My Big Fat Demon Slayer Wedding

she sobered up.

It could still be pretty. Bright.

“What exactly did you see?” I asked, as thorns reached out for my dress and arms.

“I’m getting to that.” Pirate stopped. “Over there,” he said, tilting his knobby little head to the left. “That’s where I heard the noise.” He growled low in his throat. “Sounded exactly like something that needed to be chased.”

Definitely not a squirrel. Pirate was terrified of them. I eyed the thick tangle of foliage. There was no telling what could be in there.

He took off through the mass of rose bushes. “Well, I heard it, and you know we can’t let that go.”

“Not when you’re obsessed with the mail man, delivery trucks, the neighbors walking by…” I followed. Barely.

“Do you see any of that around here?” he called through the bushes.

No. This place was downright macabre. Weren’t gardens supposed to be open, cheerful places?

He was hard to see through all the foliage, and he was definitely moving faster than me. Thorns tore at my skin, and I raised my arms to keep them away from my face.

“So right here. This is where I was when I heard the noise,” Pirate said, invisible in the tangle.

“Great.” I had to get out of here.

“And this is where I went.”

I heard a rustle up ahead and prayed it wasn’t too far because, darn it, I was not a camping type of girl and this? Well, it kind of counted. “Pirate, where are you?”

“Here!” He said, as I cleared one last bush that tried to snag my eye. When I emerged from the mess, my entire body itching, I found him next to a large, ornate garden gate.

It was designed to look like a spider web, with intricate iron bars spread from the center. It was beautiful, really, if you discounted the squik factor. I wasn’t a fan of spiders.

My necklace warmed against my throat.

Tall stone walls stretched out on either side. We’d somehow lost the path. Only a cleared patch of dirt led into this isolated part of the estate.

And then, briefly, I caught a glimpse of her—a pale woman among the trees.

“Pirate, look!” I hissed.

I didn’t know if she was a ghost. She certainly wasn’t a wedding guest.

“Where?” Pirate asked, wriggling through a hole in the gate.

“Right in front of you!”

She paused, watching us and a chill went up my spine.

“I don’t see anything,” Pirate said, dashing right toward her.

“Watch out!” I yelled as he ran right through her.

“What?” he asked, spinning around, scattering leaves.

In the blink of an eye, the woman vanished.

Pirate could always see ghosts. He made buddies with them. A ghost had taught him how to play Scrabble for goodness sake.

My breath caught in my throat. “You never saw her.” It was more of a statement than a question, but holy h-e-double-hockey-sticks. What did it mean that I was the only person who could?

I wanted nothing more than to leave the way I came. Instead, I tugged at the latch on the gate. It was stiff, locked. Until it loosened under my fingers and clicked open. I tried to ignore the ominous creak as I stepped through. The garden was dense back here, almost jungle-like. I scanned the thick vegetation for another glimpse of the woman.

The afternoon was warm, but I felt chilled to the bone.

“This way,” Pirate said, leading me toward the grouping of trees where I’d seen the woman. Thorny vines climbed the thick trunks, their branches brushing my head as I passed underneath.

“Hello?” I called.

Insects screeched and the air felt thick and heavy.

Pirate snerfed. “Ain’t no one out here but us.”

“Don’t be so sure about that.”

He picked up his pace. “I’d been guarding this spot. I sent Flappy to find you.”

So that’s why we’d had a dragon at the window. Too bad Flappy couldn’t talk.

I double-checked my switch stars, keeping a hand on them for good measure. But I didn’t see the woman again. I wondered if she saw me.

A few moments later, we came to an old tower, made from the same black stone as the house. It reminded me of a misplaced castle turret. There was a wooden door at the bottom and narrow windows on the first two levels. Rusted metal spikes jabbed from the windowsills and from the tower itself.

“I like to get into the mind of my prey,” Pirate explained, wriggling into a space near the bottom of the door. “And if I was running from me, this is where I’d go.”

“Be careful.” He was going to get stuck.

In the second it took me to think that, he was already inside. “I was sniffing around on the first floor,” he said, his voice muffled, “Cause, you know, I’m good at that, when I realized whatever I had was gone. Not my fault. Sometimes I like to let them off the hook.”

I glanced around, to make sure we were truly alone. It was hard to tell with the thickness of the trees, and the shadows they cast over the garden.

“It’s in here,” Pirate said from inside.

I yanked on the door.

It wouldn’t budge. I pushed harder to make sure.

Nothing.

“Is there another way in?” I asked, keeping an eye out as I made a lap around the structure. It was slow going what with the underbrush and the vines snaking across the ground and up the tower.

“Come on, Lizzie,” he prodded, as if his doggie time were valuable.

“Chill out, Rapunzel.” I didn’t find any other doors or breaks in the stone. “And what you wanted to show me… You see it inside, right?” No use killing myself getting in if Pirate was leading me on a wild goose chase.

“It’s right here,” he said, as if I were purposely holding things up.

“Come on out.” I didn’t like him being alone with something that could be evil.

“No.”

Cripes. “Hold on a sec.” I was tempted to hit the door with a switch star, but there had to be another way. The lock was antique, valuable. The same probably went for the door itself.

I’d have to levitate, which I hated. I hadn’t done it much, and I wasn’t all that good. Still, I was a demon slayer, and I wasn’t about to wuss out. I closed my eyes and focused on the power I held inside. I felt its intensity, touched the white-hot spark of it, and willed myself off the ground.

My wedge sandals barely left the black soil.

What the heck?

Sure, I’d only been a demon slayer for a year. And I’ve mostly, okay always, used that power to break my falls. But if I couldn’t muster enough spark to lift off the ground, I was in trouble.

Pirate wriggled his head back out of the tower. “What’s the matter? Did you gain weight?”

“No,” I snapped. At least I didn’t think so. And it shouldn’t make a difference anyway. Sure, I was enjoying California cuisine as much as the next person, but, “go back inside. Stop watching me.”

I focused again, clearing my head of everything but the searing light of my power, my innate strength, my goodness, my ability to rise up off the ground.

Now.

This time, I didn’t even get a fizzle.

Holy Mother.

A sliver of dread ran down my spine. Something was wrong with me.

I braced my hands on my hips. I was compromised. But I couldn’t imagine what had happened or how it had