“Vincent, Cadmus, what the hell took you so long?” Jax growled, eyeing Vincent and the Correction Officer I identified as Cadmus. The other Maras stayed behind, unable to take their eyes off the devastation left behind by Blaze. The smell of burnt flesh was impossible to ignore.

“It wasn’t easy to find another access route to this gorge.” Cadmus shrugged, then jumped off his horse. He glanced at me. “Are you all okay? It looks like you’ve made quite the mess here…”

“We heard the dragon roaring from the other side,” Vincent added, then glanced around. “What happened here?”

“Daemons happened,” Harper replied, nodding toward Blaze as he moved closer to Caia’s side. “But we had a dragon, so, you know… Poof!”

“Fiona, where were you?” Hansa shifted her focus back to me, as the question of how I had made it back to them had yet to be answered.

“A daemon took me from the prison, as you already know,” I explained. “His name is Zane. He kept me in a cage, inside a grotto nearby, in another gorge toward the north side of this place. It was weird, though. He used colored powders, which he blew in my face, to either knock me out or render me unable to move—”

“Wait, colored powders?” Patrik interjected, his eyes narrowing as if he were trying to remember something. “What colors were they?”

“Well, he had three,” I recalled, scratching the back of my neck. “A yellow one that knocked me out altogether. A red one that relaxed my muscles too much, to the point where I could barely use my arms and legs. And an orange one that paralyzed me. It kept me conscious, but I couldn’t move or even speak.”

“That’s swamp witch magic.” Patrik frowned, then glared at Vincent and Cadmus. “And this wasn’t the first time I’ve seen daemons use it, either. Their invisibility is also a swamp witch spell. We think they used charmed collars to control pit wolves. How did daemons get their claws on this kind of magic?”

“What are pit wolves?” Vincent asked. His expression was blank, as if he’d barely registered what Patrik had just said.

“Wait, hold on.” Hansa raised her hands to slow the conversation down. “Let Fiona finish first, and we’ll get to the swamp witch magic in a second. One issue at a time. Let’s focus.”

They all looked at me, waiting for me to tell the rest of my abduction story.

“Okay, so, long story short, Zane kept me there for a while. He even fed me; he gave me blood. He said he wasn’t sure what he was going to do with me, but, in the end, he decided to bring me back here because you were all spotted by other hunters,” I replied. “He said he’d seen the dragon back at the prison and the only reason he took me in the first place was because, and I quote, I ‘smell delicious’ to daemons and he didn’t want to ‘share’ me with anyone. According to him, I would’ve been taken one way or another. In hindsight, it’s actually better that he took me, since I’m back here now.”

“So, what, he brought you back here because he didn’t want to get on our bad side?” Blaze asked, slightly confused.

“Kind of, yeah.” I shrugged. “Honestly, he wasn’t all that open or willing to talk, so I can’t exactly explain his reasoning. He left me inside a crevice nearby, and I knew how to get to you from there.”

“I guess I should thank him for bringing you back to me.” Vincent smiled, unable to take his eyes off me. The Mara seemed over the moon to see me again. It was heartwarming, to a certain degree.

He’d been nothing but good to me, and he sure knew how to use his charm around me. He still made my heart flutter a little bit, but, given all the questions still lingering around him and the rest of his city, I couldn’t help but put on the brakes and keep a safe emotional distance from the guy.

“Speaking of Fiona and our journey here, what happened with the tracking spell?” Harper asked, pulling her hair up in a ponytail with one of the elastic bands she kept on her wrist. “It stopped for a while, hovering, before it darted over to Fiona.”

“I’m not exactly sure,” Patrik replied. “I’ve never used the spell before Neraka but my guess is that Fiona was still in one location, while the light orb was tracking her and it stopped and hovered for a while as Fiona was probably moving.”

“When the daemon brought me back,” I murmured. “The spell is more accurate when the person it’s tracking is standing still, then.”

“That kind of makes sense,” Harper replied, satisfied with our conclusion.

“And what happened here?” Cadmus asked.

Heron stood, his arm around Avril’s shoulder.

“We were looking for Fiona and came across a daemon convoy,” Hansa said. “We fought invisible ones earlier, but this group was organized. They had armor and weapons. They were pulling four cages with captured Imen. They had giant black beasts, called pit wolves, with red eyes and swamp witch collars. They’re even faster than the daemons and just as vicious. We managed to set the Imen free, and, once they were out of this area, we let Blaze loose. As you can see, there are no survivors.”

“Stating the obvious there,” Cadmus muttered.

“The daemons are much better organized than we originally thought,” Jax replied. “And they’re using swamp magic. How is that possible? I thought the swamp witch only gave you a handful of mild charms along with that interplanetary travel spell.”

Vincent and Cadmus looked at each other, but their expressions were quite different. Vincent was confused, his eyebrows arched and his green eyes wide. Cadmus, on the other hand, was silent and didn’t show any reaction to what we’d just told him. He either knew about the swamp witch magic or he’d been trained to wear that straight face twenty-four seven, just like Caspian. Based on what we’d seen so far, however, it was difficult to tell.

“Cadmus,” Harper said, her voice low, “if you know anything about this, now’s the time to tell us. We’re getting tired of finding things out on our own here, and trust me, if you keep holding out on us, GASP won’t be so kind going forward.”

Cadmus glanced at her, his gaze softening for a second before he resumed the harshness he’d previously displayed.

“The daemons are organized. They don’t just hunt,” Hansa reiterated. “They go out in armored groups, with giant beasts and cages, and capture dozens of Imen at once, to take them to their underground cities. Please, tell us what you know.”

“This is something that you’ll have to take up with the Five Lords,” Cadmus replied, getting back on his horse. “I’m not privy to such information, nor was I aware of what the daemons were doing. I doubt the Lords will know more, but it’s the only suggestion I can make at this point.”

“Are you implying that the Five Lords know about all this?” Jax asked, gesturing around him.

“That’s not what I said.” Cadmus scoffed. “I merely suggested that you take these issues up with them, not with me. I’m but a foot soldier and a servant of the city.”

A minute went by in absolute silence. The Maras were still looking around, while occasionally stealing a glance at Blaze, as if putting a face to the devastation left behind. The sun was going down at this point, and the gorge was cast in dark shadows, while threads of black smoke still reached for the purplish sky.

“Ready to go?” Vincent moved closer to me, his arm snaking around my waist.

I nodded. He smiled, then took the reins of his indigo horse and brought the animal near.

“Vincent, wait,” Harper said, frowning. “There’s something you should know.”

He waited, one hand resting on the stallion’s strong neck. Harper sighed and pulled a couple of folded papers from her back pocket.

“We came across Sienna on our way here,” Harper said.

I blinked several times, as did Vincent. This was news to both of us. A flurry of questions flew through my head, but I kept my focus on Harper and took Vincent’s hand in mine. I had a feeling he might need emotional support of some kind, given that Sienna wasn’t with us now.

“What? Where is she? Is she okay? Isn’t she coming home? Did daemons take her?” Vincent pretty much voiced all my questions in one breath, his brow furrowed.

“Vincent, she wasn’t kidnapped.” Harper let out a sigh, her shoulders dropping. “She ran away. She met one of the daemons prowling on the first level a few months back but told no one about him. According to her, they fell in love and knew that your family would never accept them, and—”

“Wait… Hold on…” Vincent shook his head, unable to process the news. “What do you mean, she met a daemon? Do you mean to tell me she knew what was happening here? She knew that daemons were taking our people and said nothing? You’re lying. That cannot be. My sister would never do such a thing!”

Vincent quickly shifted from befuddlement to anger. Not that I could blame him, given what Harper was telling us about Sienna. To think that she knew, and told no one, was simply horrible.

“She couldn’t tell anyone,” Harper replied. “Tobiah, the daemon she fell in love with, would have been killed by his own people if Sienna revealed their existence. She ran away with him, and they’re temporarily living in the Valley of Screams, hiding from both daemons and Maras. Nobody knows they’re together. Tobiah pretends she’s his game, to keep other fiends at bay. And she’s not coming back to Azure Heights, either. She gave me this for you. I’m sorry, Vincent…”

She gave him the papers, which Vincent unfolded and scanned briefly. His lips parted as he recognized his sister’s handwriting. His fingers trembled while he read her words, clutching the thin sheets and trying to make sense of what Sienna was telling him.

I leaned in to get a good look, but couldn’t read the entire message before he folded the papers again and shoved them into his coat pocket. He straightened his back and regained his composure, putting on a calm face. He gave Harper a nod.

“Thank you,” he muttered. “I will pass this on to my mother.”

We all looked at him for a while without saying anything. What could be said, anyway? His sister had vanished, causing nothing but grief to his family. She’d chosen love over everything else, hiding out here in the Valley of Screams in order to protect herself and the daemon she’d fallen for.

But she had blood on her hands. All the Maras and Imen abducted during the time she’d spent meeting with Tobiah in secret—their deaths were all on her. She could have said something. She could have at least left a note for her brother and mother, before she ran away.

I looked at Vincent and recognized the grief in his eyes. I couldn’t voice my thoughts about her now. He needed time to process it all, to come to terms with his sister’s choices. And we had enough on our plate already.

He tightened his grip on my hand, then gave me a soft glance and guided me to the saddle.

“Let’s go,” he said, his voice hoarse. “The sun is coming down, and we need to get out of here before midnight, when the beasts usually come out. I reckon the first daemons we encountered had caught our scent, for them to have come out during the day. The ones you dealt with afterwards were an exception, given their transport, because they seem to prefer hunting at night… I believe the Druid has to try that protection spell for the city again?”

“Yes, among other things.” Patrik nodded.

Harper let out a sharp whistle that echoed throughout the open space of the gorge. Horses neighed not far from us, and, soon enough, six indigo mounts emerged from the eastern part of the ravine, where the path narrowed again.

I got on Vincent’s horse first, and he climbed behind me. His body felt warm against my back, his thighs gently pushing mine as he took the reins with one hand and rested the other on my hip. It felt nice and safe, and, after the madness I’d experienced over the past sixteen hours or so, I was grateful to be able to lean back and find him there to support me.