“They’re not my friends,” Amber said. “They’re my parents. And … well, and their friends. But Kelly’s right. We could have driven off and left you there.”

“You were trespassing on state property.”

Kelly nodded. “And we saved your ass on state property.”

“You owe us,” said Amber.

“I don’t owe you jack shit,” Lucy said. “If anything, you owe me. What, you thought those heads grew bullet holes by themselves?”

Amber frowned. “You were the one shooting at the Hounds?”

“No one else was gonna do it, and I figured you could use more than a running start.”

“Thank you. Jesus, thank you. You saved our lives.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t think you’d come straight back into town. If Novak finds you, he’ll shoot you on sight. Probably me as well. Why couldn’t you have just kept running?”

“Desolation Hill is the only place we’re safe,” said Amber, hugging herself to keep warm. “If you could convince Jesper to let us stay …”

“Not gonna happen,” said Lucy.

Her radio squawked and they froze. They listened to a garbled message that abruptly cut off.

“What was that?” Kelly asked.

“Reports of shots fired,” said Lucy. “You’re gonna have to get going. I’ll let you go this once, but, if I see you again, I’ve got to do my job.”

“Your job is to protect and serve,” said Kelly.

“Yeah,” Lucy said, “protect and serve my community, which is a pretty messed-up place, morally speaking.”

“We’ll go,” said Amber. “If Novak catches us, we won’t mention you. But what deal did you make? I know about Naberius, I know about Hell Night, I know what happens, but this isn’t that, is it? It’s something else.”

“We didn’t make a deal.”

“Then how did you get your power?”

“You really don’t have time for this.”

“Talk quickly.”

Lucy sighed. “After Naberius was imprisoned, and Mayor Jesper started thinking about what lay in store for him, he decided the best thing to do was to try and kill Astaroth. But he didn’t know how. He needed to experiment.”

Amber frowned. “He summoned another Demon, didn’t he?”

Lucy nodded. “A smaller one. A weaker one. He told you about the markings that keep Naberius in that cell? Those are the same markings he used to keep Ardat-Ko in a circle, down in his cellar, for over a year.”

“Ardat-Ko?”

“Also known as the Smiling Demon. Every day for the first eight months, Jesper would go down into that cellar and try to kill her. Every day he’d fail. He started sending us down, with strict instructions on what to do. We didn’t fare any better.”

“Wait,” said Amber, “how long ago was this?”

“Sixty years or so. I’m the first woman they had on the force. The only one, actually.”

“Wow,” said Kelly. “Sixty years. You look amazing.”

“Thanks.”