Fiona’s brow crinkled. “You’re a werewolf who doesn’t eat meat.”
The she-wolf licked her lips. “Except when the woodwose comes. Then the demon in me comes out, and I wake up with feathers in my teeth, and fistfuls of dead birds.” She shoved the coffee into Fiona’s hands. “Drink this and follow me. You need energy. I brew it myself.” She took off over the rocky terrain, snapping through twigs, and Fiona hurried after.
Estelle wasn’t kidding when she called Cadonia weird. “I’m sorry—the woodwose?”
“Forest demons. They muddle your thoughts, turn you into beasts. Sometimes it’s hard out here. Sometimes the forest is alive with noises, and I have to ask the oaks to let me sleep.”
Fiona shuddered. What would happen if she came across a woodwose? She’d murder everyone within three miles. “What if we run into one?”
Cadonia scratched her head. “Then things might get wild.”
“But—what if I start killing people?”
The she-wolf whirled, nearly knocking the coffee from Fiona’s hands. “I told you. Murder don’t run in the blood. Don’t you listen, girl?” Hubbard scuttled into her shirt.
“Right.” Fiona took a sip of the strong coffee. By her jittery movements, Cadonia seemed like she lived on nothing but the bitter brew. Or maybe she’d had one too many encounters with the woodwose.
Cadonia thumped through the grass, rustling the ferns and lady slippers as they plunged deeper into the forest.
And yet this crazy lady was oddly comforting. It was easier to keep it together when everything seemed dire, but as soon as someone was a little nice, it was impossible to hold back tears. Fiona wiped a hand across her cheek, sniffling quietly.
Cadonia pulled the chipmunk from her cleavage, dropping him on her shoulder. “Handsome men you brung with you. Does the fire demon have a wife?”
“Tobias?” Fiona felt a twinge of jealousy. “He’s not even eighteen. Thomas is more your age.”
“The dark one? I like the look of him, too. He has kind eyes. Strong arms.”
“Right.” Wild Forest Woman might not be Thomas’s type, though she was pretty enough. Anyway, it didn’t seem like the time for matchmaking. There could be sea demons behind any of these trees, and Estelle wanted to kill her. “Cadonia… how many Picaroons are there?”
“Not as many as there used to be. Sometimes Estelle spies on them in her cauldron. Their numbers are getting low. They want people to join their crew, but Dagon gets hungry.”
A mosquito buzzed around Fiona’s head, and she swatted it away. “How can they get through the veil?”
“They’ve got Dagon’s power. He lets them through the fog. Long time ago, we got along. We traded medicines for rum. But then things changed. They started taking our men.”
“What happens to the men they take?”
The chipmunk crawled back into her hood. “Most die,” the she-wolf said matter-of-factly. They have to submit themselves to Dagon, and he eats them. Or the Picaroons kill them for sport. Only one or two have made it.”
“Why can’t the werewolves fight them? There are hundreds of you.”
“We ain’t like they are. They’ve got a god’s powers.” She thumped her fist into her hand as she spoke. “No one knows how. They don’t carve themselves like your pretty friend did, but they’ve got power all the same. It’d just take one of them to call up a storm that’d destroy all of Dogtown.”
They crunched through the forest, and Fiona rubbed her arms, trying to sort through the disaster of her life. Mom was being interrogated by witch hunters, she was homeless, and Mariana was barely conscious. There was the torched school, the dead classmates, and the witch hysteria gripping the country. She wanted to go home, back to her mom, but there was no going back anymore.
She gazed at the night sky. “I can take it from here, Cadonia.”
A shadow danced over Cadonia’s face. “What are you saying?”
“There’s no reason for us both to be out here. I can patrol the entire perimeter as a bat. I’ll ring the bell as soon as any pirate ships come anywhere near Cape Ann.”
With that, she whispered the transformation spell and took flight.
8
Tobias
Estelle bent over a cauldron, stirring a pungent, medicinal brew. Long, copper earrings dangled by her cheeks. The sun was setting outside, and golden light streamed through the warped windowpanes, sparking off metal instruments on a medical table.
Tobias glanced at a book in his lap, but his attention lay elsewhere. He had a bad feeling that Estelle wanted to kick Fiona out of Dogtown, and then she’d be left to the mercy of the witch-hunting Purgators. He’d go with her, but she obviously didn’t trust him anymore.