Letter One, From Adelle to Marguerite

My Dear Marguerite,
I know I said that you should stay here at Brightwick for the holidays and of course I meant it. After all that you have been through I believe the sea air would do you wonders. But do you recall that I told you Basil rented the house for cheap? Well, now that we are here the reason is abundantly clear: We forgot about the demonic migrations! Our first night here the sky was so thick with demons they blotted out the moon. We are beside ourselves—except, of course, for Theo, who is enjoying it. He has unpacked his binoculars and his necromancy books and begun to sketch them in his notebook—he can tell you every subspecies, I’m sure. All I can say is that some of them are preposterously large—just yesterday one carried off a goat! Of course Champ is barking like mad. We will be lucky if he doesn’t get carried off himself (in fact, last night he was so loud I almost wished he would be!) Basil is not much better, tromping about with his blunderbuss taking pot shots at the sky. It’s lucky that my brother is such a horrible shot or he would bring one down on our heads. I have written to a real demon hunter—a one Mr. Arthur Harkness—in hopes that I may hire him to stay here at Brightwick for our protection. He is rumored to be rather odd but quite excellent at what he does (and rather good-looking, so there’s that). I hope to hear back from him soon. But in the meantime, I know it is too late for you to change your plans but I wanted to give you fair warning. There is a curfew of course and the beach is so covered in droppings as to be untraversable. You have been through such personal hell lately (if you’ll pardon my language) and I feel horrible bringing you into a literal one. I promise we will have fun in spite of it all! Just bring your adventurous spirit (and your wellies).
See you in a few days,
Your loyal childhood friend,
Adelle