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Travis stood and grabbed me by the shoulders. His green eyes intense. “You’re sure?”

“I’m sure that’s what I saw,” I told him, looking deep into his eyes. “That’s all I know.”

“It’s good enough for me to go on,” Randy said, pulling his large body up. His left hand clutched onto something and he pulled it up.

I snatched my leggings out of his hand and put them on. “Come on. We got to go. We have to get there in case this is the real thing.”

We all left the apartment in various stages of undress. Travis was just pulling his shirt on when he opened the door to the Jeep. Gabe was struggling to pull his pants on as he walked down the porch steps. I slid into the backseat with only one shoe on.

“Wait!” Walter yelled from the porch.

“It’s Jennie,” Travis said. “We think we know where she is.”

Walter shouted more things, but we all piled into the Jeep, leaving him looking after us from the porch. Liam had squeezed himself into the driver’s seat before Travis could, which was probably a good idea. Travis driving right now with his mind on a hundred different things probably wouldn’t bode well for us. Randy, too, who was usually the next to speak up and want to drive was still waking up like a bear out of hibernation.

We went outside of Historical Salem and pulled into a baseball field parking lot. I looked around. “We aren’t going up by Headquarters to get there?”

“This way’s quicker,” Liam explained. “There’s a trail just over there.”

Travis was already out of the Jeep and running toward the trail. He disappeared up an embankment. If there was a clearly marked trail, it was hard to tell in the middle of the night with only the moon as guidance.

“Wait up!” Randy yelled to him, but I had a feeling it would all be useless. If we wanted to all get there at the same time, we were going to have to go at Travis speed right now. And Travis speed was ‘hurry the fuck up because my sister is tied to a cross.’

The thought of it made me shiver. So much witch crucifixion symbolism lately since the demon came. Finding the Order bodies at the Salem Witch Museum, now this.

You don’t even know if this is real, I reminded myself. Best-case scenario we got to the clearing and nothing was there. Then, I’d apologize to Travis and go home and back to sleep.

I thought all this while running down the trail, and I used that description loosely. I ducked under branches and felt the grass from the side of the trail whipping at my legs as I ran by. Only Gabe ran behind me and that was because they wanted someone other than me bringing up the rear. I was sure Gabe could’ve been the first if he’d tried. He was the only one of us that was involved in athletics on a regular basis. Still, it was comforting to know he was there. Especially when it seemed only to get darker and darker still the more we worked our way up the trail.

Up ahead, I heard a thrashing and Travis swear. Randy was just behind him, and I heard the same thrashing as Randy emerged into the field with the high grass. “Shit,” Randy said. “She’s there. Hurry up.”

My stomach bottomed out. She was there. Just like I’d seen.

The wind tracked hair across my face, and with it, came the pungent odor of evil.

I choked on it. Sprinting through the woods and having to gobble in air only to have it taste like death was very unpleasant.

Liam burst through next, not even slowing down as Gabe and I came up behind him. When we were in the clearing, I saw Travis already halfway to Jennie with Randy hot on his heels. Who knew such a big guy could be that fast. He worked at a gym, but I just assumed he mostly lifted weights when he was there instead of hopping on the treadmill. From this, though, it looked like I was wrong to assume that. He was quick and agile, making it to Travis as soon as they were in front of the cross.

“Travis,” Jennie screamed, her voice coming out cracked.

“Are you okay?” Travis asked. He observed the area, looking for a way to get her down. Liam scanned the field, and I joined him. The last thing we needed was to be blindsided by the demon right now. But he had to have been here. The smell was too potent.

“I’m so sorry,” Jennie cried. “Please get me down.”

A burst of fire ignited underneath her. She screamed, trying to pull her feet up, but cringing at the pain. Nothing but the ropes around her waist, arms, and legs held her up to the wood.

Randy sent a burst of magic toward the base of the cross. The earth shook, and the cross followed. It leaned, and Jennie hung off it unnaturally to the right. “Catch her,” Randy shouted.

He sent another burst of magic, the air lighting up green around him and the smell of maple mixing with the toxic rotten aroma already plaguing the area.

Travis moved just in time, catching the top of the cross as it came toppling down. Randy had ripped a hole in the earth which shook the cross free. Gabe and Liam ran to the cross, untying the rope holding Jennie in place while Travis kept the cross upright and out of the path of the fire. I moved to her front, taking her hands as soon as they were free and helping to guide her to the grassy floor.

She hissed in pain when I grabbed her wrists but didn’t shy away. “Where is he?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. He put me up here and left.” Her body cracked with sobs. “That’s not Jax.”

Liam untied the last rope from around Jennie’s ankle and she fell completely free to the ground. Travis dropped the cross and knelt next to her. “What do you mean?”