Ink & Fire: (A Havenwood Falls Novella)

Lucas touches the notebook. “We’re talking about an archdemon who has had a very long time to build a grudge and make plans. I’m sure he has multiple agendas.” Picking up one of the pencils, he taps it against the sheet. “Will you write for me again, Harper?”

My blood runs cold. “Lucas . . .”

Coming up behind me, he cages me in with his arms, the pencil in his fingers goading me. “Trust me. Write. Except this time, I want you to think about a name. Meri. She’s a demon of fate in the underworld and an old friend.”

“An ex-lover?” I ask, immediately kicking myself for the question and the terse way it comes out.

Lucas’s head lowers, his mouth near my ear. “Jealous?” He sounds amused.

“No.”

His breath whispers against my skin. “Not an ex-lover. I’ve dabbled with demons, but not this one. She’s too prickly.” He chuckles. “No one wants to tangle with a demon of fate.” Holding out the pencil, he offers it to me. “Meri. Think about her name and ask her about Lucas and Leviathan.”

When I don’t move, he cups my shoulder with his hand. “Open yourself up, Harper. Take back control of your power.”

My back stiffens.

Out of everything he could have said, this is what pushes me forward. Because there’s nothing I want more than control over something I’ve been robbed of.

“Are you sure about this?” Eloise asks. She sounds nervous, and that settles it.

She’s been robbed, too.

Meri’s name echoing through my head, I take the pencil. Leviathan, I think. Lucas.

The response is immediate.

My hand swerves onto the notebook, the lines that appear surprisingly flowery and feminine.

Well, if it isn’t the golden boy himself. Hello, honey.

As crazy as it sounds, joy races through me, the feeling replacing the horrible fatigue I felt when Levi forced my hand. This is what I’m supposed to do. This is what Eloise does for others, channeling spirits and the deceased for her customers. I may be channeling a demon, but I feel in control. Me. In control. I hope, anyway, and if I’m not, I don’t want to know, because this feels good.

Lucas snorts. “Give me the rundown, Meri,” he demands aloud.

My hand scribbles. No sweet nothings? No, “It’s been a long time and I miss you, Meri?”

“I want answers,” Lucas replies.

The pencil pauses, and then, You imprison an archdemon with little more than a symbol of water and you expect that to hold?

Lucas’s hand fists on the table. “That was before my fall. I’ve learned a lot about your world since then. Firsthand. Even so, the symbol was strong enough.”

I swear I hear Meri laugh in my head. You are so cute, angel. The symbol has crumbled. The only thing keeping him there now is weakness. It only takes two things for a demon like him to rise.

“Blood and energy,” Lucas murmurs.

If you know, why contact me?

“Don’t play games with me, Meri. He has secrets, and you’re in a position to know that. You owe me. Remember those souls you let escape into—”

My elbow shoots out, catching Lucas just under the ribs. He grins.

The pencil scratches. I’m disappointed in you. Why bring up old wounds?

“The information, Meri,” Lucas prompts.

Look to your psychic. Levi has been planning this since her birth. He has allies. Do you not feel the woman? Curses. Black magic. Blood. Power. Now, our debt is repaid. Leave me.

I lose my grip on the pencil, and it falls onto the table, bouncing off of the notebook before rolling onto the floor. My body sags in the chair.

Eloise slides a steaming cup of tea in front of me. “Green tea with ginseng.” She’d been busy while I was transcribing. “For energy. Sessions take a lot out of the messenger. I’m proud of you, Harper.”

Tears threaten to choke me.

Lucas tugs the notebook toward him. “Tell me about your parents again,” he says.

Eloise answers for me. “There isn’t much to know. A psychic and a mortal fell in love, fought for years to have a baby together, and then went to a black arts practitioner for help when the Court refused to do dark magic to save the child. Surely, you don’t need it said aloud when you can hear it in our thoughts.”

He glances at me. “I can’t hear it in hers. There is nothing except silence in Harper’s head.”

Eloise looks at me. I sip the tea.

“I think we need to try this again,” Lucas suggests.

Eloise recoils. “What? Do you know what channeling does to a person?”

“Unless I’m missing my guess, it just gave your niece a second wind.”

He’s right. Unlike the times I’d been controlled in the past and unlike the times Levi had used me, this felt different. Empowering. I sag in the chair not because I’m tired, but because I’m relieved.

Is it because I called on the demon rather than the demon calling on me?

“Harper?” Aunt Eloise asks.

“He’s right,” I admit. “I feel stronger.”

Confusion eats at Eloise’s face, leaving gnawed lines of concentration. “You should feel weaker.”

Lucas leans toward me, completely focused on my face. “I think you need to try channeling your mother.”

I don’t know if the whimper that echoes through the room is mine or Eloise’s.





Chapter 10





“You can’t be serious,” Eloise cries. “No. Absolutely not.”

I’m frozen.

I never knew my mother. She is a myth, this idea I’ve built up like a wall inside of my head.

She is memories I created for myself from nothing. She is warm arms that never actually held me. She is brave words I never got a chance to hear. She is loud, angry lectures I never got the chance to endure.

Memories built out of imagination.

Okay, I tell myself. Because giving myself permission first somehow makes it easier to say it out loud.

“Why would you even ask this of her?” Eloise cries. Her question opens into a long string of rants, protests, and objections, and even though I hear what she’s saying, it’s like white noise behind louder thoughts. I’m focused on only one word.

“Okay.” My voice isn’t loud when I say it, but it has the power to quiet the room.

After a long moment of silence, Eloise reaches for me, aghast. “Harper, you don’t have to do this. It’s not the same, channeling family. It’s,” she closes her eyes, and then opens them again, “It’s just not the same. You have no idea.”

The thing is, I’ve already given myself permission to be okay with this. Because, in the grander scheme of things, my feelings are small compared to the knowledge we need.

My head rises, my eyes finding the angel looming above me. “Okay.”

Lucas smiles. “Okay,” he replies. He touches my face, and I’m prepared for him to back away, my mind and body primed to turn to the table and face my fears, when he suddenly slides his hand into my hair, startling me. His eyes darken, his fingers tangling with the strands. Lifting my face, he lowers his head, takes a moment to search my gaze, and then kisses me. Deeply. Briefly.

He tastes like spring feels.

“For being brave,” he says when he pulls back.

The kiss stuns my aunt into silence. In truth, it does the same for me, not because I don’t know what it’s like to kiss Lucas, but because I sense something in the way he kissed me. Understanding, maybe?

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