Princess of Fire (The Light-Bringer Trilogy, #2)

Twelve

Matias crouched down as he examined the six corpses in the alley before him. The snow was stained blood red, the brick walls on either side of the alley were splattered in blood.

"Jake, come one," said Lance. "It's just Luna and Matias."

Matias glanced back at Luna, Lance, and Jake. Luna was several steps away from Lance, who struggled to hold back a barking Jake.

"By the gods, it's a bloodbath in here," Akaljot swore from behind him.

He looked back into the alley. The corpse in front of Matias had its eyes open, it's bowels spilled out of its abdominal cavity. The second had its skull bashed in so effectively the brain was visible. A third had its neck broken, a scream on its face. The corpses kept getting more and more gruesome.

"Let me take Jake for a walk," Lucas offered. "The smell of death must be riling him up."

"Let's go," said Lance.

Jake's barking grew quieter as Lance and Lucas walked away.

"Bloody hell," said Cal.

"There are more over here," said Luna, her face pale and eyes wide.

Matias stood up and strode to the alley across the street. He started counting.

One, two, three...

Five.

All of them were more and more gruesome than the last.

He spotted a pair of feet dangling several feet above ground. Matias blanched, his eyes wide in horror.

Six.

It was a man around Matias's age, hanging by his intestines. His eyes were stitched open, his mouth cut in a jagged post-mortem smile.

"Send for Maria Magik," said Akaljot, "and tell her that the dead have our answers."

—

Twelve dead bodies. All of them gruesome.

"Are you okay?" Matias asked from beside her.

"Those bodies are mortifying," she said.

Matias pulled her into an embrace. "I know. I know, Cal. I got a profile on our killer."

The sound of horse hooves announced Maria's arrival.

"All the gods and their mothers," said Maria. "What the bloody hell happened here?"

"Murder," said Matias. "The killer is a malevolent psychopath. He enjoys making others suffer. He is very intelligent and calculating. It is very likely that these bodies are a cryptic message."

"You get all of that just from this bloodbath?" asked Luna, an eyebrow raised.

Matias pointed at the hanging man. "No sane person guts a man like a fish and hangs the corpse from a washing line for all to see," he said bluntly.

Cal looked over at Akaljot and Maria. Akaljot had a wooden blanket in his arms and he set it down on the road. Maria sat down on the blanket and crossed her legs.

"What are you doing?" asked Cal.

"My father's line are clairvoyants and psychic mediums descended from Javareya," Maria explained. "I can become a conduit of sorts for the dead. Whatever they want to say, they can say it through me."