Page 31 of Tall, Dark & Horny

CALLIOPE

The air itself seemed to tighten, drawn taut by something I couldn’t see yet. But I could feel it. My skin prickled as the sconce by the door blinked out with a soft puff of darkness.

Adan stepped in front of me like a shield. “Abaddon.”

My breath caught.His father.

I hadn’t expected him to look quite so normal. With how Adan had spoken of him, I assumed he would always appear more monstrous than man, twisted and snarling. But the figure who stepped into view was worse because he didn’t need to roar or bare teeth to be terrifying.

He was even taller than Adan when he was in demon form. Broad and encased in black armor that looked forged in smoke and shadow. There was no color in his eyes. No flame. Only void.

Adan didn’t move. He just stood between us, tall and braced.

Abaddon’s gaze slid past him. Landed on me and stayed there.

“So this is the girl,” he said, voice as smooth as it was brutal. “You’ve already told her who I am?”

Adan nodded once, sharp and tense. “She knows. And she’s mine.”

“I’m aware, son.” Abaddon’s mouth curled faintly at the corners. It wasn’t quite a smile but something more dangerous. “And she should know. Especially since it wasn’t you who woke the blade. Or made the gate you protect sing like a blood-borne heir had finally come home.”

My pulse stuttered. I didn’t understand everything he said, but one point was clear…he somehow knew that my father was a demon.

“Gate?” I echoed.

“My son can explain.” His obsidian gaze didn’t leave mine. “What he can’t share because he doesn’t know is that it remembers what your blood forgot. You are something in between, Calliope Ash. Half-wrought. Half-lost. But that won’t last forever.”

Adan growled low in his throat, but Abaddon didn’t flinch.

“Let what slumbers in your blood awake.” He tilted his head. “Old things are stirring, and my son will need what lives inside you to survive what’s coming.”

The air thickened again, and I felt it—deep in my chest. A thrum I hadn’t noticed before.

As suddenly as Abaddon appeared, he stepped back into the shadows. His voice came one last time, cold and certain. “The girl will be fine.”

Then he was gone.

The silence left in his wake almost felt heavier than his presence had. Like the room itself had been holding its breath. Or maybe that was just me.

I stared at the now empty doorway, every nerve in my body on high alert.

“That was your father?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Adan didn’t move. “Yes.”

That one word landed like a stone in my chest.

Abaddon hadn’t spoken loudly. He hadn’t raised a hand. But it hadn’t been necessary. He was something ancient and unshakable. The pressure he carried lingered in the air, like the room needed a moment to return to itself.

My throat felt dry. “With how you described him, I thought I would be terrified if I ever met him. But I wasn’t.”

Adan’s gaze flicked to mine, searching.

I wrapped my arms around myself and admitted, “It’s more that I’m scared of what he saw in me.”

His brows drew together, and he stepped closer. “Don’t be afraid of what lies in your blood, baby. He saw potential, and so do I.”

The way Abaddon had looked at me as though he could already see something forming in my blood that I didn’t understand had shaken something loose in me.

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