Beyond the small garden of Eden lay a long, wide strip of bright green lawn; past that, the land became rocky. The house stood on the edge of a steep cliff that dropped, leveled off, then dropped again and fell into the ocean. Miles and miles of the blue Pacific. The tree line had been cut to reveal a spectacular unobstructed view, but became dense at the edges of the property so that you couldn’t see another house, building—not another living soul. It was as if civilization didn’t exist. I stood at the top of the tiered steps and looked out over it in amazement as the coastal wind whipped my hair around my face.

A couple minutes later, a glossy black dog with a purple collar emerged from the garden and bounded up the steps to greet me.

“You must be Foxglove,” I said as I bent down to offer her my hand. She sniffed twice, then nuzzled her nose against my arm. Two powerful paws lurched up on my knees as she shot toward my face and began licking my chin. “Whoa, down, girl!” I said with a laugh, turning my face away. “You’re definitely Jupe’s dog—no boundaries, huh?”

I stood and wiped my face as she looked up at me, panting happily, tail wagging. I scratched her neck as she sniffed my legs; maybe she smelled Mr. Piggy on me. Then her ears cocked at the sound of a bird, and she darted away as quickly as she’d arrived, disappearing through a small cypress grove at the side of the property.

“Do you like it?”

I turned to find Lon sauntering up behind me. “The view? Unbelievable.”

“See that bit of land jutting out down there? The sea stack?” He pointed to the coast below where the waves were breaking furiously against several rocky columns of graduated cliffs that extended into the sea. “That’s Mermaid Point. Ever heard of it?”

“No.”

“It’s what La Sirena was named after. The local Pomo Indians say that their ancestors believed a strange spirit lived in the water there. They’d offer it gifts for good luck—floated planks of wood with food and flowers in the water.”

“Interesting. I wonder if there really was something there? Sometimes there’s truth in old myths.”

“I don’t know, but Jupe swears he’s seen a ghost out there a few times. Foxglove sometimes howls out there.”

“Mmm … sure it’s not an imp?”

He chuckled. “Probably.”

We stood together in happy silence, and for a long moment, I forgot about everything. My mind just went blank. It was so peaceful. Morella seemed so far away … Then it all came back in a jarring rush—my parents, the albino demon, Riley Cooper, the caliph. I wanted to kick something.

Lon must have sensed my mood change; he gave me a sidelong glance and tapped my elbow. “Come and sit with me on the patio.”

I followed him up the wooden deck stairs and back under the cement ceiling to a small metal table with four chairs. A pot of steaming tea sat there along with a book and his silver cigarette case.

“You want the heat on? It’s kind of chilly out here today. Overcast.”

“Uh, sure.”

He punched something into a panel on the stone wall near the sliding door, then sat down next to me and poured us each a cup of tea without asking if I wanted any.

“Jupe at school?” I asked.

“Yeah. Mrs. Holiday picks him up.”

“Who’s Mrs. Holiday?”

“Housekeeper … half of the elderly couple I told you about that works for me.”

“Oh, that’s right.”

“They live in a small house down the cliff over there.” He pointed toward the side of the house where the trees thickened. “Check this out,” he said, doling out cigarettes. “I’ve been poking around since you dropped Jupe off last night and mentioned Father Carrow’s fairy tale. He might have been right.” He slid a small book toward me. Liber Demonica III. Paper pages. It mustn’t have been too valuable for him to have brought it out from the confines of his library. I allowed him to light my valrivia while I turned to the page marked with one of his little blue pieces of paper.

The entry was titled “Rules of Possession.” I began reading, then skipped ahead when Lon guided me forward several paragraphs. I read out loud.

“If the summoner desires Prime Possession of the Entity, and all the privileges of its special talents, He must secure a Kieyda by using the following formula to calculate a Secondary Circle that should connect to the apex of the binding triangle, as shown in figure 171. The Entity should be tricked to cross over into the Secondary Circle using the one of the methods listed within table 54—”

“Some of those methods are barbaric,” Lon mumbled.

“—then the desired Kieyda should be removed quickly. Banish immediately after removal with the full Greater Banishing Ritual. The Primary desirable Kieydas are as follows: Horn, Tooth, Bone, Talon, Tip of Tail, Boney Crest. Please keep in mind that neither Skin nor Scale holds sufficient power for Kieydas.”

I held my cigarette away from the table and looked at Lon.

“Kieyda?”

“A kind of amulet derived from the body of an Æthyric demon.

“It goes on to say here”—he pointed at text on the following page—“that the summoner needs to have possession of the Kieyda when the demon’s seal and name are used for summoning. If the Kieyda is lost, the demon can’t be summoned to earth again until it’s found. Drink your tea. It’s jasmine.”