by L. L. McNeil
Amber’s hands went to her mouth. ‘Oh my goodness. Damon? Damon, are you okay?’
Damon let out a muffled grunt, but said nothing intelligible.
Seila found it mildly amusing, but she didn’t poke him or make things worse. She had an Elite Demon to consider now. And whatever further explanation Fallow had for her later that night. ‘We went to Caramond House,’ Seila said, by way of explanation. ‘We met Fallow. She...did something to him. And told us all about the Kouzlo.’
‘We aren’t supposed to talk about that!’ Amber went a bright shade of pink, and hurriedly busied herself with the kettle.
Seila frowned. ‘Fallow mentioned your mother. That she knew her, and—’
‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ Amber said, interrupting Seila mid-sentence. Her unusually harsh tone allowed no negotiation.
Seila wasn’t one to push, so she let the matter drop. ‘Fallow wants us to join her. All of us.’
‘Mm-hmm.’ Amber opened her cupboards and rummaged around it for a clean mug.
‘She’s invited us to Richmond Theatre tonight. To...talk.’
‘Mm-hmm,’ Amber repeated. She slammed the mug onto the countertop with so much force, it almost cracked.
‘Amber?’ Seila asked. She stepped over to her, and Amber quickly turned her face away. Seila knew Amber wasn’t stupid. She and Damon both knew about the Kouzlo through their mother, and therefore they knew Fallow by extension. Yes, it was a secret organisation to most, but these siblings had knowledge of it.
Damon seemed to be too stupid to realise, or, as Fallow said, had repressed it.
Amber clearly tried to hide it, but Seila didn’t understand why.
After a short pause, Amber said, ‘You and Damon go.’
Seila frowned. She was fiercely independent and highly driven. She could see Amber was, too, and yet she was acting like a human hiding from monsters in the dark, instead of rising to face the challenge. ‘Amber, I’ve seen your power. You would be a great asset—’
‘Just because I can doesn’t mean I want to!’
Seila was taken aback by Amber’s defensiveness. Waves of heat radiated from Amber, and Seila didn’t want to push. She wasn’t exactly fireproof, either.
‘I’ve enough scars from demons. I’ve burned enough people.’
Damon moved at those words. He shifted slightly, turned to lift his head and face her.
Seila couldn’t tell what passed between them as they regarded each other.
Amber continued, ‘The Kouzlo runs in secret. Funded by...whoever. Police? Government? They’ve run for years. Got nothing to do with us. We’ve been fine on our own since mum…’ She trailed off, her voice cracking. She shook her head and pulled herself together with a short breath, pushing away the tears that threatened. ‘I have plans tonight, anyway. And Fallow’s been doing this for years. Let her and her Kouzlo carry on.’
‘Plans?’ Damon asked. He looked crestfallen.
Amber swept back into the kitchen. She grabbed a cloth and began wiping down the sideboard as if her life depended on it. ‘Tej is taking me out to dinner.’
At the mention of Tej, Seila immediately remembered the bracelet, and Tej and Damon arguing over it. She hoped Tej wouldn’t be stupid enough to give it to Amber, not after everything they’d just learned about it. Seila wanted to say something to Amber, to warn her about the demonic energy she felt. Even without a soul and true emotions, she knew the situation between Damon, Amber, and Tej was prickly at best, and extremely sensitive at worst. She didn’t particularly want to meddle in their affairs. In the end, she bottled out. ‘I’m sure your dinner will be lovely. I can handle Fallow and whatever she has to say about the demons.’
Amber nodded and pushed past Seila to grab milk from the fridge.
Seila sighed and went back over to Damon, who had collapsed back into the sofa. Sprawled out, face-down, he took up the entirety of the space, and Seila had nowhere to sit. ‘Are you dying?’
A groan.
‘I can make you move, you know.’
Another groan. Damon made a poor effort to shift, his elbow twitching, and then he flopped forward again.
Seila summoned her blade and brandished it at him. With Amber’s back to them, and Damon’s face in the cushions, no-one saw it appear. ‘Last chance, Damon. Move.’
Damon exhaled loudly but didn’t get up.
Fair enough. She’d warned him. She flipped the sword into a reverse grip and jabbed the hilt of it squarely into Damon’s shoulder.
He yelped and jumped. ‘What the hell!?’
Seila opened her hand, letting go of the sword, and allowing it to disappear again. By the time Damon had his bearings, it was gone.
‘What on earth’s the matter, Damon?’ Amber asked. Her face was pinker than Seila remembered it being, her eyes tinged red.
Seila wondered why Amber was so upset, but didn’t enquire. Clearly the Kouzlo and their Elemental powers were delicate subjects. Not to mention whatever history they and their mother had with Fallow.
Damon squeezed his shoulder and squinted suspiciously at Seila. ‘Muscle cramp,’ he muttered, sullen.
Amber brought two mugs over, one of tea, one of coffee, and set them on the table. Damon finally shuffled over to the edge of the sofa to make room. Amber sat next to him, and Seila perched beside her. Amber rubbed her face. ‘So, are you going, then?’
‘Going where?’ Damon asked, voice monotone, bordering on obstinate. He grabbed his coffee and downed the hot liquid in one big gulp.
‘To the theatre? With Fallow? You’ll need a suit, of course. Do you still have the one you use for weddings?’
Seila crossed one leg over the other to get more comfortable. Amber was talking about events like it was the most natural thing in the world. Another type of defensiveness? Ignore what she didn’t like and focus on the practicalities?
‘I didn’t say I was going,’ he grumbled. ‘Can’t believe she did that. I didn’t have a bloody clue…’
Seila had no idea why he was so moody. Being able to conjure and manipulate fire at will would be a most useful trick in her arsenal. Demons burned very well. ‘It would be silly not to go,’ Seila said. ‘Fallow is powerful. Knowledgeable. You have a demon problem here, why not take steps to correct that? I won’t be around to protect you all from the next one.’
‘Of course Fallow’s powerful. Acts like she rules the whole bloody country. And you’re just super straightforward, aren’t you?’ Damon said, his tone slipping into full childish tantrum.
Seila had no patience for it. Whatever he thought about Fallow and what had happened, she wasn’t a babysitter. There were too many bigger things at stake. ‘Yes.’
Damon huffed and leaned forward to put his empty mug on the table, where it glared at it for a long moment.
Silence filled Amber’s apartment, broken only by the ticking clock in her kitchen.
‘I am here, waiting…’
Seila pursed her lips at the demonic voice rattling around in her mind.
Eventually, Damon said, ‘I’m sorry. I’m trying to get my head ‘round what just happened. I just... had my life changed by a...a...what you say Fallow was again?’
‘An Enchantress?’
‘That’s right. By an Enchantress. I didn’t even know that existed until an hour ago.’
Seila shrugged. ‘You could say the same about Phantoms.’ Her argument didn’t seem to help his mood, and Damon just sighed, forlorn. ‘And you should have known, if your mother was part of Fallow’s Kouzlo. Fallow even said you’d been there before.’
Damon scowled and wrapped his arms around himself. ‘Maybe I was happy not knowing.’
Amber took a deep breath, as though steeling herself for some intense physical exertion, and then asked, ‘What does Fallow want with us?’
Seila replied immediately, reeling off the facts as close to verbatim as she could. ‘Fallow’s demon hunters—her Kouzlo—are thin on the ground. Many are in their own dimension
s, recovering from fighting this Elite Demon. There are more demons now than ever before. More frequent attacks. They’ve overwhelmed her and her Kouzlo. There’s a new Mirage which lets them in, so their numbers are growing.’ Seila stared at Amber. ‘You’ve seen it for yourself. Why not use whatever resources are nearby?’
‘We’re people. Not resources,’ Amber said.
‘Does it matter? We can kill demons. Maybe we can do more than that. Make a difference. I’m not working this hard to reclaim my soul only to lose the world to an Elite Demon.’
Amber brought her steaming mug to her face and held it close. ‘It’s dangerous.’
‘Of course it’s dangerous.’ Seila didn’t know why they were all stating the obvious. Would they prefer to bury their heads in the sand? Pretend demons weren’t at their doorstep? Wait for Fallow or someone else to swoop in and save them?
They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a while, punctuated only by Amber slurping her drink and her clock as it continued to tick. Amber seemed well recovered after the Soul Eater’s attack. That was lucky. Leeches could be devastating after a few hours. Amber couldn’t have been its host for very long.
Seila knew the same fate awaited her, if she stopped killing demons.
And it would be the same fate for everyone in Fernhampton and beyond, if Fallow’s Elite Demon had its way.
‘I’m here. Waiting. Come, now.’
Seila suppressed a shiver at the demonic voice. She’d enjoyed peace from it while on the grounds of Caramond House. But now she no longer had the protection of Fallow’s enchantments, the voice echoed louder than ever in her mind.
If Seila hadn’t been convinced that she’d learn more from Fallow, she’d be in London right now, searching for the Elite Demon. She didn’t know why Fallow and Delgo hadn’t been able to find it yet, considering it was their jobs. That, alone, should have put her on edge. But Seila was confident in her own abilities and the thought of discovering a new, powerful demon simply excited her.
She relished the hunt, even though, simultaneously, she wanted it to end.
That damned bracelet.
What had Tej been thinking? Even an idiot could recognise a demon when he saw one, no matter how sophisticated it was?
Seila said, ‘Damon, you heard what Delgo said. About the demons destroying our dimension.’
‘Delgo?’ He raised his eyebrows.
‘The Djinni. The man from the jewellers.’
Damon shook his head with another huff. ‘More stuff.’
Seila wasn’t sure if he truly grasped the relevance of Delgo being a Djinni, if he could fathom the magical energy Delgo wielded. She didn’t want to waste time explaining it, so she pushed harder. ‘The demonic world touches our dimension in a thousand places. Demons cross over where they touch, in these Mirages. Fallow and her Kouzlo want to kill the demons and seal those Mirages. The Elite Demon is causing chaos here, right on your doorstep. If we find and kill it...perhaps I’ll finally get my soul back.’
Damon rubbed his eyes, looked to Amber, then back to Seila. He sighed loudly, resigned. ‘Well, we might as well go and listen to what she’s gotta say.’
‘Fallow,’ Amber corrected. ‘Listen to what Fallow has to say.’
Seila glanced at the two of them, wondered what caused their conflict.
Damon brushed off the correction like it was nothing. ‘What time are you going out? Is Tej getting you?’
‘About seven.’
Damon nodded, thinking. ‘We’ll come back here after, if that’s okay?’
‘Sounds good.’ Amber sounded anything but confident.
Damon licked his lips, began to speak, then thought better of it. Seila narrowed her eyes and watched. He shifted in his seat, uncomfortable. Eventually he said, ‘Look, I know...it sounds silly. But after what happened last night? Maybe you shouldn’t go out into town.’
Amber laughed at that. ‘Oh, so you can go out, but I can’t?’
‘That isn’t what I meant. It’s Tej, he…’
‘Not this again. I know it’s hard for you to see your sister and your best friend together.’
‘It’s not that, either!’ Damon was getting exasperated now. ‘Just...ask him to bring his crossbow with him, if you have to go out. That’s all I’m saying.’
After a moment she said, ‘Tej’s crossbow?’
Damon nodded. ‘Maybe some walkie-talkies, too? In case you get separated and there’s no phone signal? You never know when there might be a power cut, and he has loads in his shop. There’s lots of demons about and Seila won’t be there, and they can do all sorts of things, and you’ve only just recovered, and—’ He was rambling now, words cascading from him. ‘I just want you both to be safe.’
Amber’s stern expression softened. She wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him close. ‘I know what you’re going through—’
‘I remember.’
It was Amber’s turn to ramble. ‘I couldn’t help it, you know? When I burned—’
‘You were only a kid. A baby. You didn’t mean to.’
Amber swallowed hard. ‘And...that’s not gonna happen with you, you know? We’ll be fine. You’ve been fine this whole time without it. Knowing what you can do won’t change anything. You don’t have to do it. Don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. No matter how nicely Fallow asks.’
Seila suddenly felt unwelcome. As though she were intruding on an intensely private conversation that she didn’t have the right to witness.
Damon didn’t speak. He pulled his lips in, and nodded vigorously. Seila saw tears in the corners of his eyes. He struggled to prevent them from falling.
Amber said, ‘I’m here for you. I didn’t have anyone. But you do. You don’t have to worry about “what ifs” and what might or might not happen, you know?’
‘Yeah.’ Damon’s voice cracked.
Seila wanted to know what had happened. Wanted to be able to use that information to reassure Damon, but even without a soul, she knew it was deeply personal to them both. She licked her lips and tried to drown out the demonic voice rattling around in her mind.
‘Y’know, not everything can be fixed by a cup of tea,’ Damon said. He tried to smile as he said it, tried to inject some humour, but his delivery fell flat.
Amber nudged his shoulder with hers. ‘I know. I’m not saying it will.’
‘There’s nothing to fix,’ Seila said, unable to hold back any longer. ‘Your blood is your blood. It’s who you are. There isn’t anything wrong with you. Either of you.’
Damon scowled at her, but his look softened. ‘Tell that to the school board.’
Seila raised an eyebrow.
Amber shook her head. She stared at Seila for a long time before letting out a sigh. ‘My powers manifested when I was young. I was eight years old. Mum was away for work.’ She drew her knees up onto the sofa, wrapped her arms around them. ‘When I was upset or scared, I burned things. A scorch mark here or there can easily be explained.’
Damon let out a shuddering breath, but Amber continued. ‘I was bullied a lot when I was growing up. I was by myself a lot. Didn’t have many friends. Kids can be horrible, you know.’
Seila said nothing and waited for Amber to carry on.
‘One day a group of girls forced me into the toilets, locked me in a cubicle. Kept laughing, spraying water over me. They’d already stolen my bag, my lunch, ripped my skirt. I don’t know why they were so mean.’
Seila didn’t know either.
‘And...and I lashed out. Because the girls couldn’t see me through the closed door, no-one ever pinned it on me. But…’
Amber’s words hung thick in the air.
‘What did you do?’ Seila pressed.
‘Things caught on fire. The paper towels, the wooden cubicle doors and walls. The wallpaper above the tiles burned. Stripped right to the foundations. The toilets backed onto the bike shed outside, wood, of course. That went up in seconds.’
Seila shrugged. ‘Yo
u defended yourself. I don’t see the issue.’
Damon shook his head, his scowl gone. ‘There were kids by the bike sheds. I was there, too. I watched my friends burn, their clothes on fire. The grass on the sports field. Teachers and staff came to get us out before the inferno trapped us.’
Seila’s eyes widened. ‘Did you kill them?’
Amber tensed, fingers shaking. ‘Many others were burned. Some still carry the scars, because of what I did.’
‘When the fire brigade came, they blamed it on cigarettes chucked in the shed,’ Damon said. ‘It was summer. It seemed plausible enough. And it’s what we were told, so it’s what we all believed. Until Amber admitted it. Since then I’ve just been waiting for the day I accidentally set someone on fire. What if I scar them for life, too? What if I...kill them?’
Amber held her tongue and fought back tears.
Damon continued, ‘Thought I didn’t have anything. No powers. Nothing to be scared of. Not ‘till Fallow did whatever she did today.’ He looked at Seila, eyes downcast. ‘And now it’s happened. Finally.’
The three of them sat in silence for a long while. Seila knew the power of the Elementals. But she hadn’t realised they had access to all that power from such a young age.
With Amber so sensible and still causing damage, Seila wasn’t sure what Damon would be like if he needed to use his powers in a fight. People burned just as well as demons.
‘Tea’s getting cold,’ Damon said.
Amber picked up her mug with both hands. It began to steam again at her touch. ‘No, it isn’t.’
Seila smiled at that. At least Amber had learned some control over the last decade. But she understood her reluctance now. The puzzle fell into place. Amber’s embarrassment, her desperation to not talk about Elementals, the Kouzlo, even their mother. Why she didn’t want to use her power to join the Kouzlo in their fight against demons. And why Fallow didn’t want to pressure her.
Seila had no choice. If she didn’t kill demons, didn’t take their power, she’d die. Just like anyone else sucked dry by a Leech. She couldn’t fathom the idea of being able to hunt, but not wanting to. ‘I’m going to see Fallow tonight.’
