Page 88 of Slayer

I tamp down my pride at his words. My mother has the small book that she took Cosmina’s address out of. Doug sets down his novel and leans close to her, looking over a page. He points to part of it. “He’s a good bloke. Messy. But should make a good ally. This is like a who’s who of the demons of Dublin. You found them all.”

“I’m good at my job.”

“What about Slayers? They could be a problem.”

“I know of at least a dozen we can get easy access to.” She points to another section of the book. “I can handle them.”

“What about Nina?” Doug asks. I freeze. “She’s not being exactly low profile. Far as I could figure, she’s told Cillian everything. Who else does she talk to?”

My mother shakes her head, her mouth a thin, sharp line. “I should have sent her away years ago, but I always hoped it wouldn’t come to this. I’ve worked for so long to avoid this mess. It was selfish of me to keep her.”

“Prophecies are tricky things.”

“So are daughters. But I’ll take care of it.”

I back up, horrified. My mother has a book full of demons and Slayers. She’s consulting with a demon on them. She has a plan for “handling” the Slayers, and one for taking care of me, whatever that means.

Doug mentioned a prophecy. I don’t have to wonder which one he was talking about. It has to be the same one I translated, the same one referenced in my father’s diary.

The prophecy is about me. About us.

My mother knows—and Doug the neon-yellow demon knows. I turn and run for the castle. Maybe her leaving me behind in the fire was about more than me being a Slayer. Maybe the prophecy is so bad, she risked my life to save Artemis. She would have known, as soon as I was identified as a Potential, that I’m the world breaker. I have demonic power in me, after all. And in spite of all her efforts, she couldn’t keep it from coming out.

I finally get why my mother has pushed me to the side all my life. She doesn’t just hate the Slayer in me. She’s afraid of me.

My eyes burning and streaming with tears, I rush through the castle, straight to our room to get the prophecy and bring it to Artemis. We’re two parts of one person, two parts of one foretold doom, and I can’t do this alone.

I almost trip over the body in the hall outside my door.

“It’s me!” Leo says, sitting up. I cover my mouth to muffle the scream that almost escaped. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

I take in a shaky breath. I don’t know where to begin, and I’m afraid that once I do, I’ll lose my grip completely. “I’m okay,” I lie. “Just tired. But what are you doing on the floor outside my room? I thought you were a dead body. And I am all dead-bodied out for the night. I don’t have another dead-body opening in my schedule for at least a week.”

It’s dim, the only light a bulb at the other end of the hall. But I can feel Leo smiling. I can hear it in his voice.

“I’ll do my best to clear your schedule of dead bodies, then. I’m sorry. I thought you were inside, asleep.”

“Weirdo.” I reach past him to open the door. But I’m secretly touched that Leo was worried enough to come guard me.

“Where’s Artemis?” He peers inside as I flip the light on.

“Sleeping in Jade’s room tonight. She’s still pissed at me.”

Leo hovers in the doorway. Seeing his hands jammed into his loose sweatpants pockets and his mouth twisted to the side is kind of adorable. He’s embarrassed and feeling awkward. I’m so fricking glad it’s not me for once that I’m instantly at ease and no longer feeling so desperate to get to Artemis right away. She didn’t want to talk about the prophecy before. I don’t know if that has changed. And I can’t handle another rejection if she refuses.

Doug’s camping and still being hunted. He’s not going anywhere. Neither is my mom. I’ll figure this out on my own. “Oh, come in,” I say. “It’s silly for you to be out on the floor. Besides, I’m a Slayer, remember? I don’t need a bodyguard.”

“And I’m your Watcher. It’s my job to protect you.”

“It’s your job to train and guide me. The protecting is my job.”

“Agree to disagree.” Leo finally steps into my room. His eyes take it all in, and I look at it as though for the first time. Artemis’s side of the room is tidy, weights stacked neatly next to demonic texts she’s been studying. A row of weapons hangs from a shelf above her bed.

My side of the room . . . less tidy. I have a bookshelf double-stacked and crammed with everything imaginable. CPR instruction manuals, anatomy books, first-year medical student texts I begged Cillian to buy me off eBay, my Redheads of Literature shelf. There’s the stack of the demon books I was looking through to find information on Doug. And there’s a huge pile of notebooks.

Ah, there’s the awkwardness I had been missing! I’m sure that Leo is eyeing the notebooks. Or am I just paranoid? “They’re notes. Not poetry! Anatomy. Health stuff. I watch a lot of medical tutorials and write down what I think will be useful. I also keep logs of stuff. So mostly it’s records of the Littles having a fever or a stomach bug. But Imogen takes good care of them, so even that’s not a lot.”

Leo nods. Then he looks up at the ceiling and his eyes widen. “Are those fan blades actual blades?”

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