Page 9 of Mending Mayhem

“If all the pieces are there, he can reform.” Chaos eyed the floor where his brother had lain. “You’ll need the debris as well.” He pointed at a few pea-sized shards lying on the wood in a pile of bone granules.

“I’ll get the dustpan.” Ash turned on her heel and stepped through the door.

“Who would do this? Nobody knew he was here.” I kneeled on the floor and picked up the tiny bits, adding them to the box. “And how will we know if all the pieces are here? I won’t chance possessing myself if we can’t exorcize him.”

“Exorcizing him won’t be a problem.” Ash swept the granules into the dustpan and emptied them into the box. “But if his skull isn’t complete, he’ll look for another host. He tried to possess you when we exorcized him from Chrys.”

“I thought he was in a containment circle.” I stood and carried the box to the living room.

“It cracked.” Ash followed. “His smoke poured through and circled above you before we vanquished him.”

“Why am I just now hearing about this?” I set what was left of Mayhem on the coffee table and plopped into my favorite chair. Normally, news like that would have me reeling. Now…it seemed like par for the course.

Chaos shrugged. “It’s not important. Do you have all the pieces?”

Not important that a demon prince tried to possess me, and it never crossed their minds to tell me. In the grand scheme of things, I supposed it wasn’t. Not anymore.

The door swung open, and Shade stepped through. “The basement seems fine.”

Miles followed. “It’s hard to say if anything is missing, but nothing appears out of place. Whoa. Is that…?”

“It’s Mayhem. Can you get the superglue?” I sat cross-legged on the floor and grabbed the two biggest pieces, turning them until they fit together. “It’s arts and crafts time.”

“Here.” Miles set the glue on the table and joined me on the floor. “What happened?”

“That’s the million-dollar question.” I applied a thin strip of adhesive to one of the pieces and pressed them together, counting to fifteen for it to set before picking up another piece.

“Someone was obviously looking for something.” Ash sat across from me and helped rebuild the skull.

“Yeah, but what?” I found another piece that fit. “If they were here to destroy the skull, it was in plain view in my room. They wouldn’t have gone through my dresser.”

“It has to be the amulet.” Ash handed me a triangular piece to add to the cranium. “Maybe one of Chrys’s followers knew about it.”

“How would they know it was here?” Shade grabbed a protein bar from the pantry and shoved the whole thing into his mouth. “They’d look for it at Chrys’s,” he mumbled around the food.

“They could have scried for it.” Miles tried a tiny shard in the hole on top of the cranium, but it didn’t fit. “Maybe they went to her place first. Who knows?”

“Wait.” I handed the partially assembled skull to Miles and grabbed my phone. “Patrice said Chrys’s mom knew about our break-in. Maybe she…” I swiped open the screen and read the message I’d ignored. Oof.

“Someone went in after us.” I swallowed the bile from the back of my mouth. “A human was murdered…gutted. A cat too.”

“Oh crap.” Ash set the piece of skull she was gluing on the table. “Livers?”

“She didn’t say. They turned Chrys’s apartment upside-down, though.” I dialed Patrice’s number and put it on speaker. She answered on the fourth ring.

“What else did Ivy tell you?” I asked.

“Hold on.” Rustling sounded through the phone, followed by a door clicking shut. “Just what I told you. Did one of your demons…?”

“No.” I shook my head adamantly, though she couldn’t see my rejection of the idea. “Mayhem broke down the wrong door, but no one was home. And we unraveled the ward, but we found what we were looking for at Chrys’s without tearing the place apart.”

“What were you looking for?”

“She had a piece of an amulet that gave her more power.” Ash glued another shard of skull. “It’s how she got so strong.”

“Oh,” Patrice said. “That makes sense, I guess. But you have it now?”

“It’s in a safe place where no one will find it.” I plucked the missing cranial fragment from the box and handed it to Miles. “We have to find the rest of it before we can summon Discord.”

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