Why You Should Never Rescue Stray Demons Chapter 149

**KACIA**

In the morning, I spend a long time crafting the perfect prophecy. It has to tug him by the nose. It needs to give a place, timing and stakes, all without giving him anything real. I pace, scribble, cross things out, rewrite, and finally land on a finished fake prophecy.

*Where learning burned and shelves lie broken,*

*there waits a weapon laid in ash, by which a lord may be unmade.*

*From the first nightfall after the burning, while the ash still smoulders,*

*whoever first lays hand upon the weapon binds its turning to their will,*

*who comes second finds only dust.*

*Let the crown’s contender come swiftly to the ruins,*

*the balance goes to the hand that claims it first.*

I read it to Oz. He takes his time, then nods. 

“It points straight at the library.” He says. Good. That’s the point. I text Mikey to ask Angelo to contact Raylah for us. Actually, I text him the same message about fifteen times because I do not trust that my message with actually send. It’s all variations of ‘please have Angelo ping Raylah. urgent.’ Then, for good measure ‘cake bribes might be available.’ One of them will get through. If several do… Well, that’s his problem. While we wait to hear back, we head to the ruins. The ruins of the library look worse in daylight. My chest tightens. Then I set my jaw and get to work. We scout the ground carefully with a slow spiral, then grid. Oz walks a pace ahead, senses open, eyes sharp. We mark no-go patches with chalk where the floor sounds hollow or the ash sinks underfoot. Basically anywhere that looks especially unsafe. I pick the centre of the main hall, what used to be the reading tables, and sketch a rough circle with the heel of my boot. That’s where the decoy ‘weapon’ goes. Not too obvious, but obvious enough to draw his attention. I text Mikey again

Kacia: Library ruins. Need hands and tech person. Bring snacks. 

The plan comes together aloud as I sort gear. 

“Object in the middle, something box-ish he’ll assume is the ‘weapon.’ Ulric’s concoctions set up to go off when he messes with it. Speakers… Later, when Mikey gets here.”I mumble to myself. I point with a roll of duct tape. Oz hums approval and hands it to me. We build layers. The box gets a hinge that will survive one grab, two if he’s gentle (he won’t be). The sprays nestle in a foam cradle inside the lid with a simple pull-cord. His hand goes where everyone’s hand goes, bang, sprays, done. I test the lid three times and label nothing because I am not a fool. Safety first. Chaos second. Close third… Aesthetics. I text Mikey again.

Kacia: Bring batteries and your ‘I can make this work’ attitude. 

I have no idea if he is actually receiving these messages. I hope that he is. 

“Walk me through the plan?” Oz asks, holding a coil of wire steady while I twist.

“Decoy draws him to centre, touch triggers the sprays. He staggers, we start the sensory bombardment. While his focus shreds, one of us gets in a clean shot. Ideally, we knock him out, tie him up, and keep him that way until we can force him to give up his magic.” I pause and frown, then glance up. 

“I don’t know if fae have prisons.” I comment. 

“We’ll ask Tarish. After.” Oz says. 

“After.” I echo, and keep working. We stage the object, a scuffed wooden box big enough to feel important, light enough to move fast, and dress the ground around it with deliberate nothing. Ash, a few splinters of page, the suggestion of a footprint that isn’t. The ruined shelves turn into lanes and blind corners. I map them in my head until the space stops being ruin and starts being advantage. By the time my phone buzzes with Mikey’s ‘on my way, ten,’ the bones of the trap are set. Now we just have to set up all the chaotic booby traps to go after it. 

“Think he’ll bite?” Oz asks.

“Oh yes. He won’t be able to help himself.” I say, my voice colder than I meant for it to come out. 

We go to haul more stuff from the boot when a soft throat clearing draws my attention. I turn to see Taryn standing at the edge of her garden. 

“You’re not doing this alone. I don’t know what you’re doing. But you aren’t leaving us all out of it.” She says firmly. 

“You can’t even approach the library.” Oz points out and she glares at him. 

“Then we make your tree home base.” I say immediately, wanting to placate her. She seems to settle a little. 

“Works for me.” Mikey says from behind me, because apparently ten minutes means now. Or maybe it just took that long for me to get the message… He has not ever formally met Taryn. he stops, takes her in, and sticks out a hand 

“Mikey Kalico. Friend of the chaos that is Kacia.” He introduces himself. 

“Taryn, and likewise.” She says, and tips her head with a small, dry smile. In the end, we build two stations. Taryn’s garden for maps, antidotes, snacks, and keeping anything we don’t need right away. The ruins for actual chaos. Taryn insists that we contact all the others and let them help, but of course, phones are their usual joke. So we have no way to actually contact them. “We need backup.” Taryn insists crisply. Then she softens, just a little. 

“And we need to make sure you come home.” She adds. Mikey lifts a hand. 

“I’ll do the rounds. Clarence first, then Vidar. I’ll ping Tracey en route.” He holds my gaze. 

“Any objections?” He says, his gaze tells me that I’m not allowed to argue.

“None, thank you.” I say. He grabs the keys, and disappears to play courier and diplomat.

When he gets back, Mikey informs me that Clarence and Vidar will be by shortly and that Tracey sends his best and says he will drop by after nightfall assuming we are all still here. Then, Mikey gives me a quick tour of his boot. Apparently he decided to raid the supplies at work and find a few things we might find useful.  

“Training smoke. It’s non-irritant but ruins visibility. Big bloom.” He says, handing me a crate of fist-sized canisters with yellow bands. 

“Weighted capture nets, zip ties, high-vis cord, two collapsible cones, an old battered megaphone, extension leads, a battery inverter, and DO NOT CROSS tape that I decide is thematically hilarious. He basically just grabbed anything that he thought I might want. I can’t help but chuckle gleefully as I start to incorporate more things into my scheme. He then relays that Sarah has told him that Angelo reached out to Raylah and she is aware that we want to speak to her. Also that Angelo is baking bribe muffins and swearing at our life choices, and that she will keep him reachable and be available via phone. Two hours in, Vidar and Clarence arrive. Vidar is quiet and smoke-scarred but he looks a lot better. Not quite himself, he still seems kind of weak and shaky, but he’s in one piece at least. I notice how Taryn hovers near him, clearly wanting to help out, but not sure what to do. He directs us to set him to work. Clarence looks around and works out the general gist of the plan and starts doing his own thing. Sketching symbols in the ash of the library. I have no idea what most of them do but I trust Clarence to make it all work.