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“Was another baby taken?”
“Not that I know of.” And I’d been watching the news to make sure.
“So what’s the rush?”
“Ask the Council,” I suggested.
“Seems to me they’re trying to keep us busy and distracted. So we don’t question them about what is really going on,” he said, looking down at me before I could school my features into indifference. “That’s what I thought,” he said, nodding. “Stupid, old fucks keeping things from the people on the street who need to know. I’m guessing you aren’t going to tell me.”
“I can’t. And it isn’t for sure,” I added.
I never thought I would agree with Marsh on anything, but he was right about the Council. It had been so long since they’d been in the field that they forgot how vulnerable we could be at times if we didn’t have all the information we needed.
“It’s big, though, isn’t it?”
“If it is what I am hearing about… yeah. It’s big. Really fucking big.”
“Shit,” Marsh sighed. “These kids better train-up fast then.”
“Hey, I think I found something,” Maggie declared, climbing back up the embankment, getting covered in mud and not seeming to care at all.
“What you got, kid?” Marsh asked as she walked up.
“This is weird, right?” she asked, holding out something made out of sticks, the parts held together with a thin, natural twine.
“I’d say it seems pretty weird,” Marsh agreed, taking it from her to investigate it. “It’s too intricate to be just someone fucking around. Look familiar to you?” he asked, holding it out toward me.
“No. I’m not great with the sigils, though,” I admitted.
“Those sigil books are enormous,” Maggie said, shaking her head.
“We’ll bring it back, and you kids can spend the afternoon poring over those books,” Marsh said and I pressed my lips to keep from smile at the look of horror that crossed Maggie’s face.
“Can I go look for th—“ Maggie started, getting cut off by a chorus of shouts followed by a sound Marsh and I knew well.
The roar of an angry demon.
“Shit,” Marsh hissed, reaching into his back pocket as he turned. “You stay,” he demanded, pointing at Maggie.
I was right behind him as we followed the sounds of the boys as they screamed, as they called out.
Marsh moved into the small clearing a yard ahead of me, already charging at the demon who was towering over one of the boys.
The other two were sprawled on the ground, scrambling backward with giant eyes.
They were too young for a field trip.
They had no business being in the field.
Fen had a split lip and a bruise already forming on his swollen jaw.
Chen had an eye almost swollen shut and an alarming trickle of blood coming out of his ear.
The jury was out on Bolin who was still scrambling away from the demon as Marsh advanced.
My first thought was that he looked like the description from that so-called crazy person who reported on it.
He was at least six-six, towering over a tall Marsh.
His skin was red. And not just red-tinged. No, he was actually red. And his skin was thick, just short of scaly in texture.
He was bald-headed but there was a flat black spine-type thing creeping up the back of his head.
Almost all demons were big, powerful. That was why demonslayers had to exist. To be stronger, to stand a chance.
That said, this one was fucking enormous. Not just because he was so tall, but because of the way he was built. He was solid muscle—bulky around the shoulders, wide through the waist, and with these tree trunks for legs.
It didn’t matter, of course, how big a demon was in the grand scheme of things. All that mattered was that Marsh could slip his blessed knife into his thick skin. That was all it would take. A little bit of woo-woo from the priests that I didn’t even pretend to understand, and it was all over for the big red baby eater.
Good fucking riddance.
The problem was that this demon wasn’t of the slow and stupid sort.
Marsch must have been expecting him to be distracted by Bolin.
But the demon whipped around, striking out with a giant fist that landed dead-center to Marsh’s chest.
I hadn’t even been the one to take the hit, but I swear I felt like my wind got knocked out of me even as I watched it get knocked out of Marsh, sending him falling to the ground several feet away.
His hand pressed to his chest as he struggled to draw in a proper breath, leaving him gasping hard when he didn’t pull in enough oxygen.
I was up.
I didn’t pause.
We were trained not to, not when an innocent was at risk. And the demon was reaching down to grab Bolin’s leg.
I heard the snap a split second before Bolin let out a scream that shot straight up my spine and exploded through my brain.
