by Sarra Cannon
Beyond The Darkness
The Shadow Demons Saga, Book 9
Sarra Cannon
Dead River Books
Copyright © 2018 by Sarra Cannon
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Cover by Ravven
Created with Vellum
For Kimberly
I am so blessed to have you for a cousin and so grateful to have you as a friend. Thank you for always being there for me. I love you.
Into The Past
Harper
A tower of flames consumed the building across the street. Smoke billowed through the air around me like dark clouds descending through the darkness.
I clutched the large emerald stone in my hand and stared at the chaos, my heart racing. Breaking.
This couldn’t really be happening.
I’d managed to wake myself up from a nightmare only to find myself in a brand new one, even more hopeless than the last.
I didn’t want to believe it could be true. I wanted to close my eyes and wake up at Jackson’s side, his hand on mine, reassuring me that it was all just one long, terrible dream.
But I knew this was no dream.
It wasn’t enough that the emerald priestess had taken me from my friends and repeatedly tried to wipe my memories. It wasn’t enough that she’d spent months trying to brainwash me and turn me to her side.
No, she’d also dragged me into the past, the one place no one would ever think to look for me.
The one place where I would be trapped with no hope of escape.
Priestess Evers was the one person with the power to take me home to my family, and I had killed her with my own bare hands.
My heart broke all over again, realizing just how far away I was from the people I loved most.
I stood and took a deep breath, pushing my fear and heartache deep down into my stomach.
I had to figure out how to fix this mess, and I wasn’t going to do it by standing on some old lady’s front porch with my mouth hanging open.
The first of the firetrucks had already arrived, but the fire still blazed out of control. More sirens wailed in the distance, drawing closer with every passing moment.
The front lawn of the Evers Institute for Troubled Girls was covered in young patients, their white nightgowns billowing around them like ghosts.
These girls were my responsibility now. Just like me, they were all witches who had been stolen from their lives and brought here to the past where they could be held prisoner until the priestess and her daughter, Dr. Evers, were able to turn them into allies or zombies.
As soon as the chaos of the moment died down, the police would start asking questions. Questions I’d better have answers to.
I had to think.
I shook my head, as if shaking off the realization of truth that still held me in its grasp. From the look of the cars, the old television inside the couple’s home, and the fact that lobotomies were being performed here without question, I could only guess that we were trapped somewhere in the forties or early fifties.
I had no idea what policies existed back then for girls like us who’d been committed to private institutions, but I couldn’t just sit back and let the police handle this. What would they do with all of us once they realized we had no family or home to go back to? No real identity here in this place?
I had to think of something fast.
There was no way to save those who had already been lobotomized or killed, but right now, there was still hope for the eighty or so girls who stood on that lawn. Most of them had no memory of who they truly were, but I was living proof that those memories were not lost forever. They were simply hidden deep inside them.
I took a deep breath, forcing my mind to focus. I had to come up with a plan. I was running out of time, and if I made any mistakes, I could put everyone here in danger of being locked away forever.
Whatever records Dr. Evers had on all of us girls, they were currently turning to ash inside that building. There wouldn’t be computers or digital records of any kind this far in the past, so unless she’d had backup files stored somewhere in the priestess’s home, there would be no way for me to know who all these girls were or where they truly belonged.
I needed to buy us all some time.
As the first police car rounded the corner, I did the only thing I could think of that might help. I ran down the steps of the couple’s home and ducked into the shadows between their house and the one Priestess Evers had called home.
I closed my eyes and pictured the face of the doctor who had told me so many lies and tried to convince me that I’d lost my mind and murdered my own family in a fire just like this one. I took a deep breath and planted my feet firmly on the ground, pushing aside the panic and fatigue that threatened to destroy my focus.
I tapped into the well of power deep inside my core and pulled energy from the earth around me.
My body changed as the power flowed through me. My dress transformed from a loose white nightgown into a pencil skirt and white blouse, Dr. Evers’s typical daily uniform. My hair arranged itself into a perfect bun pulled tightly against my head. Even the glasses were perfect, though a glamour this complex would be tough to maintain.
I straightened my shoulders and opened my eyes, nervous as hell, but determined to find a way to make this work.
I quickly hid the emerald stone under the shrubbery beside the priestess’s house, whispering a quick shielding spell so that no one would be able to feel its power or see the stone without knowing where to look. Then, I made my way across the street to the cluster of patients and nurses who had survived the fire.
They were all being arranged into straight lines at the edge of the property, out of the way of the fireman who rushed to save what was left of the institute.
Two more police cars arrived on the scene, sirens blaring as all the nearby residents opened their doors and poured into the street to see what was going on.
My heels clicked against the pavement as I started toward the patients who stood just outside the gate of the Evers Institute.
Before I got five steps away, though, a hand clasped my wrist and spun me around.
A cop who appeared to be in his mid-forties met my eyes and yanked me closer. He wore a wrinkled brown suit instead of a police uniform, and judging by the way he gripped my arm, he obviously knew who I was.
Or at least the woman I pretended to be.
I jerked my wrist away and lifted my chin.
“Excuse me, Detective, I need to check on my patients.”
“Monica,” he said, moving to block me with his bulky frame. “What the hell is going on here?”
I blinked, not understanding the question. He could obviously see the building was on fire. What exactly was he confused about? And just how well did he know Monica Evers?
She hadn’t seemed like the type of woman who was on a first-name basis with very many people.
When I didn’t answer, he took my wrist again and pulled me further from the group of officers who had gathered there in the street.
“What happened?” he asked in a tense whisper. “Why is this happening now?”
I shook my head, trying all at once to figure out just how much this man knew about the Evers family and what I should say in response.
“Is this really the right time to be talking to me about this?” I asked, mimicking
the harsh tone Dr. Evers often got when I wasn’t cooperating with her. “We can talk after we’ve figured out what’s happening to the girls and if they’re safe.”
His eyebrows scrunched together, and he shook his head. “That’s exactly why we need to talk about this now,” he said. “Since when have you cared about their safety? And why are they even still alive? Why did you change the plan?”
“The plan?” I asked.
His questions chilled me to the core. What kind of plan did this cop have with Dr. Evers and her mother? Had they planned to kill us all?
“It’s too early,” he said, running a hand through his dark blond hair. “You’re three months early, and the girls have never survived. What the hell am I supposed to do with them all? Where’s your mother? We need to figure this out or there are going to be questions.”
Three months early? I shook my head. What the hell was he talking about?
I was obviously several steps behind him, but asking questions would only prove I wasn’t really Monica Evers. Instead, I decided to take charge, really dedicating myself to this role I had stepped into.
“How dare you question me,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him. “Don’t ever pull me aside and question my decisions again. I’ll let you in on my plan if and when I feel it’s appropriate. If you’ll excuse me, I have to see to my patients and clean up this mess.”
“Monica,” he said, stepping in front of me again before I could walk away. “I’m sorry to question you, but I need to know what’s going on. How many times have we done this together? Five times? Six? Not once have the two of you made a move like this and not told me about it. Does this mean I can finally go home?”
Six times?
My mouth went so dry, I couldn’t force myself to swallow. I turned to stare at the burning building, chills running along my arms despite the heat coming off the flames.
You’re three months early, and the girls have never survived.
His words echoed in my head.
I wanted to sit down.
I kind of wanted to throw up.
There was this ringing in my ears, and my vision blurred. I stumbled backward, but the cop quickly put his arm around my shoulders to steady me.
“I’m fine,” I said, pulling away. I didn’t want him touching me.
I stepped back to take it all in, catching my first glimpse of a horrifying cycle that must have replayed itself over and over. The girls dressed all in white. The flames rising into the night sky. The detective. A priestess who had the power to manipulate time.
I brought a trembling hand to my lips.
They’ve done this before.
Her Dark Purposes
Jackson
I stood on the steps of the abandoned Victorian and stared at the ruined hospital across the street.
“What do we do now?” Rend asked. He ran a hand through his thick, dark hair and shrugged. “I’m sorry, man. I really thought this was it.”
“Me, too,” I said, doing my best to ignore the tightening in my chest.
I’d thought we were coming here to rescue Harper from the emerald priestess. I’d thought we’d finally found her after all this time.
Hell, I had practically felt her in my arms as we passed through the door to the emerald priestess’s house.
But she wasn’t here. Not now, anyway.
I looked back at the old house. It was apparent from its current condition that no one had lived here for decades. Probably not since the fifties when the hospital burned down.
That meant this house had been a decoy. A sham she’d set up so that she could run the institute in secret for all those years, torturing innocent witches and trying to turn their minds to her dark purposes.
Staring at it now, I almost felt as though we were right back where we started.
Almost.
I clutched the wooden box in my hands and stared down at the simple H carved into its surface.
More than sixty years ago, Harper must have put this box together and buried it where she knew I would find it tonight. She said to set them free and then come find her, but all I could think about was getting her back.
“What are we waiting for?” Mary Anne asked, pacing back and forth on the porch behind me. “We have a small army here right now. We could go straight to Cypress and release the witches and demons tied to that gate before the Order knows what hit them.”
“It’s true,” Mordecai said. He stepped forward, his long black dreads swinging near his face. “The longer we wait, the more time we give them to gather their forces against us. Remember the sapphire gates? By the time we’d released two or three of them, we had a battle at every single one after that.”
Everyone was talking all at once, and my head was spinning with possibilities. In Harper’s absence, they were all looking to me as a leader, but we needed more time to put together a plan.
“We have an advantage right now that we didn’t have with the sapphire gates,” I said. “That buys us some time.”
“What?” Rend asked.
I smiled. “We have a dungeon full of emerald gate Primas and their daughters,” I said. “We hold the lives of their entire covens in our hands. They won’t be able to fight against us with that kind of power. I’m just as anxious as all of you to get started releasing these gates, but I want to go in with a plan. We need to get our core group together at the castle tonight to talk it through. Besides, the ritual only works at three in the afternoon. We’ve got time.”
Mordecai shook his head. “This is a mistake, Jackson,” he said. “You know I got your back no matter what, but I think we need to move on this now. Most of the Order probably doesn’t even realize another priestess is dead yet.”
“We have no idea what the Order knows,” I said. “None of us have any experience with time travel. If Harper killed Priestess Evers, she did it back in 1951, and she burned this building down in the process. We have no idea what kind of repercussions that has. It’s possible she’s drastically changed the timeline, and we don’t have enough information about how that changes everything related to it. We have a small window of time here to get this right, and if we make the wrong move, we could put everyone, including Harper, in danger.”
“Small being the operative word,” Mary Anne said. “If we wait too long to make a move, Mordecai is right. The Order will have an army of witches waiting for us at every single gate we try to free. You know as well as I do that the Order would gladly sacrifice a coven of its own members to protect the overall group. If you want to go back to the castle to talk this through, let’s do it now. Who do we need to call together?”
She pulled a small handful of rubies from her pocket. Communication stones. We all used them to talk to each other across long distances and dimensions. Cell phones didn’t tend to work in the Shadow World.
“Harper’s Sister, Angela, should already be there. Gregory, too. We’ll need to talk to Eloise from Cypress since she’s the Prima of an emerald gate and likely to be our first target,” I said. “Franki and Rend, of course we want you both there. Mordecai, you should be there but tell Joost and the others to hang back. If we’re going to have a productive conversation, we need to keep it somewhat small.”
“I’ll reach out to Eloise,” Mary Anne said. “And I’ll let Gregory and Angela know we’re on our way and to prepare the war room for us.”
“Sounds good,” I said. “You guys head back, and I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.”
“What are you going to do?” Mary Anne asked.
“There are a few things I think we should take care of here before we leave,” I said.
Joost and Eric had agreed to stay behind and manage the search of the two properties. Cristo had decided to explore this small Ohio town just to make sure there wasn’t a portal or gate here we didn’t know about.
They got to work, assigning people to different wings of the hospital and areas of the abandoned house.
“What do I do if the cops show
up?” Joost asked. “I have a feeling someone in the neighborhood is going to notice that a bunch of people are searching the old hospital. It’s a condemned property.”
“Get a few of the more powerful witches together and have them put a glamour on the hospital so that no light shows through the windows. Make it look like no one’s here and everything’s normal,” I said.
“What if someone already saw us out here on the lawn?” he asked, looking around.
I smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re creative. Figure it out.”
He laughed and nodded. “Got it. Meet you back at the Southern Kingdom?”
“As soon as the search is over,” I said. “Thanks, Joost.”
“No problem, man,” he said. “I’m sorry we didn’t find Harper.”
Again, my heart tightened in my chest, and I had to force back the anger and frustration that threatened to take over my emotions. I had to focus on the task at hand, or I was going to lose my mind.
“We’re going to find her,” I said. “It’s just going to take a little more time than we thought.”
Joost nodded again. “I’ll see you soon,” he said.
He hurried off to help direct people to put up a glamour around the hospital and the house. I watched, so grateful for all of the demons and free witches who had been willing to risk their lives to help us here tonight.
I glanced at the condemned hospital one last time, understanding that Harper could be standing in this exact location at this very moment, locked somewhere in the past. She had faced unimaginable horror, but she had fought until the end, overcoming impossible odds to defeat another priestess.
I pulled a worn and faded piece of paper from my pocket and ran my thumb along the drawing. That was still us sitting there in the garden of the castle, watching our son play among the roses. I had seen this future for us, and I still had to believe that whatever trials we faced along the way, we would both survive long enough to see this vision become a reality.
