She nodded sagely. “So the bottom line is that Father Donnelly and Eric’s parents weren’t expecting that Eric would be the kick-ass Demon Hunter. His child would.”
“Pretty much.”
She let that settle for a bit, then her eyes widened. “Is she—I mean, not to worry you, but Eric went a little off the rails.”
“I know. But it’s different,” I said firmly, as much to convince myself as her. “She locked the gate to hell. What’s inside her is there for good.”
“So she’s the happy ending, and Eric was the tumultuous third act.”
This time, it was my turn to gape. “Huh?”
“It’s Mindy,” she said dismissively. “Now that she’s in that musical, everything is about plays and movies and story structure. Last Friday, she spent dinner telling me about the story structure in the episode ofThe Simpsonswe’d just watched. Then she told me that Paul’s affair was the inciting incident in my romance with Cutter. What does that even mean?”
I bit back a laugh. “And I thought I was the one with problems.”
“Nah, I’d say we’re about even.”
“Thanks.”
Her brow furrowed. “For what?”
“For surprising me. Or really, for not surprising me. For acting the same way that I knew you would but was afraid you wouldn’t.”
“There’s a lot to unpack in that sentence, but I’m guessing you’re trying to say that you worried that I’d freak out, then tell you to get your daughter out of my house?”
I felt the tears prick my eyes, and my throat was thick as I said, “Yeah.”
“Oh, Kate. I love Allie, you know that. Like you said, she’s the same kid she always was. With more issues than most teens, but nothing we can’t handle. But on that same note,” she added with a mischievous grin, “I bought one of those tasers Rita used on Eric. If Allie gets out of hand, I’ll just give her a jolt.”
“And by out of hand, I assume you mean something more nefarious than leaving your best dishes scattered about.”
She shrugged. “Hey, whatever works.”
And you know what? She had a point.
“The demons are gearing up for something,” I said once I was back in the house with Timmy and Eddie. “They want Allie for some reason.”
“Harumph. She’s the same kid she’s always been. Nothing’s changed, right? Now you just know what’s inside her. But it’s always been there.”
We were in the living room, and I dropped down onto the couch, pulling a pillow up into my lap and hugging my knees to it. “I know. I know, I do. It’s just—well, you weren’t there. In Rome, I mean. There was a glow. This golden glow that covered everything after Allie locked the gate.”
His brow furrowed, and he squinted as he rubbed his straggly beard. “A glow? Or fire?”
It was a fair question. I didn’t know anything about the golden glow that had been in that crypt after Allie slapped her hand onto the dais and stopped the gates of Hell from opening. But I did know a little bit about Cardinal Fire.
Years ago, back when Eric and I were still hunting, we’d been on the trail of one of the most vile High Demons out there—Abaddon. We were the only two surviving members of the team of Hunters that had gone into a series of caverns beneath the streets of Rome. We’d found Abaddon, and we’d been trapped. We’d managed to escape through the use of Cardinal Fire, mystical fire that could cleanse away and destroy demons.
It hadn’t destroyed Abaddon that day—he’d managed to escape back into the bowels of the earth, the fire not touching him. But it did touch Eric, and in doing so, it eradicated the mystical bond that kept the demon inside him buried deep. Another round of Cardinal Fire would have probably killed bothhim and the demon. But there was no more, and we were able to escape, none the wiser at the time.
I only recently learned about the demon that had been hidden in my first husband, then loosed within him that day. The demonic presence affected him, all the way down to a cellular level, and he passed that essence to his daughter.
And because of that heritage, she’d been able to shut the gate in Rome.
That, of course, was a very good thing.
But there’s no escaping the fact that the source of her power is demonic, and I don’t know what that means. For that matter, I don’t even know if shehasspecial powers. Sure, she’s faster and stronger, but she really has been training. And, yes, she shut the gate. But for all I know that was a one-time thing. Handy in the moment, but not a useful trick most days. (And thank God for that! I have plenty to do without gates to hell popping up all over creation.)
So maybe Eddie was right. Unless the golden glow changed her, she’s the same sweet kid she’s always been. Even if it did change her, it wouldn’t necessarily be for the bad. She kept the demons at bay, after all. All of which made me feel like a horrible mother to even consider the possibility that there was something dark growing inside her.
