The dead man slowly turns his head to look at the people surrounding him, the bones in his neck cracking and popping. He can’t quite seem to get his bearings, and I sympathize. I’m sure his mind is racing, what’s left of it anyway, while he works to comprehend his death. His resurrection. It can be overwhelming. I know these things now.
The angry one stands and says, “You’ve got about ten minutes with this one. Make them count.”
The blonde one saunters over and hands Officer Shaw the bowl full of powder she’s mixed. “You know what to do, darlin’.” He takes it from her as if he’s done this dozens of times before, and maybe he has. Maybe the Ash City PD has a magical division I know nothing about. It wouldn’t surprise me. Not much would anymore.
The women back away from the officer and the corpse, leaving them to the task at hand, and all four turn and approach us. They must’ve known we were here the entire time.
“Bit late for a visit, isn’t it, Spooky?” the angry one says.
“Not my idea, trust me,” Luke counters.
“Then whose idea was it?” the one with the hazel eyes asks.
“Mina’s,” I say, and the blonde one gasps. It’s nice to see that I’m not the only one who has a visceral reaction to Mina. “She thinks you’re the ones I should see to help me get to Trivia.”
Luke jerks back as if he’s been slapped, holding up his hands as if to wave away blame. “I didn’t know.”
And I can see why he’s scrambling: the witches have gone tense and an electricity crackles around them. The one with the hazel eyes has tiny sparks flying from her fingertips, and her voice is low and deadly when she says, “Say that name again. I dare you.”
It’s then that the one with the long, curly hair steps out from behind the other three. When she sees me the glow in her eyes dulls, revealing them to be a clear, deep green. Her already pale skin goes even whiter, and her hands begin to shake.
“Gray?”
I should be focused on the furious witches, the magical sparks, or the dead man giving a statement ten feet away. But the more I study this witch’s face the more it seems familiar. Like I know her from a dream, or from another life. The feeling is a wisp of smoke, though, and I can’t grasp it.
“I’m sorry, I…”
She lunges at me, and before I can grab my dagger she has her arms wrapped around me in… a hug? Her body shakes as she’s wracked with sobs. “I never thought I’d see you again,” she mumbles into my jacket.
The witch pulls back and wipes tears from her eyes. “It’s me. Mad. Best roommate you ever had at Ash City Asylum.”
8
THE DAUGHTERS OF THE DEAD
The Daughters of the Dead are less than pleased.
The one with the hazel eyes, messy auburn ringlets, and a frown creasing her otherwise flawless honey skin is Bex Emerson, and she seems to be the leader of this operation. She’s currently pacing in front of me and Mad as we sit on the massive leather sofa in front of the fire in the living area. She’d dragged us up here seconds after hearing Trivia’s name, sparks still flying from her fingertips, mumbling about how mentioning that witch’s name would ruin the mojo of their ceremony if we continued talking downstairs.
The blonde ray of sunshine is Delaney James, and she’s just brought us both tea. The moment we came upstairs she darted out of the room as quickly as possible yelling something about refreshments over her shoulder as she disappeared down a darkened hallway. I get the feeling she needed to get away from us. To compose herself.
The one that I’m keeping my eye on is the angry witch currently perched on an overstuffed armchair, motionless and silent: Kara Kitamura. There is a storm brewing inside of her, a simmering fury that has me more on edge than anything else that’s happened since we arrived, including witnessing the resurrection downstairs.
Luke had made the hasty introductions on our way up the stairs. “Just so you know who might kill you,” he’d said with no hint of humor. He’s currently sipping whiskey by the fire and I’m not sure if it’s out of habit or necessity. The mention of Trivia’s name has him just as off-kilter as the witches.
Runner, for his part, is hovering near the threshold to the foyer. Close to the front door in case he needs to escape, I’m guessing. Thanks for the solidarity, buddy.
“Why don’t we start at the beginning, Mad?” Bex asks, “because you’ve never mentioned a long-lost demon best friend, especially not one who’s involved with Trivia.”
“We’re not involved,” Runner yelps from the far side of the room.
“Shut up, Phantom,” Kara growls, and he shuts his mouth so fast his teeth clack together.
“It was nine years ago, and I thought she was dead,” Mad replies. “There was nothing to bring up. The asylum burned down. I barely escaped.” She turns to me, her eyes pleading. “Do you remember anything about that night? That place? About me?”
I look around at these strangers and I don’t want to confess a thing, but if Mad can help me remember my past… “Almost nothing,” I admit. “I was sent there for something terrible, and I was carried out by Ciaran as it burned down. I don’t know how long I was there for, I don’t remember what happened inside, and I don’t remember getting to Lilah’s.”
“You ended up at Lilah’s?” Bex says, awe in her tone. “That’s…”
“Brutal,” Kara quips.
No shit.
“Shhhh, y’all, I want to hear this,” Delaney hisses. “Mad’s never told us…” she gestures as if to say the big picture.
“I’m sure Luke knows,” Kara says, which earns her a growl from the man himself.
“Whether I do or don’t, it wouldn’t be my place to say anything,” he says and takes a sip of his drink.
“Wait, you knew Mad knew me?” I ask.
“No. I knew she spent time at Ash City Asylum, had a demon roommate, a Feeder friend, and almost died trying to save a Lunatic.”
“That… seems like an awful lot of Counterfeits for a human asylum,” Runner says. “Not to mention, one of each? Is that weird to anyone else?”
Mad itches her wrist, her features tight with anxiety. “That’s because it wasn’t run by just any old humans. It was run by The Enemy.”
The room goes still at the mention, and Mina’s words bubble up in my mind. I’d almost been poisoned by her bartender on my first visit to her establishment because they couldn’t be too careful with rookie Counterfeits. The Enemy liked to take fresh ones and use them for nefarious purposes, whatever that meant.
“They tested on us in there,” Mad says, her voice wavering. “It was… bad. Bad enough that we started to lose ourselves, our memories, our minds. The trauma of it…” She looks up at me with those big, green eyes. “You weren’t there long, but they gave you something terrible on that last night. It must’ve erased everything. Do you remember Kavanagh?”
I’m about to say no when the name sinks in and unlocks something in me, something long-buried, and I see her smug face in my mind like it was branded there. I hear the tapping of her pen as she waits for me to talk in our therapy sessions. I see the glasses perched on her head and the iciness of her smile and the glint of the lights off of the syringe in her hand as she injected me with black poison.
“Gray?” Runner asks. I hear the thump of his boots growing closer, and I realize that I’ve slid from the couch and dropped to my knees. “Are you okay?”
I hold up a hand for him to stay away from me, and he does. They all just watch and I don’t care. I let the memories come, and they crash into me, one after another until I’m certain my skull will split and they’ll pour onto the ground for everyone to see.
“They wanted to kill us. They wanted to find out what made us what we were, and then they were going to dispose of us,” I say, and Mad nods, holding up the wrist she’d been scratching. There’s a small scar there, and I look down at mine to find an identical scar. “I thought this was from a job, or an injury in my training.”
“
They put chips in us to download biological data.”
I expect a snarky comment from Kara, but even she is shocked into silence by all of this.
“Ruby dug hers out and killed two doctors while she was trapped in solitary,” Mad continues. “And that’s when you decided to rescue her. You, me, and Winter.”
“Ruby…” I murmur, remembering my friend. “The werewo… Lunatic. And Winter is a Feeder. Was. Is?” I look to Mad for guidance.
“They both survived the fire,” she says, beaming.
“The fire that Lilah started,” I say, remembering Ciaran carrying me out into the cool, dark night, the asylum ablaze behind us. “She’d had spies inside… had been watching us and… she chose me.”
“And it’s a good thing she did,” Mad says. “If she hadn’t come that night, we wouldn’t be here right now.” She looks to everyone around us and says, “Gray found out that they planned to eliminate us. Ruby was locked in solitary. We went down there to rescue her.” She shakes her head. “We were only teenagers. There’s no way we could have succeeded, Counterfeits or not…”
Mad slides off of the couch and crouches in front of me. “You remember it all now, yeah?”
I look up at her through unshed tears and nod. She pulls me into a fierce hug, and I hold onto her so tightly I’m sure I’ll squeeze the life right out of her. “Lilah never told me any of it,” I whisper, and pull back to look up at all of them. “I didn’t even know I’d always been a demon until earlier tonight.”
“How is that possible?” Bex asks.
“The poison they gave me that last night… The Enemy?” Mad nods and I continue, “It erased my memory. I woke up thinking I was human. And Lilah let me go on that way. Kept it all secret… When I woke up in Counterfeit City…”
“Wait,” Delaney says, setting her own teacup down on the table in front of her, “you woke up here?”
“She’s Lucifer’s,” Kara says. “Look at her wrist. He must’ve brought her back as one of his Hellions.”
Their eyes go wide when they see my brand.
“And that brings us back to why we’re here,” I say. “Lucifer.”
“This just keeps getting better and better,” Kara says. She rises from the chair, swipes Luke’s drink from his hand, and finishes it in one gulp. “Lucifer. Trivia. The Enemy. Got any other walking evil you’d like to let us know about?”
“I have to get the Dead Hex,” I respond. “It doesn’t walk but I’m pretty sure it’s evil. Does that count?”
Bex chuckles. “I don’t know what Lucifer’s playing at, or Mina for that matter. The Dead Hex doesn’t exist.”
Runner snorts. “Yeah, that’s what I thought too. Trust me, I wouldn’t be here bothering you very nice witches if that was the case. Mina’s seen it.”
“Mina thinks she knows a lot about a lot, but Mina’s not infallible,” Kara says.
“Luke, you also know a lot about a lot, and I like you a whole lot more than I like Mina,” Delaney says. “Is it real?”
Luke stuffs his hands in his pockets and rocks back on his heels. The professor in him makes an appearance as he says, “Details are sketchy at best. There are numerous references to a ring that controls and manipulates demons in various texts throughout the ages, but there is no concrete proof, no photograph, sculpture, painting, or drawing of it, to say for certain that it exists.”
The entire time that he speaks, I notice that he makes a point to look at each of us. Each of us, that is, but Mad. And she keeps her face turned from him as well. There’s something there, but before I can ruminate on it, Bex says, “No proof. There you go.”
“If Lucifer says it exists, it exists,” I say. “He wouldn’t send me off on some bizarre mission to get something he didn’t actually want.”
“I don’t know,” Kara counters, “isn’t fucking with people kind of what Lucifer does?”
Of course it is. I know this first-hand. But I have to do what he says until I figure out a way to break free of him, so I have no other option. I stand. “If you won’t help me, I’ll find her myself. I’m sorry to have bothered you.”
Mad jumps to her feet. “Wait!” She looks to Bex. “We have to help her.”
“We have to do no such thing,” Kara says.
“We should, though.” Delaney moves next to Mad in solidarity. “If we let them go off looking for Trivia on their own…”
“You of all people should know what happens when you cross Trivia’s path,” Bex bites out. “You want to potentially sacrifice another one of the Daughters?”
It’s then that I see the pain that runs just below the surface in all of these women. They wear it in different ways, but it’s chipped away at all of them. Mad must see the confusion on my face because she says, “The last time we had to deal with Trivia, we lost one of our sisters.” Mad takes Delaney’s hand and squeezes, and I watch as silent tears stream down Delaney’s face.
“So you realize that if I’m the one saying it, then it must be important,” Delaney says, her voice soft, but clear. I’m not sure if anyone hears the undercurrent in her words, but I recognize it immediately: she wants revenge. Delaney might be sweet as honey on the surface, but in this moment I have no doubt that she can also be vicious.
“I will help you destroy her,” I say, and when Delaney meets my eyes I see the slightest glint of hope in hers, and it is heartbreaking. I turn to all of them. “That’s what you want, isn’t it? And if you could’ve done it before this, I think you would’ve. It’s becoming increasingly clear to me that Mina has a knack for connecting people that need each other.” As I say the words I feel the rightness of them in my gut, and I go out on a limb. “I think you might need my help just as much as I need yours.”
I’ve hit a nerve and the bullseye. I can see it on their faces. “I saw your expressions when I mentioned I’d been one of Lilah’s crew. You were impressed, and you were scared. Well, I wasn’t just one of her killers, I was her best. Now that I’m fully demon, I’m even better. You help me take Trivia’s ring, and I’ll help you take her life.”
Bex stares at me for a long moment, fuming, before finally saying, “Delaney and Mad are obviously for this idea. But we must all be in agreement. Kara?”
Kara’s been staring at me this whole time, and I can’t tell whether she wants to high five me or bite my head off. “I say we kill the bitch,” she finally says.
“Uh, Trivia or Gray?” Runner stammers from somewhere behind me.
“Let’s start with Trivia,” Kara says and turns to Bex. “I’m in.”
Bex nods. “Let it be known that I go along with this with heavy reservations. That said,” she smirks, “I would like another shot at Trivia.”
“You all scare me,” Runner says from the doorway. “This scares me. I’m scared.”
From his spot at the fireplace, Luke mutters, “You should be.”
9
THE BONEYARD
“I like being outside even less than I like being inside,” Runner says, and as we follow the four witches through their backyard, I have to agree. The night air is cool and the grass soaks the bottoms of our pants with dew. Up ahead, a waist-level wrought iron fence splits at an ornate gate, and the sign above the entrance is made of metal spokes that are twisted and bent to form the words The Boneyard.
It’s not exactly warm and cheery.
Luke stayed inside with a second beverage of choice, muttering something about Kara finishing his drink. I’m sure that was part of it - the man seems to love his booze - but I get the distinct feeling that he’s trying to keep his distance from Mad. She’s glanced back at the estate more than once, sadness and longing in her eyes.
“What are we doing?” I whisper to her, this place seeming to demand hushed tones and reverence.
“The Boneyard is the graveyard of our ancestors, the first members of the Daughters of the Dead, and where we will all be buried someday,” she answers. “It’s where we go to ground ourselves, charge our magic, and ask fo
r guidance and blessings.”
“You guys are powering up?” Runner asks, stumbling up behind us. “You’ll have to forgive me, I don’t know much about witches because every time I learn something new it makes me more nervous and then I have to stop.”
Mad smirks. “Something like that. We’re going to need to be at full strength to take on a witch like Trivia. And maybe you wouldn’t be so scared if you spent more time learning rather than less. Ignorance breeds fear you know.”
“Well consider my going to Trivia’s a witch school field trip. I am looking forward to it,” he says, mustering all the bravado he can.
She leans toward me and says, low, “He’s going to end up more scared.”
Ahead of us, Bex reaches the gates. She lowers her head, as do Delaney, Kara, and Mad, and so Runner and I do as well. Bex speaks in a language I don’t understand, but inside the gates, the grass begins to stir with a faint breeze and the branches on the trees sway and creak. Runner’s hand shoots out, gripping my wrist with bone-crunching force.
As the last words leave Bex’s lips, the gates swing open of their own volition. Bex heads straight on while Kara veers off to the left and Delaney to the right. “Everyone has their own place they go to to get right,” Mad says, and points. “I go this way.”
“I’ll wait here,” Runner says. “I mean, I want to be involved, but maybe not walking-through-your-ancestor’s-graveyard involved.”
So I follow Mad as she heads deeper inside and we pick our way among a few scattered tombstones and piles of rocks and branches. “Those are grave markers as well,” she says as we pass a set of rocks in a geometrical pattern. “It just depends on the witch.”
“What happened back there, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“You mean in the basement,” Mad says. “The resurrection?”
“I mean the fact that you basically willed that man back to life yourself,” I say.
HELLION: THE DEAD HEX: (Hellion, Book 2) Page 5
