Page 54 of Asher

“So there’s no dragon called Ed?” he repeats, as if hoping to get a different answer.

“No. Well,” I correct, “there might be a dragon somewhere called Ed. But they wouldn’t be the same as the dragon in the story.”

He looks devastated, and I feel like something someone scraped off their shoe.

“But,” his dad adds in a deliberately cheery voice, “even if Ed isn’t real, you still found something special here! We don’t know what it is, but everybody’s going to know you discovered it.”

Isaac thinks about that for a second, and then his little chest puffs out. “I’m a discoverer!”

The sound Micah makes as he pats his brother’s head is half laugh, half sob. “You bet you are. Now, how about Dad takes you home? People are waiting to see you.”

Isaac nods, suddenly drooping with exhaustion, and turns his face into his father’s neck. “Call me when you get back,” Micah’s dad says to him, and then he and Isaac teleport out.

I stand, and Micah and I go to join the others, who’ve moved closer to the crates and wall. They’re going slow, sweeping the light along the floor and up to the ceiling.

“Looking for traps?” I ask, and Asher grunts.

“Zac thinks this might be a smuggling cache.”

I look over at Zac. “Really? All the way up here? Isn’t the nearest road down in Hortplatz?”

“I didn’t say it was logical. But let’s not take any risks.” He inches a little closer. “In fact, why don’t we leave it for tonight? I want to come back with better lights and some other gear.”

A very reluctant murmur of agreement runs around the group. We’re all eager to see what’s in those crates—and what the hell that wall is—but we’re also tired, cold, facing an adrenaline crash, and working by the light of half a dozen handheld torches. Coming back in the morning with equipment is the sensible thing to do.

“Teleport marker?” Asher suggests, and Zac pulls out his smartphone and takes a couple of pictures of the wacky wall and the crates. Before I came to Hortplatz, I didn’t know demons needed a visual reference before they could teleport somewhere. It makes sense, though—how can you go somewhere if you don’t know what it looks like? Asher told me that some demons can even teleport to aperson—but it’s extremely risky.

Speaking of Asher… he looks around for me, then holds out his hand. Time to go home.

* * *

It’sstupid early when I wake the next morning. I can tell before I even open my eyes—the air has that stillness that tells me normal people are sleeping.

“You awake?” Asher murmurs into the darkness, his growly morning voice making me shiver with awareness. I guess he’s about as normal as I am.

“Yep. Is it too early to get up and go back to the cave?”

My words hang in the silent room. We didn’t talk about it last night—just came back to the house, showered, ate, stared blindly at the TV for a while, and went to bed. Micah went to his parents’ house first, and when he got home, he assured us that Isaac was fine—already tucked into his parents’ bed with a stuffed dragon and a nightlight, warm, fed, and fussed over. I’m sure we were allthinkingabout the cave, but none of us said anything.

Now, though… now, it’s tomorrow.

“We need to wait for the others,” Asher cautions. “Zac, especially. This falls into his domain.”

“Maybe we should go make breakfast. Noisily.”

He chuckles and rolls onto his side, slinging a warm, heavy arm across my chest. “What do you think it’s all about?”

I sigh. “Zac’s idea of a smuggling cache is the most logical. Probably not a current one, though. There used to be a village here before, right? Didn’t someone tell me it was abandoned, and that’s what made you all decide to build here?”

“Yeah. It was barely a village, though. About a dozen buildings in total. And it was abandoned over two hundred years ago—maybe closer to two hundred and fifty. Those crates would have rotted by now, wouldn’t they?”

I shrug. “Maybe. I don’t know enough about wood to say. It was pretty dry in there, though. Unless we open them and find something spectacular, the crates aren’t as interesting to me as that wall, though.”

“Hmm. What even was that? Was it… decorative?”

I blink into the darkness, then lean over to switch on the lamp. “Did you just ask if someone designed and assembled that wall to decorate a cave at the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere that was being used for storage?”

He squints in the sudden brightness, then chuckles. “Yeah, I guess it’s not likely. But what would all those gears and cogs and bolts do?”

---