by Accardo, Jus
Her shoulders shook with a laugh, and she pulled away. “You’re about to love me even more.”
With a blast of fetid air, Smokey appeared at my feet. “You found something.”
“Don’t get too excited,” she said, and went to sit on the steps. “I’m not sure what I have—or even if I have anything.”
I sank down beside her and pulled the sleeves of my hoodie down over my fingertips to stay warm. Smokey waddled through the snow, his short legs making the trek harder than it should be, then settled on my exposed toes. He gave a contented yap and rested his head atop my foot. “Okay, well, what did you maybe find?”
“Mom took everything out of the house when we got back. Notebooks, journals, she even nicked the spell books! She was on her way out to the car with the box, and she got a call. She just assumed I’d do as commanded and stay upstairs…”
I grinned. “You’re such a little rule breaker.”
“I didn’t find Lorna’s journal, but I did take this…” She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a yellowed piece of paper.
I had to skim it twice before seeing it. “It mentions Lorna Belfair’s mirror?”
“I think that’s what they used to trap the demon.” She took the paper back and pointed to the second to last line. “It says here that she imbued the mirror with great power, sacrificing much to rid the world of a terrible evil.”
“Was everyone so cryptic back then?” I sighed. “I read the same crap in Charles’s journal. Big sacrifice. Blah, blah, blah. But that doesn’t really tell us anything.”
“It doesn’t,” she agreed. “But read the last line. It mentions that this was the last job she would work on with Charles.”
“So?”
“So, why was it the last? What exactly did she sacrifice?”
“Town Hall!” I exclaimed, remembering the article about Lorna Belfair’s disappearance. “There was that bit at the Belfair table about Lorna disappearing. You think she had to die to trap you know who in the mirror?”
Kendra thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. “No. I mean, I know she left town, but our records show she didn’t die. At least not then. Maybe she and Charles had a falling out? Or something happened between her and the coven?”
“It did mention she was an outcast… There’s no way to find out, though? You just said your mom cleaned out the house and locked you out of the archives. Lorna’s been dead a long time, Ken. There’s no one from her time still around to ask.”
There was a wicked gleam in her eyes. “Why don’t we just ask Lorna?”
“No way. Paulson won’t help me. Not after last time.” It was a great plan, and if I hadn’t used up that ticket already, I would’ve been down for it, but Mom threatened to cut off specific parts of his anatomy if he ever summoned someone for me again without her permission.
“Nah. That’s not what I meant. I’m not sure a regular necro could summon a witch, anyway. We’re a little trickier to get on the line than the average soul.”
I had a bad feeling about this. “Then what are you suggesting?”
Smokey picked his head up, alternating his attention between Kendra and me. Like he was waiting for her answer as much as I was.
“Meet me at the Archway tomorrow. I have an idea.”
…
Mom kept me home from school again the next day. No complaints from me, but it did feel a little cramped in the office. Dad sat in the corner, at my usual desk, while Mom was hunched over hers. They were going through the remainder of the Darker journals we had in storage in hopes of finding out how Lorna and Charles trapped Gressil. I stole Kendra’s idea and suggested we ask Paulson to call up Charles, but Mom cut me down. She didn’t like asking him to summon for us. He seemed to be leaving town more often since Dad returned. I kind of felt bad for the guy. He’d been crushing on Mom since grade school, and I didn’t think it was until Dad stepped back into the picture that he truly understood there was no chance for him.
Lukas, who hadn’t left my side since arriving that morning, eyed me from the other end of the couch. He was supposed to be going through Verdi’s Demonic Encyclopedia to dig up possible weaknesses for Gressil, but he hadn’t taken his eyes off me. I thought about moving up to my bedroom, but I had a feeling he’d follow me. Normally I wouldn’t have minded, but everyone was so on edge, and it was making me twitchy. Plus I knew exactly what we’d end up doing—and it wasn’t research.
I yawned, not bothering to hide it as I grabbed the next book in my pile. This was getting us nowhere, and I wished for something—anything—to break up the monotony.
You know what they say. Be careful what you wish for… I jumped from the couch as I felt the tug, not bothering to fight it this time. “Um, I guess I’ll be—”
“—right back,” I finished, not to Mom and Dad, but to Valefar, who was now standing in front of me. I was in his office, and this time I hadn’t been summoned alone. “Lukas?”
“I spoke to Damien,” Valefar said with a wave of his hand. “We agreed the two of you came as a package deal until you get the situation under control.” He folded his arms and leaned back against his desk. A moment of clarity flashed, and the thing twitched, all muscle and tendon, and the pancakes I’d eaten for breakfast threatened to make an encore performance.
“I go where Jessie goes,” Lukas confirmed. He was watching Valefar like at any moment the demon might jump out and try to rip me apart limb by limb. Val didn’t seem to mind. In fact, knowing him, there was a good chance he got a kick out of it.
“I have a simple errand for you to run. I need you to retrieve a soul for me.”
“Okay,” I said. There sounded like a but in there someplace, not to mention I had no idea where one would retrieve a soul from. “Please tell me it’s at least in the United States.”
He laughed. “You are so delightful. Yes. It’s in the United States—in a manner of speaking. The soul is here. Dunked.”
“So you’re essentially asking me to fetch an item out of your creepy soul storage closet?”
He rolled his eyes and held out his hand, palm up, and a small wooden box appeared. “Go three blocks from the front of my building. Stand on the edge of the river, in front of the large monument, and repeat these words. I summon thee, Samuel Darker.”
The bottom of my stomach dropped out. “Samuel Darker? You have another one of my relatives dunked? What are we, like Matchbox collectables to you?”
He continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “You are not to communicate with the soul in any way. Box it up and bring it back to me immediately. We crystal?”
Communicate? I hadn’t realized there was a way to talk to the dunked souls. “What did he do?”
Valefar froze. “Excuse me?”
“Samuel Darker. What did he do to get dunked?”
His brows rose, and he tilted his head to the left, watching me carefully. “Why?”
“For starters, the last relative you dunked is what got me into my current predicament. If Samuel ended up dunked, it’s because he made a deal and welched, right?”
Val folded his arms. He was amused by my questions, which was probably the only reason he hadn’t kicked us out yet. “Indeed.”
“Why is it starting to look like you’ve targeted my family over the years?”
Some of the humor drained from his expression. “And why is it that you assume the deal Samuel Darker neglected to pay on was with me?”
“Was it?” I challenged. He’d have to tell me the truth. Demons were unable to lie.
He sighed. “It was.”
Another Darker that made a deal with Valefar. Once was a coincidence. More than that? There was more to this whole thing than we were seeing. I made a mental note to do some digging when we got through this whole Gressil mess. “What did he bargain for?”
He waggled a finger at me. “No can do. Part of the deal is that I wouldn’t disclose the specifics.”
“Isn’t that convenient?” Lukas mumbled.
“Just an aside, I don’t much care for you, Wrath. But I put up with you for her sake.” Valefar’s face darkened. He turned to me and with a wink, added, “I can tell you this, Cupcake. Samuel Darker was a very bad boy…”
Chapter Twenty
We followed Valefar’s instructions and walked three blocks from Value Far’s building to the water. It brought us to an impossibly tall structure that reached upward as far as I could see, the top of it seeming to disappear into the cloudless sky. It wasn’t a building. At least, I didn’t think so. There were no windows or doors, and the front surface appeared glossy and flat. I waited for a moment of clarity, and when it came, unlike everything else here, this thing seemed to be exactly as it appeared. Some kind of stone surface. That’s it. Just stone.
“What is this place?” Lukas took my hand and stepped to the edge, peering down into the inky blackness of the lake. In front of us, a tuft of white drifted from the still surface and floated about knee-high before exploding in a sickening pop-scream. One of the poor souls condemned to spend eternity in the river. My grandfather was in this muck someplace. He’d refused to hand over my mother after she was born, welching on a deal he made with Valefar to save my grandmother’s life. He’d been dunked not long after Mom got pregnant with me. I had to wonder how many other Darkers were cooling their eternal heels in here.
“No idea.” I set the box down on the ground to my left and dropped beside it to balance on my heels. “I wish I knew what Samuel did to get dunked…”
“Jessie,” Lukas warned. He was beside me in a second. “Don’t even think about it.”
“How’s he going to know? One little question won’t hurt.”
“You’re a fool if you think he won’t know. He knows everything. Valefar has his hand in all of it.”
The bitterness of his words was like a bat to the head. All of it? That was pretty damn specific. I stiffened and looked up at him. “Why does it sound like you know something you’re not telling me?”
He sobered quickly, expression going blank, but I wasn’t fooled. I hadn’t known Lukas that long, but he was so damn easy to read. “Please, Jessie. For once, just do this the right way? Follow instructions.”
I wanted to argue, but didn’t. He was probably right. Knowing Valefar, we were on some kind of demonic reality show, and he was listening to the entire thing, waiting to hit me with the Shadow Realm equivalent of slime the moment I slipped up. I already had a pissed-off Regent of a full-blooded demon on my ass. I didn’t think I could handle two. At least not this week.
“Fine.” I took a deep breath and silently apologized to Samuel Darker. Whatever he’d done, I had a hard time believing he deserved to end up here. No one did. But there was nothing I could do. “I summon thee, Samuel Darker.”
The wind kicked up, and a flash of light lit the sky to our left. It was getting bigger, coming toward us. And fast. Lukas saw it, too. He pulled me back and stepped in front of me, spreading his legs and ready to fight.
As it came closer, I realized it wasn’t coming from the sky like I’d thought, but from the river. Just beneath the surface. It zoomed along and stopped in front of where we stood, then exploded from the water. It was huge. A shimmering, nearly translucent mass that vaguely resembled a man. It twitched several times, face taking shape for a second—maybe two—before jerking up, then down, and crashing into the wooden box Valefar had given me.
“Whoa,” I said, bending to pick it up. I hesitated, fingers brushing the surface, and pulled away because the box, previously a simple hunk of wood, now hummed with power. With life. It was warm to the touch and sent shivers of electricity zipping through me.
There was a sound coming from inside. A nondescript whisper. Once in a while I could make out a word or two. Pain. Help. Lost… I stuffed down the urge to try communicating and nodded for Lukas to follow me. The faster I handed this off to Valefar, the safer I’d be. I wasn’t good with temptation.
…
Before heading to the Archway to meet Kendra, I tried again to get Valefar to tell me what Samuel did to earn his Dunking, but he wasn’t spilling. He not-so-gently reminded me that time was ticking, and that I should be focusing on trapping Gressil rather than sticking my nose where it didn’t belong.
Sadly, he had a point. Gressil’s deadline, not to mention Lucifer’s threat, was ticking away, and if we didn’t find a way to draw out and trap the demon, both Lukas’s and my gooses were going to be roasting over a Shadow Realm fire. Not to mention Mom and the entire Belfair coven. Our best bet at the moment was Kendra and her mystery plan.
“I don’t like this,” Lukas said as we walked through the entrance to Dobbs Park. A gust of wind kicked up, making me pull my jacket tighter. I’d shadowed us to the edge of the park, into the brush, just in case someone was looking. “Whatever she has planned, no good can come of it.”
I rolled my eyes. “Overdramatic much? This is Kendra we’re talking about, not me. She’s the cautious one.”
He kicked at a stone as we went. It banked to the left, bouncing twice before hitting a large pine tree. He shot me a sidelong glance. “I think not.”
We took a right at the end of the path, then veered into the woods. The Archway was just beyond the next set of trees.
“Jessie,” Kendra called, coming out of the woods a few feet ahead of us. We met her halfway. “Hey, Lukas,” she added with a smile.
“Do I even wanna know what’s in there?” I asked, inclining my head toward her bag.
It moved. Lukas groaned.
As we pushed past the last row of trees, she frowned. “You don’t wanna know.”
Of course, that naturally made me want to know.
“What’s going on?” Lukas asked as we reached the small stone altar. He bent down and unzipped the bag, and a pair of long white ears popped out. They were attached to a tiny head with a pink button nose and frightened eyes. “Why is there a rabbit in your bag? Is this like that joke? Only without the hat…?”
“No joke.” She gently pushed him aside. I didn’t like the look in her eyes. Sadness with the slightest hint of fear. “So my idea… We need to talk to Lorna, right?”
I hated to agree with her because I had a sneaking suspicion I wasn’t going to like where this was going, but it was true. We were up a demonic creek without any quartz, and other than Charles, Lorna was the only one who knew what they’d done to get Gressil into the mirror. “It would help…”
She squared her shoulders and stood a little straighter. “I’m going to make it happen.”
“But didn’t you say witch souls couldn’t be summoned?” I asked, suspicious.
“I said I didn’t think a necro could do it.”
“But you can?” Lukas was understandably skeptical. A month ago Kendra had given him paws. It’d only been for about five minutes during a practice session—one he volunteered to help with—but the damage was done. After his ex and her magical mayhem, Lukas wasn’t a fan of witch spells.
“I can’t summon her, no. But I can channel her.” With shaky hands, she pulled out the rabbit and set it on the grass in front of her. “I think.”
“You think?” Lukas snorted. He grabbed my hand and waved it in front of her. “You two make a great pair, you know? I’m not sure which one of you is more detrimental.”
Kendra rolled her eyes at me and nodded slowly. “I see what you mean.”
“What?” Lukas dropped my hand and looked from her to me. “What does that mean?”
“Oh,” I said, patting his shoulder. “I just told Ken the truth. You know, how you can be a little…dramatic?”
He was annoyed, but tried to keep it to himself. I could always tell, though, because the top right corner of his upper lip rose slightly and his eyes got all squinty. “Can we just get on with this?”
“Good call.” Kendra grabbed the rabbit when it started to hop away. It squirmed as she set it back down in front of her, then dug into the contents in the bag.
Tha
t’s when it hit me. “Oh my God. You have to kill the Easter Bunny to do this, don’t you?” My stomach turned. “You, who will spend an hour trying to catch a fly so you don’t have to squish it? No way.”
She gave a shrug, trying to come off as casual, but I could see it in her eyes. She was freaked. “Sometimes you have to suck it up…”
This was a Kendra I was unfamiliar with.
I snorted and her eyebrows rose. “I’d think you’d be thrilled. Didn’t you, like, already try to kill the Easter Bunny?”
Wasn’t she funny… Bringing up my childhood trauma. I knew I couldn’t be the only kid freaked out by those costumed mall people. “I was six. And I wasn’t trying to kill him. I was trying to get away.”
“The type of magic you’re talking about is dangerous,” Lukas interjected. His lips twisted in a grim line, and I knew he was thinking of Meredith. “I think I speak for the entire town when I say that this is not a spell you should be attempting.”
“That’s a little offensive,” I said.
He narrowed his eyes and folded both arms. “Am I wrong?”
He wasn’t, and that was the problem. Kendra was still learning to use her magic. Yeah, she’d passed the tests and had been inducted into the coven as a full-fledged member, but that didn’t mean she should go slaughtering rabbits and channeling powerful, dead witches. At least, not yet. “I love you, Ken, but—”
She stood and shooed us away, then spilled a circle of light blue powder around herself. “I know what you’re thinking, and normally I’d say you were right.” She frowned. “Trust me, no one is more aware of my limitations than me…”
Great. Way to be a supportive best friend, Jessie. “I didn’t mean—”
She held up a hand and finished the circle, setting the vial down. She then picked another and repeated the process, this time with a green powder. “It’s okay. I get it. But you’re running out of time, and this really isn’t as hard as it looks.”
Lukas unfolded his arms. His jaw was clenched and his stance ridged. If he was still saddled with Wrath, it’d be duck and cover time. “Any magic involving a blood sacrifice is as hard as it looks.”
