I’m not entirely sure why I let Jesse drag me to the premiere for her new movie; I’m not exactly what you’d call a people person even on my rare few good days, I loathe having to dress up, and I’ve hated crowds even more ever since—

...well, I hate crowds, not important why.

Not anymore.

Yet I was there anyway, getting out of the car with her in a borrowed dress to match the occasion and heels I didn’t need, or want, to be wearing. She linked her arm in mine, flashing a friendly smile at the press and handful of fans that bordered the walkway up to the doors of the theatre.

I’m still not sure if she did it because she thought I’d trip—which was a relatively fair assumption as much as I hated to admit it—or run away—another fair assumption—but I went along with it until she’d dragged us to a halt at the top of the steps in front of the door, turning to face the reporters.

“Just be yourself,” maybe she’d felt me tense because she gave my arm what I think was meant to be a reassuring squeeze as she whispered the words to me, “relax and act natural, I’m sure they’ll love you.”

Terrible advice really, there’s a reason I’m often called a sociopath, but then I’ve known for a long time now that Jesse tends to see me through rose-colored glasses despite my warnings.

Thankfully, the reporters were mostly focused on her, so I took the chance and shifted slowly closer to the door hoping to disappear inside before any of them really noticed me.

“And who is your guest tonight, Miss Matlock?” I swore under my breath; in hindsight, I sort of wish I’d been willing to invest the time and energy needed to cast a perception spell on myself before getting out of the car, but there wasn’t much I could do about it at this point. Jesse pulled me forward again to introduce me, her grip on my arm almost surprisingly firm this time.

It’s worth noting: Jesse is more athletic than she usually gets credit for, she does most of her stunts herself.

I taught a lot of it to her, but it’s still impressive.

“My shy friend here was the inspiration for my role in the movie,” she didn’t say my name—small mercies I suppose. “She’s my best friend,” her voice cracked slightly on that word, but going on the reporter’s faces, I was the only one who noticed, “we practically grew up together.” I swallowed hard as more of their attention turned my way.

“Are you some kind of woodsman then? Or a mythologist?” ‘Think of it as a con,’ Michael’s advice came to mind and I took a deep breath—yeah, better to just pretend I’m running a con: determine what they want to hear and see and fulfill that role.

“Apparently,” Still, I couldn’t help the pointed look I shot in Jesse’s direction as I turned on the charming smile I usually kept reserved for when I wanted something, “I’m a survivalist and a bit of a walking encyclopedia when it comes to monsters and mythology.” Maybe I was still a bit bitter at being dragged here in the first place because I continued with no small amount of sarcasm to my words, “I’ll just go ahead and thank you now for when you inevitably paint me as some sort of conspiracy nut.” Jesse’s laugh felt a little strained, as if hoping to pass off my comment as a joke. I let her, extracting myself from her grip and turning decidedly on my heel—without breaking it, hope-be-damned—to go inside.

I’d taken the heels off entirely by the time she managed to excuse herself from the continued onslaught of questions I could still hear muffled through the door—gave me a rather disappointed look when she noticed I was barefoot.

“Why’d you take them off?” She sounded it too.

“I can’t walk in ‘em.”

“You were doing so well though, even made it up the stairs.” My gaze narrowed slightly at that.

“Yeah well, I’ve plenty of experience with stairs,” my voice practically dripped sarcasm—it was that kind of day apparently—but she’d had years of experience ignoring it by now and this time was no different as she turned to lead the way toward the actual theatre where they’d be showing the movie. Some coworkers stopped her to talk shop for a bit on the way, so I excused myself to run to the restroom so that I could change out of the dress.

-----

The door to the bathroom opened just as I was pulling on my jeans and I glanced in the direction of Jesse’s scent to see her pause in the doorway, lilac eyes tracing me up and down.

“Were you worried I’d climb out a window?” I paused as I buttoned my jeans and she seemed to snap back to herself at my question, taking a deep breath as if she’d forgotten to breathe for a moment as she looked away. “You’re in luck, there aren’t any in here.”

“You should go in a stall if you’re going to change,” her voice came low and distant and tinged with a wistful shade of pale violet. I glanced down briefly before tugging on my tank top with a shrug; nothing to see really but pale skin, lean muscle, and a lot of scars.

“‘s not like I wasn’t wearing underwear.” She didn’t respond to my muttered words, wringing her hands together while she studied them as if even the chance of looking in my direction then was something she very much wanted to avoid.

“So,” she spoke slowly when she finally did, as if she wasn’t sure she really wanted to ask, “how are you and Michael?” I shrugged on my dress shirt as I took a moment to study her, humming quietly in thought.

“Dunno really,” a pause to buy myself time while I stuffed the dress and heels into my backpack, “I let him stay, but we’re not…” another pause, this time while I tried to think of a way to explain whatever our odd… relationship was before Maryland, “together anymore.” I started buttoning up my shirt and rolling the sleeves up to my elbows, “Why’d you ask?” Jesse finally met my gaze, looking me over again with her brow furrowed slightly at my choice of clothes.

“Just curious.” I almost called bullshit on that then and there but focused instead on tying my hi-tops and shouldering my backpack so we could head back to the theatre. We’d made it to the door by the time she broke the silence again, “What about Jack?”

“What about him?”

“Are you—” she was hesitating again; it was an odd thing to see in her when I’d gotten used to her recent confidence, sometimes I forget she used to be the terrified little girl I’d told to run away from home. “Did you get back together?” I stopped in my tracks then.

“What?” Eloquent, I know.

“It’s…” a pause—I picked up regret in her scent now and she still wasn’t meeting my gaze for long, if at all.

I had a hunch I knew what she was about to say next.

“You seem happier when he’s around.” Her smile was brief and strained, “Almost feels like you two are soulmates or something.” She’d said something similar about Ryan once upon a time and he’d ended up dead so I couldn’t really say that was a good thing even if I believed in anything like that.

“‘Soulmates’ my ass,” I muttered the words, “even if that wasn’t all bullshit, he’s more like an ill omen.” Jesse studied me for a long time, maybe my words had taken her by surprise, but before she could think of a reply, one of the ushers approached to speak with her about presenting the movie.

“Looks like I need to go,” she trailed off as she turned back to me so I flashed a brief—and fake—smile.

“I’ll see you in the audience then. Break a leg.” Whatever about our conversation that was bothering her vanished behind a winning smile and the cool facade of a professional actress as she gave a slight nod of thanks and turned to follow the usher further in.

-----

What I remember of the movie didn’t amount to much beyond that it was apparently being marketed as an action-horror (though when you hunt literal monsters for a living, not much really scares you anymore) and their Wechuge bore a closer resemblance to some sort of off-brand Wendigo than it did an actual Wechuge beyond appearance.

Actually, I got the feeling its appearance was modeled after the sketch in my journal ‘cause I’d honestly be impressed if they’d done enough research to know what they looked like and still somehow managed to fuck up everything else about it.

It was almost painful to sit through, the bit I remember.

But about forty minutes in, it felt like I’d blinked and found myself in the woods near Pembroke.

I sat up as if a puppet pulled by the strings and looked around the clearing I’d apparently been lying in. Loki darted out of the tall grass and slammed into me just as I’d started to stand, knocking me onto my back again—I hadn’t smelled or heard him coming as if he’d simply appeared out of thin air.

A mildly unsettling thought, but something made me quick to dismiss it.

“I found mum,” he called out over the grass while perched on my stomach and I couldn’t help the amusement that tugged at my lips as he looked back at me with bright eyes, “You were supposed to hide until I said I gave up.” I started to make some excuse at his chiding, but he’d continued on with barely a pause to breathe, “It’s alright this time, ‘cause you said you’ve never played before.” A laugh fell from my lips and I closed my eyes against the sun as I listened to him chatter on. I didn’t hear this one approach either, but I did feel Loki slide off of me to go greet them.

“Hey Zevi, you and Kelly beat mum at hide-n-seek.” Zevi laughed quietly and Kelly beamed, the sunlight blocking out his face when I sat up to look. It hurt somewhere deep inside, seeing him, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on why even as it nagged at the back of my mind while I watched the three of them chase each other through the grass.

“I’d have thought you’d win,” this voice was familiar even down to the smirk I could hear in it as I turned a mild glare on him, “even if it’s your first time.” He settled in the grass beside me, the sun directly behind his head so that all I could make out was his teasing smile.

“I fell asleep.” He laughed at my explanation and I started to protest, but the urge wasn’t there like it usually was so instead, I found myself flashing him a smile and returning my focus to the boys, grass and seeds stuck in their wild hair.

My boys.

All three of them.

That nagging feeling grew a little at the thought.

I lay back in the grass again with a deep breath.

“Hey,” he smiled at me when I looked, none of the mischief or wickedness it usually held these days, just an easy smile, “come here.” He shifted me into his lap and I smiled back at him, no bitterness or sarcasm, just an honest smile.

Wasn’t sure how I remembered how to make that smile.

“I love you.” I started to reply to his soft admission, losing myself in the way the light played off his dark hair and the sourceless fire that always seemed to flicker behind his eyes, but the low growl of an animal nearby stopped me short. My gaze darted around the clearing as I sat up quickly, searching for the source until I saw what it was.

At the edge of the clearing stood a large animal, a bit bigger than a wolf with the coloring of a red fox, familiar green eyes staring at me expectantly. Then it turned and disappeared into the woods, the white tips of its tails vanishing in the blink of an eye.

“Reyna?” Maybe he could tell something had me on edge.

“You ever get that feeling that something is off and then see something that you know shouldn’t be there, but you can’t put your finger on why?” My voice sounded distant.

“You alright?” I looked back at him over my shoulder with a smile that hid the unease that still nagged at my mind.

“Yeah, everything’s fine.” I took a deep breath, willing the feeling away because I could almost trick myself into being happy here as I looked back toward my boys. “Alright what were the rules to this game again? First found is the next hunter?” Loki took off running through the grass laughing, Zevi close behind despite the terrain while Kelly darted in the other direction.

“Guess that includes me?” He was at my shoulder when I glanced back at him again with a playful grin.

“They have to give me one easy one,” I teased and he feigned hurt at the words, but his quiet laugh betrayed him.

“Alright, alright,” he pressed his lips to my cheek, “no peeking, no one likes a cheater.”

“First I’m hearing of it,” but I covered my eyes anyway to begin counting, catching one last glimpse of his smile among the trees and the grass before he disappeared.

A count of ten and I opened my eyes to call out that I’d be searching, but my gaze met that of the fox again, almost nose to nose this time.

She cocked her head to one side as if curious…

…then she ran, disappearing through the grass and leaving me with an urge to follow that was impossible to ignore.

My foot slid on leaf mold when we reached the trees that didn’t match the fauna I’d usually see around Pembroke.

The fox darted behind a tree and vanished even as I followed.

My knees sagged beneath me under the weight of my duffel, stuffed full and wEaring on miles of exhaustion because my body didn’t seem to match what I remembered being able to do.

Maybe this was before then.

An eerie, yet familiar laugh echoed from the woods in front of me and I looked up, forcing myself to take deep breaths while I tried to focus past the dehydration.

“We’re almost there, little fox,” the woman who spoke looked far younger than she was, the face and build of someone in her early 20s with a millennia in the depths of her liquid mercury eyes. She was beautiful in the way the icy wastes of the arctic are beautiful and moved with the sort of deadly grace predators moved with, little hints as to what she really was. “If you can keep up with me, even a bit, you can outrun anything,” she laughed at my glare, “sometimes being faster serves better than being stronger.” One last deep breath and I forced myself back to my feet; trying to catch her was like trying to outrun death and we both knew it.

But it made me faster.

So I took off running again, the pounding of my heart in my ears and my own breathing the loudest things in the woods nearby.

The loch we’d been racing toward was amazing: a still mirror with a thin layer of fog still clinging to its surface protected as it was here from the morning sun. Alix wore a proud smile as she watched my approach from her perch on the end of a tree fallen into the water and giving sign it was deeper than it looked. Keep, her hellhound guardian, wagged slightly from his place sitting beside her, but otherwise seemed more focused on listening to the quiet sounds of life in the area.

“You really are getting faster,” she nodded toward my duffle as I shed it against the log, “and quieter. It’ll be easier in a real hunt, you’ll only have what you need and even that doesn’t always end up being with you when the time comes.” I flashed a smile, there was something warm about getting praise from her, maybe because she was someone I respected. She remained silent while I caught my breath and got some water. “What do you see in the shallows, little fox?” Her smile was gone when I looked up from where I crouched at the edge of the water, back to training it seemed. I looked over the water with an appraising eye, the kind of looked I didn’t like to do because I tended to see things I’d rather forget.

Clean water, but I hadn’t noticed much in the way of animal tracks coming to drink.

I would’ve smelled and tasted poisons or toxins if that was what kept the animals away which meant there was some other danger that kept them away.

A predator maybe, but again, no tracks, which meant it likely lived in the water at least most of the time.

I remembered reading that a lot of the lochs were connected underwater so whatever it was didn’t necessarily have to be on the small side.

Alix had a lot of books in her little castle, a library full of them and at least half of them were on monsters.

I’d read most of them by now.

Most of the monsters classed as “water demons” native to Scotland seemed to fall under previously assumed extinct giant sea snakes like titanoboa or reptile like tanystropheus (which aren’t exactly known for coming up from the deep or they wouldn’t fall under “cryptid” to the rest of the world) or some kind of shapeshifting water horse.

There were actual water horse type creatures too, but they’re more like a fresh water relative of the hippocampus and usually less amphibiously inclined.

So shapeshifting water horse then.

The good news was it wasn’t an each uisge or one of the more aggressive types or it probably would’ve come out to attempt to seduce Alix while she was waiting for me.

The bad news was it was still likely a shapeshifting water demon.

“Kelpie?” Those were the ones most often found hanging around lochs as horses and so long as you left them alone and they weren’t hungry, they usually left humans (and humanoids) alone, so I figured that was the most likely. Her smile returned and she nodded toward the trees on the other side.

“It’s over there,” just as she’d said, there was a beautiful irish hobby lingering in the thinned trees, his dark almost blue roan coat serving almost as camouflage in the little light streaming through the leaves on that side. “If you can tame him,” there was mischief in her gaze when I glanced back at her, “I won’t make you run home.” Wasn’t sure I really liked either option, but something in her expression told me I didn’t actually have a choice in the matter.

Well… at least I knew getting on him would be easy.

“Alright,” I straightened up, pulling a length of rope from my bag to fashion a makeshift set of simplified reins, though I doubted it’d be as easy as putting it on him. He watched me approach with dark eyes, never shying and never showing any sign of spooking, but I could sense a sort of tension in him, as if he was waiting to see what I did.

Managed to get on him and get settled there just long enough I started to relax.

Then he bolted, charging toward the loch without throwing me with more speed than I’d ever experienced on a horse.

And there was Alix between us and the loch, her presence suddenly oppressive enough the kelpie skidded to a halt before her, throwing me to the ground as the temperature plummeted around us. I could barely shift my head as I struggled to keep breathing, but it was enough to see the kelpie apparently having similar problems, legs trembling as he struggled to remain standing under the weight of instinct. Alix’s wings were out in a sort of semi-transparent image of six mangled and bloody wings with tattered feathers and bone visible in places, a crown of horns, a tufted tail, and a fiery halo that almost resembled a crown. Something, maybe the fact her eyes hadn’t gone black, told me she was still restraining herself, but even this was enough to remind everyone present that she was the original Death. Then she smiled, the image and the oppressive weight of her presence vanishing in an instant as she caught the kelpie, a gentle hand on his chin as she stroked along his cheek in a soothing gesture.

“I know,” she spoke gently to him, making sure he was alright before she stepped aside and watched as he disappeared into the depths of the loch. Then she looked down at me as I set up with a quiet groan—I’d hit the ground harder than I’d initially thought. “Come along, little fox,” she pulled me to my feet, “you’d better memorize the path back because you’ll be coming every day until you can ride him without problem.” I waited for her to take off ahead of me before swearing under my breath and glancing back at the loch’s surface.

All I could see then were faint ripples distorting a reflection of my younger self and dark grey clouds—a storm coming in.

And the fox was there waiting for me—it seemed to smile before it darted deeper into the woods.

I started after it again, forgetting my exhaustion and the weight of my bag as I chased it.

The trees whipped by beneath a perpetually foggy sky as if I was watching through train windows.

Then I was; running from car to car until I slammed the last door open and found myself on a boat crossing the ocean.

“You sure you’re supposed to be going to Scotland by yourself, kid? Shouldn’t you have a parent with you or somethin’?” I glanced at the captain when he asked, a kid with far too many scars for about fourteen years reflected in the lenses of his glasses. He shrugged when I didn’t answer and carried on, muttering about “the inattention of parents these days”, or something like that. I watched a moment longer, inhaling the scent of the sea for what felt like the first time in years before I caught a glimpse of the fox in his lenses.

So I turned and ran again.

The crates and ropes of the boat became trees again, but west coast trees and now the ground was covered in snow and the fox’s pelt was a stark almost blood red against the shades of silvery white and grey.

She disappeared around another tree, but when I followed, the stark blood red wasn’t of the fox’s pelt.

It was of real blood.

Blood that splattered the walls and pooled beneath a body only recognizable as my mother in the still staring eyes as another fox, this one much larger than the first, it’s pelt a dark grey and eyes filled with so much bloodlust fueled madness they seemed to glow with it.

This wasn’t how it’d happened exactly, and that nagging voice in the back of my mind that had fallen quiet for a while returned louder now.

“Faither,” but my voice came out a child’s and shaking with fear. I curled further in on myself, my knees drawn up to my chest as I tried desperately to disappear beneath the table as my father stalked closer, consumed by a madness I didn’t yet understand.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

One I didn’t yet know.

But I’d learn soon…

…sooner than most.

I ran barefoot in still warm blood.

My fingers burned on my mother’s silver knife and I whirled to face the beast before me.

Just like the first time.

I found another scene unfolding, as if in a mirror beside me; myself as I am now—though I couldn’t quite pin down who I might be—staring at another beast much like the one before me, lost to the madness.

This other me, though, wasn’t staring at her father, but at her reflection and the waiting madness that dogged my every step these days, slowly getting closer.

I blinked.

There is nothing to be afraid of when the real ‘big bad wolf’ is the one inside my head, the thought echoed through the back of my mind—my own voice, something I’d said before but didn’t quite remember when.

The fox was there, staring back at me with black ears pricked to listen and tails fanned out beside it on the other side of the glass, back in my reflection and in my shadow and letting me, for a moment, feel that whatever I’d felt was off before had settled back where it belonged.

But I was still staring at the glass at the edge of this world as if the inspiration for wonderland and the looking glass.

Maybe it was, it made sense if I thought about it.

“This is the edge, then?” My reflection cocked her head to the side, listening to my words with something akin to my own sort of scientific curiosity before it vanished, leaving me alone with the glass border. I reached out to press my fingers to the cold surface, magic thrumming beneath my touch like something alive.

Well, I drew back my hand, curling my fingers into a fist, wouldn’t be the first time I punched a mirror.

My fist connected with the glass, my own magic focused in the contact

and it shattered.

A shower of mirror shards came with me when I crashed against the floor of what looked like a large conference room, biting into my skin on the sharp edges as they flew by with enough force to embed them in the floor and my back. It took a few minutes trying to wade through the mental haze for me to piece together what was going on. I struggled to get to my hands and knees, trying to ignore the ache set in my bones and the exhaustion that came as the backlash from breaking out of high-level magic.

“Christ.” My voice came out a quiet groan as I climbed to my feet using the wall as a crutch and rolled my shoulders before turning to look for my backpack. The room was empty aside from the large table and the dozen chairs taking up the center.

Wasn’t sure yet whether that was a good or bad thing, but I was definitely kicking myself for not keeping a weapon on my person despite the circumstances.

It wasn’t like I couldn’t have found somewhere to hide a knife at the very least.

Not that I really needed to be armed, but that tended to set me at ease and unease tended to have major consequences for me.

I shook my racing thoughts away and took a deep breath, trying to focus and prioritize how to handle the situation.

This wasn’t the first time I’d found myself blind and unarmed when things went to shite and it likely wouldn’t be the last.

So break it down into steps:

Find my bag—even if nothing inside ended up being of use, I wasn’t keen on the idea of leaving it lying around with a loaded pistol inside; I’m not exactly the most responsible person, but I value my firearm safety practices.

Find Jesse—she’d probably be with everyone else in the theatre assuming I was the only one up and about aside from whatever had attacked us.

And on that note, I needed to determine what it was in order to know how to deal with it.

All I had to go off, for now, was that it had some seriously high-level magic to be able to put everyone to sleep like that.

And based on what I’d seen, it was likely related to granting happiness or feeding on emotions based in memories; I suspected that last memory had been sort of a last-ditch effort to keep me inside.

Everyone else getting out alive and still unaware of the supernatural presence in the world… well it’d be ideal but given the situation, it wasn’t likely…

I might have to call the Council after all this is over to help with the cleanup.

Damn.

I took another deep breath, raking fingers through my hair to tie it up before heading out the door to figure out where I was. The door opened into a long hallway—empty when I checked—so I stepped out into it, ignoring the slight limp to the gait as I followed the sound of heartbeats from somewhere below me. There were plenty of creatures that could feed on memories or induce sleep to feed on dreams, but at that scale…

Well, the only thing I could think of that fit totally were djinn, even as uncommon as they are these days.

The door to the stairs stuck when I tried it and an annoyed growl fell from my lips before I slammed my shoulder into it. The lock broke that time, leaving the frame and the door warped around it as I stumbled through. I’d just started to get my feet back under me when a tremor shook the building and I found myself tumbling down the concrete steps.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” I groaned the words as I forced myself up again; everything ached, I was stressed out and pissed off and I was really hoping I was just unlucky enough it was an earthquake and not—

It was just a minor earthquake.

Better not to worry about the other possibility or it’d only get worse.

I had to break the door back into the building, too, and God did my bones ache.

Magic could be a bitch sometimes.

Voices of confusion and waking heartbeats reached my ears and I picked up my pace to a jog despite the pain.

“Where’s Reyna?” Jesse’s question reached me just as I pulled the door open and relief washed over me, short-lived as it was when the tremors subsided to a low rumble.

Better not to think about it, I repeated to myself as I wove through the people, trying to focus and keeping my breathing steady despite how thick the haze of panic and confusion in the air felt.

God, I hate crowds.

“Jesse.” She looked about to jump out of her skin at my apparently sudden appearance behind her, lilac eyes going wide as she looked me over; I s’pose I looked about as beat to shite as I felt.

“What on earth—”

“Djinn.” She stared at me, shocked silent, “Pretty sure at least.”

“Did you…” She trailed off as if trying to think of a way to ask if I’d already dealt with it without phrasing it so harshly.

“I woke up a few minutes ago upstairs, haven’t exactly had time yet.” I crouched next to where I’d been sitting and breathed a sigh of relief to find my backpack still slid under my seat.

“Then we have to do something,” Jesse found her voice again as I pulled it out to sling it over my shoulder.

“And by ‘we’ you mean…?” I trailed off with an eyebrow raised, though I suspected I already knew what she meant.

“Reyna.” Yeah, rose-colored lenses and some really poorly aimed adulation.

Of course, I’m territorial enough I’d planned on tracking it down anyway, but when she put it like that I really wanted to say no just to be a contrary bastard.

Before I could say anything at all in response, one of the guests—an older man in a suit nice enough I was pretty sure he was some kind of producer or higher up at the studio responsible for the movie—stood to speak over the group. I have enough clout in the entertainment industry you’d think I’d have an idea more specific than that as to who he was, but I also cared very little about the industry so I’ve never paid it much mind even on days where I wasn’t busy with other more pressing things.

Case in point, I’d only paid enough attention to know he was calling an emergency meeting in one of the conference rooms on this floor.

“You need to evacuate, you can have your emergency meetings all you want but do it outside.” No one paid me any mind, already shuffling out of the room in a rush to take shelter in the conference room so I exhaled through my teeth and trailed after them.

-----

And so we found ourselves gathering in the conference room beneath the one I’d woken up in.

I knew that it was the one below because of the massive fracture in the wall that continued down from where I’d used to stand earlier.

“Shite.” Jesse shot me a pointed look at the swear, but it melted into concern when she realized what I was looking at. “About the djinn—” I stopped as one of the other actresses squeezed in next to us, a look of disgust crossing her face when she recognized Jesse.

“Oh Jesse, I didn’t see you here, I thought you were one of the bit parts,” she spoke with a mocking smile and I glanced at Jesse in question. “Is this one your latest fling?” She winced, “Your tastes sure have gone downhill.” Ah, an ex then.

“Wow,” I drew out the word as I spoke before I could filter myself even if I’d wanted to, “if I ever decide to off myself, I think I’ll use your ego as my stepping off point.” Jesse’s gaze snapped to me in shock and the actress’s expression twisted into a scowl.

“You’re the conspiracy nut, right? The one she got those pages from.” I couldn’t help but laugh.

I might need to work on reading when that’s not an appropriate response again because apparently, this wasn’t it.

“What kind of person is insane enough to document monster mythology?” You know, if I wasn’t already fully aware I was at least partially insane, I might’ve felt insulted.

“Given that these things are real, it’s just documenting information to be passed on like scientific or medical journals,” I shrugged, “why would you waste the time reinventing the wheel when lives are at stake, your own included.” The smile on my lips was maybe more cruel than necessary and I was wasting time with this argument, but she was grating on my nerves talking about my livelihood like that and I was already annoyed with everything going on and feeling unnecessarily antagonistic. “No wonder you got such a small part if you’re too proud to recognize that someone has more knowledge on a subject than you, let alone to try to learn from them.” She was shaking, maybe the eyes on us made it more frustrating than just my talking back.

“Anais—” Jesse tried to step between us just as the other actress raised her hand, but I recognized the signs before she did, pulling Jesse out of the way before I caught the incoming arm around the wrist and used her momentum to twist her around.

“Your ego is going to get you put down if you keep this up,” whispered the words in her ear as she struggled against the iron grip I had on her. Then I surveyed the guests who’d gone quiet as the argument had escalated. “Someone want to come claim her?” A few of them exchanged nervous looks so I exhaled through my teeth, “Quickly now, cause I’ve got more important things to do than deal with you lot.” Finally, someone stepped forward, someone whose scent was familiar, though he still seemed hesitant.

“S—Sir—” the actress began, hope in her scent until he cut her off with a glare.

“Miss—” He stopped, swallowing hard on the nerves I could smell on him, “Miss Fox,” he began and I realized why I knew his scent: he was the man I usually went through the handful of times I did anything in the industry, “we didn’t know you’d be attending today.” It was fair, I supposed, I’d never gone to a premiere before despite the open invitation they always sent. The actress had gone still in my grip, a few shades paler and trembling; she slumped to the floor in tears when I released her. “I apologize on behalf of our actress,” he continued amicably as if it had nothing to do with him.

“I suggest you do something about the way you train your people,” it didn’t sound like a suggestion with the way I smiled, “before they piss off someone they can’t afford to,” it sounded more like a threat. Then I turned for the door, “Deal with it because I’ve got more important problems right now and I can promise you won’t like the way I handle it.”

-----

Jesse caught up with me before I’d gotten far to finish our earlier conversation, paused as I was with a knife in my hand just outside the door.

“You’re Fox? The one they say could cripple the industry on a whim?” I pulled a face at that.

“Why the hell would I bother with—” I shook my head, “Most I’ve ever done is push some scripts through and kick the odd corrupt individual out of the industry, you think I have time or interest in micromanaging the entertainment industry here?” She started to argue as I returned my focus to carving a sigil across the door that should block the djinn…

…provided no one broke the threshold once it was in place and it really was a djinn.

“What’s this for?” Thankfully Jesse was willing to let it go for the time being it seemed.

“Since your people are so keen on staying in here, this should keep all of them alive,” I stopped before finishing the last line, “so long as they stay inside until I come back, you included.” Jesse seemed to hesitate, but she didn’t resist as I steered her back inside.

“Stay safe, Reyna.” I hummed in answer.

“Where’s the fun in that?” I closed the door before she could call me out on the comment, carving out the last line and tucking the knife back into my pocket. I pressed my hands to the wood on either side of the sigil, closing my eyes as I forced probably too much magic into it if the smell of smoke was anything to go off of.

The sigil looked as if it’d been branded into the wood when I stepped back; I guess I was still having a hard time controlling my output.

At least the tremors had stopped.

-----

I found the bar in the VIP section.

I know how that sounds, but I needed a container and glass works better than plastic.

Side note though: a VIP section in a movie theatre makes about as much sense to me as those little arcades do, but I s’pose at least today I was glad for the waste of space.

Slightly annoyed to find the trash and recycling empty, but having to finish odd a bottle of liquor was a bit of a silver lining.

I’d settled on the counter with my sharpie and now empty liquor bottle to draw out the symbols to contain a djinn—would’ve etched them in, but I didn’t have a pick and it’s really hard on a knife and I loathe the sound that makes—when the djinn themself appeared in a cloud of space across the space.

“How did you escape the dream?” I barely looked up from the bottle at their appearance, though the fact I could feel the heat off of them even at this distance told me I’d struck a nerve even without having to see their face.

“Don’t have a whole lot of happy memories for you to feed on and genetic madness pretty much curbs any hope I’ve got for the future.” I paused, looking up with a smile that did little to hide my true feelings on the subject. “Kelly was a nice touch though,” that image hurt, “clever, very clever,” and I was pissed. “Might’ve worked on someone else,” my smile was gone then, no longer hiding the cold fury inside and they shifted back, their form beginning to lose shape as their gaze settled on the bottle in my hand—a clear threat even unfinished for the moment, “but I learned young that dead things should stay dead; what comes back isn’t the same as what died and I would never wish the pain of that existence on my own child.”

No matter how much losing Kelly had broken me.

“I will have the others,” the djinn replied, their voice distant—alien almost, “they are not as you are, they will not wake so long as you do not interfere further.” With that as a warning, they vanished completely once again. I hummed to myself in mild annoyance.

“Yeah, telling me to stay out of things usually had the opposite effect,” I spoke to the air on the off chance they could still hear me before I returned my focus to the bottle, “good luck getting through that door though.”

-----

Remember when I said I was pretty sure God wanted me dead?

I may have been too specific with that statement—

I’m pretty sure God goes out of His way to fuck me over some days.

Right at this moment, I say that because I heard something big moving through the hall chasing someone who sounded human-sized.

I swore under my breath and stuffed the bottle and my sharpie into my backpack, dropping from the bar top and darting toward the sound. I came around a corner in time to see what looked an awful lot like a wechuge chasing one of the guests into the bathroom.

“Fuck.” I went after it, stringing more curses together as the man’s scream broke off into a bloody gurgle with the sounds of flesh ripping and tearing. The thick haze that painted the back of my throat with the taste of iron and copper forced me to slow in my stride. I didn’t want to, but I needed to know for sure about what I was seeing turn the corner to approach me on long bony limbs that felt disjointed, empty eyes staring at me with an insatiable hunger. Its skin was mottled with ice and frostbite and patchy fur and its head was the skull of an elk, the mangey fur spreading across his shoulders and down his pack. He looked like wechuge, but he didn’t smell like one, he smelled more like something born of magic, like a tulpa of some kind—a being born from the power of belief or will.

Which meant it was likely the djinn’s doing based on one in the movie.

Though having been essentially unconscious for at least half the movie, I wasn’t sure how accurate it was to a real one.

Likely not very.

Well, most books and movies that featured monsters gave them sort of invulnerability to silver, so I pulled my pistol as I started backing away, taking a brief moment to be glad I’d loaded for supernatural today.

I unloaded the entire clip into the thing as it advanced in long strides, scrambling back out into the hall and away, but it didn’t seem to do more than hurt it for a second. I swore under my breath when it clicked on empty and stuffed it into the back of my jeans, pulling my knife instead; it was a pocket knife not very big and not silver, but it was better than nothing.

The wechuge rushed forward, slamming me into the wall and pinning me there with one long forearm, barely fazed as I slashed across its chest, the flesh freezing over with ice and black. It pressed in on me baring too many bloody teeth and exhaling breath that stank of rotting flesh. I pulled myself up to lock my legs around its arm and neck to hold it in place while I drove the knife through the side of its face between the joints of its jaw and twisted, prying them apart. Then I dropped the knife to grip both to pry them apart. Its bottom jaw tore off in my hand and the wechuge let out a gurgled cry of pain as its tongue flopped uselessly against my leg. It fell back, taking me with me but not shaking me lose as I gripped its skull in both hands and pulled. The skull tore off with a squelch of decaying flesh and frost dried skin and tumbled back off of it as it slumped to the floor. It was still moving though, and I wouldn’t have felt sure it was dead without handling it correctly anyway. So I rolled away with the head and turned to the still twitching body in order to draw the Lurakil rune for fire in the air, giving shape to my intent. “Ignis,” I spoke the word and the body caught, burning up like dry kindling.

Then I looked at the head still in my hands and lay back for a moment with a heavy sigh.

“Fuck me,” I groaned the words; everything hurt, I wanted to overdose on pain killers and sleep for days.

-----

I practically kicked the door to the conference room open, ignoring the fact they fell immediately silent as I came in and eyed me warily. They parted as I approached the table, probably good considering I was covered in a fair amount of blood and still carrying the wechuge head.

“This,” the gore splashed a bit when I dropped it on the table with a heavy thud, “is why I said you need to evacuate.” I heard and could smell some of those present getting sick at the sight but continued anyway, “If you lot had listened to me the first time,” I fished the bloody wallet I’d pulled from the gory remains of the dead guy in the bathroom and flipped it open to read the name, “Eliáš Ježek wouldn’t be dead in the bathroom,” I gestured in the direction of the body before tossing the wallet onto the table with the head. “Lucky this thing was based on the one you had in the movie or it would’ve been a lot harder to kill.” Then I looked up again, meeting the frightened gaze of the man who’d called this emergency meeting. “So since you’re all apparently a bunch of morons who can’t follow direction; your emergency meeting. Best take it outside, yeah?”

“Reyna, be nice.” Jesse’s sharp tone had me glance in her direction, but I was tired and I don’t exactly play too well with others even on good days so I hummed quietly as if considering it before looking back at them.

“I’m sorry you’re all fucking morons; please leave.” As if waiting for permission, they bolted for the door, fighting each other to get through just a half-second faster until only Jesse and I remained. “I meant you, too,” I spoke as I pulled the bottle from my backpack and climbed up onto the table to settle in the middle, “unless you fancy getting trapped in a liquor bottle with a djinn.” She looked like she wanted to argue with me, but her gaze drifted to the bottle and she seemed to think better of it. I listened to her leave with the others as I drew the last few lines and then stretched out, popping my neck and my fingers and trying to work at least some of the soreness out before I settled the bottle in front of me and fell into a rhythmic chant in Lurakil—a language long dead in most circles but still incredibly powerful—as I kept my focus on the container. The djinn swore at me as their form materialized within the smoke that began to fill the space before me before it dissolved and rebuilt themself over and over, struggling against my grip on their being. The world had lost color everywhere I looked but them; they were a silvery shape filled with a Soul that glowed a unique shade of electric blue.

“You meddlesome—!” I couldn’t help the smirk at their outrage as I continued the binding spell, keeping my focus on the bottle.

The last thing I heard was their continued screams echoing away before the bottle’s lid sealed itself closed.

I had just enough energy to fall off the table and stuff it into my bag to hide while I dialed the Council.

Then my eyes closed and I was far too tired to open them again.