Page 97 of Shadow's End

Her laughter rolled through me.That was definitely said a few times over the last few minutes, and not just by me.

I slid around the last corner and then slowed down. Before me lay carnage. Trees were down all over the place, the wooden railing fence that surrounded the mine tower was smashed in several places, and there were deep trenches dug into the side road on the left.

There was also a body in one of the remaining trees in the section to my left. A body that was so damn large, the tree was bowing under its weight. A body that had one arm longer than the other and a fist the size of a stockpot.

Our punch monster. Or rather, Maelle’s punch monster.

She wasn’t going to be pleased. Not atall.

Belle, Monty, and Levi were all standing next to a truck parked to one side of the intersection directly ahead, the latter looking somewhat bemused. In the middle of the road in front of them was what looked like a pile of black tree limbs. What I couldn’t immediately see was the vamp they were supposed to be meeting, or either Ashworth or Eli—though the thought had barely risen when the two appeared out of the tree remnants to my left, dragging another bit of black wood toward the pile.

I stopped the SUV and climbed out. That’s when the smell of death hit; it was so damn strong that I briefly gagged and had toswitch over to breathing through my mouth. It did help, though the scent coated my tongue with a foul taste.

I grabbed my phone from the backpack, then walked toward them, the warm streams of wild magic running across my toes telling me that Katie was no longer in the area. I couldn’t help but hope she was heading toward the compound, looking for her brother.

The closer I got to the pile of sticks, the more evident it became that it actually wasn’t wood, but rather some form of creature. Or rather,creatures. I skirted around the pile to get out of the wind’s path and stopped close to Belle.

Levi greeted me with a nod. “Hell of a show you invited me to.”

“Glad you enjoyed yourself.”

He grinned. “I wouldn’t call it fun, per se, but it was interesting to finally witness some of the weird action my wife has been spouting about.”

I smiled and motioned toward the pile of wood. “And what the hell are these?”

“Stick golems,” Monty said cheerfully. “And nasty little creatures they are too. They got transported in when Belle read the vamp’s mind and Marie subsequently melted him.”

“I’ve heard of heard of stone and mud golems, but never stick.”

He pointed toward the tree holding Maelle’s now dead monster. “These sticks did that, so don’t you be dissing them.”

“Anything raised by Marie is nothing I’m going to diss.” I glanced at Belle. “Did you manage to get anything from the vamp before Marie melted him?”

She shook her head. “His van is around the bend ahead, but I’m thinking there’s not going to be much left of him to pull any clues from.”

“What about the van itself?” Levi asked. “The rangers should be able to at least pull some location data from the GPS.”

“Trouble being, the rangers are all caught up in that fire event,” Monty said.

Levi frowned. “No, they’re not. Jaz called just before we met and said the thing was under control. Duke and Ric are remaining up there to monitor the roads and stop sightseers, but the rest of the team has either returned to base or are out on patrol.”

Monty glanced at me. “Then you should contact Aiden and get?—”

“Aiden’s up at the compound and not answering his phone at the moment.”

He groaned. “God, what has his witch of a mother gotten up to now?”

“Hey,” Ashworth said, as he and Eli threw the stick golem on top of the others. “Don’t be insulting us witches by such a comparison.”

Monty laughed and motioned to the odd-looking pile of wood. “You want to do the honors, old man, or shall I?”

“This old man will box your ears if you don’t start respecting your elders.” The sharpness in Ashworth’s voice was countered by the smile creasing his eyes. “And the fire is all yours, given we did most of the hard work killing these beasties.”

Monty snorted but quickly crafted a fire spell and flung it onto the pile. The golems went up with a whoosh, and a thick column of black smoke rose skyward.

I frowned. “Hadn’t we better ring the fire brigade and rangers and let them know?—”

“Already done,” Monty said. “They’ve asked us to hang around until the fire is out.”

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