Free Storm in a Teacup by Emmie Mears Page A

sun plops behind the horizon.  
    The glow of the talisman is growing brighter almost noticeably. I don't like that. "This way," I say, striking a path through the underbrush.  
    I hear them follow, but only barely. They both move as silently as I do through the crackling twigs and leaves. I love the scent of the forest. Moss, mulch, bark. It reminds me that the light makes things grow, and that it's my job to make sure they survive the dark. We reach the clearing a few minutes later.
    The place I've chosen is wide and open, the topsoil covered with a dusting of pine needles and no stones larger than pebbles. A range of trees from pines to oaks surrounds the clearing, and I know the trees are climbable because I've done it before. I place the talisman — now brighter than my phone's screen at night — in the center of the clearing and motion to Ripper and Ben.
    I choose an oak with a helpfully-placed burl on the trunk and use it to give myself a leg up. Ripper jumps up to grab the branch of a hickory across the clearing and pulls himself up and over with ease. Ben scrambles up the side of a maple. Together we form a tripod around the clearing. We should be able to see the demons when they come.
    What then depends on how many of them there are.
    I position a Mediator beacon in the cleft of the branch above me. If a horde shows up, I can hit it and Alamea will respond.  
    I just hope I'll be able to hit it without alerting any demons. If a horde shows up, the Mediator reinforcements might end up doing more of a clean up job than a rescue.
    The sun has long since dipped behind the encapsulating hills, but demons are pretty anal about coming out when the sun hasn't gone to bed on the other side of the horizon. Monsters or not, they have a strong drive to stay alive.
    I pick at the bark on the branch I'm sitting on.  
    Maybe the stupid metal disc is just attuned to the sun to tell demon worshippers when it's okay to try and summon their deities. Maybe it's a clock and we're just idiots to think it means something.
    My brain runs through another series of maybes as I watch the disc glow brighter and brighter.  
    I can tell the exact moment the sun disappears from the Nashville sky.
    The talisman flashes once, bright enough to send orange spots pulsing across my vision. I'm blind, and I want to kick myself for staring at the thing so directly.  
    I can't see Ripper. I can't see Ben. I can't even see the fucking tree in front of my face.
    Slowly, slowly, my vision clears.
    The clearing is full of demons.
    They're all standing in a circle around a naked woman.
    Lena Saturn.
    Three breaths before I can admit to myself what I'm seeing.
    Three breaths before I confirm to myself that it is indeed the woman I've been searching for.
    Three breaths before a roar begins in the circle of demons.
    It starts as a deep rumble, like a mountain clearing its throat. But unlike a throat-clearing or a simple ahem , it doesn't stop. It grows in volume, swelling in timbre and vibration until my tree hums under my body. My fingers grow numb on my sword hilt, and one itches to touch the button on the beacon.
    In three breaths, I'm seven years old again facing my first demon with only a distant backup circle of five veteran Mediators a hundred yards behind me.  
    That's how foreign, how frightened, how flaccid I feel.  
    I don't know what I'm looking at.
    But then the circle of hellkin parts, and I get my first real look at Lena Saturn.
    My first impression is that below her neck, she ceases to be.  
    She is nude. Her stomach is grossly distended. I don't know how she remains on her feet until I see the two imps supporting her convex frame. They're being gentle with her. Reverent. Tendrils of revulsion creep around the back of my neck.  
    Pregnant women have a look of cohesion, of nature, of vibrancy and life. Pregnant women have a polished curve to them. Lena has none of those things.
    Instead, the bulge in her stomach seems to be reaching up