Wylder blinks at me, feigning innocence. “That’s a conversation for later.”
Asher loops his arm through mine and sends me a wicked grin. “For the record, I support every chaotic choice just made.”
“Noted.”
As we head toward the corn maze, my heart is still racing.
That’s a conversation for later.
Uh-huh, can’t wait.
Rowan and Orion are lounging on a hay bale beside the entrance to the cornstalk maze, and grin up at us as we approach. “Everyone still got all their parts and pieces?” Orion asks.
I wiggle my fingers in the air. “So far, so good. Where’s Sebastian?”
They point to where Sebastian is walking back from a concession stand with two drink carriers stacked one on top of the other.
“How many have you got so far?” Wylder asks.
Orion grins. “Four, you?”
“Three.” I accept the offered hot chocolate from Sebastian with my thanks. It’s common knowledge that the best and easiest way to restore magical mana is by consuming sugar or chocolate. Hot chocolate, chocolate milk, brownies, and chocolate cake are the go-to options. “The bottle traps are amazing.”
Sebastian nods, handing out drinks to everyone. “We’re lucky these are just low-level energy harvesters. If they were anything more, we wouldn’t be having such a good night.”
Asher’s jaw tightens. “How many do you think are out here?”
“Too many.”
One is too many in my book.
Sebastian has a spirit affinity like me, but I wonder how Orion and Rowan are matched up against our foes. “Can either of you see them?”
Orion points to Rowan and then Sebastian. “Those two can. I can smell their charbroiled, rotten funk, though.”
Rowan shrugs. “For me, it’s not exactly sight. It’s more like reading the shadows and gauging the negative space left by their presence. I can make out their silhouettes clearly enough that I could fight them if it came to it.”
That’s good to know, but we can’t very well bust loose and start a demon Donnybrook right in the middle of a county fair.
“We’ve been lucky so far that we’ve been able to take care of things without causing alarm,” Sebastian says, mirroring my thoughts. “The last thing we need is an obvious?—”
A woman’s horror movie scream slices through the festive soundtrack like a serrated blade, and a moment later, a panicked stampede comes flooding out of the corn maze.
The six of us hustle to the side to avoid being trampled.
Wylder curses and tosses his cup into the trash. “What’s that you were saying about us being lucky?”
“Dude, you totally jinxed us.” Rowan pegs Sebastian with a look that makes me laugh.
I hand my hot chocolate to Asher and with that, the six of us rush against the flow of traffic, racing into the corn maze.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Another scream erupts from somewhere deep in the confusing labyrinth of dried cornstalk walls. We’re all scrambling to find a path to get where we need to go. Rows of brittle beige stalks blur past, shadows deepening as we plunge deeper into the maze.
Panicked cries echo, closer by the moment, ending on a ragged edge that fuels my adrenaline. I track it, twisting through narrow paths until I skid on damp earth and nearly mow down a terrified teenager clutching the arm of his sobbing girlfriend.
“Asher, get them out of here.” I point as I run past, knowing he’ll take care of it.
