“How many men does Victor have?” Felix muttered.

“You don’t want to know,” Deah replied.

“Too many for us to take on by ourselves,” Devon said. “Come on. Let’s go find the weapons and get out of here before Blake decides to start searching the forest.”

He held his hand out, indicating that I should lead the way. Oscar fluttered over and slid into my coat pocket next to Tiny, while the others fell in step behind me. I led my friends through the woods and over to the Sinclair Family cemetery.

“This is it?” Felix asked, peering into the darkness. “This is where you hid the weapons?”

“Yep.”

I headed over to the blood persimmon tree at the back of the cemetery, took hold of the trunk, and started climbing up it.

“I should have known,” Felix muttered. “You like to climb more than a tree troll does.”

I grinned and kept on going. It took me less than a minute to reach the crook where I’d hidden the two duffel bags last night. I used one of the throwing stars attached to my belt to slice through the ropes that anchored the two bags to the tree. Then I grabbed the bags and tossed them down to the ground, wincing at all the clank-clanks the weapons made, but it couldn’t be helped and speed was the most important thing right now. Devon scooped up one bag, while Felix snagged the other. I shimmied down the tree and took the lead again.

We hiked through the woods, making sure to stay deep in the trees and well away from the mansion, where Blake and the Draconis were still searching for survivors. But they didn’t spot us, and we made it back down to the scenic overlook with no problem. No one had bothered our SUV, so we loaded the weapons into the back and got inside the vehicle.

Devon cranked the engine, but he didn’t make a move to actually put the vehicle in gear and drive down the mountain.

“What’s wrong?” Oscar asked.

The pixie was still nestled in my coat pocket, along with Tiny. From the faint rumbles that vibrated against my chest, it sounded as if the tortoise had actually gone to sleep. Well, I was glad that somebody was getting some rest.

“I . . . I don’t know where to go,” Devon admitted, his forehead creasing with worry. “We can’t stay at the mansion, and we can’t just get a hotel room down on the Midway. Victor probably has people watching all the hotels, even the cheap ones on the outskirts of town. One of the Draconis is sure to spot us the second we show our faces anywhere in town.”

He scrubbed his hands over his face again, the same way he’d done at the lochness bridge. Felix had a stricken expression on his face as well, while Deah chewed her lower lip in worry.

“I know where to go,” I said.

Devon looked over at me. “Where?”

“Someplace safe,” I said. “Someplace that Blake wouldn’t be caught dead in, and someplace that Victor and the other Draconis will never even think to look for us.”

Thirty minutes later, we were back down in Cloudburst Falls, sitting in the SUV, which I’d told Devon to park behind a dumpster in an alley that was only a couple of streets over from the lochness bridge.

“Are you sure we should park here?” Devon asked, peering out the windshield at the other dumpsters and trash cans that lined the alley walls. “This is awfully close to the warehouses that the Draconis own in this part of town.”

I shrugged. “We’ve done our best to hide the SUV. If they find the car, then they find it. But they won’t find us, no matter how hard they look. Not where we’re going. Now come on.”

Devon still looked doubtful. So did Felix, Deah, and even Oscar, still riding in my coat pocket, but my friends trusted me enough to get out of the vehicle. Devon and Felix each grabbed one of the bags of black blades, and we left the alley.

It was after midnight now and the streets were dark and deserted. Then again, we weren’t in the nice, tourist part of town anymore. Far from it. Instead of the busy restaurants, food carts, and souvenir shops of the Midway, row houses, deserted storefronts, and abandoned warehouses stretched out as far as even I could see. Streetlamps were spaced down the block, but most of them only flickered with weak light, if they worked at all. The street itself was full of potholes, the sidewalks were cracked, and bags of trash were heaped at the corners. The sharp, pungent scents of greasy burgers, sticky soda, and other rancid food made my nose twitch with disgust, as did the black swarms of flies, mosquitoes, and other bugs buzzing around the bags.

We were the only people out on the street, but we were far from alone, given all the monsters prowling around.

They slithered right up to the ends of the alleys as we hurried past, peering at us with their jewel-colored eyes, debating whether or not we would make a good meal. Devon, Felix, and Deah pressed together in a tight knot in the middle of the sidewalk, their knuckles whitening around their swords as they picked up their pace, but I stared right back at the creatures that were watching us, even though it was so dark that all I could really see of them were their glowing eyes.

Monsters are your friends. Never forget that. Seleste’s voice whispered in my mind.

I wondered what she’d glimpsed of the future that had made her say those exact words to me. Had she been trying to tell me that the lochness would save us from Blake tonight? Or was there more to her message? Some hidden meaning that I wasn’t understanding? Or were her words as simple as they seemed? That I paid the tolls and that the monsters respected me for it. I didn’t know, but I wasn’t afraid of the monsters anymore, not even the ones watching us right now.

Oh, the monsters could still spring out of the shadows, attack, kill, and devour me and my friends. I wasn’t so foolish as to think they would suddenly become tame and lovable and let me pet their furry and scaly heads like they were cute, wiggly puppies just because I gave them a few quarters and some candy bars. They were still monsters, after all. They had all those sharp teeth, talons, and claws for a reason, and they had to eat just like the rest of us did. But I wasn’t afraid of them anymore.

Seeing them . . . it almost felt like . . . home.

Ever since I’d started working for the Sinclairs earlier this summer, I’d been counting down the days until Victor was defeated and I could finally leave town and all the ugly memories here behind. But now, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to go. The mountains, the monsters, the magic, even the bad memories . . . it was all part of Cloudburst Falls.