Page 22 of The Girl Who Inherits the Dead

Delina presses herself against the door, and the flicker of motion draws his gaze to her.

He blanches, paling, drawing himself up out of the crouch. “Delly,” he starts, stepping towards her and getting jerked back into the circle. “Delly, are you okay?”

Delina opens her mouth to speak, then closes it, words gone like the wind whistling through the shattered door.

His eyes are still red, flashing, unnatural.

He tries to take another step, but gets yanked back once more from the circle on the doorstep.

“Delly, did they hurt you?” he asks, like she’s the only person in the room and like he didn’t just fucking obliterate the door to the cabin.

Slowly, she shakes her head.

“She came to us, Freddy,” Chloe says, suddenly, and both of them flinch. “Glad to know her mother left a functioning demon trap.”

“Didn’t know a demon trap would work on a half one,” Gurlien says, staring down at the vivid fire surrounding Maison’s feet.

Maison shoots them a quick glance, then back to Delina. “Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not real,” he says, dipping his voice down, as if he could deny anything with his eyes glowing red and the circle ablaze at his feet. “Whatever they told you, whatever you think is going on, it’s not it.”

“Delina,” Gurlien says, his voice clinical, “I would advise going into the other room for this.”

“Or what, Gurlien, you’re going to try to shoot me?” Maison snipes back. “I can block that in my sleep and we both know it.”

So he does know them. It’s not just a bad prank, it’s not just a misguided letter.

It’s worse.

With composure she sure as hell doesn’t feel, Delina pulls herself to her full height, staring Maison down.

He winces again at her expression, and she can’t even see the gray of his eyes behind the red.

“Can you move?” she asks, finally, after letting him stand in silence in the doorway. “Over…whatever the hell that thing is?”

“Oh we are not letting him in,” Gurlien says, as Maison shakes his head no. “There is no way he’s coming in here, not when —”

“You knew about my mom,” Delina interrupts him, and the panicked expression bleeds into Maison’s eyes again. “You knew about my mom and never told me.”

“Delly,” Maison starts, then trails off.

“Don’t call me that,” Delina snaps, and he flinches. “You knew.”

And Maison’s handsome face closes off, and he leans back, away from the doorway, still trapped in the circle. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh fuck that,” Delina says, and there’s something unreal about fighting with him in front of other people. All their arguments, all their fights, had always been in private before. “Make me understand.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Chloe grabs Gurlien, pulling him back, whispering something frantic to him, but honestly, she can’t make herself give a fuck about whatever it is.

Maison obviously does, his gaze flickering between them and her as his jaw works. It’s his thinking face, when he’s grabbing at straws for something to say.

“And what, your name’s ‘Freddy’ now?” Delina asks, and a dim part of her realizes that this is probably not the best placeto have the argument. “You have a different name, you are apparently magical—”

“—Half Demon,” Gurlien calls out, even though Chloe’s tugged him into the kitchen.

“And you’re…you’re just here because you were paid.” At that, her voice cracks, embarrassingly so, and Maison’s expression softens. “And you knew my entire life was a lie.”

He remains silent, but he often does when she shows emotions like that, letting her piece together what she wants to say, not interrupting, before he sighs, leaning so he can see more of the cabin.

“How long have you known?” he asks, voice dipping down. “Where did I go wrong?”

---