“Careful,” I warned, sliding the grimoire away from him.
“Are you absolutely sure it’s the same amulet?” she asked. “That’s a complicated array. Maybe Tahēsh was carrying something similar.”
“I did not see the other side. Maybe it is a different imailatē, but what I saw was this.” He poked at the drawing again, more gently this time.
“Assuming Tahēsh had this amulet,” I said, “how’d he get it?”
“He was Dīnen of the First House.” Zylas brooded silently. “He was oldest of all male demons except Ivaknen. He knew much secret knowledge.”
Tahēsh’s superior knowledge was the reason Zylas had freed the powerful demon from his inescapable summoning circle. Zylas had hoped Tahēsh would know a way to get home without a soul.
“The First House is strongest,” Zylas continued. “They have many treasures. They take things of power from other Houses.”
“Do you think the First House stole the amulet from the Twelfth House?”
“Var. We are too weak to protect anything.”
“You’re not weak,” I told him firmly. “You made them fear your House, remember?”
He flexed his fingers, unsheathing his claws. “I did this, yes, but it is too late.”
“Too late?”
“I am oldest of my House. All others are younger and nailēris. I cannot help my House be stronger anymore.”
Amalia looked at the demon with surprise. She’d never seen Zylas’s regal side before.
“You can help them again,” I reassured him. “We’ll find a way to send you home. I promised, remember?”
“But I will not return as Dīnen.” He straightened out of his slouch. “The imailatē is important, na? Should we find it?”
“Sure,” Amalia said dryly. “That won’t be difficult.”
“It’s less impossible now than if it’d been lost for millennia,” I pointed out. “But is it worth the effort to find?”
“The ‘key to everything’ is pretty vague.” Amalia drew the grimoire closer. “This array has elements of summoning Arcana in it. Maybe it’s the very first infernus—the one Anthea created for the first demon ever summoned. That would make it … well, not a key, but the infernus that started it all.”
“But what about this other stuff?” I gestured to several tangles of lines and runes. “I’ve never seen Arcana like that before.”
“Me neither. And this bit here doesn’t even resemble Arcana.”
“It is demon imailatē.” Zylas leaned over the book too, our heads almost touching. “I do not know its purpose, but it is the vīsh of my kind.”
“There are a few demonic runes used in summoning,” Amalia said, “but nothing like that. Is it even possible to blend Arcana and demonic magic like that?”
Yes, it definitely was, but I hadn’t told Amalia about my experiences combining magic with Zylas. It was just too weird.
“So, the array incorporates summoning Arcana, demon magic, and something else.” I puffed out a breath. “In other words, we have no idea what the amulet is, what it can do, where it came from, or where it is.”
“But we know Tahēsh had it last,” Amalia mused. “The MPD took the demon’s body, right?”
I nodded glumly. “If MagiPol has the amulet …”
“I tore off his head.”
I cringed at the memory before realizing what Zylas was getting at. “You think the amulet might’ve fallen off? It could still be in the park where he died, then.”
“Unless some random person found it and carried it off,” Amalia countered. “But chances are an object like that would end up back in mythic hands pretty fast. Maybe someone has been asking around about a weird infernus-type thing.”
Perching on a stool, I pushed my glasses up my nose. “Our priority is the grimoire—translating it to see if there’s a way to get Zylas home. Plus, Claude stole pages we need to get back. That said, I don’t think we should ignore this amulet either. If it really is the ‘key to everything’ …”
I looked from Amalia’s sharp gray eyes to Zylas’s crimson stare. “If it’s important, we need to find the amulet before it’s lost for good.”
I tugged my jacket tighter against the icy breeze. Mid-January was never a pleasant time of year, and not the season to be standing in an open field in the dark.
Zylas rose out of a crouch, his silhouette bulkier than usual. A baggy black sweater hung off him, the hood hiding his horns and the hem falling low enough to conceal his tail if he looped it around his waist. With the simple disguise, we’d only had to wait for darkness to search the park and not the dead of night when no one would be around.
Still, I fidgeted nervously as he cast back and forth across the winter grass, searching for a sign of the amulet. Our last visit to this park felt like a bizarre dream—Zylas carrying me on his back as he’d raced down empty streets; Tahēsh in battle with a strange collection of people; the short but violent fight that had followed.
Strips of churned dirt and dead grass marked the spot where a black van had peeled out of the park. The vehicle had belonged to two demon contractors and their champion. At the time, I’d had no idea who they were, but I’d since learned they were demon hunters who’d joined the hunt for Tahēsh.
“Nothing.” Zylas glided across the grass toward me, his eyes glowing from beneath his hood. “It is not here.”
“Are you sure?”
“Var. Not here.”
I sighed, unsurprised. It’d been a long shot. “We—”
My cell buzzed with an incoming call. I pulled it out and lifted it to my ear. “Hello?”
“Did you find it?” Amalia asked without preamble.
“No.”
“Damn. I haven’t learned anything either. No one is trying to sell it that I can tell. But I remembered something.”
“What?”
“There’s this guy my dad worked with—a summoner. Dad always described him as ‘cutting edge,’ but I think that really meant this dude liked to experiment. MagiPol was breathing down his neck, so he retired to get them off his back. Dad always used the guy as an example of how MPD attention could ruin a summoner’s career.”
“Okay,” I said slowly.
“But this guy, he also makes infernus artifacts. He’s sort of an infernus expert, I think? If someone found an ancient infernus, they’d probably ask this guy for information.”
Hope sparked. “Where is he now?”
“In Vancouver somewhere. I’ll call Dad and find out.”
“Good idea.”
“Finding the amulet is only half the problem, though.” She lowered her voice. “I don’t think you should just hand over the ‘key to everything’ to a demon until we know what it does.”
I glanced at Zylas. “He can hear you.”
She muttered a curse. “You should come home and start translating. The grimoire is our best source of information.”
“I’ll be home soon. We’re making one stop first.”