“No, it wasn’t luck. He went to the Sentinels. They helped him. They could help us, too.”
“The Sentinels are basically in hiding right now,” Nicolas said. “They’ve got wards on that skating rink to keep us out, and no one knows where they’re staying anymore. Sure, they’re surviving, but they’re outnumbered. We’d just be bringing more trouble to their doorstep if we asked them for help.” Julian had told him, during their last face-to-face meeting, that the Sentinels would help them if they asked for it. It just felt like the frying pan versus the fire. They would burn either way.
Daniel sighed. “But…”
“What?”
“Maybe this connection you felt to that demon is a sign. They’re all with demons, too. Maybe you’re… like them.”
Nicolas winced. “I’m not sure that’s a good thing.” Weren’t their lives all much harder now that they were with their demons? Maybe they were happy, but that wasn’twithout its own challenges. There was no guarantee it wasbetter.
“They seem to be doing okay.”
“They’ve built a life with their demons, I guess. What life could I have with something like the sin eater?” It was so far-fetched, he should laugh, but he didn’t feel like laughing.
“What life can you have in a guild where everyone hates us?”
Nicolas put his half-eaten third slice down, suddenly not hungry anymore.
“What about Dad?” Nicolas asked. He’d raised them to be paladins. He and Mom were buried behind the church at HQ. If they left, they could never visit them again. Their family had a long legacy in the guild. If they left, they would be throwing away all of that history. They’d spent their life trying to follow in their father’s footsteps. He couldn’t imagine giving it all up so easily.
“Dad raised us to be soldiers for God. I don’t think God has much to do with the guild anymore.”
Not for the first time, Daniel was parroting his own thoughts.
Nicolas sighed. “I’m not saying no. I’m just saying… maybe not yet. There’s no guarantee life outside the guild is any better.”
“It can’t be any worse,” Daniel said grimly. “They’ve silenced all of us who disagreed with Sloan. He’s overtaken the council. There’s no one left to reign him in, and I think things are only gonna get worse from here.”
Nicolas feared the same, but he feared the unknown more.
Chapter 4
Ashmedai
It wasn’teasy to follow his human from the guild to his home in the middle of the afternoon. Ashmedai jumped from shadow to shadow, following his aura across the city until it came to a stop at the place where he laid his head at night. The moment their eyes locked, his body had reacted, surging with the need to close the distance between them and claim him at last. But not yet. The next time he touched his human, there would be no urgency. He would take his time.
The wards on his human’s abode left something to be desired. They weren’t designed to keep out demons as strong as Ashmedai. That was probably because the guild had never faced a demon like him before. Some demons required stronger wards, but those demons rarely involved themselves in affairs on the surface. He would fix that in time, make sure his human was truly safe.
He couldn’t resist a closer glimpse of the human, appearing in his living room as he opened his door. The sound of his gasp reverberated in Ashmedai’s bones. He disappeared just before the lights came on, regretfullyreturning to the Rink again. The human had someone else with him right now. Ashmedai would bide his time until nightfall, until he could be sure his human was alone and relaxed.
But when he arrived at the Rink, appearing in a dark storage closet and stepping out into the main room, he was greeted with chaos.
Nathan was pacing, one hand tearing at his hair and the other holding his phone up in front of him. Storm, Ira, Wolf, Luke, and Malachi were standing around him, all with varying degrees of worry and panic on their faces.
“We dropped them off at their house at midnight last night, just like always. I watched them go inside their house before Storm and I left. What could’ve happened between then and now? Did you talk to their dad?”
Alex’s voice filtered out into the air from the device. “Yeah. He was passed out at home, sleeping off a bender.”
“He smelled like In Extremis on Sunday morning,” Talon’s voice added.
“Gross,” Malachi said with a weak chuckle.
“He said they left for school like normal—after some posturing and threatening, because he had no idea who we were.”
“He doesn’t even know they changed their emergency contact info to us, does he?” Nathan asked, rolling his eyes.
“Nope. That didn’t come up. They didn’t change all of the info, anyway. Just told the office that your number was their dad’s new number.”
