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I was silent for several heartbeats "I knew theave me heroin" Carl knew about that incident already "And the other one, Evelyn Stark, was the drunk driver who killed raph’s worth of raa early yesterday reat deal about the arcane and demons, but I didn’t know if that was because of his relationship with e I knew that wards didn’t seem to have any effect on him, and he’d once been attacked by an assailant with the ability to suck out a person’s essence, yet he’d been co about him, I trusted him

But should I? I was suddenly suspicious of any sort of blind trust Yet, Tessa cared deeply for him and clearly, she trusted him And I’d never seen the barest whisper or hint that Carl had anything but fond adoration for my aunt in return Maybe there were times when blind trust was necessary I sure as hell needed to be better about trusting people

His hazel brown eyes flicked to me "Should I assume it was not a pleasant encounter?"

"You could say that," I replied with a dry laugh, "though Eilahn’s convinced it wasn’t trying to kill"Obviously, I need even more weird shit in my life"

A smile touched the corners of his mouth "And yet you weather it well"

"I’d hate to see what my life would be like if I weathered it badly!"

"And you don’t think your aunt summoned this demon?"

That hadn’t even occurred tosummoner She was the one who had trained me "I’m pretty confident that she wouldn’t send a demon to attack me," I told him Still, I should have asked her What if the attack had been so? "Did she summon it?"

His eyes held mine briefly before he looked back down at the instruments "No"

Carl was a hard man to read, but I could have sworn I’d seen relief, or so awfully close to it, in that brief look I let out a breath and resisted the urge to ask hiood stuff to say, but he didn’t always co for me to co to do with the deaths of these two people," I said, "but it sure as hell got ," he an a raa wasn’t there in connection with the two victiive you advice or counsel about that?" He didn’t look up at me, but I still felt pinned down by his attention I resisted the urge to squirm

"I don’t want to worry her," I finally said "She’s been through a lot of shit lately…uardians--to worry about their loved ones," he pointed out

My throat felt tight Was I keeping things from my aunt to protect her or to protect me from her ire? My relationship with her had been a teether She was acerbic, and odd, and generally didn’t care what people thought of her And while I could appreciate thatit was yet another hurdle to overcoh that both my parents had died, but now I had to live with my crazy aunt who did weird shit and didn’t seehed at her--and me Tessa hadn’t cared about fads--in fact she tended to hold anything that was fashionable in complete disdain, and had subtly, and not-so-subtly, pushed e my own path"

But as a thirteen-year-old, I wasn’t ready to be unique What I’d needed was to fit in, to be a little invisible until I could find my comfort zone That was impossible with Tessa Was it any wonder that I’d rebelled and found a different way to hide and feel comfortable? Or at least, what felt like coest his comment on my own, and he’d be there to pick up the conversation when I did I felt an odd surge of gratitude toward him I had a few friends who knew that I su it out with Carl was different, and it felt oddly freeing to be able to discuss bizarre shit like this

"She’s different," I said at last

"That she is," Carl agreed

I shook my head "No, I mean…since she woke up" My aunt’s essence had been stripped from her body by a serial killer, and it had taken me several weeks to find a way to call her back to herself