The two spirits watched over Nikki until the empty liquor bottle slipped from the man’s fingers. Nikki fell asleep shortly thereafter.
Juniper and Cricket were whisked back to the other side at sunrise.
Day Limbo meant another hunt by Gareth and his jackals. They came into view first as darkness moving through mist, then morphed into solid shapes as they approached.
Cricket took her leave before they arrived and begged Juniper to come with her.
Juniper declined. She couldn't explain why, but she wasn’t scared of Gareth. Perhaps it was the smoothness in his voice or the way he looked at her.
The jackals arrived first. They surrounded the large rock on which she sat. Instead of attacking, they circled, grumbling the way real dogs sometimes do when they don't get their way.
They were all charcoal with eyes and teeth to match the color of their fur. They had tall, spear-shaped ears, narrow muzzles, lean tails. When Gareth arrived, they all sat like good doggies.
He emerged from the fog, moving along the trail between the rocks, with his hands in his pockets. He took a seat next to Juniper on her rock.
"People typically flee when they know I'm approaching, just so you know."
"Innocent people don't flee. Only offenders are punished, correct?"
Gareth smiled, reached up and petted one of his clawed hands down her long hair.
"You don't fear me, do you?"
"I don't."
He clenched his jaw. His pale eyes narrowed.
"See, that just won't do. Give me your hand."
She hesitated, "Why?"
"Because I want to show you something."
Juniper offered her hand, palm up.
Gareth gently grasped her wrist to pull it closer.
She thought, at first, that he might attempt to read her palm.
He appeared to inspect it, and then he traced a line with the sharp fingernail on his right index finger from the inside of her elbow down her forearm. He pulled back when he reached her wrist.
Searing pain shot from the line into her arm and fingers, up to her shoulder, back, legs and neck.
Juniper screamed into the sky, tried to fall away from Gareth's cruelty.
He held onto her, all the while intently observing her reaction to the agony he inflicted.
The burn waned.
Voice shaking, she managed to demand that he release her.
He bent forward.
"I may not be allowed to destroy your soul, but I can cause enough pain to make you beg for the end of your existence. That was a taste. Are you afraid?"
She nodded.
"Good." He patted her hand.
That time, she recoiled from his touch.
"I know you want to intervene in the situation with...Nikki, that is her name? I can sense intent to break the rules from miles away. You cannot change her course. Such things..." He shook his head and looked down. "Voldrin is no place for pretty birds like you."
"I would sacrifice for the right cause."
He scowled.
Her arm blazed again, that blinding, mind-numbing assault.
"It's my choice." She recovered more quickly from the second attack to stare him down. "You can't stop me from sacrificing myself, can you?"
The jackals around them shifted. They let throaty growls in a chorus of canine angst.
"I can't stop you." He rose. "I wish I could."
Juniper watched him and his pack of dogs disappear into the fog. Then, she took the opposite direction on the trail. She needed to form a plan before night fell. She needed to decide how far she would go.