Veiled (Ada Palomino 1)

“Because you’re the only one who can help,” she says. She shuffles over to the bed and sits down, pats the place beside her. “Come. Sit with your grandmother. I never did have a lot of time with you, even after my passing. It was always Perry who had to put up with hauntings. Poor child.”

I know Pippa used to scare the bejesus out of Perry but here she looks gentle. Just an old tired soul with my mother’s eyes.

I sit down next to her, afraid of what she’s going to ask me to do. No ghost drags you into the underworld to ask for a small favor.

Especially if they’re family.

I stare at her expectantly, absently realizing I haven’t taken a breath in a good minute. So far, so good.

“I didn’t want to interfere,” she says, putting her weathered hand on mine. “I’ve done that too many times before. But I have to. She’s my daughter.”

“Mom?” I whisper.

“She’s in a place she shouldn’t be,” she says. “I don’t even know when it started. When your mother died, she was in limbo for a long time. Lost in the Veil. I pulled her to one side. The demon pulled her to the other. The one who died inside her. A noble sacrifice she made for all of you but a near damning one all the same.” She pauses and lets out a heavy breath of non-existent air. “Eventually I won. I pulled her over. My own Jakob, the one I had my whole life, he helped too. She was in the light. She was home with me.”

“But then . . .” I supply fearfully, because I know there has to be a “but.”

She nods. “But then something happened. She found a way back to the Thin Veil. I told her it wasn’t safe. I know all too well. But this is a game I’ve played for years. She was new. She went to the Veil because it was the closest glimpse she could have of you and Perry and Daniel. She missed you so much.” She wipes away a tear that makes my heart break. “Missing someone is a dangerous emotion. It’s hunger that can’t be fed. It makes you vulnerable and weak and she wouldn’t have seen the demon until it was too late. Lured, perhaps, by images and promises of you. The demons lie, they always do.”

Her eyes trail over the room as if lost in thought. Then she pats my hand and continues. “She was sucked down to the other side. To Hell. And that’s where they’re holding her. To get to you. Only you Ada. Not Perry. Not me. You.”

“So it’s all real?” I ask incredulously, both horrified and vindicated. “That’s really her in my dreams?”

“Yes. And those aren’t always dreams, Ada. Sometimes they can find their way in and pull you under. That’s why you put up the walls. It’s your defense mechanism and it’s a powerful one. It’s one that your Jacob doesn’t quite understand. There’s a lot about you that no one understands, including myself.”

“Tell me about it,” I say softly. I shake my head. “I can’t believe this.”

“But you do. You always have known it was your mother. She’s asking for help because she’s suffering and will continue to be tortured for eternity. But at the same time she doesn’t want you to sacrifice yourself to save her.” Pippa looks me dead in the eye. “Please understand that I have tried all that I can. Me and my Jakob. But there is nothing. I can’t get to her. You can.”

“Why not Perry? She can create portals out of thin air. She could pop in and get her. She did that with Dex.”

Pippa laughs without mirth. “Are you not tired of living under someone else’s shadow?”

I shake my head violently. “Not when there are shadows behind shadows.”

“Perry has her own powers and her own path. She and Dex . . . they’ve covered a lot of ground. But you’re just starting. And you’re different, Ada.”

“You sound just like Jay,” I mutter.

“Oh, I’m nothing like him,” she says bitterly.

I frown. “Do you know him?”

She shakes her head. “No. Not personally. I just . . . feel. You feel a lot of things here. That’s why I know what’s happening to your mother. I feel more than see.”

“What do you feel about him?”

She gives me a steady look. “He’s not who he says he is. He’s not who he thinks he is.”

“Can you blame him?”

“I don’t mean the man has ill-will,” she says. “Not as a Jacob. But he has been lying to you.”

My heart stills. Blood rushes in my head. “What?”

“He knows your mother is in trouble. They all do. He knows she’s in Hell, that the demons have her, that she needs you to save her.”