As if that had summoned him, half the garage suddenly turned into blackest darkness, and a ghostly boat sailed over a river that morphed out of nowhere. Ian screamed when he saw the figure at the boat’s helm, his pale skin turning dead white.

“It’s all right!” I said quickly. “He’s not here for you. He’s here for them.”

Ian’s gaze swung back toward me with a mixture of horror and disbelief. “The bloody Grim Reaper is your father?”

“What you’re seeing isn’t what he really looks like. On this side of the veil, you see what you fear.”

“I see an enormous cloaked skeleton wielding a huge scythe,” Ian said promptly. “That’s not what you see?”

I looked at my father, seeing a tall man with silver, gold, and blue hair; strikingly beautiful features; and deep bronze skin. The Warden’s true form was so similar to my real appearance, I had to constantly wear the glamoured disguise of a slim blonde Law Guardian to avoid being recognized as his child.

“No, that’s not what I see,” I said, meeting my father’s lightninglike gaze before I looked away. Then I gestured to Ian’s former guards. “Your offering, Warden.”

My father extended his hand and ghostly visages rose up from the corpses before they were compelled into his boat. None went happily. They all screamed much the way Ian had when he saw my father. The only one who wasn’t afraid was the Simargl. He pressed against the bars of his cage as much as his chains allowed, making noises that were similar to happy yips. My father looked at him and gave him the barest nod—the highest form of approval I’d ever seen from him.

“You will care for him,” he told me. A command, not a request. “His prior owner treated him in an unworthy manner. I will inform him of the change.”

I didn’t mind the order. I’d already decided to do that anyway. But I was surprised by that last part. “You know who his former owner is?”

For the second time, I was sure I’d amused my father even though his expression didn’t change. “Yes. It is Dagon, and he was just leaving.”

Ian and I turned around at the same moment. I couldn’t see my expression but it was probably as shocked as Ian’s when I saw that Dagon had, at some point, materialized behind us.

Chapter 24

I hadn’t seen Dagon in over four thousand years. The demon looked exactly the way I’d remembered: tall, blond, boyishly handsome and with a little smirk that rarely faded no matter what atrocities he was inflicting. That smirk grew when he saw Ian, then dropped entirely when he looked at me. Dammit. I hadn’t taken the time to reapply my glamour so Dagon would only see the Law Guardian appearance I’d been hiding under.

“You,” he said in astonishment. “I thought by now you had to be dead!”

I’d had countless dreams about what would happen when I finally faced Dagon again. The details varied, but they all ended with me stabbing demon bone through his eyes to send him to the fate he so richly deserved. Now, I was caught off guard and unprepared, but I couldn’t let him see how rattled I was.

“You of all people should know how hard I am to kill.”

Hatred dripped from every syllable. Dagon’s smirk returned when he heard it. I fought not to tremble from a mixture of blind rage and remembered despair. Time was supposed to lessen the intensity of all things, yet in that moment, I hated and feared Dagon just as much as I had all those millennia ago, when I’d been nothing more than his favorite prop.

He wagged a finger at me in the playful way people did when they caught a child being naughty. “You must be the troublemaker who divested me of my latest soul acquisition. Very clever of you to mute the tether in Ian’s brands, but now, it’s time for me to take him back.”

I moved in front of Ian before either he or Dagon had a chance to twitch. “He’s not going anywhere with you.”

Dagon’s face darkened like a sky full of deadly weather. “Isn’t he? You should remember what happens to people who upset me.”

“Is that a threat?” My father asked the question in the mildest tone. Dagon still stiffened as if he’d been slapped.

“Of course not, my lord,” he said, laughing as if we’d all shared a joke. “That would violate our agreement.”

“It would, so you may leave now,” the Warden of the Gateway to the Netherworlds replied. Again, it wasn’t a suggestion.

Dagon smiled at my father but gave me and Ian a look that promised bloody vengeance. Then, he disappeared.

My father didn’t look at me, but I knew he would make sure Dagon didn’t pop back up to murder us anytime soon. He might not care for me in the way that mortals cared for their children, but he wouldn’t tolerate one of his commands being broken only hours after giving it. That, I could count on.

Of course, that command went both ways. Long ago, my father had commanded me never to kill Dagon. I fully intended to go back on that order. And Dagon might not try to kill me today, but he would absolutely start plotting my murder now that he knew I was still alive. When it came to our hatred of each other, neither of us was rational or obedient.

My father didn’t look at me when he left. He simply turned that boat full of screaming spectral passengers around and sailed back into the unfathomable darkness he’d appeared from. Then that darkness vanished, replaced by the blandness of the garage with the smashed cars and the bodies strewn around it.

I went over to the Simargl’s cage and broke it, then unwound him from all the chains around him. As soon as the Simargl was free, he started flying around me in happy circles.

“I’m going to call you Silver,” I told him. “Do you like that?” An enthusiastic yip was my answer. Silver it was, then.

I looked at Ian. He still hadn’t moved except for his eyes. They raked over me, the body-filled room, and the area where my father had appeared and disappeared. His face was no longer as pale as fresh snow, but his jaw was set so tight, I could hear the cartilage cracking from the strain. The silent tension grew until I couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to be okay with this. The vampire race defaults to rejecting people who are a combination of different species.” I let out a sharp laugh. “I should know; I’ve tried and failed to stop the hostilities that have boiled over between vampires and ghouls when ‘abominations’ like me are discovered.”

Ian might have been against Katie’s execution, but there was a world of difference between not wanting your friend’s child to be murdered and continuing to partner with someone who was half vampire and half of a species that couldn’t easily be named. Worse, my powers were everything vampires and ghouls feared when they talked about the perils of mixing different species together.

“It’s fine,” I went on. “All I ask is that you don’t reveal what you know about me to anyone else.”

Tenoch would’ve killed him to ensure his silence. Once, I would’ve, too. At some point during the short amount of time we’d spent together, I’d started to care for Ian. That was supremely stupid of me, but it was still true.

“We’ll go our separate ways,” I continued more briskly. “Dagon still can’t find you with your brands muted, so you’ll be fine if you keep yourself hidden. I still intend to take him down, so you’ll really be fine once he’s dead.”