“Why?” Kessley asks. “Their love isn’t tragic.”
D’Maeo pulls Mona onto his lap and sighs. “It will be, just like ours.”
The whole table falls silent except for Kess, who shakes her head. “I don’t get it.”
Vicky’s hand finds mine under the table, and our fingers entwine. I try to explain it to Kess, but my throat clogs up with emotions. Sorrow, grief, even anger. At Satan, at myself, at the universe.
Eventually, Maël speaks up. “As soon as our battle with Lucifer is over, we will all move on. Our job as a Shield will be completed.”
Kessley’s mouth falls open. She lowers her head. “So Dante and Vicky, D’Maeo and Mona, they will be separated.”
“Exactly,” D’Maeo says hoarsely.
“That is tragic. You were meant for each other.”
“Yeah…” I breathe in and out slowly before bending over my Book of Spells. I should probably tell them about the deal I made to keep D’Maeo here, but I can’t process Vicky’s response to that right now. The only way to drown out the depressing thoughts is to focus on this spell. The writing of the lyrics for the song will be tough enough. Especially since it has to come from the heart.
Vicky moves her chair closer to mine. “I’ll help you with the song.”
I kiss her on the cheek and squeeze my eyes shut to hold back the tears.
I open my eyes again when I hear someone standing up. It’s D’Maeo, at the other end of the table. “While you work on that spell, we should discuss a way to find the next soul and to fight the tornado demons.”
“That would be great.” I nod at the ghost mage. “Dylan knows how to beat the demons.”
The young mage blushes. “I think so, yes.”
Charlie rubs his hands together. “Great! Tell us.”
Vicky moves a little closer to me when I bend over my notebook again. “You know, we’ll figure something out,” she whispers.
I rest my head against hers, glad that she acts like herself again. “I hope so.”
“We will,” she insists. “After all, I’m the great-great-granddaughter of the Devil himself. I should be able to find a way around death.”
She smirks when I turn my head to her.
“I knew you’d find something positive about that.” I kiss her again and sit up straight. “And now we’ve got work to do. I’ve got a spell and a song to write, and you guys have a soul and some demons to find.”
“If only the Cards of Death were still delivered to us,” Taylar says. “That would make things a whole lot easier.”
“Don’t worry about that,” I say. “We found the last two souls without the cards; we can do it again.”
CHAPTER 8
The others are still discussing a strategy to find the tornado demons and take them out when Vicky and I finish the spell and song. We’ve written it to the music of Nothing compares 2 U, a song that used to bring Mom to tears after Dad left.
When I came up with the idea of using this song, I told Vicky I could keep most of the original lyrics, since they’re pretty fitting. But she rejected that immediately, telling me a song with our own lyrics would make a better impression, and I had to agree.
Vicky wrote her parts, and I wrote mine, and when we read each other’s lines, we both had to wipe away some tears. I guess that’s a good sign.
Now, I stand up and pick up my Book of Spells. “Let’s go to the annex to set everything up.”
Vicky agrees. The others barely notice us leaving; they’re so wrapped up in their discussion.
The set-up for this spell is easy and takes us only a couple of minutes. Then we stand in the middle of the circle of herbs we made and each take a deep breath. Vicky grabs my hand when I hold up my Book of Spells. I count down from three and we say the words together.
“Take our voices, one by one,
and turn them into something strong.”
We both light a candle before continuing.
“Mesmerizing we will be,
when we make the ferryman see.
Make him hear our desperate call
of how our love can conquer all.”
We light the other two candles and finish together.
“Change our voices, change them now,
and let our song be heard somehow.”
The candle flames stretch and free themselves from their wicks. They whirl around us and push us closer together. I smile at Vicky as the flames light up her whole body, shining through her like an angelic light. Then the flames dive over our heads and into our mouths. Heat spreads through my throat, and I feel a sudden urge to sing. I quickly take the folded piece of paper on which we scribbled our lyrics, and hold it up for both of us to read.
The first lines burst out of me like fireworks, lights included.
“I’ve been longing for you, my whole life.
I never thought that we would meet.”
I can hear silence descending on the kitchen before Vicky continues.
“I saw you lying there and fell in love.
And I knew you were the one.”
Her voice is like nothing I’ve ever heard before, even more beautiful than mine. It’s as if all other sound around us ceases, as if we suck everything into a vacuum where only our voices can be heard. Before I open my mouth to sing the next lines, I see our friends appearing one by one in the doorway. Their eyes are wide, their mouths open in awe.
“Then the world slowly began to tumble down.
You were there to keep me alive.”
I turn my head and Vicky’s gaze sucks me in. The next lines come out a bit hoarse.
“We faced all of the threats and dangers
side by side.
And you were there, yes you were there
when I needed you the most.”
Heat and cold shoot through my heart when our voices entwine.
“But soon we’ll move on,
soon we’ll move on, alone.”
All I see now is Vicky’s face. Her beautiful face and her piercing blue eyes. They reflect everything I feel. Love, happiness, sorrow, longing, regret. I keep singing, but I don’t even know what the words are anymore. The spell has taken over my voice, but my thoughts are only with her. With how much she means to me, how much I want her with me forever. My heart contracts painfully when I try to imagine my life without her. It’s empty, worthless. I’d rather go with her than stay here without her. And once again I ask myself: why, out of all the girls I ever met, did I have to fall for the one who died?
Her lips stop moving, and she bends closer to me. We kiss like we never kissed before, and all my emotions blur together. It’s such an overload of feelings that I struggle for air when she releases me. She seems to be equally shaken, and we lean on each other until the feeling passes. A dull throbbing is left behind in my heart when sound starts to trickle into my ears again. Not that there’s much sound at all. There’s only a soft creak, like a moan, made by the house, the gentle rustling of the wind outside and a collective sigh coming from the doorway.
We hold each other tightly before looking around.
Charlie is the first one to speak. “Wow,” he says. “Just… wow, you know?”
Gisella, holding his hand, nods silently.
Kessley rubs her arms. “Yeah, that was intense.” Taylar wraps his arms around her from behind.
Mona and D’Maeo are also huddled closely together, and Jeep is gently rubbing Maël’s back. Dylan seems a bit lost, staring at the floor.
I want to walk over to them to give them all a hug, but a loud rumbling stops me in my tracks.
Just outside the herb circle, the air splits open to reveal a dark world with swirling rivers in the sky.
Water trickles in from the bottom of the portal and forms a large puddle on the annex floor. The bough of Charon’s creepy skull- and bone-covered boat breaks through. The hand with the lantern on the high bow stops inches from my nose, but I
don’t step back. Charon is neutral; we have nothing to fear from him. And if he had evil intentions, he wouldn’t have been able to find Darkwood Manor.
I bow when the figure of the ferryman, clad in a black, ripped-up robe, comes into view. “Charon, it’s an honor to see you again.”
A chuckle rises from deep within his throat. “It’s nice to see you again too, Dante. But to you it can’t be a surprise. I watched you cast the spell, heard you put in a line to make me hear your song. You wanted me to come here.”
I nod. “I knew you didn’t want me to enter your world again before I died, so…”
He smiles his creepy smile. “You’re a smart boy. I like your confidence too. You had no way of knowing if I would come.”
Vicky clears her throat. “How did you watch us?”
Charon spreads his arms. “I have my ways.”
I think of the Lake of Remembrance that he showed me. The lake in which he keeps memories of countless dead people. He must have more lakes like that one. A lake in which he can see what the living are doing maybe. If only I could take a peek in it. See what Trevor is up to and check on Mom…
“I suspect you want something in exchange for that mesmerizing song,” he states in his raspy voice. His sunken eyes bore into mine from under his dark hood. “Tell me what it is.”
My friends have never been so quiet. It’s like they’re afraid to move. Even Gisella and Kessley don’t make a sound. I’m grateful for that, since Charon can be grumpy about people interfering in his business or interrupting him. He wasn’t too happy when I accidentally got stuck in a strange world. Of course, I did disturb the balance of the universe with the portal I made, so he had a right to be angry, but still… an angry Charon gives me the creeps. Even a friendly Charon is frightening.
I suppress a shiver when I look him in the eyes. “We were hoping you could tell us how to activate Vicky’s powers.”
His lipless mouth grows wider into something that resembles a smile. “Oh, you finally understand why I showed you the memory of Lucifer and Isabel.”
“I do, and I’m grateful for the chance to see that. But Vicky has no idea how to do what Isabel did, and her birthmark is only half visible. We were hoping you could give us some advice.”
“And a way to defeat Beelzebub,” Vicky adds.
Even without eyebrows, I can tell Charon is frowning when he turns to Vicky. I want to nudge her, tell her to keep quiet, but I can’t without the ferryman noticing.
Vicky has no trouble looking at him. Her back remains straight, and she doesn’t tense up at all.
“You are so much like her,” Charon says. To my surprise, he sounds pleased, affectionate even.
“You knew Isabel?” Vicky asks.
Charon leans on his staff with the bones wrapped around it. “Oh yes, I’ve been around for a long, long time. I saw Lucifer fall from Heaven. Watched him build an empire. Watched him change more and more into the monster he is today.”
Vicky frowns. “And you didn’t stop him?”
Charon leans forward. “My dear, stopping him would have tipped the balance in the universe. As much as I hate to say it, we need evil as much as we need good.” He adjusts his hood with a bony hand, giving us a glimpse of his sunken eyes. “But now, evil is rising to the surface again, and once more we need a powerful woman to lock the king of Hell in a prison made of circles.”
“So you’ll help us?” I ask tentatively.
He gives us a small bow. “Yes, I will help you, just like I helped Isabel many centuries ago.”
CHAPTER 9
Charon slides back and beckons us. “Please, step into the boat.”
Vicky obeys without hesitation. I look back at my friends, still standing silently in the doorway. “Will you be okay?”
“Of course,” D’Maeo answers. “We will continue our search for the next soul.”
“What must happen, will happen,” Charon says cryptically.
I step inside the boat. “Be careful,” I tell my friends.
“You too,” Charlie says, putting his arm tighter around Gisella.
The water rises and takes us back through the portal, which closes behind us fast. The air in the Underworld is cold, and I can barely see anything in the dim light that shines above the rivers in the sky. Sharp mountains I don’t remember rise in the distance, and when I see the surface moving, an image of crawling bodies pops into my mind, like the ones slithering through the rivers above us.
The light from the lantern hanging from the bow is also faint, and I pull in my arms when a cold mist touches me. Not this again. I clearly remember the way the mist tried to grab me when I was here before. Staying close to Charon is the only way I know to prevent it from reaching me, so I shuffle a little closer to him. He looks down at me when his rags touch my hand and smiles. I try to smile back, but my lips don’t cooperate. This world makes me uncomfortable; he makes me uncomfortable. I can’t imagine coming here after I die, crossing the river Lethe and facing where I will end up. All of my memories will be taken by this river and transported to the Lake of Remembrance. Does that mean I won’t remember anything from my life? Will I forget about my friends, Vicky, Mom and Dad? Will I forget I fought the Devil?
A cold hand touches my shoulder, and this time, I can’t stop the shiver running through me.
“Do not worry,” Charon says. “You are destined for great things. You both are.” He nods at Vicky, who is watching our surroundings with interest rather than fear. “You have already accomplished so much, and there is more to come. I feel it, here.” His skeleton hand lets go of my shoulder and taps the place where his heart is, if he has one. “The river Lethe will take the memories of each soul that passes it, but those are only copies. You will remember it all. Each victory and defeat, each joyful and dismal event, each heartbreak.”
I rub my arms at the thought of losing Vicky and hope he can read my mind again. If anyone can keep Vicky from moving on, it’s him.
Charon shakes his head. “Your face is an open book, Dante. Do not show this to your enemies. They will use it against you.”
Honestly, I don’t think it will make much difference, since it’s no secret that Vicky and I are together, but I wouldn’t dare go against Charon, so I nod vaguely.
His face softens. “I can only help you with one problem, Dante. If I do more, my position in this universe will be threatened. Nobody likes it when neutral beings interfere too much.”
I almost groan. Why does everything have to be so difficult? Charon could probably solve this whole battle with one snap of his fingers. Why isn’t he the one chosen to keep the balance? I ball my fists until my fingers protest. When I look up again, Charon is watching me closely, leaning on his staff. There’s a twinkle in his eyes.
“You still don’t understand how all of this works, do you?”
I’m not sure how to answer that. I mean, there’s a lot I still don’t know, but I do know that Charon is powerful. He could end the battle easily.
Vicky grabs my hand without speaking, and I glance at her.
“We were born to do this, babe,” she says. “Have faith in us.”
“But―”
“Let me explain something to you,” Charon interrupts me. He straightens up and waves his staff, indicating the vast world around us. “I am the ruler of the Underworld. I am powerful, in a way. But my power does not reach beyond this world. In reality, I am no more than a guide.”
I watch the rivers meander above us and shiver when I see the bodies that reach out from them. I tear my gaze away and look at the ferryman. “Your power does reach beyond this world, doesn’t it? You pulled me from another world when I got stuck, and you gave me back my memories when they were stolen. You can open portals into different worlds. There must be more that you can do. More than me.”
Charon chuckles and places his bony hand on my shoulder again. “Dear, dear boy. Do you still not see it?”
He’s sta
rting to get on my nerves. Why doesn’t he just tell me what he means?
Vicky squeezes my hand. “I see it.”
My confusion grows when they exchange a knowing look. Vicky smiles at me and pulls me close. “You still don’t see how powerful you are, babe. You still don’t truly believe in yourself.”
“Sure I do. I believe we can beat the Devil. We’ve all grown so much; we trained a lot and…” I fall silent when she places her finger against my lips.
“Not we, Dante. You. This is about you.”
I pull back. “No, we were talking about Charon. About him being able to end this fight all by himself.”
The ferryman is still looking at me like I’m a six-year-old who doesn’t understand why two plus two equals four. “After eons of existence, I know my strengths and weaknesses. I know my limits, and yes, they are there. Everyone has limits. You are right, I can reach beyond my own world, but my powers there are limited. I can influence memories because all memories eventually end up in my world.” He waves at the dark around us. “This world. But you can influence memories too. You can not only cast spells but write them yourself. Sure, you are still training, learning, but the power to accomplish almost anything is within you.”
I open my mouth to answer, but he carries on.
“And I can open portals, but so can you. The difference is…” He leans closer and pushes his finger against my chest. “You have power in every world. Mine is confined to the Underworld. This is why I am the guide, and you are the chosen one.”
I rub the place where he poked me. “You’re serious.”
“Very.”
They both look at me expectantly.
“What?” I ask.
“You need to choose. What is it you want from me the most?”
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