Page 47 of Shadow's End

“A pentagram. Or, at least, the remains of one.”

“Where?”

“In the paddock behind the house yard. You can’t miss the trail.”

“Be there in five.”

He hung up. I tucked the phone away and squatted down, studying the stained area of flattened grass through narrowed eyes. While it was not unknown for dark sorcerers to use their own blood in a summoning spell—hell, we’d used Mom’s up in Canberra to catch and question a demon—for the most part, an animal of some kind was used. The bigger the spell, the bigger the animal. When Marie had summoned the basilisk to cause chaos and distract us, she’d used a sheep, but there was nothing here to indicate any sort of sacrifice had been used. Not even feathers, and chickens were, for the most part, the animal used the most in summoning ceremonies.

At least, they were if the little I’d read about these things was true.

I rose and glanced around at the sound of movement. Aiden and Monty were striding up the hill, following my trail through the grass rather than the monster’s. They stopped either side of me, Monty with his hands on his hips.

“Well,” he said, after a minute, “that definitely looks like the remnants of a pentagram, even if we can’t see any evidence of it other than those candles.”

“Why would they leave the candles there if they’ve erased all other evidence?” Aiden had his phone in his hand, recording the scene as he spoke. “That’s not usual behavior, is it?”

Monty grimaced. “Depends on the mage and what the intent of the circle is. In this case, it was probably used to summon and then dispatch our fisty demon.”

“That still doesn’t answer the question.”

“It’s possible she wanted us to find it,” I said.

“Yeah, but which ‘she’?” Monty glanced at me. “You’ve done a safety check?”

I nodded. “I haven’t stepped inside yet, though.”

“Caution from you?” Monty raised a hand and touched my forehead. “No temperature…”

I laughed and smacked his hand away. “You’re the reservation witch and the one with all the training. I figured that maybe you could sense or see something I can’t.”

“Yeah, we both know how unlikely that is.” Monty leaned past me to look at Aiden. “You finished? We safe to enter and trample all over the scene?”

Aiden half smiled. “Trample away.”

Monty warily stepped into the crushed circle of grass and approached the nearest candle. He squatted down beside it, brushed his fingers across the flattened grass, then rubbed them together. “No indication of ash or chalk used to mark out the pentagram.”

“Both of those might be practical on solid ground but not here,” I said. “She could have used her athame or even her index finger to draw it in the air, calling out the five points and then activating them.” It did take more time and energy, which was why most of us didn’t do it, but maybe that wasn’t such a problem for a blood mage.

“It’s generally a process used more for personal pentagrams rather than ritual ones, though,” Monty said.

“Which does not discount the possibility of it being done here.”

“No, but I wouldn’t have thought a pentagram created in such a manner would be overly safe in a demon-summoning situation.” He rose and moved around the circle, examining the other candles, with the same result. “What about the blood? Have you done a reading of it?”

The ability to sometimes touch blood and gain information or “see” who or what it had belonged to was a recent mutation of my psychometry ability, and one I tended to avoid using unless absolutely necessary, if only because touching blood somehow sharpened the connection and ultimately made it more dangerous.

“No, I have not,” I replied.

“Do youwantto do a reading of it?”

“That would also be a very sensible no, but I will, as it may be our only way of getting any sort of information.” I wrinkled my nose. “But don’t get your hopes up. Given how dried it now is, it’s likely too much time has already passed for me to gain anything useful.”

“Still worth a try, because right now, we’ve got nothing else.”

I’m back onlinecame Belle’s still somewhat weary comment.I’ll drag you back if anything untoward happens.

Why the hell are you awake? You need more sleep.

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