Legion

by Catrina Burgess

“Terrific,” I said trying to fight the urge to drop the dreadful thing. I took a deep breath and forced out, “What now?”

  “You step into the pentagram. You light the candle, and you cast the spell,” she said.

  “And the demon appears?” I looked at the pentagram. “But won’t I be in the pentagram with it?”

  “You will. You have to touch the demon when you do the second part of the spell,” she said.

  “And while I’m doing the second part of the spell, the demon is doing…what?” I asked.

  “We honestly don’t know what the demon is going to do,” she answered.

  “What if it kills me?” I demanded.

  Her voice was void of emotion when she said, “That’s a chance we have to take.”

  Luke’s voice rose up in anger. “I won’t let it hurt you.”

  Darla turned to her brother. “Once she starts the spell, you can’t step into the pentagram. No one can cross the threshold until the spell is cast.”

  I could tell by the look on Luke’s face that he wasn’t going to follow her instructions. He was prepared to risk his life to help me if he saw me in danger. His reaction honestly surprised me.

  “Where’s the spell?” I asked, trying to keep the panic from my voice. Darla could have given me the opportunity to learn the spell, to study it, but instead she sprung it on me. Had she held back about the spell because she worried once I found out about it I would have gone running to the elders? Or had she worried given enough time to think about it I would have realized it was a suicide mission and refused?

  Darla walked over to a small wooden table off to the side. When she came back, there was a large roll of yellow paper in her hand. “The spell’s written here,” she said, holding up the paper.

  I looked down at the hand of glory. It was too large for me to hold in one hand.

  She reached forward and tucked the paper under my arm. “Once you get into the pentagram, we’ll start the protection spell to help bind it. Place the hand of glory on the ground and light the candle, then start reading the spell.”

  “Sounds easy enough.” I tried for a smile, but I couldn’t pull it off. I was about to call forth the demon. What happened once the thing appeared was apparently anyone’s guess. “Do we have a backup plan? In case this whole thing fails miserably?” I asked.

  Darla gave me a blank look.

  I never wanted to be a leader—I never had the desire to give other people orders and watch them do my bidding—but Darla appointed herself head honcho of the camp’s young death dealers. If she wants to be a leader, she should start acting like one, I thought. The least she could do is lie to me and tell me they’re prepared no matter what.

  Luke reached out to place a hand on my shoulder. “If things start to go wrong, run.”

  Darla pushed her brother back and forced herself between us. She gave me a hard stare and then tucked a packet of matches into my front pocket.

  I gave Luke one last look before turning and stepping across the salted line into the center of the pentagram.

  It wasn’t the first time I’d been inside a pentagram. During the second dark ritual, I’d been tied to a chair inside one so a spirit could possess me. That ritual didn’t sound so bad right now. I bent down, laid the hand of glory on the dirt, and then pulled out the matches and lit the tuft of hair. The hair ignited in a burst of green and blue flame. The funky energy coming from the hand intensified tenfold. I almost doubled over as the wave of energy hit me straight on. With shaking fingers, I unrolled the parchment. It was old, crumbling in places. I looked down at the writing and was surprised—it was a language I didn’t recognize.

  I looked up at Darla. “Not Latin?”

  Darla shook her head. “It’s Gaelic.”

  I’d never seen Gaelic written out, but I’d heard it spoken at healer clan gatherings. This was Druid magic. “I don’t know any Gaelic.”

  “Trust me,” she said. “Just start reading the words.” Before I could even respond, she raised her hand, signaling the robed figures to light their candles and start chanting in low voices.

  The air around me began to change. The texture of the air become thick, and a gray mist began to swirl around the pentagram.

  “Just try to say the first word. The spell should take over and do the rest,” Darla said.

  Should take over, she said. No one knew how this stuff really worked. I was about to try a spell that hadn’t been done in a hundred years. Would it work? No one knew what would happen if and when the demon appeared. We were all taking this on faith. I was honestly scared out of my mind.

  I took a deep breath and let it out. Straightening my shoulders, I tried to concentrate on the words on the paper. I managed to read the first word. As soon as it left my mouth, the paper began vibrating beneath my fingers.

  My tongue was twisted around pronouncing the next word when suddenly my fingers clamped down hard on the parchment. I felt a flow of energy shoot up from the ground and race straight through me. My head shot back, and a stream of the ancient language flew from my mouth. As the last syllable left my lips, a scream ripped from my throat and everything around me disappeared.

  I was in a tunnel of wind, lights flashing all around. It was as though I was in the middle of a tornado. The wind whipped my hair across my face.

  The parchment paper was somehow still in my grip, and beside me was the hand of glory. Its flame flickered wildly and began to rise higher and higher. As the flame grew, it started changing colors—yellow turned to orange before slowly turning blood red. I could see nothing around me but the flashing light and hear nothing but the wind roaring in my ears. Then I heard other noises. Screams of terror. Growls, snarls, and the sound of gnashing. I had a sense of things moving somewhere out there in the darkness.

  Then the wind began to die down. When it finally stopped, my fingers automatically opened, and the parchment floated to the ground. I stared down at the spell, disoriented. When I looked back up, the scene had changed. The hand of glory had disappeared.

  In its place was the demon child.

  It lay on its side, curled in a ball. I heard it whimper. It looked up, and its eyes locked onto my face. It sat up slowly, as if the movement caused it pain. The porcelain doll lay in the child’s lap. The child gave me a wicked smile and said, “I’ve been looking for you.”

  Everyone froze. Panic like nothing I’ve ever felt before raced through me. I stood in the middle of the pentagram, my mouth trying to form words without any thought to drive them. I’m stuck inside the pentagram with the demon child.

  Luke, Darla, and the others stood outside of the protective barrier looking stunned as they watched me.

  Darla was the first to snap out of it. She yelled, “The spell! You must do the rest of the spell!”

  I fumbled for the parchment and immediately felt a burning sensation. I realized the child had bitten my hand. I shook it off and cried out in pain. The demon child’s teeth gleamed red as drops of blood dripped down its chin. Its eyes glowed bright yellow, and a dark shadow began forming behind it.

  I grabbed the parchment, moving quickly out of its range, and started to read again, tightening my grip on the paper. The strange words tumbled from my mouth so rapidly that they ran together.

  “Touch it! You must touch the demon as you do the rest of the spell,” a voice yelled out.

  I tried to force my fingers to let go of the paper, but it was as though I was no longer in control of my body. I looked down to see the demon child grabbing at me, trying to pull me close enough to bite my leg. I tried to step back, to run away, but I over-balanced and fell hard on my side.

  I looked up to see Darla and two robed figures wrestling with Luke. He was trying to get to me, but they were holding him back. I could see the hellfire sliding down his fingers and hands.

  “You must put your fingers on the demon!” Darla screamed.

  I used every bit of willpower I had to slowly loosen the fingers of my right hand from the p
archment. The words of the spell still flew from my mouth, all beyond my conscious control.

  Watching the crouching demon child, I carefully lowered my hand, but before I could touch it, the demon child’s fingers wrapped around mine. I didn’t have to touch it, I realized—the thing was touching me, grabbing me so it could climb my arm and thrust those sharp teeth deeper into my flesh.

  By chance, its mouth came down on the bear brand on my arm, the mark the old gods had used to claim me. As soon as it came in contact with the tattoo, the creature reared back and a horrible scream ripped through the air. For a moment, I was so disoriented I wasn’t sure who had screamed, the demon or me.

  The last bit of the spell forced itself from my lips. As the words left my mouth, the sound became semi-solid and floated like spirits on the air, crashing into the clearing like thunder. There was a flashing explosion of light that faded as suddenly as it had come. Purple afterimages throbbed in my eyes, pounding against the front of my brain. My vision went spotty—I began falling down into darkness. I felt myself hit the ground, my head bouncing against the dirt, and everything around me went black.

  * * *

  I opened my eyes and looked up into Luke’s face.

  “What happened?” I whispered.

  His fingers gently caressed my cheek. “Don’t move,” he said.

  I realized I was lying in the dirt, and my head rested in his lap.

  “Where’s the demon?” There was a pounding at my temples and a burning in my hand and arm. I felt as if parts of my body and skin were on fire.

  “That thing’s been contained. Don’t move. They’re getting a healer.”

  And then there was a woman kneeling over me. I felt her hands on my body. She whispered words on the wind, and warmth radiated through her fingers into my flesh.

  I sighed out in relief.

  The woman’s voice sounded strained when she said, “The demon bit her. See the tiny lines of black forming around the wounds? I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

  I needed to get up. My head was still fuzzy, but I realized the woman was saying something was wrong with me. The demon had done something to me.

  A hand brushed against my forehead, and Luke’s voice whispered, “Everything’s okay. Just rest. Everything will be okay.”

  * * *

  When I woke next, I was back in my tent lying on a cot.

  Freddy was sitting on a cot on the other side of the tent.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked. Today he had on a bright, striped red-and-yellow sweater and jeans. It was always easy to spot him in a crowd—he was usually the only splash of color in a sea of gray and black.

  I slowly raised myself onto my elbows. “Tired.” I felt as if I’d just finished running a marathon.

  “Not surprising after what you’ve been through.” A wide smile spread across his face. “You did it. You made that thing human.”

  “The spell worked?” Relief washed over me. The spell had worked. We were that much closer to banishing the demon forever. I looked down at my bandaged hand. “It bit me.”

  “I heard,” Freddy said getting to his feet. “You’re the talk of the camp.”

  “I bet.” I forced myself upright and swung my legs over the cot. One leg of my jeans had been ripped up to my knee. I looked down at my arm. There was a bandage around it. “When it came in contact with the mark on my arm, something happened.”

  Freddy nodded his head. “The yellow light. Darla told me. That’s the magic you got from some old gods, right?” He was watching me closely. “Luke was telling us about your adventures in the asylum. And about all the fun you had with that crazy dude, Gage.”

  “Oh yeah, heaps and heaps of fun. So much fun I could barely contain myself.” My head was throbbing. I reached up and touched a large bump on the back of my head.

  “They say you hit your head pretty hard. You might have a concussion.”

  “How long have I been out?”

  “About twelve hours.”

  I looked around, and as if reading my thoughts, Freddy said, “I told Luke to go get some sleep. He wouldn’t leave your side. I almost had to wrestle him out of the tent. I told him as soon as you were up I would go get him.”

  “If he’s sleeping, let him sleep.” Luke had tried to come to my aid when the demon was attacking me in the pentagram. Darla had told him he couldn’t enter the pentagram while I was doing the spell, but he’d tried anyway. When I’d fallen injured, he’d rushed to my side. The look on his face as he looked down at me, the way his fingers brushed against my temple… He seemed to truly care about me.

  I started to get to my feet.

  “Whoa, you are supposed to rest.” Freddy’s face took on a look of alarm. “Those are my orders, and if I don’t enforce the orders, Luke will be after me.”

  “I want to see the creature. It’s human now?” I’d tried to get up, but a wave of dizziness forced me back down.

  “It is. Flesh and blood,” Freddy said.

  “It has no power?” We’d done it. The spell had worked.

  “Not that it has shown. As far as anyone can tell, the thing is truly in human form.”

  “So we kill it.” I could hear the relief in my voice. Maybe I could undo one of the terrible wrongs I’d committed. Maybe I could atone just a little bit for what I’d done.

  “That’s the tricky part.” When I didn’t say anything, he continued. “They say they have to wait a few days. And then they will do some kind of sacrifice using an enchanted dagger.”

  I just looked at him in horror as the words screamed through my head—sacrifice. A sacrifice like the one done to my father.

  “Darla says the spell has to come full circle. They kill the child.” Freddy suddenly looked uncomfortable. “Then the demon is banished forever.”

  “I want to see it.” I’d always dreaded being in the creature’s presence, but now that it was human, it couldn’t cause me any harm.

  Freddy’s eyes widened. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Why not?” I demanded.

  “Darla says you need to rest.”

  I forced myself to my feet. “Freddy, where are they keeping it?”

  When he realized I wasn’t going to give up, he sighed loudly and said, “On the edge of the encampment. Over in that cabin by the cliff.”

  I took a step forward. I was still dizzy, but I forced myself to keep moving. I glanced back over my shoulder. “Tell them you had no choice but to let me go. Tell them I was an uncooperative patient.”

  He made no move to stop me.

  I went out of the tent and left Freddy behind as I slowly made my way across the camp. People stopped and openly stared at me as I went. The dizziness came and went in waves. I felt off balance and a bit disoriented. I had to stop a few times and catch my breath before I finally made it to the cabin.

  It was a very old cabin, the smallest of the bunch. There were three death dealers standing in front of it.

  One of them put his hand up when I got close. “No one is allowed inside.”

  How did the rest of the camp feel when they found out we had done the spell? Did they even know? Darla wasn’t delusional enough to think she could keep the creature hidden. Or was she? At this point nothing Darla did would surprise me.

  “Darla said I could see the child,” I lied.

  The guard looked uncertain.

  I just stared at him until finally he stepped aside.

  I made my way up the porch and paused at the cabin door. What would I see when I went inside? That thing had attacked me. It had done something to me. I raised a trembling hand to my temple. I pulled back the bandage on my hand and saw tiny lines of black along the skin.

  I opened the door. It was dark inside. Light streamed in from one tiny window. I heard a noise, but saw nothing. “I know you’re in here,” I said. I prepared myself for…I wasn’t sure what. Would it attack me again? Was the creature really now human?

  “Are you on
e of them?” the child said, walking into the light.

  There she stood. The demon child—only it was no longer a demon, it was just a child. In the past, whenever I’d looked upon the demon child there had been such a vibe of evil radiating off the creature that it was hard to think of it as anything other than a monster. But that evil was gone. Standing before me was a child about eight years old. Long brown hair hung past her shoulders.

  The breath caught in the back of my throat. The demon I remembered had yellow, soulless eyes that had peered into me. Whenever I had looked back into them in the past I could see nothing but hatred and something dark and inhuman. This child had bright-blue eyes. There was even something familiar about them… I realized what it was in a moment of shock.

  I was looking into my brother’s eyes.

  As I stared at her, the child gave me a timid smile—my father’s smile. The child looked so much like me. Her pale complexion, her Scottish forehead and chin. Her nose, her eyes. I was looking at a face that could have been my sister. How had I never noticed it before?

  I should have been terrified. This child had attacked me, bitten me. And yet I wasn’t afraid. All I could do was stare transfixed at her face. Her features, her expressions were so familiar. My family was dead, but somehow parts of them lived on inside of her.

  “I’m hungry,” she said.

  I finally found my voice. “I’ll tell them.” I turned, rushing out of the cabin, and as I went through the door I stumbled into someone.

  Strong arms wrapped around me. I looked up into Luke’s face. “Colina, you should be resting.”

  He embraced me, and the desire to settle against him was so strong. I forced myself back. “Freddy shouldn’t have gone running to you.”

  “He’s worried about you, and so am I.” Luke looked behind me, back into the cabin. “You saw her.” It wasn’t a question.

  “She looks like me.” I forced the words through trembling lips.

  “She’s not you.” His voice was filled with anger. “The demon used your blood to create its human form.”

  “Used my DNA. Luke, it has my father’s smile. It has my brother’s eyes.”