Copyright © 2020 Tamara Geraeds
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cover design by Deranged Doctor Design
Editing by Ambition Editing LLC
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
What’s next?
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CHAPTER 1
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PREVIOUSLY, IN CARDS OF DEATH
A lot has happened up till now, and in case you forgot or didn’t read it, here’s a quick recap of the most important stuff.
I am Dante Banner, sixteen years old. I live in Blackford, Idaho, a small town buzzing with magic, unlike most places. Half of Blackford is invisible to the non-magical eye. I didn’t know about this until I inherited a large house ― Darkwood Manor ― and five ghosts who live there: D’Maeo, Maël, Jeep, Taylar, and the stunning Vicky. I am their master. They are my Shield and will do anything to protect me. They cannot leave the house, unless I take them with me, and if we get separated, they automatically return to Darkwood Manor after a while. Ghosts in a Shield are more solid than others, which makes them stronger fighters, but it also means they can get hurt or trapped because they can’t always walk through walls and stuff. For instance, they have to be solid to fight, which means they will be vulnerable to weapons during battles.
It turns out I’m a Mage, just like my father whom I inherited the Shield and mansion from. A Mage is pretty much the same as a wizard but without the pointy hat and ridiculous robes. I have the power of premonition, which is pretty nice but not very useful in a fight. Luckily, I am also a Meteokinetic, which means I can control the weather, although this does take some practice.
A battle between good and evil seems to be raging, and I’m suddenly caught in the middle of it. The Devil is trying to find a way to Earth. According to an ancient ― and famous ― prophecy, my family is destined to stop him. More specifically: my father and grandfather were destined to fail, but I am supposed to win, being the chosen one and all that. I’m not sure how that works yet. All I know is, I received three sets of demon cards, called the Cards of Death, that showed symbols pointing to the people I was supposed to save, one soul for every set of cards. Each of those souls could help the Devil escape from Hell.
Although some of my so-called friends, Paul and Simon, made this job difficult for me and my Shield, we saved the first two souls. Unfortunately, we had to kill Simon. He now roams the Shadow World. I have no idea where Paul is, or if he’s even still alive, after we left him at the police station where our last soul beat him up. This soul, Kale, has been taken to Lucifer. We failed to save him.
I’ve seen a lot of crazy things since I discovered the magical world, and most of it isn’t pretty. I recently found myself in the Underworld ― Tartarus ― where I met Charon, the ferryman of the dead. He showed me something that happened centuries ago. Satan’s lover created the nine circles of Hell and trapped the Devil below them. I’m not sure why I had to see that, but at least now we know the nine circles of Hell are real, and we know what kind of demons will attack us next, since they are linked to the punishment executed in each circle.
Mom is slowly recovering from her curse. I’m not sure how much she’ll remember when she wakes up. She has been tortured in Hell, so I hope it’s not too much.
I have a feeling we’ll need all our powers to win this battle. Thankfully I have my friends Charlie ― also a Mage ― and Quinn ― an angel ― to help me fight. Mom’s best friend Mona, who turns out to be our fairy godmother, keeps an eye on Mom. And there’s Charlie’s girlfriend Gisella, who has also offered her help.
It’s a good thing we have all of them, since my Shield and I are not at full strength. Because they are dead, their powers aren’t as reliable as they were before, and I’m still figuring out everything I can do. On top of that, a bunch of evil ghosts are trapped in Jeep’s tattoos, and Jeep sometimes gets a kind of fit when they try to escape. Vicky is suffering from two curses at the same time. The first is the one that used to haunt my mom. It hopped over to Vicky because my dad died. The second has something to do with someone touching her grave. Every time that happens, she is pulled into a memory but also closer to the Shadow World. I’m afraid I’ll lose her if she gets pulled much further.
Taylar has some unfinished business, but I’m not too worried about that. We’ll solve that later.
D’Maeo is also in trouble. He has lost part of his soul to a mysterious black void that is out to get the rest of him.
So, enough to worry about. I’m trying to stay optimistic, but I have to say, it’s getting harder and harder…
CHAPTER 1
“Is that all you’ve got?” One of the skeletons Jeep has awoken jumps on my back, and while I stumble sideways to get it off me, Jeep throws his hat at me.
I see it coming, but the skeleton pulls my head back so hard that I duck too late. The hat hits me square in the face, and its sharp rim gets lodged between my eyes and nose.
I double over, gasping for breath. A piercing pain shoots through my head, and sparks explode in my vision.
“I’m sorry!”
I blink until I can make out the silhouette of the tattooed ghost. He gets the skeleton off me with a simple wave of his hand and steps up to me. “Hold your breath.”
With my eyes squeezed shut, I do what he says. There’s a tug at my head, and then the stinging feeling lifts. The blinding spots vanish, and I see Jeep bending over me. “It has already healed. This protective circle works like a charm.”
With my fingers, I examine my face carefully. I expect to find a gaping hole where the hat hit me, but it all feels normal. There’s not even a drop of blood.
Jeep hits me on the back. “Good thing D’Maeo came up with the idea of this circle for us to practice in, right?”
“Yeah…” I rub my face again. “But it still hurt like hell, Jeep.”
“I’m sorry,” he repeats. “But this is the best way for you to train your skills.”
“It’s not fair. You’ve had your power for ages, and you have much more experience in fighting than I do.” I know I sound like a five-year-old complaining about not getting a second cupcake, but sometimes I feel so useless.
“Most of our enemies are better trained than you are, master,” Jeep answers, twirling his hat around on the tip of his finger. “That’s why you need training. We all do.”
“I know that. But it just seems so hopeless.” I swallow the lump that has been rising in my throat. “I’m not sure we can ever win this battle.”
Jeep places his hat back on his see-through head and smiles. “According to the prophecy, we will win, Dante. Stop worrying and focus on becoming a better fighter.”
I cock my head. “I thought I was supposed to give the orders around here.”
“Well, sometimes even a leader needs a kick in the butt.” He winks, steps back and takes on a fighting position. “Are you ready to try again?”
I know he’s right, so I poke my power core with my mind. “Absolutely.”
As he starts moving his hands again to control the skeleton lying on the ground in a heap of bones, I conjure a bolt of lightning in my hand and hit him with it. While he tumbles backwards, I turn to strike the skeleton with a second bolt. The bones turn to dust, and the wind spreads it over the grass.
When I turn back to Jeep to attack him again, his fist is only inches from my face. I release another bolt and raise up my other hand defensively. Half of Jeep’s transparent body is immobilized by a thick layer of ice.
“Nice job,” he mumbles, only one corner of his mouth moving.
In my head, I picture hail stones the size of tennis balls dropping down from the sky.
To my surprise, that is exactly what the clouds above us release, but while I grin at my success, Jeep frees himself from his ice prison and knocks me down. We tumble through the grass, and I try to hit him with more lightning and hail. Over and over I miss him, until one of my bolts bounces against a wall of grease several paces to Jeep’s left. The wall melts, and the slimy substance washes over us like a tidal wave. Something hard hits my temple and when the black spots around me dissolve, I realize it was Vicky’s head I collided with.
“Thanks for freeing me,” she says with a smile before kissing me on the lips.
I try to look over her shoulder while she wipes the grease off my arms. “Did Charlie trap you in there?”
An irritated frown wrinkles up her forehead. “He did. I thought I had him hypnotized, and then this icky stuff enveloped me.”
Charlie’s grinning face comes into view. He holds out his hand to Vicky, but she ignores it and pushes herself up.
I give Charlie the thumbs up behind her back, and his grin grows wider.
“Hey, do you guys want to switch?” he says when Jeep and I rise from the slowly dissolving grease.
My heart yearns to stay close to Vicky - not just for the obvious reason, but because I’m not sure when the curse will strike again - so I nod. “Sure, you have a go at Jeep’s skeletons for a while.”
He wipes the sweat from his forehead. “Actually, I thought it would be nice to fight you, you know.”
The disappointment must be visible on my face, because he plants his hands on his hips and says, “Come on, you can survive another ten minutes without your girlfriend, can’t you?”
My mouth opens to answer when a frightened voice interrupts us. “Dante? What’s all this?”
I turn around, and my heart almost leaps out of my chest. “Mom? You’re awake!”
A second later, I’ve reached the doorway to the kitchen of Darkwood Manor. I wrap my mom into a tight hug. “Are you okay? I’ve been so worried.”
She hardly reacts. Her body is stiff and when I hold her at arm’s length, she doesn’t meet my eye. Her gaze is locked on the circle behind me.
“What is this?” she repeats.
I swallow. “Well, eh… these are my friends, Mom.”
With one arm still around her shoulder, I turn back to the others. Charlie, Vicky and Jeep smile shyly at Mom. The rest haven’t noticed her yet. They’re all too caught up in their training.
Charlie’s crush Gisella is trying to cut off Maël’s head. She manages to scrape off a couple of black curls before the African ghost queen raises her staff and puts her in slow motion.
Meanwhile, D’Maeo and Taylar are entangled in a sword fight that would make a bunch of Samurai look like amateurs. They move around each other like acrobats, their swords colliding with force.
Mom tilts her head and taps her fingers against her upper leg. “Are they actors?”
I imagine her brain whirling and clicking to find the most logical explanation for what she sees. Maybe I should just say yes. It might be safer for her if she doesn’t know about magic.
But I shake my head. No, that’s crazy. The fact that she didn’t know about magic is exactly what got her into trouble. It made it easier for a demon to take her. She had no idea what she was up against, and it almost startled her to death. Not knowing makes her defenseless.
“It’s okay, you can tell her.” Mona steps from the hallway into the kitchen, her hands full of groceries and a relaxed smile on her face. There’s a blush of excitement on her cheeks as she puts the groceries on the kitchen table, walks over to us and takes Mom’s hand in hers. “I’m so happy you will finally know.”
Mom’s eyes grow even bigger. “Know what? You’re scaring me, Mona.”
“Let’s go inside, I’ll make us all a cup of tea.” She pulls Mom with her into the kitchen and pushes her into the chair where Vicky normally sits.
I beckon the others before I follow them in.
Gisella is the last to enter the kitchen. She whips her long, bright red hair over her shoulder. “I have to go home. I’ve got siblings to take care off. Let me know if you need me and when the next training is. Charlie has my number.” With a wink at him, she turns on her heels, waves and disappears around the corner.
Vicky sits down next to Mom and sticks out her see-through hand. “Hi, I’m Vicky.”
Mom doesn’t react. She’s still gaping at the spot where Gisella was standing a second ago. “That was a great costume. Creepy eyes!”
“Hey!” Charlie calls out indignantly. “She is not creepy.”
Vicky drops her hand, and I shoot her a pleading look that says, ‘Please give her a moment to adjust’.
“How about some chocolate cookies?” Mona says, holding out a plate to Mom.
Charlie’s stomach rumbles loudly in response, and he gives Mona a crooked smile. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine,” the fairy godmother says. She turns and throws him a new package of cookies. “I brought one just for you.”
“Don’t eat that all at once, Charlie,” Mom says motherly. “You’ll get sick.”
Charlie is already munching on the first cookie. “No, I won’t. I need fuel for my power.”
Mom frowns. “You need what for what?”
I hold up my hand. “Okay, okay, let’s take this one thing at a time. We don’t want to overwhelm my mom. It’s all crazy enough without the details.”
Mom turns to me with a smile. “What is, honey? Did you join an acting group? That’s wonderful! How did you manage to make them look like real ghosts?”
For a moment, a thousand thoughts scream at me in my head. How do I explain all of this without scaring the crap out of her?
An image of her being dragged through a hole in the floor by a tar-covered demon fills my vision.
I take her hands again and look her in the eye. “Do you remember that monster that attacked you back home?”
Deep wrinkles transform her smooth forehead into a landscape of confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“It looked like a giant spider. At first, you didn’t see it. It created a hole in our living room floor and took you.”
Her fingers almost crush mine. “You’re describing a nightm
are I had. How do you know what I dreamt?”
Mona walks around the table and places a hand on Mom’s shoulder. “I’m afraid that was real, Susan. I failed to protect you.”
Mom blinks several times. Her eyes dart from me to Mona and back. “Protect me? What on earth are you talking about? What is going on here?” Her voice rises with every word.
Mona and I exchange a look before taking a deep breath. Simultaneously, we spit out the truth.
“Magic is real.”
“So are monsters,” I add.
Taylar leans over the table across from Mom. “And ghosts.”
Mom’s gaze travels from Taylar to the others. She takes in Jeep, D’Maeo and Maël sitting at the other end, and then Vicky, who is smiling broadly from the seat next to her. Then her head turns back to me and Mona. “I’m still dreaming.”
Mona walks back to the kitchen counter to pour the tea while I squeeze Mom’s hands harder.
She lets out a startled cry. “Ouch, that hurts, Dante!”
I pull her closer to me. “You’re not dreaming, Mom. I know it’s hard to believe, it was for me too, but magic exists. It flows through my veins.”
Mona puts a steaming cup in front of Mom. “Just show her, Dante. And show her your father’s notebook.”
At the mention of Dad, Mom flinches a little. She doesn’t want to know anything about him, I know that. It’s not surprising either, considering what it looked like when he left. But after reading parts of Dad’s notebook, I know that he left to protect us. He was caught up in the same battle that I am now in. He fought the Devil before me.
Mom pulls her hands from my grip and sips from her tea. “You can do a trick? Show me.”
It’s hard not to get impatient, but I understand her unwillingness to believe in magic. It’s a stretch, even for people who are magical themselves. Eventually, I felt magic flowing through me, so I had no choice but to believe. For Mom, it’s different. She’s non-magical.
“Not a trick, Mom. This is all real,” I tell her.
It takes me only a second to conjure a lightning bolt in my hand.
The Fourth Soul: (Cards of Death book 4) Page 1
