Page 123 of House of Malice
“I want to use it now,” Blaze said, sitting straighter in the chair.
“I’m all ears, Mister Leveau,” Moren said, her voice low and seductive. “Tell me what is it that you desire.”
Blaze was mesmerized by her amber eyes and by her soothing voice. But he blinked and snapped out of the daze. He wasn’t sure whether it was magic or whatever else that had overcome him for a moment.
He cleared his throat and said, “My father has a file on almost everyone he knows. Or at least those he deems to be useful in one way or another.”
Moren didn’t say anything.
“In those files, he has general information about witches and creatures. And he also has the dirt. The nasty secrets that few people know about and prefer for them to stay hidden. That is how he gets what he wants. That is how he keeps people in line, obedient to him.”
“I assume there is a reason why you are spilling your father’s secrets right now?”
Blaze smirked. “Yes, I was just getting to it. I want to have a file like that on my father. A file that has the most disturbing and horrible things imaginable about him and what he had done. And I know there are things he would prefer stay hidden. Many things.”
“So, you would like me to give up your father’s deepest, darkest secrets so you can control him?” Moren asked.
Blaze couldn’t read her facial expression, nor her tone.
“I don’t want to control him for the sake of power,” Blaze said. “I want to have something on him so that he does not have power over me anymore.”
“Ah, I see,” Moren said, crushing her cigarette.
“You are the only one in the whole of Inathis who can help me with this,” Blaze said.
A corner of Moren’s ruby mouth twitched. “That you are right about. I am. And you are lucky I happen to be what your father would consider his enemy.”
Blaze was surprised to hear that. His father had sold his soul to Moren; Blaze had assumed there was some sort of relationship between a demon and the one who sold their soul to them.
Maybe the relationship didn’t have to be positive.
“I will grant you what you are asking, Mister Leveau,” Moren said after a pause. Blaze’s heart missed a beat. “And we’ll be even.”
Blaze inclined his head. “Thank you, my queen.”
Moren waved him off. “You’re not one of my subjects, Mister Leveau. No need to address me so officially. Unless you ever find yourself in Hel.”
Blaze blinked and nodded.
“Now, here is what you ask for,” Moren said. She turned around, and from one of the metal drawers behind her, she took out a black folder. “This has all the secrets your father keeps that nobody else knows about.”
Blaze took the folder, but Moren didn’t let go. Her eyes flashed.
“I warn you, Mister Leveau,” she said, her voice low. “Before you open the file and read what is inside, make sure you are ready. It will be impossible to unknow what you learn. And you might not be ready to learn everything that’s in there.”
Blaze nodded. Moren let go of the file, and Blaze tucked it underneath his armpit.
He already knew about Grimswater. He was ready for anything when it came to Galliermo.
Blaze didn’t wait for his father to reach out to him once he returned home and realized that the chest was missing.
No. He took matters into his own hands.
He sat in his father’s leather chair, behind his heavy desk. One of his ankles was draped casually over his knee. He glanced at the clock on the wall.
Three thirty in the afternoon.
His father was going to walk in through those doors any moment now.
