Page 73 of Demon Hunter

I’m barely aware of Rachel’s dad’s groans and shouting from elsewhere in the house, or the way silence falls suddenly. I’m barely aware of Gus talking to Rachel in a low, urgent voice, or Ian saying to Marc, “Huh… so this is why he’s been weird.”

My full attention is on Dylan. Who looks confused and surprised, but not… not like he never wants to see me again. Maybe that will come later?

“My apologies for interrupting your very important stare,” Marc says smoothly, his hand landing hard on my shoulder. “We need to get this finished before the day begins properly. You’ll have plenty of time for your personal crisis then.”

I tear my gaze away from Dylan, wishing my new superpowers were enough for me to strangle Marc and not have it be a suicide mission, and follow everyone out into the hallway, where we wait while Rachel gets dressed. When she emerges, she’s red-eyed and shaky, but leads the way out to the “dorms”here. This is one of the smaller branches, and there are only seventy-seven demons. Raum gives his speech to them, and then Gus explains to Rachel what she needs to do, and she frees the demons.

When she sees their relief and haste to get through the gateway, the breath she takes is jagged. “We did the right thing,” she whispers. “This was wrong, and we fixed it.” Tears streak down her cheeks, and Gus puts his arm around her.

“Doesn’t mean it’s easy,” he murmurs, and I feel that right down to my bones. My parents betrayed the Collective and humanity, and they died for it. I stood against them in battle, knowing that if we won, they would die. It was the right thing to do—theonlything to do.

It was also the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Because even though we weren’t close, even though they were asshats and I knew they’d fucked us all, they were still my parents.

“Remember their faces,” I say, nodding toward the line of demons finally heading home. “Remember what this means to them.”

“It helps,” Ian adds.

Rachel turns her teary gaze on us. “How the fuck would you know? Who even are you?”

“That’s Ian Massey, Matt Coates, and Dylan Beck,” Gus tells her, and her jaw drops.

“I thought Matt Coates was dead! Jed and the others killed him.”

I raise a brow at Gus. “Have we already been to Jed’s house? If not, I think I’d like to meet him.” With my sword.

“We’ve been to everyone’s house,” Gus says, and even though he’s been in agreement with the plan, there’s a trace of bitterness in his voice. “You’ve had your vengeance on Jed.”

“You have so much explaining to do,” Rachel informs Gus, just as Raum closes the gateway.

“Not here, I think,” Marc interjects. “Only the… sold”—his mouth twists as though tasting something unpleasant—“demons remain in captivity, correct?”

Gus nods. “If there were seventy-seven here?”

“There were,” Raum confirms.

“That correlates with the ledger. The remaining demons are scattered across America and the world.”

“Then let’s regroup,” Ian suggests. “We humans need some rest, and Gus and Rachel probably need the chance to talk. We’ll go back to California, take a few hours’ downtime, then meet up to plan phase two. How’s that sound?”

“I will return to Crmærdinesgh to oversee the repatriation of those demons already freed. That will give me the opportunity to update the list of those still missing, and hopefully get a better idea of numbers,” Raum says. He doesn’t wait for a reply before disappearing.

Rachel stifles a shriek. She might have guessed that Raum and Marc were higher demons, but seeing it confirmed like that would be startling. I look at Ian.

“Where are Gus and Rachel going to stay? They can’t come to the compound.” Not yet, anyway. Eventually we’ll bring them officially into the Collective, if they want, but until this operation is over, they need to stay under the radar.

“Marc’s place,” Ian says immediately, and Marc raises an eyebrow.

“I beg your pardon?”

“He’s got a great guest room,” Ian tells Gus. “It has twin beds and everything. You’ll be super comfortable for a few days, until we can get something more permanent organized. We’re going to need to find some money…,” he muses, then shakes that off. “I’ll stay at Marc’s, too, so you’ll have another human in the house.”

“This is getting more and more offensive,” Marc comments. “Why do I suddenly have three grubby humans staying at my house?”

“Shush,” Ian chides. “Okay, that’s settled. We’ll go back to Marc’s, Matt and Dyl can go home and get some rest, and then we’ll all meet up this afternoon to plan our next steps. Hopefully Raum will be back by then too.”

“Another houseguest,” Marc grumbles. “May we leave this place, then?”

I look around at the rickety bunks and bare walls. I can feel the misery steeped into the very air of this room. Even though I know we’ll need to come back to make sure every sign of what happened here is erased, I still don’t want to be here any longer.

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