"Sorry this messed up everyone's weekend plans," I apologized to the rest of our friends.

Violet shook her head, "It's fine Cass. Honestly, we appreciate you thinking about us, and looking out for us."

"I'm just glad you and your parents are all ok," Sage said to my girlfriend.

Then Jade smiled, "We'll probably end up playing video games or something right?"

Melanie nodded, "Sounds like a plan."

Cerys added, "You four keep safe though, ok? Text us or something if you find those council bastards. Or even if you don't, text us before you go into the cave."

"What's that you've got there?" Willow asked, as she gestured towards a black gadget I had in my hand.

I blushed, "Oh. It's um, one of those police body-cams? Cassandra got us a couple of them, it's for some idea she had."

The small kitsune held up the one she was carrying so the others could see it, while her tails twitched around mischievously.

"Where in the world did y'all get those?" Melanie asked with a frown.

I grimaced, "Uh it's probably best that you don't know..."

"She stole them from the cops," Kaylee announced with a wide grin while her tails swished around even faster.

That made me cringe as I said, "Maybe just forget you even saw we had them? Anyways we should get going now. We'll let you know how it goes."

"Good luck," Willow stated, and the rest of our friends all echoed that sentiment.

Nina led the way out to the Lunamobile, with me and Kaylee and Sasha all following behind. My sister got into the drivers seat and my cousin took the passenger side, while me and Kaylee got comfortable in the middle row.

As we pulled out onto the road and got moving Nina asked, "So what's the plan?"

"If they took the bait then odds are we'll be walking into a trap," Sasha commented. "And in light of what happened yesterday evening, I'm now thinking that perhaps we should have done a little more planning ourselves? I'd be much more comfortable if we were the ones laying in wait while they wandered into our trap."

At that point I felt my anxiety countered by Cassandra's calming influence. Rather than take over completely the two of us sort of teamed up and joined forces again, the way we'd done back when we faced the werewolf hunter together.

Then we responded to our cousin's concerns, "We are both the bait and the trap. The council thinks they know a lot of things, but the only one they're right about is that Nina is a demon. They believe you and Kaylee are both mortal humans who've been 'corrupted'. And they still refuse to believe that I'm a goddess. The closest they've come to the truth is allowing for the possibility that I might be 'newly ascended'."

"Uh, isn't that true though?" my girlfriend asked. "No offence but you are kind of new at it, right?"

We smiled, "Technically, yes. But I inherited a strong base of existing worshippers, and I have Sasha's experience and wisdom to help guide me. To them 'newly ascended' likely means weak and naive, and easily manipulated."

"On top of that," we added, "They won't expect any trouble at all from either you or Sasha. But even as a new demon you still automatically outclass any human mage. And Sasha has access to both demonic and divine magic, with seven centuries of knowledge and skill to back her up."

Our cousin frowned, "I'm still concerned about walking into their trap. Perhaps you're right and they've underestimated us, but let's not make the same mistake and underestimate them as well."

"I'm sure I don't have to remind you that they didn't have much difficulty neutralizing everyone apart from you back in July," she added. "And that was before they knew what they were up against."

"They got us by surprise that time," Kaylee pointed out. "If we knew they were coming we'd have been prepared."

Sasha responded, "And they know we're coming today, so odds are they will be prepared for us. That's all I'm trying to say, we should be very careful."

Cassandra and I agreed, "All right Sasha, you make a good point. I was planning on scrying for any sign of the council agents or magic when we began our hike, but I'll do that right now."

After a couple seconds we added, "There are three of them in position around the cave entrance. They're keeping themselves out of sight, each is about fifteen meters from the cave. One on either side, and the third one is further down the hill towards the bottom of the ravine."

"So we won't see them or pass them on our way in," Nina commented. "Not until we actually reach the mouth of the cave. Then we'll be surrounded."

"That's assuming we pretend not to know they're there," Kaylee stated as her tails twitched around beside her. "What if Cassandra just zaps them all before we even arrive?"

Our sister frowned as she glanced back towards me and Kaylee. Then she focused on the road again, but she sounded anxious as she asked "What were you going to do with them? You're not going to kill them are you?"

That sparked another internal debate between me and Cassandra. As usual I was opposed to violence, same as Nina. On the other hand these people had literally attempted to murder my girlfriend and her parents the night before, so I maybe didn't put as much into my side of the argument as I'd done in the past.

In the end we told our sister, "We haven't made a decision yet, but whatever happens I promise they won't suffer."

We were all kind of quiet after that. There weren't any more questions, so it was just a matter of getting out there to the nature preserve. Me and Cassandra continued monitoring the council agents, but there wasn't much going on with them either. They were probably just quietly waiting for us to arrive so they could do their thing.

When we got there Nina parked the mini-van near the same bend in the road where we'd stopped for our previous visits, but before emerging from the vehicle both Kaylee and I activated our body-cams then clipped them to our clothing. And for good measure, we used magic to hide them from view. The kitsune made hers invisible, while Cassandra and I used an illusion to conceal ours.

As we all set out into the woods Kaylee's tails twitched in agitation as she frowned, "There's zero chance of us sneaking up on anyone."

"Indeed," Sasha stated as she looked around the area.

The problem was typical for this time of the year. Most of the leaves had already fallen, and in a heavily wooded area like the nature preserve that meant almost everywhere we stepped was covered in leaves ten to twenty centimetres deep. So not only was it impossible to move quietly, but apart from the terrain and the pine trees there wasn't much in the way of cover to conceal us.

At least we were all appropriately dressed, everyone was wearing jeans or other sturdy pants and we all had hiking shoes or boots on our feet. Cassandra and I were in our favourite oversized hoodie, while the others all wore fall jackets.

Nina asked, "So what should we do?"

"Let's just continue on," we suggested. "Ignore the problem, pretend we don't know they're waiting for us. Even if they know we know they're there, let's all try and maintain the act?"

Our sister and cousin both seemed uneasy with the plan, but our girlfriend had faith in us and was happy to go along with it. So as the four of us continued making our way in towards the cave she tried to strike up a conversation on an entirely different topic.

"So what are the plans for halloween?" Kaylee asked with a smile. "I'm really looking forward to another club party, except I'm having trouble deciding what costume to go with."

Nina frowned, "I thought you'd go as a kitsune?"

Our girlfriend rolled her eyes, "That's not a costume, that's just me."

"I know last year you and Melanie just went as yourselves," she added, "And I guess that's ok when you spend the rest of the year hiding who you are? You don't want to do that again this year though, it's old news. And in my case, I'm not just going to go as myself. I need to come up with a fun new idea."

We commented, "I haven't figured out a costume yet either. I'm sure whatever we all do it's going to be amazing though, considering we all have access to magic. Whether actual transformations or illusions, I have a feeling our halloween party is going to be a lot of fun."

"Please don't do anything too scary ok?" our sister asked. "We'll be handing out candy to little kids and we don't want to frighten them."

Kaylee giggled, "But we do want their parents to be scratching their heads trying to figure out how we did our costumes!"

The four of us continued talking about our halloween plans for the entire hike, since it seemed like a good safe inane subject. At the same time Cassandra and I kept up our scrying, we could tell the three agents were ready for us as they stayed out of sight.

They had the benefit of keeping still and quiet, and had been waiting long enough to make use of the hilly terrain and what little cover was available. So as we and our friends finally approached the cave there was no sign of the three agents even though we all knew they were around.

The four of us came to a halt in front of the cave entrance, which sure enough looked exactly like it did on our earlier visits. There was no trace of the landslide Cassandra caused after we rescued Rick Kovaks, the ground and plants and trees around the cave all seemed untouched.

And that's when the council agents made their move. All three of them stepped out of hiding and into view at the same time, and all of them simultaneously cast spells as they did so.

Cassandra and I saw the flashes of purple, but the spells didn't target us or any of our friends. Instead the magic seemed to be aimed low, the flashes of purple light struck the ground beneath our feet. A split second later a circle flared to life around all four of us, and their plan became apparent.

Both Nina and Kaylee cringed as they felt it, while Sasha just winced. We felt it too, and we recognized it. It had the same sort of feel as the circle Brian the dweeb trapped us in last December.

"It's a demonic containment circle," we stated, although we assumed the others had already figured that out. "Hidden under the fallen leaves, and unempowered until we arrived."

The three council agents all started to approach us as one of the men stated, "That's right. And it means at least three of you are now completely helpless."

We looked at each of the agents in turn. The one who spoke looked like a middle-aged man in his forties maybe. Then there was a woman in her thirties, and an older man who looked like he was in his fifties.

"That's Mr. Mason," Nina stated as she glared at the guy who'd spoken.

"Indeed," Cassandra and I responded as we read the surface thoughts of all three agents. "It seems we owe Cerys another apology. So we have Roger Mason, posing as a high school history teacher. Clara Davis, acting EMT. And Armand Farkas, who appears to have drawn the short straw and ended up working as a janitor at the local community college. That just leaves one person missing. Where's your boss, Carlos Nahuel?"

We looked a little closer in Mason's mind then added, "Ah of course. Bravely leading the operation from the safety of his hotel room. We'll have to pay him a visit as soon as we're done here."

Mason just scowled, "You're not impressing any of us with the parlour tricks, kid. And I think you'll be singing a very different tune in a few minutes."

"Clara you get rid of the demi-human. Armand, you take care of Snow White," Mason stated as he referred to my girlfriend and cousin.

Then he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out what looked like some kind of antique silver amulet. He moved to the north side of the circle as he added, "I'll start preparing the ritual to bind and contain the demon."

Nina's eyes went wide and her face paled. She was obviously scared of whatever Mr. Mason planned to do to her with that amulet he was holding. She looked at us and whispered anxiously, "Cassandra, please stop them!"

"Of course sis," we replied calmly. "We won't let anything happen to you."

Mason just scoffed as he brushed some of the leaves away to reveal a smaller circle connected to the larger one the four of us were standing inside. He placed the amulet in the middle of the small circle while both Clara and Armand raised their hands and began to cast some complicated and possibly lethal magic.

We remained confident that Kaylee wouldn't be harmed, but our cousin wasn't immortal. And we weren't going to risk these people hurting either of them anyways. We honestly had no idea what Mason was planning to do to our sister, but the fact that Nina was frightened told us all we needed to know.

True to our word none of the council agents suffered. Although it was a bit disappointing that they also never had a chance to realize how wrong they were or how hopeless their mission had been.

In a single stroke Cassandra turned all three agents to stone. They didn't become statues or anything creepy like that, but where the three people had been standing were now three out-of-place pillars of granite. It was the sort of thing that would get geologists scratching their heads, since the stones didn't appear to be man-made yet they were obviously unnatural and didn't belong in the landscape.

Sasha breathed an audible sigh of relief, as did Nina. My sister still sounded anxious as she said, "Thank you Cassandra. That was too close for comfort."

"So can you break this circle and get us out now?" Kaylee asked. "I guess we're going after that Nahuel guy next, we definitely can't let him get away."

"Of course," we replied as Cassandra focused her divine magic once again.

The glowing purple ring of the containment circle flickered then collapsed, and our friends all breathed another sigh of relief. The other three were quick to escape outside the circle, while we moved over to the stone that used to be Roger Mason. There we bent down and picked up that silver amulet so we could get a closer look at it.

I wanted to ask Nina what Mason was talking about with that binding stuff, but before I could say anything Cassandra and I both spotted a flare of purple magic a few meters away as someone teleported themself to our location.

At the same moment we felt the tingly energy sensation of another god nearby, and that's when we suddenly realized Sasha was right about not underestimating our enemies.

The new arrival was a tall well-built muscular-looking man, with tanned olive skin and short dark hair. He looked to be in his mid- to late-thirties, and he was well dressed in a black business suit and tie. His handsome face was clean-shaved, and his dark eyes flicked over all four of us as he took us all in.

"Hello Cassandra," he greeted us with a very confident smile. "I am Carlos Nahuel, and I've been looking forward to meeting you."

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