Page 124 of Bedeviled

Once we’re where it all happened, I have to recount the whole ordeal all over again, ending with giving the officers Kane’s contact information so he can also have a joyless day recounting the previous night’s traumatic events.

I brace myself for the moment Officer Howahkan might request we head over to Slain Maiden’s Meadow to recount the events that transpired there, but thank the ever-loving Goddess that shortly after the forensics team arrives and begins to rope off the space, he lets me go.

I stumble away, my nausea rising.

Est amage, Memnon says, his voice gentle, so gentle, are you alright?

A violent shiver racks my body. Fine enough, considering the last twenty-four hours we’ve had.

Should I come over?

I’m already shaking my head. I’ll be alright.

Vow it, he demands, or I’m storming the gates of that school.

The corner of my mouth twitches. I honestly wouldn’t half mind the sorcerer taking it over if it meant Henbane remained open. I vow it.

Instead of returning to my house, where swarms of people still linger, I move deeper into the Everwoods, retracing my way to Last Rites Cemetery.

Something is tugging at the corner of my mind, and I need a moment to think on it.

I pass the area Sybil and I were in last night, picking up my discarded coat along the way. I continue on, to the familiar, empty crypt that houses the ley line entrance.

Once I’m inside the chilly stone tomb, however, I ignore the glimmering tear in reality, instead choosing to sit on the stone floor, Nero at my side.

I lean my forehead against him, thinking back to last night. Going over the events with Officer Howahkan drew something to the forefront of my mind, something I didn’t have time to mull over earlier.

Was it a coincidence that a demon was lying in wait for me on the very evening that, only a few hundred yards away, a whole legion of them were attacking my coven sisters on Eislyn’s behalf?

Or how about the other attack, the one that ran me off the road? Was that also unrelated?

I glance up from Nero’s fur and stare unseeingly at the wall across from us as a tiny detail from the first demon attack comes to me, one I might be misremembering. But now that the thought has taken root, I can’t shake it.

Memnon? I call out across our bond.

Reconsidering me storming the gates? he responds.

Tempting, I say, but no. I need that brilliant mind of yours.

Praise me again, and I will do whatever it is you ask of me.

I grin. Save your kinks for tonight, est vexsava.

My love.

I hear Memnon’s harsh exhale at the endearment.

Do you remember that first demon who attacked me? I ask.

I do, he says darkly. The levity is gone entirely from his tone.

After you read his mind, he was muttering something for a moment. Do you remember what it was?

It was gibberish, nothing more.

Entertain me anyway, I say.

There’s a pause, then Memnon says, “Serve to.”