“A worn-out tank top. Ripped jeans. A belt with a shiny brass buckle.”
“What about her eyes?” His hands rested on my shoulder, and I shivered.
“Crimson. Almost red, like blood.”
Suddenly, the world swirled around me, and my stomach lurched with vertigo. I was hurtling through darkness, though I could feel myself in the chair and Jaxson’s body pressed close behind mine. My vision blurred, but there she was, looking as vicious as I had ever seen her. Ripped jeans. Tank top. Barbed wire tattoo, and that two-headed wolf on her neck.
“It’s working!” I gasped.
My gaze followed her as she moved around the room, as if I were tethered to her like a balloon.
“What do you see? Describe everything,” Jaxson prompted. The sensations of his signature still wrapped around me.
“She’s walking through a building with wooden walls. I can’t clearly see what she’s doing. Wait…there’s someone else.”
“Who?”
“It’s a man. One of the abductees—I recognize him from the television. I think he’s still alive. He’s on a cot.”
Jaxson squeezed my shoulder. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Do you see a
ny indication of where she is? Something out a window? A sign?”
“Nothing.”
The woman swept around the cot where the man lay, and just for a second, I glimpsed a crimson circle on the floor. “There’s a red ring with symbols all around it.”
They reminded me of the ring of symbols that had helped contain my aunt’s Sphere of Devouring.
“Can you look closer?”
“No, they’re blurry, and she’s moving away.”
Then my stomach dropped, and I felt like I was being sucked backward through the air. Everything went dark. “Shit,” I muttered, opening my eyes. “I lost it.”
“Tell me about the ring,” Jaxson growled. “Can you describe it any better?”
“No, it was just part of a ring with weird symbols. I don’t know magic. Get me a pencil and paper.”
He retrieved them, and I set about sketching furiously. I’d just glimpsed it out of the corner of my eye, and only part of the ring, but I reproduced it as best I could. Finally, I shoved the sketch toward him. It wasn’t great, but it was all I could get. “What is this?”
He scrutinized the drawing. “I don’t know, exactly, but it’s some form of ring of containment.”
I took the paper and traced it with my eyes, wishing I’d seen it more clearly or been able to make out the symbols. “What are they used for?”
Jaxson hesitated in a way that sent shivers down my spine. “They’re used for summoning demons from the underworld. Not the ones you see here, working around town. Dangerous ones that have to be controlled.”
Demons. I barely knew what that meant. Zara was a half-demon. I’d seen people with horns. But I could feel the tension in his body, so close to mine, and the thin line of his mouth told me that these were real demons. The things of nightmares.
My stomach knotted, and I looked up from my drawing. “Why would my attackers be summoning demons? What are they trying to do?”
“I don’t know.”
Truth.
“Another mystery, then. Did we learn anything?” I leaned back in my chair and slapped my hands on the table.
“Absolutely. We know at least one of the victims is still alive. That’s something. Second, we know these wackos are part of cult associated with the myth of a twin-headed wolf and that they’re summoning demons. That’s a lot farther along than we were at this time yesterday. You did good work.”