Page 34 of An Invocation of Monsters

“I see you’ve done your research,” he said, leaning towards me. There was a feverish light in his eyes. “Or perhaps… you have already seen the Door?”

“Joseph,” Mary cut in sharply.

There was another silence. Kase was staring determinedly at his plate.

Mary put her empty glass down.

“There’s a way we go about things here,” she repeated. “Revelations of this nature are best made outdoors, where we are one with the greater universe, and not at the dinner table.”

Kase cleared his throat. “She did… cross…”

I was utterly bewildered by the sensation of hostility flowing through the room. Why invite me, or tell me about their little secret society of weirdos, if they were just going to try to shut me out?

“Dinner is adjourned,” Mary snapped. “We will discuss this by night a day hence, outdoors beneath the full moon, as has always been our prerogative. The rest of you know this. Just because we’ve lost Gillian doesn’t mean we have to let all of our ways fall apart!”

Willow shrank a little under her glare, and Mary got up, striding away from the table.

I was beginning to think I’d counted my chickens before they’d hatched. I’d thought they’d want to tell me about the Society—after all, they’d gone out of their way to appear at my mother’s funeral and give me the letter.

But I’d assumed Mary was truly sick.

Maybe she was fine. Maybe she was busy with something and being sick was an excuse. I’d probably jumped to conclusions about their eagerness to invite a new member into the fold.

Either way, I’d managed to completely mess up my first attempt at learning more.

“I didn’t mean to offend,” I offered. “I’m happy to wait until the right time.”

Joseph just shook his head. “She’s right, and we’re all just eager to have a new initiate in our midst. Mary hasn’t been feeling well, and I’m sorry to say I plowed right over her feelings with that. She’s a purist for our traditions.” He let out a forced laugh. “But times change. She’s got to catch up with them.”

I did the smile-and-nod that was starting to become a little too easy to fake, knowing that Joseph likely didn’t give two fucks about her feelings.

It bothered me that I couldn’t tell which of the two founders possessed more power here. They didn’t seem to be on entirely equal footing, and yet the power dynamic seemed to shift between them.

Willow slipped away, Kase not far behind, and I grabbed my plate before Joseph stopped me. “Oh no, dear. Tater will take care of it.”

“It’s alright. I’m hoping to snitch some wine for the road.” I held up my empty glass with a faux hearty wink, but my stomach shriveled a little when Joseph’s dry, papery hand landed on my bare shoulder.

“Red?” he asked with a chuckle. “Gigi did always love Merlot. You’re so much alike in some ways, it’s like… seeing the past replay itself.”

I wanted to tell him to stop referring to my mother as Gigi, but that would give away that I’d read his letters.

Instead, I tried to force my stomach to stop churning as he groped my shoulder, and managed to gracefully extricate myself.

“Good night, Joseph. I’m looking forward to the next time we’re all together.”

He raised a hand in farewell, and I was very careful to not book it to the kitchen and give away my disgust.

God, the last thing I wanted was an old man who thought I was my mother reincarnated groping at me.

I was blasted with techno when I opened the kitchen door, and stopped in my tracks as it swung shut behind me.

Tater was alone in there, of course. But he had a massive silver tray set on the floor, with an enormous quantity of food beautifully arranged on it.

As I watched, he carefully drizzled some sort of sauce over a massive slab of prime rib, and then… shoved the entire tray into the dark space under the kitchen island.

He looked up at me, his eyes dark and surprised at the sight of a person in his domain.

“What… are you doing?” I asked. That tray of food could’ve easily fed twenty people. Why was he shoving an entire feast under the island?

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