Page 46 of Their Promise

“Kayden mentioned you had a book you were recording your knowledge on demons and depictions of them. Is that it?” I asked and pointed at the large leather book.

He nodded.

Looking at that book was my top priority, but I couldn’t let him know that.

“That map, what do the different colored pins mean?” I turned away from the book to look at the map, so he wouldn’t realize that was my goal.

“Red are singular portals. Purple are locations where multiple portals have opened,” he answered.

I walked closer to inspect it, noticing the purple pins were almost always around main cities. “You think it has something to do with population density?” I asked and turned to face him.

“That’s one of our current theories,” he said with a nod.

Moving to the stone table, I sat in the chair beside his, then reached for the leather book, but looked at him for approval first.

He nodded. “I gave you that key so you could have access and, my hope was, that you would start helping us.”

“You want me to help you how?” I asked as I greedily grabbed the book and pulled it towards me. I thumbed through the first few pages, but moved to the later part of the book where the drawings were. My eyes widened at the strange creatures they had drawn there; types I had never seen before.

“We’ve been going over our research for years with very little to show for it. No clue as to how or why the demons are coming more and more often. Perhaps, with a different set of eyes on it, you could see something we’ve been missing.” He leaned forward. “The idea to go through the portal was brought up once, but we quickly nixed it, as we didn’t want to risk being killed. However, Kayden mentioned your questions and suggestions and it definitely made me want to reconsider. How could we do it safely? How could we do some recon into the portal without us being injured?”

So, Kayden had told them, but it seemed he and Trey weren’t exactly on the same page. “A camera?” I asked.

He shook his head. “We tried that, but a creature stepped out of the portal with the camera we had tossed through in his hand and snapped it in our faces so we couldn’t get anything from it.”

“I bet Kayden was livid when that happened,” I said and chuckled as I imagined his reaction.

“Just a bit,” Trey said with a soft laugh.

“Have you tried grabbing a smaller creature and tossing it back through with a rope around it, then pulling it back again to see if it gets injured?” I asked.

He frowned. “No.”

“That would tell you with certainty if they get hurt going back and forth at least before we test putting a person from our side through.”

“That’s a good idea. It is just dependent on us getting a portal with smaller creatures. It’s about one out of every five.”

“Have you tried talking to them? Are any of them capable of communication?”

“Not that we’ve encountered so far,” he answered. “Though, to be fair, most of the time we attack them as soon as they come out, especially those big bull ones.”

“So, there are quite a few things we need to try,” I said with a nod as I resumed reading their notes. I pulled out my own notebook and compared theirs with what I’d found that I had thought was credible.

“What is that?” Trey asked, walking to stand behind me and looked over my shoulder.

“Notes I was making,” I said and flipped past a few pages I didn’t want him to read.

My phone rang in my bag. I pulled it out and scoffed at Luca’s name on the screen. “He just doesn’t know when to give up, does he?”

“Didn’t Branson take him back his gifts?” Trey asked as he took his seat again.

I nodded. “He must have just done it, which is most likely why Luca’s calling.” I hit ignore and hoped he didn’t leave a voicemail.

“So, any favorites on your dates so far?” Trey asked.

“A couple contenders so far,” I whispered in reply, trying to focus on the section written about hellhounds, which were by the far the most commonly encountered demons.

“Any princes?” he asked.

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