Nature replenished me, she refilled my well, buoying me up, and finally, I was able to breathe. I opened my eyes and realized it was snowing. All around us, the silent flakes fell, kissing the earth with a clear, clean new robe of crystalline white.
I relaxed, rolling over to sit in the chill of the snow. Cold though it may be, the snow felt like a welcoming cushion, and I could have laid down and let it cover me deep, embracing me in its shroud.
“We did it,” Grams said. “The comstod is gone, and it won’t be able to return. I welded the seal shut on that particular portal.”
“Does that mean it won’t ever come back?” I asked.
“Most likely. At least that one. How are you feeling?” she asked, looking over at me.
“I think I’m okay. But I’ve never experienced anything quite like that. I didn’t even know I had that intensity of magic in me.”
“This is only the beginning,” Grams said. “This is only the beginning.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Grams and I returned to my house, where she went to change clothes. She kept several wardrobe changes here, just in case. Faron was awake by then, and was sitting in the kitchen with Bran. They looked up as we trudged in, and I realized that our hair was filled with leaves and twigs, and we both looked like we’d seen better days. We also smelled of ozone, and something else that I couldn’t quite place.
“Well, we have answers for Daisy when she comes over,” I said. “I need a shower.”
“So do I,” Grams said. “Mind if I use your guest shower?”
“Go ahead. Bran, can you get her some towels? I need to good scrub down, too. I feel like I’ve just been through a mud fight.”
I headed into the bedroom, too tired to say anything else. I took a quick shower, and changed into one of my winter dresses, wanting to feel fresh and pretty and clean.
As I dried my hair, which was far too long to let dry naturally, I thought about everything that had happened. I had learned so much today, and not just how to fight demons.
I had learned that I cared about my heritage. I cared about carrying on the family tradition, and I had felt a pride rise up when I was standing beside Grams, fighting the comstod demon, a pride that I hadn’t felt long time. I felt useful. I felt necessary. And those were feelings that I wasn’t willing to give up.
The coming months would be hard — learning new skills always was — but these were skills that were inherent within my system, within my bloodline, and I was eager to embrace them and wake them up. My father’s bloodline was summoning me home, and I was ready to make the commitment.
Daisy sat there, her mouth open as we told her what had happened. Faron just stared at us, unblinking, looking shocked.
“You mean she was under control of the demon?” he finally asked.
“In a way,” Grams said. “Once the comstod got its hooks in her, it was able to feed on her shock and her dismay over what happened with you and the Pack. And it fed on those feelings and exacerbated them. By the time she died, Lucretia must have been feeling absolutely devastated. I can’t imagine her dismay. Everything she had envisioned and had tasted, stripped away from her. So, the demon drove her to kill herself. And it’s not your fault,” Grams said, leaning towards Faron. “You did nothing wrong.”
“I can’t help but feel that I did,” he said. “She agreed to marry me, expecting a certain life and it didn’t happen. Just when she thought she was settling in, everything got stripped away from her. I hope she can find her rest. I don’t know if I ever will.” He let out a shudder, tapping the table with his fingertips.
“You have to let it go,” Grams said. “For your own sanity, you have to walk away from the stress, realizing you did the best you could. What transpired wasn’t something under your control. I know that’s hard for you, especially as an alpha wolf, but you have to let it go. You have to move on and do something else with your life.”
Faron listened. I could see in his face that he was seriously contemplating what she had to say.
I turned to Daisy. “What now? Is her death a closed case?”
Daisy nodded. “I can tell her family what happened. But are those demons common? Would they build a nest here? I feel like there’s so much about this town that I don’t understand. Yes, I’m a puma shifter, I’m one of the Otherkin and I should know about more of these things, but we aren’t taught about them in school. And like your Pack, Faron, my Pride doesn’t shed a lot of light about creatures like demons and devils and spirits. I think we can sense them easier than you can, given our feline nature, but nobody ever tells you these things.”
“It’s a shame, isn’t it?” Faron said. “You know what? I might just open a school. Not one for education like grade school or high school, but one where I can train shifters—of all kinds and ages—on things to watch out for. I can teach them about the dangers that face our people. I wonder if anyone would send their kids to that kind of program.”
“I would,” Daisy said. “I plan on having children one day. And I’m engaged so it’s probably not that many years off. Hell, I might take the class myself. I can also see sending my officers to learn, as well, so they can be more informed. I can easily talk to a number of people that I work with and recommend it, if you wanted to do something like that.”
“That would be wonderful,” I said, perking up. It will give Faron a chance to lead the younger generation. And if he served the general shifter community, there should be plenty of children out there to make it worthwhile.
“I agree,” Grams said. “That seems like a wonderful way to both give back to the community, and to ensure that these children grow up prepared for a number of the dangers that actually exist. Starlight Hollow is a nexus point, where all sorts of entities can slip in through. I can train you on some of those things—at least in the demonic realm. Because there are more demons similar to the comstods, and some of them latch on to other types of shifters. They don’t just target wolves.”
We wrapped up the day by ordering take-out, and Grams stayed for a while. She and I holed up in the kitchen for a while, talking about what it happened.
“I want to do this,” I said. “I want to become a demon slayer. I could feel how right it is for me while we were out there. And I’d love to work with you. I didn’t realize that you were still active in the realm.”
