“There’s no sagging at all.”

“I can’t take all the credit,” Lucy said with a shrug. “A good fitted bra is essential. Anyway, Ardat-Ko. She didn’t get hungry. She didn’t get tired. She didn’t get angry. She just stood in that circle and smiled while we tried to kill her, over and over again.”

“So what happened?” asked Amber.

“She started talking to us,” said Lucy. “We had orders – do not engage her in conversation. But she knew things. She either read our minds or she read us … and one by one we began to talk back. She offered us great rewards if we released her. She wasn’t as powerful as Astaroth or any of the big guys, but she told us that if we let her out, she could make us strong, let us live for many lifetimes …”

“Did you let her out?”

“I was tempted. I was. So were the others. But Novak was unshakeable. So Ardat-Ko offered instant power, right there from within the circle. She persuaded us to trust her with a small knife, and she cut off the fingers on her left hand. Her thumb too. She told us to eat.

“I didn’t believe her. I thought she was trying to poison us. I knew that people who’d made deals could eat other demons to gain their strength, I’d heard about that – but we were ordinary. For all we knew, her blood alone would be like acid to us. But Ardat-Ko promised us that even ordinary people could absorb power by eating the flesh of a being like her. She was right. We felt stronger. Healthier.”

“So you released her?”

“No,” said Lucy, “we didn’t. Novak said he didn’t believe her. He said she’d just vanish the moment she was free. He wanted more power before he let her out. I don’t think she minded. I don’t think it hurt, what she did to herself. And anyway, once she was released, she’d just grow those limbs back.”

“How much did you eat?”

“Her arm,” said Lucy. “Her right leg. Half of her left. Every day she’d have a new portion ready for us. Every bite we took, we got stronger. We started to show signs of … well, of becoming demons ourselves, but we didn’t stop. We couldn’t. We got to her right thigh before she realised she wasn’t getting out of there.”

“And then you ate the rest of her.”

“We did. The most unsettling part was that she kept smiling the whole way through.”

“And Jesper knew about this?”

“Of course. The Chief tells him everything. Jesper loved the idea of having his own demon police force. We wouldn’t be able to keep the town safe otherwise.”

“You get a lot of demons through here, huh?” said Kelly.