CHAPTER 191

"Huh?" He held up his injured arm and winced. The owl's orb had shattered in his hand, the shards of glass slicing up his flesh. His arm was numb from the bicep down, which probably wasn't a good sign.

"Gods." Yuki reached into her coat and pulled out a piece of fabric. "Your hand is a mess."

"We can deal with that later." He nodded toward Leeds, who was being pulled up a stream. "I need to see this through."

"Mike, what happened back there, I..." Yuki grabbed his good hand and squeezed it. "I thought we were going to lose you. Your eyes, they were--"

"Don't." He leaned onto her and was surprised at how warm she felt. "I don't want to talk about it. I know how close I came. And you would have been right to stop me. You need to hear me say that."

She nodded, and he suddenly felt so tired. Dana got on his other side and they helped him through the woods as they neared the boundary. They had come down in elevation, enough that the snow was actually gone from several places, and the forest was making sure to drag Leeds through all the muddy parts.

They were at the boundary when a roar came through the forest. It was a howl of pain, and Mike saw a portal between the trees. Bigfoot stepped through it, his features borderline feral. Behind him was Abella, her eyes widening at the sight of Mike.

His eyes flicked to the dogtags on her chest.

"LEEDS!" Bigfoot stomped over toward the devil, his huge body making the ground tremble. He swatted away the branches as they tried to form a barrier, then roared to chase away the animals. Relief shined in the devil's eyes as Bigfoot raised a giant fist to strike him.

"What do you think you're doing, you damned yeti?" Mike wasn't even sure why he said those particular words, but they caused Bigfoot to spin around, anger in his eyes.

"He killed Vee! He killed my fluffy girl!" He grabbed Leeds by the ankle and picked him up, ripping the roots that held him down. "He has to pay!"

"And he will. But right now, stomping his ugly ass is what he wants." Mike approached Bigfoot and stared into the sasquatch's eyes. "He wants you to take a piece out of him. Don't give him what he wants."

Bigfoot huffed for a couple of seconds, then roared in Mike's face, spraying him with spit. "You don't understand, he--"

"I know." He put his good hand on Bigfoot's arm and squeezed. "This piece of shit owes you a pound of flesh. But you have to understand, he's banking on it. He's been playing us since we got here, and your only response so far is to go storming off in a rage. If you do that here, if you crush his skull just to feel a little bit better, she will have died for nothing."

Bigfoot hesitated, his hot breath filling the air with vapor. His fur was ruffled like a cornered animal's, and his lips kept pulling back to reveal his teeth.

"There are better ways to make him pay." Mike stared at Leeds. "I have a whole house full of people who would love to sit down and discuss how to punish him. You and Eulalie will be part of that discussion, she deserves a say as well. But right now I need you to stand down."

"Pathetic." Leeds spat on the ground as he dangled upside down, his tail whipping uselessly against Bigfoot's chest. "It's because you don't have the guts to kill me. Go ahead, yeti. Break the barrier first and then crush me, snap my neck, torture me until I beg for death! You've gotten soft, listening to filthy fucking humans!"

Bigfoot looked at Leeds, then Mike. Doubt, grief and anger all played about behind his furry visage before he let out a pained groan as if injured. With a grunt, he threw Leeds through the air. The Jersey Devil's body passed through the red barrier at the edge of the property. With a quiet pop, the spell dissipated, and Leeds bounced off a tree and fell to the ground.

"You're the big hero now, aren't you, Caretaker?" Leeds chuckled and stood. "Gonna run home to your family and try to save them. Don't look so surprised, I can hear your thoughts, I know all about the angel, the horsemen. I'm willing to bet that--"

"Shut this fucker up," Mike snapped, and a massive pine outside of the boundary bent itself over and smashed Leeds into the ground with a pair of long branches. The demon was flattened beneath heavy boughs, then roots ripped free of the earth to wrap him up tight into a bundle.

"How?" Leeds asked, his fiery coal eyes blazing. "These trees aren't part of your land!"

Mike approached Leeds, then crouched down and smirked. "The forest doesn't belong to anyone," he told the Jersey Devil. "The land doesn't belong to me, either. I had the choice to destroy you and we both know it. I think maybe you even welcomed it, you poor, tormented soul. But that's not who I am." He stood and walked over to the nearest tree, then placed his hand on it. "And it isn't who I plan to become. All I did was let the land know how I felt about you. And it agreed."

He felt a presence over his shoulder, then turned and saw the stag watching him from between the trees.

"I know you said you would keep him out," he told the beast. "But would you consider letting him back in? I need somewhere to keep him for a little bit."

"Who are you talking to?" Bigfoot asked, craning his neck to look around.

Mike shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure, to be honest," he replied.

The stag bowed its head, and the trees outside the boundary passed Leeds back over. Animals appeared from the trees and bit into Leeds' flesh, then dragged him through the woods.

"The forest is going to hold him for us." He put a hand on Bigfoot's forearm. "Follow him and figure out where that is, make sure he can't escape. Meet us at the cabin after, so we can plan our next steps."