“No.”
But the house shifted. Instead of the wall with a door that opened on the back yard, there was a wall with a dart board.
Two sets of darts waited on the table.
Crow picked the set with black feathers, leaving the white-feathered darts behind. He took his place several paces away from the target.
“You know how to play, don’t you?” he asked.
“I’ve played darts, Raven.”
“Want to make a friendly wager?”
“No. I want the truth.” I picked up the darts with my good hand and stood next to him.
He nodded toward the target. “All right.” A flick of the wrist and the dart landed just below the bullseye. “Ask.”
“Can you lie to us while you’re here?” I lined up, threw the dart. Bullseye.
He made a small, impressed sound. “Sure. Lying doesn’t break any of Ricky’s rules.”
“Are you lying to us now?”
The corner of his mouth hooked upward. “Probably? But not about everything.” He threw the next dart. Close, but no cigar. “Be more specific,” he said.
“Is Dominick the vampire who attacked us? Who made us…what we are now?”
“Brogan, I wasn’t there when it happened. I didn’t see it happen.”
I threw the next dart. Bullseye.
Raven whistled. “I’m glad I didn’t set a wager on this game.”
“The witches told us Dominick was the one who turned us, then said they were lying. You told us he was turned by the monster who attacked us. Which is the truth, Raven?”
He took extra time lining up his shot. Then, finally, quietly, “I don’t think Dominick is the monster who attacked you, no.”
He threw the dart. Bullseye.
“Why?” I still held my dart, waiting.
“Because the monster who attacked you and Lula was turned into a monster by Atë.” He raised an eyebrow at my expression. “Oh, you didn’t know that, did you? She made it into what it is—vampire, mostly—but twisted it into her image, all humanity and soul stripped. That kind of…influence from a god is difficult to survive. And yet.”
“It’s still out there,” I breathed.
It was cool in the house, even with the morning heat setting in. Still, sweat trickled down my spine. All these years Lula had been looking for it, I’d thought it was still out there. But there was a part of me that had begun to wonder if it had died, been killed. Not even monsters live forever.
“I think so, yes. Dominick is a vile, cruel, power-hungry creature. But he is not the vile, cruel, power-hungry creature that attacked you.”
“Fuck.” I threw the dart—bullseye—and turned to him. “Do you know where it is?”
Crow bit his bottom lip, and I could see the power in him banked and burning like black-feathered flame.
“I think you will know, Lula will know, if you kill Dominick. I think that connection between them will show you where the monster is hiding. But my guess? Atë is protecting it, keeping it away, maybe even away from this earthly realm.”
I filed that particular horror away for another time. “Is it true Atë can’t use the book without Lula and me?”
“Atë has never understood mercy. She had never seen the benefit in sharing the universes with something other than herself. She was rejected by the gods, her power refused a place in the spellbook. She wanted to be the only god who could touch it, who could use it. We wouldn’t let that happen.”
