Hells Magic (The Armistice Book 1)

by Leslie Vatenar

  “What? That late?”

  “Don’t worry about it. The others woke up a few minutes ago too.”

  “What about my wounds?”

  “The woman with The Reaper helped me take care of it when she woke up. She’s a skilled healer.”

  “Thank you.”

  I sighed. It wasn’t over. When I get out of bed, the real life will start again. Again the same old song, find Craid and Alice. Back to square one.

  “Are you feeling better?”

  “Mm,” he replied, still staring at me.

  He hadn’t stopped doing this since he’d opened his eyes.

  “What?”

  “I know that the second I get up, trouble will start again. The others are already close to burning my house and it may annoy me. So I’ll enjoy the few quiet moments I have in the company of divine beauty.”

  I choked for no reason. I coughed several times as if I had swallowed something the wrong way. His words surprised me; I hadn’t expected that at all. Jayden kept surprising me every day.

  He smiled at my reaction. A beautiful smile that will haunt my most wonderful dreams. He should have been banned from smiling. It was too dangerous. The illumination of his face extinguished all rationality in me but revived my partying hormones. My attraction to him crawled under my skin and hugged my heart and mind. I was trapped. I couldn’t think properly.

  I admired his smile as if it were the last thing I would see on Earth. “If you need divine beauty, a mirror is better.”

  He continued to smile, his eyes shining with delight. It was special to be looked at like this. To be looked at as if there were only me in this world, as if I were the most important thing to him. I wish we’d been able to stay like this for hours—completely forgetting that he was crushing me—but unfortunately…

  “We have to go.”

  “Do you promise me another moment like this?”

  “Yes,” I heard myself say.

  He rolled to the side and let me get up. I waited a few seconds for my blood to reach my legs and went to see the clothes he’d bought for me.

  He had chosen black denim shorts, a bodysuit, a jacket and boots of the same color. A black belt with gold eyelets accompanied the look. I smiled inwardly. He’d already figured out my style.

  What was surprising was that the sizes matched perfectly.

  No… He wouldn’t dare…

  “Jayden,” I said, the pitch of my voice rising.

  He shrugged. “I’m an excellent observer.”

  I was close to yelling at him, I didn’t even know why; I just thought it was creepy. But I decided not to do it. If the clothes didn’t fit, it would be another problem. He had already thought about buying them for me. It was already a great favor.

  “Don’t get mad at the others, please. I’ll take care of them, okay?”

  “Okay, princess.”

  I went to the bathroom. I enjoyed a moment of tranquility between me and myself before the storm.

  CHAPTER 23

  I’d thought about a storm, but it was more of a forest fire. I was speechless in front of the tumult before me. Everyone was screaming at everyone else. Liam’s eyes were already bright green. He seemed ready to pounce on our new ally, and The Reaper seemed close to pulling out her scythe against her too.

  “You have two minutes. Then I intervene,” Jayden whispered in my ear.

  “Yes, I needed you, but now I want you to disappear. You smell of flowers and life! It’s unbreathable,” The Reaper shouted.

  As if she needed to breathe…

  “You think I can breathe with your smell of decomposing bodies? Don’t tell me the worms are still gnawing at the remains of your pitiful flesh? And that’s not the only way you’re attacking me. Seeing your putrid face is a torment for my beautiful eyes. You come to call me for help; then you think you’re getting rid of me like a worn, dirty sock.”

  “We don’t need you anymore!”

  “You let him steal your heart! Clearly, you have lost your power, your intelligence, and your influence,” the woman enunciated, listing with her long, thin fingers. “And you needed a shapeshifter to do it! That is to say the degree of despair. You’re weak, you always have been!”

  Ouch. Okay, that’s enough.

  “Okay, Okay. Stop,” I said, spreading my arms and placing myself at the center of the fight. “We don’t have time for that.”

  Death sent her a… well… a death stare. The saying made perfect sense in that moment. She answered with a proud and arrogant smile. And anger crossed Liam’s face, apparently directed at the beautiful woman who had helped us.

  “Who do you think you are? I don’t want you talking to her like that,” Liam said, annoyed.

  “Liam, calm down! Craid is out in the wild. That’s still why you’re all here. There’s more at stake.”

  “I’ll find Craid,” the woman accompanying The Reaper said.

  “We won’t stand here doing anything during this time,” I protested.

  “I don’t trust her,” Liam said.

  “I’ll go with her,” The Reaper decided.

  “It changes nothing.”

  The Reaper glared at Liam. I thought I was a discreet disappointment in her dark eyes.

  “Liam, you go with them. Meanwhile, Jayden and I will find Alice. Do you agree?”

  “Yeah. I have a question anyway. What was Craid talking about when he said that the Order members were murderers?” He looked at The Reaper.

  “Why are you looking at me? Ask my sister instead.”

  “Your sister?”

  “Yes. The slut who serves as my sister right there,” she said, pointing to the young woman with long, radiant blonde hair.

  “Hey! I also don’t decide who dies, and I don’t know about the life of every being on this earth.”

  “What a wonderful and modest woman you are, Zoe. She’s the embodiment of life. If your life is shitty, it’s because of her. And you’re surprised she’s a slut?”

  “That’s not true! You’re just drawing hatred to me because you’re jealous. Jealous because I am beautiful, because I live surrounded by beauty, I am beauty and I give beauty and vitality. I delight the living, and all beings want me. But everyone hates you and runs away from you and this disgusting illusion you use doesn’t help your case.”

  Her words were cruel. How could two sisters hate each other like that? I wouldn’t have been surprised if jealousy was the cause. Jealousy is indeed a disease.

  “Liam?” I called.

  Maybe it wasn’t a good thing to send Liam with those two. The three of them didn’t get along and the two sisters hated each other more than anything.

  “We’re taking care of it. You and Jayden, get Alice back.”

  “Sure?”

  “Trust me.”

  I asked for confirmation from Jayden who was watching the scene from afar, reclining on the main table. He was lying with his elbows behind his back. He nodded.

  “Be careful. You still have to recover The Reaper’s heart.”

  “What about you? How do you think you’ll get Alice back?” Zoe asked us.

  “Good question. Leroi is powerful, I suppose he’s protected.”

  “It’s a piece of cake! Leroi is just a tad untouchable and Liam and I took a few ridiculous years before we could approach him,” Jayden said.

  “Jayden, if you’re trying to reassure me, you failed,” I replied.

  “Liam and I wanted to be discreet; we wanted to destroy him once and for all. We had to attack the monster’s heart to make sure he didn’t get up. But this time we don’t want to destroy Leroi, we want Alice. We’ll do this the forceful way.”

  The forceful way… I hadn’t felt a bit of magic inside my body since the previous night’s fight. Despite my meager sleep, I was still exhausted. Keeping that pace for days was new to me, but I had to live up to it. Alice was counting on me and I was with the most powerful
supernaturals on Earth. Impossible to delay.

  I lifted my bust and gave myself a mental slap. I can do it!

  “Where can we find him?” I asked.

  “At Guillard. He works there, and it’s also there that he maintains his pleasures and keeps his prisoners. It’s the perfect prison, easy to get in but impossible to get out. His guards are powerful creatures,” Liam informed us.

  “Is there an underground passage that leads to this building?”

  “Yes, but it’s sealed,” Jayden replied, getting up.

  “Damn it, how do we get Alice back?”

  Jayden pondered it, pacing back and forth and rubbing his chin. “We would have to reach Alice first without entering the building. We’re not even sure she’s there. He may have locked her away.”

  I thought of a way to get in touch with Alice. He was right; we had to make sure she was at Guillard. An idea came to mind.

  “Liam… I think we’ll need you,” I drawled while thinking of a plan.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked.

  “The same way that the Hells soldiers found me by using an object belonging to me they found at the Armistice, we can try to do the same.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.”

  “Wonderful! But I’d like to go further. I want to communicate with her without anyone around her noticing. Is it possible?”

  He cocked his head. “Yeah, but it’s not simple.”

  “What do you need?”

  “A map and an object belonging to Alice. We can find the object at the Armistice.”

  “I’d rather we didn’t go back. Craid will wait for us, I’m sure the Armistice is a minefield of traps at the moment.”

  “Yes, but if I have no object belonging to her, we can say goodbye to our spell.”

  Jayden pinched his chin and then left. He came back with a map a few minutes later. Then he pulled out a beaded bracelet.

  “That will do?” he asked, handing me the bracelet.

  “Does it belong to her?”

  “You could say that.”

  “How did you get it?” I asked, surprised.

  My heart tightened when I saw the bracelet. But how did these two know each other?

  I couldn’t find the connection between Jayden’s and Craid’s comparable powers and the connection between Alice and Jayden. How did Alice know a man like Jayden? They were so different and she had never told me about him.

  Nevertheless, my breathing sped up, and I bit my lip.

  “Let’s start the spell, there’s no time to waste,” Jayden said.

  CHAPTER 24

  I took Liam’s hand. His strong power filled the air. A stream of frigid air stung my back, and I shuddered. I felt little skeletal fingers brushing my legs. They caressed my skin and clung to my legs. I took several deep breaths to calm the panic that threatened to take hold of me.

  The scene changed. I was alone in a room, almost empty. White veils barely obscured the windows, and the bed below was large. It could accommodate four people. At first glance, comfort was present, but on closer inspection, this room was a gilded prison.

  The blankets moved. I stopped dead. A small hand below the blankets pushed them, and I saw Alice’s stunning body.

  “I see her,” I said as the excitement overwhelmed me.

  I was seeing my best friend. She was alive!

  “Talk to her,” Liam said.

  “Alice?”

  She swiveled toward me. Her eyes were as big as saucers when she saw me. She shook her head and looked all around her, panicked.

  “Don’t worry about it. We’re in another dimension, we can interact without them being able to see me or hear us.”

  “Katy!” she whispered with tears in her eyes, her hand covering her mouth.

  “You need to give me as much information as you can about where you are. We know you’re in Leroi’s building, but we need a breach, something that allows us to get you out of there.”

  “We? Did you find him? Did you find Jayden?” she asked me, still looking at our surroundings instinctively.

  “Yes.”

  “Oh, thank God. You have to fight Craid; you’ll come to get me after. Get rid of Craid first.”

  “Uh… We’ve had a few complications. Answer my question, Alice. How can we get you out of here? Did you notice a breach in the guards’ schedules or the security system? Not everything can be perfect, it’s impossible.”

  “What complications?”

  “Alice…” I said in a warning voice, slightly annoyed by her stubbornness.

  “Katy, without my powers, there is nothing I can do. Fighting Craid is more important. I’m useless.”

  “That’s not true. Are you alone here?”

  “Yes.”

  “You have to spot a breach. And we’ll take care of the rest. You’re one of the smartest women in the world, and that is not magic. Anyway, we’ll come and get you with or without your help.”

  She sighed. “Okay.”

  “I’ll leave. We’re coming, hold on.”

  “Thank you, Katy,” she breathed.

  “It’s my job as a best friend to free my best friend out of an ultra-secure building run by one of the cruelest mages on Earth.”

  She laughed softly. I’d missed that laugh. It reminded me how much I loved her and I would do anything for her.

  “I’ll be back. Love you.”

  The scene changed, taking me back to Jayden’s house with four pairs of eyes staring at me.

  “You’ve been excellent, Liam.”

  “Thank you. Now, I have a tyrant to hunt down. Come on, girls, I hope you’ve had all your snacks, let’s go.” Liam walked to the door and then hung back to let The Reaper pass. “After you, beauty,” he said with a wink.

  The Reaper turned to him with surprise, and her jaw tightened. Irritation was seeping out of her pores. She seemed to think Liam was mocking her.

  He answered with a childish smile. “Have I ever told you how beautiful you are when you sleep, my little mermaid?”

  “I’ll kill him,” The Reaper replied.

  “And deprive you of my wonderful presence? It would be worse than death.”

  The door slammed behind a trio more than improbable.

  “We don’t have a second to lose,” I said to Jayden.

  He nodded. We ate and left.

  CHAPTER 25

  In the car, I thought about Jayden and Alice again. I still couldn’t see what could connect them. They were so different. Different lives, different personalities, different company, different mentality. I had an idea for a while and it bothered me more than I wanted to admit. I couldn’t hold my question for another second.

  “Jayden, did you and Alice date?”

  “No, never,” he replied.

  He looked surprised. He opened his mouth to tell me something, but then closed it.

  Which didn’t reassure me at all. There was something I didn’t know about him yet. Something about him and Alice. Maybe they’d had a simple one-night stand. Or maybe she’d done something for him and he was indebted to her. I hoped it was the second option because the first would mean that I was attracted to one of Alice’s former and rare companions. All this would only lead to complications I didn’t need at all.

  “How come you know each other?”

  “Mm… We’ve known each other for a long time. Then our paths separated.”

  Okay, a word in the sentence had eluded him: “How!” I hadn’t asked, “Since when?” But his power had grown in the car, and his hands were tighter on the steering wheel. The subject annoyed him.

  “Why? Did you fight?” I asked.

  “Not really…”

  I could have searched for my car keys in the Indian Ocean; I’d have had a better chance of finding them than getting the truth from Jayden. FYI, I don’t have a car.

  “Oh, then you abandoned her for no reason? Or did she abandon
you for no reason?”

  His gaze left the road to shoot daggers at me. But he knew I knew that he knew something he wasn’t telling me. While his gaze showed annoyance, mine showed determination. From my smile emanated all the innocence of a curious little girl.

  I had allowed this man to sleep in his underwear with me, so I agreed it was late to ask the questions, but better late than never. I hadn’t yet crossed the line of no return with him, so I apologized to myself for my lateness.

  I wanted him to be honest with me, otherwise our relationship, platonic and professional, was worthless.

  “Neither,” he replied.

  “You’re as open as a prison.”

  “And you’re as intrusive as an intimate advertisement on the Internet.”

  “Charming,” I replied, irritated.

  “Always.”

  Acknowledging my defeat, I changed the subject.

  “So… The first day we met and you talked to Leroi. Was it a cover? Or is that confidential information too?”

  “I was trying to buy time,” he replied, ignoring my facetious remark.

  “Why?”

  “He needed me to provide him five people for his sacrificial ritual. There are four of us in his cult. I had to do some shitty things to get in.”

  “Like what?” I asked, worried about the horrific acts needed for a man like Leroi to trust you.

  “Don’t worry; Leroi thinks I’ve done them, but Liam helped me to just pretend. I lied about my past. I made him think I was on my ninety-ninth murder. For the hundredth murder, I invited Leroi to attend the hunt. Everything was a charade. I never killed ninety-nine people and the so-called hundredth person, we had chosen her carefully. We put it all together to interest a scumbag like Leroi. He took the bait. Hired by a Colombian trafficker, I had to execute his daughter for my hundredth murder and make the body disappear. Like a manhunt, I had to kidnap her and make her run, shooting her, until her slow and cruel death. Given Leroi’s dominance over women, it was certain he would take the bait. Liam knew a trusted necromancer crazy enough to play. We prepared everything, repeated everything, and everything went according to plan with Leroi. I gained his admiration and, after a few months, his trust.”