by Accardo, Jus
Chapter Twelve
After I shadowed Lukas home, I sucked it up and shadowed myself back to the office. I popped into the main room specifically to avoid hitting Mom right off the bat, but she knew me too well. Instead of waiting in my room, she was sitting behind her desk, feet kicked up and nursing a cup of coffee.
“You know,” she said quietly. “I realize that on some level it’s unfair, but I expect more than this from you, Jessie.”
I was wrong for sneaking out, but I couldn’t help trying to defend my decision. “It’s not like I was getting horizontal in the backseat of some guy’s car.”
She stood and slammed a hand against her desk. I jumped. “That’s not my point. You and I are both very aware what crawls around out there—especially at night.”
“I can handle myself.”
She hit the desk again. This time the coffee sloshed over the edge, drops landing on a small pile of papers. “Regardless, you’re still my teenage daughter. What if something happened? I had no idea where you were.”
“Nothing was going to happen. I was with Lukas.”
Her glare was frosty. Borderline arctic. “Because that’s not an entirely different set of issues?”
“Well, look at it this way. You wanted me normal, right?” One look at her face and I knew joking wasn’t the way to go, even though I wanted so badly to push it. She’d basically asked for this. Her desire for me to go out and have a normal teenaged experience. Sneaking out was a classic staple. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about how we left things, and I needed to make it right. It was kind of our first fight. I thought he might have broken up with me, and—”
She sank back into her chair and sighed. “It couldn’t wait until morning?”
I followed her lead and sat down on the couch. “It couldn’t. You know me. I obsess. I really am sorry. I should have left a note.”
“You’re seventeen. You shouldn’t have gone at all.”
“In my defense, I’m not an average seventeen-year-old, Ma.”
She wanted to argue. The hard set of her jaw and serious glint in her eyes all but screamed it. But she sighed again, like she was tired. I felt bad for making her worry. I did it far too often, and pretty soon I’d be turning her platinum-blond hair gray.
She glanced over at the clock above the door. “Go get dressed. We need to head out to the Archway.”
“At this hour?”
Mom nodded. “Cassidy called. They found another body.”
…
The Archway was a sacred place to the coven. Equal to holy ground. Kendra once told me it was where the ashes of fallen coven witches were spread, turning the small section of earth into a place of great power. If the demon dropped a body there, it was a serious message to Cassidy. He didn’t care that her family hadn’t conspired with the Darkers in a long time. He was still pissed.
Cassidy stood at the edge of the clearing, in front of small stone altar. She was wrapped in a ski jacket and matching hat, and was tapping her feet in the snow. With an annoyed sigh, she said, “Good, you’re finally here.”
“Yep. The party can officially start,” I mumbled. The witch looked up, and I swore she rolled her eyes. Twice, even. “So what’s the deal?”
“You said you found another body?” Mom gestured to the ground. There was nothing there but mashed-in snow, like there’d been a lot of traffic. Or, maybe a struggle? But that was it. No body. No blood.
“It’s been taken care of,” Cassidy said. There was a momentary gleam of sadness before her expression reverted to its normal cold-as-ice.
Mom knelt down and picked up a handful of snow. After a quick inspection of the ground, she stood and faced Cassidy. “Could have been a struggle here.”
Hah! I’d known it.
Letting the handful of snow fall, she added, “Tell me exactly what happened.”
“Sandra, one of my coven members, came here to pray just before dawn. She found Alicia, another coven sister, already dead, spread on the snow before the altar. The word prison was burned into her skin.”
I jumped right in. This was serious. Two days wasn’t a long time, and we still didn’t know anything about the prison the demon wanted, much less where to find it. “Where’s the body?”
“As I said, I’ve dealt with it. I’m sure you can both appreciate that we have our own rituals and rules.”
Mom nodded and gave me a stern look. “Of course. We understand. And the cause of death?”
Cassidy’s face paled. “That demon did this.”
“I’m trying to be thorough,” Mom said. She was getting irritated. “The best way to stop this thing is to figure out what kind of demon it is. In order to do that, I need to know all possible information—like how it kills.”
Cassidy hesitated, but said nothing.
Mom folded her arms and flashed the witch her cut-the-bullshit glare. “Do you know what happened here? This thing obviously knows your family as well as it does mine, and if this keeps up, pretty soon you won’t have a coven left. Do you know anything about the demon or not?”
I’d been friends with Kendra forever, and it’d always been the same. Outsiders didn’t matter. Helping people in need? Nope. The only thing she cared about, the only thing that mattered, was her coven. Her power.
Her gaze rose to meet Mom’s with a spark of anger, white hot and menacing. “You,” she said, voice low and deadly. “This is your fault.”
For a minute, Mom was stunned silent. I was, too—and that didn’t happen often. Ever the trooper, though, Mom collected herself and pinned Cassidy with an equally frigid stare. “My fault?” she repeated, the very definition of calm. “I’m sure you won’t mind telling me why this is my fault.”
“Your family,” Cassidy corrected. The way she said it made the word family sound like a curse. “Your family and its disregard for the safety of others.”
“Disregard? We put our asses on the line to help people every—” I should have kept my mouth closed. Mom was handling this, but that was the line. Generations of Darkers put themselves at risk for the safety of others, sacrificing everything for the greater good. Hearing someone imply otherwise wasn’t going to fly.
“Jessie,” Mom snapped, then reverted back to her cucumber-cool demeanor. I wasn’t fooled, though. She was pissed. Fuming, even. The woman could keep her temper under the most insane circumstances. But question her family and all the good it had done to help people? That’s when things got messy. If I had to guess, there wasn’t much keeping her from reaching out and choking Cassidy Belfair. Horrible as it was, I would have paid good money to see that. I might have even given up chocolate for an entire month. “What does my family have to do with your dead witch?”
“I believe the demon’s name is…” She reached into her purse and pulled out a pen and jotted something onto her hand. When she lifted it, palm side up, there was a single word on her skin.
“Gress—” Mom clamped her hand across my mouth before I could get the word Gressil out.
Cassidy nodded. “To utter his name is to summon him. Something you do not want to do. If I’m right, Lorna Belfair helped Charles Darker enslave the demon. That’s why it wants revenge.”
Mom blinked. She looked from Cassidy to me, then back again, the right hand corner of her mouth tilting upward as the right brow did the same. “Lorna Belfair. You’re blaming my family—me—because your ancestor chose to do good?”
I knew Lorna Belfair, an ancestor of Kendra’s, had helped my ancestor, Simon, trap Meredith, Lukas’s crazy would-be bride, but I had no idea she’d gone on to help his brother Charles after Simon’s death.
Mom was gearing up for another round, but I had to cut in. I was as annoyed as she was, and definitely didn’t like playing the role of the reasonable one, but we needed information. This wasn’t going to get us anywhere. “He said he wanted his Lord’s prison. What do you know about that?”
“He is the Regent of Asmodeus. The information I have says
that he was about to free his Master when Charles and Lorna trapped him. I can only assume he believes they hid the prison; therefore, one of our families must have it.”
Beside me, Mom actually gasped. That was never a good sign.
For the longest minute, no one said a word. When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I asked, “And I take it that’s bad…”
Cassidy looked away. When she turned back, her eyes were narrow and both fists were clenched tight. “Asmodeus is one of the seven Princes of Hell. Yes. I would say that’s bad. If freed, he would do untold damage to our world.”
“And was he trapped by Lorna and the Darkers as well? Asmodeus?” Mom asked, a little shocked.
Cassidy let out a horrible laugh. Her lips twisted into a cruel grin as she folded her arms. “No one in this world could banish a Prince. No. It was not Lorna.” She squared her shoulders. “You should give us the prison. We can keep it safe with magic.”
“What makes you think we have it?” Mom asked casually.
“Do you?” Cassidy challenged.
“Afraid not. Do you?”
Cassidy was furious. In that moment, she looked nothing like Kendra. The right corner of her top lip curled up, almost like she was about to snarl, and she leaned toward Mom. “If I had it, would I be asking you?”
“That,” Mom said coolly. She nudged Cassidy away and took a step back. “Remains to be seen.”
It was about to become a supernaturally charged mom showdown. I looked from Cassidy to Mom. Both formidable and fear-worthy women. A sick part of me wanted to see Mom kick the witch’s ass, but since she was my best friend’s mom, that probably wasn’t the wisest idea. I had to act to cool the air. Fast. But what?
Stepping between them, I held up my hands and said, “Okay. So neither of us has this prison thingy. Maybe, instead of fighting, we should focus on finding it before he comes back to kick our asses?”
A few minutes ticked by before Cassidy sighed. “I’ll see what I can find out,” she replied, still staring at Mom. If she was attempting a stare down, she was going to lose. Mom was the reigning queen. “In the meantime, what are you going to do to keep my coven safe? Two of my sisters are dead, and I have no delusions that this demon is finished yet.”
I wanted so badly to point out that she’d tried to throw us to the dogs, or at least Gressil, back at her house when she thought it might divert his attention away from her family, but I didn’t. Helping keep Cassidy and the coven safe would help keep Kendra safe. Yep. I’d just repeat that until it sank in.
Mom backed down a bit. “This affects us, too. At the moment, our new demonic friend seems to be targeting your witches rather than coming at either of us directly. I’m betting there’s a reason behind that.”
“Of course there is,” Cassidy barked. “I love my sisters. He’s doing it to make me suffer.”
“Demons don’t work like that, Cass.” Mom shook her head. “They’re methodical. You know that. No. There’s a deeper motive here, and I think once we figure it out, we’ll have a better shot at figuring out where he’s going to pop up next.”
She turned back to me, and I cringed. I knew that look. It was uncomfortable favor time. “As much as I hate to ask this, Jessie, can you talk to Valefar? See what he knows about this demon?”
As much as she hated it, I hated it more. I wasn’t about to tell her I’d already tried. But, the truth was, he’d be a much better source of information than the books our family had collected over the years. Faster, too. Time to take one for the team.
Though, knowing Val, I’d be taking two or three.
Chapter Thirteen
Each time I crossed into the Shadow Realm, it got easier. That’s not to say it was ever really hard. Quite the opposite, actually. The first time I’d shadowed, it had felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from my chest. One I’d never realized was there. It was right and wrong, beautiful and horrible, all rolled into one confuse-the-hell-out-of-you package. That first trip had been the line. One that, no matter how screwed up my life got because of it, I’d never regret crossing because it saved my parents’ lives.
I crossed the river with Kheron’s help and made my way up to Val’s secretary and her desk of horrors. At first glance, the petite woman with the perky smile and pristine white blouse sat behind a large wraparound granite-topped desk. Neatly piled papers and organizations skills that made me want to yak. On second glance, though? It was all aboard the nightmare train.
The receptionist wasn’t a woman with a cheerful smile and impeccable wit, but a stooped, hairless thing with black skin and a squinty blood-red gaze that followed you wherever you went. And behind thin, cracked lips were several rows of sharp, decaying teeth that could probably cut you to ribbons without really trying.
The desk itself was a thing of nightmares. It oozed blood and pus, thick, foul-smelling liquid dripping from the edges. The goo trickled down the sides, collecting on the floor by the base of each leg. I always made sure to stay in the middle. It would be just my luck to slip and fall in the stuff.
“And how are we doing today?” Sasha—that’s what she, or it, insisted I call her—asked in an all too chipper tone.
I bit back a remark that revolved around quartz and the sun not shining and did my best not to focus on the desk or its occupant. “I need to see him.”
She lifted her head to the ceiling, waited a minute, then dropped her gaze to mine. “Go on up. He’s waiting for you.”
I didn’t ask how he knew I was here because I sure as hell didn’t want to know. Arguably knowledge was power and all that, but the less I learned about this place, the better. With a deep breath, I made my way around the desk and down the hall toward Valefar’s office. When I got there, I raised my hand to knock, but the door creaked open before I got the chance.
“Don’t just stand there. Come in.” Valefar was sitting on the edge of his desk, leaning slightly to the left and wearing a demon dog-that-ate-a-human grin. “This is a surprise. You never call. You don’t write…”
“I actually stopped by yesterday. You weren’t here. We have a problem, and I thought I might get your help.”
His brows shot up, and he kicked off the desk, sauntering close with the swagger of a runway model. With a wickedly terse laugh, he said, “My help? Honey, you work for me, remember?”
“It’s about a demon.”
Wringing his hands together, he flashed me an amused grin. “I’m intrigued. Please. Continue.”
“We accidentally freed a demon that one of my ancestors trapped in a mirror.”
His brows waggled. “You should be more careful.”
Oh yeah. Mom owed me big for this. I bit down hard on my tongue and kept going. “This demon that we accidentally set loose is a nasty one. I’m asking for your help because we have a mutual interest in seeing this thing go down.”
“A mutual interest? I find that incredibly hard to believe.”
I folded my arms. The only way to deal with a demon like Val was to appeal to his sense of possession. That’s what I was to him. An item he owned. Or, rented, in my words. “You want me to fill out the deal my grandfather made with you, right?”
“Indeed.”
“And I want to continue breathing topside. This demon has a personal beef with the Belfairs and the Darkers. He’s out there as we speak, looking for interesting ways to takes us out.”
“I see,” he said. “And what kind of demon is it that the mighty Darker women can’t take care of on their own?”
I shrugged. “No clue, but if one of my ancestors locked him away in that mirror instead of taking him down, he had to be hardcore. I think he’s some kind of Elemental demon, but quartz didn’t even tickle him, so I’m not sure.”
“Does this demon have a name?”
I hesitated. “We were told not to speak it.”
Valefar laughed. Not a chuckle, but an all-out belly laugh. It looked so out of place coming from him. “Pumpkin, things like that don’t apply here. Tell me
this demon’s name.”
I sighed and hoped he was right. “Gressil.”
The change in him was instant. A violent storm churned behind his eyes, and the sound that came from his throat, a terrifying cross between a bellow and a growl, chilled me to the core. It took a lot to scare me, and in that moment, Valefar was doing a damn good job if it. “What did you say?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but my brain put on the brakes. No way did I want to repeat that name. It was that name that had pissed him off in the first place. I’d never seen Valefar truly loose his shit. Today wasn’t the day I wanted to change that.
“Answer me,” he snarled.
Deep breath. “Gressil. We think its name is Gressil.”
He didn’t say anything. He was corpse-still and utterly silent, staring at me with more hatred than I thought possible—which was saying a lot when you were talking about a demon… With a single, blurring step, he was in front of me. There was a good chance my heart stopped. Why else would every limb go numb and the world turn hazy? I tried to draw in a breath, but there was no air in the room. Only Valefar’s eyes, dark and violent and more demonic than I’d ever seen them, trained on me. “Are you certain?”
Every impulse had me moving away, but I held my ground, determined not to show weakness. Or, maybe it was because my body seemed to have stopped obeying me. The truth was, I couldn’t have moved if I wanted. Fear kept me rooted. “From the information we have, yes,” was my answer. Short, sweet, slightly shaky, but simple.
“Do you know anything else?”
“He’s killing members of the Belfair coven. Two so far… He wants a prison. Thinks we have it. He gave us two days to hand it over…”
He leaned closer. “Do you have it?”
“Not that we know of. I’m guessing it would be bad if he got this thing?”
He took a step back. Some of the rage evaporated, and I relaxed a little, finding it easier to breathe. “Monumentally.”
“We don’t have it, but that doesn’t mean he won’t find it. What happens if he does?”
