Page 41 of Fallen Demon

He grabbed a stick and poked the fire. “It was nothing special. I had been reassigned to a European outpost, but I didn’t want to go. Then I heard King Tanner was trying to assemble a team of hunters to work exclusively with him.”

“Didn’t Alain Heyward have a tantrum?”

As far as I knew, Alain was sort of the head of the Blackthorn Hunters, watched closely by Rey Lowe and Erin Belmont, of course.

“He went directly to Rey to complain about it, but Rey told him he thought it was a good idea, and even put out an official call for it,” Rage explained. “Though, King Tanner reserves the right of approving anyone who wants to join.”

I frowned. “How many hunters are there in this taskforce.”

Rage scratched behind his neck. “Well, only me so far. About a handful approached the king, but he passed on them, saying they weren’t right for the job.”

Not right for the job? What did Tanner want in a demon hunter? Besides what they already were?

I wouldn’t ever understand the mind of any ruler.

We remained quiet for the rest of the night, until it was time to switch. Rage bid me good night and went to his sleeping bag as Lacey woke up and sat down beside me.

“So, any gossip you want to talk about?”

I smiled at her. At least I could spend a few hours with my friend.

* * *

Next day,I was getting bored of walking. At some point, I kind of wished a lesser demon would attack us to have something to do.

We stopped at noon for a quick lunch and resumed walking. Thankfully, the terrain changed soon after.

A gentle incline started several yards in front of us and went on forever. We paused at the start of the incline, admiring the landscape we were about to brave—gentle ups and downs of dry ground and huge rock formations. Some were thin and pointy, others were massive and almost too smooth.

And the first thing that came to my mind was that it was the ideal place for evil beings and little naughty creatures to hide. We might not have had any action in a while, but maybe that was about to change.

“We’re still on the right track?” Rage asked Barn and Mill. The demons nodded and pointed straight ahead.

This was probably bad of me, but for a moment, I couldn’t help but wonder if these demons were taking us into a trap. Had they really converted and now worked for King Tanner, or were they trying to trick him? Trick us?

There was only one way to know. “Let’s go,” I said, gesturing for Rage to keep moving. I would have taken the lead, but I knew he wouldn’t like that.

I really didn’t care. I could be dead last in line, as long as we kept going.

Slowly, carefully, we went down the slope and started trekking among the rocks. Now that we were beside them, I could see that there were no small rock formations. They were all at least twice my height, and some … I didn’t even know, maybe ten times? It was dizzying to look up.

The terrain wasn’t smooth here, and with the rough terrain, we tired faster. For hours, we walked this maze of rocks and sand, and I hoped Rage knew the direction we were going.

As we walked, a faint pain started inside my chest and my breathing grew slightly shallow. Was I getting winded and tired from walking so much? Angels didn’t have heart attacks, did they?

The pain was so faint, it was easy to focus on something else and forget it. If it increased, I would ask Lacey to take a look at me. With her healing abilities, I was sure she could help me, whatever it was.

We stopped a few times to rest and eat and drink, but for the most part, we trudged on. I couldn’t help feeling frustrated again at how slow we were going.

This was taking way too long, but what other option did we have?

“Look.” Farrah pointed up to a tall, narrow rock formation.

It seemed like the tip had been broken and the top was smudged in black.

“The fireball,” I muttered.

Ignoring the increasing pain in my chest, I followed the path I thought the fireball had fallen, and I could barely contain myself and my racing heart as I saw more clues: broken rocks, black marks on the rock sides, a faint burnt scent in the air, and finally a huge, black crater that had flattened the terrain and exploded a couple of rocks to dust.