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I dropped her hand quickly, shaking my arms out as I stepped away. The high of the hunt had gotten the best of me. But there was still work to do.

Stepping around Tess, I crouched over the gurgling pig, making quick work of searching his body. Sometimes, we found something fun: weapons to use against the other swine, keepsakes the Oracle could mail off to their victims. Most of the time, we found nothing.

But as I ran my hands down his body, pressing harder where he was wounded, I was surprised to hear crinkling in the pocket of his jeans. “He’s got a present.”

He tried to squirm, but there wasn’t much fight left in him with his chest carved open. I dipped my hand into the pocket roughly, fishing around until my fingers crossed around a small piece of plastic. And as I pulled it out, my heart dropped.

“No fucking way…” Blade laughed, her more maniacal instincts taking hold.

But there was nothing funny about the fine white powder inside the baggie. I cracked it open and took a whiff. Not cocaine: the smell was too clean.

It was DMT. Had to be, if the way things were going in Valemont was any indication.

I grabbed the pig’s collar, lifting his nose nearly level with mine as blood dripped down his chin. “Where did you get this?”

Dangling the baggy in front of his face, I let it smack him between the eyes. But his gaze was already far away.

Goddammit.

Suddenly, I wished that Tess had left the knife in place: would have bought us more time to question him. Instead, I shook him, trying to jolt him back awake. “Answer me, now!”

But all that passed his lips was a weak laugh and another bubble of blood.

And just like that, his eyes went blank, body going limp in my grasp.

“Fucker!” I howled, throwing his body back down. It thudded, but not hard enough.

“What is it?” Nash mumbled beneath her mask. I tossed the baggie at her, pacing circles over the body. She took a long hard look at the white powder, as well as a sticker that adorned the baggie. It was simple, a simple black line drawing. A circle sat at the center, four lines pointing out to either side, up, and down with flat lines across their tips.

I could feel the shift in her energy. She knew this was as bad as I did.

There was something familiar about the symbol, something that made my blood run cold.

But at that moment, I didn’t give a fuck what was on the bag. I cared that the answers we’d been searching for were right in our grasp, and we let them slip away. Every inch of my body roiled with rage, and I needed somewhere to put it.

His body is as good of a place as any.

Before I could do something I’d regret, I wound up my leg and sent it flying into his ribcage. I kicked over and over until I heard the crack of bone, but even that wasn’t enough to sate my fury.

Tess looked at me with her mouth agape, wide-eyed and horrified before snapping her gaze to Nash. “What is it?”

“DMT.” Nash muttered, “It’s um… It’s the same thing Jane overdosed on.”

A twisted laugh fought its way to my lips. It wasn’t just a drug: it was everything wrong in Valemont. It was Rubin’s growing power, it was a sign that I was losing control.

Blood drained from my face at the thought. I couldn’t, not again.

Tess glanced down at the bag again before lifting her quiet, wavering voice. “Do you think he had something to do with her… death?”

“No,” Nash shook her head before biting back the assurance. “I mean, we can’t know, but…”

That was exactly the problem. We didn’t know a fucking thing. And every question Tess asked just rubbed salt into that wound.

There was only so much I could take. Breaking his body wasn’t calming me. Before she could ask another question, I crossed over the dead body, smashing my heel down into his face. “Stupid! Fucking! Pig!”

I smashed and I smashed until I could hardly breathe: until his face was gone and Tess was out of questions.

But as I heaved for air, drinking in the silence, Blade couldn’t help herself from poking my wounds one more time. “What the fuck is the drug we’ve been hunting for doing in an Oracle delivery?”