It’s late, so we quickly release Stri from the vines, lower her to the ground, and bury her. There’s no way we’re going to let her body be exposed to the elements or animals.
Once that’s done, we move to a wooded area, and Aiden hunts down a small deer. We clean and prepare the meat before cooking it. All the while, we talk about nothing important. It’s as if we’re all pretending that everything is normal, that we’re all fine, but that isn’t anywhere close to the truth.
By that point, I’m so exhausted that I can barely stay awake. Sophie’s already asleep.
“Go to sleep,” Aiden urges.
“But what about you?”
“I’ll keep watch.”
“You have to be exhausted too,” I protest. “Did you get hurt at all?”
“I’m fine”
“That’s a perfect fairy response. A non-answer if ever there was one. Come on, Aiden, please. Talk to me.”
“I was injured. I’m not anymore.”
“Who did it? Who hurt you?”
“You don’t need to worry.”
“But I do worry,” I murmur.
“I know. Why do you think I’m telling you not to?”
“But then you should also know it’s pointless to tell me that.”
“Oh, I do recognize that it’s pointless. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to say it though.” He tweaks my nose. “Rest. I’ll keep us safe.”
“I can stay up a little longer.”
Aiden shakes his head. “Sleep. We’re going to be running off tomorrow so that you can keep the world safe, remember?”
“So all of us can,” I say, doing my best not to recall what I saw happen to him in my second premonition.
I lie down near Sophie, beneath the shade of a towering oak. Sleep comes easily, almost as soon as I close my eyes. No dreams come to entertain me tonight, and when I wake, I feel as if I’m ready to go.
Sophie’s awake and putting out the fire. Did Aiden have it burn all night? Someone could’ve seen. Someone could’ve come, and the fire would’ve blinded us, but we’re alive, and we’re safe, so I shouldn’t complain. The temperature hadn’t meant that a fire was needed all night long, not like down south, and I wonder if Sequoia’s had time to call the prison yet.
“Where are we off to?” Aiden asks.
“Your favorite demon gave us the locale,” Sophie teases.
I grunt.
“Sleepyhead’s awake.” Aiden crosses over to me, bends down, and kisses my forehead before hauling me up to my feet.
“You have a favorite demon?” I tease.
“I’m allowed to. You aren’t.”
“Now that’s a double standard. I hate double standards.”
“Do you have a favorite demon?” Aiden asks.
“Yes,” I say without hesitation.
“And?”
“Brokon.”
“Who is that?” Sophie asks.
“Isn’t that the demon who has been locked up in solitary for forever?” Aiden asks.
“Yep!”
“So your favorite demon is one who’s locked up. Got it.” Aiden nods.
“Do you like to be locked up or tied up under any circumstances, Jessa?” Sophie asks.
I ignore her. “We’re off to Ancient Shroud Motel in Cragburn, room 123.”
“Cragburn?” Aiden lets loose a whistle. “You ladies don’t play around, do you?”
“We like to hang with a dangerous crowd.” I shrug one shoulder.
Aiden passes out some berries, and Sophie must’ve found some nuts because she gives us some as well. I feel bad that I can’t contribute to breakfast items, but I do manage to gather some willow bark that can help with fever and reducing pain. Of course, I hope that none of us have to make use of it.
My boyfriend—Aiden is my boyfriend, right?—uses fairy dust to whisk us to the outskirts of Cragburn. As we walk inside, our wings hidden so we can hide our being fairies, I can’t shake the feeling that we’re being watched. Most likely, we are being watched.
The main street is covered in dust, grass trying to grow despite the large amount of rocks everywhere. The buildings look worn. None of them are pained, and the grass grows high alongside the fronts and sides. It’s as if nature is trying to reclaim the town. Any paints on the signs have long since been bleached by the sun, and there are several abandoned cars. One has tall grass peeking from beneath the hood.
Sophie’s the one to point to our destination. Ancient Shroud Motel isn’t on the main drag, but off the beaten path. The upper floors had been painted what might’ve been a blue color, but the sun has faded the color almost entirely. The bottom floor is just plain wood, untreated and beginning to rot. I trace my fingers along some of the worst parts while the others walk ahead.
“Room 123,” Aiden murmurs. “Do we want to knock or…”
“They might not be here,” Sophie says.
“Too bad there isn’t a window,” I remark. Half of the windows in the place had been busted, most likely from the rocks littering the dirty path. I just can’t call it a road.
“We didn’t come here to wait until nightfall to make a move,” Aiden says. He lifts his hand to knock on the door.
The door busts open, slamming straight into him, the door half coming off the hinges. Aiden lands on the ground hard.
Before I can do anything, see who opened the door or help Aiden up, others come around from the sides of the motel. Without turning to look behind us, I’m certain there are more lined up along that path.
It’s an ambush.
A trap.
Did Zas know the others were here? Did he intentionally tell us to go here so they could finish us off? No, I don’t see that happening, but maybe he came here and notified them last night, before we made our appearance.
“No, look here,” I say, holding up my hands. “We don’t want any trouble.”
“Oh, ho!” says a voice coming from inside the room. “Is that so-oh? Because I don’t think you be telling the truth.”
“Of course I’m telling the truth,” I snap. “I’m a—”
“The lot of them are fairies,” a man says from behind us. His voice is familiar, especially the way he’s drawing out his s’s.
I glance at him. He’s the man from the gang who is missing teeth, only he’s missing more than I recall.
The man runs his tongue along his few teeth. “Yeah, you knocked some teeth out when you kneed me in the mouth.”
“You grabbed my legs!”
“You deserved everything you got and more,” he hisses.
“So you say,” I retort coolly. “We don’t want any trouble. I swear it. Wait…” I swallow hard. “He recognized me,” I murmur to Sophie and Aiden. “I looked different then—”
“Yes, well, maybe you should’ve realized that you should’ve masked your scent,” the man says with a sniff.
I eye him. A shifter of some kind?
As if he’s reading my mind, the man shifts into that of a horse. One of the others climbs onto his back and holds up a bow and arrow.
Okay, seriously? This is turning this ghost town into some kind of wild west showdown type deal. Even I know about the wild west. I don’t know that Shakespeare guy, though. I’ll have to ask Sophie about him later.
Much later.
Because all of them are rushing toward us. I’m not sure what I hoped to find here, maybe one or two of them, much better odds, and hopefully a chance for us to get some more intel. Or maybe they would’ve all been cleared out, and we could’ve investigated inside the room and found some proof inside there, either of their wrongdoing or a connection to Jaidos.
But no. We have to fight for our lives.
The guy from inside the room is a ghost. He tries to fly straight on at Aiden, but he ducks beneath a blade and then jabs the foe in the eye with a dagger. It’s insane how close he came to being hit and also how seamless the move had been on him ducking and then weaving back to stab.
The ghost keeps heading toward Aiden, and I can’t use plants yet, not that there are many here, at least as far as grass. Some of the buildings are covered in vine, and Sophie’s working on making makeshift handcuffs for the goons.
But the ghost is almost touching Aiden. What will happen if that occurs?
I don’t want to know.
And I refuse to find out.
With my knife, I slice at the ghost, expecting the knife to go through it. At first, it does. It seems as if the knife just cuts through the ghost without causing any effect on the ghost.
But then, drops of dark blood drip from his side.
The ghost twists, trying to see the wound, and I yank back my blade, ready to strike again when the moment is right.
Arrows fly all around me, and the horse is almost on us. In fact, the horse leaps and clears the top fence. He lands directly in front of us, rearing back onto his hind legs, pawing at the air, almost striking me in the head.
“There are too many of them,” Sophie cries.
Before I can react, she grabs Aiden and me, and then, she uses fairy dust on us, and we’re whisked away.