Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
“Scrapper demons follow along behind bigger, badder demons, eating the scraps they leave behind. Hence the name,” I explain. “They wouldn’t be here for just one body.”
“I’m sorry,” Xavier says, which surprises me a bit.
“How did you know?” I ask, thankful he’s aware enough to know that I had hoped to save them.
“You have a good heart. Of course you wanted to find everyone alive.”
“Yeah. They have families. People who love them and miss them and just want them to come home.”
“Killing the demon who did this is the next best thing.”
“It is,” I agree and turn my head, trying to breathe in fresh air that doesn’t smell like rotting bodies. I walk in between Xavier and Devon, getting off the dock and back on the path. We trek on, moving quietly and cautiously, not stopping until we’re close to the spot I’d marked on the map.
I get a quartz crystal from the backpack and hold it out in front of me.
“Ostende mihi viam,” I chant, remembering what Amanda looked like from the picture on her lanyard. “Ostende mihi viam.” The stone glows bright yellow for a second as the spell takes effect and then fades to a softer, muted light. I cup my hands around it so the light doesn’t give us away.
“The closer we get, the brighter the light gets,” I tell Devon, who hasn’t seen me work this spell before. “Even if she’s moving, we’ll know if we’re getting closer or farther.”
“That’s pretty fucking cool, Wren.”
I smile. “Magic has its perks,” I say, echoing his same words from earlier. Holding my hands out in front of me, I slowly turn, waiting for the stone to glow and lead us in the right direction. We pick our way through nearly half a mile of woods and the whole time, it’s silent. The light gets brighter and brighter, until not even my hands clasped around it can contain the light.
“Wren,” Xavier whispers, putting his hand on my shoulder. I’ve been looking at the light, which was a huge mistake. Because now my eyes are out of focus and I blink rapidly, trying to get my vision to adjust to the dark forest.
The trees around us are dead, and the ground looks as if all the weeds and underbrush have been burned. I drop the crystal when twigs snap in front of us and the smell of sulfur fills the air. The dark shadow of a person slowly comes into view, moving out from behind a tree.
It’s Amanda. Her throat has been slit, and a flap of skin hangs down, crusted with blood and stuck to the top of her chest. The crystal radiates bright, yellow light, illuminating everything around us. Xavier draws his fangs and snarls, moving in front of me before charging at the demon possessing Amanda’s body.
But he only makes it a few steps before the demon throws out her arm, sending a pulse of dark magic through the air, knocking Xavier right off his feet.
Chapter
Thirty-Three
Two can play this game, bitch.
Xavier is back on his feet in seconds and I send a blast of energy through the air, hitting the demon. It doesn’t do much, but bump her shoulder back.
“Get out of here, Wren,” Xavier says, growling and going after the demon again. This time, it doesn’t react but simply stands there. Xavier punches his hand through her torso, right under her ribcage. He jerks his hand back, ripping her spine through her body, tearing her in half.
The demon looks at him curiously, inked over eyes expressionless. Amanda’s body, unable to stand on its own anymore, falls to the ground and the demon vacates the body in a whoosh that blows my hair back.
Xavier steps back, flicking blood and body parts onto the ground.
“Where is it?” Devon asks, holding up the fire poker again. “Is it dead?”
“No,” I tell him. It was using the body, but it’s going to take a lot more than that to kill it.”
“What do we do?”
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. A demon who commands spirits and stood here unfazed isn’t going to go down easily, that’s for fucking sure. My hands wrap around the hilt of my dagger when suddenly Xavier grabs me and jumps to the side. Only a second later, a body comes crashing down onto the forest floor.
“Oh fuck,” Devon breathes, looking up.
My eyes widen in terror, seeing bodies strung up, hanging above us. “I think we found most of the missing counselors.”
Xavier has one arm around me and he pulls me to him. I look around the area we were just standing in. The ground is dead and rotten, and the bodies hang in a circle above. Right in the center, the dirt has been disturbed. Something bigger and darker than I ever imagined is taking place, and the feeling that the world is going to crumble apart and burn makes me feel like I’m going to throw up.