Prodigy: A 13 Covens Magical World Adventure (YA)

by Cassandra

  “Geez, I didn’t even know she was there,” remarked Jessica.

  Though not a familiar like Grace, Lucy shot Chad an unmistakably rude look.

  “Sorry,” he muttered and waited as if he actually expected a response from her. Lucy, however, merely hissed and dashed out of the room.

  “Don’t pay her no mind, dear.” Grandma Ethel waved the whole incident away. “Now, an update, please.”

  Chad nodded and sat. “Right. I went to meet up with Roger. I thought it would be best to meet in person, but he seems to be extremely busy at the moment. He wasn’t home. I tried to call him, but he didn’t answer. He texted back to say he’d get back to me as soon as he had the chance.

  “So in other words, you have nothing.” Ethel shook her head.

  “Well, I wouldn’t say it’s nothing,” Chad protested. “I mean—” Before he could explain himself, his phone rang. “That’s him.”

  “Put him on speaker phone,” Pastor Norman suggested.

  He answered the phone and pressed the speaker button.

  Roger’s voice rang out loud and clear into the room. “Hey, Chad.”

  “Hey, man. I have you on speaker.”

  “Oh, yeah? Who’s there?”

  “Pastor Norman, Ms. Ethel, and Jessica.”

  “Hey, guys.”

  “Get on with it,” Ethel instructed.

  “The demon attacks keep coming, Roger,” Chad began. “Jessica and I went to help Pastor Norman earlier today. Andy was with us. There were four demons. Serious ones. The tall suckers with vampire teeth. One of them got Andy pretty bad. He’s being tended to by the coven as we speak.”

  “Oh, man. Will he be all right?”

  Chad looked at Pastor Norman who took over. “Yes. I received a text not long ago saying that he’s in recovery. They said he should pull through.” He shook his head. “Those were some nasty demons, though. The kind of wounds Andy had would have been no problem to heal if we had dealt with some lower caliber demons. But these?” He let out a low whistle. “I never expected to see this kind of thing here in the States.”

  “Roger, dear, since no one is getting to the point, I’ll do it,” the old lady grumbled, stepped forward, and moved closer to the phone. “What information has your lead produced? Do you have any idea why these demons are acting so crazy? Or better yet, who’s making them act crazy?”

  “No, ma’am,” he admitted. “I’m still following my lead right now. I don’t want to go into too much detail about it. I’m a little superstitious. I feel like talking about it prematurely could jinx things.”

  She muttered under her breath, and Pastor Norman sighed. Jessica, who felt too exhausted to think much of anything, simply leaned back on the couch in a daze. Nevertheless, she kept track of the conversation.

  “Fair enough. You don’t have to tell us much,” Chad conceded, “but can you at least tell us this—what do you know about the three girls at Jessica’s school? Have you come across any information about them?”

  “No. I thought you were on their case?”

  “I am. Or more accurately, I was.”

  “What do you mean ‘was?’” Grandma Ethel demanded.

  “Yeah,” Roger agreed. “I thought we already knew that they were responsible for bothering Jessica with the imp. I thought you guys were handling that.”

  “The thing is,” Chad replied thoughtfully, “we know they were behind the imp. However, they haven’t had a hand in the demon attacks occurring around town. I thought they were behind them, but we went to confront them today. The demon stench wasn’t around them. At all.”

  “But it was earlier,” Jessica pointed out. She considered the next question she wanted to ask and wondered if it would make her sound naïve or stupid. Ever since Chad had claimed he couldn’t smell demons on Debbie and her crew anymore, a question had hovered in the back of her mind.

  How many teachers have said that the only stupid question is the unasked question? she thought. She drew a deep breath. Here goes…

  “I don’t mean to sound stupid or anything,” she prefaced and turned her gaze to Chad, “but when you say you can’t smell demons on them anymore—is it possible that they just… I don’t know…took a shower or something?”

  “Oh, Lord, help my grandbaby,” Grandma Ethel mumbled as she turned and headed to the kitchen.

  Roger snickered over the phone. “I’m sorry. Forgive me,” he begged. “I didn’t mean to laugh at you, Jess, but—”

  Her face burned. Chad sat with a smirk, and even Pastor Norman cracked a wry smile.

  Okay, so evidently there is such a thing as a stupid question, Jessica thought.

  “That’s not quite the kind of smell Chad’s talking about,” the pastor explained.

  “Right,” Chad affirmed. “I thought I told you before. It’s more than a smell. Like dark magic. It’s hard to explain, but simply taking a shower wouldn’t get rid of it. It lingers behind.”

  “Oh,” Jessica mumbled and averted her gaze to the floor, embarrassed.

  Pastor Norman tried to hide his smile. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of. You’re still new to all of this. No one is really laughing at you.”

  “Roger was,” she countered.

  “Because he’s a dork,” Chad returned.

  “I heard that,” Roger blurted from the phone.

  Chad laughed. “Trust me, Jess, he asked the same kind of thing a year ago.”

  “Of course. That’s why it’s funny,” Roger maintained. “Anyway, Jessica does have a point. How do we really know the girls in question aren’t involved? Since the smell was on them initially, maybe they played a role earlier on. Just because they didn’t have anything to do with the most recent attack doesn’t mean they were innocent in the past. Who knows—maybe something they did a while ago is impacting things now.”

  His friend nodded. “Yes, I’ve thought about that. But like Jessica said earlier, we’ve got to consider whether girls that age could be strong enough to conjure demons. At first, I thought it possible. They grew up with magical families and never had their heritage hidden from them. But the more I think about it…” He shook his head. “I honestly don’t know anymore.”

  Jessica sat up and leaned forward, now more interest in the conversation. “Maybe someone around them is involved then? Would that leave traces of the smell on them?”

  Pastor Norman nodded. “Possibly.”

  “Like their old batty grandmothers,” Ethel interjected as she returned to the living room. More dishes of food floated in behind her.

  Chad snapped his fingers and pointed at her. “You may be on to something with that, Ms. Ethel.”

  “Don’t I know it. Anyway, you all are looking awfully skinny to me. How about we stop all this talk for a while and have some dinner?” She looked at the phone. “That means you too, Roger? Where you at? Wanna stop by for some food?”

  Roger groaned over the phone. “I wish I could,” he lamented. “I’m so hungry, I feel like eating the next demon I see. But I’m afraid I can’t make it.”

  Chad chuckled. “That’s some strong commitment, man. I don’t think there’s anything in the world that could make me turn down a meal from Ms. Ethel!”

  “Sure, rub it in,” the other young man grumped. “I’ll talk to you guys later.”

  “Later.” Chad grabbed his phone and ended the call.

  Jessica sighed. “So basically, what you guys are saying is that a bunch of grandmas are responsible for this stuff?”

  Chad shook his head. “Nobody is saying that for certain. The only thing we know right now is that we have to do some more investigating. Which means we all need to keep our eyes and ears open.”

  She blinked and looked from Chad to Pastor Norman and then to her grandmother, who fussed over the dining room table. “In other words, we are no closer to figuring out what’s going on. Demons will keep popping up left and right. Everything you guys have done so far is useless.”

  “Hey, now,” the p
astor protested. “Nothing is useless, Jessica. Knowing who’s not responsible is as helpful. It means we can narrow the search down. I may not have seen or expected anything like this, but one thing I’ll never do is give up hope. We’ll get to the bottom of this, sooner or later.”

  Jessica swallowed. She felt like she had been chastised by the pastor, which wasn’t a good feeling. “Sorry,” she muttered.

  He smiled to let her know that he wasn’t upset with her. “You have nothing to be sorry about. Like I said, we all know you’re new to this.”

  “If all this food gets cold, you’ll have something to be sorry about,” Grandma Ethel joked. She gestured to the dining room table. “Now enough with all the yip-yap. Come on over here and eat.”

  “You don’t have to tell me twice.” Chad made a beeline straight for the dining room table. He reached for a dinner roll when Grandma Ethel slapped his hand. “Go wash your hands first, boy. You’ve been out there fighting demons, and you think you’ll just put your hands in my biscuits?”

  “Sorry, sorry.” He held his hands up and headed for the bathroom.

  “That goes for the both of you too. Up you get.” Grandma Ethel motioned to Jessica and Pastor Norman.

  “I’ve already stayed too long.” The older man sighed with regret and shook his head. “I need to get back to the coven and check on Andy. I’ll give them an update on what’s going on. Plus, I have a few leads of my own to follow up on.”

  “It can all wait until you’ve had a decent meal,” Grandma Ethel protested. “I won’t take no for an answer, Pastor.”

  Jessica smiled. “Pastor Norman, I wouldn’t fight my grandmother if I were you. Just eat quickly and you can be on your way.”

  He laughed as she made her way to the bathroom to wash her hands.

  “Well, since you put it that way…”

  Once they were all seated at the table, Pastor Norman had the biggest plate of them all, courtesy of Ethel. By the way he dug in, he didn’t seem to mind.

  The old lady gave a laugh that practically sounded like a cackle. “You see? I knew you needed a good meal!”

  He smiled. “I swear, Ms. Ethel, I’ll never argue with you again!” He scooped another mouthful of mashed potatoes onto his spoon.

  Seated beside each other, the two of them had carried on an easy conversation from the moment their butts had hit the chairs.

  Jessica nudged Chad with her elbow.

  He raised his eyebrows questioningly.

  “She couldn’t have put a love potion over his food, could she?” Jessica asked in a low whisper that fortunately didn’t carry to the other side of the table.

  Chad nearly choked on the piece of steak. He had to take a large gulp of lemonade to recover. Once he was capable of talking again, he whispered to Jessica, “I guess we’ll find out soon, won’t we?”

  She, however, had a hard time finding the humor in the situation and cleared her throat uncomfortably. Pastor Norman ate with abnormal gusto. Seeing her looking their way, Grandma Ethel winked.

  Jessica squirmed in her seat.

  “I’m messing with you,” Chad whispered and nudged Jessica this time. “Pastor Norman is accustomed to magic. Trust me, he can recognize spell-tainted food. We all can.”

  She laughed a little too loudly and couldn’t hide how relieved she was to receive that bit of information. The meal became a lot more enjoyable due to the relief she now felt.

  “Ms. Ethel, thank you so very much for convincing me to stay,” Pastor Norman gushed once dinner was eaten and the table had been cleared. “I didn’t know how much I needed that.”

  “Oh, Pastor. Knowing what good men need happens to be a specialty of mine.”

  Behind their backs, Jessica pretended to gag and Chad burst out laughing. He turned the laugh into a cough and cleared his throat when the elders suddenly turned his way. “Ahem. Uhm, Pastor Norman, let me head back to the coven with you,” he offered.

  “Certainly, young man,” the older man agreed. They made their way to the front of the house.

  Jessica and Grandma Ethel followed and walked them out.

  “Thanks for everything, Ms. Ethel.” Chad paused to give her a one-armed hug around the shoulders and a kiss on the cheek.

  “No problem, honeybunch,” she cooed and pinched his cheek as if he was a child.

  Jessica waved to them as they headed out the door. “Keep us updated!” she called.

  “Will do,” Chad said and glanced over his shoulder at her.

  Once they drove off, Grandma Ethel held the door open for the cats that had lounged in the yard. They slunk into the house and some of them stopped to purr and curl around Jessica’s ankles.

  “It seems like you had a pretty eventful day, girly,” Grandma Ethel declared as she closed and locked the door.

  Jessica nodded. “And let me tell you, Grandma—I’m past tired of eventful days.”

  Ethel chuckled. “The life of a young witch.” She sighed. “You don’t know yet—these are the good ol’ days.”

  She refrained from saying that any day spent fighting demons didn’t really seem like it should be referred to as a ‘good ol’ day.’

  “Do you want some tea before bed?” her grandmother asked.

  “Sure.”

  Jessica followed her grandmother into the kitchen and sat at the table. The old lady set the tea kettle on the stove and poured several fresh bowls of milk for the cats.

  “Hey, Grandma?”

  “Yes?”

  “Early this morning…I…I conjured an imp without really meaning to. To help save a cat stuck in a tree. Is that…normal?”

  Grandma Ethel paused for a long time. With a sigh, she sat on the opposite side of the kitchen table. “When your mother was a kid, she once brought a plastic garden gnome to life by accident.” She gave a hearty laugh at the memory and slapped her thigh. “Oh, boy, you should have seen the neighbors! They thought I’d kidnapped an ugly little kid from somewhere!”

  “So…you’re saying that it is normal? I’m not…special or anything?”

  “I said no such thing!” She grinned, a twinkle in her eye. “What you’ll have to learn is that as my bloodline, you were bound to be special. Ethel don’t produce no duds, that’s for sure.”

  Jessica shook her head and laughed, seeing that she was unlikely to get a straight answer from her grandmother. She stood up and hugged her. “I’ll go put my pajamas on while the kettle is heating up. Can I have some cookies too?”

  “After a day like today, I’d say you deserve some.” Ethel tweaked her nose a little too roughly, but she recognized the affection in the gesture nonetheless.

  She jogged up the stairs to the guest bedroom, where she found her suitcase and bags waiting for her. After slipping her clothes off quickly and throwing on a pair of cozy pajamas, Jessica stopped in the bathroom. She looked in the mirror and tied her hair up.

  Jessica stared at her reflection for a moment. “We certainly didn’t see any of this coming, did we?” she asked herself.

  For so many years, her life had been that of a typical girl. Parents, school, homework, and friends. That was it. That was all.

  But now?

  She knew of magic, witches, demons, imps. A whole world had existed right under her nose. Right in her own family, no less.

  Facing those demons had been the most frightening thing she had ever done in her life. Nevertheless, the knowledge of who her grandmother was, and what she was…

  Well, she couldn’t help but feel a little special after all.

  Even though it was more than a little scary at times, as long as she had Grandma Ethel, Pastor Norman, Chad, and even the goofy Roger all looking out for her, she felt that she would be able to handle it all in the long run.

  She flipped the light switch and went back downstairs, ready to have tea and cookies with her grandmother.

  No matter how crazy things got, one thing was still the same as always—Grandma Ethel could make even the evilest things in th
e world seem not quite so bad. She truly was magical.

  Epilogue

  Perched upon his throne, the Head of Demons looked out across the sea of souls before him. They drifted by, their faces contorted in varying degrees of agony. Their wails drifted to his ears and sounded like the finest music.

  On the surface, everything seemed fine. But there was one pressing problem that couldn’t be ignored.

  He turned away from that ocean of agony when he heard the tell-tale hissing. With a grimace, he scanned the area reluctantly until he saw the smoke rise from the ground. Before long, a pile of ashes had gathered. Then came the screams—not human, but demonic.

  These wails did not have the same musical quality as the doomed souls had.

  As the moans drifted to his ears, the ashes began to swirl and solidify. They took on the shape of none other than the demons who had been sent to Earth not long ago.

  Like too many before them, they had returned to Hell.

  Corrupted humans were meant to fall to Hell on a regular basis after their lives were over. Demons, on the other hand, were not supposed to return so frequently, especially not emptyhanded.

  The Head of Demons had sent these lesser demons to Earth on special missions. Now, they had returned, and he began to grow unnerved.

  Something wasn’t right.

  The first few times demons unexpectedly returned to Hell beaten and defeated, he had chalked it up to coincidence. Sometimes, the humans got the best of them. As they all knew, some humans went through extensive training to learn how to defeat their kind. The occasional defeat was expected.

  However, individuals like those hunters were supposed to be few and far between. Furthermore, they weren’t supposed to succeed so frequently, particularly not in one specific area.

  Yet, one area of Earth now proved to be a problem. Demons did not survive their voyages there.

  A grimace turned his ugly face to something unbearable. The Head of Demons watched as the latest set of demons he had sent up at Gloria McCrow’s request returned. They groveled at his feet, ashamed by their failure. As they should be. They were lesser when compared to the Head of Demons, but still terribly strong. That such high caliber demons hadn’t been able to meet the demands of a human witch was embarrassing. She had sent them to do nothing more than put a stop to a few meddlesome humans.