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Gage’s mouth snapped into a grin. “Even better.”

“Harriet loves the marsh,” Vale said. “Says it smells like home.”

We hopped out of the vehicle. Gage took the lead, following the intel he’d been given.

“How big is this thing?” Chris 1 asked.

“Big enough to break down a door and snatch a grown woman from her home,” Cowboy answered.

Gage stopped at the edge of the marsh. “This is the spot.”

I watched a dragonfly skim the water’s surface. “I don’t think we should kill it, even if we get the chance. I just want to make that clear to the more violent ones among us where I stand.”

“Appreciate the compliment,” Gage said.

Cowboy tipped back his head and scratched the top of his head. “Okay. Let’s say we do it your way and only subdue the monster. Then what? We ride to the deepest part of the ocean and dump it? It swims to a different shore and eats another mother or son.”

“I agree with Cowboy,” Gage said. “If we don’t kill it, then we’re just avoiding the hard thing and making it someone else’s problem.”

I saw their point.

Vale’s gaze came to rest on me. “Could you turn it to stone?”

“Do you have any idea how heavy that thing will be if it’s solid rock?” Cowboy asked. “It would sink to the bottom of the marsh, which is the same as killing it. I’m strong, but not superhero strong.”

“There’s more than one of us,” Vale said. “And we can ask Harriet to use magic if necessary.”

It wasn’t a terrible idea. “We could preserve it in stone until we figure out what to do. At least that would keep it from hurting anyone else in the meantime.” An option I didn’t have with Hypnos-Keith.

Chris 2 shook his head. “It’s a bandage on a heart attack.”

“It’s a good compromise,” Vale advised.

“Wouldn’t you have to get close enough to look the creature in the eye?” Chris 1 asked.

“I might be able to hold it in place long enough for you to unleash your inner Medusa on it,” Cowboy said.

Gage clapped his hands. “I love it when a plan comes together.”

“I would prefer the plan to come together before we’re seconds away from confronting the monster,” I murmured.

“Seconds is optimistic,” Vale said, scanning the horizon. “I don’t see any sign⁠—”

A pair of horns emerged from the murky water. A forked tongue tasted the air and found it wanting. The head dipped beneath the surface as quickly as it had appeared.

“Do you think it saw us?” Gage asked.

“Maybe not saw us but definitely sensed us,” I replied.

Cowboy surveyed the landscape. “How do we lure it closer? Dangle a hunk of raw meat from a fishing pole?”

“Shucks. I left my T-bone on the counter,” Gage said, pretending to pat his pockets. “We passed a squirrel on the side of the road. Should I go fetch it?”

Cowboy narrowed his eyes at the Love Talker. “If you’ve got a better suggestion, faerie, I’d love to hear it.”

Vale’s gaze traveled along the marsh. “Why does the monster insist on sticking to this one small area, especially when it knows we’re hunting it?”

“There’s gotta be a food source around here,” Cowboy said. “It went nuts at that family barbecue. It was probably starving after we chased it out of here.”