The silence between the two of them was tense and angry. Layla knew that Hunter was still mad about her being in the underworld and her refusal to go into hiding and run away without the antidote. She was furious that he refused to accept her being here and that he doubted her ability to keep herself safe.

When Hunter went to check the back of the house, Layla stayed in the front. She didn’t really know what she was looking for, but she didn’t want to talk to Hunter to ask him. She flipped over cushions and looked inside drawers.

There was nothing unusual that she could find, apart from a large number of weapons, but from what she’d seen, that was hardly unusual for demons. She wondered how many weapons Fern owned, if she’d have to leave this many behind. Traveling on foot meant she couldn’t have taken more than she could carry.

Layla sat on the dusty couch and thought. What would give a clue as to where Fern was going? Was the underworld big enough to have warmer or cooler climates in different areas? If it was, the clothes Fern had left behind could be a clue.

Layla found the bedroom easily and opened the closet. There wasn’t much, but the clothes left behind were mostly warm coats and sweaters. Likely Fern had gone somewhere warm. What else? The food she took with her? Layla didn’t see how that would give a clue to her whereabouts.

Sighing in frustration, she picked her way to the back of the house. She’d have to get over her anger and talk to him.

“What exactly are we looking for?” she asked, not looking at him.

“Anything that might give us a clue as to where she went.”

“Yes, I know, but I’ve never searched a house before. What, exactly, am I looking for? What kinds of things will tell us where she went?”

“Anything. We won’t know until we find it,” Hunter said irritably. Layla gave up and resumed searching as far away from Hunter as she could get.

She glanced out of the window, but it was still dark out. It was hard to see with just the illumination from the lights on the road. Hunter was ok, demons could see well in the dark, but she wished she could find a flashlight or something. Of course, it would give too much away, so she kept squinting.

Finding nothing, she sat back down and waited for Hunter to finish his part of the search, which would undoubtedly be more effective than hers. Now that she’d stopped moving, worry for Sophie started to creep back into her mind.

This was exactly why she couldn’t do what Hunter wanted and go back to Earth to let him find the antidote. She’d go mad. He’d get back and cure Sophie and find that he was in love with a crazy person. What was the cure for a mental breakdown?

“There’s nothing that I can find,” Hunter said, running his hands through his hair in frustration and sitting down next to her. “It makes sense. Fern would want a way for her friends to find her, but she couldn’t leave anything easy to find, or whoever chased her out would have her.”

“I think she’s going somewhere warm, if that helps. She left behind some winter clothes.”

“That could mean anything in the underworld. The climate is different here. Seasons are quick, only a few weeks each, and any area can go from freezing to boiling.”

“What do we do, then?”

Hunter looked at her for a minute, apparently struggling with himself. “I think…I think you need to do a locator spell.”

“I thought magic in the underworld was dangerous?”

“It is, but I can’t see any other option. You stay in here, and I’ll go outside. I don’t want to get caught in your backlash. If anyone realizes you’re doing magic, I need to be ready to fight.”

“What happens if my backlash targets another demon nearby?”

“I’m just hoping they won’t recognize what it is. Every witch’s stipulation is different. More likely, they’ll think they’ve been poisoned. Plus, most of them are asleep now, so the most the backlash would do is put them into a deeper sleep.”

“And if it targets me?”

“We can sleep here; I don’t think anyone is going to bother us. We’ll leave in the morning.”

“Ok, well you’d better get outside then.”

Layla didn’t worry about anyone else seeing Hunter. He seemed to have the ability to disappear at will. Maybe it was a demon thing or perhaps something he’d learned in his line of work. Either way, he was perfectly capable of hiding in the dark.

It wasn’t a difficult spell. Layla filled a bowl of water and waited until the surface was still and smooth. She said the incantation and waited. The water shimmered and transformed into an image of one of the strange underworld trees in a garden. The ground around it looked like it had been dug up not that long ago. The grass there was much shorter than in the rest of the scene.

Layla’s heart sank. She was looking for Fern, and she’d found what looked like a burial site. What would they do if Fern was dead? She could be their only chance to save Sophie.

She stared hopelessly at the reflection. Wait. There was something about it. She tried to think and realized that she’d seen that tree before—it was one of the trees in Fern’s garden. She’d seen it coming in. Maybe all hope wasn’t lost.

The image faded, and Layla waited to see if the backlash of her power was going to drain her. After a minute, she was sure it had picked someone else nearby. Hopefully, they were asleep and none the wiser. If not, they might have more trouble than they could handle crashing down on them at any moment.

“What’s wrong?” Hunter demanded the moment he saw her. Layla wondered what she looked like. Terrified, probably, of what they were going to find.

“What are the chances of Fern burying something in her garden?”

“Pretty good. A lot of demons have a pre-arranged hiding place that only those they trust can find. Why, what did you see?”

Layla explained about the tree. Hunter crouched down and examined the area while Layla searched the house for a shovel.

She found one and came back, handing it to Hunter. She sat in silence while he dug, praying that he was right about her hiding something. The disturbed area seemed too small for a body, but that didn’t rule out cremation. How did demons bury their dead? She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

Hunter’s shovel clanked on something hard. Layla helped him clear the ground around it and found to her relief that it was a glass bottle with a piece of paper in it. She looked eagerly over his shoulder as he unfolded it, but she couldn’t make sense of it. There were strange symbols that didn’t look like any writing she’d ever seen before.

“Is that a different language?”

“Code. The message was vulnerable just after she buried it, while her scent still hung around the area. An enemy could have discovered it and found her. Only people she trusts will know the cypher and be able to work out the message.”

“Do you know the cypher?”

“No, but at least we know what we’re looking for now. It’ll be a book, and it’ll be hidden, not on the shelf with the others.”

They went back inside and started the search anew. It appeared that Fern had many clever hiding places, including hollow cupboard doors, hidden chambers behind paintings, and fake potted plants with boxes under them.

Hunter eventually found a thin book sewn into a cushion. “You guys really know how to hide something,” Layla muttered.

“We have to; if you care about anything, you need to make sure no one finds it.”

She searched for a sewing kit to repair the cushion while Hunter examined the message with the book resting open on his knees. It was in a demon language that seemed incomprehensible to her; she was glad Hunter was with her.

Shortly after Layla finished with the cushion, Hunter announced that he’d decrypted the message.

“Fern went to stay by the seaside. We’re in luck. The town she’s at is relatively near the portal. If we hurry, we’ll be able to make it by the opening after next.”

“Will that be enough time? That’ll be six days since we left, and Sophie wasn’t doing too well even then. She’s probably only gotten worse…”

“Don’t worry about Sophie now. Keep your mind on the task at hand. That’s the best way you can help her.”

Layla nodded. It was easier said than done, but Hunter was right. She needed to do whatever she could to save Sophie, including keeping herself together when she just wanted to collapse into a puddle on the floor.

Hunter glanced at the sky. It was lightening. Neither of them had had any sleep, and Layla longed to lie down, but that was time Sophie might not have.

“Do you want to head out now?”

“Yes,” she said immediately, trying not to think about how sore her leg muscles already were.

Not many people were about, but there were one or two other demons on the road. She guessed getting an early start was sometimes necessary if you were traveling a long distance here.

“You know,” she grouched, “if we had a car down here, we could take turns switching off with driving and sleeping.”

“A car wouldn’t fit down that portal. Believe me, it’s something that’s been discussed by other demons who’ve been to Earth. They could probably dismantle one and put it back together once they got the parts inside, but even if they managed to learn enough to build a car, it would cause huge problems down here.

“Many demons would hate something from Earth and work to destroy it. Depending on who is ruling at the time, the current king might even order his guards to help with the destruction.”

“It seems a bit stupid. I mean, they could make life so much easier for you.”

“Every piece of human technology has two sides to it. Cars make transport faster, but how many people are killed in car crashes every day? No one dies from bumping into each other while walking.”

He had a point. But Layla’s burning legs still didn’t agree.

As the day progressed, they started to see more people. They stopped for lunch, but no further breaks seemed forthcoming, and Layla didn’t want to ask. It was mid-afternoon when Hunter hissed under his breath and glanced around, his eyes narrowed.

“What is it?”

He leaned close to her, speaking softly in her ear. “We’re being followed. Just act normally. Don’t look back.”

“Who could be following us?” The desire to look back was almost overwhelming.

“Not the royal guard, that’s the good news. It’s just one person. I don’t know what they want. It could be something as simple as someone wanting to talk to me without anyone else overhearing. We’ll keep walking. If they keep following, I’ll turn and wait for them. If it is someone wanting a private audience, probably offering me a job, they’ll signal a place they want to talk in private.”

“And if not?” Layla was trying to keep her voice even, but all the dire warnings Hunter had given her about how dangerous it was for her in the underworld were overwhelming her attempts to stay calm.

“If not, I’ll attack.”

Layla gulped. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. They kept walking for another ten minutes. Hunter said they were still being followed, though Layla couldn’t hear anything with her less sensitive ears.

“Turn around with me and look straight ahead. Don’t fidget and remember not to make eye contact.”

They turned at once to see an empty road. “We’re not being followed?” Layla asked hopefully.

“Oh, we are. Whoever it is doesn’t want just a conversation, though, or they wouldn’t have disappeared the moment we turned around. Come on, let’s keep walking. I’ll find a safe spot for you to wait while I sort this out.”

“Why are they bothering to hide if you know they’re there?”

“They may not know that I know. All demons have better senses than humans and witches, but it takes more than that to learn to tell if someone is following you. I’ve had a lot of practice with it. Many other demons wouldn’t have noticed anything at this stage.”

Hunter pulled them off the road a short while later and found one of those strange opening trees for Layla to hide in.

“Take out your knife. When I come back for you, I’ll call your name so you know it’s me. If anyone but me opens this tree, stab them. Go for the neck, it’s got a lot less protection than the chest. Don’t hesitate.”

“I can’t just stab someone without knowing they intend me harm!”

“You’re thinking like a human. We’re not on Earth anymore. The rules are different here. Believe me, if someone tracks you down and finds you here, they intend harm.”

He didn’t give Layla another chance to protest. Pulling the tree closed behind him, he disappeared.

Layla couldn’t just wait here not knowing what was happening. She dug her fingers into the bark and pulled it open a tiny bit, just enough to see through the small hole. Hunter was waiting among the trees at the edge of the road.

It didn’t take long. The demon who was following them drew level with Hunter. Hunter pounced.

Layla had never seen him fight another demon before. The two of them were moving so fast that they were merely a blur. She heard the other demon shout out.

“Wait, I just want to talk! My name is Claw. I—”

He was cut off when Hunter hit him. The fight continued. Hunter was obviously so engrossed in it that he wasn’t thinking, because he knew that name. The both did.

Layla desperately grabbed at the tree and pulled it open, stumbling out before the gap was big enough and just managing to keep her feet.

“Wait!” she yelled, running up to the pair. “Hunter, stop!”

He ignored her. Layla couldn’t tell who was winning the fight, but the thought of either of them getting hurt was terrifying. She tried to grab Hunter’s arm, but he effortlessly pulled out of her grasp and pushed Claw hard, moving him and the fight away from her. They were growling, and while Layla didn’t see any weapons yet, she knew it wouldn’t be long before they appeared. Once that happened, this was going to get bloody fast.

“Hunter, stop it! That’s my father!”