Page 14 of The Girl Who Inherits the Dead

To that, at least, Delina can nod.

“We’ll drive into town tomorrow,” Gurlien declares, “get the picture, then make a plan.”

“Wait, isn’t Shutze Freddy’s mom’s maiden name?” Chloe asks, tilting her head. “Or was it Schmidt?”

“Schmidt,” Gurlien quickly replies, “but if it’s Frederick, we’re fucked, unless…” He snaps his attention onto Delina. “Did you sleep with your boyfriend?”

Delina and Chloe lock eyes.

“I’ve lived with him for five years,” Delina says.

“That’s immaterial,” Gurlien says.

“Gurlien, she’s saying yes,” Chloe murmurs. “Subtext.”

He shrugs that off, scowling. “I hope it’s Devin,” he says instead. “You can easily overpower Devin.”

“Can one of you two tell me about who these people are?” Delina asks, pitching her voice up. “So I’m not just here guessing about what wild person I apparently slept with for the last five years?”

“Devin is a moderately skilled spell weaver who’s excellent at snares and bespelling people, and he’s a dream to look at,” Chloe ticks off a finger. “Freddy is a Half Demon who I thought was on assignment in France or something, and Lutes is an alchemist specializing in art forgery.”

She says all these things like she’s expecting Delina to understand. Spell Weaver. Demon. Alchemist. Traps.

“Demons exist?” Delina says skeptically. “Do angels?”

“Not as far as we know,” Gurlien says, just as skeptically, like she’s the one being somewhat ridiculous, then ducks his head. “You should know about demons, regardless.”

Delina crosses her arms.

“Your mom was obsessed with doing experiments around them,” Chloe chimes in. “Near as we can tell, pissed off a lot of them.”

“She wanted their power,” Gurlien says clinically. “Wanted it controllable in a human form, ended up creating a monster.”

“Monster, right,” drawls Delina. “That sounds possible.”

“Demons can only possess dead bodies. She put one in a live one, then lost control,” Gurlien lists off, and Delina’s skin crawls. “The entire College has been working for decades to carefully gain access to demon skills, and she just blew up all the research and knowledge with one super careless act.”

Delina stares down at her hands, the shiver winding up her back again. “So they might’ve sent a half-demon to watch me.”

Makes a certain kind of twisted sense.

“Oh, Frederick’s more human than the College would have liked, they call him a failed vector of the experiment,” Gurlien says, which isn’t better. “Still powerful, not what they wanted, can’t even teleport. That’s like…basic demon shit.”

“Wait, Lutes,” Chloe says, brightening up and snapping her fingers. “He did all that research in Necromancy against Frisse, six years ago. Stopped her from getting that grant.”

“Fat lot of good that did,” Gurlien says, then, as an aside, “your mother found a necromancer. It was a disaster. There were two, maybe three, demons that got drawn in, half of America got their magic destabilized, and there’s now at least three formerly dead people up and walking around.”

“Is…one of them my mom?” Delina asks, moderately horrified.

“Absolutely not,” Gurlien replies, and Delina isn’t sure if she should feel relief or not. “In fact, the necromancer used the power from your mom dying to kill one of the demons, we think, though the theory is real shaky.”

Delina stares at him. “They told me she died in a car accident?”

“No, it was a demon battle, anyways,” Gurlien starts, “that does put Lutes back in play. He would stick around to make sure everything was done, he hated Frisse.”

The idea that Maison, her Maison who listened to all of her rants about not knowing her own mother, would have strong opinions, sits so very poorly with Delina. Like an open maw of hurt, widening inside her gut.

“Okay, I’m done,” Delina announces, pushing the cup of coffee away and jolting to her feet. “It’s two AM, you two can give me a list of definitions in the morning. Is there a room in here that isn’t already inhabited by you two?”

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