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Laura had gotten a phone from somewhere and was talking to someone in rapid-fire French. French I knew a lot better than Latin or Spanish, and based on her pronouns and familiarity, I got the sense she was talking to a boyfriend or girlfriend, not her family.
Tansy had said the girls didn’t have great home lives. That no one cared they were gone.
God, they’d been such perfect targets, and they were right under her nose, waiting for someone to take advantage.
I waggled my fingers at Wilder, and he wrapped his big hands around my wrist, pulling me effortlessly to my feet. I’d like to say I was graceful and totally back to one hundred percent, but the second I was standing I took one step and my useless, Jell-O legs betrayed me, sending me sprawling into Wilder’s waiting arms.
“Saw that coming.” He held me by my waist and looped my arm around his back, so I was doubly supported, then helped navigate me to the rest of the group.
“Sleeping Beauty decided to join us again,” Santiago said.
“Hilarious.” Most of my body weight was being managed by Wilder, which meant I was barely putting any effort into walking at all. I must have looked like a drunk sorority girl being helped home by her date.
At least I was in the right place to carry that off as a cover.
“H-how did you do that?” Heidi asked. Her voice still sounded raw, and she had dark smears around her eyes that might have once been mascara.
The girls were both gaunt and pale and had each polished off a bottle of water by the looks of the empty plastic containers in their hands. I was honestly surprised they’d lasted the week in there without anything to sustain them. Perhaps the space had been covered by some kind of enchantment that helped keep them alive.
The demon must have had a future need for them.
Heidi was still staring at me expectantly, waiting for my response.
“It’s a trick a friend showed me.” I let my gaze flick to Santiago briefly before looking back at the girls. “Do you remember how you got in there?”
Laura shook her head. “I went to sleep normally and woke up in there. Same with Heidi.”
My heart sank. “So you have no idea who did it to you?”
“Who?” Heidi croaked the one word out, her fists balled at her sides. “It wasn’t a who. Didn’t you see that thing? We could see it even inside. We could see it no matter what.” I think she was trying to scream at me, but her voice couldn’t manage the volume anymore.
The next question was one I didn’t relish asking, but I needed to know for sure. “Where’s Alexandra?”
Laura made a shaky, wailing noise and buried her face in her hands. Heidi was obviously distraught as well, her whole body trembling as she fought against the urge to weep like her friend.
“Alex is dead. It got her first, before it even took us. It showed us how she died and said…” She glanced over at Laura, who was shaking. “It said we’d be next.”
I thought of the basin filled with blood in the basement. Suddenly it made a lot more sense why there were only two survivors standing in front of me. I felt sick to my stomach, and it had very little to do with all the magic I’d been performing tonight.
Wilder, feeling me go extra gelatinous, held tighter so I didn’t turn into a human noodle and fall to the grass.
I was trying to put all the pieces together, but my brain couldn’t manage it. Alex had died first, either as an offering to the demon when it arrived or as the death that opened the doorway. Lots of demonic ceremonies I’d read about required a sacrifice, so the demon knew whoever was calling to it meant business and could open the threshold.
Really, you’d think demons would gravitate towards shittier witches, because they’d be a lot easier to control. But I wasn’t here to give the demonic hordes any life hacks.
“Did you see anyone else while you were in there?” I asked.
Laura shook her head, but Heidi’s expression took me by surprise. She looked…not guilty, but nervous.
“Heidi? Did you see something?”
“I…” She fiddled with the hem of her shirt and shifted her gaze away from me. When she didn’t see anything comforting on Santiago’s face, she glanced directly at the ground, like she was afraid he might be able to read the answer from her expression.
“It’s okay. We’re trying to help.” If I had any strength at all, I’d be shaking the answer out of her right now. On a patience scale of one to ten, I was at absolute zero.
“We didn’t see anything,” Laura insisted.
