Page 35 of The Devil's Trials

I arch a brow at him. “Yeah?”

“Well, Halloween means ‘haunted house.’ What’s better than feeding on one human? How about a building full of them?”

Huh. This might actually be a halfway decent idea.

“It’s a fucking demon buffet,” he adds with a satisfied grin.

Offering a short laugh, I say, “Nicely done.”

We get out of the car and join the crowd heading toward the barn. It’s a tall, wide building with a cornfield on one side and an apple orchard on the other. There are lights strung through the trees and ominous music plays from a loudspeaker. The air is crisp, and I get a whiff of apple cider and popcorn as we pass a concession stand. Overhead, the moon shines bright in the dark sky, casting the property in eerie light. It works in the attraction’s favor, if the distant sound of screaming is any indication.

Blake and I join the line, and he hums the tune of a classic Halloween favorite under his breath as we get closer to the entrance of the barn, where a machine is creating a thick curtain of fog between the waiting patrons and what lies ahead.

Heartbeats pound in front of and behind us, and I practically salivate at the sound. Though in tandem with the anticipation is a thin veil of nerves. The thought of failing my impending trial twists my gut into knots. It has me reaching into myself and shutting down the part of me that remembers what it’s like to feel those all too human emotions. As my pulse levels, my focus homes in on the reason we’re here.

A couple of guys wearing jackets marked STAFF wave us forward. I peg them to be high school age based on their scrawniness and the blemishes spattered across their faces. Blake and I exchange a glance, and his eyes, already glimmering with excitement, darken with hunger.

We step through the fog, and it takes a second for my eyes to adjust to the dark. Wood floors and bits of hay crunch under my shoes, and I chuckle at the next round of screams that comes from ahead. The humans are drunk on adrenaline—likely some booze as well—and their fear isintoxicating. Even from a distance. I already know how energized I’ll be once I’ve fed. How much stronger. This is exactly what I needed. Leave it to Blake to figure that out before me.

Ominous music mixes with periodic crashes of prerecorded thunder, and Blake claps me on the back, shooting me a grin as his eyes go fully black. “I’ll catch you on the other side. Happy hunting, mate,” he says before disappearing in a blur of movement.

I continue through the entrance set up as a graveyard, the damp air filled with a musty, earthy smell from the dirt arranged to look like fresh graves. A system attached to the rafters above fills the barn with flashes of white light as I venture deeper.

The first room is a massacre scene. A masked man revs a bloody chainsaw, grinning maniacally at the bodies scattered around him. He steps closer as if he’s going to come at me, and I keep walking, pressing my lips into a smile as he follows me to the next scene, grumbling “What the hell?” under his breath.

Instead of wasting time walking through the different horror scenes, I close my eyes and listen for an erratic pulse and thundering heartbeat. I focus on the closest one and open my eyes, moving through the barn faster than any of the humans can track—the pitch darkness helps, though they couldn’t see me at this speed in the light, either.

When I spot my target, a growl of satisfaction rumbles in my chest. It’s a middle-aged woman, and it looks as if she’s here with a group of friends who left her behind. She seems frozen in place off to the side as she fights with the fear instilled by the hoax surrounding her. Even under a thick hoodie, I can see the uneven rise and fall of her chest as she gets close to hyperventilating.

I strike without hesitation, snaking an arm around her waist and pulling her behind an animatronic. Her scream is lost in those of theothers in the barn, her face draining of color when she spots the endless black in my eyes. Fear pours off her in waves that I drown myself in. Energy and power crackle through me at a near-dizzying speed. I feel stronger almost immediately, relishing in the terror reflected in the woman’s wide eyes. Tears fall down her cheeks as pathetic little whimpers escape her trembling lips. She sways on her feet, but I catch her before she can collapse.

“What…” She blinks, and more tears wet her face. “Why is this happening?” she cries, her brows drawn together. “This was supposed to be fun.”

“Your friends ditched you,” I mutter, keeping my arm around her waist. “How’s that supposed to be fun?”

She shifts away as she shakes her head, leaving us a few feet apart but still concealed by a stack of hay bales. “You’re not part of the attraction, are you?”

I cock my head to the side, my eyes flicking between hers. They appear clearer now. I’ve fed on her fear, which didn’t eliminate the emotion entirely, but it seems to have lessened it. “I am,” I lie smoothly, shoving my hands into my pockets. Keeping a low profile is still important with every hunter in the organization after me, so my prey needs to believe this encounter was part of what she paid for. “Clearly, I’m not very good.”

She backs away more, nodding slowly and chewing her bottom lip. When she turns without another word and hurries away, I don’t stop her. I got what I came for. It’s the first time I’ve fed on a human since I became a full demon. The act of feeding itself felt easier, effortless even. The energy racing through my bloodstream is incredible. My muscles feel stronger, my senses crisper, as if I’ve just awakened.

Is it the act of feeding without the guilt of a human soul?

If that’s the case, I should have destroyed my soul a long time ago.

Instead of overthinking it, I make my way through the rest of the barn and meet Blake at the exit. His eyes are alight with amusement and satisfaction.

“Come on,” he says. “Let’s grab some cotton candy and bask in the lingering fear of these pathetic little humans.”

As much as I don’t want to hang around here, there’s something to be said for absorbing multiple sources of fear at once without having to work for it, so I don’t argue.

We continue around the grounds, walking through a corn maze and past several photo ops Blake insists on stopping at.

“Too bad it isn’t Halloween year round,” Blake comments as we approach the section of the farm set up with different food trucks, and I nod my agreement. It certainly made hunting for prey easy.

Walking up to the first vendor without a line, my eyes narrow as I recognize the demon on the other side of the counter.

“Ah, shit,” Blake mutters, noticing Dominic the same moment I do.

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