A tense silence fell over the room.
Then Solomon spoke quietly. “This is a big opportunity.”
“It’s also a big risk.” Enzo brushed his fingers against the bandage on his neck. “We could all get hurt again, or killed.”
“Not all of us have to go.” Gideon turned to the last page of the contract and signed his name nonchalantly. A soldier through and through.
“But the more of us who go,” Victoria murmured, “the safer it’ll be. Especially if a greater demon does break through before we get to the cornerstone.”
“That’s the thing.” Adara tapped her pen against the corner of the final contract page. “There’s already a greater demon roaming around on Earth, and she’s probably heading for one of those two cornerstones.”
“Astaroth,” Gideon growled. “That bitch needs payback. But I’ll need help to give it to her. I can’t banish a greater demon alone.” He looked expectantly at each of them in turn. “So who wants to help me?”
Adara stared at the line on the contract page. If she wrote her signature there, it would obligate her to put herself in the line of fire again, and next time, she might come away with more than forty stitches in her leg. Worse, she might not come away at all.
Her simple dreams of a doctorate and a career in academia, punctuated by hiking adventures to the planet’s most breathtaking places, might be crumpled up like pieces of trash and tossed aside to be forgotten as the world moved on without her.
The question was, would the world move on at all if she didn’t do this?
Sure, there were other shard holders out there, but none were experienced with fighting demons. And many would balk if Dawes and Jefferson asked them to stick out their necks.
Furthermore, finding more shard holders would take time, and every day that went by would allow more imps to squeeze through the damaged cornerstones. Those imps would go on to terrorize and murder countless people before Overlock put together another viable shard holder team.
Adara looked over her shoulder at the window along the back wall of the office. Through the blinds, she glimpsed the haze above what remained of Gideon’s apartment building and spied the unwavering glow of Barnaby and Pruitt.
Images flashed through her mind’s eye. Images of bloody and broken bodies. Images of flame and choking smoke. Images of carnage and catastrophe.
The greater demons had committed so many heinous acts in just forty-eight hours. And if more of them broke through the barrier, those things would happen again.
Different people in different cities would be massacred on different streets. Different apartment buildings would burn to the ground and spit smoke into the sky. Different colleges would become beachheads for the demon invasion—and if not colleges, then city halls or public parks or popular malls or sports stadiums. Or other beloved public places, perverted for the use of creatures who reveled in pain and suffering.
Adara wasn’t obligated to play the hero. She knew this for a fact.
But she also knew that if she declined this offer, and more innocent people were killed as a result of that decision, she wouldn’t be able to look her own reflection in the eye. And more importantly, she wouldn’t be able to visit her father’s grave in any state other than shame.
Her father had been a brave man, and he hadn’t raised a coward. She would not tarnish his memory by turning her back on the world when it needed her the most.
Adara brought her pen to the signature line and wrote her name. “I’m in.”
Enzo cracked a smile and wrote his name as well. “Me too.”
Victoria sighed and said, “Well, since my pre-med curriculum is on hold indefinitely”—she quickly scribbled her name before she lost her nerve—“I might as well do something else worthwhile.”
Everyone turned to Solomon, who was green around the mouth, like he was about to upchuck whatever he’d eaten for breakfast. Even so, he brought his pen to the paper with a shaking hand, and as he haltingly wrote his signature, he muttered, “Lucky for you guys, I’m out of a job, thanks to my firm turning into a lighthouse. So I need this money to pay my bills.”
Gideon snorted. “Oh please, weatherman. You’re not fooling anyone. You want to be a superhero, same as the rest of us.”
Solomon’s face turned beet red. “I…I do not.”
Everyone had a good chuckle at that.
Then Jefferson and Dawes returned.
Without a word, everyone tucked their contracts back into the folders, along with their NDAs, and passed the folders over to Adara. Adara set her folder on top of the stack, gave the stack a good whack against the tabletop to even the folders out, and spun her chair around to face Jefferson and Dawes.
Offering the stack to Dawes, she said, “We’ll do it.”
Dawes accepted the folders and flashed a ghost of a smile. “In that case, go out and get yourselves some good dinner, then go home and pack your bags. Or in the cases of Mr. Vega and Mr. Bell, go buy yourselves some clothing and toiletries. We leave for Texas at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning, and it’s going to be a very long and very interesting drive.”
“And when we arrive at our destination,” Jefferson said, “we’re going to have a very exciting fight with some very angry demons. Hopefully, the fight will be short. Hopefully, the fight will be easy. But personally, I wouldn’t bet on either if I were you.”
Dawes huffed. “Place your bets as you wish, but one thing is non-negotiable. This time around, there will be no flashy battles in the streets where every Tom, Dick, and Harry can see you using your powers. You will be unheard. You will be unseen. And you will be in and out of the cornerstone location before any of the locals realize something weird is going on.”
Her stern schoolteacher gaze swept over each person in the room, including Jefferson. “This will be a low-key operation, people. I expect all of you to be like Ms. Wise—essentially invisible. Do you understand me?”
“Oh yeah. We understand,” Enzo said. “This ought to be a breeze.”
Radio Roadstead
“Hey, everybody! This is Triple J, back for the evening report on the escalating unnatural phenomena related to the Global Impact Event. There are so many new reports coming in across the internet every minute of the day that I can’t possibly cover them all. So I’m going to present to you guys what I believe are the highlights, the most important things happening around the world right now.
“To begin with, Washington has officially suspended all air traffic over the United States as a result of the strange electrical interference occurring in the vicinities of the meteorite impact zones. According to the White House press secretary, there is no planned end date for this suspension, meaning that stranded American travelers and foreign tourists all across the country will have to find another way home.
“Bringing things a bit closer to our home, the governor of Massachusetts is still refusing to comment on the mysterious military action taken by the National Guard on the campus of Edgerton College yesterday evening. But according to credible witnesses who were in the area at the time, the FBI had a heavy presence during the unknown operation, which is believed to have taken place primarily in the Edgerton College library.
“Drone footage recorded this morning by a couple daring citizens shows heavy fire damage to one of the library’s entrances, along with a startling number of bullet holes and bloodstains on the grounds outside the library. But despite this indisputable proof of a virtual military battle on US soil, the government has not yet released a statement regarding the purpose of this operation.
“Their continuing silence on the matter has consequently led to widespread speculation that the government is involved in some kind of cover-up related to the strange creatures that violently attacked a crowd in Edgerton earlier on the same day.
“Finally, a reputable news report out of Germany claims that a woman struck by one of the meteorites during the impact event has developed the power of telekinesis—the ability to move obje
cts with her mind. A YouTube video posted by the news site does in fact appear to show this woman making a soccer ball float with nothing but the power of her mind.
“Some people are calling the video a fake, saying that the levitation is nothing but a special effect. Others, however, believe this woman may have something in common with the unidentified people in Edgerton who were captured on live TV performing feats beyond belief after the North Locum Apartment Complex violently exploded.
“Regardless of the truth of the matter, I can tell you all one thing for certain. This Global Impact Event, whatever it was, has triggered a great shift in our community, throughout our country, and across the world. A shift that will alter the way we live, that will challenge all that we believe, and that will demolish our understanding of reality itself.
“Believe you me, friends, this shift will not be gentle or kind. It will be a great and terrible chain of introductions to a world that is drastically different from the one we all know. It will be a chain of painful initiations into a way of life that is alien to each and every one of us. It will be a chain of rugged baptisms, baptisms of fire and baptisms of ice, that will change the very nature of who we are as a species.
“Prepare yourselves, everyone. The end times may not be upon us, but the new times have definitely arrived. And they are here to stay.
“This is Jolly Jace Jones at Radio Roadstead, WPZK, signing off.”
To Be Continued
IN WHERE DEMONS FEAR TO TREAD!
Coming soon!
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About Nadia Sheridan
Nadia Sheridan is an author of paranormal thrillers and urban fantasy mysteries. Born and raised in rural Virginia, Nadia developed an overactive imagination that led to a love for all things fantasy, including books, TV shows, movies, manga, and video games.
Nowadays, Nadia is busy writing her own fantasy novels, as well as cuddling her two cats, binge-watching TV shows on Netflix, and spending far too much money buying books to add to the mountain on her overladen bookcase.
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