“Dévolier!” I waved my wand and the cloth fell away to unveil the object.
I was rewarded with a tablet made of glossy dark stone, shaped like a triangle, etched with some unfamiliar writings. I was pretty sure I’d seen something like this on the cover of one of the spy novels I just threw in the Dumpster. It had a definite Indiana Jones don’t-mess-with-it vibe.
“What on earth is this thing? I’ve never seen this sort of writing before.”
“Don’t touch it!” Bevan shrieked. And he wasn’t much of a shrieker.
“I’m not, I’m not. Do you know what it is?”
“No! But…my gosh, can’t you just leave things alone?”
“And sell the house with a weird artifact in it?”
The stone started to glow softly.
“Uhhh…what should I do with it? Do you think I should call Eudora?” She was my usual magical antiques appraiser. The glow grew stronger and then with a sudden noise like a bang, it cast a beam upward like a spotlight as it jumped out of my hands. I fell backward and scrambled to get up again like a panicking turtle for a second. Then I quickly threw the cloth back around it and felt the stone’s heat under the fabric.
“I don’t like this at all!” Bevan cried.
“Okay, okay, jeez, don’t worry. It’s covered up again.” I tried to sound casual through my breathless surprise. Bevan was kind of neurotic. Familiars often were a counterweight to their witches’ personality. Since I was the sort of kid who might accidentally tumbled off a roof while trying to grab an abandoned bird’s nest, Bevan was the sort of familiar who was extra careful.
“I don’t think you should call Eudora, no. I think…er…that thing is very bad news.”
“But if you have no clue what it is, then I can’t just get rid of it. I already unbound it. If I threw it in a lake or buried it somewhere…it would just be out there. But I also can’t just rebind it in the house I’m trying to sell.”
“Yes, this is a problem,” Bevan said.
“I’m going to call Harris. Maybe he’ll know. He spent the most time with the family artifacts.” My phone seemed to work here as long as I stood outside, so I put the weird tablet back under the board and called my brother, barely thinking about how it was nearly eleven at night and he had small children.
“Helena?” he said sleepily.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I—I just found something in this house I’m working on. It’s putting off a lot of magical energy and Bevan is freaking out over it.”
“I’m not freaking out,” Bevan murmured. But of course he was.
Harris immediately sounded more awake. I knew he’d be into it. “Describe it to me.”
I did my best.
“Do you think the beam of light penetrated the roof?” Harris asked. “It might have summoned something. You should probably vacate the premises for now.”
“I don’t think it went past the roof, no,” I said, which was…well, I had no idea but there was no way I could leave. I had the brick guys coming out tomorrow and this house was my current baby. “So you have no idea what it is either?”
“No. I’ll try to do some research. But I really don’t like the idea of you hanging out alone with Sinistral objects. I’m glad you’re doing what you love, but…what kind of house is this? Where are you?”
“Central-ish Pennsylvania… It’s an awesome house.”
“Is it part of a wizard colony? Or are there some people around who could help you fight off a demon?”
“Whatever, Harris,” I said. “I know what I’m doing. I haven’t died yet.”
“So you’re alone.” He had this tone like, am I going to have to get in the car and save my big sister’s ass?
“You’re the one who died fighting a demon once,” I said. “So spare me the self-righteous sigh.”
“I’m just frustrated because you insist on doing everything by yourself and I’m starting to think you’re even more proud than I was.”
“‘Was’? Your pride is not past-tense, dude. But…I get it. It is freaking me out a little, this thing, but I don’t expect you to drive from North Carolina and I don’t want you to get hurt either. I’m not sure who else to call.”
“I’ll talk to my colleagues. Someone can come help you,” he said.
“I don’t know if I even need help. I actually don’t think it’s bad magic. The vibe I got is more like this intense, ancient energy.”
“Intense, ancient, and Sinistral are not a combination that comforts me.”
Suddenly the incubus materialized in front of me, wearing a robe and silk pajamas and widening his eyes at me. He motioned for me to hung up the phone.
“Check with your colleagues,” I said. “I’m going to hang up so you can do some research. Bye!” I ended the call because the incubus looked so perturbed.
“Did I disturb your beauty rest?” I said.
“I was waiting to disturb yours.” His sinfully beautiful mouth gave me a wink of a smile. “But…more importantly, you angel…you found the thing.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
HELENA
“THE THING? Great. So you can tell me what the thing is.”
“I can tell you my name. I am Byron Adras’ei, a Lord of the Incubi.”
“Can I call you Lord Byron?”
“Not if you do it sarcastically.” He leaned a little closer to me, his grin white enough to be on a dental commercial, and said, “I know all about your world, and your literature, and everything else. That Lord Byron was sort of an ass. This Lord Byron dreamed of redeeming the good name of my people.”
“Of incubi? The good name of sex demons? I mean—I do know a few nice incubi, for sure, but…it does seem like an
