Page 91 of Anathema Codex

I take out my pack of smokes and light one up, taking a long inhale before I crack the window and let it stream out as I exhale. I glance over at Lakyn to find him sitting in a mirror-image of me. One elbow propped on the door, cigarette in hand. The only difference is his hand is on the wheel and mine is on my knee.

Dammit.

I shift position and take another drag before I ask, "How do you even know this Trixie chick is even out here?"

"She is," Lakyn answers, a plume of smoke sliding out the side of his mouth.

"Because that priestess bitch said so?" I laugh and shake my head. "Right."

"Those Lucifer loving psychos are still obsessed with her, and this is where they said she'd be." Lakyn flashes a grin at me. "And you saw the way that chick looked at me. She wanted me to join their little church almost as much as she wanted my dick." He shrugs and flicks his cigarette out the window. "She told the truth. Just gotta find this place she's holed up."

"You've been driving around for hours, and the priestess said it was 'just off route 66.'" I wave my hand at the windshield that shows endless fucking desert. "We're pretty far off the highway now and there's jack-shit."

"I did expect there to be smoke signals or something," Lakyn replies, laughing as he leans forward to look up at the sky. "Doesn't it seem like there should be smoke signals coming from a place out here?"

"Just admit that you're lost, Pops."

"I'm not lost." Lakyn suddenly slams on the brakes, and the tires squeal as I barely catch myself on the dash and Daphne lets out a yelp from the backseat. His laughter only gets louder as he points out the side of the truck. "You seeing this shit?"

"Seeing what?" I snap, trying not to look as rattled as I am, but I follow his finger out the window where there's a cactus near the road decorated with sparkling gems and faded, colorful ribbons. "What the fuck is that?"

"A sign." Accelerating again, Lakyn keeps the truck at a moderate speed, eyes scanning the side of the road as more and more decorated cacti spring up, along with a handful of wooden boards with spray painted arrows on them. "Keep an eye out for smoke signals, kid. We're getting close to finding Auntie Trixie."

Rolling my eyes, I let my mind wander, daydreaming about driving the knife I've tucked away in the floorboard into Lakyn's throat. I can picture the spray of blood, the way it would look bright red with the sunlight behind it on the glass. We'd crash, but I'd be ready, and Daphne would probably be too distracted by her obsession choking on his own blood to brace for the crash. Then I'd just have to take her out, and I could wander into whatever fucking commune is out here and get a ride back into actual civilization.

"There!" Lakyn shouts, another round of laughter making my head pound as he slows the car down and turns onto a small dirt track that wouldn't look like anything at all if it weren't surrounded by cacti absolutely covered in sparkling prisms, colorful streamers, and Christmas tinsel. Stopping the car just inside the dirt 'road,' Lakyn looks around, shaking his head. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"You found it!" Daphne pipes up from the back, and I have to grit my teeth to keep from leaning into the backseat to punch her again.

"Maybe," I grumble. Glancing out the window, I see another wooden sign tethered to a dilapidated fence and flick the last of my cigarette at it. "It may not be Trixie, but apparently there'ssomethingout here. This sign over here says 'Daughter of Greater Light, 1 mile,' and there's an arrow pointing that way." I point out the windshield, and Lakyn cranes his neck to look past me.

"Of course Trixie found another cult to join. So fucking predictable…" Lakyn mumbles to himself as he lets off the brake and we start bouncing over the rough excuse for a road.

Even at a crawl, Willa's SUV feels like it's about to break an axle, but eventually I can see cars and travel trailers in the distance. As we get closer, I feel Daphne grab onto the back of my seat, but it only takes one sneer for her to back off, positioning herself between the front seats so she can see.

"All these people live out here in the middle of nowhere?" Daphne asks, but neither of us even glance at her. I'm distracted by the way the light is glinting off a huge greenhouse and the large number of people pouring out of tents and a few shitty looking buildings that look like they were constructed from mud bricks.

"What a joke," Lakyn mutters, tilting his chin toward a huge sign on the left side of the road.

'Welcome to the Daughter of Greater Light,' it reads in big, colorful letters, and painted underneath it in smaller letters is, 'Love Lives Here.'

"Wow." It's the only word I can think of, because nothing about this weird hippie commune seems like a place the Beatrix from Lakyn's stories would hang out. How could someone go from Lucifer-worshipping friend of the fucked-up monster next to me… to here? It has to be a mistake. After all, the priestess never actually gave a name for wherever Beatrix ended up, and just because we found some sparkly cacti in the middle of nowhere doesn't mean we're in the right place.

Of course, any place would be better than spending a single minute more around Lakyn or the redheaded cunt in the backseat.Thisfucking mess might be more than I can tolerate though. It reminds me of all those pics I've seen from the seventies where hippies braided each other's hair and talked about peace and love like the world would actually change if they just believed in it hard enough.

Idiots.

The world doesn't want peace. It just wants to destroy everyone slowly and methodically until the day we finally die.

"Welcome!" a man shouts, waving at us as Lakyn pulls the SUV off their excuse for a road and throws it into park, yanking the keys free. The man hurrying toward us has a small crowd of smiling imbeciles following him as he approaches the car. "You've found us, fellow travelers. Welcome," he repeats.

Lakyn sucks his teeth and grabs his cigarettes and lighter before he throws the door open and climbs out, twisting his back. Willa's keys go into his pocket and I'm tempted to grab the knife in the floorboard, but I figure that wouldn't be the best introduction to these hippies, so I leave it behind and get out of the SUV with my smokes and lighter in my hand. Daphne is already out and walking around to hover behind Lakyn, but I'm taking my time. She can continue being the eager little bitch while I figure out if I'll get the chance to slit Lakyn's throat out here and take the keys off him.

"I'm Sun Wolf, a Light Weaver here in our community, and—"

"Sun Wolf?" Lakyn repeats, a bark of laughter leaving him and continuing, but this wolf guy doesn't seem bothered at all. He's just… smiling.

"Yes. It's my Light Weaver name. If you decide to stay with us you'll choose your own name so that you can walk in the glory of The Daughter just like—"

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