Winged Dagger

Path to the Lost Future

Asura and I sat in the carriage, looking over the map. The policeman had also drawn up which was the first, which was successful, and which was attempted. I traced the order of the murders as Asura observed, his tails straight up in the air. Two of the murders had happened in the same place—the alley we found him in. I assumed it was because one was a failed attempt, but the one after that was successful. Asura watched as I traced, and then placed a paw somewhere not too far from where we were.

"The next one will be here."

"How can you tell?"

"Behemoth," he said. "This is Behemoth's symbol."

"You mean he's trying to bargain with the devil," I said as the pieces fell together.

Asura nodded. "Like Jasper did."

"Come on then," I said, folding the map and calling out directions to the driver. The carriage rumbled down the streets. I pulled out my dagger from a hidden pocket in my skirt, and ran a finger over the owl. "I shouldn't have come alone, but..."

"You didn't want to place them in danger too," said Asura, lounging on the opposite seat with his eyes closed. "That's how you humans are; you place love above all else."

I didn't even refute him as Arthur's face crossed my thoughts, followed by the rest of the mansion's residents. "Love indeed," I sighed.

"Here," said Asura, ears perking up as the carriage rolled to a stop. I hopped down and the carriage left. Asura and I both looked up, where stars lined the night sky.

"I'm definitely gonna get yelled at when we get back to the mansion."

"By who?" I twirled around to see a man dressed in black walk up to us—Daniel. He held a knife in his hand, and was dragging a woman on the ground by her hair, tears streaming down her face, her dress torn and in tatters. Her black eyes which appeared to be on the verge of giving up brightened as she saw me, a desperate plea written into the way her eyebrows were scrunched together.

"What in the angel's name..."

"I wasn't expecting you to be here, Jasmine. But all the better. There's still one more destination."

"I'm glad I caught you off guard," I said with more bravado than I felt. "But are you really trying to summon Behemoth? Isn't witchcraft outlawed?"

"That was the 18th century, not the 19th. I'm afraid you'll find fewer people burning at the stake this century."

The girl who was being dragged on the floor let out a low whine.

"Shut it."

Asura hissed.

"You really have no morals."

Daniel looked at me skeptically. "You speak to me of morals? Do you even know what manner of work Jasper did? Do you know where he learnt all those knife tricks, everything he taught you?"

I thought back to what Arthur said when he saw me handling the knife, wondering why it had never occurred to me before. "An assassin."

"That's right. You're indeed your brother's sister."

I ignored that, and instead looked down at the girl, sharing a glance with Asura. "Let her go."

"Why should I?"

"Let her go," I repeated. "And we'll find another way for you to go back home, preferably after jail-time."

"And how do you propose I do that?"

"I could certainly help," said Asura.

Daniel looked at Asura, eyes wide as Asura grew to the size of a panther. "So you summoned a demon."