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“Okay. I give up. Holy fuck.” Erin gasped in between labored breaths.
Libby brought us a couple of waters and I tossed one down to Erin, splayed across the mat with one arm sticking out to the side and legs sprawled. Wisps of her hair curled at her neck before fanning out around her. Her loose bun had fallen halfway through the sparring session.
I sat down next to her, arm resting on my knees. “You have the strength. And the drive. But your movements are trash, Snow.”
“Yeah, well you try fighting a super-powered half-human for the second time ever. Eat shit,” she said between breaths, her eyes squeezed shut.
I chuckled and took a sip from my water bottle. “Suck it up, Snowgirl. You got a lot to learn.”
Chapter twenty-seven
Seth
The entirety of the two weeks that followed were spent sorting through sites and news articles, hunting down whatever resources we could find to point us into the right direction. Any direction to where Erebus could be keeping the humans. We kept coming up short. We even hiked up to the same spot Erin had been trapped in and searched every bush, cement pile, and tunnel. The place was utterly abandoned, as if the Demons were never even there. I had Derik and Libby scour the woods on the edge of town. They crashed at my place most nights, deeming it easier than traveling halfway across town every morning to check-in beforehand.
While they stalked the treelines, Josh hunted in the mountains.
Nothing.
The Demons were nowhere to be found.
Erin picked up a few shifts at the library on campus, stating she’d see if she could stumble upon any theories or potential mythology on the Demons and The Key. Although, I had aninkling that it was her subtle way of escaping out of the house for a few hours. Classes had been canceled due to several students’ bodies being found shredded to pieces across campus, so that left both of us with a few extra hours during the day. And extra motivation to find the creatures responsible. All the signs pointed to the Demons but the officials chalked it up to wild animals.
Humans had no idea the danger they were all in.
And we were running out of time. With no trace of where the hell-spawns were hiding and how the fuck they had snuck into campus, right under our noses.
It all went by in a blur. The tension was palpable; each of us on edge, day by day. I’d catch Erin eyeing the time on her phone, groaning each time. She’d twitch more and more as she scrolled through her laptop, or flipped from article to article.
By the second Sunday, she’d had it.
Erin stormed in, smoke bellowed from her ears. The front door slammed shut behind her, barely hanging on by its hinges. I let out a whistle.
“What’s got you all pissed off, Snow? Rough day at work?” I stifled a laugh; she reminded me of an angry rabbit on the rare occasion where her tempertrulymade itself known.
Someone is feeling feisty.
She flipped me off as she beelined to the fridge. Erin yanked it open and pulled out a milk jug and strawberries. She thumped her hip against the door, pushing it shut before she rummaged through the pantry, reappearing with a tin of cookies under her arm, one already dangling from her mouth.
“This is fucking stupid. It shouldn’t be so damned hard to find where a bunch of supernatural assholes are keeping a bunch of helpless humans. They should stick out like a sore thumb. Some type of blip. Hell on earth, anything,” Erin chomped down onher cookies, dipping them in a glass of milk. “I mean for fucks sake, they slaughtered a bunch of college kids on campus!”
“Rin, believe it or not, they aren’t going to have a big-ass neon sign pointing at their hideout saying ‘Look! Here we are! Demons inside!’ It’s a pain in the ass, I get it.”
She stared me down, nostrils flaring. “No shit.”
I shrugged. “You said they should stick out.”
Erin huffed and stomped off towards the guest room. Libby stopped her before Erin reached the hallway, her slim fingers loosely wrapped around Erin’s wrist. I couldn’t make out what Lib said, her whisper was too low even for me to hear, but her fingers twitched and pulled Erin in closer, wrapping her arms around her. Her eyes locked with mine, glazing slightly then snapping back.
What did she see?
Libby released Erin, patting her shoulder and flashing a warm smile. Erin’s shoulders tightened as she stepped away from her and down the hall. Erin locked the bedroom door behind her.
I stepped towards her, the curiosity nagged at me. Lib turned on her heel, ignoring me, her short blonde hair whipped the air. Then pranced to the couch, scooting in next to Derik as she slipped her phone from the front pocket of her jean shorts.
“Did I miss something?” I directed at Derik, Libby scrolled on her phone not even giving me a glance.
“Who the hell knows, man.”
