Page 49 of The Tracker's Dawn: Sunderverse

The mage allowed Rosalina to help him as he lowered himself and sat. Slowly, the color returned to his cheeks, and his blotchy pupils shrank back to normal.

We remained quiet for several beats. Finally, Jake broke the silence.

“So... we’re not supposed to trust anything that thing said, right?”

Damien swallowed thickly and nodded. Eric strode toward the back of the garage again, opened what looked like a shelf but turned out to be a mini-refrigerator. He pulled out a cold one.

“This might help,” he said, offering Damien the can.

“Thank you.” The mage popped the top and drank a couple of greedy gulps. “Much better.”

Witchlights, this isn’t good!

Damien had done nothing more than conjure the demon, and he looked as if he’d lost a match against an MMA champion. How was he going to be able to accomplish the rest? Were two days enough for him to practice and build up his strength?

Something told me it wasn’t. Not at all.

“Neil wasn’t there, was he?” Jake asked, sounding as if he didn’t really want an answer.

Damien blinked and glanced up, his eyes wandering for a bit before they alighted on Jake. “Neil?”

Jake nodded but didn’t offer an explanation as to Neil’s identity.

I jumped in to help, knowing how hard it was for him to talk about his brother. “Neil is Jake’s brother. He went missing a while back.”

Damien rubbed his forehead and said, “That was more than just the blood demon. The damn book must be out of date. I should have realized.”

We all stared at Damien at a loss. No one here knew anything about demons. We had enough troubles as it was to mess with creatures from that realm. Therefore, no idea of what he was talking about.

When he took in our confused expressions, he explained, “I think the demon must have also been a fearmonger. Witchlights, do I know how to pick them?” He shook his head, looking disappointed in himself.

It was surprising to see him fail at something. He was always so overconfident, arrogant even. It made him appear more human and less godlike, which after he pulled a resurrection was hard to do.

“Fearmonger?” Eric asked. “What does that mean exactly?”

Damien peered up at everyone in turn. “I’m sure you can guess.”

When no one volunteered anything, the mage explained what I’d, indeed, guessed.

“It digs deep,” Damien made a claw and raised it to his chest, “roots out your biggest fear, and makes you believe it has come true.”

Jake exhaled and lowered his head, looking relieved. I reached over and interlaced my fingers with his, an awful pressure squeezing my heart. I never imagined that he was still holding on to the hope that his brother was still alive. Neil had disappeared so long ago without leaving a trace or a word behind that, in my mind, his death was almost a certainty. But if Jake didn’t believe he was dead, what other possibilities were on his mind? Did he think Neil had just abandoned them? Did he think someone was holding his brother against his will? And if he believed those options were likely, weren’t they harder to live with than the knowledge of his departure from this earth?

Oh, Jake!

Why hadn’t he ever mentioned this?God, there was so much more we needed to learn about each other. I only prayed we would have time.

Rosalina cleared her throat. “It’s close to dinnertime, why don’t we order something and rest? Damien looks like he could use a bit of downtime.”

“Great idea!” Eric exclaimed, rushing out of the garage as if he couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Undoubtedly, the fearmonger had told him something about his family, and he needed to clear his head.