“What is it?” Gareth whispered after a few minutes.
“I’m not sure. I smelled brimstone.”
The sun was setting, and most of the students had left by now. Just when Des was about to give up and step out of the shadows, he saw something trot across the road toward the gates.
It was that same demon they’d seen the other night. Theveritathrall. It was more like a wolf than a sheep, he realized now, its legs too long and bending the wrong way. It had a pointed snout and horns curling back from its head. Its red eyes glowed in the twilight.
A chill ran up Des’s spine.Wasit averita? It kept its head low to the ground, as though it were tracking something; all theveritahe’d encountered were in a frenzied state, behaving recklessly in pursuit of a meal. The tall man was nowhere in sight.
Of course, the guard was nowhere in sight either.
A woman’s voice called something behind the gates, and Des watched the thralldisappear into the shadows near the guard’s hut while none other than Aurelie Blake crossed the courtyard to her uncle’s cottage. She waved to an older woman, probably a professor, and stopped to talk for several minutes, unaware of the demon lurking on the other side of the gates.
She really was oblivious, wasn’t she?
“Do we attack?” Gareth asked, clearly hoping for a negative.
“Not yet,” Des said, but he motioned for Gareth to follow him. Lieutenant Commander Grayson was off duty today. He’d passed the man in the training yard on his way here. Which meant no one was tracking this demon at all.
Once she disappeared into her uncle’s cottage, the demon took off into the city.
“Come on,” Des said. The demon might lead them to the tallman, and he knew Commander Yew would want to know where he lived, even if he wouldn’t let Des take this case. Aurelie Blake could handle herself for an afternoon.
They kept their distance, not wanting to alert the demon to their presence. Several times it turned down one street, paused, and doubled back, and they were nearly discovered. Fortunately, it seemed singularly focused on whatever it was hunting. After over an hour of darting around the neighborhood, the demon stopped, sat down on its haunches, and let out a long, mournful howl. Des felt goose bumps rise all over his body. Gareth looked like he was about to piss himself.
Whatwasthis thing? Des had never seen a demon behave in such a strange manner, making him more convinced than ever that it wasn’t averita, though it was clearly a thrall. Not of the girl, however; she wouldn’t have been able to hide this for so long. And though he knew she was trouble, he couldn’t bring himself to believe she could have anything to do with a creature this vile.
Finally, the demon led them to a row of townhouses, trotting up the stairs of a tall, narrow building Des was certain he’d never seen before. In fact, his eyes kept wanting to skim past it, as though the house didn’t want to be noticed. He had the strange sense that if he looked away, he wouldn’t be able to find it again.
The door opened, and Des only had a momentary glimpse of the tall man before the door closed behind the demon.
Gareth slumped against Des, and for once, he didn’t yell at the boy. He sensed that his legs had gone out from under him, and there was nothing else for him to lean on but Des.
“Are you all right?” Des asked, nudging him.
“I don’t know why I was so frightened of that thing. There was just something so—so profoundlywrongabout it.”
Des didn’t say so, but he was in complete agreement. “It has to be a thrall. At least we know where it lives now. We’ll report it to Commander Yew immediately.”
“Who do you think the man was?” Gareth asked as they headed back toward the Iron Fortress.
“No idea. And I have no idea why he was visiting the dean’s niece last week. Apparently she invited him to dinner.”
Gareth shuddered. “I wouldn’t dine with that man even if it was for my mother’s famous pot roast. He gives me the creeps.”
This time, he nodded in agreement. The man was decidedly creepy. And try as Des might to forget Aurelie Blake, he couldn’t fight the feeling that he wasn’t finished with her yet.
Chapter 10
Aurelie
When Monday finally arrived, Aurelie had never been so grateful for her work and classes. She’d spent Sunday organizing her lab, fiddling with the slug elixir—it had no discernible impact on her moss, but it was tremendously sticky—and puzzling over Everard’s door until her head felt ready to explode. Anything that didn’t involve thinking about her encounter with thesomnia, or with a certain demon hunter.
As she and Kiara made their morning rounds, Aurelie wondered how much to tell her friend. Procrastination, she decided, was the best option. “How was your visit with your grandparents?” she asked.
Kiara scrunched her nose, which had gained a few more freckles in the past week. “It was nice, in a provincial sort of way.” It was sunnier in the south where her grandparents lived, and she’d spent most of her days outside, helping with their pumpkin harvest. “What did you get up to? See a certain gentleman, perhaps?”
For a heart-stopping moment, Aurelie thought she was referring to the giant, which was not only ridiculous, but impossible. “Oh, Miles,” she realized. “Yes, I’m afraid so.” She recounted their horrendous dinner, only giving a brief mention of the Iron Guard escort she’d received. But while she couldn’t tell Kiara about Everard’s proposal, she didn’t see the harm in mentioning thesomniathat had followed her on campus.