The Devil's Due Read Online Free
Author: Monique Martin
they break either when it suits them. I don't trust them, but I trust your grandfather. If he made this list, it meant something to him. You meant everything to him.”
“I'm hardly important,” Simon said and waved off Elizabeth's reply. “In the grand scheme of things.”
“I don't know. How many people have a watch? How many people in all of history have traveled through time? Dozens out of hundreds of millions? I'd say that makes you kind of important in the grand scheme of things.”
As unlikely and uncomfortable as he found the idea, she could tell he was considering the possibility.
“Maybe these people are at risk from the darkness? That absence of light thing,” Elizabeth continued. “Maybe the darkness is another way of saying some sort of occult phenomena that changes things, like King, like the Golem. Unbalances something. And Sebastian's list is a way to put things right? To light the darkness.”
Both she and Simon thought about it for a moment as they stared at the list. It was terrifying and exhilarating to contemplate the idea. If there was some dark force that was unsettling the balance of the world… Sebastian had specialized in the occult, which definitely qualified as darkness. She and Simon had battled something dark and unearthly in New York, and again with Madame Petrovka and even the Shard.
“It's possible,” Simon said, looking at the list.
Elizabeth grabbed her laptop and started researching the names on the list. It was clear it would take a lot more than some good Google-Fu to find out anything about most of them. One of the names could have been a French bakery owner or politician. Or maybe even an artist. Another name showed up in the search results for those lost in a disaster on the Mississippi. But, most of the other names brought up nothing. Considering the dates went back over two hundred years, it wasn't all that surprising. Unless the people were famous, it was unlikely there would be much in the way of records on the Internet.
There was one name, however, that Elizabeth recognized.
“This one,” Elizabeth said suddenly, running her finger along the name under Simon's. “Alan Grant, Hollywood, I know that name. It might be a different Alan Grant, but…”
She did a quick search and brought up a large image of a still from a movie - a handsome man, with sandy blond hair and pencil thin mustache, in his early forties. He was dressed as a buccaneer and using a dagger to rip through a giant sail as he sped down toward the deck of a large ship. He had a giant cutlass in his other hand and a broad, gleeful, wicked grin on his face.
Simon frowned. “Surely, it must be another Alan Grant.”
“ The Sword of the Seven Seas ! I loved that movie.”
Simon's expression was so flat it was almost concave.
“Alan Grant? The Lost Musketeer ? Midnight Masquerade ? He was a huge star.”
“I didn't watch many movies growing up. Once I was at school, it was mostly Monty Python.”
“And big points for that,” Elizabeth said. “But you don't know what you're missing. Those old movies, they were so much fun.”
“At some point it must have stopped being fun for Mr. Grant or he wouldn't be on the list, would he?”
“True.” Elizabeth did a quick search and found Grant's bio, but it wasn't very helpful. “His credits just stop.”
“In 1933?”
Elizabeth nodded.
Simon folded the piece of paper with the list and leaned back into the sofa cushion, letting his neck rest against the back of it, and looked to the ceiling. He looked tired. Heck, he was tired; she was tired. They'd been at this for hours and hours, and the emotional toll of discovering his grandfather's real reason for traveling to New York was starting to show.
“It's late,” Elizabeth said. “Why don't we go to bed and we can talk about it tomorrow.”
“We leave for Europe tomorrow.”
In the excitement of it all, she'd nearly forgotten about their honeymoon. “Right.”
She nestled closer to
“I'm hardly important,” Simon said and waved off Elizabeth's reply. “In the grand scheme of things.”
“I don't know. How many people have a watch? How many people in all of history have traveled through time? Dozens out of hundreds of millions? I'd say that makes you kind of important in the grand scheme of things.”
As unlikely and uncomfortable as he found the idea, she could tell he was considering the possibility.
“Maybe these people are at risk from the darkness? That absence of light thing,” Elizabeth continued. “Maybe the darkness is another way of saying some sort of occult phenomena that changes things, like King, like the Golem. Unbalances something. And Sebastian's list is a way to put things right? To light the darkness.”
Both she and Simon thought about it for a moment as they stared at the list. It was terrifying and exhilarating to contemplate the idea. If there was some dark force that was unsettling the balance of the world… Sebastian had specialized in the occult, which definitely qualified as darkness. She and Simon had battled something dark and unearthly in New York, and again with Madame Petrovka and even the Shard.
“It's possible,” Simon said, looking at the list.
Elizabeth grabbed her laptop and started researching the names on the list. It was clear it would take a lot more than some good Google-Fu to find out anything about most of them. One of the names could have been a French bakery owner or politician. Or maybe even an artist. Another name showed up in the search results for those lost in a disaster on the Mississippi. But, most of the other names brought up nothing. Considering the dates went back over two hundred years, it wasn't all that surprising. Unless the people were famous, it was unlikely there would be much in the way of records on the Internet.
There was one name, however, that Elizabeth recognized.
“This one,” Elizabeth said suddenly, running her finger along the name under Simon's. “Alan Grant, Hollywood, I know that name. It might be a different Alan Grant, but…”
She did a quick search and brought up a large image of a still from a movie - a handsome man, with sandy blond hair and pencil thin mustache, in his early forties. He was dressed as a buccaneer and using a dagger to rip through a giant sail as he sped down toward the deck of a large ship. He had a giant cutlass in his other hand and a broad, gleeful, wicked grin on his face.
Simon frowned. “Surely, it must be another Alan Grant.”
“ The Sword of the Seven Seas ! I loved that movie.”
Simon's expression was so flat it was almost concave.
“Alan Grant? The Lost Musketeer ? Midnight Masquerade ? He was a huge star.”
“I didn't watch many movies growing up. Once I was at school, it was mostly Monty Python.”
“And big points for that,” Elizabeth said. “But you don't know what you're missing. Those old movies, they were so much fun.”
“At some point it must have stopped being fun for Mr. Grant or he wouldn't be on the list, would he?”
“True.” Elizabeth did a quick search and found Grant's bio, but it wasn't very helpful. “His credits just stop.”
“In 1933?”
Elizabeth nodded.
Simon folded the piece of paper with the list and leaned back into the sofa cushion, letting his neck rest against the back of it, and looked to the ceiling. He looked tired. Heck, he was tired; she was tired. They'd been at this for hours and hours, and the emotional toll of discovering his grandfather's real reason for traveling to New York was starting to show.
“It's late,” Elizabeth said. “Why don't we go to bed and we can talk about it tomorrow.”
“We leave for Europe tomorrow.”
In the excitement of it all, she'd nearly forgotten about their honeymoon. “Right.”
She nestled closer to
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