Page 107 of An Invocation of Monsters

Especially when I had this particular person’s last words engraved in my mind.

“Why did she want to kill me?” I groaned, my stomach lurching again.

If I am missing, I did not go willingly. If I am gone, I did not kill myself.

No. In a way, she had brought death on herself by attacking me; but how the hell had she made it into the Void in the first place?

If I was going off what she’d written, she hadn’t come here of her own accord.

“I have no answer for that beyond one,” Toth said. His hand, carefully knotted in my hair, was gentle. “Many mortals cannot look upon this realm for long without giving in to madness. And when the mind goes, the body may follow. The Void warps reality in time.”

I grabbed a handful of grass and used it to wipe my mouth. “So her mind went, and her body was… it was just a reflection of that.”

So that was what insanity looked like when given flesh.

“She may not have perceived you as another human,” Toth said carefully. “I… I did not realize you knew her, or I would not have shown you.”

“I didn’t,” I whispered. “I only knew of her from old pictures. She was my mother’s best friend, one she’d never told me about.”

I forced myself to think it through, even though my brain was saturated with shock.

If Tasha had left that note, she’d known that something bad was coming for her.

She’d known she was being targeted… perhaps she just didn’t anticipate that it would involve descending into madness and becoming a creature of bloody appetites.

The members of the Wendigo Society were so close-mouthed about her fate, insisting that she had just vanished into thin air.

But neither Kase nor Willow had known anything about it; they’d only been aware that they weren’t permitted to speak of her.

That left only two people who could know what had befallen her: Mary and Joseph.

I took a few deep breaths, resting my clenched fists on my thighs, and squeezed my eyes shut tightly.

One of them had done this. They had brought her into the Void, and… what? What had happened next?

I couldn’t imagine what it would take for a human being to become that thing that had hunted me.

All I knew was that the leaders of the Society were actively dangerous.

I exhaled again. Counted to ten. Grounded myself.

What would Juno do?

“I want to give her a proper burial,” I said without opening my eyes. I didn’t want to look at her body again yet. “This… none of this was her fault. Someone did this to her against her will. If there’s one thing I’m sure of, that’s it.”

Kiraxis rumbled deep in his chest. “I can dig the grave for you, my Elle.”

“Thank you. It would be nicer to bury her on Earth, but…” I shook my head. “If anyone ever investigated the Lodge and found her body, there’d be no explaining this. It’s better if… if no one disturbs her.”

I couldn’t imagine what a coroner would think upon finding a human skeleton with multiple arms and several rows of teeth.

Better not to risk it.

“Where would you like to do this?” Toth asked. He kept his voice gentle and steady, ensuring I remained grounded.

I looked around. I couldn’t imagine any place in the Void that Tasha would’ve been fond of, given what it’d eventually twisted her into, but the least I could do was find somewhere restful. “Somewhere pleasant, I think.”

Toth picked up the body, and we walked until we came to a meadow mirroring the one on Earth.

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