In the Shadows

He fell back onto his pillow and heard an odd rustling. Reach-

ing beneath it, he found Mary’s forgotten letters. The return

address was in a hand he now knew to be Alden’s. A flat in Lon-

don. It was a starting point, and he took it as a sign he was on the

right trail.

Tucked into the letters, though, was something new. A

photo of —

Arthur sat up. A photo of Minnie, perfectly preserved from

the beginning of summer. Her face was serene, placid; not

even holding still for the exposure could dampen the light in

her eyes.

He had done that all on his own.

He turned it around to find a scrawling note, written in a

hand that could only be Mary’s:

Fear the men, not the monster. Free the demon and free us all.

The demon. Mary had whispered about it as he slowly rowed

her out to the ocean. Arthur thought she was just ranting, but now

he wondered if she wasn’t telling him how to destroy his immortal

enemies.

“None of us are what we seem,” she had said. “Least of all the

demon. Poor sweet thing, ancient nightmare caught, then caged

in flesh and blood for all of us to live off. You’d look right at him

and never know. I wonder if I’m a monster inside, too? What does

my skin hide?” She’d scratched at her arm until it bled, then sighed

and continued wrapping chains around her ankles. “So hard to

find. But you’ll release us all, won’t you?”

Arthur shuddered, thinking of Mary’s idea of release. He owed

it to her — to everyone — to figure out the clues, to chase Alden

down, to find this demon and free it. To end the Ladon Vitae once

and for all.