Fear took hold as I envisioned this faceless being who wanted to steal my future from me. But why?
“We need to find this demon as soon as possible,” Uncle Gabriel put in. “It’s the only way to put a stop to whatever they’re planning.”
“Tegan and I will cast some location spells. If they’re as powerful as I suspect, then they might be actively glamouring their whereabouts, but it’s still worth a try,” Rita said.
“Good,” Dad replied, bringing his attention to me. I felt both his love and his anger at that moment. He was still mad at me for going missing today. “In the meantime, you are not to leave this house unescorted, do you hear me, Darya? It isn’t safe.”
“Yes, I hear you,” I said, eyes downcast as Grace came and threw her arm around my shoulders.
“I’ll keep her company. Is it okay if I stay over tonight, Aunt Tegan?” she asked, addressing my mother since she was the less scary option right now. It would take a while for my dad’s fury to die down.
“Of course. You two go on upstairs,” Mum replied, and I was grateful to get out of the kitchen and away from all the worry melded with disapproval and fear filling the room.
Grace had just closed the door to my bedroom when she turned to eye me. “Okay, spill. Why did you lie and tell your dad you were meeting me today? And don’t tell me you really went to the Market Below on your own. You get nervous about that place.”
“Fine, I didn’t go alone,” I whispered as quietly as I could because my father’s hearing was ridiculous.
“Who did you go with?” she whispered back, eyes curious and slightly annoyed that I’d kept something from her.
Walking to my desk, I grabbed a pen and paper and scribbled down the answer.
I went with Peter Girard.
Grace’s lips formed a thin, unhappy line. “Peter Girard! What the hell, Darya?!”
“Will you keep it down?!”
“Just tell me what on earth you’re doing hanging out with someone like him?”
“Oh, my God, you have no idea how loud you are,” I whisper-complained before quickly writing down a brief explanation of what happened at Indigo the other night. I knew Peter and I had agreed to keep it a secret, but I could trust Grace. She wouldn’t tell a soul so long as I got her to promise.
When she’d finished reading, she flopped down onto my bed. I could practically see her thoughts churning as she digested the information. My cousin tended to broadcast what she was thinking all over her face. Downstairs, I heard my parents leave, off to try and locate this mysterious demon who marked me. I planned to search for them, too, but since my parents had forbidden me from leaving the house, I’d have to get creative about it.
Grace sat up and studied me. “So, you can communicate with Peter whenever you want?”
I nodded.
Her eyes narrowed. “Are you communicating with him right now?”
“No, I haven’t heard from him since we parted ways outside the market.”
“I don’t like it. What if he secretly sabotaged the spell, and this was his intention all along?”
I frowned. That wasn’t an entirely unlikely scenario, but it just didn’t make sense to me. “What would be the point?”
“Um, to gain intimate access to your head and lure you into trusting him.”
“To what end?”
Grace rolled her eyes, her tone sarcastic. “Oh, I don’t know. Possibly because he harbours resentment towards our family just like his father does. The Girards have practically been second-class citizens ever since Peter’s great-uncle Marcel betrayed your parents. And with how talented Peter is, you know he’d be the most popular boy at school if it weren’t for his last name. Throw in a lifetime of being treated like an outsider, and you’ve got a pretty strong case for him hating you and wanting revenge.”
Goosebumps rose on my skin because Grace had a point. “But I don’t get any sense of that from him,” I argued. “He can be standoffish, but I don’t feel like he hates me.” Sometimes I even saw flickers of fondness.
“He could be a good actor, Darya. Seriously, don’t let your guard down. You have no idea what he might be up to.”
My stomach twisted at the idea of Peter plotting against me. Today it felt like we’d started to understand one another, become friends even, and I didn’t want to lose that. I only noticed Grace was staring at me when I heard her gasp. My eyes flicked to her in question.
She started to shake her head. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.”
“Didn’t see what sooner?”
She levelled me with a pointed look. “You like him. You fancy Peter!”
8.
Just like that, embarrassment and self-consciousness set in. I turned and fiddled with a pen on my desk. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”