by Rain Oxford
“Is there a way to close it?”
“There is in the Claviculus, but closing it is a lot harder than opening it, especially since the elder gods are going to be waiting for the opportunity to break through. You can’t defeat them. There is no defeating them. You have to stop him by any means before he can get the gate open. While he’s doing the ritual, he can’t defend himself.”
“That’s important information. He was probably expecting you to protect him last time. If he has any intelligence at all, he’ll prepare another method of protection.”
“He also needs one more sacrifice,” Eugene said.
“Can he use the coma students?”
“No. A sacrifice has to be an abled, willing, and living person.”
“I see. He isn’t going to waste time. While he’s gaining his strength, he’ll be looking for someone to sacrifice. Are there anymore characteristics necessary? Do they have to be a virgin or have been born on a full moon or something?”
“No. They just have to voluntarily sacrifice themselves.”
“That’s a pretty big stipulation, though. When Vincent returns with what we need, we’ll take Vitalis out before he’s ready to open the gate. Based on the pattern of students collapsing, we have three days. What happens if we stop Jessica from completing the ritual? Can we stop him from returning all the way?”
“It’s too late. He’s already too powerful. We might be able to break the connection to the kids, but if he thinks he has lost Jessica, he could decide to suck the last bit of life from the children in comas. He could do that at any time.”
“Why hasn’t he?”
“Because as long as they’re alive, he can draw more power from them as they heal and recover.”
Dr. Martin returned to the infirmary. I grabbed a sandwich and a pot of coffee, then went to my room to eat and skim through the grimoire once more. I didn’t want to use up my energy on another vision.
* * *
Half an hour into my skimming, I heard a tentative knock. My instincts didn’t warn me of danger, so I opened the door. “Jason? What’s wrong?”
The boy was crying. “Jamie is missing.”
“Shit. Come in.” He entered the room and sat on my bed. I closed the door. “When did you last talk to him?”
“When we went to bed last night. I woke up this morning and he was gone.”
“Has he spoken to anyone strange or said something?”
He closed his mouth.
I sighed. “You’re not going to get your brother in trouble.”
“He’s not bad.”
“He can be influenced by someone who is bad. Your brother is trying to find his place in the world. He doesn’t know who he wants to be yet. We can advise him, but not make choices for him. Don’t worry about him being in trouble with me. I want to help him.”
“He was talking to someone.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. He was creepy and powerful, like the shadow man.”
“When did he start talking to Jamie?”
“A week or two ago, we started having some weird dreams about a black dog and a room underground. I pushed him away. A few days ago, Jamie started talking to someone who wasn’t there. He said the wizard would offer him a lot of power. I told Jamie he doesn’t need it, because we are going to get more powerful when we get older, but he wants more magic now.”
I reached out with my magic to find one particular mind. I sensed Jamie for an instant before he snapped a mental shield into place. I could’ve broken it, except that would have definitely driven him away. I did believe it was possible for Jamie to turn out well, but I didn’t expect him to, and if he couldn’t trust me, he definitely wouldn’t.
“I think I know the wizard who has been contacting him. I want you to stay with Scott. Henry will protect you both. If you need me, you can call me mentally.”
“I can’t do that without Jamie.”
“If it’s an emergency, you’ll be able to.”
“Can I stay with you?”
“Until Vincent gets here. Then I’m going to go after Vitalis, the wizard who I think was talking to Jamie.”
“Oh. Vincent is coming here? He’s a little scary.”
“Yes, but he’s a good guy… generally.” I got back to the book while Jamie took a nap on my couch.
* * *
Vincent appeared out of the shadows, looking tired and irritable. “Everything okay?” I asked.
“Other than the fact that I know you’re in trouble and you won’t tell me what it is, and that Logan is worried sick about his daughter and is insisting that I have a vision in order to check on her, and your mother is worried sick about you and knows that something is going on.”
“As soon as we’re safe and have a few hours, I’ll explain everything to you, Hunt, and my mother.”
“I had a vision of you being killed.”
“Oh. Well, don’t tell my mother. Any pointers you can give me?”
He shook his head. “I saw you trying to save Remy and things went wrong, but I can’t advise you.”
“Because if it comes down to me or Remy, you couldn’t make that choice. You’d have to choose between the daughter of your best friend and the son of the woman you love.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll take care of it. I’ll try not to die. No promises, though.”
“That’s not reassuring. Here’s the chain. It will be drawn to the six children, but if he’s around, it should especially be drawn to him.”
“And it will stop him from controlling the kids?”
“Hypothetically.”
“Theoretically,” I corrected.
“What?”
“Sorry. Darwin drilled the difference into my head.”
“Why is… one of the twins here?”
“Jason. He’s here because Vitalis is trying to use Jamie. Possibly.”
“Your confidence is reassuring.”
The frantic knock on the door told me shit was just about to get worse. When I opened the door, I wasn’t surprised to see Remington. “Jessica just fell into a coma.”
“Fuck. He’s upping his game. We need to go now. Vincent, get Jason somewhere safe.”
“I should help.”
“You’re the last person we need right now.” He opened his mouth to speak, but I continued. “I don’t mean that to be rude. You would sacrifice yourself for Remy or me, and that would open up a… very nasty can of worms.”
“Alright.”
After grabbing the syrus, Remington and I went to the library, where we found Dr. Martin. We wasted no time in going to the tomb. Our intention was to summon Vitalis again. Unfortunately, he had the element of surprise.
He was there with Jamie. Vitalis was no longer like beef jerky stretched over bones. His body had filled out with muscles and presumably organs, but his skin was still dried, resembling parchment paper.
Jamie was standing next to the ancient wizard with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face.
“Fuck.”
“Devon! The child!” Remy admonished.
“I guarantee it’s not the first time he’s ever heard it.”
The tomb itself was different, too. The casket was gone. In its place was a pillar, covered in engraved sigils. It was one of the five pillars that Vitalis’s followers had built. Where are the other four?
To the north of the pillar was a magic circle burned into the stone floor. Based on the color, I suspected it was made with burned blood. The pentagram inside was brown like the circle, except it was also metallic, like it had silver dust in it. Around the circle were thirteen candles. There was a gem inside each point of the star, all different colors. At the center of the pentagram was a metal bowl of ash and herbs, and a decorative dagger next to it. There was a double-edged sword and a thick book on the altar.
“You cannot stop me!” Vitalis declared.
“Dr. Martin, I don’t think your services will be needed after all.”
&nb
sp; “Does that mean I can leave?”
“I think that would be a good idea.” The quirky demon didn’t need to be told twice. The gate closed behind him.
“Come over here, sweetie,” Remington said to Jamie. “He can’t hurt you if you hurry.”
He glared at her. “I’m not going anywhere. Vitalis is going to make me powerful.”
“He’s not going to give you what you need,” I said.
“You don’t know anything! You’re the one who killed my real dad!”
“John was the sickest man alive and he would have destroyed you and your brother.”
Vitalis put his creepy, thin hand on Jamie’s shoulder. “Unlike the wizards you associate with, I am willing to share my power. It will take more than me alone to open the gate and release the elder gods. Now, Jamie, if you would…”
Jamie walked to the cliff drop and stopped just a step away. “What are you doing?” Remy asked.
“I won’t die; I’ll be sent to another world. A better one.”
“You were lied to,” I said.
“You’re the liar! You’re trying to take Jason from me!”
Meanwhile, Vitalis was taking advantage of the distraction. He went to the book on the altar and gestured to it. It opened itself and flipped to a certain page. He started reading it aloud. Of course, it wasn’t in English and I didn’t know how long it was.
Sigils etched into the blade of the sword started to glow.
“The circle is elemental magic, but the magic he’s using isn’t elemental,” Remy whispered to me. “He doesn’t have the balance right in the circle, so it’s acting against him.”
“That is where you are wrong, Remington Hunt,” Vitalis said.
“How do you know my name?”
“You are the granddaughter of Alistair Hunt.”
Remington aimed her gun at Vitalis. “Don’t do it, Ms. Hunt,” Jamie warned, lifting his foot, indicating that he would jump off if she made any attempt to stop Vitalis.
“Now would be a good time to call your familiar,” Remington said.
“The only chance she has is to appear right behind him and push him forward, and I don’t know she can do that. If we screw up, we won’t get another chance.” Instead, I slowly reached out for his mind. The instant I sensed it, he felt me.
“No! Get out of my head!” He wobbled with the force of his shout.
“Okay!” I said, pulling back my power. “I won’t control you.” I did, however, push my magic into Vitalis’s mind. His mind was still blocked, but I knew I could break it if I had just a moment.
At that point, he stopped chanting and said, “Remington Hunt will be the final sacrifice and reverse the damage her grandfather has caused. She will do this to save the child.”
“Why me?” Remy asked. “You couldn’t have figured me into your plans before you were killed.”
“I was never fully dead. I was aware when Alistair appointed his son to guard my tomb and I was aware when the responsibility was passed it to you.”
“He never told me about you or the gate. Are you the one who set my teachers and staff against me?”
“No, that wouldn’t make sense if he wanted you as a sacrifice,” I said.
“I never did anything to you.”
“I am not punishing you, Remington Hunt. I cannot kill Alistair, since he is already dead, so I will punish your father by allowing you the honor of being the seventh sacrifice. The elder gods will be free and I will join them in ruling this world.”
“You think they will give you power? You’re an idiot.”
“No, he’s not!” Jamie argued.
“I have studied the elder gods all of my life,” Vitalis said. “You know nothing about them. Now, Ms. Hunt, proceed with the sacrifice or Jamie will.”
“And give me your gun,” Jamie said.
“You’re not getting a gun,” Remy said. She slowly approached the edge.
I pushed harder against Vitalis’s mind. The black dog creature appeared in front of Jamie, smoke swirling around him. “Get out of my head or the boy dies.”
“Fuck. You’re turning out to be a serious nuisance, Jameson,” I said.
He gaped at me. “Devon, you’re going to make things worse,” Remington cautioned.
“He’s done a pretty good job of making things impossible already. He has enough power to be dangerous and he’s smart, yet everyone is treating him like a five-year-old.”
“He is a five-year-old.”
“He doesn’t think like one.”
“No one cares about that,” Jamie said. “Everyone keeps trying to take my brother because they hate me. I don’t care anymore.”
“No one can make you a good or bad person. You don’t have to be like your father. You’re choosing this for yourself, and you’re hurting people because you want to. If you don’t want to be treated badly, don’t behave badly. Your mother is afraid of you, not Jason, and it’s not because John was your father. Take some responsibility for yourself.”
“You don’t like me either.”
“Of course not. You haven’t done anything that makes people like you.”
He looked unsure. No one talked to him like this. It was harsh, but it was also the only way to really show that I wasn’t afraid of him. He tried to intimidate everyone around him to protect himself from rejection. There was a lot more to him if he could let go of his anger and learn to interact with people in a healthy way. If he didn’t, he would become the monster people thought he was.
The dog growled at Remy, who had stopped walking towards the edge. Remy looked at me, expecting me to have another solution. I had some powerful magic between my mind reading and mind control, but it wasn’t fast enough to stop Jamie from going over. He was following in his father’s footsteps, but he could change. He hadn’t killed anyone yet.
I considered what Darwin had said. Then I dismissed it. My job was to stop the bad guy. If I started letting the innocent die, then I wasn’t any better. I couldn’t save everyone, but I would save everyone I could.
I focused all my power on the dog creature and pushed pain into it. The creature howled and convulsed on the floor. Jamie automatically took a step back and started falling. He screamed. Fortunately, Remington was already racing to catch him. She dropped to the floor, sliding to the ledge, and reached for him.
After a tense moment, she pushed herself onto her knees with one arm, pulling him up with her other. Jamie grabbed the ledge until he was firmly on the solid ground, he wrapped his arms around her arm. She picked him up and carried him away from the ledge, but as soon as he was out of danger, he struggled to get away from her. She let him go, only to grab onto his arm when he tried to run back to Vitalis.
The dog was gone.
“Let me go.”
“You’re not going to sacrifice yourself.”
“I want to do this! You can’t stop me!” Jamie said.
“Remy, the chain,” I said.
“Yeah, I’m trying, but it takes two hands.”
I grabbed Jamie by the arms and she pulled the box out of the bag. She reached for her dagger on her thigh and cursed. “What the hell happened to my dagger?”
Jamie used that distraction to twist himself out of my grip and run back to Vitalis. “Let me help,” he said.
“Sacrifice yourself so that I can read the final passage and open the gate.”
Vitalis’s back was turned to Jamie, because he trusted the boy completely. He shouldn’t have. Jamie pulled Remington’s dagger out of his jacket pocket and stabbed Vitalis in the middle of the back.
Vitalis shouted with pain.
Jamie ran back to me. I reached inward with my magic and pulled on the bond between Rocky and me. She appeared, ready to defend me. I pushed Jamie towards her. “Get him to safety.”
She wrapped her wings around him and they both vanished. At that point Remington got the box open and the chain shot across the room. It worked its way under his robe sleeve like a determined snake. His
shouts increased until he finally pulled the dagger from his back.
He wasn’t even sweating or breathing hard when he stopped yelling. His recovery told me he wasn’t as alive as I’d thought. “Give up, Vitalis. No one is going to sacrifice themselves.”
“Don’t be so sure, Mr. Sanders.”
Remington and I were both shocked to see Elisa Sommerfeld standing behind the metal gate. Vitalis gestured to the gate and it slid open. She calmly entered the room. “You’ve known about this all along? You were helping him?”
“I’ve never met this woman,” Vitalis said, just as confused as me.
“I’m going to fire everyone my father hired,” Remington said.
“I’ve never had the honor of meeting Vitalis,” Ms. Sommerfeld said. “I am the descendant of a member of the Cult of Obumbratio. I was raised knowing that it was my purpose to see that our leader was successful.”
“You know the elder gods would destroy this world.”
“It’s not my decision to make, Mr. Sanders. This destiny was established long before I was born.”
I reached out with my power, but Vitalis was ready; he motioned to me and white light struck me. It was just as bad as being struck with Langril’s red lightning, and just as disorienting as Zondel’s attack.
In addition to needing more control over my power, I needed to be faster, apparently. Or less predictable.
Yet, as bad as it was, I felt Rocky absorbing most of the damage. Sometime later, when the world stopped spinning and my heartbeat quieted down, I realized Remington was trying to help me. My body felt fried and I couldn’t move my extremities.
“How are you still alive? Your gargoyle intercepted last time, but that was a direct hit,” Vitalis said.
“Elisa, stop,” Remington said.
“I was born for this, Ms. Hunt. You’ll find another librarian soon. I enjoyed working at the school, but this is my destiny.”
My vision recovered in time to see Sommerfeld bowing at Vitalis’s feet. Then she got up, went to the edge, and calmly stepped off, falling silently into darkness. Vitalis turned to us and grinned. “I have won. The gate will be opened and my power will be infinite.”
