They walked along the edge of Chinatown, with its brightly painted dragon sculptures that wound around the telephone poles. They stopped at an earthquake relief tent handing out hot buns, seaweed-wrapped rice balls, and soy hot chocolate. Ruby spoke rapid-fire Mandarin to the gray-haired woman handing out food. They trudged on through the north edge of downtown, where gray skyscrapers loomed and shattered glass sat in jagged piles on the sidewalk.
Celia looked everywhere for signs of monsters but didn’t see any. She felt tired but at the same time like she might never sleep again. Amber and Ruby walked on both sides of her, linking elbows with her.
“Slumber party,” Amber said. She rubbed her eyes. “When this is over, I want to eat takeout Indian at our place and watch a million movies. You have to come, Celia. The council always gives us downtime after things have been intense.”
Ruby nodded, scanning the street for trouble. “I’m going to play video games for three days straight.”
Amber rolled her eyes. “Ruby relaxes by killing imaginary monsters instead of real ones.”
“Amber nerds out and reads spell books and history books that weigh twenty pounds each,” Ruby shot back.
“And then they make you fight monsters again?” Celia asked. “How did the hunters and the Council of Elders get started in the first place?”
Amber shrugged. “I’ve tried to research it. Not all histories get written down. As far as anyone knows, hunters started when kids fought back against them. When they grew too old to see them, they trained younger people and taught them everything they had learned. The council passes down hunter lore and gives us spells.”
“How old are they?” Celia asked.
“The Youngstown council?” Ruby paused to think. “The youngest is eighteen, and the oldest is in his nineties or something.”
Even if they couldn’t help fight monsters, at least some grown-ups somewhere were helping, Celia thought. They trudged on through the city. When they finally got to the cathedral and opened up the heavy doors, they were the last hunters to arrive.
The hunters inside waved and called out hellos that echoed through the massive church. Oil lanterns smoked and burned bright along the outer edge of the room, lighting up the stone faces of saints. The three of them walked in, past the holy water and all the burning beeswax candles, each one lit with a prayer.
Celia glanced up at the balcony behind them. No sign of Demetri.
Amber and Celia slid into the same pew they’d sat at before.
Ruby walked down the aisle and took her place in front, standing tense beside the pulpit that held a dozen burning altar candles. She ran a hand through her hair. “Report back. Tell me what you got.”
A boy with dreadlocks raised his hand and cleared his throat. “Pips and I went hunting along the docks. We followed Wolfjack into Magog’s territory. They sent a pack of dogs after us, then a swarm of locusts, then cats.”
A girl sitting next to him with short blond hair nodded. “Squeak distracted them with fish. We listened in on two Bigs scheming. We heard they’ve got thirty Bigs working together.”
Gasps followed her words. Celia shifted where she sat as she remembered Amber saying the only reason Bigs didn’t take over everything was that they never worked together.
“Good job,” Ruby said.
The scarred boy cleared his throat and raised his hand. “I rigged a ham radio up to a satellite dish and was able to get a weak line out. Nowhere has been hit besides Youngstown. Other hunters have been trying to get here to help. No one has found a way in past the border spells.”
“We heard rumors from four different Littles that the next part of the prophecy will hit soon,” a small girl, who couldn’t have been older than ten, called out. Her leather jacket was ripped open at the shoulder.
The boy sitting next to her added, “The city will hiss and the girl will run.”
Kids turned and stared at Celia. She chewed on a hangnail and looked up at the stained-glass window, pretending not to notice. Celia couldn’t imagine running anywhere. Now that she finally got to sit down and be still, she never wanted to move again.
“What about you? What did you find, Ruby?” a girl with messy ponytails called out.
“First, we killed Dreck last night.” Ruby tried to look indifferent, and held it for a moment before she grinned. “Turns out that one isn’t as useless as she looks.” Ruby pointed at Celia.
All the hunters stared at her again with wide eyes and open mouths.
Amber slung an arm around Celia’s shoulders.
“What intel did you get from Dreck?” a girl wearing a wool fedora asked.
“Nothing. His heart got destroyed. By accident,” Ruby answered.
Amber sat forward. “And today we found a hexed Little. We got a name off him. Krawl.”
“Krawl? Who’s Krawl?” a boy called out.
Amber swallowed. Her eyebrows pulled together as fear flickered across her face. She took a deep breath.
“There’s monsters and then there’s monsters.” Her fingers twisted around in her lap. “Krawl used to rule Youngstown, from back when monsters first showed up until, I don’t know, sixty years back? Of any Big I’ve ever read about, she was the best at magic. Spell casting was her game. She would set fires in classrooms and lock kids in just to make a sacrifice for a spell she was doing. She poisoned a cloister of nuns and set lions loose at the zoo. Back when she was the biggest Big in town, the council and the hunters spent all their time trying to stop her. They never even came close. No one even learned what she looked like. Then, one day, she was gone. Some people say that something banished her, or that she ran from something. Rumors of her popped up in Ukraine next; then she caused the Bermuda Massacre and moved on to Rwanda.”
“Why did she leave? Why is she back?” a boy with long hair whispered.
No one had an answer to that. Everyone took turns shrugging and looking scared.
“She sounds powerful enough to force a bunch of Bigs to work together,” a girl with a pixie cut called out. “She sounds powerful enough to know how to make an earthquake.”
Everyone went quiet, and Celia felt a rising panic fill the air. A boy with curly black hair wearing a faded leather jacket raised his hand. “We got something else. You might not want to hear it, Ruby.”
“Speak.” Ruby paced back and forth, stomping her boots.
The boy bit his lip and looked at the ground. “We swung by council headquarters and got the Grogan’s heart, so we could give it a squeeze and he would have to obey us and tell us everything he knows.”
Something thudded against one of the cathedral’s doors. Everyone turned to look.
“Just the wind. Keep talking,” Ruby said.
“The Grogan told us that the new Big in town—he must have meant Krawl—is back to find someone. Someone who all Bigs hate.”
“Who?” Ruby asked.
“We squeezed his heart good. The Grogan didn’t lie to us.”
“Who?” Ruby growled.
“Demetri.”
Demetri? Celia jerked up in her seat.
Ruby frowned and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right.”
“That’s what he told us,” the boy countered.
“Who’s Demetri?” Celia asked.
“No one.” Ruby crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the hunters—at anyone daring to contradict her. “He’s a stupid fairy tale that Littles tell so they can sleep better at night.”
“The stories say he’s good at hiding,” Amber called out. “Maybe the reason we don’t think he’s real is because he doesn’t want us to think he’s real.”
Celia swallowed and thought about all the wards Demetri wore. She touched the one under her clothes.
“No,” Ruby said. “There’s no way Demetri can be real.”
Celia was just about to ask why, when something touched her ankle. She looked down.
A thin green snake wrapped itself around her leg. It raised its head and hissed.