Page 58 of Grimoire Omens

All of them had questions, especially given my outfit, but a pizza parlor was hardly the place to talk. Once in the car, I put them off, saying, “I want to first hear what happened after I left.”

Apparently, I’d dropped my phone in a spot close enough to Ulseere that he could answer the next time Flo called, which turned out to be like seconds after I went through the portal. She quickly—AKA drove like a demon out of hell according to Cedric—and arrived on the rooftop to find Ulseere alive but unconscious.

“Hold on a second,” I interrupted. “You climbed up those zillion stairs… Then what? Dragged Ulseere back down?” The math on that didn’t work since Flo was built smaller than me and hated exercise almost as much.

Flo grinned. “I couldn’t have done it without Cedric’s help. He cast some kind of spell that made me strong enough to not just sprint up those stairs but fireman-carry Ulseere to the car.”

My gaze went to the cat. “Since when can you wield magic?”

“Technically, I always could. However, when I was tethered to the Grimoire, my ability was restricted to aiding whichever witch owned it. With the book destroyed, I’m no longer a slave to anyone’s whims but my own.”

My brow remained creased. “If the curse is gone, how come you’re still a cat?”

“Because the morph into this feline form comes from a different curse,” he muttered. “Now that you’re safely returned, I’ll be working on removing it.”

“I told him I’d help,” Flo piped in.

“As will I,” I hastened to add. Gotta admit, I wondered what a dryad looked like.

The story didn’t have much to tell after that. Ulseere refused the offer to take him to a hospital and recovered from his electrocution. They’d spent the days I’d been gone trying to find a way to open a doorway to Infernal to find me.

“Ah, you guys were going to rescue me?” I choked a little.

“Duh.” I saw Flo’s eyes rolling in the rearview mirror. As for Ulseere, he clasped my hand in his. “I’m sorry you had to deal with Gryvak alone.”

“Yeah. Not my idea of a fun time,” I grimaced.

“Your turn,” Flo chirped as she pulled into my driveway.

“After I eat. I am crazy hungry.”

Once inside my house, I collapsed on the couch, the skirt of my dress flouncing and the fabric crushing. Didn’t care. I never planned to wear it again. I reached for the pizza, and my friends sat staring at me in silence as I groaned and moaned my way through four slices. Don’t judge. It had been a tough week.

Only as I leaned back with a sigh, and wished I knew how to loosen the bodice on the damned dress, did Flo finally murmur, “You going to tell us what happened?”

I spilled about everything. Gryvak and his kidnapping—with much emphasis on the shitty food in an obvious attempt to torture me with starvation. My time in the basement cell—omitting the trauma of pooping in a hole and using my undies to wipe. I finished with the whopper of a meeting with the king, the revelation he was my father, Gryvak’s literal backstabbing, my flaming temper tantrum, and my return home.

By the time I finished, and reached for another breadstick, they all sat there dumbstruck.

Ulseere cleared his throat. “Urieus was your father.”

“Yup.”

“And he claims your mother denied knowing how they got to that beach?” Cedric murmured.

“Yeah.” I eyed the cat. “What do I get the impression you know something?”

“Remember how I told you that page to open a doorway disappeared from the book around the time you were conceived? I think your mother took it.”

“And cast it?” I scoffed. “Doubtful. Grams had her magic all tied up, remember? Not to mention, she ended up on a beach with my dad, not in Infernal.”

“Because that spell is for opening doors to any dimensions so long as you have a small piece of it to work with. Even a grain of sand would be enough.”

“I didn’t need anything to open a portal to Infernal,” I replied, remembering how easy it had been on the roof.

“You had yourself. Your flesh is of two worlds, thus it makes sense you could get to either.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense. But still doesn’t explain how my mom got around Grams leeching her magic or how my dad got to the beach.”