She shifts the weight of the backpack she filled with the magical crap from the demon Ascension. Should she have just taken a stake and left the rest? She’s not sure what most of these things do. She hopes that some of them will come in handy during her quest. And, if not, at least she has them and the nerd boys don’t. Guys who would accidentally murder one another in the middle of the day while playing terrible techno so cannot be trusted with a giant corkscrew knife covered in runes.

Besides, she’s left her ax behind in Arashmaharr, stuck in the skull of the last demon who’d been guarding the gem. She’d been totally hurting for weapons. And if a stake-shooting crossbow isn’t her Chosen One birthright, then what is?

Walking past buildings that in Demondale are all Mayor Wilkins’s campaign offices—here, a post office, a bank, and a bail bonds company—the magical staff jerks hard to the left, nearly knocking the Slayer out of her sneakers. She comes to a stop in front of a small innocuous building. The sign out front reads SMILEYDALE PUBLIC ACCESS. The Slayer frowns.

Smileydale. That’s a new one. Definitely not what big tough demons would name a town.

The staff seems to vibrate with excitement, aiming the big green gem on the top toward the building’s front door, like a dog begging to go for a walk. When the warlock in downtown Demondale had first told her about the magical dowsing rod, he had made it sound so much cooler than this overeager wooden stick. The Slayer had pictured something more sleek and subtle. Portable. Efficient. Fits in a pocket. Which, okay, might just be describing a stake. But why mess with a perfect weapon? This giant, cumbersome walking stick is hideous and bossy. Adding the Creation gem made it lethal but has not helped its appearance. Honestly, if she weren’t already planning on ending every evil world the staff led her to, she’d have to unplug them from reality just so there’d be no witnesses to her holding such an ugly accessory.

She stole the Creation gem in hopes that it would be her direct ticket home. The first two vengeance demons she had interrogated in Demondale had used their glowing green amulets to teleport away from her before she could get any real information out of them. It was clear that the amulets were the source of their powers. Of the magic that had ruined the Slayer’s life. In the month since she was ejected from her own reality, she has relentlessly hunted vengeance demons. For information. For revenge.

Unfortunately, vengeance demons can be from any humanoid or demonic species, all different shapes and sizes, united only by their awful Wish magic. Taking one of the amulets for herself only gave the Slayer enough power to portal to and from Vengeance LLC. She went in armed, cut her way to the Creation gem, and wished to teleport home. But once she’d jumped into the portal, it had spat her back into Demondale. The gem doesn’t seem to be able to tell one Sunnydale from another.