They rode out at dawn on the next day.

Mira hitched a ride with her brother on Bjorn’s back. Lanterns, pinned to the animal’s curled horns, lit their path, jangling back and forth as the goat sped towards the Maidenwoods. She didn’t pin Bjorn for being more than a trotter, but when Magic nudged the animal’s side with the command to run, it was as though she wasn’t riding on a goat at all. She wasn’t sure if it was just because Bjorn was particularly receptive to Magic’s commands and not hers—she’d tried to get the goat to do the same with little success. Mira wasn’t going to complain. At least Bjorn was booking it.

Beside them rode Jovie with Soma resting flat on Jeralt’s back, clouded white eyes focused straight ahead of her as the goat’s hooves pounded along the earth and just between them a little further back was Val on the younger goat Mira remembered from Alaric’s house that had gone up to Bjorn. He was wilder and peppier than the other two and eventually gained enough speed to pass them both, reaching the luscious edge of the Maidenwoods first.

They all sat there on the animals, no one ordering more than a hoof into the woods. Blue light pulsed to Mira’s right and she turned in time to see Jovie’s eyes change color. Soma leapt onto the woman’s shoulders, her forehooves resting on her head as she tilted her snout up, taking in the sight.

“It has been some time,” Soma said through Jovie’s mouth, “since I was last here. It has not changed.”

“You sure about that?” asked Vallian, who was scratching the chin of his goat. “What about the center part of it where your so-called brother lives?”

The rabbit frowned, ears twitching. “It has been that way since the Incident. The earth never quite did heal from the wounds it gained ordeal. Not that it could; our Maiden relinquished herself and the rest of us fled to save ourselves. How do you suppose that the land heal from that?”

Val shrugged. “I imagined time would heal that wound.”

In front of her, Magic rubbed at the back of his neck. “Does it feel different?” he asked. “Knowing what you’ve come back for.”

There was a small pause, then Soma gave a small shake of her head. Jovie did, too, her expression blank as ever. “The last time I was here, my siblings and I decided that subduing him was the better option. Chain him to the energy of the Maidenwood Tree and restrict him.” Then the rabbit’s lips curled into something like a snarl. “Now, I will finish what my siblings and I started.”

Vallian whistled a tune, high-pitched and short before lobbing a pouch in Mira’s direction. She barely caught it by the bottom as he went on to speak. “Keep it handy,” he said. “Wait for my signal to use them both. Clear?”

Mira nodded. pocketing the materials before she dismounted. Her hand rummaged around in Bjorn’s satchel as Magic pushed himself off and dropped to the ground beside her. She drew a long belt filled to the brim with small knives that she handed over to him. In the firelight, the blades glinted a pale shade of blue, each disappearing as Magic wrapped the band around his waist beneath his coat.

He gave her a look and Mira saw the doubt in his eyes—or maybe it was uncertainty. Either way, it wasn’t very confident and Mira gave her brother a pat on the shoulder. “We’ll be fine,” she said. “Remember, you’re trusting my idea.”

“I wouldn’t … say it’s all yours,” Magic said, rubbing the back of his neck. He glanced once over his shoulder in the direction of the others before leaning a little against Bjorn. “But I am. I do. Trust your idea, I mean.”

“Good. Because a little faith isn’t a bad thing.”

“Ironic, coming from the atheist.”

Mira grinned. “You don’t need a higher power to have hope, Mags.”

Her brother shrugged, attentively securing the belt at his waist. “No,” he said, “but I think it helps.”

He gave her a small smile and Mira returned it before patting Bjorn curtly on the head twice. “Don’t you go running off somewhere,” she said to the goat. The animal gave a low groan, huffing in her face, as though he would never do such a thing.

Magic scratched the goat’s face with both hands, giving the animal a borderline affectionate rub beneath both of his eyes. “Wait for Soma’s word,” he ordered. “Then you can come through. Until then, stay put. You’re carrying precious cargo.”

Bjorn gave a loud, resounding bleat, rubbing his curled horns against Magic’s face. Mira watched her brother laugh a little and nudge the animal back, not that it was successful; Bjorn pushed back, forcing Magic to take a few steps. Blue light shone brightly from the satchel at the animal’s side and Mira readjusted the pouch to keep the light hidden.

“Over here!”

From beyond them, Jovie’s voice rang out and when Mira looked up, spotted the Scepter standing at the edge of the forest where the color had drained from leaves and tree and soil. Trenches carved the earth in uneven lines, exactly as Mira had remembered it to be the last time she was here.

She took a deep breath, taking in the sight, ignoring the bumbling dread in her gut, fluttering like beating bird wings.

Magic gave her a sideways glance, that uncertain softness in his eyes.

Vallian looked straight ahead, unblinking and unafraid.

Then, before any of them could reconsider, Jovie gave an order.

“Let’s go kill some demons.”

* * *

Jax was waiting for them at the center of the Maidenwoods.

They arrived as a group of four, Mira smack between her brother and Jovie, who was half-merged with Soma, the jackalope resting on her shoulders. At the sight of them, the man on the horse grinned, wide and predatory. Even the creature he called a steed seemed to ruffle joyfully at their presence, his kelp-like mane moving dancing side to side with the momentum.

Meanwhile, Soma’s three-pronged tail flicked, a slow motion back and forth. A warning sign. An order.

Stay back.

“Took your sweet time,” mused the Scarlet King. “I expected more…hustle.”

“We had some things to do,” Jovie said. “Some preparations to make.”

The man shook his head with a mocking smile. “Oh, I don’t mean that for me. I mean it for her.”

As if on cue, Delilah Miller toddled out into the open from behind the Beast and Mira heard Jovie gasp. The girl looked dazed, as though she didn’t know where she was. Her attention wasn’t aimed at them, just at the water that separated her and safety, safety she didn’t even know was there.

“Del!” called Jovie, crouching with a step forward, but Jax tutted at her.

“Ah-ah,” he said, “not so fast.” At that, the Beast made a purring noise and the child took a step forward towards the water. Bile rose in Mira’s throat. She saw Magic fidget in place from her peripheral. When Delilah lifted her head this time, that was when Mira saw it. Everyone else must have, too, because the silence was enough to smother a crowd.

Delilah’s paler eye had gone completely white.

And within that white, a thin, purple tendril curled around her pupil like a thread looped on a nail.

“Cross the threshold first,” said Jax slowly, “and the child will be returned unharmed.”

“Hand Delilah over first,” Mira challenged, “and then we’ll talk.”

The Scarlet King turned his eyes on her, his gaze lazily sliding over her and Magic. As though their presence wasn’t something he’d counted on. Joke’s on him. Mira had every intention of standing face to face with the man who ordered her dead or alive.

Jax nudged the Beast’s side and the tendrils in Delilah’s eyes receded. It took her a moment to lose the glazed look in her eyes. For a while, she only stood there, stone still. Then, as though she’d woken from a dream, the child staggered a little, knocking into the leg of the demon to her right. She recoiled, looked around, realized where she was, and did the only thing Mira expected her to do in a place like this.

Delilah screamed.

It was enough to spring Jovie forward again; she bolted towards her niece before Mira could say otherwise or hold her back, wading in the water as Delilah, shrieking and in tears, ran to the Maidenwood Tree as if it would hide her.

“Del!” shouted Jovie, hip deep in water. “Delilah Grace!”

“Jovie?” Delilah cried.

“Come this way. I got you.”

Mira watched the girl’s eyes drift up towards Jax, as though she were asking the man for permission to go with her aunt. Jax didn’t reply, only motioned towards the moat with his head and Delilah ran like the floor had suddenly burst into flame. She sprinted towards Jovie and leapt towards the water and into her aunt’s arms. Her little feet kicked against the top of the moat as Jovie waddled through the surf to place Delilah on the bank. The girl, sobbing, ran past Mira and over to Magic, disappearing beneath the fabrics of his coat.

Then, within the space of a breath, Jax whistled and the Beast lunged, knocking both Jovie and Soma into the frigid water. Mira gasped and stepped back; Magic placed a hand out and behind him, reaching for Delilah who gripped onto him like a vice.

Jax leapt off his steed’s back, took a few steps towards them and brandished a pistol from beneath his own coat. “I hate elements beyond my control,” he mused, as if he were talking to himself and not an audience. “It’s a nuisance, really, to keep track of it all.”

Beyond him, the water crashed and broke with the ongoing struggle. Jovie’s flailing limbs breached the surface only to crash back down as the Beast adjusted his hooves, keeping both the woman and the Spectacle down beneath the murky grime.

Mira had never looked upon the Scarlet King, but staring at him now she could see why he earned that title. If not for the fact that his deep auburn hair looked matted and stuck together, his jacket was a bright, neon red, perfect for hiding the shade of blood. It was lined in metallic bronze and a high popped collar practically engulfed his neck before fanning out at the back of his head. He had the cold dead eyes of a serpent, a piercing blue that picked each of them apart.

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“I’ll admit,” continued the Scarlet King. “You have guts, coming back after my steed chased you off. I might even spare you both. If you comply.”

Mira glanced at her brother who backed up a little in response to the pistol aimed his way. His left hand—his free one—drifted towards the folds of his coat and Mira hoped—prayed, even—that Magic wouldn’t act until the signal went off. So she did the one thing she could.

She talked.

“And do what with us? Lock us up in chains and force stardust in our veins?” Mira shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Oh, come down from that high horse of yours,” Jax huffed, sneaking a small look over his shoulder at Locht. Mira couldn’t help but follow. Bright blue light was pulsing from the moat of the Maidenwoods, frantic and wild. “You think these creatures have any right to the land they claim? They have no more right to it than the rest of us. It’s okay.” Jax thumbed the cylinder, rotating it in place. “They’ll learn their place eventually.”

Locht shook his head in the background, dragging up Jovie from the moat. The woman lay on the bank of the moat, gasping and coughing up water and it was everything Mira had not to run towards her to help—or at the very least assure Jovie of Delilah’s safety. She probably would have if there wasn’t a weapon in her face. For a second, Mira thought he would further the attack on the Scepter, who was coughing up water with every ragged breath, but the Beast’s eyes were trained on the jackalope, who’d been tossed from Jovie’s shoulders in the process.

Sweat trickled nervously down her spine.

C’mon, Val, Mira thought. Any day now.

“Locht,” called Jax, and the demon lifted its head in answer, “don’t remove your sister from this earth just yet.” The man tossed something towards the creature, a disk puffing black and purple smoke. To Mira’s shock and Magic’s audible horror, Locht took the object in his jaws and swallowed it whole.

She watched the demon contort, his limbs elongating, snout squaring. Everything about the Beast morphed into something else and for once Mira took a few steps back, motioning for Magic to do the same. Delilah’s whimpers, muffled from pressing her face into Magic’s back, were audible despite the crackling of energy that seemed to radiate from the kelpie.

Frozen in place, she watched the fabled kelpie of the Maidenwoods turn from horse to dragon.

During her initial pilgrimage through the fabled woods, she’d never seen Locht as he was meant to be. She had only heard his voice, his orders, his illusions. Now, the Beast of the Maidenwoods truly looked the part of a demon.

It was seven feet tall from hoof to shoulder with a pelt black as void, scales shimmering with each subtle movement. Crowning its head were two, deep purple horns that curled backwards and arced up, both chipped and broken by tooth or nail. Ink-black drool leaked from the edges of the demon’s mouth, staining the dried earth. Thin, vine-like tendrils made up its mane, which draped limply down its back and past its shoulders, swaying a little with the breeze. The Beast was a starved animal, its chest a massive thing in comparison to the rest of its body, which looked as though it were sucked in towards its spine. Descending from its back was a long, fish-like tail, scarred and mangled; it hung loose and limp, swaying as though it were nothing more than a peeling branch.

Mist poured from every orifice of its body, filling the air in black and purple vapors. The trees, dead as they were, bent forward, arcing forward like limp puppets with their backs hunched. Branches cracked and crumbled to dust. Everything but the Maidenwood Tree was turning to ash.

And when Locht spoke, Mira felt something coil inside of her gut.

“Hello, Sister,” cooed the creature. “Star Children. Even you, Starless One.”

Beside her, she felt Magic stiffen and she knew then that the words were not just something of her own imagination as they had been the first time.

The Beast, no longer a kelpie, but a dragon—a kirin—was grinning at them. It was a feral thing, filled with rows of sharp teeth. Words caught in Mira’s throat. Her feet felt rooted to the ground and even as the creature swung its head towards her, Magic, and the hidden child behind him, Mira could do nothing else but stare at it.

She’d never been face-to-face with a demon before.

Then, just as Locht turned his attention back on the wounded jackalope, shots rang out, ricocheting among the graveyard.

The kirin stood at attention and everything in Jax coiled and went stiff, as though something cold seeped into his veins and had frozen. He shouted something to his steed, which backed up several paces as the Scarlet King leapt onto the creature’s back.

Soma scrambled to her paws, squeaking lightly. She darted away from the Beast and towards Jovi, frantically nudging the woman’s shoulders.

Mira felt her senses return. She directed her brother towards one of the trenches nearby and as he fled, protecting both himself and the child cowering behind him, Mira ran towards Jovie, helping the woman to her feet.

“Del,” murmured Jovie, slow and dazed. It was hard to tell if she was referring to Delia or Delilah, considering both had the same name, but maybe that was the point. “Del…”

“She’s okay,” Mira said, half-dragging the Scepter along through the echo of gunfire. “She’s fine.”

Jovie didn’t say anything after that. She only sighed deeply in a way that sounded like it might have been relief and Mira didn’t bother to press the topic more. Not when they needed to get things done and stay alive.

It was easier than Mira expected, maneuvering an unconscious human being. Soma assisted her with sitting Jovie against the wall of the trench as they sat behind the dirt wall. She could hear the Beast screaming by the moat, followed by profuse curses flowing from Jax’s mouth like a fast-running current. But they had more pressing things to worry about.

Magic took one glance at the Scepter and his eyes went wide with fear, but it was Delilah who poked out from under his coat that spoke.

“Jovie?” she whimpered. “Jovie!”

“She’ll be fine,” said Mira with more confidence than she readily felt. Soma, though, bowed her head and she watched the Spectacle look between them all before trotting over to Delilah, who had seated herself on her aunt’s lap and placing a hoof on her shoulder. The child shuddered, shrinking away from the rabbit who only lowered her ears.

“And the plan?” Magic asked, eying her carefully as she reached into her pocket and took out the tiny pouch.

“In progress,” Mira replied, pouting the vials out. She looked between the two, trying to remember which one she should be using first. The one in her left hand, with a dark purple-blue hue that looked more like a fresh black and blue that sent a chill down her spine, would give her temporary Sight and enough time to merge with Soma. The one in her right hand which shone bright like the gemstones in the Eastern District cavern, would allow Soma to revert back to her original form.

She popped the lid from the darker colored vial and lifted the tube to drink the solution on the inside, when the back of Magic’s hand came to rest against her mouth. Mira glared at him. He was covering the top of the vial with a look on his face she couldn’t read. “What are you doing?!” she hissed.

“Stepping in,” Magic said.

Mira bit the inside of her cheek. No. They’d come this far and she wasn’t sure how long Val could keep Jax and his steed busy. “Now is not the time to be reconsidering the plan, Magic—”

“I’m not reconsidering the plan. I’m joining in on it.”

“Mags, no.”

But Magic didn’t budge and now she recognized the expression on his face for what it was. Determination. “The whole point of this was that we go through this together. And I’m not going to let you do this on your own.”

Mira looked at her brother and nodded. She handed the vial to Magic who took a swig from it without hesitation and handed it over to her. As the solution went down, Mira imagined feeling something. A spark, some kind of buzzing in her limbs—everything Soma or Jovie or Val had told her that she would feel if she’d been chosen by the stars. There was nothing but a prevailing sense of calm, a kind of slowness to the world that made it feel like she had focus beyond belief.

Beside her, Magic shuddered, groaning a little. She watched little blue lines wick off him like smoke from a candle and she lifted a hand, getting halfway to his shoulder before she stopped and he recoiled. Mira didn’t know what she could do to even ease his pain, but when his shaking stopped and his breathing calmed, he looked up at her and moved away at the same time she did.

The eye that should have been green was a stark, clouded white.

She imagined the same must have happened to her.

“Has it worked?” asked a new voice. Crisp and clear like a bright blue sky.

Dirt and dead grass crunched under Soma’s weight as the rabbit sat in front of them both, three-pronged tail wagging back and forth, spreading dust with each hit.

“Yeah,” Magic muttered, rubbing at his eyes from under his glasses while Mira cast hers aside. With temporary Sight, she didn’t need them. Soma was a blurred, blue dot in her vision, but that would change soon.

Mira popped open the vial of bright blue energy, tilting it towards the rabbit. “Ready to end this, Soma?”

Something wicked trembled in the Spectacle’s voice and, though she couldn’t see Soma well enough, Mira didn’t have to in order to hear the smile in it.

“I will bury him.”

One minute in, and Val was already regretting everything about this plan.

He knew the shots were supposed to be a feint, but he couldn’t help it. He’d aimed every single shot from his pistol at the Scarlet King’s jacket and the demon he called a partner, heart racing with each bullet fired.

The transformation from kelpie to kirin was an aggravating snag in the plan. Vallian wasn’t counting on Jax to pull that card. He should have; Jax played by no one’s rules but his own, and, even now from his place hiding behind a narrow, dead tree, he cursed himself for thinking Jax wouldn’t make his life more difficult.

A bullet whizzed past his left ear and he stiffened, trying to hide the whole of him behind the tree, which he could feel bowing to the Omnecron. It leaned and cracked, giving way and forcing him to run to the next.

Black pillars shot upward from the ground around him, one in the space where the tree had just been and Val backed away only to feel a cold grip on his ankle. It slithered up his leg and brought him to the floor. Air left his lungs on impact. In the space of a breath, that same cold twined through him and he felt as though something was sitting on his back, pushing him into the floor.

It didn’t stop there.

Soon, Val felt what little air he had left sitting there in his chest without an escape route. Not too far ahead, he spotted his captor and the kirin, staring. Waiting. Like he was nothing more than a piece of prey.

Stars, Vallian cursed silently.

That bastard was going to get what was coming to him. He’d be damned if Jax got away from this unscathed.

“I should’ve killed you,” mused Jax, staring at his own pistol. He dragged a finger down it as more tendrils popped out from the ground, arced towards Val like the pointed ends of a hook. “You’ve been nothing more than a headache.”

“Serves you right,” wheezed Vallian, writing a little in place.

One of the barbs struck and pierced skin and the pain, white-hot like a flare, seized his body. He gnawed on his lip, trying to keep his composure. Jax would not get this from him.

Hooves clacked along the earth, the steps slow and composed. Locht stalked forward, leaving his shadow behind, staining the Maidenwoods like a bucket of tipped ink.

Jax readied his pistol and aimed it, pulling back the clip.

Val closed his eyes so that he wouldn’t have to see his life fade. But there was no second source of pain to accompany the digging sensation in his skin.

Instead, there was only the sound of something that reminded Vallian of a laser and immediately the tendrils retreated. Pain retreated and through the lightheaded fuzziness that accompanied the loss of blood, Val opened his eyes to watch Jax maneuver Locht back towards the moat.

Forcing the demon duo back was a large creature, advancing with large, confident steps, its head bowed. Two, scythe-like horns adorned the top of its head, nestled between large ears, tendrils snaking out from the pointed edges of the hooks. Its blue pelt shimmered, hiding scales that nestled beneath it, white chest fur swaying with each movement. Its taloned claws left holes in the earth where small, fledgling blades of grass poked their heads out from the hollows.

Six spikes ran the course of its back, humming and crackling with electrical energy. Two people sat atop the creature, one tall and raven-haired, the other shorter with a mess of curls and waves closest to the creature’s neck, grasping protrusions from its sides like a set of handlebars.

It wasn’t until Vallian spotted the blue gemstone protruding from the creature’s forehead that he realized.

Soma.

For a while the two creatures and the humans involved only stared at each other. Vallian didn’t think he would be able to hear the dragon speak, but when she did it rang out and vibrated amongst the misty void.

“Hello, Brother,” cooed the drake, sweeping a long tongue over her snout. “Ready for your execution?”

“Dear Sister,” purred the kirin. “This is not my execution. It is my audience.”