Page 10 of Monsters of Mayhem

“You have a plan?” I queried. “Seriously?

Apparently, he did.

He ran his teeth along the edge of the window, loosening it where the paint had hardened over the edges. He rattled it a bit, just enough to not make too much noise but enough to create space for me to reach down and find the handle.

I nudged the window up slowly. I finally got it just high enough that I thought I could crawl out. I looked at Bales. “Do you want to go first or shall I?” I asked. He was definitely all about him going first. He stuck his head through the opening and squiggled his body out through the gap I had created between the window and the frame.

I heard his claws scratch a little on the shingled roof as he grappled for purchase. I could see he found a place to rest and turned back at me, his large red eyes shining in the light of the streetlamp.

“Good boy,” I encouraged, glancing out across the rooftops. We were pretty high up and I could see the sky was light from the glow of the moon. I didn’t know where Sofie lived, I would just have to hope she was coming back to the witch’s store. I had to hope she was willing to help me. She was still a witch, after all, and subject to the demigod rule. As much as she was friendly and kind, I couldn’t imagine she wanted to get on Ryder’s bad side or Furlan’s for that matter. At least she might be willing to help me escape from Furlan’s control.

Carefully I stuck my feet out onto the window ledge, taking off my shoes to make sure my feet could grip the shingles a little better and I slid down the side of the roof until I was sitting next to Bales. He pushed his body out just enough to give me something to grip onto and made sure I didn’t fall down the three stories to the garden below.

I quickly took a glance around the perimeter. There were two satyrs sitting off to the side, quietly talking amongst themselves. They were wide awake and definitely not about ready to let us just walk by them.

This is where Bales seemed to have a plan. Using his claws, he dug into the side of the shingled roof and started walking across the steepest areas.

“Hey,” I hissed. “What about me?”

He wagged his tail, sticking his butt out. I understood exactly what he meant. I grabbed his tail and that would help me to make it across the steep roof.

I tried not to think about the fact I was holding onto a hellhound’s tail as we scrambled along the edge of a steep Victorian wooden roof, trying to find the other side of the building. By the time we got there, to my relief, there were no satyrs down below and we slid down the side of the roof to the next flat level. Now we were only two stories above the ground. It seemed like it should be an easy tumble, but my body wasn’t what it used to be and I imagined I could easily fall and break my leg or even twist my ankle and our entire escape plan would be ruined.

“How are we going to get down from here?” I asked.

Bales moved toward the chimney. Apparently, a hellhound’s grip was a little better than a normal dog’s and he shimmied onto the column of bricks gripping it with all fours and lowered down just enough so his head was in line with my butt. He jerked his head to the side indicating I should…I should what?

“You want me to sit on your head?” I asked.

How desperately did I want to get out of this house? How desperately did I want my freedom? I wanted it enough to fall and break my leg over it. There was no way I was going to stay trapped in this place, whether it was Ryder’s wish, Furlan’s wish or even the DGC‘s wish. I would take my freedom and the dangers that came along with it.

I moved out, gripping the chimney with all of my limbs just like Bales was doing. My grip wasn’t nearly as strong as his. Even if I had been young, I wouldn’t have been able to grip easily onto the brick fire chimney. At my age, well, using my arms and legs to hold my bodyweight up wasn’t exactly what I was made to do. I rested my butt on top of Bales’ head, listening to him grunt.

“Oh shush,” I said. “Just be thankful I don’t toot on you.” I almost chuckled at the thought, but it really wasn’t a chuckling situation.

Bales began to slowly crawl his way down the chimney and I slowly let myself slip, constantly resting on his head and his muscles in order to make sure I made it down safely.

It was with great relief my bare feet touched the green grass. Bales let out a low whine as he cranked his neck to each side, loosening his muscles from how I had, no doubt, jammed his neck while sitting on his head. We were safe and sound and down on the ground, though. Still, the satyrs were here. I could hear some now coming around the corner. We made a swift line into the bushes, hoping against hope they had not seen us. I needed to get as much distance between me and this house as possible and find a way to reach Laney.

“Come on, boy,” I said, staying in the shadows until the sun rose over Alameda and praying we would make it safely to the witch store before we were discovered.

We stayed low in the shadows and moved quickly and quietly through the streets until we made it to the back of the witches store. There was a dumpster near the back door, which was still locked for business. There was no way I was going to hide in a dumpster, but we pushed it to the corner and created a crevice that we could hide behind as the sun rose over Alameda.

Chapter 7

It took longer to get to the frost giants than I had expected. The cold grew more and more bitter the closer we got to their domain. I had never been this far north in my life. It was a place beyond even human exploration. The frost giants had set up wards around their region so they could live in immensely frigid environments while leaving the humans to survive in what was substantially less freezing.

Ratchet, burnt and moaned in my arms as I flew to the frost giants. He tried to make a comment now and again, but it only came out as a muttered sound, his words incomprehensible.

The wall surrounding the frost giants domain was impenetrable. I landed just outside of it and laid Ratchet down on the ground. He was suffering from intense combustion and his skin was dark and still smoldering. The cold seemed to do him good and he looked like he was trying to snuggle into the icy sheet I had laid him on. The ground was so cold I could not even handle it on my feet. Instead, I floated above it, keeping one eye on Ratchet and one on the large gates I needed to open to bring him inside.

“The rune,” Ratchet muttered.

“What?” I asked, still trying to figure out how the hell I was going to get inside the frost giants’ domain.

“Get the rune out of my pocket,” he said.

Honestly, the last thing I wanted to do was go digging around in another man’s pockets, but under the circumstances it was a necessity. It wasn’t hard to find; there wasn’t anything else in there, just a small flat stone with a symbol carved into it. I’d seen similar ones before. I’d been around for a few hundred years and I knew the runes were used by a particular type of witch. The kind that leaned not so much to the dark arts but to the gorier side of magic where they made sacrifices. It was a little odd to find one in Ratchet’s pocket, but I understood it was something we would need now.

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