I couldn’t leave her. I’d resigned myself to it.
By day, I searched for the grimoire and the witch who’d stolen it. But I returned at night, watching Rae’s cabin in the dark, to make sure the beasts didn’t get too close. They were hungry. So damn hungry, they were crawling out of the ground like maggots the colder and wetter it got. The radio began to crackle with reports of missing hikers, and I knew the beasts were feeding but it wouldn’t keep them occupied for long.
Things were getting worse.
The Gollums had woken up. The whole forest smelled like their rot. Mushrooms were sprouting up like mad. If the God’s human servants weren’t giving It what It wanted, then It would send the Gollums to do it instead: pale white beings that stalked the forest in silence, their intelligence far beyond that of the Eld.
I could only hope they didn’t find her.
I’d park my truck at the road and stand back in the darkness of the trees. I’d watch her shadow move past the lit windows, I’d listen to her hum as she cooked dinner and the way her socked feet shuffled across the wooden floor when she danced.
I knew better than to fall for a human. Humans were meant to be toys, not treasures. But it ached. Fuck, it ached.
Not even monsters could convince her to accept eternity. Perhaps I was simply too inhuman to understand the terror of forever, the dread that gripped mankind when faced with making decisions for the afterlife.
Demons swore bonds to each other at a mere glance sometimes, yet she couldn’t just…
She couldn’t. There was no use in dwelling on it. She couldn’t, and I would have been wise to stay away from her.
But I couldn’t.
Just a fucking fantastic predicament all around.
The skulls I’d placed to scare the Eld had rotted away, so I left the only other thing I knew of that could deter them: one of the vile little trinkets the Libiri so loved. Sticks, bones, string — and a fish eye, symbolizing the eye of the Deep One, would usually get the Eld spooked.
It spooked Raelynn too, but at least it made her vacate the house for a few days. With her hidden away at an apartment in town, she’d be harder to find. Safer, at least for a little while. Which meant I could hunt for the witch in earnest.
Everly was proving hard to find. She wasn’t with the Hadleighs anymore, having somehow managed to escape Kent’s careful watch over her. Every whiff I’d get of her would blow away as quickly as the wind, and I’d never been very good at the slow, steady art of tracking. I’d never had the patience, and now that I needed it, I simply didn’t have the skill.
But I knew someone who did.
It was near one in the morning when I met Zane by the bay. The rain had slowed to a misty drizzle, like static through the fog slowly rolling in off the water. The world was soft and pale, and the cherry on Zane’s joint flared in the dark.
“I’m surprised you’re still here.” Zane let the smoke curl from his lips as he spoke. “I thought you’d bail out the moment you got the grimoire.”
“I’d planned to. Problem is, I don’t have the damn thing. It was stolen from her, from Raelynn.” Zane glanced over at me, wide-eyed. He knew how important that wretched book was, how all my freedom hinged on destroying my name from its pages. “But I know who’s got it, and I’m hoping you can help me find her. Something is hiding her scent.” I frowned. I didn’t like to admit I wasn’t the best hunter, but Zane already knew it. It wasn’t shame that made me avoid placing all the blame on myself.
Something was hiding the witch’s scent, making her harder to track, throwing it in all directions so I’d never know if it was east or west.
Zane shrugged, passing me the joint. “I’ll do what I can. Who has it? You got a name?”
“Everly Hadleigh. The young witch.”
“Aaahh.” Zane gave a slow groan. “The damn witch? No shit?”
“No shit.” I took a drag, wishing once again that the weed they had on Earth was anywhere close to the herb in Hell. Their stock had gotten better in recent years, but it was still nothing in comparison. And damn, I needed the high.
I was getting frustrated. And when I was frustrated, I got reckless.
I couldn’t afford to be reckless now. Not with the grimoire, and not with Rae.
Zane was shaking his head. “Leave it alone, Leon. Forget the grimoire, go back to Hell.” I could hardly believe what I was hearing. Zane, telling me to give up? “The witch won’t summon you, trust me.”
I frowned. “And why wouldn’t she? Why should I risk it?”
“She won’t,” he insisted, taking back the joint. “She’s already got an Archdemon.”
I nearly choked on the last of my exhale. Goosebumps prickled all the way down my arms and left my fingers cold. “How the hell do you know that?”
“Because he almost killed my girl,” Zane said grimly. “That’s how.”
I paused. “An Archdemon almost killed your…have you made a deal with a human?”
“Yeah.” Zane grinned proudly, but the expression soured. “And this woman has got one damn big bone to pick.” He gave me a quick look up and down. “I’ll do my best not to let her see you.”
“Why is that?”
“Because she’ll remember you.” He tapped a finger against the side of his head. “She can really hold a grudge.” Seeing the question on my face, he leaned over and said softly, “Juniper Kynes. Can’t say the whole situation of nearly being a sacrifice left her feeling very forgiving.”
“Ah, shit.”
“She’s out for the blood of anyone who’s wronged her. It’s been a fun ride but fuck.” He flicked away the joint, and it disappeared into the waters of the bay. “She might get me killed.”
“Juniper,” I murmured. There were few things I’d done for Kent that I could attach any kind of moralistic regret to. But the night Juniper had fled through the woods, high on acid and covered with sacrificial runes, counted among things I wished I hadn’t been involved in. “Of all the humans for you to take a fascination with, it had to be her. She gave you her soul?”
“She offered it,” he said. “I was already hunting her, but the deal was her idea.”
I wasn’t about to admit how jealous I was. “So now she’s your girl, eh? What happened to not falling for humans?”
“Never said I fell for her.” Zane frowned, shifting his stance. He was such an obvious liar. “But of course she’s mine. I claimed her.”
I chuckled, although I was a fucking hypocrite to taunt him for it while I was still pining over an absolutely hopeless situation.
“So, Everly,” I said. “You know where she is? And this Archdemon of hers, how strong is he?”
Zane sighed heavily. “In a fight to the death, the two of us together, against him…” He shrugged. “We’d hold out for a few minutes. Maybe.”
“Fuck.”
“I’m telling you not to go after her, Leon.”
“Noted. Where is she?”
“Goddamn stubborn bastard,” Zane scowled, hands shoved in his pockets. “There’s an old coven house, northwest of here. I’ll text you the coordinates, as close as I can estimate them. Juni and I went there looking for —”
“Juni?” I snorted. “Fucking hell.”
“Oh, shut up.” He shoved me, and reached into his jacket for another joint. “I think we both know you’re goddamn bleeding romantic, Leon, so don’t taunt me for it.” He put the joint to his lips and lit up, the sour smell wafting around us. “Anyway. We were looking for the elder witch, Heidi. Didn’t find her.”
“I could’ve told you she died years ago.” Zane tweaked an eyebrow at me, and I shook my head. “Suicide. I didn’t do it, though Kent likely would have set me on her sooner or later.”
“Ah, well…we got another nasty surprise instead. I thought he was going to rip us to shreds before Everly gentled him like a lamb. We were lucky the witch was willing to talk with us. If she hadn’t been, well…” He shuddered. “I wouldn’t be standing here right now. That Archdemon would have killed us both.”
“You get a name?”
“Callum.” Zane flicked his ash to the wind. “Never heard of him. He’s ancient. He’s been out of Hell a long time, if I had to guess.”
“Perhaps the coven summoned him a long time ago, and made a deal with him.”
“Maybe. Hell, I’d stick around for a witch’s soul.” He glanced over at me pointedly. “Have to make the trouble worth it.”
“Yeah? All that trouble with Juniper worth it?”
He exhaled sharply. “She’s a little monster. Vicious as hell, body like a fucking succubus. It’s worth it.”
The night grew colder as we stood there, passing the joint in silence. It always felt the same with Zane: always steady, the one constant through my few centuries of life. We could part for decades like it was nothing, then spend decades more in each other’s company.
A howl pierced the night, and Zane and I glanced toward the trees at the far side of the shore. Dark, long-legged shapes scuttled through the shadows, like massive spiders on the prowl.
Zane spat in the sand. “Fucking Eld. Been centuries since I’ve seen so many in one place.”
“They’ve been hunting Raelynn,” I said grimly. “Stalking her house. They’re forming packs. I nearly lost my arm to them.” I rolled my shoulder, where the tenderness still lingered deep, near the bone. It would heal eventually.
“They’ve been coming for Juniper too, but she holds her own well enough. They dug up her brother from the yard though.”
“Marcus?”
He nodded. “She buried him in the yard up at her cabin and the beasts dug him up.”
I shook my head. “She went down into the mine and got his body out?”
“Yeah. I went with her. Wouldn’t recommend it. Awful place.”
I had to laugh. I’d been feeling sorry for myself, but at least Raelynn wasn’t dragging me right onto the God’s doorstep. “She’s mad.”
“Completely. She’s going after the Hadleighs next.” He grinned at me. “Don’t think I’ll be able to convince her to save the old bastard for you to kill.”
“Dead is dead.” I shrugged. “Tell her to hurry up. It’s hard enough keeping Raelynn alive. Damn woman’s sense of self-preservation is broken.”
“If she’s spending time with you? Clearly.”
“Asshole.” I shoved my knuckles against his shoulder as I turned to go, and he caught my wrist, holding it captive.
“Hey. Don’t get yourself killed,” he said softly.
I scoffed. “I’ll be fine.”
“You’ll be reckless.”
“Hasn’t killed me yet —”
His fingers moved from my wrist to my throat, squeezed, yanked me forward so we were face to face. “Don’t. Get. Yourself. Killed.” Each word punctuated by a squeeze. The bar in his tongue flashed silver as he spoke, the mark I’d put there ages ago. “Got it, kid?”
I scowled. “I fucking hate that.”
“I know.” He let me go with a shove, and took another long drag from the joint. “Call me if you need me.”
“And you’d better do the same.”
I stalked away up the beach toward the road, where the truck was parked beneath a flickering streetlamp. Just before I reached it, I turned and yelled, “Hey! I’ll be fucking pissed if you die!”
He laughed. “Well, I’m not trying to piss you off, Leon. I’ve seen what happens to the poor bastards who do.”
I love you too, asshole.
