“Maybe,” I whispered.

“I’ll tell you one thing I know for certain. When I read that chart she made of your life, I didn’t see a puppet. I saw a girl who shocked her own father in self-defense, who was rebellious and had to be carefully controlled. A girl who was a threat to them, even when she was a child. So despite whatever your mother chose to call you, you’ve never really been Sélène. You’ve always been Cady. Be that girl now. Be yourself. Enola Duval has no power over Arcadia Bell.”

I stared up at him, breathing hard and tamping down chaotic sentiments. “You know, you’re probably my favorite person in the entire world right now,” I said, trying to be lighthearted about what he was making me feel. And oh, the intense emotion that radiated from him when I said that. Strong enough to make me suck in a startled breath. Whatever it was, it cut through my remaining indecision.

Shutting out my surroundings, I yanked up my coat sleeve and stuck my finger in my mouth. Then I swiped saliva across the white-ink tattoo on my inner arm to charge Priya’s homing sigil.

“Priya, come,” I commanded, willing my guardian to appear.

The air fluctuated a few feet in front of me. I backed up and watched a slim, bare-chested figure step out of the night, all silver skin and dark, spiky hair crowned with a halo of black smoke, with shiny black wings folded behind his back. A beautiful sight and a massive relief to see him again, unharmed and whole.

“Mistress!” His black eyes blinked rapidly, as if I were the one who’d materialized in front of him. “I am so happy to see you. So very happy.”

“The feeling is mutual, my friend.”

He pushed back a lock of black hair that had fallen over one eye. “Why did you summon me? You should be using the Kerub’s boy . . .” He trailed off and flicked an unhappy look at Lon before offering him a begrudging nod in greeting. “You shouldn’t be calling me directly,” Priya corrected. “It isn’t safe.”

“I know. But I need you to deliver a message for me. Can you do that?”

“Of course. Anything.”

“First, I want to show you something.”

I willed the transmutation to come, trying my best not to tap into moon power as silver coated my vision and my body began changing. I caught my tail just in time and guided it over the stretchy waistband of my yoga pants—much easier than jeans—letting it coil around my wrist as it grew.

Priya’s jaw dropped, flashing me two rows of pointy silver teeth as he gaped at the change. Then he dropped to one knee, black wings rustling as the tips dragged over the ground. “Mistress,” he said as he bowed his head.

“Look at me, Priya.”

His face tilted up to meet my gaze. “Mother of Ahriman. Your word is my command.”

“Then I’m commanding you now. Go to my mother in the Æthyr. Don’t identify yourself. Just deliver her a message.”

“Anything.”

“Tell her if she wants me, she’s going to have to come down here and face the monster she created.”

“Mistress, please, that is unwise. I believe she is close to uncovering how to cross the planes.”

I thought of my mother’s embossed sigil on her journal. There was a reason it was altered and a reason she’d kept that version hidden from the rest of the order. And when I considered every revelation I’d uncovered in that evil metal box of hers, this small detail might be the most important.

I knelt down in front of Priya and grasped his taloned hand in mine. “I don’t give a damn whether she’s learned to cross over or not.” I leaned close to his face and whispered, “I’m going to summon her psychotic ass down here myself.”

The following night, just before sunset, Jupe watched the red taillights of his father’s black pickup truck disappear down the back road of their property. Cady had gone with him. She was in a really weird mood. All Dad said was that the two of them were doing important magick and warned Jupe not to leave the house under any circumstance until they got back. The Holidays would be there in about an hour to lock down the house.

Jupe knew this had to do with Cady’s mom. But Dad wouldn’t tell him anything, which sucked, big-time. Imagining all the things that could be happening had to be ten times worse than knowing. Plus, when he got home from school, he saw they had a bucket of pig’s blood from a slaughterhouse outside of town.

Major shit was going down. Scary shit.

Like he was going to just sit around here and jump at shadows? Screw that.

He had a good idea where they were headed, because the back road was a half-mile long and only really led to three places: Mr. and Mrs. Holiday’s cabin, an open-air shed, and the beach at the bottom of the cliff. No way would the Holidays let Dad anywhere near their cabin with blood. That left the shed and the beach. Sand and blood seemed like a messy combination, and it might rain tonight, so he was betting on the shed, because it was covered and walled in on three sides. Apart from a tractor and some tools, the thing was empty.

Before he sneaked down there, he would call up Priya to find out if he knew anything. But first he called Leticia to give her an update on what was happening. Leticia was at the retirement Hobbit house, a.k.a. Racist Grandma Vega’s apartment. His original plan was to meet her there, but when all this shit starting transpiring, he’d asked her if she could come here instead. And as his dad’s pickup truck’s engine rumbled down the hill, Jupe’s phone chimed with her answer. He held his breath.