The Fourth Soul: (Cards of Death book 4)

by Tamara Geraeds

The others follow.

  Vicky’s hand shoots up to her mouth. “That’s Jeep’s hat!”

  I pick it up and turn in every direction, softly calling out, “Jeep!” When there’s no answer, I try my best friend’s name. “Charlie! Where are you?”

  “Dante? Is that you?”

  My heart beats a little faster when I recognize his voice.

  I beckon the others to follow as I meander through the trees.

  “Charlie?” I call again.

  A hand waves at me from behind a bush. “Here.”

  When we reach him, we find Jeep pinned down under him.

  “You can let go now,” the tattooed ghost says.

  “What happened?” I ask in a hushed tone. “We thought you’d both been taken.”

  Charlie lets go of Jeeps wrists, gets up and helps the ghost to his feet. “We almost were. We were on the look-out when a small army of fire demons passed by. Just as they were starting to vanish one by one, Jeep went crazy. I couldn’t hold him down by myself, so I decided to try and lead him away from the demons. But before I could, he lost his hat. I thought that whole army would swoop down on us, but thankfully, they just stared at the trees for a moment and went on with their business.”

  I can hardly believe our luck. “They didn’t see the hat?”

  Charlie shrugs. “No, they must’ve thought there was a squirrel or something rummaging about, you know. They couldn’t hear or see us of course, so... I guess we just got lucky.”

  Jeep places a see-through hand on Charlie’s shoulder. “Thank you for looking out for me.”

  “Of course, why wouldn’t I?”

  Jeep rolls down his sleeves to cover up his hated tattoos. “Well, you hardly know me. You might not even like me when you get to know me. We just met, and you risked your life for me.”

  Charlie’s shoulders move up again. “Sure, any friend of Dante’s is a friend of mine. And I might not have known you for very long, but I know what you’ve done for Dante and, well, for everyone. You’re a decent guy and funny on top. How can I not like you?”

  Jeep throws his head back, laughing. “Well, that’s a good point.” He puts his arm around Charlie and pulls him close, ruffling his long hair. “I like this boy, Dante. We should keep him.”

  I frown. “You mean, like a pet?”

  He lifts Charlie’s chin with his finger. “Sit.”

  Charlie sticks out his tongue and drops down onto his butt.

  Jeep scratches his sideburns. “No, I think I like him better as a friend.”

  They both chuckle, and I shake my head. “You two must have bumped your heads or something.”

  “I think they dropped me at birth,” Charlie retorts, “because I can’t remember ever being sane.”

  They high five each other, and I hand Jeep back his hat. “All kidding aside, I’m glad you’re both okay. Now, let’s see if we can find that entrance to… well, wherever.”

  We walk back to the vanishing spot, alert to any kind of movement or sound. But the forest has gone quiet again. The small animals that usually rummage through the undergrowth are nowhere to be seen or heard. Birds have fallen silent and even the trees don’t seem to rustle.

  We form a circle again, this time facing inward to where Maël is standing with the herbs. Our weapons are raised, ready to kill anything that might come through.

  “If you don’t have to, don’t attack,” I warn the others. “The longer we can keep our presence a secret, the better.”

  All heads bob up and down, and I nod to Maël. “Whenever you’re ready.”

  She tips the roasted herbs into her hand and gives the bowl to Vicky, who slides it back into her endless pocket without ever lowering her sword. Maël’s cape billows up behind her as she holds up her hand and slowly releases the herbs.

  The particles are picked up by an invisible, silent draft. For a moment, they hover at waist height, then they’re pulled further apart and start turning, forming a small vortex. The air shudders, and a vertical rip manifests itself. The herbs are sucked into it and bit by bit, the rip changes into a large hole. It’s as if someone has cut out a piece of the forest in the shape of a circle.

  We peer into it hesitantly.

  “Now what?” Charlie asks when no one moves.

  “Can you see anything?” I ask.

  Of course, they all say no. There’s nothing to see but emptiness.

  “Should we go in?” I ask, not very leader-like.

  “We have to if we want to spy on Trevor,” Vicky answers. “And we’re invisible, so why not?”

  I peer into the hole again that changes from pitch black to bright white. “True, but what if this portal closes behind us and we can’t get back?”

  Vicky cracks her knuckles. “What if we don’t save the next soul?”

  My head is moving up and down before I even realize I’ve made a decision. “Okay, let’s do it. We’ve gotten this far, let’s go through with it now. I want to know what Trevor is up to.”

  Maël stops me when I step closer. “I’ll go first, and if I can, I’ll let you know if it’s safe to come through.”

  “Good, good,” I nod, not sure at all whether this is a good idea.

  The ghost queen pulls back her shoulders and steps into the circle.

  It swallows her up without a sound, and my heartbeat pounds in my skull while we wait for a sign.

  A startled cry escapes me when her face appears, floating in the light of the portal. “Come on, there is no one here.”

  One by one, we step through the chilly gateway into the unknown.

  My gut keeps telling me this is dangerous, but I see no other way. We must find out what Trevor is planning, and we really have to save the next soul.

  Light, lukewarm drops fall down on us, and it takes me a couple of seconds to realize it’s not rain. My clothes are covered in little red splashes.

  Blood.

  We all look up at the same time, and shock immobilizes us.

  The sky is painted with bodies. They are pinned to the air, their arms and legs hanging down, like puppets on a string without a master. Their mouths move without sound, and their eye sockets are empty. Dark marks and open wounds cover most of their skin as if they’ve been tortured endlessly.

  Vicky takes a step back. “Is this the sixth circle? If it is, I’m out of here.”

  She turns around without waiting for an answer but stops dead and grabs my wrist. “Eh, babe? I think we might have a problem.”

  Before I even see them, I know they’re there. Their fur of fire roars, and their claws scrape over the blood-red stones they’re standing on. Slowly, I turn toward them, nudging my power core while I do so. So much for ‘there is no one here’.

  Surrounding the portal are dozens of fire demons, the grins on their faces stretched wide. My muscles tense when I imagine myself jumping back through the door and shutting it before they can follow, but I know I’ll never make it. And even if I do, the others will be stuck here.

  “What are they waiting for?” Charlie wonders in a whisper.

  I flex my fingers, ready to resurrect the dead. “Probably for orders from Trevor.”

  Jeep takes off his hat. “Well, they can wait, but we don’t have to. I say we hit them with all we’ve got.” He steps in front of me. “You stay in the middle, Dante.”

  I grit my teeth. “Are you kidding me? We protect each other, remember? We all fight.”

  “If we lose you, the Devil wins,” he points out.

  “I don’t think they’re after Dante.” D’Maeo’s voice sounds strained and when I follow his gaze, I see why.

  Above us, the bodies have shifted. Jammed between anonymous faces with broken bodies is one person I know, his face contorted with pain, his eye sockets bleeding. A river of red follows his sideburns and darkens the gray of his beard.

  Vicky’s nails almost puncture my skin. “That’s you, D’Maeo.”

  A dark m
ist detaches itself from the sky.

  It takes me a millisecond to understand what it is, and I beckon the others. “Protect D’Maeo! Make sure that thing doesn’t reach him.”

  But D’Maeo moves first, away from us. “No, it’s okay. You don’t have to fight for me.” His tone of voice has changed from apprehensive to resigned, and he has put his sword away. “My time has come.”

  Vicky and I dive forward and pull him back.

  “Are you crazy? We won’t let the darkness take you.”

  He looks me in the eye and smiles, but his eyes are clouded over by sadness. “It’s fine. This entity already has parts of my soul. I will never be whole again, unless I let it take me.”

  I shake my head. “You’re wrong. We can beat it.”

  With that fake smile still plastered on his face, he turns away from us.

  The cold mist swoops down to take him, but once more, Vicky and I pull the old ghost away from it. He yanks his arm loose and turns his head further than humanly possible to face me. “Let me go.”

  Tears sting my eyes. “No!”

  “Yes!” His voice booms, and the wolves howl gleefully.

  “Just use your power to deflect the attack,” I beg him. “We can win this.”

  He bends closer to me, his neck twisted, his eyes a burning red. When he speaks, the words come from his mouth as well as from the body above our heads. “You can never win.”

  His head snaps back into place, and he starts walking. “I am ready. Come and take me.”

  I follow Vicky as she lunges for him again, but Maël is faster. Her staff swishes through the air and hits D’Maeo on the back of the head. He goes down hard, and Vicky and I pull him into our protective circle.

  The blackness looms over us. Two shiny red eyes and a wide mouth form inside it. “If you fail to hand him over, I will kill you all,” it hisses.

  I reach out with my necromancer power in search of skeletons to fight and take out my athame at the same time. “Feel free to try.”

  It dives down, aiming straight for my head, but I throw myself out of its trajectory and try to slice it when it passes. Try, because it has no effect at all. The mist just separates where I cut it and flows back without the slightest hesitation.

  Slowly but surely, it starts to envelop us.

  CHAPTER 24

  The dark mist takes its time, circling us leisurely and growing in size. It’s like a tornado capturing us in the eye. We don’t feel anything yet, but soon, we’ll be lifted and hurled into the unknown.

  “Charlie!” I yell over the rising noise. “You have to freeze it in time. Then Maël can cast a spell.”

  My best friend nods and wipes his blond locks out of his face.

  I look at D’Maeo, still lying motionless in our midst. “Keep an eye on him, I’m going to try something.”

  I put away my athame and move my hands as quickly as I can. Training has helped. I can almost do this without thinking now. The only thing I’m worried about is that the help I’m summoning will be here too late. And if they get here before the blackness takes or crashes us, will the zombies be able to hurt the black mist?

  A distraction might be enough. It’s better than nothing, I tell myself.

  I don’t really believe it, but this keeps me busy.

  Vicky is still slicing through the mist, but it has no effect.

  The old ghost is moving at her feet, and Jeep bends over him. “Are you okay? Are you back?”

  “What?” D’Maeo blinks rapidly. “What happened?” He looks over Jeep’s shoulder and gasps. “Oh no.”

  “Can you deflect it’s power?” I yell at him.

  He rises to his feet and holds out his hands. I can see him bracing against the force of the blackness, but the mist keeps swirling around us, gaining in strength. The wind it creates is already tugging at my feet.

  Moving my hands even faster, I call out to D’Maeo. “Keep trying!”

  Suddenly, the vortex shudders and pauses before raging on.

  “You’ve almost got it, Charlie!” Maël shouts. “Remember what I taught you. Concentrate.” She pushes her staff into his hand. “Here, use this, it might help.”

  As soon as Charlie slams the wand onto the ground and leans forward, bracing against the force of the blackness, everything slows down. An angry growl rises from it, but even that is stretched in time, slowed down until the whole body of mist has come to a halt.

  “Yes!” I cheer. “Well done!”

  Charlie sticks the wand out and carefully touches the blackness. We all hold our breaths, but nothing happens, so he pushes until the mist has dispersed far enough for us to walk out of the eye of the vortex.

  “Stay close to us, D’Maeo,” I warn the gray-bearded ghost when he lingers.

  He gives me a sad look. “This might be my only chance of getting the lost parts of my soul back.”

  My head swivels from left to right as I take in the enemies waiting to crush us; the evil mist on our left and the army of demons on our right, that has, for some reason, not moved an inch since we got here. Do they have instructions only to intervene when we try to go back through the portal? They look eager enough to rip us to shreds with their heads bent forward and the flames on their bodies roaring.

  I step closer to Charlie, who’s still aiming Maël’s staff at the darkness. “How long do you think you can hold it?”

  His forehead wrinkles, and he narrows his eyes at our enemy. “A minute, tops,” he breathes.

  Vicky appears at my side. “I’ll stay with him. You do what you can to get D’Maeo’s soul back.”

  It takes me a few precious seconds to come up with a plan, partly because I’m trying to remember who’s got which power. Then I jump into action.

  “Vicky, hand me something greasy and a long rope. Jeep, join Charlie and try to hypnotize the black void when its eyes appear again. D’Maeo, keep blocking its power.”

  In the blink of an eye, they all obey. I hand Maël the candy and rope and quickly explain my plan.

  She nods, chewing rapidly, and conjures a ball of grease, in which she wraps the rope.

  The wolf demons grow restless, trampling their paws and growling from the back of their throats, but they stay where they are.

  While Maël prepares, I see a small crowd approaching from the left, behind the vortex of mist. For a second, I think Trevor must have sent back-up, and my last hopes are crushed. But then, their loose skin catches my eye, and I realize it’s the troop of dead creatures I summoned. They’re waiting for my instructions.

  Gesturing wildly, I steer them past the mist and past us and position them in a straight line in front of the waiting demons. The eyes of the wolves glint hungrily, but still they wait.

  “I can’t hold it much longer!” Charlie grunts and in response, Maël starts shooting balls of gel to the ceiling of bodies. The rope is attached to the first ball and hits D’Maeo’s soul square in the stomach.

  “That’s it,” I encourage her. “Keep going.”

  Ball after ball soars upwards until only the head of D’Maeo’s double is visible.

  From the corner of my eye, I see Charlie swaying on his feet. Time is running out. Literally. We have to get out of here before that darkness can move again.

  “Pull it!” I yell. “Pull it now!”

  Without hesitation, Maël pulls the rope, and my heart leaps when D’Maeo’s copy starts descending.

  “Get ready to leave!” I tell the others.

  Meanwhile, I grab the rope and help Maël to get the soul down faster. But once it’s halfway down, it seems to sense where it belongs. It moves toward D’Maeo on its own, and we both let go of the rope.

  Maël hurries over to Vicky. “Do you have more to eat?”

  “Sure.” She rummages in her endless pocket and pulls out all sorts of chocolate, which Maël stuffs into her mouth without even looking at it.

  The look on her face tells me it takes some
effort to chew and swallow it, but she devours an impossible amount in a couple of seconds anyway. Then, she grabs D’Maeo and pushes him on the ground. “Get ready to be whole again.”

  The old ghost lands on his butt with a stunned look on his face, but when he looks up and sees his soul approaching, his expression changes into one of relief and exhilaration.

  Maël takes his place next to Charlie and creates the biggest wall of grease I’ve ever seen. Vicky and Jeep follow her as she moves around the mist that is slowly coming back to life.

  “Hurry!” I call to them.

  When I look back down at D’Maeo, his double hovers above him. It turns in the air and then, without a sound, it drops down into the old ghost. His whole body goes stiff as if a thousand volts go through it. He coughs and splutters, and I grab his hand, fear gripping my throat. What did we do? Was this a trick? Am I losing one of my friends? One of my protectors? Oh, please, let him be alright.

  His arms and legs stretch and relax, and then he shoots upright with a roar.

  I jump back. My heart beats so loud that I can’t hear anything else.

  D’Maeo turns his hands over again and again and finally looks at me with a smile. “I’m whole again!”

  I send him a relieved grin. “Yes, but you won’t be for long if we don’t get out of here.”

  He’s on his feet in a flash and pulls me up. “Let’s go then.”

  He looks more energized than I can ever remember seeing him, but there’s no time to take all of it in now. Ominous growls rise from the army surrounding the portal. When I turn my head, I can see the demons are ready to pounce. They’ve moved a bit closer to the line of skeletons that consists not only of humans, but also of monsters I can no longer recognize with only half of the skin clinging to the bones. Thankfully, it doesn’t matter what side they were once on. They will now obey me. Or so I hope.

  Maël has finished the construction that will hopefully keep the dark mist occupied long enough for us to escape. Jeep and Vicky take Charlie by the arms and pull him along. He looks utterly drained and is barely able to stay upright.

  Without a word, Maël joins me, and with D’Maeo between us, we turn back to the portal.