“Why did the dagger work?” Devon asks.
“Iron,” Xavier says, picking it up. “There’s iron in the blade.”
The spirit reforms and Xavier lunges at it, slashing the dagger through the air. It disappears again but another moves in through the open window, bringing with it a whoosh of air that scatters the herbs across the map.
“No!” I cry and splay my fingers over the map, using magic to keep the herbs from completely blowing off. Xavier stabs that spirit, temporarily vanquishing it. I desperately sweep the herbs back into the middle of the map and pick up the lanyard, holding it tight in my right hand.
“Ad te clamo. Te ipsum revela. Ostende mihi locum tuum.”
Another spirit rises through the floorboards, right behind me. It reaches out, hand going on the back of my head. I grunt in pain, suddenly paralyzed.
“Wren!” Xavier calls and throws the dagger. It whizzes through the spirit, and Devon catches it.
“There’s too many,” he says, whirling around, brandishing the dagger through the air, passing the dagger through another spirit. “And we only have one weapon.”
“Fire poker,” Xavier says and Devon nods. He throws the dagger at a spirit that just materialized and speeds out of the cabin. Xavier pulls the dagger from where it got lodged in the wall and stands behind me, slashing the dagger through the air.
Blood drips from my nose and I wipe it away with the back of my hand. Devon is back, holding a fire poker like a baseball bat. He and Xavier keep playing supernatural whack-a-mole and I try to recenter myself.
The demon doesn’t want me to find him—which means my spell is going to work.
“Ad te clamo. Te ipsum revela. Ostende mihi locum tuum.” I tighten my grip on the lanyard. ‘Ad te clamo. Te ipsum revela. Ostende mihi locum tuum!”The herbs vibrate and move into a circle. “Got it!” I say, bringing my finger down on the map, pressing the herbs and ashes onto the paper to mark it.
“They’re not stopping!” Devon shouts and the darkness coming from the spirits is starting to make me feel sick.
“Wren!” Xavier moves his arm over my head, stopping a spirit from materializing right before me. “How do we stop them?”
“Sage,” I say, slipping the lanyard around my neck and grabbing the map before anything can happen to it. “There’s sage in my bag.” My hands shake as I quickly fold the map,shoving it inside my shirt. Xavier pulls out the bundle of herbs from the bag.
“It’s laced with Vesta powder,” I tell him. “As soon as it lights, you have to drop it. Then we run.”
Devon swings the iron fire poker through the air as he moves back to me, picking up the bag. Xavier holds the sage in front of him and I throw out my hand.
“Ignis.”
The sage stick lights on fire and immediately starts to sizzle from the Vesta powder. Xavier slips his arm around me and effortlessly picks me up, speeding me out of the cabin. Devon is right behind us, still waving the fire poker through the air. We stop in the pathway going from the cabins back to the main building.
“Holy shit.” Devon whirls around, fangs drawn. “That’s what demon hunting is like?”
“Sometimes.” I let out a breath and Xavier takes my chin in his hand, tipping my face up to his.
“You were bleeding.”
“I’m okay.”
He licks his finger and then gently wipes a smudge of blood from my face. Devon stops dead in his tracks, eyes wide as he stares at us.
And he retracts his fangs.
“She’s in the woods,” I tell them and reach inside my shirt, pulling out the crumbled up map. “Those spirits can communicate with the demon. We need to move.” I open up the map and give it to Xavier, which he exchanges for my dagger. I slip it back into the sheath hanging on my waist.
“There’s a path along the lake,” he says. “It’ll be the fastest and easiest way to get there.”
Devon steps up next to Xavier. “Not to be a party pooper, but you marked a pretty big area on the map.”
“I know,” I say. “Once we’re close, I have one more spell to cast and it’ll help us go right to her.” I wipe my nose again when I swallow and taste blood. “I thought we’d be finding a body, but judging by the way those spirits tried to stop me from locating her, wherever she is…there’s something bigger.”
Devon zips up the backpack and puts it back on. “Lead the way,” he tells Xavier, who folds the map and sticks it in his back pocket. We jog around the main building, not stopping until we get to the lake.
