Page 43 of Wayward Daughter

“Well, he’s having some pretty gnarly withdrawals at the moment, so I’m only getting bits and pieces.”

“How is he having withdrawals without a body?”

“It would take ages to explain demon physiology and drugs to you, so let me just say it’s possible, especially if he was hanging out with a blood witch. I managed to get that they are looking for someone in the Starfall Coven, so you might want to call Sasha and Ariel because I don’t know who that is or how it relates to you. I don’t know how long Pan will be gone. If he’s just going to learn a skill, he shouldn’t be gone long. If he wants revenge, he’ll be gone longer, though I can’t imagine he’d do that with everything going on.”

I wouldn’t deny him his revenge, but I hoped he came back to me. It felt like a part of me was missing, which was weird because he was a Hellhound.

Rainer was putting his phone away.

“I’ve already texted Sasha and Ariel. He’ll be back. The night I found you, Pan was standing guard. I could tell he was still a puppy and thought I was dead. When he realized we were kin, he told me where you were and what happened.

“I’m pretty sure the only reason he knew how to change into a regular dog the way he did was because the people who bought him refused to feed him until he figured it out. You might not remember, but he was emaciated when I found him. Damned near ate me out of house and home trying to get him to a healthy weight. If he wants revenge, he’s got it coming.”

“I know,” I whispered.

But a Hellhound could hurt another Hellhound and I didn’t know what this mysterious thing was Pan couldn’t figure out. I couldn’t fix this for him.

And if Pan got killed in Hell, I’d never know.

Ihad been joking about Logan’s uncle shooting her suitors because if I’d stayed in that room, I couldn’t control myself and she was looking at me like she’d let me. But Rainer was deadly serious when he warned Saul against going into her bedroom in his boxers if she wasn’t having a nightmare. The only reason I hadn’t as well is that Solomon never slept. He told me about her nightmares and that Saul was handling it.

I should be staying far away from that girl. She’d upended my entire life and beliefs, but I’d also be dead if it weren’t for her. Even if she hadn’t shown up at the house with a Hellhound and saved us then, Henry and William were still trying to kill us. And we never would have known that if it wasn’t for her.

I felt for her. She was upset Pan had gone. People had intense bonds with regular dogs. Pan could actually talk to her. The two of them bonded over their trauma and he protected her when they were both too young to be dealing with that kind of thing.

I had no desire to go to Hell. I’d spent decades of my life doing everything I could to avoid it. Pan saved my life, and he stayed with me when I was recovering from the hex breaking. If there had been a way for us to go to Hell to make sure Pan was safe, I wouldn’t even hesitate.

Logan was distracting herself by throwing herself into looking into what we could about the Yellow King. She was tense and kept randomly staring off into space. Even before we started working together, I thought she was formidable. I thought she was completely confused and worshiping the devil, but I could admire she was a strong woman. Pan was her weakness.

Sasha and Ariel breezed in shortly. I honestly never thought I’d be having a civil conversation with any witch, much less have any type of admiration for them, but I liked these two. Sasha wordlessly handed Solomon a purple gift bag with black paper.

“Um, thank you?” he said.

“You said you can’t sleep. Insomnia is tricky. To treat it, you have to get to know someone and figure out why they can’t sleep. I can easily rule out perimenopause, but I think in your case, you’ve got a big beautiful brain that doesn’t turn off very easily for you to get some rest.”

She was actually spot on. Solomon was tapped for his brilliance, not his brawn. He was better suited to lead Venatio Daemonum than Henry was. He spoke more languages, and he had no aspirations for Cardinal or Pope. Solomon just wanted to learn. They just wouldn’t take him seriously for any of that until he had a few more years behind him.

“That is true,” Solomon said, nodding his head in acknowledgement.

“I made you a few samples, but you’re probably going to want to combine them to see what works. Logan drinks my tea, but I gave you a different blend. There are some lavender oil blends to put on your pulse points and a candle. If you’d like some advice, put some of the oils on your pulse points, make a cup of tea, light the candle, and meditate however you need to. If that’s prayer, do that.”

That sounded completely normal. Even I knew lavender was supposed to help with sleep and you could buy tea at the supermarket that was supposed to help. I knew why she was helping Logan, but I would have thought these women would have just tolerated us because of our past. I could understand helping break my curse because I would have been a danger to Logan, but she was helping Solomon too.

“Thank you. Seriously, if I can ever return the favor, I’ll do anything.”

So would I.

“Rainer said you had witch questions?”

“You ever heard of Starfall Coven? We captured one of the demons and he mentioned it to Delilah.”

They both drew in a breath.

“What else did he say?”

“He’s detoxing off whatever he took, so he’s not making a ton of sense. All she managed to get was that they were looking for members of Starfall Coven. I still have no idea what that has to do with me and my mother since we aren’t witches.”

“You could be. Witchcraft isn’t a virus like being a shifter or vampire. We aren’t people who sold our souls, got tortured for a bit, and then turned into demons. Anyone in this room can be taught witchcraft. A lot of us are born into it, but if anyone wants to learn and isn’t an asshole, we’ll teach them. A lot of the people who go bad and start using blood magic weren’t raised in it. They started learning and got addicted.