We were pretty much done with combing through the explosion site for any useful evidence. There wasn’t much else to work with, though, besides the half-molten detonator chunks we’d found in the Xunn and Kifo mansions. Nothing to point in a specific direction, anyway.

“Only one question remains at this point,” I said, as Avril, Heron, Scarlett, and Caspian gathered around me. “The ephelis sticks. Where did they get them from?”

Caspian raised an eyebrow, looking down at the city unraveling below. His gaze focused somewhere on the staircase leading up to us. I followed it and turned around to see a Correction Officer coming up—he was the Mara who had been sent down to check on Master Dresdel, their craftsman of sorts. He didn’t look very happy.

“I think we’ll get our answer now,” Caspian muttered, then gave the Correction Officer a brief nod. “What did Master Dresdel say?”

“Nothing, milord. He’s dead,” the Mara replied, his brow furrowed.

Caspian’s aura caught a vibrant shade of red as he processed the information. I could see the anger almost flowing through his limbs, down to his hands as they balled into fists. The muscle in his jaw began to twitch.

“What do you mean, he’s dead?” Caspian asked, his teeth grinding as he struggled to keep his cool.

“He was killed, milord. I found him dead on the floor of his workshop. His head was cut off, and his ephelis reserves were ransacked,” the Correction Officer explained.

I would’ve lied if I’d said I didn’t see this coming. Looking back, it kind of made sense. Whoever was behind the attack had clearly procured the explosives from the only known source. Silencing said source was the logical next step, as grim as that sounded.

“Are you able to estimate time of death?”

“No longer than twenty hours, milord,” the Mara replied.

“And no less than what?” I interjected, trying to work Master Dresdel’s death into our already-strange timeline.

“Twelve, judging by stiffness, milady.”

“Gah, seriously, this is making less sense now!” I groaned, rolling my eyes in exasperation. Caspian and the rest of my team watched quietly as I paced back and forth along the edge of the terrace. “We came back from the gorges about eight, maybe nine hours ago. Which means that Master Dresdel was already dead. The math just doesn’t work out. Were they already preparing for the attack at the time? It’s the only logical explanation!”

“What if the explosions had nothing to do with what we did in the Valley of Screams?” Scarlett offered, hands resting on her hips. “What if Harper is right, and they were already preparing to hit the city before we even went into the gorges?”

“By ‘they’ you mean the daemons?” Avril asked.

“There’s no other group of suspects available at this point, is there?” Scarlett replied.

“Okay, so how does that help us going forward?” I sighed, then stilled as Caia and Blaze joined us on the top level. “You guys okay?”

“Yeah, just repainting the symbols for Patrik.” Caia lifted the paint can in her hands to show me, as she and Blaze came closer. “What have you got so far from here?”

“A stinking mess, it seems,” Heron concluded. “To summarize, the explosions were not retaliation for our stint in the gorges. The explosives were stolen from a local craftsman. He was killed while we were still out there, so the timeline’s a bit fuzzy.”

I slowly raised my hands to stop the conversation from going any further. We needed to brief Hansa, Patrik, and Jax as soon as possible. These findings could have an impact on our strategy going forward. And we also needed to get some sleep.

“Listen, let’s go back to the infirmary and brief the others on all this,” I said, gripping the back of my neck with one hand to relieve some of the tension. My muscles felt as though they were carved from stone. “The sooner we do this, the quicker we can get some shut-eye. I’m feeling broken, and will come apart if I don’t get some Z’s…”

“Harper’s right.” Heron nodded, then patted Blaze on the shoulder. “We’ll leave you two to finish the whole protection spell mojo, and see you downstairs in a bit.”

I walked past Caspian, my hand brushing against his.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said slowly, and I looked over my shoulder, nearly melting when his eyes found mine. That warmth was so strange and unfamiliar, yet so wonderful, it nearly eclipsed the horror of everything that had happened up to this point.

“See you,” I mumbled, not sure what else to say. He baffled me.

We headed back to the infirmary, where Jax, Hansa, and Patrik were going over the gorge map. Avril and Heron briefed them on their findings from the mansions’ ruins, and I broke the news about the Maras’ craftsman:

“Master Dresdel was killed and his workshop ransacked. They looted his ephelis reserve. So, at least the source of the explosives used is confirmed. The weird part is that Master Dresdel got his head cut off sometime between twelve and twenty hours ago.”

Jax, Hansa, and Patrik gave each other a round of confused looks.

“Wait, that doesn’t make sense.” Hansa frowned. “It doesn’t fit our timeline.”

“Yup,” I replied. “It means they were already planning and preparing the attack, long before we got back from the gorges.”

“So it wasn’t retaliation,” Jax concluded.

“Not for what we did earlier.” I shrugged. “Maybe for the ass-kicking they got the night before when they broke into the prison, I’m thinking…”

“Either way, that was vicious. It also confirms our earlier suspicions,” Hansa said. “The daemons definitely know this city and its operations inside out. They knew how to infiltrate the Lords’ mansions without anyone noticing an explosive device. They knew about Master Dresdel’s ephelis reserve. I can’t help but wonder what else they know…”

“I need some sleep before I can try to answer that question,” I muttered, leaning against the window frame. My muscles were starting to liquefy, and my neck was quite stiff. Normally my stamina covered two to three days with no sleep, easily, but after the constant fighting since the night Fiona was taken, I needed a breather.

Caia and Blaze returned shortly afterward, followed by Fiona, who briefed us on Arrah and the successful extraction of her brother, Demios. Finally, a small win for our side…

“She promised she’ll find me by tomorrow night.” Fiona completed her account of Demios’s rescue and return to his sister. “Once he’s safe and hidden, Arrah will be able to talk to us. She feared her brother might have been mind-bent into spying on his own people, if released from prison, from what I understood.”

“Whoa, that’s some serious conspiracy stuff,” I exclaimed, finding it hard to imagine such a scenario after I’d seen Mara bodies being carried out of the rubble upstairs.

“We won’t know for sure until she speaks up,” Patrik said. “In the meantime, let’s set up a proper spell to protect this city. Caia, Blaze, all done on your end, right?”

“Absolutely,” Caia replied with a smirk. “We repainted the symbols around the Lords’ mansions, too. But we used trees this time, just to be sure.”

“Thank you both,” the Druid replied, and moved to the area in the middle of the room that had the spell paraphernalia and drawings prepared. He chanted the spell in a low voice and clapped his hands once, releasing an energy pulse. Golden light burst out of his body and spread out, disappearing beyond the walls of the infirmary. “I used samples from the daemon and the pit wolf collars to specify the threat that the spell needs to keep out.”

We all stood there, quiet for a while, enjoying the silence.

Jax then opened the door, calling out to the Correction Officers stationed outside:

“You there! Tell Lord Kifo that the protection spell is in place to cover the prison, too. However, you should have officers on the second and third floors for the rest of the night.” He then shifted his focus back to us, running a hand through his short black hair. “I’ll need all of us to get some sleep through what’s left of the night. We’re all pretty drained, judging by Harper’s face.”

His smirk made me straighten my back and cross my arms over my chest, exuding faux offence.

“Hah, speak for yourself,” I quipped.

“We have a route set up for the gorges tomorrow, but I trust Lord Kifo will be able to offer some valuable input after the funerals,” Jax continued. “We’ll meet back here at eight, as the procession starts at nine, from what Emilian told us. It’ll give us an hour to hash out details, let the Druid dispose of the daemon corpse, and prepare for what comes next.”

“To reiterate,” Hansa added, “Jax, Blaze, Caia, Harper, Lord Kifo, and I will infiltrate the gorges again tomorrow, after the funerals. The plan is to find and capture a daemon in there, and force him to reveal one of the access routes into their underground cities. Lord Kifo might be able to help with that, too. We’ll find out more once we have him all to ourselves.”

“And the rest of us will stay here.” Fiona nodded. “Understood. That being said, I would like to speak to Cynara sometime soon. Preferably tomorrow.”

“The servant girl from our first dinner with the Lords?” I asked, remembering the young Iman female and her fragile state, along with Hera, her sister.

“Yes. I’m hoping we can get some more information out of her,” Fiona replied, “about anything… Avril, Heron, would you be able to join me for this? I’m hoping we could maybe bypass some of her mind-bending blocks. Surely she must have some. It could lead to nothing, but then again, with so many questions we have yet to answer, she might surprise us… I don’t know.”

“That makes sense,” Heron replied. “I mean, like you said, it’s worth a shot. Worst-case scenario her brain is already mush, but we won’t know until we try. It’s a useful way to kill time while Jax and his team check the underground cities.”

“I agree,” Avril chimed in. “Speaking to Cynara could at least help us understand the extent of mind-bending in this city. After all, there is only so much that the Exiled Maras can justify as psychological treatment and forcing confessions out of criminals. It would be good to put the issue to rest, once and for all, especially after what happened tonight. Despite the warning signs, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to believe that the Maras have anything to do with the disappearances and the daemons. If anything, the Imen seem to know more about these creatures than anyone else.”

“Well, the Imen and Lord Kifo,” I muttered.

“Yeah, but he’s a very odd exception, and I’m hoping he’ll be willing to tell us more about it as soon as he gets the chance,” Hansa offered, then took a deep breath and glanced at each of us. “Okay, time to go to bed!”

We left the infirmary, with Patrik last. He locked the door and placed another protection spell on the building. I looked out onto the gorges in the distance and froze. Using my True Sight for just a little bit of a zoom, I could see the red eyes clearly—flickering defiantly in the absolute darkness of the limestone ravines.

“Hey, guys,” I breathed, “can you look out over there and tell me what you see?”

I kept my eyes on the Valley of Screams, determined not to let those red dots out of my sight this time. One by one, my teammates joined my side, following my gaze. Their eyes narrowed for a moment, then popped wide open.

“Lots of daemons out there tonight, I see,” Hansa growled, twisting her lips with disgust.

“Ah, so I’m not imagining this. Okay,” I muttered.

“No, and I am sorry we doubted you the other night.” Hansa gently nudged my shoulder with hers. “They’re getting more brazen now.”

“Hopefully GASP will be here soon,” Jax added. “We need more than one dragon to launch a serious offensive against the daemons. And that will be either to obliterate them or force them into some kind of armistice.”

“Speaking of which,” Blaze interjected, frowning slightly, “it’s been a few days, and GASP has yet to come for us. They obviously can’t reach us via Telluris—shouldn’t they be flying out here by now?”

“I don’t know, Blaze,” Jax replied, shaking his head slowly as he gazed at the red eyes in the distance. “I’m sure they’ll be here shortly. Honestly, I’m too tired to pass any judgment on this right now. Let’s sleep on it, and let’s not forget that the asteroid belt is playing a crucial role in our communication and travel issues. Maybe they’re dealing with the same.”

Not fully satisfied with that idea, Blaze shrugged and headed up the stairs toward the Broken Bow Inn. The rest of the team followed, including myself. I kept glancing over my shoulder, the red eyes still watching.

My blood chilled and shivers ran down my spine. I cleared my throat and focused on the walk to the inn, going over everything that had happened throughout the day, while the others recounted their own versions of the events. There were different perspectives between us, but they all carried us forward toward our common goal—protecting those who could not defend themselves.

Our day so far had not been extraordinary, given the anti-climactic and yet explosive end. But we’d gotten Fiona back, and we’d killed scores of daemons back in the Valley of Screams. On top of that, we’d reset the protection spell over the city, and we’d even managed to snatch Demios out of prison, thanks to Fiona.

“Hey, Fiona.” I remembered the question that had crossed my mind earlier, the one I’d forgotten to ask. She gave me a quick glance over her shoulder. “How long do you think before the Correction Officers realize that Demios is missing?”

“I think by late morning at best.” She chuckled. “I ruffled his bed up. Made it look like he’s sleeping. They’ll probably serve him breakfast and notice something’s off.”

“What if they trace it back to us?” I asked. “Surely they’ll figure out there was something supernatural involved…”

“They’ll have to prove it before they even think of accusing us,” Jax replied, confidence adding some extra weight to his husky voice. “And I doubt that will happen while we’re out here, trying to keep them safe.”

He had a point. The Exiled Maras had no proof that we had anything to do with it. Either way, as long as Demios was free and out of their reach, it didn’t really matter. We finally had Arrah on our side. Soon enough, she would tell us more about the city and its people.

Looking around at passing Imen and Maras, I couldn’t help but shiver briefly. Their picture-perfect lives were crumbling before their very eyes. Their love of art and fashion was obscured by blood and ashes. Yes, they were a complicated bunch… but they didn’t deserve any of this.