Kieron sighs, taking my hands in his. As he does, I realize how much I’m trembling.
“I’m afraid you might be right,” he says. Then he tilts my head and looks into my eyes. “But I promise I’ll get to the bottom of this, whatever it takes. Ivy and Cody’s deaths will not go unavenged for long. But for now, until we know more, we must remain patient. Calm. We mustn’t let the others know. Do you understand?”
I nod reluctantly.
******
“Everybody just quiet down. Silence!” Bones yells, jumping on top of a table. Kieron and I make our way around the crowd gathering inside the Bar. I’ve never seen it this full before…every demon, demion, and creature in the territory has packed the place to capacity. Once word about Cody and Ivy got out, which it did quickly, everyone came running.
I spot Catalina weeping in the corner and move over to place a comforting arm around her, Kieron right by my side.
“Okay, now that you’re all here…we have a problem. As you probably heard, Ivy and Cody were ambushed and killed. We found their bodies just across the Hlbafa border.”
“They crossed illegally?” a demion named Jax asks. Like Bones, he’s part hellhound, but unlike Bones, Jax’s other half is human, and he spends his days as a Junior High math teacher.
“No, we don’t think so. We think they were taken to their side. Attacked in Dryndara and dumped in Hlbafa.”
“An attack on one is an attack on us all!” a voice shouts, and the room breaks out in cheers and hollers. Bones raises his hands, signaling for them to settle down.
“But the Hlbafa are our allies…we’ve never had any problems with them,” a young succubus named Zanna says.
Bones nods. “Yes, that’s been true so far. But we don’t know if something’s changed. Perhaps it’s just the actions of a few rogues…”
“Kill them! Kill them all!” an anonymous voice shouts out. More cheers from the crowd.
Bones raises his hands to quiet them again. “I’m assembling a small group to accompany me to speak with their leaders. See if they know what’s going on—and if indeed this was unprovoked aggression.”
Several voices shout in unison, prompting Bones to shush them again. “I only want three…any more will make it seem like we’re attacking them.”
“I’ll go!” Jax shouts out. Bones nods at him.
“So will I,” my voice rings loudly over the chaos.
“And I!” Kieron follows up.
Bones glares in our direction for a brief moment before nodding tersely. “Okay. I have my trio. We’ll travel to the Hlbafa council tonight and meet with their tribe leaders. Then we’ll know if they are now our enemies, and if their blood shall be spilled.”
Kieron and I exchange a quick glance. I close my eyes and make a silent wish it doesn’t come to that.
******
We approach the border, and Bones and Jax shift back to their human shapes. I dismount Diablo, and Kieron parks his motorcycle. My heart hasn’t stopped pounding since we took off from the Bar, and I find myself continually glancing down at my Boumeaux to see if it’s starting to shine yet.
The four of us gather in a circle. “We walk from here,” Bones says. “And stay together. It shouldn’t be long before one of their scouts spots us. When they do, let me do all the talking.”
I light the Otium Torch I’d brought with us with a controlled stream of fire from my fingers and hand it to Bones. The flame glows green before changing to a sparkling white…a show of peace for our neighbors as we cross their lands.
“What if they don’t want to just talk?” asks Jax. “For all we know, they’re waiting for us and we’re walking right into a trap.”
Kieron and I exchange a private glance. “We need to be on guard,” I say, pulling my dagger from my boot. “But even they know the penalties against attacking when we carry the White Otium Torch. If they do anything at all, then they are in violation of the treaty.”
“I’d say it was nice and violated when they decided to slaughter Cody and Ivy,” Jax growls.
Bones stiffens. “We need to be sure it was them before we act. It’s more than possible it was demons from another tribe. They could easily have placed their bodies there.”
Jax persists. “But still, what if it was them? What do we do if we are attacked? Do we fight back? What if there are too many of them?”
I understand his concerns are valid, but Jax’s questions are getting on my nerves. Of course he doesn’t know what Kieron and I know—that it was most likely Light-angels behind the killings, and the Hlbafa had nothing to do with it. Still, I wish Bones had chosen someone else to accompany us.