My Big Fat Demon Slayer Wedding by Angie Fox Read Free Book Online

condition and still pointed at the sky. Or in this case, the copper dome above.  
    A sturdy iron crank was attached to the workings of the dome. I was tempted to try to open it, but with my luck, I wouldn’t get it closed again. It would be a shame to ruin such a fine instrument with rain or weather.
    “That’s not what I came to show you,” Pirate said, still at the steps.
    “Right.” I found it fascinating all the same.  
    Below the observatory floor, the tower consisted of a circular room with a staircase. We wound down two more levels. With every step, the air became more stuffy and warm.  
    The shadows lengthened, as the light from the upper windows grew scarcer. At last, we came to the ground floor with the door.
    I stopped a few steps short of the bottom.  
    Hooded statues lined the walls, their robes, their fingers, carefully detailed. Except their faces were blank stone. Some of the statues gripped daggers. Others clutched bowls, which held the ashes of incense.  
    It was strangely silent inside. Everything was shrouded in shades of gray. Pirate breathed heavily next to me, and I could barely hear the birds outside.
    In the center of the floor, was a thick stone medallion. Scrolled with…my breath caught in my throat…it looked like the dark mark.
    “See?” Pirate said next to me. “It was on your hand. The devil’s mark. And now it’s here on the floor.”
    Almost. Certainly too close for comfort.
    “Let’s not panic,” I said to Pirate, and myself.  
    I glanced behind me. Habit. Before crouching to take a closer look. I ran my fingers over six identical swirls and in the middle of what looked to be a burst of fire.
    The dark mark that had been etched into my skin had been emblazoned with three swirls. See? Different. I hoped. Also, these marks were not as tight. Each line on this mark ended with the curved, planetary symbol.  
    I traced my finger over one. “See this? It’s the symbol for Pluto, the planet of death and rebirth.”
    “Pluto’s not a planet,” my dog said.
    “It was when I was a kid,” I said, standing. “Certainly when this place was built.” I paused, trying to think of what it could mean. Pluto was also god of the underworld. It was also the symbol of hidden power and obsession. Transformation. Pirate followed the path of my fingers with his nose. “Don’t sniff it,” I murmured.
    He jerked his head up. “Why? This is research.”
    “Yes, but we don’t know what this is.” I touched the emerald at my neck. It was warm, yet strangely lifeless at my touch.
    “We need to show Grandma.” And Dimitri, when he arrived tonight.  
    In the mean time, I took a few pictures with my phone.  
    Pirate sneezed every time my flash went off.
    “Don’t mention this to anyone else,” I told him.
    He nodded. “You know I don’t like to share our business.” He tilted his head. I could almost see the wheels spinning. “I’ll have Flappy stand guard.”
    Right. “Because a dragon standing outside a tower isn’t at all suspicious.”
    He didn’t get the irony.
    Still, Flappy was the best we had. He was loyal, good at guarding things, and he wasn’t drinking my mom’s tea. All three were plusses in my book.
    I tried to open the door on the ground floor level, but there was no way to unlock it from the inside.
    “As soon as Grandma sobers up, we’ll get her out here,” I said as we climbed the stairs. Lord knew how we’d get her inside.
    Pirate missed a step. “You mean she’s not watching her sandwiches?”  
    “Focus,” I told my dog.
    Flappy managed to get us down from the tower, with my dog whooping the whole way. He was on cloud nine. I was less so as we headed back to the house.  
    I didn’t know what we’d found, but I didn’t like it. I needed things to be normal—well as normal as they could be—for one week. Was that too much to ask?
    Apparently so.
    When we got back to the house, we found Sidecar Bob at the Steinway, belting out Only The Good