepier.”

Cal shrugged. “Yeah, but it’s home.”

“For you, maybe. Have you
really
never left since you were thirteen?”

“Never. Not even to go to the mainland.”

I shook my head and broke off a piece of my toast, slathering it with orange marmalade. “That’s insane. Why?”

He put down his fork, his eyes on a spot somewhere over my shoulder. “I don’t know. As soon as I set foot on that island, I never wanted to leave it. Like I said, it’s home. Haven’t you ever felt that way about a place?”

I thought about all the houses Mom and I had lived in over the years. Some of them had been nice, but none of them had ever felt permanent. I’d always known better than to get too attached to a place. All the word “home” conjured up for me was Mom and the vague impression of suitcases. “No. One of the benefits of being a nomad. You never feel homesick.”

Cal studied me in that quiet, intense way of his before saying, “How did it go with your dad last night?”

I sighed. “Not great. Apparently I should be way more psyched about being a demon. And of course he’s dead set against my going through the Removal.”

“Huh,” was his only reply, but Cal could put a world of meaning behind one syllable.

“Let me guess. You’re joining the legions of people who think it’s a bad idea for me to go through the Removal.”

To my surprise, I saw that angry look cross Cal’s face again. “You say it like everyone is against the idea just to be jerks. But Mrs. Casnoff, your parents, me…can you blame any of us for not wanting you to
die
?”

Something shifted in the air, and suddenly I felt like I was on very shaky ground. “Can you blame
me
for not wanting to be a demon? Alice killed people, Cal. So did her daughter, Lucy. She killed her own
husband
.”

He didn’t react to that, so I added—with way too much venom even for me—“Bet you didn’t know that when you agreed to be ‘betrothed’ to me, huh? Husband-eviscerating apparently runs in my family.”

Still no reaction, and I felt shame curl in my belly. “Of course, you also didn’t know you were getting a demon bride,” I added in a softer tone. Very few people knew what my dad really was. I’d always assumed Cal had found out the same night I did.

That’s why I was really surprised when he raised his head and said, “I knew.”

“What?”

“I knew what you were then, Sophie. Your dad told me before the betrothal. And he told me about your grandmother, and what happened to your grandfather.”

I shook my head. “Then, why?”

Cal took his time before answering. “For one thing, I like your dad. He’s done good things for Prodigium. And it—” He broke off with a long exhale. “It felt like some kind of honor, you know? Being asked to be the head of the Council’s son-in-law. Plus, your dad, he, uh, told me a lot about you.”

My voice was barely above a whisper. “What did he say?”

“That you were smart, and strong. Funny. That you had trouble using your powers, but you were always trying to use them to help people.” He shrugged. “I thought we’d be a good match.”

The vast dining room suddenly felt very small, like it consisted only of this table and me and Cal. “Look, Sophie,” he started to say.

But before he could finish, Jenna walked in. “I am so glad I still get to eat human food, because that bacon smells
insane
…” she said, and then froze. “Oh!” she exclaimed, her earlier bounciness draining out of her. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to interrupt…whatever. I c-can…leave?” She gestured with her thumb over her shoulder. “And then come back, uh, later?”

But the moment was broken. Cal sat back, and I pushed my hair behind my ears. “No, it’s fine,” I said quickly, concentrating harder on my eggs than I had on my SAT. “We seem to be the only people up yet.”

“Everyone’s awake. They’re just quiet,” a voice said from the doorway.

I looked up and tried very hard not to choke on my food. It was the demon girl. Her black bob was messy and she was still wearing pajamas—cute ones, too, made of dark blue silk and covered in little silver moons and stars. She was watching me with an expression I couldn’t read.

She moved into the room with an easy grace, but her shoulders were up, and she kept her head tilted so that her profile was hidden by her hair. She took a piece of toast and an orange before coming to sit next to me. Her power set my teeth on edge, but I made myself smile.

“Hi. I’m Sophie.”

She plucked at the orange’s peel. “Yes, I know,” she said, her accent every bit as crisp as Dad’s. “And you’re Cal, and you’re Jenna. I’m Daisy.”

They murmured hello, then Jenna shot me a look and mouthed, “Daisy?” I knew what she meant. With her jet-black hair and translucent skin, this girl looked a lot more like a Lilith or a Lenore than a Daisy.

We all sat in silence while Kristopher, Roderick, and Elizabeth came in. I was kind of surprised to see the other three Council members. I figured they’d already be at work, like Lara.

Once everyone was seated, Kristopher looked down the table. “I’m glad to see you and Daisy getting to know one another, Sophia.” His bright blue eyes practically gleamed. Like Lara, he seemed way too enthusiastic for so early in the morning.

“Yeah, maybe later we can all sing a demon version of ‘Kumbaya,’” I said. As far as jokes went, it wasn’t exactly stellar, but the three Council members laughed like it was the funniest thing they’d ever heard.

“Daisy, didn’t we tell you Sophie had a wonderful sense of humor?” Roderick, the tall faerie said, his wings fluttering.

But before she could reply, the demon guy walked into the dining room. Jenna was right: he did look a little like Archer. He wasn’t quite as handsome, and when he glanced my way, I saw that his eyes were blue instead of brown, but there was definitely a resemblance.

“Good morning, Nick,” Kristopher said, patting his mouth with a napkin. “I trust your new room was to your liking?”

Nick headed over to the buffet, flashing a wink at Daisy, whose lips curved in response. “Very much so, Kris. Thanks for that,” he said before helping himself to breakfast. Unlike Daisy, he was American. He sat down on Daisy’s other side and leaned across her to say to me, “Got tired of the view in my old room. I mean, how many times can you look at a pond, right? Kris here was nice enough to hook me up with digs overlooking one of the gardens.” He grinned as he broke open a muffin. “Guess it’ll do for now.”

Kristopher smiled again, but it was strained. “We strive to keep our guests happy,” he said.

“What about you, Daisy?” Elizabeth, the grandmotherly werewolf asked, reaching out to pat Daisy’s hand. “Are your rooms still all right, dear?”

“They’re fine, thank you,” she said softly, and I could’ve sworn Elizabeth sighed with relief.

“So, Sophie,” Nick said. “I’m guessing you’ve worked out that Daisy and I are your siblings in demonhood?”

“Right,” I said, straining for nonchalant. I cleared my throat and asked, “So were you guys born demons, like me, or made?”

Elizabeth answered for them, her voice warm and sympathetic. “They don’t remember, poor things. When we found the two of them, they were both in mental institutions. They didn’t even have names.”

“Yes, and we’re ever so thankful for the rescue, Liz,” Nick said, slurring his words slightly. I looked closer at him. His eyes were kind of red, but not in the demon way; in the drunk way. Holy crap, who started drinking first thing in the morning? And
why
?

“So,” Nick said to me, “how do you like Thorne?”

“Love it,” I replied, but I sounded unconvincing, even to myself.

“Well, it’s gotta be better than that dump you guys call a school,” Nick said with a snort.

Cal’s expression turned positively stormy at that, so I rushed in to say, “Hecate’s not that bad. It just has, uh, character.”

“Didn’t L’Occhio di Dio raid Hecate last year?” Daisy asked, reaching across me for the marmalade. That’s when I noticed the jagged, purplish scar running along her inner arm. It looked a lot like the scar on my hand. I remembered what Dad had said about both Daisy and Nick nearly being murdered, and tried not to stare.

“No, it wasn’t a raid. There was a warlock there. Archer Cross.” It was the first time I’d said his name out loud in a long time. “He was working for The Eye. But he didn’t hurt anyone.”

Everyone fell silent, and I really hoped that that was the end of this particular conversation. Then Nick said, “I heard he tried to cut your heart out in a cellar.”

If everyone hadn’t been hanging on my every word, they certainly were now. “That’s not true,” I said evenly. I could feel Cal’s gaze on me, but I kept my eyes on Nick. “We fought, but he never pulled a knife on me.”

“You fought?” Roderick asked. “With your hands?”

“Um, yeah,” I replied, confused. “I think I might have kicked him somewhere in there, too, but—”

“What Roderick means is why didn’t you use your powers?” Kristopher said, folding his arms on the table. “You are a demon. You could have vaporized him if you’d wanted to.”

My mouth went very dry and I stammered a little as I said, “I-I wouldn’t have any idea how to do something like that.”

“Well, if you ever learn, I don’t think I want to be your roommate anymore,” Jenna chimed in. But if she’d thought joking was going to change the subject, she was wrong.

Nick leaned forward, his eyes practically burning. “Or maybe the rumor is true. Maybe you didn’t kill him because you’re in love with him.”