Crimson Hollow

by Andrea Pearson

  All of this because of a side mission that had almost nothing to do with me being a Fire Impeder.

  I was bringing a whole lot of destruction and violence to a state that rarely had destruction and violence. Utah was a relatively peaceful place. The people were friendly and neighborly, and even in Salt Lake, the biggest city, shootings and gang fights were exceptionally rare.

  As I towel dried and did my hair and makeup, more resignation and a realization that my instincts were correct settled over me. Ifrits were in Utah. But why would they start at the base of Utah County and burn their way north? Why act so methodically? What were they trying to do? Couldn’t they just come to Lehi and hunt me down and try to kill me like every other evil demon? Why go to all the bother of setting mountains on fire in such a non-random way?

  When I came out of the bathroom, Eleanora stopped the movie and turned her attention to me.

  “You were in there long enough. Did you figure it out?”

  I sat down next to her and put my face in my hands.

  “That bad, huh?”

  I nodded. “Yes. It’s ifrits. From Iraq. They’re the ones causing the fires.”

  “That is bad.”

  It was to her credit that she didn’t question me, didn’t try to find out how I knew for sure. Regardless, I decided to explain anyway. I wanted to see if I’d missed anything.

  Once I finished going through my reasoning, she nodded slowly and leaned back in the couch, folding her arms and staring at the ceiling.

  “So, what do we do?” she asked.

  “I honestly have no idea. You saw what happened to me after I fought one ifrit.”

  She glanced at me, eyebrow raised. “What makes you think there’s more than one this time?”

  I frowned. She had a point. “I don’t. It’s just . . . I mean, well, I guess one ifrit could be doing all this. Either way, I want to go in with the expectation that there’s more than one to prepare myself for the worst possible outcome.”

  “Good idea.” She leaned forward, clasping her hands together. “Again, what do we do with this information?”

  “I wish I knew.”

  Eleanora stared at me. “You wish you knew? Come on, Lizzie. You can do better than that.”

  I got to my feet and started pacing. “You’re right. Okay. We need to alert all of the firemen—” I stopped myself and shook my head. “No, we need to go alone. And we must go now. We can’t let the firemen around these creatures. If they’re after me, there’s no point bringing helpless humans into battle.”

  Eleanora nodded. “I agree. Of course, I’m going with you.”

  I nodded, thankful. “I would appreciate that.”

  I no longer doubted Eleanora’s physical abilities. She’d long since stopped using her cane around me. And that last fire—the one in Orem—when she hadn’t even needed Corben and Garrison to go with made me wonder why she’d retired in the first place. Other than the broken hip, anyway. Maybe she didn’t want those she worked with to watch her slowly go downhill.

  We got in my car and headed to Grove Canyon, a beautiful hiking trail I’d gone on a couple of times since moving to Utah. We parked in the lot above the watershed, then shielded our eyes as we stared up at the mountain.

  “Based on the fires you’ve already fought, when do you think this one will start?” Eleanora asked.

  I closed my eyes and reached out magically. She probably couldn’t feel any flames yet, and if she couldn’t, I definitely couldn’t—she was much stronger than me.

  “I haven’t noticed a pattern yet.”

  We headed up the trail, relishing the part of it that was shaded. Soon enough, the switchbacks led us to the barren side of the mountain that only grew sage and dry grass. The hot sun beat on us. Hiking this time of day was a pretty stupid idea, especially since we were in the dead of summer. We’d brought water—I’d thought that far ahead—but it was over a hundred degrees, and without any shade, I wasn’t sure how far we’d get.

  In the end, it didn’t seem to matter. I asked the amulet to guide us to the ifrits, and it took us off the trail.

  We crossed over a few of the foothills, finally reaching a point where the amulet cautioned me to slow down.

  I glanced at Eleanora. She looked pale, and I offered her my water bottle. She gratefully accepted it, downing half the contents before handing it back. She’d already emptied one of her own.

  “They’re near,” I whispered.

  The two of us surveyed the area, but I was unable to see anything significant until Eleanora pointed down.

  “What do you make of this?” she asked.

  Rocks were laid out along the ground in such a way that I could tell they’d been placed there purposely. And they’d been that way for a long time—weeds grew around them securely.

  I didn’t have much of a chance to examine them, though, before we were interrupted.

  “And there she is,” a man said. He stepped out from some scrub oak about fifty feet away.

  I felt my stomach twist. He was almost exactly the same as the last ifrit I’d seen in human form. His head was shaved, his face painted, and he wore robes. They were a slightly different type and color, but I’d recognize them anywhere.

  “My name is Dorothy Elizabeth Ashton. What brings you to my territory?”

  “We seek blood in exchange for blood.”

  I didn’t miss the we in that sentence. “Blood from whom?”

  In one simple motion, the man changed into his ifrit counterpart, towering over us. Six or seven other horned beings stepped from the underbrush.

  Without warning, they charged.

  I braced myself, ready for whatever attack they were about to give. But the ground shook, and a huge crevice appeared between us right before they reached us.

  They stumbled backward in their attempt to stop in time, roaring in frustration, striking at us with their whips.

  Thank goodness Eleanora was there.

  “Before you attack,” I said, “at least allow me to explain what happened.”

  The ifrit responded in a garbled, unintelligible tongue.

  “I can’t understand anything you’re saying,” I said. “Shift back into humans. I promise, I won’t do anything until we’ve reached an agreement of sorts.”

  The man changed into a human again—his companions remained in their ifrit form—chuckling as he did so. “What makes you think you are a threat to us?”

  I shrugged. “Only the fact that I was able to destroy one of your kind before. I know I can do it again.”

  Especially since I knew what their weakness was. Even now, I sensed the fire that engulfed his entire body. It called to me, beckoning me, practically begging me to destroy it. I pushed that urge away, returning my focus to the man and his companions who were across the huge divide.

  “Please, before we fight, let me explain everything.”

  He glared. “No explanation is required.”

  “You may feel differently soon. At least, I hope you do.” I nodded at Eleanora. “She’s a powerful Arete. She’ll keep you in check if you don’t do it yourselves.”

  The man snorted. “Aretes are no match for one of my kind.”

  I held up the amulet. “But this, combined with our Arete power, is.”

  He stared at it. “I have no idea what you’re holding.”

  “The Shade Amulet.”

  He didn’t react—the name meant nothing to him.

  “It allows me to extinguish every bit of flame that courses through your body. Like I did the other ifrit who challenged me. Would you like a demonstration? Or will you allow me to tell my story?”

  He glanced at his companions, then grunted. “Give us your side. Then we fight.”

  I agreed. I told them what happened from the beginning, with Lord Kenan, all the way through to getting the flame and having to defeat the ifrit in Iraq.

  I didn’t leave out any details. I made it as complex as I could, wanting them to have a chance to fu
lly understand why I had done it, but also wanting to allow them the opportunity to calm down. They’d obviously been gathering their anger for quite some time.

  “I know this Lord Kenan,” the ifrit said. “I know the danger he brings to this planet. And ifrits, while quick to anger, are a loyal and honest race. I know without asking that my brothers would agree that the fault is not yours, but Lord Kenan’s.”

  I raised my eyebrow, not sure whether to believe him. It couldn’t possibly be that easy.

  “What do you know about Lord Kenan?” I asked.

  “Only that the fire we hid from him kept us from being his servants.”

  “Oh?”

  The ifrit went on to explain that several hundred years ago, when Lord Kenan had ruled, he controlled nearly any creature that used fire in any way. He made slaves and guardsmen out of the ifrits. They weren’t allowed to own their own land or to have families. In fact, it sounded like Lord Kenan had tried to kill the race entirely. I suspected it was because he feared their strength.

  As the man/ifrit continued his explanation, I gathered he felt the same.

  Lord Kenan had never learned to control Fire Aretes. I found a bit of comfort in that until the ifrit mentioned that the demon had combined himself with a Fire Arete in an effort to gain power over them too. It was his final act before the supernatural beings imprisoned him.

  Lord Kenan, if left alone, would eventually control all creatures of fire again, including Aretes.

  “We’ll address your sins later, but as you can see, the information you gave us now changes our plans drastically.”

  “They aren’t my sins! I just told you—there’s no way I would have even gone to Iraq if I hadn’t been forced to by Lord Kenan.”

  The man glanced back at the others, and I wondered for a moment why only men had come. I didn’t have time to ask—nor would I have—before he looked back and responded.

  “Yes, I understand. We need to discuss this on our own. And then we’ll decide how we might help you stop Lord Kenan.”

  “You’ll help me?” I felt my eyebrows raise in incredulity. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Lord Kenan was just as much a threat to ifrits as he was to me, and probably even more so, if he was able to control them completely. Of course . . . if he learned to control Fire Aretes, I’d be in the same boat.

  “Do not forget what I just told you,” the man said. “We must eradicate this planet of Lord Kenan. They should have destroyed him when they had the chance several hundred years ago. We will not repeat that mistake.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  His companions shifted back into human at his command, then he turned to us. “We will meet together, as I said, and decide how best to assist. Return to this location this evening. We’ll discuss everything that must be done then.”

  “And you’re not going to set the mountain on fire?”

  “Not today. We’ve reached our destination.” He motioned to the ground around him where the weird rocks were lined up.

  I almost asked what the rocks were for, but the man leveled a stern expression at Eleanora. “Please fix what you have done.”

  “Very well.”

  With a rumble, the crevice closed and the ground became what it had been before. Even I couldn’t tell it had changed. This woman was good.

  “Much gratitude,” the man said. “We will see you at dusk.”

  Eleanora and I returned to my car. It took us half an hour to get back. It had taken us over an hour to reach the ifrits. I was completely exhausted and dehydrated. Neither of us said a word until after we stopped at the gas station in Pleasant Grove to refill our water bottles and buy some snacks.

  Once back in the car, Eleanora turned to me. “An unlikely alliance.”

  I looked at her, my eyebrow raised. “You’re okay with this?” I still felt like they’d caved way too easily.

  “I am. But only because I sense truth in what he was saying. Either way, we need more information.”

  I nodded. “I can get some.”

  “I suggest we do that. It’s always better to know what we’re getting into as far in advance as possible. Unfortunately, a few hours isn’t a lot of time.”

  After we’d returned to my house, I asked the amulet to help me find a shade. I ended up having to drive the streets of Lehi for twenty minutes before one approached. That entire time, my anxiety and nervousness grew. I needed to get this fixed, and quickly—before it affected any other aspects of my life more than it already had. At least the fires on the mountains had been resolved.

  That reminded me . . . While waiting at a light, I sent a text to the chief of the Provo Fire Department, telling him I’d figured out how the fires were being started and letting him know they wouldn’t be happening again. I asked him to spread the word, then said I’d give him more information as soon as I could.

  The ghost that had taken me to the link in American Fork the other day hadn’t been joking when he said links to Koven tended to change. This time, an old cowboy took me to an apartment building near the roundabout and rodeo grounds. Instead of an alley, though, the door to Mount Koven was one of the actual apartment doors.

  I felt silly standing there, holding my hand against the wood before stepping back and watching as my blood seeped into the surface. Despite my nerves, I knew the door I’d touched was a magical one and not the actual door to the apartment, that the people who might be living on the other side wouldn’t know I was there. I hoped.

  The information I gained on the ifrits was interesting, but scant. Not many ghosts knew a whole lot about the race, and I was coming to find that the occasional piece of knowledge was impossible to be had, even in a place as powerful as the Akashic Record.

  From what I did glean, though, it seemed the ifrits were created by a very strong Arete several thousand years earlier as a way to defend ziggurats in ancient biblical times. The demons had a bit of Arete power in them, but obviously not enough for me to recognize their magical print. Rather, this ancient Arete had created them using what would be called black magic today. They weren’t supposed to be good, but they also weren’t supposed to be bad. Their entire purpose was to defend and hold strong where a regular human, and even an Arete, would shy away.

  As I’d already learned, they were shape shifters.

  The one thing that calmed my nerves was the fact that when an ifrit gave their word, they never broke it.

  If only people were like that still today.

  The punishments against those who did lie or break an oath were pretty drastic. Arms cut off, tongues cut out, things like that. Typical, biblical-time punishments that the ifrits still carried out today.

  The ghost apologized for not having more info, but what I’d learned was enough. I didn’t need to know the exact person who created them, the year, or even the location. I only needed to know how much I could trust them. And apparently, I could trust them more than a regular person.

  I thanked the ghost and returned to my car, thinking over my new bit of knowledge. My nerves were calmed for the meeting that evening, and I looked forward to sharing everything with Eleanora.

  I’d just pulled up in front of the house when my phone rang. My heart skipped a beat when I saw that it was Abel. Rather than hurrying to answer it, thereby giving the impression that I was hanging on to my phone, waiting for him to call, I counted to ten before picking up.

  “Hello?” I hoped that my breathlessness didn’t come through.

  As it turned out, Abel probably wouldn’t have even noticed. I heard his relief the moment he spoke.

  “Lizzie? Oh, it’s so good to hear your voice.”

  I’d spent enough time with Abel to know he rarely said things he didn’t feel to the core. He missed me!

  “It’s good to hear your voice too,” I said. I wanted to say more—to gush out how much I’d missed him—but I needed to tone it down a bit. At least until I knew how he was feeling and if he’d gotten his mom back. “How are you? What’s
going on?”

  “I’m fine.” His voice was quiet, deep. “I’m coming back soon. I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long.”

  I steeled myself, hoping he’d been successful, but wondering at the lack of enthusiasm. He didn’t sound optimistic.

  “How did it go?”

  He sighed. “Not well. I’ll tell you more when I return.”

  We ended the call and I sat in my car, staring blankly out the windshield. Poor Abel. Oh, I hoped he didn’t have bad news about his mom. I hoped he simply hadn’t found her yet, that she was alive somewhere.

  I mourned for him for a couple of minutes before a slow smile crept across my face. He was coming back! I couldn’t wait to see him again. My heart ached with how much I’d missed him, and I hadn’t even realized the extent of that loneliness. I really, truly had fallen for him.

  Once inside the house, I relayed what I learned about ifrits to Eleanora.

  “I suspected as much,” she said.

  I folded my arms and gave her a skeptical look. “Go on.”

  She shrugged. “They were created to protect ziggurats, yes? And in that time, people did everything they could to keep their word. They won’t go back on it.”

  Good point.

  “Now, we need to eat,” she said, “and prepare for this meeting tonight.”

  I frowned, noticing that the house didn’t smell like dinner before realizing I’d forgotten to start something. Dang it. My tummy complained, and I put my hand on it. “Yes, we do.”

  Somebody knocked on the door, and I glanced at Eleanora. “Are you expecting anyone?”

  She grinned wickedly. “Only the pizza man.”

  I got up from my seat, sending her a grateful smile. “I’ll pay you back later.”

  “No need. Remember, I always did charge far more for my services than you do.”

  I hadn’t told her about Nicole’s generosity. I wasn’t withholding it from her, and I didn’t see any reason why she couldn’t know, but it just hadn’t come up yet. I made a mental note to tell her over dinner.