by K. C. RILEY
“You’ve got to put that back on,” I nervously said.
“Play,” he answered.
He looked at me like I was out of my head. I guess I was.
“Play,” he said again clicking and unclicking the belt.
“Soon.” I was a block away from Vye’s. I put on my hazard lights and slowed the car to a drawl to avoid an accident.
“Mr. Peebles.”
Mr. Peebles was back in my room stuffed inside a box in my closet. I would have to get it for him later. Much later.
I pulled into the alley next to Vye’s and locked Jedidiah in the car. He giggled as he pressed his face and hands against the glass.
Vye had already closed when I knocked on the front door. She threw a rag over her shoulder before she opened up. “Hey, hon. Your hair. Wow. It’s so long.”
“Yeah. Hey,” I said. “Could you open the back door? I’ve got a surprise.”
“What’s going on?”
“You’ll see,” I said anxiously smiling.
I unlocked the car door and took Jedidiah’s hand.
“Play?”
“Yes. Play. Play with Aunt Vye.”
Vye opened the back door. “What on earth?”
I pulled Jedidiah inside as we rushed past Vye on the way in. “It’s a long story. Just follow me. I don’t have much time.”
“You know I just mopped. For heaven’s sake. Elizabeth Maverick, what is going on? And who is this?” Vye muttered from behind us. “And why is he dripping all over my floor dressed in seaweed?” She caught up to us in the storeroom.
“Mr. Peebles,” Jedidiah said.
“Look at him, Aunt Vye,” I said. “I mean really look at him.”
In spite of what Aunt Norah had done to him, Jedidiah’s smile lit up the room. He was still untainted and innocent.
Stepping closer, Vye put on her glasses and gazed deep into his eyes as my hand and leg jittered with haste to get back to the cornfield.
“No. That’s impossible. It can’t be. Jedidiah?”
“Bingo.” I nodded and smiled. “Okay, great. I’ve got to go. Major emergency.”
“Play,” Jedidiah said, touching everything in sight.
“Wait. How?” Vye’s voice cracked with belief and disbelief at the same time.
I had to go. “It’s all real. Confirmed and verified by Ezra himself. I’ll explain it all when I get back. I promise.”
“Uh. What? Wait,” Aunt Vye said.
“Food,” Jedidiah said.
“See? He’s hungry,” I said backing out of the door. “Starving. I’ll be back later. Promise. I love you. Bye.”
I was about to take off when I could see Vye flagging me down in the rearview mirror. I rolled down the window as she ran to the car with an envelope in her hand.
“I forgot to tell you a young man dropped this off a couple of days ago. Said his name was Kai. I’m sorry. I was so caught up with everything in the shop. But it seems important.”
“Thanks,” I said, taking the letter.
“And where did you get this car? The hair, Jedidiah, you running off like you’ve lost your mind. You know what, I don’t want to know. Just promise me you’ll be careful.”
“I promise. I will.”
The sound of pots and plates crashing to the floor roared from the shop.
“Oh Lord, not my kitchen. I’ve got to go.” Vye took off to save what might have been left of her kitchen. “I mean it. Be careful!” she yelled back.
What I loved the most about Aunt Vye was that she trusted me.
I placed the letter in the passenger seat. Maybe Kai had said goodbye after all. If he had, it would have to wait. It was already a little past eleven. I had under an hour left to get to Jake.
I made a quick stop at the gas station and picked up two jugs of water. Ezra said I could find Jake in a place called The Looking Glass. I couldn’t stop thinking of Alice in Wonderland. The Looking Glass was both a mirror and a portal. It was how she got from one place to the other. There was no time to go grab a mirror big enough. By then, Jake would be dead. If I was really a water conjurer then I could make my own. I think. I just prayed my plan would work.
I combed through the pages of The Book of the Unnamed for two spells on the way to the cornfields. One that would transform the water from the jugs into a mirror and one that would open the mirror to the place where Jake was being held.
That was as far ahead as I could think.
I was maybe a mile from the field when I ran into cows. Freaking cows. I jumped out of the car clapping my hands and making wild noises for them to move. It didn’t work. I then sat in the car and blew the horn. They ignored that too until they finally started to move.
Another ten minutes gone.
I arrived at the cornfield at exactly 11:32 p.m. A quick check in the mirror revealed an itchy, bumpy rash on top of what looked like a rose tattoo at the back of my neck. The mark of Eve. Realizing Ezra was right, I wasted no time jumping out of the car with the two jugs of water in my hand.
Cassie and Josie were outside, right on time. To my surprise, so were Alexei, Boyd, and Mason.
“What are you guys doing here?”
“There’s no way we’re letting you do this on your own,” Mason said.
Everyone being there filled me with something I don’t think I ever had, a place where I belonged. A home.
“Okay. Let’s go.” The ruins were still a good fifteen minutes away.
“Wait,” Josie said. “We’ve got one more person.”
“Who?”
“Just hear her out,” Cassie interjected.
“We’re running out of time.”
Someone stepped out of the back seat of Josie’s car. Meghan.
“What is she doing here?”
“I’m here to help,” Meghan answered, with all her wits intact.
“I don’t understand,” I said, bewildered.
“Holding the amulet inside of her was what was making her crazy,” Josie explained.
I begged to differ, but what did I know?
“I’m air,” Cassie continued. “Josie, earth. You, water. And Meghan is fire. We’re the four maidens.”
The night just kept getting better and longer. Regardless, there was no time to argue.
“Fine, let’s just go.”
Meghan, a maiden. One wrong move and I would squash her. Okay, that was a lie but it felt good to say. Did I trust her? Hell no. But did I need her? Apparently, so. Whatever beef I had with Meghan would have to wait.
We were almost to the site when Meghan came up beside me.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
What sorcery was this? Meghan apologizing. Dumbfounded, I didn’t know what to say.
“The video, Jake, your phone, the dress, leaving you guys behind at the lake,” Meghan said.
Check, check, and check. It was a laundry list a mile long.
“I’m sorry for all of it.”
Was she really sorry, or was she ready to retake the throne as Queen Bee of All Saints? I was sure Abby and Camilla, her besties were more than ready for her to reclaim the crown. Without the head of the snake, they had completely slithered into the background for weeks, unheard.
“I know you don’t believe me. But I’m not that person anymore. The amulet, it changed me. I saw the White Sun. The one is the many and the many is the one. I know you’ve seen it too.”
I wasn’t sure what to believe anymore. And I wasn’t in the mood for anymore Jedi babble. However, I couldn’t deny that there was something different about Meghan. Dare I say, angelic?
“Let’s just get Jake back.” That was the best I could do. Trust had to be earned. And only time would tell if she was telling the truth or not.
We had finally arrived at the ruins. Anxious, I checked my phone. 11:51 pm. It was down to the wire.
Cassie called out the spell that emerged the large stones from the ground. The boys quickly transformed into Anubis. Josie burned sage to cleanse the spa
ce for protection.
“Hurry,” I said, praying the spells I had chosen would all work. If they didn’t, there was no time to search for new ones.
Cassie, Josie, Meghan, and I called in the four winds and the four elements while the boys guarded the space.
I conjured the water out of the jugs and created what looked like a full-length oval mirror above the ground. The problem was you could see straight through it, thus the reflective spell.
“Ritris Putor Reflectus.” At the sound of the words, the see-through disc of liquid became reflective like a mirror.
There was only one more piece left, opening The Looking Glass directly to Jake.
“Arey Ditor Orus.” My voice echoed through the ruins like a goddess. The clouds rolled overhead as the henge of pillars gathered electricity around us. I said the words again. This was it, everything I had been working for.
I said the words one last time. The energy of The Book of the Unnamed coursed through me. And all without Lilith.
The Looking Glass should have opened but it didn’t. I said the words again. All that power flowing around me, through me, and nothing.
I was down to just a minute.
Panic rippled through my chest and arms. On the verge of tears, I was about to lose it. Jake would die because of me.
“Do you love him?” Cassie said, out of nowhere.
“What?” I asked frustrated and tapped out.
The wind picked up and swirled through the ruins. There was no doubt it was coming from her. “Do you love him? I mean more than Kai,” she yelled.
It terrified me to say the truth out loud.
“Yes. No. Why does it matter?”
“Magic is emotion,” Cassie yelled. “The spells are connected to how you feel. One way or the other you need to tell the truth. You’re running out of time.”
Why was she pushing so hard? And how would saying anything about my personal feelings out loud in front of everyone, especially Meghan, change anything?
“It’s okay,” Josie yelled. The ground began to rumble.
“Tell the truth,” Meghan, yelled. Of all people. Regardless, red veins of heat burned through the pillars of stone at the fire in her words.
The water of The Looking Glass swirled faster and faster. The pressure of all the elements gathered together pressed against my face almost as if squeezing the truth from my lips.
“I love them both, all right. The same, I think,” I finally said.
The wind died down. The ground and the flames at the stones quieted. All became still. Everything except The Looking Glass. A wave of energy flushed over the watery disc turning it black. Saying how I truly felt about Jake and Kai in front of everyone worked. I hoped.
I glanced at everyone’s face. There was no judgement about loving two guys at the same time.
I took a deep breath at the thought of what I had gotten myself into. Could I really defeat the demon that was holding Jake? And would he still be alive?
I looked back at everyone before stepping into The Looking Glass
The smell of sulfur was the first thing to hit my nose.
The dark stone chamber I had stepped into was full of open doorways and halls that led to only God knows where.
There was no sign of the demon and I should have moved more cautiously, but I couldn’t help it—not after spotting Jake. He was on his knees, his head and body slumped over. His limp arms dangled from the chains that bound him between two pillars that stretched into the dismal darkness of the ceiling.
It was exactly like my dream.
Light from torches lit against the stone walls danced across his open wounds and crusted flesh. His face had been beaten, his body tattered, and his miraculous wings ripped from his bare back. They had been tossed aside like yesterday’s garbage.
“Jake.”
He barely moaned, and my heart crumbled.
It was one thing to dream the horror of it all, and another to experience it firsthand. Even in his battered state, something about Jake wrapped itself around my spine warming me to the core, changing me into something more than just myself. It was like Jake was my soul, and despite all of the myths and stories that confirmed it, I still couldn’t digest how such a thing could be possible.
I glanced at the wounds over his body. This was all my fault.
“Tu Teris Partar.” A spell to ease his pain. “I’m going to get you out of here.”
I then thought of a spell to free his wrists from the silver chains that held him bound.
“Yetir Lanot.”
The symbols on both the pillars and the chains glowed hot in a blue light until the chains broke. Finally freed, he slumped further over.
“Jake, please. I need you to get up.”
He moaned. Which was good. It meant he was still alive. But he was too heavy and tall for me to lift.
I glanced at the waning portal. Jake’s wounds were bad and more than likely infected. I tried several healing spells from the book but none of them worked. I had to get Jake out of here.
“Come on. Get up.”
“I…,” he grumbled.
“Yes. I’m here. Get up. Please.”
He moaned in pain but somehow found a way to stand up from his knees. It was enough to get him to lean on me and get the hell out of wherever we were.
He tried to speak again.
“Save your energy,” I said keeping an eye out for the demon.
We practically stumbled back to the portal, but we were almost there.
“Now, just where do you think you’re going?” someone asked. Their voice was scratchy and garbled. The demon.
My gut tightened when what little light there was blew out.
“Evay Sta Ringus. Evay Sta Ingus,” the demon said.
At the sound of the words, The Book of the Unnamed swirled within me. Something was wrong.
I couldn’t hold onto Jake as the book and its pages ripped from out of my back in the darkness. It was the demon taking the pages for itself.
“Tures Centres,” the vile thing said.
I screamed in agony as the next spell tried to pull the amulet from out of me as well.
“Tures Centres,” the demon said again.
I couldn’t let it win.
“Give me what I want.”
“No,” I said, watching the portal continue to wane. It was the only way back.
I dropped to my knees in exhaustion and pain. I tried to catch my breath for just a second, but was thrown to the ground. Something put its lips on me. The demon. It was sucking the life out of me, just like Aunt Norah had done. Just like I had done to Kai in my dreams. But it was more than that. The demon was taking my powers, my water conjuring. I had fought so hard for it, so hard for Jake.
My body further weakened. I couldn’t fight it.
“Tures Centres,” the demon said after draining me of my magic.
This time it tried to pull the amulet out of the front of my chest. But it was as though the amulet itself was resisting.
“Let it go,” the demon said.
I was out of it, too weak to do anything. The fight was now between the amulet and the demon.
“Give me the amulet,” the demon said, still pulling it from my chest.
I don’t know how, but something clicked. It was as if the amulet wasn’t giving up on me. Like there was still hope, even without my powers or the book. The Blood of Eve within the amulet, her light, I was more than the darkness inside of me.
“NO,” I said. “You. Can’t. Have it. Treres Otures.” The spell for turning on the lights.
My hands glowed bright and illuminated the foul demon in the darkness that surrounded me. We were finally face to face.
I gasped, confused and startled as I tried to catch my breath. It was all too late. The light at my hands had already blasted the demon into The Looking Glass, thus closing the portal behind it.
I should have at least been relieved and grateful that Jake and I were still alive, if barely. Bu
t how could I be? And what had I done? The demon that had been holding Jake all this time, the one I had just set free…
The demon was me. Lilith.
About the Author
When not writing about fallen angels, vampires, werewolves, and secret societies, my favorite past time includes binging Netflix, home-brewed coffee, long walks along the beach, and my favorite—dark chocolate after a glass of red wine and pizza.
Books by K.C. Riley
Secret Society of Souls Series
Book 1 - Shattered
Book 2 - Fallen
For upcoming book releases and bonus material please subscribe and visit at:
secretsocietyofsouls.com
