“I’m not letting them take me anywhere,” I said the words through clenched teeth.
There was a commotion. It was Darla. She had jumped to her feet and was shouting at the top of her lungs at her uncle. “This is not justice!”
The others at her table jumped up with her, shouting protests and threats.
Franklin’s hand smashed down on the table, making a loud clap and startling both of the other board members. “That’s enough! The board has made its ruling and the matter is closed!”
Darla stood for a moment, staring at him, her mouth set in a firm line, and then she turned and stormed from the tent, followed by her grumbling minions. The assembly broke up quickly as groups left the tent, talking intently amongst themselves.
Franklin exchanged quiet words with the other board members and then walked toward me. “Colina, I hope you see that this outcome is best for everyone.”
Luke’s hand shot out and grabbed mine again. He wanted me to go along.
I would for now. He was right—it would be suicide to try and fight with so many death dealers present. I had to play it smart. Wait until nightfall to try and make my escape. When I escaped, would Luke go with me? He had just told me he was willing to go off and live in a remote death dealer camp for seven years.
I looked at Franklin. He was waiting for me to say something. I forced words out of my mouth. “I do see that I am being treated fairly. Thank you.” I tried to smile, though I doubt I pulled it off.
I could see by his expression he knew I didn’t believe what I was saying.
He looked at Luke and then back at me. “It is for the best. Our most capable mages study at Fjellborg, and if there is anyone who knows how to help you, they will be there.”
“Help me?”
“Yes.” He reached out and gently grasped my wrist, turning it over to show the black lines scrolling up my forearm. “You have been bitten by the demon. Its poison will kill you slowly, by inches, and the darkness will creep into your soul as much as your body. We have some records of victims of demon poison, and it isn’t a good way to die. If there is anyone who can help you, they are at Fjellborg. We have some records left from the demon wars, and we might be able to find a cure.”
He gestured at two young death dealers who hovered near the door, not quite looking at me. “In the meantime, Jack and Lyla will keep an eye on you for your own protection. Emotions are still high, and we don’t want any more tragedies.”
“What about Jamie? What are you going to do with her?” I demanded.
“Jamie? Oh… You mean the demon.” He looked off in the distance for a moment and then back at me. “The creature will go with you. Some of the most powerful members of our guild are at Fjellborg. It may take some time, but they will find a way to send the creature straight back to hell.”
* * *
I’d closed my eyes to rest, and when I opened them again, I found it was dark outside. I was alone in the tent. A lantern burned brightly on a nearby table.
Luke and I had been escorted back to my tent, trailed the whole way by my two new guards. Once Luke saw me settled on the cot, he made me promise I wouldn’t do anything rash and then left with a vague comment about going to talk to his uncle.
I didn’t try to stop him. I had just been told I would have to spend the next seven years in some remote death dealer camp under lock and key. What difference did another hour or two make?
Seven years they thought they would keep me prisoner. Did they really think I would just go along with their plans? I shook my head. I wasn’t staying here. I would rather die trying to escape then go meekly with them to be held prisoner again. What would Dean think if I told him what I was thinking? Would he help me? Or would his loyalties lie with his people?
I peeked outside and saw two figures standing close by the tent entrance, illuminated by the moonlight; my guards were still in place. When Luke got back, I would try and convince him that we needed to escape tonight. If we waited until everyone was asleep and then overpowered our guards, we might be able to make it out of the camp before anyone realized.
Just as I was contemplating which guard to knock out first, Dean walked into the tent. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay.” But I wasn’t really. I felt stronger since taking the counter potion, but I could still feel the effects of the poison. My mind was fuzzy, and there was a general weakness in my limbs. How long could I go on like this? How long until the poison killed me?
Uncle Franklin had tried to sound confident when he said they would find a way to heal me, but I knew the truth. They knew as much about the demons as I did, maybe even less. The only one who truly knew about demons was Mildred—the old woman had been around when demons roamed the earth. She was my one chance of surviving.
When Mildred first told me she’d walked among demons, I didn’t believe her. How could she possibly be so old? The demons had been freed a hundred years ago, and Mildred looked like a woman in her seventies. But I’d seen Mildred wield incredible power. She had done everything she could to help me when Gage had taken me prisoner. I had to believe she was my friend and that she wanted to help me. I had to believe the things she told me about the demons. If she’d been around during the demon wars, she’d have to have some knowledge of demon poison and, hopefully, its antidote.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Dean asked, peering down into my face.
“I’m fine,” I lied.
“You look pale.” He started to reach for me, but I moved away.
“You don’t need to worry, Dean.”
My face must have revealed something, because Dean crossed his arms and gave me a stern look.
My thoughts turned to Jamie. She was safe for the moment. Franklin had forbidden Darla from doing the next ritual.
“You aren’t going to abide by their ruling.” It wasn’t a question. “I can tell you’re up to something. You know you can trust me, Colina.” We had been through a lot together. Back in the asylum I had trusted Dean with my life. And I knew he cared about me. But if I told him I wanted to escape… Was our history together enough reason for him to turn his back on his guild and become a fugitive alongside me?
I guess it’s time to see where his loyalties lie. “I’m getting out of here.”
Without hesitation, he answered, “Count me in.”
“We have to try and find Mildred. I think she may be the only one who can find a cure for the demon poison.” I looked at him. He had such a determined look on his face. “When I said ‘we,’ I meant Luke and me. Dean…”
He raised his hand and interrupted me. “I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”
“If they catch us escaping, there will be consequences. Dean, these are your people. I know how much you care for them. I can’t be the reason you betray them. Besides, even if we are able to escape, it’s not safe out there for death dealers.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Dean said quietly. He reached out and snatched my hand before I could pull it away. He put his other hand over his heart and said with a wide smile, “Wherever you go, I will go.”
A death dealer quoting the Bible? “Idiot,” I laughed.
“Sorry to interrupt,” an angry voice spoke from the entrance of the tent. It was Luke.
I pulled my hand away.
Luke’s eyes went from Dean to me. I could see his frustration blazing in them, but no hellfire slid across his skin. If he was angry, he was controlling his emotions this time. How could Dean go with us? Every time Luke looked at Dean, he had murder in his eyes. All it would take was for Luke to lose his temper one time and shoot hellfire at Dean. If Dean turned berserker, he could kill us all.
Luke turned to me stiffly. “Darla wants to talk to you.”
I stood up and looked back at Dean, trying to come up with a reason for him to leave. “Can you go check on Jamie?”
“Sure,” Dean said, getting off the cot. He pushed past Luke and left the tent without another word.
&
nbsp; I stood on trembling legs for a moment and then sat back down on the cot. “What does your sister want?”
“I’m not sure what she wants, but she was insistent that she needs to talk to you immediately.” Luke watched me struggle to stand. “Do you need help?”
“No, I’m fine.” I pushed myself upright again. I wavered a bit on unsteady legs, but Luke made no move to help me. He turned and walked out of the tent and across the campsite.
I slowly followed after him, my guards trailing behind. What could Darla possibly want besides my head on stick?
When we reached the edge of camp, we found a group of five death dealers surrounding Darla. They parted when they saw us.
Darla walked up and stopped a few inches from me, glaring. For a moment, I thought she might try and hit me.
Luke growled, “Darla, you promised to keep it civil.”
I thought for a moment she might turn that anger I could see brimming just under the surface on her brother. But instead she did something totally unexpected. She gave me a wide smile. “Glad you could make it.”
There was something sinister about her smile. I looked around. The guards were no longer behind us. They’d joined Darla’s group. They’re with Darla’s people? Franklin picked Darla’s people to guard me? I scanned the area once more. There was no one close by. We were on the edge of camp.
Darla had me alone.
“Don’t worry, Colina, I don’t want to hurt you. Just the opposite, actually: I need you.”
“Need me for what?” I demanded.
She looked up at the moon. “For the second ritual. Time we sent your little friend back to hell.”
Darla was going to go against her uncle and do the second ritual she had talked about before he came to camp. “Why should I help you do anything?”
Darla’s smile was already showing signs of strain. “Because we both want to finish this. To be rid of the demon once and for all.” The smile slipped completely. I was relieved—an angry Darla seemed to ring more true than fake-friend Darla. “So you’re happy to leave yourself in my uncle’s hands, are you? So you don’t have any plans for the next decade or so? You like the idea of hanging on the top of a mountain with a bunch of old people doing homework? If you help me, I will help you. I’ll help you escape from the guild.”
“You wanted me to be punished.”
“I wanted...” she started, her voice almost a shout. She stopped, trying to gain control of herself. “I wanted justice, but I can’t get that here.”
“I won’t hurt Jamie.”
She didn’t seem surprised by my words. “I see you’ve grown close to the little monster.” She put her hands out as if in surrender. “I’m not interested in the human child. I want to banish the demon.”
I knew Darla thought I didn’t want to harm the girl because she looked like me. It was true that she resembled my family. At the moment, she was the only link I had left to my father and brother. Maybe that was a part of the reason I wanted to save her, but my instincts were telling me it was wrong to kill her. “You said the first ritual would make the demon human. And the second one would allow you to kill it.” I looked over at Luke. He was watching his sister, but so far he hadn’t said a word.
“Our first translation of the spell wasn’t exactly perfect. The spell we are going to do won’t hurt the child. It will just banish the demon that is still trying to cling to her.”
I looked at her, trying to decipher whether she was telling the truth. Could I trust Darla?
“If you help us with this spell, I will help you get away.” She held her anger in tight control, but she couldn’t hide her impatience with having to talk me into it.
“And if I do the ritual and you help me escape, how will your uncle feel about your betrayal?” I remembered Franklin forbidding Darla to complete the spell. He’d been worried about Darla’s intentions, as was I.
“Let me worry about Uncle Franklin. If we send the demon back to hell, he’ll come around. I might even be able to convince him you aren’t worth going after.” She tried for another smile. It didn’t reach her eyes.
I turned to Luke. “What do you think?”
Luke was watching his sister closely. “I think if there’s a chance we can banish the creature, we should do it. Darla is right, if we do this, given time I might be able to convince my uncle that there’s got to be another way.”
Darla’s face suddenly became guarded. “There’s one more thing, and you probably aren’t going to like it.” Her glance swung toward her brother. “I need Luke to do a separate spell during the ritual. One that will help strengthen the protection around the pentagram.” She was now addressing him directly. “The spell you have to do must be done over a power source.” She pointed across the campsite toward the small cabin. “The cabin is sitting on one. The energy lines run along the edge of camp, which makes the cabin the only convenient place to access its power. Brother, I need you do the spell in there.”
I could tell by Luke’s expression he didn’t like the idea. If he was in the small cabin doing a protection spell, then I would be on my own doing the ritual with Darla. Once again I wondered if I could trust her.
I could barely make out the cabin from where we were standing. It was on a power source? I wondered why they’d chosen that cabin to keep Jamie in if it was sitting on a natural reservoir of power.
I knew the earth’s raw energy ebbed and flowed like rivers and pools under the surface. If Darla was right, that meant the area under the cabin contained a wide river of this power. No one with magic, or even sensitivity to it, liked to live in close proximity to that much energy. It was like living near power lines—you could almost feel the energy in the air, feel it bouncing against your skin. It could make you uncomfortable and on edge. No one wanted to live too close to a source like this, but still people were attracted to such power and often lived on the outskirts of it. I had been taught that all sorts of things—humans, animals, and spirits—were attracted to such power and followed the energy flows.
It was interesting that the death dealers had picked a camp in a relatively calm area beside two rivers—one made of water and one of power.
Darla looked from her brother back to me. “Timing is going to be everything in this ritual. We have to do the banishment at a specific time.”
“Let me guess: the witching hour?” I whispered.
Darla nodded and signaled the others before she started walking toward the trees. Her minions all fell into line and followed her.
Luke reached out and took my hand. I glanced back at the camp. If this ritual worked, I could finally right the terrible wrong I had done when I let the creature loose. It might be the first step on the path toward my redemption.
* * *
An hour later I, like everyone else in the clearing, was wearing a long black robe over my gray T-shirt and black jeans. I stood alone in the middle of the pentagram. This was a far bigger pentagram then I’d seen used before. It spanned at least ten feet across, drawn around a rock altar. Surrounding the altar was a circle of black, lit candles. A chill went down my back. I wanted to be anywhere but here. I took a deep breath, let it out, and looked up at the honey-colored moon. It was well past midnight.
My eyes swung around the clearing. On one side was Darla. She had a big black leather-bound book in her hand, and she was chanting. As she spoke the words of the spell, I watched dark storm clouds begin to slide across the moon. Darla was doing a forbidden ritual she found in one of the old magic books. A sense of wrongness clung to the entire affair. I shivered in the dark, more from fear than cold.
I knew Luke was in the small cabin. Before he left, he’d shown me the spellbook his sister had given him. The book was very old, with a cracked leather binding and missing pages. When he flipped the book open and showed me the spell he was to do, I'd felt a deep sense of foreboding.
In the middle of the page was a drawing of a large, dark creature with horns. A demon. Somehow Darla had come acr
oss a binding spell. Luke’s spell would throw an invisible energy net around the campground. If somehow the demon couldn’t be contained within the pentagram, if it found the power to escape, Darla hoped the binding spell would contain it within the campground. If that did happen, would the death dealers be able to stop the demon. Would I? I was light-headed and weak from the poison coursing through my veins. I doubted I held enough power to take on a demon even on a good day. It made me wonder again what type of magic the demon killers of old possessed.
I looked back toward Darla. On either side of her were two robed figures: a girl and a young man. They both sported black hair and eyes that disappeared in the shadows of their black hoods. They were obviously brother and sister, and I could feel dark power clinging to them. The death dealers Darla had chosen to back her up would be strong, and I spent a fruitless moment trying to size them up. The young man held a small sword in his hand, and the girl was holding a silver chalice.
I watched as another death dealer brought Jamie into the clearing. Her eyes were wide with fear. The robed figure pushed Jamie forward. They stopped at the edge of the pentagram. As the robed figure stood in the light of the candles I could see it was a boy about my age. A wide malicious grin gleamed across his face as he gave her a hard shove. Helpless, Jamie fell forward.
I leaped and caught Jamie before her head slammed into the ground. I hugged her close to me and whispered, “It’s okay.” But I knew everything was far from okay. In a matter of minutes, we were going to do a forbidden ritual and none of us had any idea what to expect, or if it would work.
The robed figure made his way over to Darla’s side, and when he was next to her, Darla handed him the book.
Jamie whimpered and wrapped her arms around me. I cradled her body against mine and stroked her hair. “Don’t be scared.” I couldn’t keep my voice from trembling.
When I looked back at Darla, she had the sword in her hand, and she moved in front of the girl holding the chalice. In one quick movement, Darla waved the blade in the air and brought the edge of it down against her own wrist. Darla sliced her skin, and I watched as drops of blood dripped into the cup.
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