Page 99 of Dead Beat

“They could keep it for themselves,” said Turner. “Or sell it to the highest bidder.”

Alex leaned her head back against the crucible. “This is what all those debates between Kittscher and Ellison Nownes were really about. It wasn’t just theory.”

“I think it was until it wasn’t,” Dawes said. “There are all kinds of theories that were meant to stay in the lab or the library, but they always break free. If someone knows they can, they will.”

“Well, something went wrong,” Turner replied. “No one came out of that journey right, and the societies didn’t get their renewable demon energy source.”

Darlington smoothed his hand over the plans and Alex understood there was something he was holding back. His voice was quiet when he said, “Hell is unpredictable. Demons are not easy prey.”

She thought of Len and his constant scheming, his griping about what he was owed. He couldn’t have been more different from the boys in that room with its carvings and symbols, but the results were the same. “They thought they were setting a trap, but they were walking into one.”

“Then what about the golem? The artifacts?” Turner asked and he sounded less mad than desperate. “Are they just more demon riddles and bullshit?”

“They’re something,” Darlington said. “But we won’t know what until we get our hands on the fourth artifact and bring them together.”

Alex had been in Hector’s head now and she thought she knew exactly what the artifacts were for. She understood the fear under all that bravado even if she couldn’t quite see the shape of what was to come. And she still didn’t know why Reiter had been so eager to put the Feet of Clay into their hands.

Her head felt too full. Her father was still downstairs, scribbling away about gatekeeper priests and magical bloodlines, the rules for how power should be parceled out and what to do about accidents like Alex. She had imagined him as a wanderer, a free spirit, maybe a deadbeat but harmless in his charm. He was more like the men of Lethe and the societies than she wanted to consider. A world full of careless adventurers and magical power brokers, but somehow Alex was the defect that had to be eradicated.

“I got a glimpse of Hector’s thoughts,” she said. “He wasn’t happy about becoming a murderer, but that wasn’t going to stop him.”

Dawes nodded. “I got flashes. More feelings than anything. Kittscher’s ambition, his impatience. He hated Hector.”

“He did?” Alex was surprised. Hector hadn’t known, hadn’t even guessed at it.

“Kittscher thought he was stupid. A blunt instrument. That he didn’t deserve his spot in Wolf’s Head.”

A perfect soldier. Football had brought Good Ol’ Hec to Yale the same way Alex’s ability to see the dead had landed her a spot at Lethe. A chance to earn your keep, to prove you could be of use. If you somehow managed to survive.

“I was in Reiter’s head,” said Turner. “But all I got was fear.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Dawes said. “I was with the scholar. Alex was with the soldier.”

Turner shrugged. “Maybe we got it wrong and Reiter was the priest and Nick was the prince. Reiter thought the spell for the salt guardians was sacrilegious. Could be he was the pious one.”

Kittscher’s demon had said as much. Little Lionel thought God was enough.

“What did you get from Nick?” Alex asked Darlington.

“Nothing.”

Turner’s eyes narrowed and Alex knew Darlington was lying. She couldn’t fault him when she wasn’t being entirely honest, but she still didn’t like it.

Alex made herself stand and instantly regretted it. She knew she should probably feel weirder about being half naked in front of these people, but something about meeting her father, getting stabbed, and traveling through time had rendered her incapable of caring. She felt like she had the worst hangover of her life.

“I need a hot shower,” she said. “And we need to get rid of the asshole downstairs.”

Dawes nodded. “I have a spell in mind. But I’ll need some soup before I can work it. That was too much hellfire for any of us.”

“Can you wipe Mira from his head too?” Alex asked.

“Probably not,” Dawes said. “Not without risking putting him in a coma.”

“Wouldn’t that be a shame?”

“I’m not going to be party to that,” Turner said, then added, “and it will raise more questions than any of us want.”

“The problem isn’t just removing how he met Mira,” Dawes explained. “Or the time he spent with her. It’s rooting out every time since then that he thought of her.”