Sam shifts her weight, looking uncomfortable. I know she’s starting to see the Order for the creep-show it is, but she’s been so indoctrinated she has a hard time voicing it out loud. “That doesn’t matter to the Order.” She flicks her gaze to me. “I mean, don’t covens operate the same way?”
“No. I just recently met my High Priestess,” I start, since Sam has no idea about the Covenstead. Until I’m positive she’s not up the Order’s butt, I’m keeping details about Grim Gate to the minimum. “And she will set out punishments for those who have used magic illegally but when it comes to breaking human laws, they’ll let proper authorities handle it.” I feel a bit like I’m lying. I know how Tabatha stands, but the Grand Coven—they seem hardcore and old fashioned to me.
“I’m positive if your High Priestess found a witch hunter, she’d burn him or something.”
Nik holds up a hand, giving me a telling look. “The fact of the matter is that if the witches and the Order came to blows, it wouldn’t end well for either party. You can have all the weapons, training and bullheaded stubbornness that makes you think you’ll be able to go up against an entire coven, but you’ll still fail. Witches are dangerous. Powerful. They can hurt you without lifting a finger.”
His lips curve into a smile. “That’s what was so damn attractive about Estelle. God, that woman was wild. Both with her magic and in bed.”
“Too much information, Nik.” I finish putting healing balm on my wounds and get up, pulling a bunch of leftovers out of the fridge. I stick what I can fit in the microwave and use magic to heat up the rest. Hunter shadows into the house and I fill a bowl with chicken for him.
The stairs creak as Ethan comes back down after a fast shower, dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt. Unlike the rest of us, he didn’t get bitten by demons. He gets a plate of food and joins us.
Sam’s phone rings. It’s Julia, and she answers the call and puts her on speaker.
“If you’re calling to tell us you couldn’t talk sense into Steph, we already know,” Sam starts. “She drove by Ethan and Anora’s house.”
“Dammit,” Julia mumbles. “I was able to convince her to let me dig into this a little more, and that’s why I’m calling, but we don’t have much time before she hands in her report.”
“You’re on speaker. Go ahead.”
“The Order higher-ups are convinced both Hector and Patrick were killed by witches, and they’re sure witches have something to do with Roger’s disappearance as well. I was trying to find a connection but there was nothing obvious other than them all being in the Order. The causes of death were all so different too—or so I thought. The bloodwork for Patrick just came back, and both he and Hector had incredibly high levels of cortisol and adrenaline.”
“Fear hormones,” Ethan says.
“Yeah, and get this. Hector’s cause of death was a heart attack. The wounds weren’t enough to kill him and the only fingerprints on the athame were his. I haven’t gotten Patrick’s official cause of death back, but he was burned inside his apartment yet no smoke alarm went off. So I started doing more digging, looking through databases for other people who died of supposed heart attacks but were otherwise healthy.”
“And you found more?”
“Yeah, a few more, going back several weeks. No connection was made because the deaths don’t look like foul play. I only hacked into this database on a hunch after seeing the hormone levels in Hector and Patrick’s reports. And they all had the same high levels of cortisol and adrenaline.”
“They were scared to death,” Ethan says.
“Exactly. And one victim, Sheela Vasquez, was deathly afraid of flying. She was found in her living room, on her couch, and still covered with a blanket with nearly every bone in her body crushed and lacerations all over her arms and face.”
“Like she was in a crash.” I rest my elbows on the counter.
“Exactly like she was in a plane crash. She even had scorch marks on parts of her body that’s consistent with bodies they find in the rubble of crashes from the fuel igniting.”
“So we’re looking for a Freddie Krueger type demon who uses people’s worst fears to kill them,” Sam says. “Hector was scared of witches. Patrick of fire. The MO fits.”
“Yeah. But there’s something else, and I almost missed it. I told you that these deaths have been going back a few weeks and I’m sure I’ll uncover more, but I already noticed a pattern.”
“How often is the demon killing?” Ethan asks.
“Every three days, and I was able to use that to level with Steph to give us some time to find our killer. So you have roughly forty-eight hours to find this demon or the Order is going to come after Anora.”