Page 68 of Demon Hunter

That’s… convenient. Dylan pulls out his phone and I glance down to see him typing in the Notes app.

Check with Norval where family was in 1871

That’s smart thinking.

“But couldn’t you make a new list? Don’t you have all the demons…” Ian trails off as Gus miserably shakes his head.

“It’s… look, if you’re going to hurt me for what my family’s done, fine, but can you just wait until I’ve told you everything? I want this toend.”

In other words, what he’s about to tell us is going to make us very mad.

“Let’s start at the beginning,” Ian suggests in his trying-to-be-a-teacher voice. “Geoffrey Martenson was ejected from the Collective in 1735 for abusing a demon. What happened after that?”

Gus winces. “That’s not the version we get told. That he was kicked out, yeah, but not that he… What was it exactly that—you know what, I don’t think I want to know. The short answer is, he didn’t learn his lesson. He started summoning demons again within the year, mostly to help him set up his own compound—though technically it was a farm back then. He got married, had some kids, and their household and farm staff were all demons. That went on for about twenty years, but he… he liked to experiment.” He swallows hard, and none of us have to guess about the kind of experimentation he’s referring to. Even if the family whitewashed it in the tales they passed down, it wouldn’t be of the mustard-or-mayo variety.

“That was when he discovered that circles can be portable—they just need to be fixed.”

Am I stupid, or does that make no sense? “Excuse me?”

“Geoffrey’s ‘farm workers’ were the envy of the district,” Gus explains. “They were strong, never complained, and practically inexhaustible. Geoffrey figured if he could summon more demons, he could have them ‘work’ for all the other farmers who kept trying to bribe away his staff, and all their pay would come to him. Like… like renting a horse out to stud.”

Both demons clench their fists but say nothing.

“The problem was, there wasn’t a way for him to control that many demons,” Gus continues. “Especially if they were living full-time on other farms that were hours away. He could compel them to work in service for particular farmers, but if anything complicated came up, or a new task, oranykind of loophole tothe original requirement, there would be a demon on the loose, free of a circle.”

That checks out. It’s not exactly the odd-jobs-agency problem Ian posited before, but the theory is the same. A demon can only be controlled within certain parameters that need to be set at their summoning.

“He needed a way to make the summoning circle portable—so that if a loophole came up, the demon would still be within the original circle and subject to Geoffrey’s control, even if he wasn’t there at the time. It would be unable to k-kill or cause any havoc or reveal its true nature.”

“That all sounds nice and logical,” Dylan interrupts, “but the problem is that circles can’t be fixedandportable. A circle needs to be drawn on a solid surface and the demon summoned within it.”

Gus nods. “Yes, and no. It needs to be drawn on a solid surface. The demon needs to be summoned within it. But once the demon is within the circle, it can be compelled to do things, if the circle is the right one. This is where it gets fucked-up. Geoffrey worked out that a circle can be carved—etched—into metal. Like into a necklace. And then when the demon was first summoned, it could be compelled to put the necklace on.”

My whole body has gone cold. I can hear everyone breathing, can hear the way Dylan’s heartbeat just sped up. “That information doesn’t leave this room,” I say hoarsely.

“The Collective can’t know. Not officially,” Dylan agrees. “It can’t go into the database or be discussed anywhere the wrong people could overhear.” He lets out a shuddering breath. “If you need a team to get this resolved, we’ll need to handpick them.”

Ian stands and crosses to loom over Gus. “Do not ever repeat what you’ve just told us to anyone else unless we say it’s okay. Understood?” From this angle, I can’t see his face, but judgingby the way Gus’s eyes widen, he’s wearing his “I’ll shank you cos I’ve got no fucks to give” expression.

Gus recovers quicker than I expected, however. “Gee, never thought I’d need to keep it secret. Not like I’ve been told that my whole freaking life.”

“While this history is interesting, and certainly relevant to our task, we are limited for time,” Marc breaks in. “August, how did the necklaces become generational? Usually a demon is freed once their summoner dies.”

“It’s in the circle. Geoffrey worked that out too—that if more than one family member is involved in the summoning, it can be coded to the family line and not an individual.”

Ian swears as he stalks back to the couch. This time he perches on the arm, putting him closer to Marc. “So as long as someone with the summoners’ DNA lives, the circle is unbroken.”

Gus nods. “He also worked out that he could compel the demons to protect the necklace. They can’t remove it themselves, and if anybody not of the family line tries to remove it from them, they’ll fight to the death.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Jesus. Your great-whatever-grandfather was a monster.”

“So he set up an unofficial employment agency,” Dylan says. “Presumably at some point he also decided trafficking carnarius demons would be a good idea.”

“The sex trade was already full of trafficked and unwilling workers. That was an easy one for him. But it’s also where we’ll run into the most issues finding demons. Once the family began actually selling them, rather than… leasing… the only way to know where the demons were was by checking the ledger and keeping an eye on their owners.”

While Marc is keeping his cool reasonably well, I can see that Raum isn’t taking this talk of demons being owned and sold allthat well. I hope he holds on to his control, because we need Gus right now.

“So losing the ledger means that there are a lot of demons currently unaccounted for,” I sum up, and Gus nods.

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