Boot nodded, as if reading her mind. “It was a bad moment. The first demon gets back to his feet and says, ‘All right, he’s yours. Take him. I don’t care anymore.’ The second demon grunts and sneers at the first, then turns and moves off down the path. The first demon waits until the second is out of sight, then starts to undress. It takes off its coat and the clothes underneath. Then it begins to transform into something else. It happens quickly. I have heard of creatures like this, but I have never seen one—a changeling, a special kind of demon, able to shift from one form to another in moments where it takes the others days or even weeks to assume a new disguise.”

The sylvan took a deep breath. “It becomes a four-legged creature, a monster, a predator like nothing I’ve ever seen. It has these huge jaws and this massive neck and shoulders. A hellhound. A raver. It lopes off into the brush after the second demon. Audrey and I take to the air and follow, watching. The changeling catches up to the second demon in seconds. It doesn’t hesitate. It attacks instantly, charging out of the brush. It knocks the second demon to the ground despite its size and holds it there with its body weight. It tears the bigger demon’s head from its shoulders, then rips its body down the middle and fastens on the dark thing inside that is its soul. There is a horrible shriek, and the second demon thrashes and goes limp. It begins to dissolve. It turns to ash and blows away in the summer’s night breeze.

“The first demon says—growls, actually, and I can hear it even from atop the trees where Audrey and I watch it begin to change again—‘He belongs to me, he is mine.’ ”

Rain gusted suddenly through the trees, blown on a fresh wind, and Nest started as the cold droplets blew into her face. The weather was worsening, the mist turning to a steady downpour. Nest tried to make sense of what the sylvan was telling her, why it was that the first demon would be so desperate to protect its interest in John Ross, to keep him alive so that he could be subverted. Something in the back of her mind nudged at her, a memory of something that had happened before, but she could not quite manage to identify it.

Ariel floated past her in the dark, her childlike form looking frail and exposed against the rush of wind and rain. “Is that all?” she asked Boot. “is that the end of the story?”

“Not quite,” replied the sylvan, dark eyes bright. “Like I said, the demon begins to change again, but—it’s the strangest thing—this time it changes into …”

Something huge tore through the woods. Thick masses of brush shivered suddenly, shedding water and scattering shadows. Boot wheeled toward the movement in frightened recognition, his voice faltering and his dark eyes blinking in shock. Ariel gasped sharply and screamed at Nest.