Page 84 of The Troll’s Summer Flame

“Why are you here?” Hugo repeats. “Blanche, is it?” Hugo gives a nod to the creature beside him, who looks like she’s wearing my mother’s best handiwork. There are tusk gouges in her arm and shoulder, and bruises rapidly forming, turning red skin black in several places, visible in the glare of the headlights.

“I’m Blanche. And I... I want to stay. I mean, I didn’t intend to stay at first.” She hugs herself and her wings close behind her back, forming a half cape. “I’m not from the mortal realm, and I usually travel in the dreaming world. But... But this place is like a bright beacon in the dreamscape, an energy highway!” She looks between all of us with wide, glistening eyes. “I landed on the night of the big fire festival.”

“July 4th,” I mutter.

“I don’t know the human calendar well. I’ve seen holidays in dreams. Anyway, I didn’t mean to end up in the mortal realm, but between the energy beacon and then all the teeming human energy... I did. I found a sleeping figure by the small shed, intoxicated. I entered his dream and fed, and then realized the festival was ending. He had papers in his pocket, a leather case—”

“Wallet?” Andrea suggests, and Blanche nods.

“It had a paper that said his name and address, another paper that told me the type of vehicle he owned. I put him in it and returned to hide in the shed. But I saw so many people here. People and monsters, together, happy. I decided I would come back.”

My mother makes a sudden vicious grab at my ankle, and I swing the axe close enough to open her skin. “Stop.”

I don’t know what to do with her. I need time to figure it out.

But dawn is coming, and I realize that I don’t have to wait long for a decision to be made for me. I turn my attention back to Blanche. “Did you land in these woods? Did you invade my brother’s dream?”

“I did,” she confesses. “Again, I wanted to come back to the energy here. It’s the sweetest energy, and so enticing, but it doesn’t feed me. I’m a succubus. I need a certain type of energy, and...” She looks at Hugo with an uncomfortable smile, “I stumbled upon him, and when I entered his dream, we only spoke. Nothing else. Although, he did wake up when I crouching over him, and when I was startled I injured him in my haste to get up. But we spoke about this place. Why he longed to come here. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of Pine Ridge, not that I knew the human name for it. There was another of my kind, a long time ago—Liam?”

I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked. He literally is a handsome devil who is centuries old, and to hear him tell it, he’s been just about everywhere. “Liam Icarus?”

“You know him!” She actually jumps and claps her hands. “He left and never returned to our realm. Rumors always said he went ‘good’ and found a way to stay in the mortal realm without harming humans. I... I don’t like the realm I’m in. I had to try so hard to get back to this realm. I tried for hours—and suddenly I was through.”

“Does your transportation come with a burst of hellfire?” I ask drily.

“Yes, but I don’t have to transport between realms if I am allowed to remain in the mortal realm. I’ll learn to feed from the other kind of energy, the one that harms no one, only gives pleasure. Please don’t send me back.” Blanche shudders.

Andrea shudders, too. “Is it Hell? I can see why you’d want to move. And you have to be telling the truth about not hurting people. Right, Gordon? Aren’t the wards cast by the coven meant to work on demons with evil intentions? Good ones can get through because they don’t mean any harm.”

“Something like that.” Wards are imperfect—but then again, so are humans and monsters alike. Blanche tried to get to this realm in hopes of a better life. I can relate. Besides, she rescued Andrea. I owe her a chance for that alone.

“She can stay, at least for now, right?” Andrea pleads, shaking as she leans against me.

Blanche looks at Andrea with worried eyes. “Are you okay, little human?”

“I’m Andrea,” she laughs, and my brave, beautiful girl sticks out her hand and shakes Blanche’s bloody hand with its long claws. “If you stay here, you might want to get a manicure. There’s a place in town.”

“Yes, and the woman who runs it knows about supernatural beings. She is married to a kraken,” I add.

“All this disgusting fornication. Fucking your food.” Mother makes her presence known—as if we could ever forget her.

“Well... That’s kind of how succubi eat,” Blanche murmurs guiltily, stepping back.

Hugo pats her shoulder. “I appreciate you not eating me. Or doing the other thing.”

Blanche nods, a grimace on her face. “I’ve been in some very bad dreams. When I ‘work,’ I always ask. I would like to stay in this realm, where I can be sure my meals agree, and where I can be asked if I agree.”

Andrea makes a sound of pain and reaches out a hand to pat Blanche’s uninjured shoulder. “Oh, God.”

Blanche winces and rubs her arms. “You have no idea.”

“I don’t want an idea,” Hugo shudders.

“Weak! All of you!” Mother spits, snarling and trying to rise. All she does is roll from side to side like a flipped turtle.

To my shock, Andrea marches over and stands at my mother’s head. “Look, Mama Troll. It’s the height of summer, and we’re in the mountains. Dawn is coming fast. You are going to become garden gravel in about thirty minutes when the sun rises. You can either change your ways and get your big, sorry ass carried inside, or you can die like you lived, hating everyone who might help you. You have two of the best, kindest, sweetest, bravest sons. Sons to be proud of! Why would you throw that away to kill food when you can literally buy steaks at the store? Or catch fish and deer if you want the hunt?”

My mother stills. “Perhaps... Perhaps you are right, child. Come here, little human. Let me see who speaks so highly of my sons.”