“You maybe,” I scold him, “but I actually miss having Mona here.” And Mom and D’Maeo and Jeep. They’re all family now, and I feel incomplete without them.
Taylar turns to face her. “Did the police pick up Shelton Banks?”
Her face lights up. “They did!”
I jump from my chair immediately. “Then we’d better get going. It might take us a while to find more evidence in his house, and I have a feeling his staff won’t be too happy to see us.”
“I agree,” Mona says solemnly. “He’s got a household full of pixies and trolls, and they’ve been instructed to kill all trespassers.”
“No problem.” I grab the two notebooks from behind my waistband and sit down again. “So we need a spell to capture them.”
“You mean to kill them,” Taylar says, an angry glint in his eye.
“Well…” I hesitate. I’m not crazy about the idea of killing creatures when it’s not absolutely necessary. “Capturing should be enough, shouldn’t it? Shelton Banks could have cursed them or something. We’d be killing innocent beings.”
Mona clears her throat. “Although I am against murder of any kind, I think the risk of leaving these creatures alive is too great.” Her shoulders sag a little as she continues. “Pixies and trolls are evil by nature. They will come after you if you don’t kill them.”
“I have no problem killing them,” Taylar says.
Mona places a hand on his shoulder. “I understand that, but please keep in mind that no good will ever come from torturing in the name of revenge.”
“How about torturing for fun?” he replies without a hint of sarcasm.
Mona lowers her head. “Please trust me on this, Taylar. The pixie and Mr. Banks will pay. There is no need to torture them. Do not lower yourself to a place you can never return from.”
A couple of sparks jump from her hand onto his arm and make their way to his head.
He jumps up and tries to wipe them away. “Don’t try to influence me like that!”
Mona bites her lip. “I’m sorry, Taylar. I shouldn’t have done that. But I’m worried about you. There’s so much hate in your heart. Try to turn that into relief. You’ll feel much better, and it’s far less dangerous.”
I hold out my hand to touch him but change my mind.
I consider telling him that his brother wouldn’t want him to be consumed by hatred. But that’s such a cliché. He knows this and saying it out loud will only make him angrier.
“I cannot imagine what it must feel like to finally face your brother’s killer,” I say instead, diverting his attention from Mona to me. “And to be honest, I think I would react the same way you do.”
His lips curl up a bit, but his smile freezes when I continue.
“But… we have a rule here. We do not torture people or monsters.”
Mona sends me a hopeful look over Taylar’s head. Guilt flows through me. She won’t like what I’m going to say next.
“I will stick by that rule,” I continue, “and I could order you not to torture that pixie, if we find it. But that is not the way I work. I refuse to order you guys around, because I don’t think I’m wiser than you are. The choice is yours. I only hope that your choice will not interfere with our plans to make the Shield stronger.”
I can tell my words are getting through to Taylar. His eyes reflect the battle raging inside him.
I lean closer to him. “I know you don’t believe it, but you are just as important to me as the rest of my Shield. I want you all to be in the best shape possible. No, I need that.”
He nods, and I smile at him. “When the time comes, please make a decision based on your heart, not on the hatred raging inside it. Can you promise me that?”
He raises his hand like a scout making his pledge. “I promise I will think before I act.”
“Good.” When I lean back in my chair, I glance at Mona. It amazes me that instead of disapproval, I read a mixture of admiration and wonder in her expression.
After a short silence, she claps her hands together. Her bright smile returns. “Right. Who wants some hot chocolate?”
With an eager “Me!” Charlie breaks the last of the tension.
CHAPTER 24
It feels good to have Mona back with us again. We drink hot chocolate and she tells us about the things she saw at Shelton Banks’ house. We’re all concentrated but relaxed, until Mona suddenly stops talking and looks up at the ceiling.
“What is it?” I ask. “Did you hear something?”
Is someone in the mansion? No, that’s impossible. It’s well protected.
A worried frown takes over Mona’s perfectly smooth forehead. “Something’s wrong.”
Taylar follows her gaze and pulls his head in. “With what?”
Without a word, Mona reaches up and pulls something out of thin air. The sight of it makes us all recoil.
The glass box we locked D’Maeo and the Black Void in shudders in Mona’s hands. She places it gently on the table. We all move back our chairs, except for Maël.
“Is it escaping?” Charlie asks, downing his hot chocolate in one go.
“I’m not sure.” Mona holds the box down with one hand and peers into it. The brown and green spots block most of what goes on inside. Vaguely, I can see the darkness swirling. I can’t make out any shapes. Which is probably a good thing, because I don’t want to see parts of D’Maeo tumbling by.
Vicky’s fingers wrap around the edge of the table. “Is it killing him?”
Mona bites her lip. She doesn’t answer.
A tear falls from Vicky’s eye when I grab her left hand. “I’m sure he’ll be alright. D’Maeo is strong.”
She shakes her head and pulls her hand free. “No, Dante. Look at that box.”
When I keep my eyes on her, she stands up and points at the box. “Look at it!”
I gulp and do what she says. The glass seems to wriggle under Mona’s hand.
“What does that look like to you? Does that look like D’Maeo is winning?”
Mona holds up her free hand. “Don’t panic, Vicky. This is as terrifying to me as it is to you, but there’s no way to know what it means.”
Vicky opens her mouth, changes her mind, wipes her eyes angrily and sits down again.
“It does look bad to me too,” Charlie says after a short silence. “So, what else do you think it could mean, Mona?”
The fairy godmother is staring into the glass box again. Sparks crawl all over it, and the box seems to bounce a little less.
“I think it means that they are fighting,” she says slowly, “but there’s no way of telling who has the upper hand.”
“Sure there is,” Vicky says in a low voice. “We know how strong that chaos residue is, we know it was taking over D’Maeo from the inside, bit by bit, and we know it took a lot of power to lock it in that box.” Her voice rises again. “Now that it’s in there, you think D’Maeo will be able to beat it by himself?”
I stare into her eyes, pleading for understanding. This choice was really hard for me. She sees that, doesn’t she? She can read my emotions. She must see that I’m also torn by this. I try not to think about it, to focus on other things, to solve as many problems as we can. But the search for a way to free D’Maeo is always in the back of my mind, as are the cases of Mom and Jeep.
I try to send my feelings and thoughts to her through my eyes and silently beg her to understand. I simply can’t risk the safety of the whole world for the afterlife of one man.
Guilt washes over me. Who am I kidding? D’Maeo is important. He’s part of my Shield. We need him. Of course he’s worth the risk. Vicky is right, I made the wrong choice. But there’s still time to fix… My thoughts come to a halt. Wait a minute...
With my teeth clenched, I tear my gaze away from Vicky’s. The guilt lessens immediately.
I push my chair back, stand up and slam my fist onto the table. “How dare you use your power on me!”
“How dare you keep D’Maeo trapped like this?” she counters.
A rumbling goes through the room, and I search for the source.
It’s the glass box. It’s shaking violently now, even though Maël tries to hold it down.
“Stop arguing,” the ghost queen says. “Your anger is feeding the chaos residue.”
Vicky jumps to her feet. “I’ll go somewhere else for a while.”
“Wait! Vick…” I hold out my hand to her, but she’s already gone.
I sink back onto my chair and rub my face. I can’t believe she influenced my emotions. I know she cares about D’Maeo, but still…
“Don’t be too hard on her,” Mona says.
When I look up, the box has settled down. Sparks still crawl over it, but more lazily now.
Gisella clears her throat. “I think Vicky is feeling guilty because we spent a lot of time trying to get rid of her curses. Time we could’ve spent figuring out how to free D’Maeo.”
I shift in my seat. “You think that’s it?”
Gisella holds up her hands. “Yes, but I’m not the one that can read emotions. If you want to know for sure, ask her.”
“I will.” I push myself up again but pause when my eye falls on Mona’s sad face.
I walk around Vicky’s empty chair and hug Mona from behind. “Are you okay?”
She pats my hand. “These are hard times for all of us, Dante. But I have faith in D’Maeo. In his will and his strength.” Her voice breaks, and she swallows half a sob. “But I do miss him. So much.”
I kiss her temple and hug her tighter. “I know. We’ll come up with a solution soon.”
She squeezes my hands. “Thank you, Dante.”
“If you think of something, let me know.”
She nods.
I gesture at the box. “Or if you think he’s in trouble.”
“Will do.”
I give her one last kiss, turn and make my way out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
I find Vicky in her own bedroom, where she’s hardly spent any time lately. She’s lying on her back on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
I knock on the open door. “Can I come in?”
“You can do whatever you want. You’re the master.”
With a sigh, I lower myself on the foot of the bed. “That’s true, but I would never use my powers on you or the others unless I really needed to. We are on the same team. If we disagree on something, we can talk about it.”
“Sure,” she sulks, “but in the end, you make the decisions.”
I can’t argue with that, so I say nothing.
After a long silence and hundreds of thoughts crawling around in my head, I put the right words in the right order and say what my heart tells me to. “You know, babe, I am the one who makes the final decisions, and honestly, I wish I wasn’t. I’m the youngest here, with the fewest knowledge of the magical world. I would gladly transfer the responsibility to someone else. But I can’t.”
I find the courage to look at Vicky again. To my surprise, she’s watching me intently, but with no trace of anger anymore.
“Also…” I hesitate. “I think I shouldn’t leave it to someone else. We all have a role to play in this world, and this is mine. Although I don’t like it, I take it very seriously. Lucifer isn’t only threatening the existence of me and the ones I care about, he will kill most of humanity if I screw this up. Which means I need to make impossible decisions sometimes. Leaving Mom in Trevor’s care is one of them. So is leaving D’Maeo and Jeep to fend for themselves while we try to find a way to get them all back.” My throat tightens, and I swallow. “It’s difficult to get our priorities sorted here, and I pray I’m not putting them in the wrong order. I try not to think about what could happen if I choose wrong.”
Tears well up in my eyes as the full force of our situation hits me again. I can almost feel the weight of the whole world on my shoulders. Long, wet lines tickle my cheeks, but I don’t move. I don’t want to break eye contact.
Finally, Vicky sits up, takes my hands and pulls me to her. She presses my face against her cold, silent chest. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t you I was angry at. This is not your fault.”
“I love you, Vicky. I don’t want to see you hurt.”
“I know.” She kisses my neck, follows the trail of tears to my eyes and then drops down to my mouth.
She tastes sweet and salty at the same time. Soon, I get lost in her kiss. I sink into it gratefully.
“I love you, Dante,” she whispers, and my sorrow is pushed to the back of my mind for a moment.
Back in the kitchen, I concentrate on the spell to use on Shelton Banks’ servants while the others discuss strategies and blink upstairs to check out the arsenal in the storage room.
As soon as everyone is provided with tea or coffee, Mona vanishes to get snacks, since Charlie ate our whole supply. We don’t mention the box anymore. I think we all know we need a decent plan before we throw ourselves at that problem.
When Mona gets back, Charlie hands her some cash and throws me a couple of bills too. “Here, I don’t want you guys to pay for everything.”
“That’s sweet of you, Charles,” Mona says. “But how will you pay for all of this if you don’t have a job?”
He shrugs. “I saved some money. It’s fine.”
Mona and I shove the cash back at the same time, laughing when our hands touch.
“Keep it,” I say. “I’m glad to pay for food in return for you fighting at our side.”
“Oh please.” He snorts. “I’d still fight with you if I had to bring my own food.”
“Sure, but you wouldn’t be of much use. You’d run out of food in an hour.”
Vicky giggles from the chair on my right. “More like half an hour.”
Mona throws several packets of cookies and about twenty chocolate bars across the table. “For your endless pocket.”
Charlie gapes at it, then shakes his head and grabs the bills in front of him again. “Take the money, Mona. I’m serious."
Mona quickly walks around the table to her seat next to Kessley. “I don’t want it. You’ll need it more than I do when Lucifer is beaten.”
Charlie looks down at the bills with a frown. “I will?”
“Yes, I’m paid well for my services as a fairy godmother.”
My eyebrows move up even further than Charlie’s. I should concentrate on the spell I’m writing, but this fascinates me. “Mom pays you? I thought she didn’t know what you were until recently?” And I thought being a fairy godmother was sort of a charity job. It never occurred to me that she needs money to stay alive.
Mona moves her fingers, and her sparks scatter around the table to pick up the dirty cups and take them to the sink. “We are paid by the magical government.”
My mouth falls open, and so does Charlie’s. “There’s a magical government? Why haven’t I heard of them until now?”
Mona smiles brightly. All eyes are on her, even Maël’s. I thought she knew almost everything about the magical world, but this must be new to her too.
“Our government only interferes when needed,” Mona explains. “Contrary to non-magical governments, ours knows that most things will solve themselves. And if they don’t, they don’t.”
“So it’s like a ‘do whatever you want, we don’t care’ policy?” I ask.
She chuckles. “Not entirely and I wouldn’t put it like that. The magical government, MG for short, makes sure that people with magical jobs, like me, get paid, so we can buy houses, clothes and food, and blend in with the non-magicals.”
I scrunch up my nose. “So we need to pay magical taxes too?”
“Not at all. There are some that can create money. They work for the government.”
“All of them?” Charlie asks. “What if they don’t want to? I mean, it’s not as if they need to work when they can create money out of thin air, you know.”
Mona shak
es her head. “It’s one of the few forbidden things. To keep the magical community running and under the radar, there are certain rules.”
A chill suddenly runs up my spine. “What about murder? Can we be arrested for killing all those demons? Or for opening a portal into the Shadow World?”
Kessley bounces up and down excitedly in her chair. “What about Trevor and his demons killing and kidnapping people, can they be arrested for that?”
Mona ignores the bouncing next to her. “No, there are no laws for such things. The MG believes in the natural balance, which basically means that good will defeat evil if the balance tips and the other way around. This is also why they won’t offer us help in dealing with the Devil.”
“Wow, really?” Kessley scratches her head. “Isn’t that a little bit crazy?” Her voice goes up at the end of the sentence. She stumbles over her next words as they roll from her lips at rollercoaster speed. “There shouldn’t be too much bad in the world, right? We don’t want to trip over demons every time we step outside, or be afraid to go to the supermarket because monsters roam the aisles?”
“We don’t need to go to the supermarket anymore,” Taylar points out. “Or to any shop.”
“I know that!” Kessley carries on. “I mean people in general. People who are still breathing. But sure, also ghosts. If there’s as much evil in the world as good, there’d be no safe place left!”
“Kessley?”
The sixth ghost whirls around to face Maël. “Yes?”
“Please stay calm.”
“I’m trying.” Kess waves her hands in the air, as if to get rid of all the worries and frustrations inside. “It’s the booze again. I can’t stop talking!”
“It’s fine,” Mona replies with a twinkle in her eye. She sends some sparks to take a teacup from the cupboard and fill it with tea. “Drink some of this, you’ll feel better.”
Kessley picks the full cup up when the sparks set it down in front of her and breathes in the smell. “Yes, much better.”
“And you…” Mona points at me with a semi-reprimanding look. “You should be writing a spell. We don’t know how long it will take for the police to question Mr. Banks. And I expect them to get a search warrant too. You don’t want to run into a police search team while sneaking around his house.”
The Sixth Ghost: a supernatural urban fantasy action adventure (Cards of Death book 6) Page 16
