started. We hadn’t needed my powers much in the last month.
My limbs felt light, the warm garden air, suffocating. I stared up at the top of the tower. Way, way up.
“Ha!”
There was only a shadowy garden.
Right.
I scrubbed a hand over my jaw. I didn’t know what to think, but I had to believe I could at least count on my demon slayer senses.
“Anybody there?” As if they’d reveal themselves now.
I waited a moment, trying to detect something—anything unusual. I couldn’t escape the idea that there was more than I was seeing. But when I searched, I came up with…I didn’t know.
There was no harsh grasp of evil, no terrifying chill of imps or the possessed. Just trees, more trees, and a little niggling in the back of my head.
Sweat trickled down my neck and between my breasts. It could have to do with this house, or even an entity following us from our last adventure. Still, I’d always counted on my demon slayer danger detector, and it wasn’t going off. Yet.
I was uneasy all the same.
My emerald necklace felt heavy around my neck. It wasn’t morphing, which was both good and bad.
“Hello!” Pirate’s head popped over the edge of the roof, nearly giving me a heart attack. Then I saw his front legs and his shoulders. There wasn’t much more to him.
“Get away from that edge,” I ordered. If he didn’t watch it, he was going to fall right off.
I felt a cold, wet nose on my shoulder and about jumped two feet. I turned, ready to do battle, and found Flappy, who simply lowered his head and peered up at me, all innocent-like.
He knew what he was doing.
“I thought dragon noses were supposed to be warm,” I said, rubbing some heat back into my shoulder. I don’t know why I’d assumed that. Maybe because of the fire belching.
Flappy nudged me again, this time on the knee, effectively shoving me into a thorny vine. “Ow. Quit it!” I didn’t have time to pet him or talk to him or do whatever the creature wanted right now.
I looked back up to Pirate, who had retreated a bit from the edge. Thank goodness.
Flappy caught me in the back of the neck with his wet snout, sending a chill straight down to my toes. “That’s it!” I spun around to shoo him away.
“You don’t have to levitate,” Pirate called down, like an impatient teacher, “you only have to climb onto a dragon.”
Sure. Piece of cake. Riding on dragon back was like strapping on to one of those mechanical bull rides at a country bar—gut wrenching and uncomfortable, with a good chance of ending up on the ground.
Maybe I didn’t care so much what Pirate had found.
The dragon lowered his head, hope shining in his big, green eyes.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” I grabbed hold of the nubby spikes on the beast’s neck and hoisted a leg over his back.
These two were going to be the death of me.
“Fly slow,” I said, as if I actually expected him to listen. “No clowning around.”
I’d barely settled in when Flappy took off like a shot. My stomach settled in somewhere around my knees as I held on for my life.
He bucked and thrust with every beat of his wings. It was like riding a spastic Tasmanian Devil. He was going to throw me. Flat onto the ground. I knew it.
He gave one last lurch, and I said a prayer of thanks when Flappy landed hard on the stone roof of the tower. I half slid, half fell off, my body shaking. I bent over, hands on my knees as I tried to recover.
“Great job, Flappy!” Pirate leapt past me, as the dragon snorted and whipped his head. He shoved his snout against my hip and I nearly fell over.
“Yes. Well done. You didn’t kill me.” This time.
I waited for my stomach to settle and my head to clear. I looked over the edge, trying to see where we were, but the trees were still too tall.
Funny. I turned, trying to figure out exactly where this place was. That’s when I realized this was no tower at all. It was an old observatory. I looked up to the blue sky then back down to the copper dome fastened to the center of the roof. It lay closed, bleeding green patina onto the stone, but I could see where it opened to the night sky.
There was a yawning trap door next to it that Pirate had obviously used. “Lead the way, Kemosabe.”
He didn’t need to be asked twice. Pirate scrambled down a set of spiraling wrought-iron stairs with me close behind.
The smell of old brick and dust assaulted me as we pounded down to a landing that housed a gorgeous bronze telescope. Holy tomatoes. Yes, it was dusty. And sure, it was old, but the thing was in perfect condition and still pointed at the sky. Or in this case, the copper dome above.
A sturdy iron crank was attached to the workings of the dome. I was tempted to try to open it, but with my luck, I wouldn’t get it closed again. It would be a shame to ruin such a fine instrument with rain or weather.
“That’s not what I came to show you,” Pirate said, still at the steps.
“Right.” I found it fascinating all the same.
Below the observatory floor, the tower consisted of a circular room with a staircase. We wound down two more levels. With every step, the air became more stuffy and warm.
The shadows lengthened, as the light from the upper windows grew scarcer. At last, we came to the ground floor with the door.
I stopped a few steps short of the bottom.
Hooded statues lined the walls, their robes, their fingers, carefully detailed. Except their faces were blank stone. Some of the statues gripped daggers. Others clutched bowls, which held the ashes of incense.
It was strangely silent inside. Everything was shrouded in shades of gray. Pirate breathed heavily next to me, and I could barely hear the birds outside.
In the center of the floor, was a thick stone medallion. Scrolled with…my breath caught in my throat…it looked like the dark mark.
“See?” Pirate said next to me. “It was on your hand. The devil’s mark. And now it’s here on the floor.”
Almost. Certainly too close for comfort.
“Let’s not panic,” I said to Pirate, and myself.
I glanced behind me. Habit. Before crouching to take a closer look. I ran my fingers over six identical swirls and in the middle of what looked to be a burst of fire.
The dark mark that had been etched into my skin had been emblazoned with three swirls. See? Different. I hoped. Also, these marks were not as tight. Each line on this mark ended with the curved, planetary symbol.
I traced my finger over one. “See this? It’s the symbol for Pluto, the planet of death and rebirth.”
“Pluto’s not a planet,” my dog said.
“It was when I was a kid,” I said, standing. “Certainly when this place was built.” I paused, trying to think of what it could mean. Pluto was also god of the underworld. It was also the symbol of hidden power and obsession. Transformation. Pirate followed the path of my fingers with his nose. “Don’t sniff it,” I murmured.
He jerked his head up. “Why? This is research.”
“Yes, but we don’t know what this is.” I touched the emerald at my neck. It was warm, yet strangely lifeless at my touch.
“We need to show Grandma.” And Dimitri, when he arrived tonight.
In the mean time, I took a few pictures with my phone.
Pirate sneezed every time my flash went off.
“Don’t mention this to anyone else,” I told him.
He nodded. “You know I don’t like to share our business.” He tilted his head. I could almost see the wheels
