“I’ll be glad to see them.”

The tone of her voice wasn’t a ringing endorsement. “How long has it been?” I’d only been back in Chicago for a few months now, and they hadn’t been back since I’d been here.

“Nearly a year.”

“Parents are a tricky thing,” I said after a moment.

“You mean because a demon is maybe preparing to rampage through Chicago and spread god knows what kind of dark magic around here? Yeah. I feel uncomfortable about a demon being in Chicago. I feel downright concerned about my mother being in Chicago while a demon is here. Especially with her . . . sensitivities.”

To dark magic, she meant.

She trailed off, rubbed her temples. “I clearly still have some conflicting feelings where my mother is concerned.”

“Why is she coming now? I mean, assume my mother told her what was going on, but why fly out?”

“She thinks she can help with those texts Paige was working on.”

That had my attention. “What texts?”

“Have you not checked your screen?”

I looked around, realized I’d left it downstairs last night in our . . . haste. I grabbed it, found a message from my mother: the librarian found a portfolio of old docs dated after great fire. strange language, and possibly spells. paige working to translate.

I looked up at Lulu. “Your mom thinks she can help?”

“She’s going to try. Paige sent her some images, but Mom thinks they don’t make sense as written, and they probably need some kind of magical overlay. Paige hasn’t done that before, so Mom offered to come out and work with her.”

Lulu looked at me for a moment, seemed almost to say something. And instead opened the juice and drank from the carton. She was still holding something back. Something heavy that she seemed to want to confess but couldn’t.

Monster nudged me a bit, just enough to remind me of its presence and the similarity between me and Lulu. That didn’t make me feel better. It just made me feel dishonest.

But Lulu shook it off. “She’s volunteered Cadogan House as a meeting spot. We can have dinner and whatever.”

“That sounds great,” I said, making it a statement, and assertion, and not open for negotiation. I wasn’t thrilled at the idea of walking back into the House with Mallory there—not when monster was so interested in the sword, and she could probably see more of the magic than my parents. But doing tough things for the people we loved was part of that love. If she had any suspicions, I could play them off. I was getting better at that.

Still in my hand, my screen buzzed, and I nearly jumped. And found a message from an unexpected sender: seriously need to talk about the magic, read the short text from Jonathan Black.

I only then realized I’d totally forgotten to respond to his message from yesterday. Informants weren’t much use if you didn’t let them inform.