“It wasn’t your fault,” Annalee said, as if reading her mind. “That little witch has a mind of her own. They all do, and that’s the bane of their existence.”
Peyton shrugged. “From what I recall, you and your witch deserve each other. It’s sorta cute.”
Denny wanted to reply, but she knew Peyton’s history with her own now dead witch. It was the impetus that started her down the long path of destruction she’d been on when Denny first met her.
“Iris is a tough cookie, Silver. She’s gonna make it.”
“I don’t...I don’t know what I’ll do if she doesn’t.” Denny stopped pacing for a moment and stared out at the darkness. “Iris is one of the best people, witch or otherwise, that I’ve ever met.”
“There’s no future in guilt, Rookie. She’d have come whether you let her or not.”
“At least you killed that motherfucker.”
Denny sighed. “Those witches...we’d be dead if it weren’t for them.” Denny continued her pacing up and down the aisle of the private jet. “So, here’s the deal: the minute prior to the stroke of midnight, I’ll be in the middle of Stonehenge singing the song Hildegard wrote to aid in the cleansing of demons from the planet. The moment I’m done, the demons in this world will be exorcised from their hosts, including yours, so I need you both to sing it with me.” Denny glanced over at Peyton, and for a moment, their eyes registered just what this meant.
They both nodded.
“And what about your mom and Valeria?”
“They’ll be there. I’m sure of it. Valeria has convinced herself that she can only bring my mom out of her catatonia with a Legacy. She’ll be calling that demon out moments prior to midnight. We have to find her and stop her.”
Annalee studied Denny. “Are you sure you want us to stop her? I mean—”
“I won’t let another demon possess my mom, Annalee. She’s done her time. She doesn’t want to go back to that life. Valeria is too desperate to save her to see the truth. It’s not her fault. Imagine the guilt she must feel at having placed my mom in it in the first place.”
“Yeah, that would totally suck,” Annalee said softly. “She must love your mother very much.”
“She does, but that doesn’t mean her solution is what my mom wants.”
“How could she not, Silver? I just...I don’t know that anyone would really want to live in the state she is currently in. She’s not really dead, not really alive.”
Denny’s eyes filled with tears. “I know.”
“And if you stop her from getting a Legacy or other demon for your mom, boy, howdy, is Valeria going to be pissed.”
“Yeah, I imagine she will be, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.”
When they landed and made it to Stonehenge, they had to ditch the car because the traffic was so thick with cars trying to reach the great stone structure.
“Cadbury—call Ames and Cassandra and tell them to meet us at the far west corner of the closest parking lot.”
“Miss Silver?”
“Yes?”
“However will you find Valeria in this throng? The witchers are certainly here as well.”
“I won’t find her. My Hanta will. I’ll meet you all at the center stone. Come on, ladies. We’ve got work to do.” Denny, Annalee, and Peyton jumped out and started jogging toward the center of the stones. They had less than thirty minutes to get to the sacrifice stone inside the monument, and the crowd was rapidly growing. People were wearing everything from Druidic robes to almost nothing. Some people wore only blue paint, while other, more touristy types were taking selfies.
“God, this place is full of weirdos. Are you sure your dude can find her?”
“I’m hoping so, but the amount of supernatural energy in this area will wreak havoc with everyone’s antennae.”
“No shit,” Annalee said, running to keep up. “I can’t believe this many people come here for this.”
As Denny ran, her phone vibrated, and she answered it.
It was Beatrice. “Your witch has pulled through surgery and is, for the time being, out of danger. While she hasn’t yet recovered from the anesthesia, the doctor believes whoever cared for her initially saved her life.”
“Siobhan.”
“I told you she was the best. Your witch is in good hands. Now, it is up to you to keep the rest of us out of danger.”
“Thank you, Beatrice, and please thank Siobhan. I don’t know how to thank you.”
“You already are. Take care of yourself, hunter, and take good care of Cassandra. I’ve never seen her love so deeply. Be kind to her heart.”
Denny hung up and placed her phone back in her pocket.
As they neared Stonehenge, Denny could see the crowd, bumper-to-bumper and wall-to-wall inside Stonehenge.
“Shit.”
She looked at her watch.
Twenty-five minutes.
“Hunter, over here!” Cassandra waved.
The hunters made it over to Cassandra and Ames.
“Egg is on his way,” Ames said.
Cassandra hugged Denny protectively. “We’ve been so worried.”
Denny nodded. “She’s out of surgery. The doctor said Siobhan could very well have saved her life, but they’re not sure she’s out of the woods yet.”
“Thank the Goddess. Siobhan is a world renowned healer and your little witch is quite tough.”
“She’d better be. I don’t know what I’d do without her,”
“You won’t have to find out.”
“So, what do we have?”
“The witchers are everywhere. They have spread out and are working in collusion with the damn demons. The witches are also here, but they can’t do anything unless they find her first.”
Cassandra took Denny’s hand. “Hunter, if Valeria is here, we might not get to her first. You must take care of the treatise ritual first and foremost. I know you want to take care of your mother and Valeria, but you cannot turn your back on those witches who have come to your aid. You must act in the best interest of the whole.”
“No worries, there, Cassandra. I got this.”
Cassandra smiled lovingly. “I know you do. Now, let’s clear the air here. Send these demons packing.”
“Can you feel anything?” Denny asked.
“No. You?”
Denny closed her eyes. The Hanta responded with a singular No.
Opening her eyes, she shook her head. “Nothing yet.”
Twenty minutes.
“We’ve got your back, Silver. Let’s get you closer to the center.”
“Eyes open for any demons. Witchers we’ll just have to handle with fists. We can’t really kill any of them here, but we need to come with the pain.”
The six of them pushed their way to the road that led up to the stones.
Fifteen minutes.
The crowds were thick, loud, drunk, and celebratory with people dressed like devils, witches, nymphs, and faeries. People wore steampunk outfits, others milled in leather clad groups. It felt like they were attending a cosplay convention.
Denny didn’t know what she’d expected, but it wasn’t this hodgepodge of people who had no idea just how many supernatural creatures walked among them.
“This is a freak show,” Annalee muttered.
“You’ve clearly forgotten your time in NOLA.”
“No, I haven’t. That was mild compared to this. This is like a Halloween carnival on steroids.”
Cassandra took Denny’s hand. “Anything?”
“No.”
“No. Could I have been wrong about this?” Denny turned to Ames. “Ames?”
“Huh? What?”
“Do you think I’m off base about what Valeria was planning to do?”
“No, kiddo, I don’t think so. She’ll be here. Somewhere.”
Ten minutes.
No sign of Valeria or Gwen.
They bumped into witchers who knew Cassandra as a witch, but so were many, many other women an
d men here. If the witchers wanted Valeria and Valeria only, they were focused on that goal and didn’t give Cassandra a second glance.
The demons were another story. They parted like the sea when they saw three Legacies coming their way.
No one wanted to mess with them.
Five minutes.
Finally, they made it to the Sacrifice Stone in the center of the standing rocks.
“Jesus Christ,” Denny muttered. She could feel the energy of the veil—the darkness, the evil. The supernatural power growing stronger and washing over her like an enormous amount of static electricity. The hair on her arms stood on end.
A bunch of Druids dressed in white robes barred their way from the center of the stones. A larger man stepped up to Denny. “Sorry, but we aren’t letting anyone else in at the moment.”
Denny flashed red eyes at them and suggested they might not want to mess with her.
They, too, parted. Quickly. Stumbling backwards, they got out of their way.
Denny pushed her way through the crowd with Cassandra’s help. She used her spells to shove people out of the way until they could reach the Sacrifice Stone.
Once there, Denny stood on the ancient rectangular rock and pulled out the paper with the song on it.
Annalee and Peyton hopped up next to her. “We got your back, Silver. Do your thing and we’ll follow.”
Denny looked out over the crowd, then down at Cassandra, who shook her head. No sign of Valeria. Had they been completely wrong about Valeria’s intentions?
Two minutes.
“Ready?”
They both nodded.
Denny smiled at Peyton, who smiled back. “You’re a great friend, Peyton.”
“Back atcha, Rookie.”
“Then here we go.”
The three of them started the song.
“O virga ac diadema purpurae Regis quae est in clausura tua sicut lorica.
Tu frondens floruisti in alia vicissitudine, quam Adam omne genus humanum produceret. Ave, ave, de tuo ventre alia vita processit, qua Adam filios suos denudaverit. O flos, tu non germinasti de rore, nec de guttis pluviae, nec aer desuper te volavit, sed divina claritas in nobilissima virga te produxit. O virga, floriditatem tuam Deus in prima die creaturae suae praeviderat. Et de Verbo suo auream materiam, O laudabilis Virgo, fecit. O quam magnum est in viribus suis latus viri, de quo Deus formam mulieris produxit, quam fecit speculum omnis ornamenti sui et amplexionem omnis creaturae suae. Inde concinunt caelestia organa, et miratur omnis terra, o laudabilis Maria, quia Deus te valde amavit. Peyton suddenly stopped singing and hopped off the stone. Turning, she faced the other two demon hunters with tears in her eyes and said, “Thank you, Rookie. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Denny kept singing, even as her eyes filled with tears.
Annalee looked over at Denny, down at Peyton, and then put her eyes back to the paper.
Denny kept singing as she watched Peyton slowly back away from the Sacrifice Stone. Demonic energy was all around them now, and Denny realized they had been trying to get to her but could not: Witch magic was at work protecting them as they stood on the stone.
Still, she and Annalee continued to sing Hildegard’s song, and as they neared the end, the very air was alive with magic, demonic energy, and supernatural vitality that seemed to light up the night sky.
And when they came to the final word, the world seemed to stop moving. Not a sound could be heard. Not a movement felt. There was no wind, no revelry, nothing. It was as if they stood in a vacuum. Not a birdsong, not a horn honk.
Nothing.
Midnight struck.
Then, as if the universe itself was screaming, the demons were violently torn from their hosts. Writhing, howling, shrieking as if they were being tortured, the demons in people as far as the eye could see were slowly yanked from their hosts, spirits wrenched from the tops of their hosts’ heads like red smoke, human-looking at first, then dissipating as their entire spirits released the bodies they’d inhabited for far too long. They screamed, they howled, they made torturous cries of beings ripped out of life and thrown back into the darkness.
Peyton’s was no exception.
As her Legacy twisted and turned to keep from being ejected from her, it cursed in multiple languages. It doggedly held on as it was being ripped from her body.
“Keep your eyes on me, Peyton,” Denny said, kneeling down. “I got you, my friend.”
Falling on her knees, even as the demon’s spirit struggled against the inevitable, Peyton kept her gaze on Denny.
“You’re going to be okay,” Denny said softly. “Release him.”
The Legacy demon inside her hung on as long as it could before screeching one last time, its spirit sucked back through the thin, shimmering veil now appearing behind them.
When midnight rang in, the flickering seam opened between worlds like a vertical pond sucking in the demonic spirits nearby as well as all others around the world.
Denny glanced over her shoulder. The oval seam seemed almost alive, and once it was fully formed, all of the demons were finally torn from their hosts and sucked into the slit between worlds. The hosts all fell to the ground, free from possession.
Peyton grimaced, rose on one knee then smiled, tears running down her face. She was, at long last, free.
“Fuck,” Denny muttered, watching thousands of evil spirits enter the seam like dust bunnies being sucked up in a vacuum. She knew that their demonic connection allowed the hunters to actually see the spirits as they clawed at the air before being sucked back into the otherworld. The normal people who had no idea what evil flew overhead, could see none of it.
Peyton leaned woozily against the stone, where Cassandra caught her before she could fall to the ground. “I’ve got you, hunter. You are free. You are safe. My lover, my hunter, has released you.”
Peyton nodded once, then vomited on the ground in front of Cassandra. Holding her stomach, Peyton continued to retch as Cassandra rubbed her back.
Annalee turned to Denny. “You knew. That’s why you called her to Europe. You knew what she wanted.”
“It’s what she’s always wanted, Annalee. She was done hunting. She wanted to be done living, but I made her promise to hang on until I could find a way to get her Hanta out. Now she is free.”
Annalee’s eyes welled with tears. She wiped them before looking out at the crowd, which was still undulating in a sort of slow motion. “You’re a good friend, Denny Silver. I don’t think I would have the courage to have done that.”
“She would have taken her own life.”
Speaking of which, where is your mom and Valeria?”
“They are here,” Cassandra said, still rubbing her hand on Peyton’s back as she continued to vomit. “I can feel it. Barely. Valeria is casting the invisibility spell. That energy I feel stronger than anything. Hunter, your Hanta may be able to see past it. I will do everything in my power to reveal them to you.”
“Go,” Peyton managed to get out before heaving once more. “Help…Rookie.”
That was when Denny felt it like a hot poker to the bottom of her feet. Looking up quickly, her Hanta erupted into an enormous ball of hot energy filling her muscles with demonic power. She looked to Cassandra, who waved her arm in the air as she muttered something in Latin to protect them
The group who had been wearing Druidic robes cast them to the ground.
Inside their circle stood Valeria, holding a piece of paper in her hands.
So was her mother, who also held a piece of paper. But that wasn’t what caught Denny’s breath.
Gwen was standing up next to Valeria.
“No. No, no, no.” Denny leapt from the stone and landed fifteen feet from Valeria and Gwen.
“Mom?”
Gwen lowered the paper and grinned slowly. It was not a smile she had ever seen her mother smile.
Because it wasn’t her mother smiling.
“No,” Denny said, feeling the pain of utter defeat. “No.�
�
The demonic grin on her mother’s face was twisted and almost ugly on her sweet face, and in that moment, Denny knew.
She glanced at the familiar Latin words on the paper…words she had just sung herself.
Her Hanta knew. He knew Gwen was possessed. He even knew by whom, and it angered him more than she had ever felt.
“Mom?”
Then everything slowed down so much, Denny knew it was the space-time continuum Hildegard had written about. She had been right. It was shifting because of the tilt, and everything and everyone was moving in slow motion.
Denny sluggishly reached into her vest and withdrew Epée. It snapped to life slowly, almost painfully, as if it sensed what was about to happen.
There was no sound as Epée lit up.
No screaming.
No howling.
No crowd noise.
Nothing but an intense pain and sadness Denny felt at what was about to happen.
Even her weapon felt it.
The end.
The only end that was possible now.
Valeria’s eyes grew wide as she stared at Epée and started to raise her hands toward Denny to stop her. Even this motion was slow and deliberate as everything continued in slow motion.
As Valerie started her spell, Denny pushed through the continuum.
The Hanta was strong. It had lived for nearly a thousand years, and in that time, had grown ever powerful, ever stronger.
Stronger than Denny.
Stronger than the sadness.
Stronger than the pain.
Stronger than witch magic.
The Hanta recognized the Legacy inside Gwen, and together, Denny and her demon did the unthinkable.
Tears flowing down her face, Denny sighed a jagged breath as she raised Epée over her head and said softly, “I’m sorry, Mom. So very, very sorry. I love you. I will love you always.” And with one fatal swing of Epée, Denny sliced through Gwen’s waist, instantly killing her mother and sending the ancient Hanta Raya screaming back into the seam with the other demons.
“No!” Valeria screamed, dropping to her knees to cradle Gwen’s head in her lap. “What have you done? What. Have. You. Done?” Valeria rocked back and forth, holding half of Gwen’s body to her chest. “No. No, no.”
Coven Betrayed (The Silver Legacy Book 4) Page 20
