“So, spill it. Why’re you here? Ain’t you scared? Do you have any idea how many bad people roam these here parts?”

“Aren’t most of them followers of the Maze?”

“Damn, lady!” he said as he slapped the table. “Them’s the worst ones! Worst by a long shot!”

She bristled. “Aren’t you one, yourself?” She very pointedly looked at the horns sewn upon his head.

His eyes wandered up then rolled back down. “Those? Yeah, those. Let’s just say that weren’t one of my better decisions. Sleepin’ with these is a task, I tell ya. But I was young and drunk and there might’ve been a lady involved. She’s dead now and I still got these damn horns.”

“We can help each other,” she said. With the Flaring discipline, she threw all the compassion and reason and certainty into the words that she could. Her proposal from earlier would now seem like the most assured thing in the world to him.

“Yeah, yeah, I hear what you’re saying. I’m pickin’ up what you’re puttin’ down. Forget that whole ‘Hell, no’ thing I said. I’m in. For you.”

“We’ll need more of your friends,” she continued. “They all need to be pilgrims, just like you. But maybe a little more devoted. A lot more. But not too much. A fine balance, I know.”

“Okay. Alright. And you’ll keep all those promises you made when you first sat down? Every last one of ’em?”

“And more.” She whispered it, making him lean forward. “You get me what I want, and you’ll be able to move into the towers. And those horns can be removed by a professional.”

He liked that last one. Oh, you could see it in his eyes.

“Alright, then,” he said. “What’s this thing look like, anyway?”

“The Coffin?” she asked. “Here, let me tell you.”

She’d almost missed it. Almost.

“Here!” she yelled, frantic, needing someone else to see what she thought—hoped—she was seeing. It had only been a few seconds and already she worried that her eyes deceived her. “Over here! Hurry!”

Dominic was the first one to reach her. “Holy crap,” he whispered.

Miyoko was right behind him. Then Trish. The four of them had been grouped together in their continued hunt for Isaac and Sadina. Although there’d been several signs of human passage leading away from the house from which their friends had been abducted—fresh footprints, the remains of a campfire, human waste—Jackie and the others couldn’t know for sure who’d caused them.

Until now, she thought.