“But once we get by these things, we’re in for more surprises, right?” Danny said, coming up behind us. “This can’t be her only line of defense.”
I glanced over my shoulder at him, happy to see he was almost healed. All the gashes had closed and were on their way to fully mending. “Glad to see you’re up, Danny. If you can heal from these things, then we can find a way to defeat them. We just have to put our brains together and figure it out.”
Tyler stood next to me, but Eamon had refused to join the conversation. He was still angry. I was surprised he hadn’t just flown off, but risking his sister’s anger for the second time today must not be worth it.
“If the witch’s spells worked even temporarily,” Tyler said. “We could try and mix up the spells and find a way to blanket them across the group.”
“Yes, but a temporary fix will only send them after us once they wake,” I said. “That would trap us in her boundary with no shelter. We need to find a way to corral them, if not kill them permanently. Once we end Selene, they should pop back to the Underworld for good, since they can only reside in a domain she controls, right?”
Naomi nodded.
“Why don’t you freeze them?” a voice said from behind us. I turned slowly to see Ray, still perched on a log, looking tired. His face was drawn, but he looked determined.
“What did you say?” I asked.
“Use the cooler. You have enough dry ice to freeze a herd of cattle, and they don’t seem to work here in the trees. Lure them in here and freeze the bastards.”
“That has possibilities.” I pondered. “I see you’re still thinking like a detective, despite all the brain trauma you think you’ve endured. I’m impressed, Ray.”
“They are diminished here for some reason,” Tyler agreed. “The cooler might hold them if they stay alive. If they pop back to the Underworld once they freeze solid, we’re out of luck. It will be a tricky balance to keep them alive but contained. But it’s a possibility.”
“The reason they are over here has been puzzling me,” Naomi said. “They should not be able to exist at all once they cross over Selene’s boundary. Once across they should be immediately forced back to the Underworld. They are not in her control here. Yet they are alive, but cannot truly function. It should not be so.”
“I did sense a strange power signature by the boundary,” I said, heading to the separation point of the trees and the clearing. “I was surprised you crossed it, Naomi. It felt menacing and it was definitely not Selene’s magic.”
“I felt no foreign power signature. If I had, I would have stepped back.” Naomi followed me, her face pulled down in a frown. “Eamon is the sensor. I am the tracker.” She turned to her brother. “Did you sense other magics here?”
Eamon walked briskly to us, unclenching and reclenching his fists. He had let Naomi say her piece, but he was clearly beyond his limits of tolerance. “No. There is nothing here. She is mistaken. I can sense nothing, even now.”
“I feel it. Right here.” I placed my hand near the bark of the closest tree and wiggled my fingers. “It’s a small pulse of some kind and it’s buzzing a warning. It jumps like a heartbeat in my veins. I have to be right next to it to get a current, but it’s here.” I glanced at Danny and Tyler. “Come over here and see if you can feel it.”
They moved to where I stood. Danny reached his hand into the space. “I can’t sense anything, but I can smell those little shites. Not everyone can feel residual power. I am someone who needs the beast in front of me to get a good read, but I trust you.”
“You are mistaken,” Eamon huffed. “Sensing is my gift and there is nothing here.” He put both hands up to the clearing and moved them around like a mime.
I narrowed my eyes. “Are you certain you don’t feel it, Eamon? You’re not just pretending you don’t because you missed it and sent your sister out to face her death? It’s strong enough to send the hairs on my arms up when I’m this close. It’s making my wolf agitated and wary as we speak.” My wolf had growled a warning the moment we had gotten close.
Eamon glared at me and took a bold step though the tree line. I read his reaction the moment he felt it.
The winged devils popped up immediately in front of him and he stepped back quickly, almost in a daze. “Yes,” he said. “I feel it, but only once my whole body absorbed it. It’s so faint you should not be able to sense it so clearly. This is not Selene’s signature.” He retreated back into the shelter of the trees, his mind clearly processing. “It’s a leftover current of the Underworld.”