Shadows
As Adam stood in the middle of the forest, most likely about to die in some awful way, he resolved that it was all Gansey's fault. Well, Gansey's and that damn book. The two of them were an awful combination. If he got out of this alive, Adam resolved to have it burnt.
In the distance, something made an inhuman noise. Adam began to run again.
/
The whole incident had begun a week ago, with one of Gansey's 'Eureka' moments. This was not an unusual occurrence, particularly because of his friend's superior research skills and general knack for finding things. Adam often ignored these moments, but this time, he sorely wished he'd paid more attention.
"This is it," Gansey had exclaimed. There was a strange, excited light in his eyes.
The two of them had been sitting in a diner in a town that was really no more than that, an oddly convenient bed and breakfast, along with a small Anglican church with peeling paint. Gansey, naturally, had covered the table in paper, some of it ancient and others printouts from various news websites.
Adam had been a lot more focused on the pie, which, in his defence, was actually the nicest he'd had in several months.
"What is it this time?" Adam asked. There had been one of these moments two weeks ago that had resulted in the acquisition of several carefully warded cursed set of antique vases which were currently hidden in a self-storage locker in North Carolina.
"Something important," Gansey had replied. Adam now recalled the excited expression on his face and suddenly wanted to punch it. He'd never have been in this mess if it wasn't for Gansey.
"About what?" Adam had asked. His friend had a number of pet projects and side projects and all kinds of nonsensical research going on, thus it was often hard to keep track of everything. It was like he was determined to research everything in hopes of finding a particular something. No matter how many supernatural mysteries they'd uncovered or things they, or more accurately, Adam, had killed (Gansey was never one for violence. He liked research too much to bother), there seemed to be something else Gansey was waiting to uncover in the midst of all of this.
"Demons," Gansey said gravely.
"Shit," Adam swore reflexively, earning a glare from the waitress. "Will we need to call someone else in too?"
"We might," Gansey had said carefully, "have to call Ronan."
"Can't we just get Blue to come in?" Adam asked, feeling a spike of anxiety like a hot iron in his gut.
"We'll need them both," Gansey said. "Ronan's good with this stuff and Blue can get Noah along too and maybe have a new perspective."
"What if Ronan's with Kavinsky again?" Adam asked.
"He'll come," Gansey replied and looked back down at a book he'd pulled out of somewhere in the piles of paper. It was an old leather-bound thing Gansey picked up from god knows where and knowing him, Adam figured Gansey must have paid a fortune for it. Before too long, he was lost in the pages again.
"I'll get on it, then" Adam said with a sigh when he realised the job of contacting both Blue and Ronan would fall to him. He didn't mind the idea of seeing Blue, but Adam wasn't sure he'd ever want to see Ronan Lynch again. Their last encounter hadn't been pleasant, or it had been until Adam had done what he did best and ruined everything. But Gansey didn't know that. He was never going to know that.
However, he knew how important this endeavour was, even if he hadn't paid attention to the details. A job was a job, no matter where it came from. Besides, it had always been their rule to prioritise anything to do with demons.
To start off, he'd called Blue who picked up on the first ring and cheerfully informed them she'd meet them there in a few hours.
Calling Ronan, however, had been an entirely more complex matter. Mostly because Adam wasn't sure he had the guts to call. In the end, he pushed the call button with a sigh and hoped that Ronan might be somewhere without a phone signal.
"Hello," Ronan said when he'd picked up.
"Gansey's found something," Adam said, the words coming out in a rush. He just wanted to get this conversation over with. He rattled off the directions as best as he could and tried to ignore the memories of the last time they'd spoken.
There was a short pause. Adam's heart hammered in his chest.
"I'll be there soon," Ronan said simply and hung up with a click.
Adam didn't know if he felt relieved or disappointed.
/
When Ronan Lynch arrived, Adam had tried his best not to watch him, but failed miserably. He also noticed the waitress was eyeing him off, but probably because she'd probably never seen someone who looked like Ronan before.
If not for the fact that he'd witnessed him killing a demon, Adam Parrish would've thought that Ronan Lynch was the Devil Himself. He had that sharp-faced look that Adam had always though Lucifer would have; an almost too-painful kind of beauty. The kind you could cut yourself on.
The first time they'd met had been that demon-killing incident. One that had left Adam covered in some strange kind of blood-like substance and a killer headache. Though he'd initially been pissed off, the two of them had eventually become friends, a fact that Adam couldn't exactly fathom the reason for.
That was three years ago and Adam would've been perfectly alright with that arrangement, but then three weeks ago, something changed again.
He still wasn't sure what to make of it.
"So, Adam, do you think we can do it?" Gansey asked, jolting Adam out of his confusing spiral of thoughts.
"What?" Adam said, looking up from his plate, where he'd ground the piecrust into mush with the remainder of his ice cream.
"I was asking if you think we can handle this place," Gansey said.
Adam nodded, but realised he'd missed something critical here, but he didn't think much of it at the time. He was too distracted by Ronan's presence.
It was a small something he would regret later on.
"So, where are we going?" Blue Sargent said as she strolled in, still somehow managing to look tall despite her barely-five-foot-tall self.
Adam noticed how Gansey's eyes lit up when he saw her. He wondered if his friend realised how blindingly obvious he was being. Adam also pretended not to notice the similar way Blue lit up when she saw him. Even a month ago, Adam would've been so jealous at that shared look he probably would've punched a wall, but now, after everything, he wasn't sure what his emotions were doing.
"A place with demons," Gansey replied. "In Virginia."
"Ah," Blue replied with a nod. "House or ritual site?"
Gansey shrugged. "I think it might be the entire town."
Adam looked over to the waitress, who suddenly seemed very interested in their conversation and had moved closer to them, hesitating a few feet away with a cleaning cloth in one hand and a coffee pot in the other. He motioned for the group to be quiet and move on. There was nothing worse than nosey people.
Gansey rolled his eyes at Adam's paranoia, but left anyway, with the rest of the group following him out of the diner.
"You don't need to do that," Gansey said once they were outside. Three cars were outside – Gansey's offensively orange '73 Camaro, Blue's rusty but surprisingly sturdy Ford and Ronan's too-shiny BMW. It was a strange collection of cars, all of them looking too out of place like this, much like the drivers themselves.
"She'd probably have kicked us out anyway," Adam said. "Didn't you notice the church?"
Gansey just shook his head, but didn't say any more on the matter. They two of them had often had conversations like this.
"Is there anywhere to stay here?" Blue asked. "Or am I going to sleep in my car again?"
"There's a rental place over there," Gansey replied and pointed somewhere down the road.
"If there's only one bed, I'm fucking calling it," Ronan announced. Adam noticed he'd pulled a knife from somewhere and was spinning it in his hands.
"Not if I get there first," Blue called back. "I haven't slept in a real bed in weeks."
Ronan smiled viciously at Blue. "You can try, maggot."
/
Thankfully, the bed and breakfast had two beds, which saved a bloodbath between Ronan and Blue. There was also a couch, which Adam took. Gansey, the perpetual insomniac, didn't bother getting involved in the bed discussion and instead carried his piles of paper to the main room and put them on the table.
"Should I get Noah?" Blue asked once they'd all settled in.
"If he'll come," Gansey said.
"I think he will," Blue replied and closed her eyes. She began to whisper something so softly Adam couldn't hear it.
Eventually, the faint outline of a boy appeared beside Blue and filled out to reveal Noah, in all his scruffy glory. He looked the same as he always had, in a rumpled uniform with a raven on the breast of his jumper and a tie that seemed to be perpetually coming undone.
"Hey," Noah said and patted the spikey tufts of Blue's hair fondly. Even though he'd fully manifested, Noah still had a smudgy outline, making him look scruffier than he already was. Of course, not everyone noticed this, as most people couldn't exactly see Noah.
"And Casper arrives," Ronan said. Noah flipped him off, though the gesture was about as threatening as a kitten hissing.
"What's up?" Noah asked, looking at Blue expectantly.
"There's a demon problem in Virginia," she replied.
Noah nodded thoughtfully.
"Where is this demon problem, then?" Blue asked.
"Henrietta, I think it's called," Gansey said and shuffled through a pile of papers to confirm the name.
"Oh," Blue said, "I grew up there."
There was a moment of silence in the room as they took in this new information. Adam had known Blue for a few years now, but he'd never asked about where she'd grown up. He'd simply assumed someone like Blue was above having something as ordinary as a hometown. She often seemed to drift from place to place, sometimes dropping of the radar for months at a time (periods in which Gansey seemed a lot less happier than normal) when she took on whatever odd jobs she could find, supernatural-related or not.
"Well," Gansey said, breaking the silence, "do you know what might've caused it?"
"No idea," she replied. "Henrietta isn't exactly a place where much happened."
This then began a whole new discussion, one that mainly involved Gansey asking questions at Blue and her giving answers that set off another round of rapid-fire questions from Gansey.
Adam tuned out and his eyes flickered over to Ronan, who looked completely bored. Adam felt his stomach twist strangely. He wasn't sure what to make of that emotion, especially in relation to Ronan Lynch.
Then suddenly Ronan looked at Adam too. Their gazes locked. Adam felt a hot flush creep up his neck at being caught staring.
"So, Adam, do you think it could work?" Gansey said, cutting right through the moment.
"What?" Adam asked and jerked his gaze away from Ronan, feeling oddly embarrassed.
"There are ley lines around the area. I was thinking we might be able to use that against them," Gansey said, a note of exasperation in his voice at Adam's inattentiveness. "The book I've been reading indicates it might be a possibility."
"Oh," Adam replied, trying to recall what he knew about ley lines. "It could work."
"It could also blow that place off the map," Ronan pointed out.
"You don't know that," Gansey said.
"I know trying to mess with that shit is a bad idea," Ronan said, a strange edge to his voice.
Adam wondered if this piece of information had anything to do with Joseph Kavinsky, who in Adam's opinion was the third worst human being he'd ever met. The thing about Kavinsky was that he was horribly unstable; the kind of reckless that probably should've gotten him killed several times over. He'd constantly take risks on hunts, all whilst riding the high of his substance of the month.
Adam wasn't sure why Ronan had ever associated with him.
"It can't hurt to try," Gansey said. "We'll back off if it gets too risky."
Ronan just shook his head, but didn't protest any further. Gansey seemed to take the silence as an acceptance of his plan.
"Right, now the next logical step is to go in there and observe," Gansey said and turned to face both Adam and Ronan.
"Can't you and Blue go first?" Adam asked.
"You're better at this kind of thing. And Ronan's better with demons," Gansey replied, "Unless there's another problem?"
"No," Adam replied, hoping his response wasn't said too quickly. Ronan just watched him, his face giving nothing away.
"Well then," Gansey said. "That settles it."
/
The drive to Henrietta, trapped in Ronan's car, was perhaps one of the most awkward rides of Adam's life. They were silent for most of the way, talking only when absolutely necessary and the radio filling in the spaces generally reserved for conversation.
Adam tried to spend most of the time looking out the window but more often than not, he found his gaze slipping over towards Ronan. He wondered again what exactly had made Gansey pick Ronan of all people to associate with.
Ronan was not exactly pleasant at the best of times, though Gansey had often insisted otherwise, telling Adam that Ronan had once been entirely more preferable to the sharp-tongued person he was now. Apparently that had come after the death of Ronan's father, Niall Lynch. Though Adam hadn't known Ronan as long as Gansey had, it had come as quite a shock when his mild friend had turned out to have a friend like Ronan. It all seemed very contradictory to the person Gansey was.
After what felt like far too long on the road, a sign for Henrietta appeared and Adam sighed in relief. Ronan glanced over at him, but otherwise said nothing. Adam felt strangely guilty.
The town itself seemed pretty enough, no different to any Adam had seen before, though he knew all too well that looks can be deceiving. Any number of dark things could be lurking around. The thought made him tense and he spent the rest of the drive glancing around, looking for any sign of the supposed demon infestation.
Instead, everything looks so perfectly ordinary, like Henrietta could be any of the other hundreds of small towns he's passed by. Or even like the one he grew up in, where there was nothing but dust and bigoted locals. He wonders if this place had changed much since Blue left or if it's exactly the same place as it's always been.
Suddenly, a woman with a mass of long, blond hair catches his eye. She's sitting on the porch of a blue house, her eyes fixed on them. He wonders if she's just a curious local, or maybe something else. There's something about the way she's watching Ronan's car go past that sets Adam on edge.
Once they're beyond past the woman, Adam relaxed slightly, but he still feels a presence somewhere, as if they're being watched.
"This place is fucking strange," Ronan said suddenly, making Adam nearly jump out of his skin.
"Just like you, Lynch," Adam shot back, trying to mask his surprise at being spoken to on a purely conversational level.
Ronan shot back a glare, looking over the top of his sunglasses. Adam wasn't sure what that meant and Ronan was never going to say, so they went back to silence.
Of course, that brief moment of conversation only made the fact of their quiet even more obvious, like someone pointing out an unnoticed wound.
Eventually, they arrived at the place Gansey had arranged for them to stay. Henrietta, being a small and somewhat beautiful town, had an obligatory number of bed and breakfasts. Many of which had typically homey names like 'Coldwater Cottage' and 'Harmony Inn'. They'd passed at least five on their way into town.
When they pulled up to the place Gansey had specified, Adam saw Ronan's expression turn from his standard scowl to that of distaste. The place itself didn't look too bad to Adam. It was everything such a place should be, a nice house with a garden with roses and a tall beech tree.
It looked nice and completely Gansey, exactly the opposite of Ronan Lynch.
"We're not fucking staying here," Ronan said.
"We've already paid," Adam said.
"Fuck that," Ronan said and prepared to drive away. Adam reached out and placed a hand over Ronan's.
"We're already here, Ronan," he said calmly, hoping not to aggravate Ronan further. "We might as well get used to it."
Ronan watched Adam's hand as if it was a dangerous object.
"Come on, Lynch," he said and removed his hand, getting out of the car. "There's work to do."
/
"Fuck," Ronan swore, the fifth time in several minutes. He'd hit his head on the low hanging beams in the house. Being shorter than Ronan, that didn't pose as much of a problem to Adam.
"Just duck, for fucks' sake," Adam muttered and turned a page in one of Gansey's books on demons, not really reading. It seemed Ronan was going out of his way to highlight the smallest of flaws in this house in an attempt to find an excuse to get out.
Ronan swore a few more times them collapsed forcefully onto the couch, jostling the pile of books Adam had carefully placed beside himself. Several fell to the floor.
It wasn't the first time he and Ronan had been living in the same space. For a while they'd been cramped up in a tiny apartment in San Diego that barely seemed to be more than a glorified closest thanks to a particular job that required them to hunt a ghost in the complex.
But this was the first time Adam had been living in the same space as Ronan after the incident, as Adam had taken to calling it in place of a proper name. Being in such close proximity stirred up memories he'd rather not think about – Ronan being barely a breath away, the moment just before they'd –
Adam's grip tightened on the book. Don't think about it don't think about it. The words echoed in his head like a broken record, over and over and over, but it didn't work.
He remembered it all too clearly.
/
Three weeks ago…
Adam fell to the floor with a crash. His head snapped back as he hit the floor and he narrowly avoided biting his tongue off. Adam felt his knife fall out of his hand and skitter away somewhere out of reach.
"Parrish!" Ronan called out, near enough to see, but too far away to do anything about it.
"I'm fine," Adam called back. His head hurt, but it wasn't the worse injury he'd ever received.
But then the demon was on top of him, a snarling beast that looked something like a shadow in a barely human shape. Its mouth opened wide and sharp teeth snapped at him, aiming for the throat.
Adam barely held it back, using every last bit of his strength to keep it at arm's length. He felt a wave of revulsion as he looked at it, a demon in its purest form, nothing more than a shadowy creature made entirely of darkness. It tried again to press closer, but Adam used this moment to try and shove it back, to get it off balance. His plan worked for a moment, but then the thing darted in close, going for his throat.
He was so sure this was going to be the end of it, Adam Parrish killed in the heat of battle with a demon. He wondered if this meant he'd end up in hell. But before he could find out exactly where his soul was destined to end up, the demon vanished in an explosion of shadow and dark blood. It was painful to watch.
Above him, Ronan was standing there, his face and body splattered with the demonic blood, a knife held tightly in his grip. Adam blinked stared up at Ronan dumbly for a second before reality hit. He saved my life, Adam thought, his heartbeat thundering in his chest. This wasn't their usual pattern. Normally, it was Ronan doing the reckless thing and Adam having to devise some creative away to get Ronan out alive.
"You," Ronan said, breathing heavily, "need to fucking hold onto your weapon, Parrish."
"I'll remember that next time," he said and tried to stand up. Ronan held out his hand and Adam took it, letting himself be pulled up. Ronan's face was suddenly extremely close and Adam could see every detail, things he'd never noticed before, despite having known this person in front of him for years.
Then, suddenly, Ronan kissed him. For a split second, Adam wasn't sure what to do, but then he remembered that kissing was supposed to be a two-person thing and he responded, hands still but lips moving enthusiastically. Ronan's hands fisted in his shirt and pulled Adam closer.
Then, like a rubber band, reality snapped back and he remembered who was kissing him. Adam pulled back so fast he nearly fell over. He dares to glance over at Ronan's face. His friend's face looks hard and Adam suddenly realises how open Ronan's face was in the moment before the kiss.
"I – We should –" Adam stutters and turns away, embarrassment making him flush. What was that? He asks himself, mind spinning. Was there supposed to be a clue? Sometime to hint that was coming?
He doesn't have any answers.
/
"Hey, Parrish," Ronan said and Adam is torn away from his thoughts.
"What?" he asked.
"You were staring. I wondered if you were having a seizure."
"I'm not epileptic."
Ronan just shrugged. "It can happen. Come on, we're going out, Parrish."
"Out?" Adam echoed. He felt like he should make an excuse, to separate himself from Ronan's presence for a while and attempt to sort out his feelings. But this was a hunt, and there was no time to have an emotional crisis. He needed to focus, even if this whole situation was messing with his head.
"Gansey said investigate," Ronan replied. "And I'm not spending all fucking night in here."
"Alright then," Adam said. "Let's go."
The walk outside into the early evening, twilight fading and slowly giving way to darkness. Soon, they'd be able to see the stars. Adam wondered how clear the sky would be around here.
Ronan opened the door to his BMW and got in, and slammed the door shut. Adam followed behind and climbed into the passenger seat, carefully shutting the door.
They didn't say anything as they drove, circling the town for any signs of suspicious activity. Adam got the EMF detector from his pocket. The lights on it flashed brightly and it beeped shrilly, only to suddenly stop before picking up again a few minutes later.
"Hey, drive slower," Adam said. These weren't normal readings, even supernatural normal. If there was something there, the lights stayed constant and it beeped rapidly. This was more like it was blinking in and out, like there was something here and then suddenly not.
"I'm not going slower," Ronan said.
"I'm not getting a good reading," Adam said.
"Sure you are. It's just telling you something is fucked up here."
Adam paused to consider this. Demons normally were a constant spike on the EMF detector, a sharp flash of lights and beeping. "If this is real, then it means they're everywhere."
Ronan swore in a colourful string of curses that Adam hadn't heard before.
"We need to call Gansey," Adam said.
"No shit," Ronan replied and tossed Adam his phone. Adam didn't own one himself, though Gansey had offered to buy him one numerous times. It was a point of pride – if Adam Parrish was going to have something, it would be with his own money, or not at all.
"Ronan?" Gansey said when he picked up.
"Adam."
"Oh, how's it going?"
"We're here."
"And?"'
"We've found something," Adam said.
"What is it?" Gansey replied, an excited note in his voice.
Adam explained the EMF detector, talking about the strange energy fluctuations. The way it flashed in and out of existence.
"We'll be there as soon as I can," Gansey said once Adam had finished. "Was there anything else?"
"Well, there was a strange woman we saw on the way here."
Gansey seemed to brighten. "Ghost?"
"I don't think so," Adam said. "But she was watching us pretty carefully."
Adam heard Blue's muffled voice in the background as Gansey relayed this information.
"What did she look like?"
Adam thought back to the moment, trying to recall some precise detail about the woman. "She had long blond hair," he finally said, "and dark eyes."
There was another muffled exchange between Blue and Gansey.
"Blue said it might be Persephone."
"The goddess?" he asked.
"No, just her mother's friend," Gansey explained, "another psychic."
Adam recalled Blue mentioning something about being from a family of psychics, mostly because Blue had often told them, sadly, she wasn't a psychic. In fact, her lack of psychic talents were legendary, as well as her strange ability to amplify other people's gifts.
"She must have known we were coming," he said. The possibility did make sense, though Adam didn't feel exactly at ease about it. Sure, he'd known enough psychics in his time and had many help him out, but this didn't feel exactly right.
"Maybe," Gansey replied.
"I don't like this," Adam said.
"Well, you're just going to have to deal with it."
Adam didn't think they were talking about Persephone anymore. He glanced over at Ronan, somehow expecting him to be watching Adam talk to Gansey. Instead, Ronan was still driving around, circling the roads.
Adam tried not to let himself feel disappointed, but the feeling was there anyway, a strange intruder in his mind.
He wanted it gone, but the emotions refused to fade.
"How long are you going to be?" Adam asked.
"We'll come down tomorrow," Gansey replied and Adam released a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding.
"Okay," he said. "I'll tell Ronan."
With a cheerful see-you-soon, Gansey hung up, presumable to go ogle at Blue more.
Adam shook his head. When they'd first met, Adam would never have believed Blue would be interested in someone like Gansey, or that Gansey would pay attention to her at all. They'd met two years back, in a town Adam couldn't quite remember the name of. Blue was a waitress and Adam had been staring, but he didn't speak to her, not then. Gansey had tried to get her to, but he'd inexplicably managed to offend her, a feat Adam considered monumental as Gansey was the kind of smooth-talker that could get anyone to do anything.
That had happened later after Blue had killed the rogue werewolf that was about to rip his throat out. The very one that had sent them here in the first place. At the time, it felt a lot like fate.
After that, they'd kept in contact and Blue had eventually become an unquestioned part of their group, as if she'd been the missing piece they'd been looking for all along. With her, she bought an extensive knowledge of psychics and a wicked ability with switchblades.
He'd been seriously attracted to her, as fatally as a heart attack and for a whole it looked like she was interested, but in typical Blue fashion (though he hadn't known that at the time) she'd vanished for a month and came back different, her once long hair now in a short bob she kept in a ponytail with several hundred clips, three new scars, and a ghost called Noah.
Adam hadn't known what to make of her after that and he worried about her constantly, to the point where she'd gotten mad enough to refuse to talk to him for a solid week, Gansey being their mediator while Ronan pulled a stunt that was suddenly more offensive than anything either of them could pull off and everything went back to normal.
Then, several months ago, he noticed how close she and Gansey had somehow gotten. For a while, he'd been awfully jealous – Gansey, careful, rich and flawless Gansey getting the girl, like he always did. Then three weeks ago he found that feeling gone entirely.
Suddenly, his thoughts were back in full circle – all the way to Ronan Lynch again. Adam suppressed a groan. There was just no escaping Ronan, even in his own mind.
"We're back, Parrish. Stop daydreaming," Ronan said, snapping Adam back out of his thoughts again. Ronan got out of the car and slammed the door behind him.
Adam sighed. The morning couldn't get here fast enough.
/
Gansey arrived in the morning with Blue and more books than could have possibly fit into the Camaro. Later that day, almost all of them were read through and classified into one of two piles: useful and useless. For every useful book, ten more were thrown into the useless pile.
Adam was sick of this lack of progress. Every clue was hoarded carefully, but it was barely even a scrap of information. Most frustratingly, they had very little idea of what they should be looking for. All they really had were a few crazy energy readings and a supposed demon infestation. To Adam, it felt like barely more than a crumb of information to a bigger picture he just wasn't seeing yet. Were the demons the cause of these readings? Or were the readings somehow responsible for the demon?
Of course, this was Gansey's element and he lit up like a Christmas tree at the prospect of research. Adam didn't understand how these endless hours of scanning books could be fun, but it seemed to do something for his friend.
Not everyone had the same reaction and by the time the useless pile towered over the useful one, the signs of fatigue were showing. Blue spent more time looking at everything but the books. Ronan had fallen asleep unceremoniously on the couch and snored loudly, perhaps on purpose. Adam watched Ronan.
Typically, Gansey was oblivious to most of this. He was still stuck back in his book from the diner, excitedly flipping the pages and jotting down notes in his journal as he came across something interesting. Whether it was related to their hunt was another matter. His friend was a scholar obsessed, everything about this supernatural world was endlessly fascinating to Gansey and he devoured every scrap of new information with vigour.
All of it only ever made Adam tired. He wasn't like Gansey, who shut himself up in his little bubble of knowledge and never set foot on the front line, as if he were a general in war. And there was no way in hell he was like Ronan, who'd grown up in this life and had inherited his skills, or even Blue, who'd just float by and adapt however she saw fit.
No, Adam had found himself thrown into this life all alone and carved out his own path. It was not an easy trek and for a long time, all he'd been was a boy with a knife he'd made himself and a knack for seeking out supernatural creatures. None of this was what he'd planned, but it was his life and he'd damn well make it happen, because once seen, there was no going back from this world. It pulled you in and swallowed you whole – getting out was simply not a possibility.
"I've got it," Gansey announced.
Everyone looked up at him.
"What is it?" Adam asked, eager for some kind of answer.
"The ley lines," Gansey said excitedly.
"You said that already," Adam said.
"Well, I'm sure it will work. According to this, they're probably broken and if we fix them—"
"—No more demons," Adam finished.
"It could work," Blue said thoughtfully.
"I don't like it," Ronan announced.
"Well," Gansey said, "it seems to be our only option."
"I'll do it," Adam volunteered. He'd done enough warding rituals in his lifetime that these things were second nature to him now.
"Excellent, but bring Ronan with you," Gansey replied. "I don't want you getting killed by some wayward demon."
Adam's eyes flickered over to Ronan again, who stood there impassively. He felt his stomach drop. He wasn't sure what that emotion meant.
Not trusting himself to speak, Adam nodded.
"Then you'll leave as soon as possible," Gansey said. He looked over at Blue. "Could tonight work?"
"No," Blue said. "We need to find the right place first. The energy needs to be correct."
"I thought your thing could make that point moot."
Blue shook her head. "It needs to be at the heart of the ley line."
"Then we'll find it," Gansey said. It made everything seem so simple, as if this plan could be boiled down to a few simple steps. Though Adam had a feeling the entire thing would be anything but easy.
/
It took them several days to locate the ley line's centre, including many trips around Henrietta, through the local main street and the more distant outer expanses of mountainous areas and forests.
There were also seven dead people to show for it, along with the five who had died previously. It was something Adam should've been paying closer attention to, not in the fact that they died, but the way that it happened.
He knew they had died, but it was a fact that was swept to the side, low on the scale of important things. In his line of work, death was inevitable, a simple fact that came along with the job. People were going to die or have died during any given hunt. Sometimes he's lucky and saves people. Other times, there's a body count. It used to get to him a lot, all that death, but now it's all just white noise.
Gansey, however, was much more insistent on the importance of these deaths. He wasn't so much concerned about the death itself (being a researcher, Gansey was often separated from the real horror of the work they did), but the facts of how it happened.
Adam didn't think it was so much important. He pushed it aside, assumed it was just an awful by-product of all this energy. Even Noah seemed affected, appearing at strange times and flickering in and out like a broken light. Blue had tried to help, but it seemed that whatever was affecting Noah and Henrietta itself was beyond anything her own strange aura could fix.
"Are you ready?" Gansey asked as Adam loaded up Ronan's care with the things they'd need. They'd spent the better part of the day rounding up rocks with good energy readings, a critical part of this ritual. In theory, if they lined these rocks up the right way, they'd fix the lines. And once that happened, everything else would fall into place and whatever demons were here would lose their power.
According to Gansey's book, they fed of the broken lines, sucking the waning energy dry to keep them alive. By fixing the line, the demons wouldn't be able to sustain themselves and disappear. It seemed so simple, almost too good to be true.
Adam didn't want to believe in such a solution, but he didn't think it could hurt to try.
"I'm ready," he said and placed the last of the stones in the back of the car. Ronan slammed the boot shut and the car shook slightly with the force.
"Alright, let's fucking kill these things," Ronan said, almost gleefully. The idea of killing demons had always had some strange, manic appeal to him that Adam couldn't quite understand.
Once they arrived at the ritual site, a strange, sickly feeling settled over Adam. It was like he could feel someone watching him from in the darkness, but there was no trace of whatever it was in the shadows. Adam glanced over at Ronan, wondering if the other hunter was feeling anything like he was. But Ronan didn't seem bothered by whatever Adam felt, instead he moved around impassively, almost bored as no demons presented themselves while Adam set everything up.
The ritual itself was supposed to follow feeling, paying close attention to the feel of the ley line itself and working out the right places to connect the path once again. Adam had always been particularly good at these kinds of feelings, following some kind of instinct that guided him in performing every protection ritual he'd ever done. It was like a whisper in the back of his mind, a barely formed thought that helped him do exactly what needed to be done.
However, this often required concentration and that was something Adam Parrish lacked that one, dark night when he perhaps needed it the most. As much as he tried to concentrate on the ritual, his mind was distracted. The sickly feeling became a constant buzz in his thoughts, making it hard to focus. This, coupled with his anxiety at being alone with Ronan, made the ritual incomplete, even as he tried to do it.
This was perhaps his worst mistake of the night.
If this had been three weeks ago, Ronan probably would've called him out on it, and loudly. Now, Adam wasn't sure if Ronan had really noticed anything.
But then again, if this has been three weeks ago, Adam probably wouldn't have made so many mistakes.
It was at the point where the fifth rock had been dropped in entirely the wrong place was that Adam heard a low, guttural growl in the darkness.
Ronan swore, but there was something pleased about this expression, as if he'd been waiting for a fight.
Adam just plain froze.
This wouldn't have been a mistake he'd made if he'd been paying closer attention to Gansey in the days gone by. If he'd been really listening, then he'd have known that freezing up was perhaps the worst thing you could possibly do, especially in front of demons like this.
"Fucking move, Parrish," Ronan said and gestured for Adam move along. Already, Ronan had several knives out and prepared.
Adam scrambled for his own, but Ronan shot him a poisonous look and once again motioned for Adam to leave.
"Just go and try to finish this," Ronan hissed. "I can hold them back for a while."
Adam ran, not even bothering to argue, mostly because when someone like Ronan Lynch tells you to run, you don't question it.
Eventually, he arrived at what he thought was a small clearing and nearly tripped over what he thought was a root in the darkness. Dirt stained his shirt and probably the rest of him too, but Adam was beyond caring.
As he stood in the middle of the forest, Adam resolved that it was all Gansey's fault. Well, his and that damn book. The two of them were an awful combination.
I'll burn it if I get the chance, he thought with venom.
In the distance, something made an inhuman noise. Adam began to run again.
He ran until he couldn't anymore, which is to say is a long way, though the blurry shapes in the dark all look the same to him. Maybe he hasn't run anywhere at all and this is all a twisted trick.
The sick feeling is still with him, making his stomach churn unpleasantly, but it's magnified now. Something awful is out here.
And I left Ronan alone to deal with it, just like a coward, Adam thought guiltily. He wants to run back there, but somehow he feels that he won't be able to find Ronan again.
But before he can truly think much about that, Ronan Lynch hurtled though the tree line, his pale face streaked with something dark. Knowing Ronan, it was probably blood.
"What was it?" Adam asked when Ronan was closer.
"I don't know," Ronan said, sounding surprised, which only served to make Adam's anxiety spike. If Ronan hadn't killed something like that before, what did that mean?
Then Ronan hissed suddenly and was incredibly still.
"You're bleeding," Adam noted, squinting in the barely-there light and saw a gash along Ronan's dark shirt.
Ronan didn't seem fussed, as he was with most injuries. "I'll live," he said nonchalantly, attempting a shrug but only getting halfway before he swore in pain.
"Let me take a look," Adam offered. He'd probably had more experience than even Ronan in the matter of injury, though most of that had come from the hands of his own father as opposed to demonic forces.
Ronan stepped back. "I'll be fine."
Adam looked at him sceptically, but let the matter drop. There was no convincing Ronan once he'd made up his mind about something, even if it was detrimental to his own health.
"Gansey isn't going to be happy about this," Adam said.
Ronan shook his head.
"Did you get lost on the way here?" Adam asked.
Rona just looked at him. "It led me straight here."
"Something is off about this place."
"No shit, Parrish. That demon wasn't like anything I've ever seen before," Ronan said and used his good arm to lift up the hem of his shirt to wipe away some fleck of blood on his face.
Adam tried not to look. He failed.
"It was off," Ronan continued, seemingly oblivious to Adam's gawking. "Maybe that demon had something to do with it."
"What did it look like?" Adam said suddenly, thinking back to the sketch in Gansey's book. He tried to recall the exact details of those dark lines, but he couldn't remember the exact shape.
"I didn't exactly stick around to get a closer look, Parrish. Generally, when things like that run, it's logical to kill it," Ronan said dryly and wiped away another smear of blood with his shirt.
"Come on, you must remember something. What made it different?"
"It looked too human," Ronan said after a long moment. "I've never seen one like that."
"They all look somewhat human, but maybe it possessed someone?" Adam asked.
"It was definitely not a possession," Ronan said with a shake of his head.
"Then can we go back to the line?" Adam asked, trying not to sound guilty. He was thinking of the misplaced stones. Could his mistakes have been the cause for the demon's summoning? Was he the reason Ronan was hurt?
Adam suddenly felt ill in a way that was entirely unrelated to the twisted nature of this place.
"If you want, but I'm not going to take on another one of those things. It can have your ass for all I care."
"It's your own fault for going for the fight," Adam said, though he knew that if the opportunity arose again, Ronan Lynch would probably kill another one of those things just to prove he could do it again.
"I'll pick my own damn fights. Stop worrying, Parrish," Ronan said and began walking in what Adam assumed was towards the ritual site. Guilt and the sickly feeling from this place made his stomach churn as they walked.
/
Once they arrived back at the line, Adam swore when he saw the pattern.
"What?" Ronan asked.
"The stones, they're—" Adam broke off, unable to admit his guilt in this situation (mostly because that would lead to admitting exactly why he was so distracted). The arrangement they were in was all wrong. Those five stones had somehow managed to arrange themselves in a position not unlike the one needed for summoning.
Ronan didn't say anything. Adam glanced over at him. He looked tense. A muscle in his jaw twitched, a sure sign he was holding back something. Probably a barrage of curses all directed ad Adam himself.
"I'm –" Adam began.
"Don't tell me you're sorry, Parrish, just fix this," Ronan snapped. Adam suddenly got the feeling that Ronan wasn't solely talking about the stones.
Adam didn't try to reply. His mind was still caught on that damn kiss, right before he'd fucked everything up.
Just fix this, Ronan had said. Adam tried to focus on that, the desire to make something right again. Eventually it worked and his mind snapped into focus. His whole self was condensed down into that one point of focus – just him, Adam Parrish walking along the ley line and fixing it up, like he would a broken down car.
It was simple, in the end. Instinct told him exactly where everything needed to go. For a while, there was nothing but him and the rocks.
Once the final rock was placed, a strangely calm sensation flooded Adam. Suddenly, the anxious energy to keep working, to keep doing was gone and in its place, nothing. He was, perhaps for the first time in a long time, free.
In his mind, a word was whispered: Cabeswater.
"Is that all, Parrish?" Ronan asked, snapping him back to reality.
Just fix this. Adam stepped closer to Ronan. "Not quite."
And then Adam did the one thing he'd been too gutless to do before now. He kissed Ronan, his hand barely touching Ronan's shoulder, like the ghost of a touch.
For a few moments, Ronan was like stone and Adam was about to pull away and apologise when Ronan's hands found their way to Adam's waist. The touch was electric.
When it ended, Adam was the first to speak. "That's all." His heart was still beating rapidly in his chest.
Ronan's smile was sharp, but not cruel. He looked happy. "Good," he replied and threaded his fingers through Adam's. "Now let's get the hell out of here."
A/N: This whole idea came about after one late night idea which refused to leave me alone until I wrote it down, and several rewrites later, this happened. Though now this is done, I'm seriously considering writing a sequel, which will be posted as a separate fic. I'm very attached to this AU now. Reviews/Thoughts are always welcome!