Page 54 of Grave Mistakes
“Well, she can clearly see through wards if she’s staring at Alder that way. What Ring is she?” Flint the banjo player asks, and I can’t help but bristle.
“Um…I’m right here, you can just ask me,” I point out, and the shock he’s still wearing on his face morphs into smooth, confident features. I can practically feel the charisma suddenly radiating off of him.
“True, true, darlin’,” he drawls, giving Matthew McConaughey’s twang a run for its money in terms of hotness. I tamp down the shudder that wants to crawl up my spine as I try not to drool. Marble McConaughey is real easy on the eyesandears.
“So what Ring are ya?” he asks again, but although his question is innocent, his eyes are banked with heat and locked on me intensely.
“No idea,” I admit on a shrug.
My answer seems to snap him out of whatever deviant trance I suspect he was just trying to put me under, and he looks over at Iceman with confusion. “What’s this, now?”
“That’s been part of our issue, Flint,” Iceman starts. “She didn’t know she was a demon. We sprung that on her in addition to trying to appoint her as a new Gate Guardian.”
Flint whistles and his eyebrows shoot up.
“But how did she not know?” the flower dude, who’s apparently named Alder, asks. His voice is rich and smooth like it’s a thousand-year-old bottle of priceless wine that’s pouring from his lips.
“We aren’t sure. There was some sort of block on her. We think it has something to do with the scythe. It showed up the first night she worked, and since then, she was able to see through wards and detect demons. None of us know how,” Jerif offers.
All eyes turn to the weapon clutched in my suddenly sweaty palm, and I try not to fidget at the intense attention.
“You know what this could mean right?” Alder states.
“Yeah, we’re all on the same page, but there’s no way to know for sure unless we take her to the Vestibule and test her at the doors,” Crux explains.
“So what are you waiting for?” Flint demands, equal parts excitement and irritation. “Someone tried to hide her, and yet here she is...and withthat,” he announces gesturing to the scythe. “This could be the answer that all of us have been waiting for!”
“Hold up,” Echo juts in, his shadows shifting over his pale arms. “She’sours. She came to our Gate, and that’s that.”
“If she’s a true Gatekeeper, then you might not have a say in the matter,” Flint replies, his marbleized face growing stony in expression. “She could beallof ours. All the Gates need to be fixed. Not just yours.”
I’m suddenly looking at two sides of demons who look like they’re about to face off with each other—my four Hellgate guards against Flint and Alder. The aggression in the room hikes up to uncomfortable levels, and there’s not a drop of bromance to be found in the room anymore. Meanwhile, I’m still trying to figure out what a Vespa-tool is, or whatever it is that Crux just said.
“What the hell just happened?” I ask, stepping between the two sides and holding my scythe like I mean business as the demons growl at each other.
“If you won’t take her to Hell, then we will,” Flint shouts over me.
“We already did, you poacher. She freaked out,” Jerif yells back.
“Hey!” I interject. “I did notfreakout in Hell,” I argue, turning to Jerif. He just rolls his eyes at me. “I kept it together until we were backand thenI freaked out,” I clarify, like it makes a difference.
“That’s what got us into this mess in the first place. She wasn’t ready,” Iceman defends, but Alder and Flint still look dubious. I’m a little worried that they might just make a grab for me. If that’s the case, putting myself between my demons and these two probably wasn’t the best plan of action.
I open my mouth to try to talk everyone down from the freak out ledge, but suddenly, an alarm of wrongness chimes in my soul. Instantly, I feel all kinds of weird and icky.
I swallow as I try to work through what the hell just happened, looking at my guys with concern. Flint and Alder both curse and start to push their way out of the office. One minute, everyone was looking like they were ready to brawl, and now, each of them looks like they’re preparing for an attack and ready to fight together.
Everyone rushes out of the office, leaving me behind, a statue of wary confusion. When Iceman notices I’m not with them, he comes rushing back in, just to stare at me like he’s not sure what to do.
“What the hell is going on?” I ask after a beat as more and more worry bubbles up in my chest. I rub at my breast bone, not liking the feel of the alarm crawling up my esophagus.
“Did you feel it?” Iceman asks me, his eyes moving from my hand at my chest up to my eyes. He looks surprised. “Their Gate is being breached. It happens all the time. It’s nothing to worry about,” he tells me.
“Then why the hell do you look so worried?” I challenge.
Iceman hesitates for a moment and then sighs. “Because we’re about to fight whatever it is that’s trying to come through the Gate, and I’m worried about how that will affectyou. I would just tell you to wait here, but I don’t trust that some demon from the bar wouldn’t try to pull something while we were distracted.”
I swallow. “Oh.”
