Lucus had been trained on the coffee machine yesterday. He was hooked on the stuff. I glanced over my shoulder to see him downing a quick shot of coffee before working on Nancy’s order.
“Morning, Coren.” Nancy pushed her curled brown hair away from the heavy rouge on her cheeks and smiled. She had lipstick on her teeth, but I had walked out of the bathroom with toilet paper on my foot yesterday like a true cliché, so who was I to judge? “What do you think of these earthquakes? Authorities have called experts in, but they still don’t have any answers. They claim the geology of the area point to such occurrences as being possible, but they can’t find the direct cause.”
I bagged her order, took the coffee from Lucus, and handed it all over. “I read your blog post. Did you interview the mayor?”
Nancy snatched the bag out of my hand. “Of course I did. Do you think I would allow an intern to do such a thing?”
“I heard Dan’s son, Mik, was helping you out over there.” Dan was the mayor’s second cousin.
“I built the Daily Noser. I will not have silver spoon hipsters taking it from me.”
Her blog had been up for over a decade, so she probably brought in a bunch of money with ads and affiliate links. “Whoa. Nancy. Seriously. I didn’t mean it like that. I’m on your side, girl.”
She jerked her head in a curt nod, took a sip of her coffee, and turned to leave. “Thank you, Coren.” Her eyes cut toward Lucus, then Aurelio. “You have a lot of new friends. I’d love to hear why they’ve come to the Nashville area and where they’re from. Such an odd accent. That little boy is darling though.” She craned her neck to look past me at the open door to the kitchen where Oliver was singing a song about roosters that seemed possibly inappropriate. Kaippa had probably taught him that one before taking off.
I didn’t blame Nancy for her nosiness. I was nosey too. That was what had landed me in this mess in the first place—stomping up the hill, head full of questions, to check out the cursed castle. But an interview with the fae wasn’t a grand idea. We had to keep all this on the down low, or people would completely freak out. I envisioned a unit of armed scientists raging into the bakery and capturing Aurelio and Lucus with giant butterfly nets. Nancy had to be put off the scent.
“Oh, sure. They’d love to chat with you. How about next Wednesday morning here around nine?”
She narrowed her eyes. “I’ll be here.”
Well, they wouldn’t be. I’d make sure of it. I started to give her one more line to secure the stall on her nosing around the fae and me, but the ground shook under my boots.
The water glasses beside the sink rattled, and I gripped the bakery case. Everyone looked around with wide eyes as they took children into their laps and grabbed phones to call loved ones. Fear lanced through the morning’s peaceful vibe.
The shaking didn’t stop this time. It kept going, increasingly stronger. My baking show trophy toppled and landed with a bang inside its display case beside the bookshelf. A cup of coffee rolled to the floor and spilled steaming black liquid over the tiles.
I ran to the front door and threw it open to see a bunch of people gathered in the street. Lucus and Hekla joined me in peering over the crowd down Main Street.
Around the confederate monument’s pillar in the square, the road exploded.
Screams and shouts littered the air as chunks and bits of pavement rocketed skyward.
2 Coren
I couldn’t move.
A monstrous gray creature with glittering, snake-like skin rose from the hole in the road and opened its mouth to show rows of sword-length teeth. As large as two semi-trucks end to end, the thing’s forked tongue flicked out, and fire blasted from its throat, rippling and distorting the cold air with heat. Horns curled back from the monster’s head, neck, and jaw, and it had just two powerfully built legs that reminded me of a T-Rex. Wings fluttered in uneven spasms from its thick hide, and the gray webbing between the wing bones was the color of a storm cloud. The creature was hideous, and the sight of it sent a feverish heat that felt like poison through my blood. A bitter stench like the smell millipedes give off overwhelmed me, and I broke into coughing even as my heart was frozen with terror.
Lucus was shouting something. He ran off, heading toward the whatever it was.
My heart seized and then began beating again. I rushed to catch up with him, slipping from Hekla’s grasp.
Before I reached him, the sinuous, gray creature dove into its hole, and the ground went still.
“What did I just see?” I asked Lucus. We were both panting, though I didn’t think it was because of the running.
“That was a demon.” A shudder ran through Lucus.
“What do mean demon? Like an it’s from hell demon?”
Lucus tilted his head as sirens wailed and emergency vehicles sped into the square. I caught a glimpse of Nancy Striffer weaving her way around the police cars.
“The Mage Duke’s curse has morphed into a thing of the darkest magic,” Lucus said. “We used to tell stories about such beings, though I’ve never seen one myself. Do you feel its intent the way I do?” He held up a hand and cocked his head like he was listening. “How it coils and thirsts for chaos?” He shuddered again.
“No, but I believe you. That is some messed up shit right there.”
The police began taping off the square while emergency personnel checked on a few people who’d been hit by the broken pavement.
“I’m surprised the police are getting that close and not freaking out more,” I said.
The woman beside me exhaled and put a hand to her chest. She clutched a teenage girl
