Page 35 of How To Take Down A Cult At The End Of The World

He freezes and looks at me over the golden thread. “Jaak?”

“I-yes, it just kind of slipped out. Like a nickname?” It’s true, it did just slip out. I like the sound of it, but maybe he doesn’t? “I don’t have to say it. Not if you don’t like it.”

“Jaak,” he says with a thoughtful look. “I like it if you call me by it.”

He smiles at me so I smile back.

I point at the thread in his hands. “Okay, put that down. I don’t want you to get rid of it because I know that’s what you were about to do, and if you did snap it what would happen to you? Don’t you need an anchor?” I don’t really know what it means but I’m piecing it together as I go and I get that an anchor is kind of a big deal when it comes to keeping Jaak out of trouble with the Fates.

“If I snapped this, I would return to the gate. Though the one here has been damaged so I am not sure if that is where I would return. It could be any gate to the Hell Maw really.”

“There’s multiple gates to Hell? That seems really irresponsible.”

He chuckles. “There are more than a few. Demons like me are tasked with ensuring your kind stay clear of them.”

“And that’s what you would go back to doing if you got rid of our bond? You’d get sucked into a gate? Just like that?”

He nods. “Yes, just like that. I would go if you wished for that.”

If I wished that.

Images of Jaak being locked up somewhere else, where he was alone in the dark with no one for company. Like my basement. My throat goes tight at the thought.

“I don’t like that. I hate that. That’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my whole life,” I tell him and then swat at his hands until he lets go of the thread. “Look, I know this is all weird and I’m trying to process it as fast as I can but I don’t want you to go away. I want you to…stay. Stay with me. Please.”

“Then stay with you, I shall, wife.”

Chapter

Thirteen

“Where are we going?” I ask Jaak. We’re not on the move anymore, not since we had the ‘what are we’ talk and I asked him to stay with me. We’re standing together while Jaak works on feeling out his power to teleport us somewhere safe.

I trust him enough. I mean, he’s been through my worst night terrors with me but still, a girl likes to know what to expect when teleporting.

“A safe house. There’s one in the town where the mages live.”

“You have a safe house there?”

“Your mind was not the only one that I entered during my imprisonment. When the mages began to visit the clearing, I was able to enter their minds then. One of them was…” Jaak tilts his head like he’s trying to find the word in his memory, “he’s a real…no, that can’t be it…” he sighs and tries again, “an agent of estates?”

I blink in surprise. “A real estate agent?”

He snaps his fingers. “That’s it. You are very clever, wife.”

My cheeks warm at his praise. “Thanks.”

“In this agent’s mind I saw the safe house. We will be able to rest there for the night and make our plan of attack on the town of Bitter Root and its mages of chaos. They will rue the day they thought to command Jaakobah the Destroyer. Once we have the lay of the land we will be able to find their leader, and when we do, we will defeat them in combat ensuring your friend’s safety and yours.”

I blink in surprise. “Mine? But they’re after Charlie, right? Not me.”

“As you remember, I said your mind was open, susceptible to receiving memories of beings long gone. Your mind will be their next target. The memories you have are priceless to mages.”

I lift a hand to my head. “You mean people want my nightmares.”

“They would kill to know what you’ve seen. It’s only a matter of time before they find you with the way the lesser demons have been attacking your home. Your town is under siege right now because they sense great power within it. The Harbinger and her demon are one source, your friend’s games book another, as well as the witch that haunts your woods, and then, of course, there’s you.”

“When you put it like that I see why power hungry mages would want to take us down.”