Chapter 37

Okay, so it wasn't as much a plan as it was a vague idea based on what Vesuvius had told me.

With a quick call, I convinced Dr. Mori to let me borrow his table that portrayed the dark and light in Savannah. Sarge, Crash, and Damian had heaved it in through the door and set it up in the living room. I touched the edge of the table. We were staring at the light side. And there in Haven House was every single one of my friends…well, not quite.

Robert was missing.

I flipped the table over and felt my friends suck in a collective breath as we beheld the dark side of Savannah. Far more of the shadow world was skulking around on here.

Sarge reached out to touch one of the moving figures, but Dr. Mori slapped his hand away.

My gaze shot to the bright purple spots. "That's Louis, or Clovis, whatever you want to call him."

The purple spot that I assumed was the necromancer bobbed along in the Hollows Graveyard.

"That is the demon," Dr. Mori said, pointing at the swamps of Savannah, across the river.

"Why is she there?" Suzy leaned over the table. "That's…that's where Eric's house is."

I nodded. "Because the spell needs to be cast where the first ingredient was…found—or, in my case, touched. That is the moment the spell begins, so it is where it must end. Wouldn't have mattered which ingredient it was."

Suzy nodded. "And so you met Eric. And you were shot at, in his house, right? So they think that is where the blood of the ghost is from?"

I nodded. "And why Bramble locked Gran and Corb down in our house. Because the blood of a ghost isn't a bigfoot at all. It is literally the blood of a ghost." I pointed to the knife that Crash had made for me that now held a demon in it. Nancy. "Did you know that I'd need it?"

He shook his head. "Yes, and no. I knew I had it to make it for you, but not why. It is like that for me, when I make things for people I love. Almost like a form of seeing the future without seeing the future." He touched his front pocket and then gave me a slow wink that made me forget for a moment that our friends were all around us, and we were preparing to go to battle.

What I wouldn't give to just hand him a sheet and tell him that was what he was wearing for an entire week. A sheet and me wrapped around him.

Fingers snapped in front of my face. "Focus, Bree," Sarge said.

I tore my eyes away from Crash with difficulty. "Right. So the spell isn't about vampires. It's about the dead. Bramble thinks I will go to Eric's house, even though she knows his blood isn't actually a proper ingredient. That was one of the things she did wrong on purpose."

Penny looked across at me. I'd written out the instructions that Vesuvius had given me, so she could help me prepare them. "And so far, you have done everything correctly, whether you meant to or not."

I nodded. "Right. So, the first ingredient I actually touched was the fairy cross. So we need to go to the fairy ring and cast the spell there—it's past Eric's house."

And hope to hell I could handle the wand, remember the words and do what I had to do. Fingers and toes were crossed on that one.

Crash stood and looked at the table. "The dark fae will come to aid us. I can set them up thirty feet out around the perimeter of the fairy circle and they can help keep the creeper demons at bay. By the time Evangeline or Bramble realize they've been duped by Suzy, Eric, and the others, it will be too late."

Yup, that was the plan. Most of my friends—Crash included—were going to Eric's house as decoys. Crash was not impressed with the plan, but even he had to admit it made sense. Dr. Mori would stay at Haven House, ready to go to whomever needed help the most. In his most fearsome form, he was a monster of iconic stylings, and could also control the undead.

Penny, Kinkly, and Feish would go with me.

"Are you sure we should use the cat spell again?" Feish grumbled.

Penny thumped her way over to her workstation and began grinding up everything she needed. "Yes. Now go rest, all of you. Crash, make her at least lie down."

Go rest. Part of me wasn't sure I could close my eyes, the other part wanted to sleep for a week.

He bowed from the waist. "I would not dare defy you, Penny."

"Bah, get out of here." She smiled as she spoke and shook her cane in his general direction.

My friends dispersed through the house, and I let Crash lead me to a bedroom on the second floor. Everywhere I looked, I saw Bridgette.

"She died a hero," Crash said quietly, reading my thoughts. "They will speak of her bravery for years to come in Goblin City. Little goblin girls will be named after her, honoring her sacrifice. In their traditions, there is no better way to die than defending what is yours."

"I'd rather she was here with us, living as an outcast. I'd rather Ivan had been able to stop his son and go on with his life." A shudder slid through me. I barely noticed the soft green of the walls, the cool hardwood underfoot. I did notice the soft bed that Crash tugged me down to.

I lay facing him. "I'm afraid if I close my eyes, I will wake back up in that dungeon, that this will be the dream, and that my reality."

"I would come find you again." He kissed me on the forehead and dragged me close to him. "I will always come find you. You saved me even when you didn't know it."

I buried my face in the crook of his neck and breathed him in. "What do you mean?"

He was silent long enough I thought maybe he'd gone to sleep. "I went to my mother, to get her help finding you. She had been taken over by a darkness, a demon named the Scourge no less. I had to make a trade to find out where you were."

I pulled back and looked at him. "Are you all right? What did you have to trade?"

His smile was easy. "The beast wanted my soul in exchange for the knowledge."

Every part of me just sort of froze. He was smiling about losing his soul…

"What the actual duck, tell me you didn't agree to that!"

Crash laughed and pulled me close again. "I cannot bargain with something I do not own, Bree. You saved me, in more ways than one. I made the beast give me your location before it could take my soul, and when it went to do so…it could not."

I cupped his face with my hands. "So you're telling me you made the deal…not realizing…"

He nodded. "I told you that I would burn the world for you, and I meant it. I…what did it matter if I saved myself if I couldn't save you?"

The tightness in my throat was so much that I couldn't speak past it. I wanted to yell at him to never do anything so stupid again.

Spluttering from Crash's side drew our attention.

"It was clever," Nancy said. "Very clever. But you know, it was also luck. And you had me."

Crash grunted. "Yes. Nancy did come in handy."

"Handy? I slayed the beast!"

My eyebrows shot up. "You…killed the demon that wanted Crash's soul?"

Crash sighed and held me tightly. "Let me tell you how it went."