The walkway was awash with blood. It dripped off the concrete and into the dirt. Drops of red had splattered across white and yellow flower petals. A dark smear ran down the wall near the gaping door. The guys had charged in too quickly to bother closing it.

Just beyond the puddle of blood, Chester had been written in a red, shaky scrawl.

My chest constricted as I noticed a lump of flesh off to the side of the path, so mutilated it was unidentifiable.

“Oh God,” I said, tears prickling my eyes and panic clawing at my mind. “Oh God, Da—”

“She’s good.” Thane appeared in the doorway and gave us a thumbs-up. “She’s good. They’re both good. They didn’t even know this had happened. They’ve been inside the whole time.”

“We got a pig, people,” Bria said, kneeling by the lump of flesh. “This poor porker lost his life for a hate crime. Ain’t that some bullshit.”

“I’ll check the cameras.” Henry jogged toward the house, stomping on a couple of flowers to avoid the walkway. Amber followed, taking more care to leave the plant life intact.

Red looked down on the dead thing. “Is it fresh? We have a barbecue out back. Might as well cook it.”

“Yeah, good call.” Bria stood and looked over the blood-scrawled word. “Think this is a threat, or a prank?”

Kieran took my hand as I veered around the mess toward the house, wanting to check on Daisy. “We’d have to have some sick friends for this to be a prank,” he said. “Thane, call headquarters and get someone to clean this up.”

Jerry pointed at Bria. “Maybe her kind did it. They have a thing for corpses.”

“Nah.” Bria followed us into the house. “My kind would carve ‘Chester’ into the side of the animal, stuff a spirit in its carcass, and make it dance on the front porch. Which is exactly what I’d do to the assholes who did this if that pig was in anyway useable. It’s too chewed up, though.”

“Sorry I mentioned it,” Jerry grumbled.

“I figured you would be.”

Inside, the house was as we’d left it, calm and quiet.

“They got as far as the door, but didn’t cross the threshold,” Red said.

“Crossing the threshold would have been a territory violation, and I could have dealt with them myself,” Kieran growled. “Which they would’ve known.”

“We need to keep that little gremlin with us at all times,” Red said. “This was a threat, and if they get a chance, they’ll follow it up with steel.”

16

Daisy

Daisy sat in the wood chair overlooking the crystalline ocean, the white sands of the public beach not three feet from her chair. Mordecai waited beside her, not wanting to leave her by herself. Who knew what could sneak along the beach and snatch her from the edges of Kieran’s territory?

Daisy was only out here because she was curious.

“We shouldn’t be out here without one of the crew,” Mordecai mumbled, only the third time he’d said it since she’d snuck out of the house.

“The lodge is just a hop, step, and skip away, Mordecai, we’ll be fine. No one is going to get us.”

“Except maybe whoever left the dead pig for you earlier.”

“Oh my God, are you serious? Did you hit your head and lose a few brain cells?” She scowled at him. “Those people came by when Kieran and Lexi were away. They very clearly did not want to get caught sneaking around a Demigod’s territory. No way are they going to come by when the whole crew is here, are you mad? Think!”

He huffed and looked away down the beach. He knew she was right; he was just worried. That was his problem—he worried too much. It would make him gray before his time.

The people that had left her the unimaginative pig’s blood love note had been smart enough to hide their identities from the cameras mounted on the front porch by wearing nondescript hooded brown robes. But they hadn’t been smart enough to hide their shoes or take off their jewelry. One had a distinctive silver ring, another wore runners, and the rest of the group had on boots in various colors and styles. Any of those characteristics wouldn’t stand out much on its own, but she’d be looking for a group of people.

Lexi better not keep Daisy from going after them. She knew Zorn would be down to help her.

“You’re not going like that, right?” Mordecai pointed at her hoody. He was trying to light a fire under her butt.

They were going to Magnus’s house in a bit, the invite delivered soon after Lexi and Kieran had returned from the hearing for the mark.

“No, I am not going like this. I have to change into a dress that cost over two grand.” She couldn’t help laughing at that. “Did you ever think, in a million years, we’d have the money to buy such pricey clothes?”

“It’s a waste. Fabric doesn’t cost that much. Neither does honest labor.”

“True. But it does have a label, and the people here notice those kinds of things.”

“They’re idiots for not noticing what a waste it is. Think of how many people you could feed with that money.”

Mordecai might play nice, but so many parts of this world disgusted him. He wasn’t overly enthused about hobnobbing with important people.