He was overcome only by fear as, groaning, he pulled himself back upright and, cradling his broken arm, ran in a crouch to the kitchen. A sob whimpering from his lips, vision blurred with pain and fear, he kicked open the large oven door and crawled inside.

This was where Loris Loriston, proprietor of The Milky Udder, would ride out the night, all the while wondering whether his next breath would be his last.

Soraya

Moments earlier

On silent feet, Soraya followed a shadow through the night. The shadow stayed close to the side of the row of buildings, well clear of the tower rising into the night sky like a dark monolith.

Shim wouldn’t be happy that she’d broken out through the window to pursue him, but then again, he wasn’t her master. There were no Commander Guardians or Senior Guardians, only Guardians, which meant they were equals in this operation, and she’d be damned if she’d be left behind while he risked himself for the both of them.

She’d expected him to find a place to wait in the shadows, where he could reconnoiter the town square with a prime vantage point to observe any unusual activity stemming from The Naughty Minx. Instead, he’d apparently decided to take a more direct approach, marching right up to the front door and then tapping softly, so that the sound wouldn’t carry beyond the inside of the establishment.

Soraya fully expected the knock to go unanswered. If Seela and Sunny were sleeping, the sound wouldn’t be loud enough to wake them. And even if they weren’t, it was unlikely they were sitting within earshot, but then—

The door opened, a hand shot out, and Shim was dragged inside, the door closing behind him.

Soraya gasped and almost took off running right then and there. But just as she was about to launch herself from the shadows, a raucous sound erupted somewhere to her rear. It was a mixture of breaking glass and splintering wood and predatory snarling that made the small hairs on the back of her neck stand at attention and offer a salute.

She risked a peek out from the darkness, immediately spotting the massive creature silhouetted against the cloud-stitched sky. It was trying to get in a window, hence the devastation of glass and wood.

Wait, she thought. That’s not just any window. That’s our window.

Everything that came with a revelation of that magnitude spun through her mind as she watched the nightdemon bully its way inside the room, followed by the sound of heavy pounding. Why had it targeted their window of all the windows in Seer? Why on this particular night? And what would the monster do when it found the room empty?

The last question was answered almost immediately, the creature climbing back through the window, scattering shingles as its claws skittered across the roofing material. With a single, powerful bound, it leaped from the roof to the ground with a whump, making the two-story jump look as easy as a hop off a paving stone.