A frustrated sigh slipped past my lips before I could stop it, but Victor continued, his tone heavy with something that sounded like regret. “I do know that he was forced back to the Underworld after his last visit. Banished. He wasn’t supposed to be able to return.”
That stopped me cold. “Banished? By who?”
Victor shrugged, his shoulders tight. “No idea. I assume the council. It was before my time. All I know is that it wasn’t an easy feat. Whoever managed it didn’t just send him back—they made sure he wasn’t allowed topside again.”
“Well, clearly, that didn’t stick,” Nishi muttered, her tone biting as she glanced toward the door, as though expecting Krampus himself to stroll in.
Aurora frowned, her arms crossed, her eyes drilling into Victor. “If he was banned, how is he here now?”
Victor’s jaw tightened, his gaze shifting between us. “I don’t know. But if he’s here, something’s changed. Either he was never really gone, or Krampus found a way to return.”
The room fell silent, the magnitude of his words pressing down on all of us. If Krampus had found a way to circumvent the gate, we weren’t just dealing with a demon who punished the guilty. We were dealing with something far more dangerous.
The room buzzed with questions, the tension thick enough to cut with a blade.
“Where would he go?” Nishi asked, pacing in tight circles near the desk. Her cutting tone mirrored the worry etched across her face.
Aurora crossed her arms, her brow furrowed in concentration. “If he’s targeting people like Brody, then maybesomewhere connected to kids? A school? A daycare? Or he might stay near here since he already struck in the village.”
“But how do we even track him?” Eve chimed in. “He’s not going to leave a neon sign pointing the way.
I stayed quiet, my mind racing as they volleyed questions back and forth, each one harder to answer than the last. Krampus wasn’t like the usual supernatural beings we tracked down. He didn’t have predictable patterns or known weaknesses. At least none that we knew about.
Victor finally raised a hand, his expression as grim as ever. “Hold on,” he said, his voice cutting through the noise. “Before we even figure out where he went, I want to know how the hell he got here in the first place.”
The room went still, everyone turning to look at him.
Victor’s jaw tightened, his frustration clear. “Krampus was banished. He wasn’t supposed to be able to set foot topside again. Sharun was supposed to be stopping demons at the gate.”
Sharun. The gatekeeper of the Underworld. The one who was supposed to make sure things like this didn’t happen.
Eve frowned, her arms crossing tighter. “So, what? Sharun let him through?”
Victor shook his head, his tone sharp. “That’s the thing. I don’t think Sharun would just let him through. Something must have gone wrong, or someone bypassed him entirely.”
Aurora narrowed her eyes, her voice low and dangerous. “If Sharun isn’t stopping demons, we’ve got bigger problems than Krampus.”
“Yeah,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair. “Because if Krampus can break through, who else can?”
The room went silent again, the weight of the realization settling over us. Krampus was bad enough, but the thought of the gate between worlds cracking open was terrifying on a whole new level.
I squared my shoulders, forcing my focus back to the immediate problem. “One thing at a time,” I said, my voice firm. “Right now, we need to figure out where Krampus is and how to stop him. Then we’ll deal with Sharun.”
Victor nodded, though the worry in his eyes didn’t fade. None of ours did.
CHAPTER 4
Frustration bubbled in my chest, a storm brewing just under my skin. My hands curled into fists, and I could feel my pulse hammering in my ears. The uncertainty, the lack of answers—it was all too much. My control slipped, just for a moment, but it was enough.
Nishi’s voice cut through the haze. “Your eyes are flickering,” she said, her tone sharp but controlled, like a verbal slap to the face.
I froze, exhaling slowly as I forced myself to pull it back, to calm the primal part of me that was clawing at the edges. I wasn’t going to let it out, not here, not now. My breath came slower, steadier, and after a beat, I nodded. “I’m good,” I muttered, though the tension in my voice was unmistakable.
Reaching for my phone, I pressed Carnell’s number, and the familiar click of the line connecting grounded me. “Hey,” I said, putting it on speaker. When he picked up, my voice was still tight. “We have a problem. It’s Krampus.”
Carnell didn’t miss a beat. “Are you certain?”
“As sure as I can be,” I replied. “Victor’s pretty confidentit’s him—everything fits. But here’s the thing—Victor’s also wondering if Sharun let him through the gate.”
