“Do you smell that?” Xavier asks Devon.
Devon inhales, tipping his head up. “It smells like roadkill.”
“It’s human.” Xavier pauses, eyes narrowing as he looks at the boathouse on the dock. “There’s something else.”
“A person?” I ask, hopefully. Maybe we can get some of the workers out alive after all.’
“No. Some sort of monster.”
I pull the dagger from the sheath, fingers sparking with magic that travels down the blade, electrifying it like a taser. We creep forward on the dock, and the old wood creaks under our weight. Xavier holds out his hand, stopping me so he can take the brunt of an attack.
The wind blows, carrying with it the scent of death. It does smell like roadkill, and how Xavier can tell the difference between what’s a dead human and a dead deer, I’ll never know. We take a few more steps and I look down into the dark water on either side of us.
One of the canoes that’s tied up bumps into the dock, and pulls my attention to it. My heart is in my throat, adrenaline surging through my body. Keeping a tight hold of my dagger, I look into the next boat, eyes trying to adjust to whatever’s inside.
“The fuck is that?” Devon exclaims right as something jumps out of the boat and growls at us. It’s clutching what’s left of a rotting and festering human arm.
“Scrapper demon,” I say. “They’re fast and have a nasty bite, but they’re easy to kill.”
With a snarl, Xavier speeds forward, grabbing the scrapper demon and ripping its head clean off its body. He drops both parts onto the dock. Two more scramble out of the boat, snarling and hissing at Xavier. He goes for the one closest and Devon zooms forward, taking hold of one. He snaps its neck and then quickly drops the body, looking a little unsettled.
Other than losing control and biting me, Devon hasn’t done anything overtly violent. I suppose you could call demon hunting a gray area when you’re killing monsters like scrapper demons, but decimating any sort of creature can change you.
“I think that’s it,” I say, whirling around. The dock’s movement throws off my balance, and it’s hard to focus on anything in the dark. I blink rapidly, trying to steady myself. The wind blows again, gently rustling beach towels that are hanging on the dock’s railing along the shore.
I lost my flashlight inside the cabin, so I have to get closer to the canoe to see what’s left of the body. From the smell alone, I know this person has been dead for several days, probably killed whenever everyone went missing a few days ago.
“How’d the cops miss this one?” Devon asks.
“The body was dragged,” Xavier tells him, pointing to something I can’t see along the shore. “That’s the trail.”
“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.
