“Once. It only destroyed more buildings on the other side of town until it uncovered who it was hunting. Having to look for us excited it more,” Randy said.
“There has to be a way to stop it.”
“There is,” I said. “It just hasn’t been discovered yet, but we’ll find it.”
At the top of the stairs, Randy turned left. I fell into step beside Aisling as he led us down a hall of closed doors. “These are all rooms,” Randy said as he waved at the doors. “But the mattresses were removed from them awhile ago. Most of them are in the library now.”
“How long has the minotaur been doing this?” Aisling asked.
“Probably since it escaped Hell,” I said.
She bit her bottom lip. “That’s a lot of victims over a year.”
“Too many,” Randy said as he opened the door at the end of the hall and stepped back to let us enter.
A scarred brown bureau stood against the wall on my right, and a dusty blue throw rug lay in the middle of the room. Dust caked the TV mounted to the wall across from the bed frame for a queen-sized bed. A musty smell permeated the room.
Striding across the room, I pulled back the red curtain covering the window to reveal the mountain. The entrance was about twelve feet tall and six feet wide. I didn’t know if it was that big when this place was a working mine or if the minotaur made it larger.
Aisling came to stand beside me, and, unable to resist, I rested my hand on the small of her back as I drew her closer. Inhaling her sweet scent, I let it wash over and relax me as I studied the shadows of the entrance before turning my attention to the town.
Three streets away, a row of toppled buildings blocked the road, and on the next street, only part of a brick building remained standing while the rest of the bricks littered the ground. That must have been some of the buildings they tried hiding in and the school. A few streets further away from the school was another row of toppled buildings, and I suspected they’d tried to hide from the minotaur on more than one occasion.
“What did you use to blow up the entrance of the mine?” I asked Randy.
“There was a demon here who could make things vibrate enough that he brought the rocks down. The minotaur has taken him since then.”
“What do you do for water and food?” I asked.
“Animals sometimes cross the barrier,” Randy said. “There were a couple of crab apple trees, but the apples have gone now, so we rely on the animals. I don’t think anyone has lived here long enough to be concerned by the lack of variety and nutrients. Wraiths also find their way beneath the barrier, and the demons feed on them.”
“And water?” Aisling asked.
“There’s a well by the library and a couple more behind some of the homes. We pull water from them and store it in the library, restaurant, and a few other places in case something happens to the wells.”
“That’s good,” Aisling said. “Can we get closer to the mountain?”
Randy shifted beside me as he glanced uneasily at her. “You can, but it won’t do you any good. There’s nothing to see there either; unless you plan to enter.”
“Maybe that’s not such a bad idea,” she said, and I felt like someone kicked me in the chest. “It’s not expecting its victims to venture in there willingly. We could turn the tables on it.”
“You want to go in therewillingly?” Randy asked.
“No, but if staying in this town and fighting it isn’t working, then maybe it’s time to try something new.”
“It would kill us all.”
“Would it? Or would some of us get away before it found us?”
Randy closed his mouth as he turned his attention back to the cave. Her idea wasn’t entirely insane, but I couldn’t stand the thought of her entering that cave.
“Oliver has already lost so much,” Randy said.
A shiver ran through Aisling, and she rubbed her arms. “We can’t let it take him,” she murmured so low I didn’t think Randy heard her.
On the street below, Bale, Corson, Lix, and Wren strode into view with Nadine and some of the others from the restaurant. Nadine carried Oliver as they walked toward a two-story brick building spreading across three lots.
When they stopped at the bottom of the stairs, Nadine pointed toward the mountain before they climbed the steps. Over the front doors was a black sign with the word library etched with gold lettering onto it. The double glass doors opened before they reached them, and they disappeared inside.
