“Soon there will be nowhere to hide. You’re the fox. They’ve got your scent.”
Is she a demon?
As if in response, the ring begins to pulsate from the chain around my neck. It’s a reminder that at least for now we’re safe down here because of it. I can control the demons … until the ring goes back into the wall, that is.
Is putting the ring back even a good idea? After all, how will it help us, the Seers, if we get rid of the one thing that can keep us safe — the one thing that can stop the monsters that are hunting us for our souls?
“Ignore her. We need to keep going,” Uriel says, interrupting my thoughts. She motions us to follow her with an abrupt wave. Her blue-grey eyes narrow as she glances over her shoulder, her gaze coming to rest for a brief moment on the skinny, freckled guy.
I check him out one last time. He looks like he’s not more than a couple of years older than us at the most.
Jade. I want to keep her close to me. If her health declines any more, she’s going to be in a huge amount of danger once this ring is put back.
If I put it back. After all, how much do I know about Noni and Mr. Jakande? How much does Mr. Khan know?
And what if they can’t be — or shouldn’t be — trusted?
I look over at my sister, and my heart leaps into my mouth. She’s staring at the skinny guy like she’s hypnotized. Or in love.
JADE
My hair stands on end, electrified by the shock of seeing him. How can he be here — here in the Place-in-Between?
I take another look, and that’s when he looks up, his eyes glistening with recognition when he sees me. That inviting smile dances across his lips again.
He’s not surprised to see me.
How can he possibly be here? And more importantly, why isn’t he having a heart attack from the shock of seeing me in this place?
After all, as far as I know, humans — the regular kind — can’t survive here at all. Even Seers with souls will start to fade eventually. I believe the only reason I was able to survive for as long as I did was because my soul was still on Earth, in the Ibeji doll Lola owned.
I look over at Seth again. He’s still staring at me. That familiar longing, the feeling of wanting — no, needing — to reach out and touch him floods my body. Then it hits me: if Seth is here, that means he’s not human either. Especially considering the way he’s casually hanging with the local lost souls and possible demonic entities … like he’s right at home.
He can’t be a Seer because he’s a boy. And he’s not demonic, so …
“Jasmine,” the woman says. Her use of my sister’s name jolts my attention from Seth.
How can she possibly know Jasmine’s name?
She lifts her hand and points a bony finger at us. “They’re coming for you. We’re all coming for you,” she says, her voice trailing off into a phlegmy giggle.
I look over at Jasmine. She’s chalky white. Fear crosses her face like an Olympic sprinter for a moment before she regains her composure.
“Soon there will be nowhere to hide. You’re the fox. They’ve got your scent.”
There’s a sharp intake of breath from Lily.
“Ignore her,” Uriel says to Jasmine as she turns to walk away. But just before she does, her gaze falls on Seth. He returns her stare, the corners of his lips slowly reaching upward into a smile. It’s not the teasing, flirtatious smile that he always gives me. Though it indicates familiarity, it’s also cold and menacing. It’s the smile of a snake.
Still, every cell of my body fights walking away from Seth. I want to stay on this dark and rainy street with him, even though my mind is screaming that the danger here is beyond anything I’ve encountered before.
“Come on.” It’s Jasmine. She’s at my side, linking her arm through mine and steering me away, her face a mask of concern. “Weird question, but do you know that guy?”
Instinctively, I pull my arm out of hers. “I’m fine. I can walk myself. And I have no idea what you’re talking about. What guy?” But even as the lie tumbles from my mouth, I’m not certain I’ve got the willpower to walk away from Seth.
Jasmine raises an eyebrow. She knows I’m not being honest. “We’re all going to start to weaken here soon, just like last time. You know that, right? Which means you’ll be even weaker than the rest of us.” She pauses, looking thoughtful. “We also won’t have the ring to protect us on our way back to the church. As soon as it’s back in the Roman Wall, it’s open season on Seers.”
We’re walking faster now, and I find myself digging my fingernails into the palm of my right hand in order to stop myself from turning around to get one more look at Seth. The tug-of-war between my body and brain is intensifying.
Vivienne moves beside us. She nods discreetly toward some of the people on the street. “How many of them do you think are demonic?” she asks, keeping her voice low.
Jasmine doesn’t slow her pace but does take a long, lingering look at the street around us. There’s a group of women gathered together on one of the corners, making clear attempts to get the attention of men passing by. I guess this area of London was pretty popular for prostitution.
“It’s hard to tell,” she says. “Some must be, but the demons might also be hiding from us. I don’t know about you, but this time down here feels different. Like it’s more dangerous, more alive … though that sounds weird, I know, because nothing in this place is actually alive. Other than us.”
She stops speaking as a couple of men pass by. One is dressed much better than the other. A sleek top hat is perched on his head, and a long, dark cape swirls dramatically around him. He stands out like a sore thumb from the poverty and grime of the street. The other man is walking directly behind him, his hands stuffed in his pockets, a cap pulled so low down on his forehead, it nearly rests on his eyebrows. Beneath his wide jaw sit shoulders that are nearly as wide as he is tall. He looks over at us with a dark scowl. Though he’s certainly not a demon, deep hatred is reflected in his eyes.
“Look away,” Jasmine says, grabbing my arm again. This time I don’t resist. My headache is back and worsening with every step. Tiny lights dance into my line of vision like fireflies.
The man continues to look at us. He even makes a point of turning to watch over his shoulder as the distance grows between us. Eventually the yellow fog swallows him up into the shadows.
“I don’t think he was demonic,” Vivienne says, relief flooding her voice. “His eyes weren’t like theirs.”
Jasmine shakes her head. “No, he wasn’t a demon. He was the Ripper. I heard his thoughts. He was imagining which of us he’d like to mutilate.”
JASMINE
“Oh my god,” Vivienne says. “Jack the Ripper’s just a lost soul? It seems to me that he’s almost as evil as the demons themselves.”
She’s got a point. It confuses me that a soul like the one that just passed us, one that was so full of hate and violence, his energy nearly knocking the oxygen out of my lungs, could just be biding time in the Place-in-Between. But he is, and that means that the souls of some of the most violent, hateful figures from history might be walking around down here as well.
“I don’t know,” I reply. “Uriel mentioned something about darker places. Maybe there is another place where souls like that are supposed to be. If the barrier between our world and here is thinning, maybe the same thing is happening between here and that place.”
Uriel turns onto a new street, her long skirt swishing behind her as she moves. It’s just as busy and poor as the last one. She stops and motions all of us to come together. We huddle around her. Tendrils of yellow fog wrap around the dirty hems of our long skirts. It seems to be thickening around us like overcooked pudding.
“We’re getting closer,” she says, her pale face glowing otherworldly. “Once the ring is back in the
wall, you will be safe in Hawksmoor’s sanctuaries and able to return to Toronto. However, you’ll need to make it back to Christ Church on Commercial Street. It’s the closest sanctuary. You’ll no longer be able to control the demons on the way there, and I believe they know that.”
The ring is pulsating around my neck again like a beating heart. I look over at Uriel. Yeah, she’s supposed to be our guide, but then Raphael was supposedly my guide and guardian as well, and he’s pretty much completely ditched me. I don’t care what excuse he uses. It wouldn’t matter if someone told me to stay away from him — I still wouldn’t. If I’ve really been somehow specially chosen for something, maybe I need to be a little more careful in who I trust.
“How could they possibly know that?” I ask, placing a hand protectively over the ring. We’ve been down here long enough that we should’ve seen some demonic presence. But there’s been nothing.
“Just as we can guide you, there are beings that can do the same with the demons. They are the creators of the demons. The Archons.” Uriel pauses. “And at least one is down here, amongst us, right now.”
My heart skips a beat. “The Archons?” I say. “I’ve heard of them. Aren’t they like the flip side of you guys?”
Uriel raises an eyebrow at me. “Flip side?” she asks, confusion edging into her voice. “A more accurate description would be that the Archons are our balance. Between the two groups we were supposed to ensure harmony prevailed on Earth: a balance of good and evil, if you like.”
“Well, that obviously didn’t happen,” I interject.
“No, it didn’t. And that’s because the temptation to get involved with human beings is strong. For Angels as well as Archons.” She stares hard at me. “I believe the demons here are being gathered to try to prevent your return home. You need to be very careful after the ring is returned.”
“Do we really need to put it back? It seems like suicide if what you’re telling me is true,” I say.
“The ring’s power is too great for any mortal to resist. Power corrupts. Mortals are too weak to resist using the ring for their own personal gain.” She stops and looks at me. “You understand what it’s like to desire something you know is forbidden … something that, should it come to fruition, would cause irreversible damage and destruction. Don’t you, Jasmine? You know that’s why I’m here with you right now, and not my brother.”
My face burns. There’s no cattiness in her voice. She’s just saying it like it is. Which means what happened between Raphael and I is not a secret. I wonder if Uriel knows he visited me in the hospital and at the CCT warehouse. Was Uriel the one who told him to ignore me? Is she the reason he acted like I didn’t exist when we were with the CCT?
We walk in silence for the next few minutes. Even the swishing of our skirts seems to echo through the fog that hangs around us like a curtain. It’s now so dense, it’s nearly opaque. Anything could emerge out of it and be nearly within touching distance of us before being fully visible.
Lily grabs my hand. Her flesh is clammy, and I can feel her fear seeping through the pores of her skin.
“I’ve got the ring,” I whisper to her. “We’re safe.”
For now.
She leans over to me. “I just have this really bad feeling,” she says, her voice cracking with emotion. “I’m trying not to be scared. I am. But I can’t shake this feeling that we’re in so much more danger than ever before.”
JADE
I catch pieces of the conversation between Jasmine and Uriel through the haze of pain I’m dealing with. Every time my feet hit the cobblestoned street, it feels like shards of glass are being rubbed into my brain, leaving little blood-filled cuts behind.
I can barely walk.
My sister wants to keep the ring. I know Uriel senses this as well. But it’s their discussion about another type of supernatural being down here with us that sticks in my mind.
Archon. I’ve never heard the word before, yet somehow it sounds familiar. Seth isn’t a demon, yet he can’t be down here if he’s not a Seer or a lost soul. And he’s not a lost soul, because I’ve touched him. His flesh felt like mine.
Which means he has to be something else. Something not human.
“We’re here,” Uriel says, breaking into my thoughts. She stops walking. A wall of grey stone sits in front of us, rising out of the fog to tower above us like a giant.
“Now what?” Cassandra asks, wrapping a threadbare shawl around her long, dark hair. “We leave the ring and just hoof it?” She looks around at us, her eyes serious. “Does anyone feel like it’s suddenly become too quiet?”
I hadn’t noticed, but she’s right. I’ve been so busy just trying to function, to stay upright with this pounding headache, that I didn’t notice how the people, the rhythmic noise of the horse-drawn carriages, and the bustle of conversation had all but disappeared.
“We need to get back as soon as we can,” Uriel says, her voice full of urgency. She glances behind her shoulder into the fog that’s closed in around us. “Jasmine, you need to go place the ring between the rocks. Look for a crack or crevice and be sure to place it as deep within the wall as possible.”
Jasmine hesitates. It’s only for a few seconds, but it’s noticeable — at least to me. Then she walks toward the wall, her hands moving to the nape of her neck to unclasp the chain that holds the ring.
Amara leans over to me. “How are we even going to find our way back to this place with all the smog?” she whispers.
“Uriel will guide us back. That’s what she’s here to do.” My voice is hoarse. Each word catches drily in my throat. The effort to speak makes me feel even weaker.
Amara frowns at me. “You’re feeling a lot worse, aren’t you?”
I open my mouth to answer just as Jasmine turns and begins walking back to us.
Something whizzes to the right of me in my peripheral vision. Amara’s head turns in the same direction, her eyes following mine.
“What was that?” she asks, her voice trembling ever so slightly.
The words have barely left her lips when a black shadow emerges from the fog behind us.
Vivienne screams. Her pole clatters onto the slick skin of the cobblestones. Amara leaps blindly toward her sister, pole ready, her face contorting into a mask of fear.
It was impossible to see the demon until it was nearly on top of us.
And now it’s hanging off Vivienne, its arms encircling her neck like a boa constrictor, fangs bared in a grim caricature of a smile.
Amara pauses. The demon lowers its head closer to the back of Vivienne’s neck. There’s no way Amara can attempt to decapitate the demon without seriously injuring, or worse, delivering a deadly blow to Vivienne as well.
Vivienne’s eyes are wide with fear.
Jasmine runs to Amara’s side. “Don’t be afraid,” she says. “Your fear will only —”
The sentence is cut short as the demon sinks its teeth into Vivienne’s right shoulder. Her screams cut through the dense fog like a machete. A dark stain slowly spreads from under the demon’s chin as Vivienne’s blood seeps through the fabric of her dress.
The air around us is electric with fear. My head begins to thrum with pain once more.
“Get off of her,” Amara screams. She drops her pole, leaps onto the demon’s back, and begins pounding at its head with closed fists.
The demon doesn’t react. Amara’s blows appear to be doing nothing. It’s strong. Stronger than any of the creatures we’ve encountered before.
Vivienne’s head slumps onto her left shoulder. The whites of her eyes glow eerily out at us, boiled egg-like and vulnerable.
“The wall,” Lily shouts. “They’re on the wall!”
I look up. There are several black silhouettes running along the top of the wall, as well as at least one climbing through one of t
he holes in the small archways that I assume were placed there as windows of some sort. The first of the demons leaps to the ground with the grace of a cat and begins to gallop toward us.
And that’s when I see him. He’s standing just to the side at the wall, leaning against it in a way that seems almost relaxed. His slender frame is unmistakable. He smiles at me as he tilts his head to one side, taking in the action like it’s nothing more than an entertaining movie with popcorn.
He waves at me.
There’s no denying it. He’s beckoning me to come to him.
JASMINE
We’re under attack.
“Let go. You’re not helping her,” I say to Amara as I grab around the waist. I pull her off the demon. She collapses against me, tears streaming down her face. She can’t do this. There’s too much fear. It’s coming off her in waves. She knows Vivienne’s life is draining away. But her fear and the Seer blood the demon is consuming is like a super protein shake for the creature. It’s gaining power by the second.
I’m not even certain I can defeat it on my own now. But I’m not going to let Vivienne die without a fight.
“The wall!” Lily shouts. “They’re on the wall!”
With one fluid movement, I slide my pole between the demon’s chest and Vivienne’s back and pull with every ounce of strength I have.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Amara dive to retrieve her pole as another black figure races toward us, but I force myself to focus back on the demon in front of me.
My pole bends like a ballerina’s spine as the demon resists. I know there will be a breaking point, and my first instinct is to give in, to salvage my pole.
There’s a sucking sound like a boot being pulled out of thick mud as the demon releases its teeth from Vivienne’s shoulder.
It twists to face me, two crimson lines trickling down from the corners of its cracked lips to its chin. Its flat black eyes glare at me.
Solomon's Ring Page 23
