The Flame Never Dies

My chills became a full-body quaking I had to fight to restrict to my insides. “A city full of the Unclean?” In truth, all the surviving US cities were being governed by demons in the guise of Church officials, but a city populated by demons, advertising its presence with its very name? “When the Church finds out, they will wipe your demon city from the map.”

Aldric laughed, and the sound seemed to freeze as it slid down my spine. “She’s adorable, Finn. One doesn’t usually find such naïveté in an exorcist.”

Naïveté? “The Church knows?” The very existence of Pandemonia was a threat to the Unified Church’s biggest secret. Why would they let the city stand?

The answer came as soon as I’d thought the question. Because they can’t take it down. If the Church could raze Pandemonia, it would.

“Why are you here?” Finn demanded.

“Why do you think? He wants to see Maddock.” Aldric’s eerie smile slid my way. “He wants to meet all of Maddy’s little friends. Especially the exorcists.”

“Who’s he?” Eli asked, and if he hadn’t, I would have. But we got no answer. Whoever “he” was, he was obviously a demon, and his interest in the exorcist members of Anathema was painfully clear. Exorcists made much stronger, hardier, longer-lasting hosts than did normal people. Which was why my mother had chosen an exorcist to be my father—so that the child she raised to be her next host would be as durable as possible.

“He’ll never see Maddock again,” Finn growled. “And neither will you.” He turned to me. “Nina?”

I lifted my left hand, already cradling its flame.

“Grayson’s transitioning,” Aldric said, and I froze in the middle of my first step toward him, confused by the non sequitur. “No matter where you go, degenerates will flock to her, and he will follow them to you. How do you think we found you?” The child-demon nodded at the corpse of his former peer—obviously the other half of “we.”

“We’ll fry everyone he sends after us,” Finn promised.

“And your sister?” Aldric turned to me. “Is Melanie an exorcist? Will her baby be one?”

“Stay away from my sister and her—”

Finn lifted his rifle, revising his aim.

Aldric spread his chubby arms, inviting Finn to shoot. “Go ahead.” His focus found me and lingered. He looked . . . hungry. “I’m due for an upgrade anyway.”

Surely he was bluffing. It wasn’t easy for a disembodied demon to claim a healthy, conscious human host. But I wasn’t confident enough to bet on that, and neither was Finn.

“Nina!” Finn glanced at my hand, and then his gaze skipped to the demon.

I flipped a mental switch, and a handful of flickering flames kindled in my palm.

Aldric’s grin widened—a farce of childhood joy. “Kastor is going to love her.”

“Kastor?” I said, and Finn gave me the smallest, subtlest shake of his head. The “he” from Pandemonia who wanted to see Maddock was Kastor?

Finn looked sick. I’d told him in confidence that Kastor—whose name the former Deacon of New Temperance had invoked to scare us—had stolen Grayson’s brother from a Church caravan. But Finn had never mentioned that he knew this demon that other demons feared!

“You told her about Kastor?” Aldric said, then he read the answer in my expression. “You haven’t told her. Yet she knows something. . . .”

“Kastor is the wolf,” I said. And we were the sheep.

At least, that’s how Deacon Bennett had put it. She’d seen the Unified Church as a shepherd, slaughtering only the sheep they needed to survive, while the wolf, she’d claimed, would butcher us indiscriminately.

“Yes, the wolf.” Aldric’s eyes narrowed as they studied me. “I don’t suppose you own a red hooded riding cloak?”