“Oh, little Kai.”Mikano stroked Kai’s back.“It’s fine.I can smell Tickle, and I don’t think he’s hurt.Show me where you two got separated, please?”
Kai nodded, pointed.It was still a few streets away, and they passed a shocking amount of garden gnomes, so many that Kai was surprised he’d never really noticed them before.At a crossroads, Mikano stopped briefly to look at a house that didn’t match, its garden wilted and its windows gray with dust and dirt.
“I guess that’s abandoned,” Kai said.
Mikano shook his head.“No.Someone undid the spell covering it.”He pointed.“All these houses are like that.They are make-believe, a bright world that is really quite dreary.Let’s keep going.”
Mikano was far more serious now, and Kai thought he detected some urgency in the demon’s demeanor.It made him hasten his steps, shove all his feelings about Salt Harbor all the way to the back of his mind.
“They got to us over there.See those tire marks on the sidewalk?I guess that’s the place.They, uh, made those cars move?By magic I guess.”
Mikano nodded.“A good guess.I can smell it.Not a strong spell, more like many rubber bands layered one atop the other to seal a plastic bag.”
He walked toward the black marks on the ground.Kai followed and peered through the front window of the café, but it was empty, and not just empty but lifeless.Now that he really looked, most of the town appeared to be abandoned.
When he came to a stop, Mikano sniffed the air.As he was standing there, Kai heard the engine of a car, a familiar one.
The mailman was driving down Main, stopping here and there to put letters in mailboxes, then getting back into his car and driving on.Mikano saw him too and walked toward him, waving.
“What do you want from the mailman?”Kai asked.
“Mmm.Stay behind me.”
Kai sighed.“Why?Just tell me what—”
Mikano shushed him just as the mailman stopped his car next to them.Kai had seen him, maybe not every day, but he’d been to the store, had left the mail on the counter.Kai was pretty sure they’d talked, just general stuff, nothing of importance, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember even a single conversation.
“Sharks have an excellent sense of smell, did you know that, Kai?Even here on land, I need no magic to smell Tickle.However, what I don’t smell is his specific magic.That tells me his demon abilities were bound, and that requires some knowledge humans ought not possess.It’s the same kind of thing that can do transformation magic.Have a good look, Kai.I’ll show you how to unmake a transformation spell.”
The mailman got out of his car, and as soon as his boots touched the ground, Mikano snapped his fingers.
The air around the mailman wavered in blues and yellows, and Kai saw him transform.It wasn’t pretty.One moment, it was the mailman, then he looked like a human-shaped piece of dough that was being kneaded, and in the next moment he was just…an old guy who was too small for his uniform to fit him properly.
Kai gasped.He was beyond words.
The old man’s face turned to a grimace, and as his eyes lit up with fury, Kai thought he recognized him.Howard something?The full memory wouldn’t come, but whatever there was, it made him shake all over again.
“You vapid fool, bringing demons to our doorstep!I shouldn’t have let him keep you.”The mailman’s angry gaze shifted to Mikano.“Filthy demon!”
“Yes, I am a demon.Kai, I see why Fian had you call me.What is going on here falls squarely in my line of work.I’m with the Human Liaisons Unit.”He looked back over his shoulder.“The Unit only employs the most powerful demons to make sure the misuse of magic that has happened here doesn’t go unpunished.”
The older guy meanwhile was mumbling something and wiggling his fingers.There was color there just like Kai had seen when Nick and James had taken Fian.
A whirlwind of black manifested from the inside of the mail truck.Kai shouted a warning, but it couldn’t be heard over the noise.
Mikano clapped his hands, but the noise of that wasn’t smothered.Neither was the old man’s chanting.
“Kai, duck!”Mikano said, his voice crisp and clear.
Kai only just managed to get to the ground when he heard it; wings, thousands and thousands of wings, and the insects they belonged to.
“A carnivorous butterfly swarm!Lovely!We rarely get those back home.”
When Kai peered up, he saw Mikano eagerly open his maw.Which was a shark maw again, something that didn’t belong to the human body he was currently shifted into.I mean, that’s like when Fian turned into a real kraken.I haven’t even processed that yet, but he turned into a kraken.And I don’t mind that about him.
Kai didn’t see much of the butterflies, just a host of wings that sparkled in pinks and blues, greens and orange hues.They were pretty.One dropped to the ground next to Kai, a large creature with a pulsing body and purple and blue wings one of which was torn.Kai couldn’t help himself; he reached out to touch the butterfly.
The thing turned fast and bit his finger.Kai yelped and pulled his hand back to stare at the butterfly in shock.
