by Sara Snow
“Just wanted to keep you on your toes!” Carter yelled back with a smirk as he dodged a demon’s sword, driving a stake into its heart using its own momentum. “Are you ok?”
“Barely!”
“Barely is good enough for now!” Carter cried, hooking a kick at a demon mid-attack.
Jacob drove a stake through a demon nearby, dodging and weaving around a few incoming demons. “Miss us?” he asked with a cocky smirk on his face.
“I bet you guys missed me more!” I shouted with a laugh as I blasted a couple demons in front of me with fire, shifting even closer to the stairs so we could make our escape.
“Hah! Maybe you’re right,” he said, helping to throw off a demon that was attempting to overpower Eli. “Nice dress.”
Ah, the dress!
I snatched up a sword from one of the demons that had fallen and quickly wrapped the end of the train and cape in my hand, slicing them off in one clean motion and cutting a slit up the side for easier movement.
“It’s a lot nicer now,” I joked, plunging the sword into a demon that lunged at me from the side, letting it fall to the ground with the blade still embedded in its gut.
Carter whipped around to face me, his eyes quickly widening in horror, darting towards me. “Behind you!”
I spun on my heel to see a demon with its sword just inches from me, hearing it cry out in almost the same moment as someone dove in front of me, impaling it with a stake.
“Jose!?” I shouted in complete surprise.
“Hi Georgia!” he said, pushing the demon off of his stake with his foot as he maneuvered closer to the stairs with the rest of us. “Ready to go?”
I was in absolute shock. “Who turned you into a little demon ass-kicker?”
Jose dodged an incoming attack, pinning to catch the demon with a stake from behind. “I’ve been practicing with Jacob and Eli!”
I was pretty impressed watching him move like that. He seemed to have learned so quickly and while I had always believed that he would be able to do anything he set his mind to, actually seeing him in action made my heart swell with pride. It felt like he was growing up so fast, as cliche as that seemed.
The horde of demons closed in on us among the chaos, standing between us and our exit and for a moment I thought things were about to get much harder until a glass bottle flew toward their feet from above and exploded, a red liquid splattering on them, causing them to seize up and fall to the ground.
“Come on, I don’t have a million of these!” Olympia shouted, emerging from the doorway at the top of the stairs, a backpack slung over her shoulder from which she was pulling glass bottles.
“Olympia? You’re here too?” I called up to her, quickly examining the demons now at our feet. They didn’t seem dead, but definitely paralyzed, letting us step over them with ease to climb the stairs.
As we backed our way up the steps, I could see arrows cutting through the air in our direction, quickly throwing my hands out to stop them. It was dark, and I seemed to miss a few, but before they could hit anyone, Olympia had thrown another bottle of bright red liquid into the air and I heard her mutter a few words above me, watching the bottle burst, the liquid exploding over the arrows and almost instantly solidifying, stopping the arrows right in their tracks and dropping them out of the sky.
“Holy shit, Olympia?” I yelled. “Since when could you do that?”
Olympia threw her blond curls back over her shoulder with haughty confidence as she threw another one at a pair of demon guards approaching from behind her. “I’ve been working on some new recipes while you were gone.”
Eli and Jose worked in tandem at the base of the stairs, taking on a few demons simultaneously as everyone else climbed up, deflecting aerial attacks and keeping the hallway clear for our escape. They worked so well together, playing off each other in perfect sync to stop their attackers. I had never seen Jose move like that before, but whatever they’d taught him was clearly working. Eli seemed pretty enthused about the fight, taking down more demons than he needed to give Jose an opening to start climbing the stairs.
When we had all finally fought our way to reunite at the top, I sent as large and hot a wall of flame as I could muster down the stairs, letting it devastate the dining hall and scorch any demons in its path while we took off down the hall, fighting through demons left and right.
A particularly large demon approached us dressed for battle, an oversized war hammer in hand and a mean look on his face. He seemed much tougher than the others and was ready to cause trouble. I heard Carter whisper something from behind me and didn’t notice that he’d done anything until he reappeared behind the demon, plunging both of his stakes into the war demon from behind. The creature seemed stunned, but wasn’t ready to go down just yet, snatching Carter’s arm up in his clawed grasp and throwing him down the hall.
I almost called out to him as he flew through the air, but he quickly disappeared and I noticed wisps of smoke retreating toward the ground where he regained his physical form again, clutching his arm.
I surged forward, taking advantage of the war demon’s temporary distraction as he recovered from the throw and leapt up, driving my stake through its chest beneath its hefty breastplate. I hurriedly retrieved it and gave it a good blast with some flames to be sure, ducking out of the way as it collapsed with a loud cry, its huge war hammer cratering in the stone floor as it dropped, the crash resounding down the hallway.
With shaky knees beneath him, Carter struggled to his feet. Eli and I hurried over to him, helping him the rest of the way up as carefully as we could.
“You okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” he said, clearly trying to ignore the large gashes in his sleeve that dug through to his skin, soaking his clothes in blood. “Let’s go.”
We quickly made our way past him with Olympia leading, calling out directions as she looked into her scrying mirror, guiding us through the twisting turns of the palace. It seemed like she really had been hard at work since I left. I’d have to remember to ask her about this GPS spell later.
The demon minions we encountered went down fairly easily, and it seemed like the more important demon lords had either been damaged by my flames or retreated to help protect Paimon after I stabbed him.
With Olympia’s directions, we made it out of the palace fairly quickly, fighting off the last of the guards that had circled around to cut us off outside. The air outside was so thick with the smell of demonic sulfur and earthy incense that I almost couldn’t enjoy feeling the fresh air for the first time in days, the annoyance at which was propelling me through the last few demons I burned through as we made our way toward the car, panting and out of breath but pushing through to the last minute until we were truly safe.
The car was parked a bit down the road, but only one demon dared to try and stop us from getting there. Or maybe there was only one demon left to stop us after we’d taken the rest out, but either way, we put an end to that quickly, downing it right in the street.
“Carter, you’re hurt. Toss me your keys,” Jacob called as we approached the car.
Carter hesitated, his eyes narrowing, but I could tell his arm was hurting him. “Jacob’s right, let him drive,” I told him.
Without a word, Carter tugged the keys from his pocket and tossed them to Jacob, letting me lead him toward the backseat with me. It was a tight fit when we all climbed in and Olympia had to sit on Jose’s lap to get all of us in there, but as quickly as he could, Jacob got us back on the road and we were on our way.
I rested my head against the headrest, clasping Carter’s hand in mine, though I was careful not to touch him too much above the wrist where he’d been slashed. I pulled out the dagger and the scroll, thankfully still tucked into the back of my waistband and set them on my lap, letting myself sag down in the seat. I tore off another piece of the dress to wrap the telum, tired of its blue glow.
The energy in the car was absolutely buzzing, but it felt more familiar to m
e than anything had in the past few days. Finally, for the first time in what felt like forever, I let myself relax as I watched the factory shrink into the night, finally leaving Paimon and the rest of his friends behind me.
19
Carter
Walking back into the warehouse felt completely surreal. It was exactly the same as we had left it, even though it felt like so much had changed. The car ride had been largely silent, and I think everyone appreciated a bit of time to recover after the absolutely insane escape that we just pulled off.
Everyone seemed a bit more relaxed when we had all filed into the warehouse, and despite how much I shared in their relief, I couldn’t make myself let go of Georgia’s hand. She finally pulled away from me to go change into her own clothes, citing her desperation to get that “demon stink” off of her. As soon as she was back, though, I found my hand seeking hers again. We’d been separated for too long, and I was almost afraid that if I let go for more than a few minutes, something would come along and separate us again. I would absolutely die before I let that happen. The only one I’d do it for was Olympia, who approached us while digging through her backpack.
“Let me see your arm, Carter. I think I put some of my salve in here and I have a nice brew that should speed up the healing,” she said.
Reluctantly, I let go of her hand and held my arm out, sliding the sleeve up to reveal the damaged area. Olympia looked at it, her eyebrows knit in confusion.
“Uh, was it the other arm?” she said, trying to get a view of my other forearm that was obscured by the intact sleeve.
I found myself trying to look too, knowing for sure that I’d seen my flesh cut. I had definitely felt it when that demon’s claws had sliced through me. There was still blood on my sleeve around the tears and I knew it was mine. Even Georgia seemed surprised.
“You guys all saw that, right? That thing sliced my arm up pretty good when it threw me,” I said.
“Did I give you some of my salve before we left or something? What did you put on it?” Olympia asked, turning my arm around in all sorts of funny angles to get a good look.
“Nothing, I haven’t even had my arm to myself—Georgia’s been clinging to me since we left,” I said.
“What did you do to him, Georgia?” she asked.
“I… I didn’t do anything to him…” she started. “I don’t think so, at least. I didn’t try to.”
I was dumbstruck, my eyes refusing to believe what they were seeing. It wasn’t until Georgia looked at me with a weirdly knowing look that I had a realization. I grabbed and flopped the scroll down onto a countertop nearby, unfurling it until I found the image of the Huntress sitting over a person on the ground with her hands laid on them.
Everyone gathered around to try and get a good look at the scroll.
“What’s this?” Olympia asked.
“Long story, but it’s an ancient demon scroll that documents a prophesied Huntress who will tip the balance between the worlds of both humans and demons using a weapon called the telum that’s been broken into three pieces. It’s a long story that I’ll tell you later, but Carter and I stole this and the dagger from Paimon’s crypt. I think it’s the middle piece of the telum,” Georgia said, unrolling the blade from its cloth and laying it beside the scroll. “A cambion princess that I met in the castle thought that I might be the Huntress in the scroll and at this point… I’m not sure what to think…”
I slid the scroll closer to myself. “If you ask me, it looks like she’s healing this person. If you look down at the next image, you’ll see the guy standing upright now. It looks like a continuation of the other picture and he seems to have recovered.” I looked at my arm, not even a mark on me under the wrecked sleeve. “I think maybe you can heal people, Georgia.”
“Well that’s… new,” she said, seeming surprised.
“Do you think that maybe…” Olympia gestured to the image of the Huntress healing someone, indicating the picture before that seemed to depict a confrontation between her and Paimon. “Do you think these images here are your refusal of Paimon’s oath? Maybe that’s another step toward the veritatem. Maybe that’s what strengthened your power. I mean look at this last image down here,” she said, gesturing toward the final picture of the Huntress floating in a glow. “This seems pretty veritatem-esque to me.”
“I noticed when we were escaping that you seemed to have much better control over your powers,” Jacob said. “They seemed more precise and even more powerful than before.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I was too busy to notice, but I think looking back I kind of did feel that,” she said.
I flexed my hand experimentally, watching the muscle in my forearm stretch beneath my skin as if nothing had happened there. It was so strange. It didn’t hurt, there was no scarring. It looked completely unharmed. It had to have been Georgia. It made too much sense for it to be anything else.
Georgia was definitely getting stronger. Olympia was right. She had to be. Everything was lining up a little too perfectly. I just couldn't see what would have spurred such a sudden change if it wasn’t a step toward the veritatem. Hopefully, with a little more time and information from this scroll, we’d be able to figure it out more clearly.
And hopefully we’d figure it out fast.
Georgia
So much had happened today, and a new development with my healing power on top of it all was a lot to take in. I was relieved that I was able to help Carter, but the more power I got, the closer to my supernatural side I felt, and something about that scared me. Especially after I’d used such dirty lies to get Rakshasi to help me in the castle the same way Paimon manipulates people into doing things for him. Just like how he’d acted fatherly and friendly in order to get me to stay. I didn’t want to be like that. I didn’t want to lose my human side, and it felt even worse knowing that it was probably Rakshasi’s empathetic human side that made her so willing to help me.
My stomach was in knots, so I pushed the guilt down, focusing instead on the chatter about my new power that had carried on without me when I lost myself in my thoughts.
“So Georgia, do you think you’ll be able to heal Jacob when I take him down in the training room next?” Jose asked with a confident smirk.
“Kids these days, man,” Jacob said, shaking his head. “You let them fight demons one time and they get too big for their britches.”
Once the excitement of my new power had died down, everyone congregated in the lounge area and I led Carter over to one of the couches, sinking into the soft fabric with the blade and scroll set next to me. Everyone settled in except Eli, who disappeared into another room. I thought about following him to see if he was alright, but he quickly emerged with a six pack of cold beers and a church key, enthusiastically dropping them down onto the table in the middle.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I think I could use a drink,” he said with a cheerful smile, pulling bottles from the pack and popping the tops to distribute them to everyone.
Everyone gratefully accepted theirs until only Jose and Eli were left and Eli had two bottles still in his hand.
“I’ll have my beer, please,” Jose said, holding his hand out with the cocky confidence of a teenager who felt like a grownup for once.
“Hey, beer isn’t for kids, it’ll rot your brain,” Eli said, holding the bottle comically far from Jose.
“Aw come on, neither is slaying demons!” Jose said, reaching more insistently.
Eli seemed to think about it, though he was over the top about it, humming and hawing like it was a show. Eventually he relented, holding out the bottle to Jose who took it excitedly in both hands.
“Alright, just this once, and only because you absolutely crushed it out there, Jose!” he said, extending his bottle toward Jose.
Jose reached up with his, clinking it against Eli’s. “Cheers, I’ll drink to that!”
Jacob laughed. “I saw you move out there, I’m not going to go easy on you in the trai
ning room anymore, Jose.”
“Hey, you never went easy on me!” Jose cried.
“Uh-huh. Just tell yourself that,” Jacob joked, taking a swig of his beer.
Jose scoffed, though he didn’t entirely seem sure if Jacob was telling the truth or not. Regardless, he still seemed overly pleased with himself and took a sip, pulling away from the bottle with a grimace that he tried to hide.
Everyone laughed, even Jose, and it felt like a collective exhale, everyone easing out of the tension. Things started to feel normal for a few moments, which of course couldn’t last long as the conversation was quickly brought back to the mission we’d just completed.
Jacob cleared his throat. “Alright, we can relax for now, but we still need a debrief on Georgia’s secret intel mission. I know you got the scroll and that dagger, but what does that mean? What’s the dagger for?”
I ran them through everything that Paimon and Rakshasi had told me and relayed as many details as I could of everything that happened while I was there, trying to paint as full a picture as possible.
“Alright, so there’s three pieces to the blade? Did she say where the other two parts were hidden?” Carter asked.
“No, Paimon interrupted us before she could tell me anything specific. She thinks they’re in the castle, but she didn’t say where or why,” I said, taking a drink.
“Great, the last thing we need is to break back into that place again,” Carter said with a groan.
“Trust me, it’s the last thing I want to do, too,” I said, lacing my fingers through his to hold his hand. “For now, I think we should stay put and plan our next move. And more importantly, rest. None of us need to be exhausted when we go head-to-head again.”
“Georgia’s right about that. Besides, we did a pretty good bit of damage against them tonight. We took out a lot of Paimon’s servants, and Georgia nailed Paimon in the chest with that dagger. I don’t think it was a kill shot since it seems like this telum is gonna be the secret to killing him, but it definitely put us in a good spot. The existence of the telum also explains why Georgia’s fire didn’t kill him in El Paso like it should have, though clearly it injured him enough to temporarily slow him down. They’ll be taking time to recover now as well,” Jacob said.