“But either way, it confirms she’s here—in Burlington, Vermont,” Gina said with the slightest tremor. “Why, ah, why didn’t she attack Toni?”

Chris turned to Declan, who was frowning. The young witch shook his head. “She had to be so, so careful when Toni was in that chair. Any threat, any trace of her true nature would have triggered the necklace and she would have had to fight the full power of the guardian inside it. Whatever her purpose here—and the more I think about it, the more I think she has a specific purpose—well, getting into a fight with a God Tear-powered entity wasn’t it. No, I think it was to set a trap. Probably for me.”

“Why?” Gina asked. Chris opened his mouth to answer and she held up one hand, nodding at the witch, who was looking down at the tabletop. Slowly, he closed his mouth and waited, curious as to why she wanted Declan’s answer.

“The Summer Queen opened a portal to Earth for an agent of Hell. Why? And why didn’t a whole army of demons come through? She set a trap, a trap that seems aimed at me. Now she’s here, in Burlington. Why? Probably to drag me back to Fairie as a payment to Zinnia. Then Zinnia would have to give her some kind of payment, perhaps another gate. One to let Hell march through,” Declan said.

Chris felt a chill run down his spine. The Declan connection was always there, but he’d been thinking it more as Hell wanting to subvert the most powerful witch it could find. That the Summer Queen was involved hadn’t really entered his thinking.

“When did you come up with that?” Gina asked, focused on Declan.

“I’ve been thinking about it since coming back from Florida. And talking about it with Omega and Stacia. Now, today, with this slaughterhouse, well, it all just makes sense.”

“So what’s your play? Leave the area? Go into hiding while Chris hunts her down?”

“No, she’ll start hurting friends and family next. She’s around, probably watched me today on campus at some point. She’s hunting me, and now Chris is here to hunt her. So no, no hiding. We gotta think this through and not fall into predicable patterns. Break the box, come at this widdershins. Because that’s how she’s coming at me.”

Chris felt his jaw drop. Declan noticed his expression. “What?”

“That’s pretty much the only advice that Barbiel was able to give me. How did you come up with it?”

“I still know everything that was in the Book of Darkest Sorrow. Lots of demon lore. Girl demons are really tricky, aren’t they?”

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s exactly what Barbiel said.”

Chapter 7