Chapter 29
Quinn
My throat closed up at Crag’s words. “We can’t give up,” I forced out. “You were sure Rollick would have come up to Jacksonville by now.”
Torrent nodded, looking grim. “You were here for hours before we got the vest and could cloak the energy you give off. There’s no reason for him not to have followed the trail. Unless something even more important diverted him…”
No. No. If we couldn’t see this plan through now, when would we ever get another chance to ensure everyone I cared about was safe from the demon?
I dragged in a breath and let it out slowly. An idea took shape in my mind. It wasn’t an idea I liked all that much, but that could be said for an awful lot of the schemes I’d entered into over the past few days.
I’d be sticking my neck out, putting myself right in front of the threat, but that was what I excelled at, wasn’t it? Stand on the edge of a skyscraper, dangle myself in a villainous demon’s face—it was all good.
“You and Lance have only been patrolling near the park, right?” I said to Crag.
“We couldn’t keep a close enough watch if we went much farther,” he said. “We wouldn’t want him getting past us and catching you unaware.”
“All right, but what if he couldn’t get past you to me… because I was with you?”
Torrent cocked his head. “What solution are you designing now, Ms. Fix-It?”
I motioned to Crag. “If Crag’s okay with it, he could carry me and go farther out into the city. There are barely any people out at this hour, and it’s dark enough that he should be able to avoid anyone noticing him. He could see if he can figure out where Rollick is and get him to realize that I might be nearby. Give him a more urgent trail to follow back here.” I caught Crag’s gaze. “I’m counting on you being able to fly faster than he can run.”
“I can,” Crag said sternly, as if worried his abilities had been doubted. “But we don’t know who else is working with him. He could have other tricks up his sleeve. It’d be dangerous.”
“I know,” I said firmly. “I’m okay with that. It’s better taking that risk than risking our plans getting ruined.”
Torrent rubbed his mouth. “It isn’t likely that Rollick has much of anyone, if anyone at all, helping him in his search. He sent us because of how discreet he wanted to keep his involvement. This approach would put you closer to harm’s way, but I think the trade-off is worth it. It might be the only way we can salvage tonight.”
Crag paused and then grunted with determination. “I’ll keep you safe,” he said with a hint of a protective growl, and hunched down, expanding into his gargoyle form at the same time. His voice carried from his transformed throat with a deeper rumble. “It’ll be easiest if I carry you on my back.”
I left the metal vest in the semi-circle of bushes where I’d need it as soon as we returned. Even with Crag crouched close to the ground, it was a scramble heaving myself onto his stone body, using his knee as a foothold. I scooted as high up as I could between his thick wings and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Is this okay?”
“No problem at all, Softie,” he said, and rose into the air with a flap of his wings.
I was putting my absolute trust in him—and he was putting his in me, that I wouldn’t react in some way that would draw attention and screw him over. The sense of mutual reliance soothed some of the lingering guilt still prickling in my gut.
Crag soared between the trees, avoiding the paths with their intermittent lamps. Only a few cars cruised by on the roads beyond the park. In a gap between them, he launched himself higher. He landed on the roof of a store-top apartment and then glided along with shallow flaps, staying close to the buildings so he couldn’t be spotted from the streets.
“I’ll go south first,” he said, “since that’s the direction he’d have been coming from.”
“That makes sense.” I hugged him a little tighter, his stony skin reassuringly unyielding against my arms as the air licked over me. “Thank you. I—I hope you don’t feel too awful, going against the guy who was your boss.”
Crag let out a short huff. “He gave me things to do… and I thought they were the only things I could do. I thought I could only scare people. But I don’t scare you.”
The blooming warmth Torrent’s words had provoked unfurled further through my chest at Crag’s. “No, you don’t. I think you’re… incredible.”
He hummed low in his chest, the reverberation tingling through my skin. “So I’d rather be with you, where I can be more.”
He said the simple statement with so much certainty that I couldn’t argue with him. I just leaned the side of my face against the back of his neck and soaked in the warmth he offered so freely.
Crag flew in silence for several more minutes. Then he froze on the edge of a rooftop, his breath catching. “I think—” He shuffled to the side with a sharp inhalation. “He is here. His body gives off specific vibrations I can sense when he moves through this world—they’re close to us now.”
My heart leapt. “Is he coming this way?”
“Let me see. I’ll make an easy path to follow.”
He stalked back the way we’d come over the tops of a few buildings and then paused again. After a moment, he nodded. His voice dropped even lower. “He’s on our trail. Now we hurry.”
I held on tight, and Crag sprang through the air. We bounded across the buildings and over streets, sometimes flying, sometimes simply running on all fours. A couple more times, Crag stopped to confirm Rollick hadn’t fallen too far behind, but only for a matter of seconds. The demon was nearly keeping pace with us.
As we neared the park, Crag clarified why. “He’s got a car. I feel its resonance too. He can’t follow us on a straight path, but he’s coming fast.”
“Well, he’ll have to get out once we’re at the park,” I said. Hopefully that’d be enough time for us to get everything ready.
Crag swooped into the cover of the trees and soared the rest of the way to the site of the savaged corpse with swift flaps. The second he landed by the bushes, I dashed into their shelter and picked up the vest. As I raised it, I noticed a few beasties already prowling through the shadows toward the clearing.
How many more were converging on this spot? More than my men could dispatch all at once?
Shit. We needed Rollick here now.
So I did what seemed like the easiest thing to bring him running. I sucked in a breath and screamed like I really was being torn apart.
The sound reverberated up my throat and split through the air. I wrenched the vest over my head and down across my torso to cut off the energy seeping out of me. Then I ducked between the bushes.
Crag and Torrent vanished. My pulse thudded on and on and?—
There. Footsteps hurried across the terrain nearby. They slowed as they drew nearer. A curse in a voice I recognized from our brief confrontation tumbled from Rollick’s lips.
When I tipped my head, I could make out a sliver of the scene between the bush’s spindly branches. Rollick’s form moved into view, somewhat less confident than on my first encounter with him. I couldn’t make out his expression through the shadows.
He knelt down by the mangled body. He was checking it, confirming it was me, like my men had expected.
My heart raced on, and I pressed my lips tight together. Would he hear the thumping in my chest? Make out my nervous breaths? What if he realized?—
A soft thump of footfalls told me that my men had leapt from the shadows around him. Rollick jerked around just as Crag’s voice boomed out with apparent agony. “We didn’t get here fast enough. What have you done to her?”
He sounded so furiously horrified that I almost believed he thought Rollick had killed the woman, even though I’d been there for the mutilation.
Rollick’s posture drew authoritatively straight. “This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t gone looney over the girl. I didn’t kill her. Some prick got to her first.”
“Sure,” Torrent’s voice said coolly. “And you just happened to be hanging out with her dismembered body. That checks out. For fuck’s sake, Rollick. I didn’t think you were this crazed over her.”
“I didn’t do this,” Rollick snapped. I suspected he was glowering. “Maybe I can figure out which creature did, though. The power in her—for it to be fucking lost to some random beast—although that might be better…”
He trailed off, bending over the body again. Had my men counted on him examining it for an extended period of time? I’d gotten the impression they’d thought he’d leave fairly quickly once they confronted him.
“You ripped her apart and now you’re rubbing your nose in the mess,” Lance chimed in with a singsong tone obviously designed to needle the demon. “Like a wild dog. Why did I listen to your orders so long anyway? Much better things to do.”
“You should be glad I’m not making sure you’ll never do anything at all again,” Rollick growled, but his attention stayed focused on the body. He paused over a particular strip of flesh.
My stomach lurched. Could he tell something was off? How long would it take him to realize that wasn’t me?
We needed him to leave. What could possibly scare him off?
The distant thrum of a car engine made me stiffen. If more people came, mortal witnesses, he wouldn’t stick around acting like some kind of psycho, would he? He’d taken care not to be seen at the marina, only emerging from the shadows when he’d been close to us.
I didn’t have time to weigh the risks. If he realized we’d tried to trick him, this was all over anyway. I had to do my best… and count on the men who’d supported me this far to cover me if I needed it.
Staying low, I backed out of the bushes as quietly as I could manage. Then I slunk away across the park with as much speed as I dared.
A stomp shook the ground from behind me, followed by a threatening snarl, and I realized through my jolt of panic that Crag must have distracted Rollick just as I’d hoped.
I needed people… a lot of people, too many for Rollick to decide that dispatching one more mortal wasn’t a big deal. God, this had better work.
When there were enough trees between me and the site of the corpse, I ran faster. A car zoomed past with a lone driver—not good enough. I made out a woman silhouetted against the light in an apartment window, but I couldn’t tell if she was on her own, and I couldn’t shout out to her without risking being heard from the park.
Then a gaggle of college-age guys meandered around a corner down the street, laughing and clinking beers like they’d been roaming the streets since getting kicked out of a late-night bar. There were six of them—that had to be enough.
I dashed over to them, not needing to fake my panic. “There’s a body!” I said. “In the park. All torn up. I don’t know what to do. It’s awful!”
I might not have played it up that way with a different set of people, but a morbidly curious light lit in the guys’ eyes like I’d suspected it would.
“What the fuck?” one said, heading straight toward the park. “Where?”
I pointed wildly. “Where the trees are thicker, not too far from the fountain. Someone needs to call the cops!”
A couple of the guys were already fishing out their phones. “Can you imagine if we’re the first to post about this?” one mumbled to another. I heard a third making a report to what I hoped was a 9-1-1 operator as they vanished into the darkness.
What did I do now? Crap, what if Rollick left and headed this way? I spun around, looking for a place to take shelter.
All the businesses were closed this late at night—or early in the morning, depending on how you counted it. I darted farther down the street toward an alley where I could watch the park from out of view.
Sirens started to wail in the distance. Relief trickled through me. Even if Rollick had continued lurking while the college guys surveyed the scene, surely he wouldn’t stick around once the police arrived. And they wouldn’t leave until the mess was all cleaned up, no more chance for him to inspect it.
I’d just reached the alley when a form materialized right behind me—and clapped a hand over my mouth that would have made me squeak against it if I hadn’t recognized the gesture and the faint prickle of claws.
“Tricksy girl,” Lance murmured with a chuckle. “Changing up the plans.”
“It seemed like I needed to,” I whispered when he released my mouth. “Is Rollick gone?”
“Gone from the park, at least.” He nipped the shell of my ear and then nuzzled my hair. “We did it, baby girl. Time to get you home.”