the distance, the forest seemed to curl around the building, protecting and sheltering it. I wanted to think it was beautiful, but looking at it, all I could think about was how different my life would have been if Alice had never come here.
“I’ve loved this house from the moment I set eyes on it,” Dad said quietly.
“I just wish it were a little bigger,” I said. “I need at least five hundred bedrooms to keep from feeling cramped, you know?”
It was a lame attempt at a joke, but Dad chuckled anyway. “I hoped you would like it. It’s our birthplace, in a manner of speaking. Would you like to hear the story?”
Even though my mouth was dry and my knees were shaky, I forced myself to sound nonchalant. “Might as well.”
“Members of the Thorne family were dark witches and warlocks. For hundreds of years they managed to keep their true identities secret from humans, all the while using their powers to increase the family’s wealth and influence. They were ambitious and clever, but not particularly dangerous. At least not until the war.”
“Which war?”
Dad looked at me, surprised. “You didn’t learn about the war at Hecate?”
I thought back over all my classes last year, but I had to admit I’d spent a lot of that time thinking about other things, like Archer, and Jenna, and how girls were getting mysteriously attacked. Who could blame me if I hadn’t paid that much attention in class? “We might have. I just don’t remember.”
“In 1935, a war broke out between L’Occhio di Dio and Prodigium. It was a particularly grim time in our history. Thousands were killed on both sides.”
He paused to clean his glasses with his handkerchief. “At that time, there were only two members of the Thorne family left, Virginia and her younger brother, Henry. Virginia was apparently the one who came up with the idea of raising a demon to fight The Eye. No one had ever been able to do that before in the history of Prodigium, but Virginia decided to try. It took her years, but she finally found the ritual she was looking for in an archaic grimoire.”
“I’m guessing that’s the one in the locked cabinet?”
“Yes. According to Council records, she wanted to perform the ritual on herself, but the head of the Council refused to allow that. He thought it would be safer to attempt it on a regular human. Luckily for Virginia, there were hundreds of girls staying at the Abbey.”
I shivered. “And she picked Alice.”
“She did.”
“Why? I mean, you said there were hundreds of girls here. Did she draw Alice’s name out of a hat or something?”
“I honestly don’t know, Sophie. I’ve always believed the fact that Alice was pregnant at the time had something to do with it. Perhaps she and Henry…Well, in any case, Virginia never told anyone, and after the ritual, Alice was in no position to say anything.”
I rubbed my nose with the back of my hand and said, “In stories like this, there’s usually a magical diary hidden in a trunk that gives you all the answers. Any chance of that happening here?”
“I’m afraid not. Anyway, I think you know the rest of the story. Virginia performed the ritual, but something went wrong. We’ll never really know what happened that night, but the end result was that Virginia and her brother were both dead, and Alice had become a demon.”
“A monster,” I muttered, thinking of those silver claws sliding into Elodie’s neck. I plopped down on the lawn and drew my knees up to my chin. Dad sighed and, after a long moment, sat next to me.
“You’ll get grass stains on your suit.”
“I have other suits. You know, that’s not the first time I’ve heard you use that word to refer to us. May I ask why?”
I raised both eyebrows. “Seriously? You have to ask why demon means monster to me?”
“When you thought you were just a witch, did you use the word ‘monster’ to describe yourself?”
“Of course not.”
“And yet witches, faeries, shapeshifters, demons…we all have the same origins.”
“What do you mean?”
Dad plucked a piece of grass and began shredding it absentmindedly. “We all started out as angels.”
“I know that regular Prodigium did,” I said. “They’re descended from the angels who didn’t pick a side in the war between God and Lucifer.”
Dad met my eyes. “Well, demons are the angels who did pick a side. The wrong one, as it turned out.”
“So what? Just because they used to be angels doesn’t make them—us—the good guys.”
“No, but it does make us a little more complex than monsters. For example, you weren’t particularly disturbed to find out you were a dark witch, and their powers are remarkably similar to ours. In many ways, a demon is nothing more than a very strong dark witch.”
“Or Hogaroth the Slimy,” I muttered.
“What?”
“I just mean…when Virginia called that demon to possess Alice, did that mean Alice—like, actual, real Alice, her soul or whatever—was gone, and it was just some monster wandering around in her body?”
Dad gave a startled laugh. “Oh, God, no. Is that what you’ve thought this whole time?”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Well, how was I supposed to know? It’s not like anyone was in a big hurry to answer all my burning, demony questions.”
He stopped laughing and actually looked a little sheepish. “You’re right. I’m sorry. No, when a demon is called forth, it’s really nothing more than a large dark…force, basically. That’s what being exiled to hell does to an angel. It strips it of everything but its power. They don’t have names, or personalities, or even bodies. They’re nothing but pure, undiluted magic.”
“Wow.”
“Possession isn’t even really the right word for what happens,” Dad said. “It’s more like ameshing. The demon alters everything about that person, even their blood, their DNA. That’s why it can be passed down through families. That’s why if we’re ever grievously injured we don’t die. Our powers heal us.” He nodded at my scarred hand. “Unless, of course, someone uses demonglass on us. But for all that, a demon who was changed during a possession ritual is still essentially the person they always were.”
“Only now they have the darkest, most powerful magic in the world literally flowing through their veins,” I added.
“Exactly.” Dad smiled proudly, and I suddenly remembered Alice standing in the clearing, exclaiming, “You did it!” right before I cut off her head.
My throat was tight when I said, “So if Alice was still Alice, why did she have claws and start drinking blood?”
Dad shrugged and held up his right hand. Long silver claws sprang up in place of his manicured fingernails, and then disappeared just as quickly. “Any witch or warlock could do that if they wanted to. Try it yourself.”
I looked down at my ragged nails, still splotched with Iced Strawberry polish from the last time Jenna had tried to give me a manicure. “No thanks.”
“As for the…other part, blood magic is a very strong, very ancient practice. Again, many witches and warlocks have used it in the past. Your friend Jenna certainly benefits from it. In fact, that’s how vampires were created. Nearly a thousand years ago, a coven of witches were performing a very complicated blood ritual, and —”
“Alice killed people,” I said, my voice breaking on the last word.
“Yes, she did,” Dad said calmly. “That much dark magic can drive a person insane. That’s what happened to Alice. It doesn’t mean it will happen to you.”
He looked at me, his expression intense. “Sophie, I understand your hesitation to embrace your heritage, but it’s vital that you stop thinking of demons as monsters.” He reached out and covered my hand with his. “That you stop thinking ofyourself as a monster.”
Struggling to keep my voice level, I said, “Look, I get that you’re big into this whole Up With Demons thing, but I watched one kill a friend. And Mrs. Casnoff told me that your mom demoned out and killed your dad. So don’t stand there and expect me to believe that being a demon is all sunshine and kittens.”
