Page 54 of An Invocation of Monsters

“She’s seen two so far, but Mary has high hopes for her. She thinks Willow’s from a strong line, and could potentially cross over in a few years when she comes into her prime.” He kicked a rock aside as we climbed. “I won’t lie, I’m a little jealous of you, though.”

“Me?” I was somewhat surprised. Kase was weird, but he more or less seemed like a nice kid.

“Yeah. You’re Gillian’s daughter.” He said it like a benediction. “You come from the strongest line of all. We all knew you’d see a door within days of being here, that went without saying. They’ve been planning your induction ceremony since you showed up. You’ve already crossed over, it’s only a matter of time before you speak with the Things Beyond. But look…”

He glanced around, as though someone were hiding behind a tree and eavesdropping on us. When he was sure Mary wasn’t about to jump out and shout surprise!, he leaned in closer.

“You already know what it is,” he whispered. “You’ve been to the Void. Have you met them yet?”

I was out of breath from the steep incline, and gratefully stopped for a moment to catch my breath. Kase was watching me, rapt, as I wiped sweat off my forehead.

“Yes.” Despite myself, I spoke it in a whisper. “I’ve spoken to them.”

He stared at me, his free hand clenching and unclenching. A brief spasm crossed his face.

Something in that look made me want to back away from him.

Finally he mastered himself. “Jesus. It’s going to take me another five years of study just to cross over, let alone speak with the Ones on the Other Side. I’m really happy for you, though. I hope someday we can talk like this over there… in the Void.”

He smiled at me shyly, looking so young and hopeful that I felt bad for the instinctual reaction.

He was just a kid with extreme pressure on him to do something most normal people could never even conceive of.

We kept moving, puffing our way up a heavily-wooded ridge. The trail was worn, but so thin and faint that if you didn’t know it was here, it would be easily missed.

“But it all comes down to the luck of the draw,” he added, a tinge of bitterness in his tone. “You’re from a pure and ancient blood. Joseph ran ancestry tests on the rest of us. He said Willow is pretty close to pure, but my bloodline is polluted, so it’ll be much harder for me.”

And there it was again. The sinking, horrible feeling that there was something going on in the background of the Lodge and its Society that was going to look very ugly when dragged out into the light of day.

“There’s no such thing as ‘polluted’ blood,” I snapped. “And exactly what does Joseph claim he is, hmm?”

Kase mumbled something under his breath.

“Sorry, didn’t catch that.”

He took a deep breath, scowling. “He and Mary are ninety-nine percent pure.”

“Funny how that works out, huh?”

My companion was silent.

I softened a little. There was a lot I didn’t like about the Wendigo Society and its current two leaders, and a few things had clicked into place while Kase opened up to me.

He was just a teenage boy, without any blood relatives here as far as I could tell, in the thrall of an older, more experienced man.

A man who I knew to be quite an excellent actor.

“Stop thinking of yourself as tainted, Kase. His ancestry tests are probably complete bullshit. There is no such thing as ‘polluted’ or ‘pure’ blood. He’s just telling you that to break down your self-confidence and make you reliant on his guidance.”

Kase’s lips, flattened to a thin line, twitched a little, but he didn’t speak.

“I’m willing to bet cold, hard cash that if you and I took actual DNA tests, there’d be almost no difference between us. You’re being sold a lie.”

He shook his head a little, pulling ahead a step or two.

I sighed. Joseph was using Cult 101 tactics on teenagers, and unfortunately, I had no idea how to break through to Kase.

I was also willing to bet that if I went looking, I’d find out that Kase and Willow either didn’t have any surviving relatives, or that they had been failed by their parents. They were probably already vulnerable in some way before Joseph found them, two malleable minds for him to mold to his liking.

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