Page 120 of Conjure

There’s no sign of her anywhere. She’s gone.

We enter the living room, and Gwen lowers onto the couch, her hands trapped between her knees as she stares at the ashes in the unlit fireplace.

“What about the surveillance? Did anyone check it?”

Gwen lifts her gaze and then shoots to her feet, snatching my phone from my pocket. I peer over her shoulder at the screen. “Check from midnight and onwards.”

“There’s nothing,” she says, perplexed.

“There’s nothing?” I ask. “She’s not in the house, so she must have left.”

“The camera didn’t pick up on anything.”

“Maybe she left out the back?”

Gwen shakes her head. “There’s nothing on that one either.” She hands me the phone back, and I pocket it.

“I guess we’re left with two options,” Aron says, walking past us. “She either exited through a window, or she’s still in the house.”

“Why would she climb out of the windows?” Lily asks in a small voice, perched on the armchair. She tucks a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. “It’s an old build. The windows are set high. It would still be a high drop if she left through a bottom floor window.”

“What else do you suggest?” I ask, throwing my arms out. “That she’s in the house somewhere?”

Her shoulders lift.

Aron looks out the window. “If she’s playing hide-and-seek, she’s damn good at it.”

“She’s not in the house,” Gwen says, rubbing her temples as she paces in front of me. “We would have found her.”

“And we would have seen on the camera if the demon took her,” Aron says as he turns over his shoulder. “Unless she willingly climbed out the window.”

“Fuck!” I roar, reaching for the nearest object, a flowerpot, and hurtling it across the room. Restless energy sizzles through me. I need to break something. Fight something. Fucking do something.

Aron looks at the broken pieces and soil, then shakes his head with a chuckle. Lily leaves the room in tears, but we pay her no attention.

“Let’s pray her mother doesn’t return any time soon,” Aron says, fighting laughter.

I look away so that I don’t smash his smug face in. But he sure as fuck likes to stir the pot.

His shoulder brushes mine as he walks past, and he has the nerve to smirk at me. “I better go check that she’s okay.”

I flip him off. Gwen looks at me and then sits on the couch, staring straight ahead at a spot on the wall with a faraway look. “What’s happening, Dominic?”

“I wish I knew.”

“What if it has her?”

My jaw clenches. I can’t let my thoughts drift in that direction. I’ll drive myself insane with the what-ifs.

“And if it comes back. How do we stop it?”

I sit beside her and rest my elbows on my thighs, looking at her over my shoulder. Gwen’s tear-filled eyes meet mine, and she slowly leans in to rest her head on my shoulder. “Please tell me we’ll find her.”

“We’ll find her,” I reply tersely. “And we will kill the fucking demon.”

Just then, a sudden scream echoes through the house. We look questioningly at each other for a brief second before dashing for the doorway and crashing to a halt when we see Lily with a knife protruding from her abdomen. Lifting her terrified gaze, she stumbles forward. I catch her fall, glancing over her head at Gwen. “Where’s Aron?”

She stares at me for a beat, at a loss for words, then spins around. “Aron?”