Cards of Death Box Set

by Tamara Geraeds

  I lean forward, take her hand and kiss it. “Then we write a new spell.”

  She shakes her head. “A week ago you didn’t know anything about the magical world. You didn’t have any power and you’d never cast a spell. Now you think you know better than me?”

  “What? Of course not!” I say a bit too eagerly. “It was just a suggestion. You’re the expert. You’re the one with the legendary knowledge and power.”

  She giggles. “Ass-kisser.”

  I mimic her pose and pretend to concentrate.

  Suddenly, a spark flies from my lips. Vicky pushes her body against mine and I almost tumble over.

  “What are you doing?” I whisper against her mouth. “I’m trying to concentrate.”

  Her lips move to the side. They caress my cheek and then my neck. Heat shoots through me.

  “This is probably not the best place for this,” I pant.

  She lets go of me so fast, I’m kissing the air.

  “I just wanted to thank you for the great idea.”

  I rub my tingling lips. “Great idea? What great idea?”

  “To change the portal spell.”

  A shiver tingles my back when the last of the electricity of our touch leaves my body. “I thought that was a bad idea?”

  She stands up and sweeps back her hair. “Well, I thought about it for a minute, and it might not be so bad.”

  I scratch my head. “Sometimes you don’t make sense, Vick.”

  She gives me a crooked smile. “I know.”

  Without further explanation, she starts pulling all kinds of supplies from her endless pocket.

  “Have you thought of a way to change the words yet?” I ask, making a circle with the candles Vicky hands me.

  “A bit.” She pulls out some sticks and a matchbox. “Here, light a small fire. We have to cook some herbs for the circle.”

  While I make the fire, Vicky blends the herbs in a small bowl. With a couple of longer branches, she creates a tripod and she hangs the bowl over the fire with a piece of rope.

  “Creative,” I say.

  “I know how to survive in the wild.”

  “Oh, I had no doubts about that.”

  She blows me a kiss. “Do you remember the spell to protect the circle?”

  “Nope.” I pull out my Book of Spells. “But I wrote it down.”

  I leaf through it until I find the right page.

  Vicky looks over my shoulder and points at the last sentence.

  Bring us back before we shatter.

  “We should change that. We don’t want to come back here.”

  We think about a new line while Vicky stirs the substance in the bowl.

  When she takes the bowl out of the fire, I nod at her. “Okay, I think I’ve got something.”

  I tell her my idea and she smiles. “That might work.”

  “Good enough for me.” I wink at her and push my finger into the mud in the bowl.

  I draw a circle and say the first part of the spell.

  “I conjure the Circle of Power,

  by my will and by my word,

  a boundary between the worlds;

  a space to cross unheard.

  I conjure the Circle of Power,

  to shelter us from evil matter,

  keep us safe within these borders,

  until we reach a place that’s better.”

  A gust of wind pulls at our bodies and blows out the fire.

  Vicky takes a pen and piece of paper from her back pocket and scribbles something down. “How about this for the rest of the spell?”

  My eyes scan the lines and I take the note from her. “Perfect.”

  I take out my athame and dig it into the flesh of my hand. After a good look at the sigil I copied into my book, I draw it in the middle of the circle, using my blood. It’s a triangle, made up out of three two-way arrows. My hand stings as I dip my dagger in to draw the last arrow.

  “Ready?”

  Vicky gives me an encouraging nod. I put my book back behind my waistband before turning my attention to the circle, but freeze when a scraping noise from somewhere behind us hurts my ears.

  “They are coming to stop us,” Vicky whispers.

  My throat tightens. “Or they want to come with us.”

  “Probably both. We’d better hurry up.”

  Ignoring the rising clamor as best I can, I continue.

  “Open a door through time and space,

  take us from this evil place,

  seal the door behind us fast,

  let our passage be the last.”

  I dig my athame into the sigil. A spark lights up the air that seems to grow darker with every passing second. The wind picks up again and pulls at my clothes. It takes my athame and lifts it into the air.

  The sky above the circle turns black. Dark smoky claws reach for us from the sigil. An invisible mouth hisses loudly and for a moment I think the things behind us have reached us and are about to swallow us whole. The darkness becomes so thick I can hardly see Vicky anymore.

  I snatch my athame out of the air and hold it in front of me while I feel around with the other hand.

  “Vick?”

  “I’m here.”

  I whirl around and grab her hand.

  She points at the vortex growing above our muddy circle. “Something is wrong.”

  CHAPTER 4

  “Take this,” I say, holding out my weapon.

  She pulls a sword from her endless pocket. “No thanks, I’ve brought my own.”

  I nod appreciatively. “Even better.”

  A high pitched screech rises from the vortex, like a train hitting the brakes hard, only more animal like. It gets louder every second.

  The wind pulls at my clothes with unnatural force.

  ”We should close it,” I yell.

  Vicky pushes me down and something with long sticklike limbs soars over my head. It lands on all fours, turns its ugly bald head and shows us its sharp teeth.

  I straighten up and place my feet firmer onto the ground. Vicky holds out her sword.

  The mutant tilts its head sideways until it gives a satisfying crack. It bends its pale knees, but before it can leap at us, it gets pulled back.

  Vicky lowers her sword. “The vortex is growing stronger. Soon it will pull everything in.”

  I look at the mutant, bracing itself against the pull. “What if we break the circle? Will the portal close?”

  The creature lets out a piercing scream as it is lifted from the ground. At the same moment, Vicky and I start sliding towards the vortex.

  “We have to get away from it!” she yells over the deafening howling and screeching.

  “How?” I scream back.

  She puts away her weapon, grabs my hand tighter and mumbles something.

  An invisible force tugs at her. I raise my athame to stab it, but Vicky stops me. “Point that at the creepy mutants, please.”

  She nods her head at something to our left and I grit my teeth. “This looks like bad news.”

  About two dozen thin white figures gallop in our direction at sickening speed. Their heads move from side to side as if they’re only half attached to their bodies. Their tongues stick out and their bulging eyes see nothing but us.

  Just before the first one reaches us, we are pulled forward again. My weapon slices through the air, hitting nothing but dust.

  “Hold on!” Vicky yells. “The spell is working.”

  I gasp for breath, turning my head to the portal. The vortex is still growing and pulling the mutants in. “No, it’s not!”

  She looks over her shoulder. “Not that one, the pulling spell.”

  I duck when another creature dives at us, arms flailing. “Well, I hope it’s a strong one.”

  Vicky almost yanks off my arm when her spell hoists her in the air.

  I cry out in pain.

  “Sorry!” she shouts. “One moment.�
�� I see her lips moving. After a few seconds, I feel myself leveling. An unseen force keeps me afloat. The tug of the vortex disappears, but rages on below us.

  Vicky pulls me closer. “We have to find another way out of here.”

  “I know.” I spread my arms. “Isn’t this spell supposed to pull us away?”

  A frown wrinkles her forehead. “It is, but our spells are only half working here. I was afraid of this. Nothing can be trusted in the Shadow World, and most things don’t work the way they should.”

  There’s an angry holler and we both turn our heads towards the portal.

  “What’s happening?”

  “I don’t understand. It looks like it’s reversing.”

  I frown. “Is that even possible?”

  She points at the darkness. At first I don’t understand why. Then I see red eyes popping up everywhere in the swirling wind. Tiny claws push round, spiky bodies through the portal. One of the remaining pale mutants lets out a raw scream as a ball of spikes is thrust into its body.

  Vicky starts mumbling again.

  “Are you trying another spell?” I ask.

  She nods.

  I give her a stern look. “Don’t.”

  She keeps going, so I yank at her arm. “Stop! We have to go back! This will screw with the balance of these worlds. Who knows what it will do to Earth if we don’t stop it.”

  Finally she gives in. “Okay, you’re right. But it’s dangerous down there. We’ll have to fight our way through a bunch of mutants and spiky monsters.”

  “So?” I wiggle my eyebrows. “That’s a piece of cake for us, right?”

  Her look of worry changes into a naughty one. “Absolutely. Let’s go for it.”

  Before I can even take out my weapons, she nose dives back to the ground.

  “Hurry up!” she yells to me. “I undid the pulling spell.”

  It takes all my strength to move my body into a diving position. Nothing happens, so I make swimming motions. The ground slowly comes closer.

  Halfway down, the vortex starts moving. The portal is spitting out spiked monsters at an alarming rate now. Vicky has turned around and is swinging her sword like a samurai.

  Sharp balls fly around me and I swerve left and right to avoid getting pierced.

  It’s just a couple more feet before I hit the ground, so I take out my Morningstar.

  “Duck!” I yell and Vicky drops onto the ground without hesitation.

  I fling my weapon down. It unfolds and slices four balls in half before returning to me.

  I prepare to land next to Vicky, but suddenly the invisible force keeping me afloat vanishes.

  I drop from the sky like a ton of bricks and land on my Morningstar.

  I scream and roll over.

  Vicky looks over her shoulder. “What is it? What happened?”

  I gasp for breath.

  Her eyes widen. It takes her only half a second to reach me and kneel by my side.

  Her hands gently touch the skin around the weapon. Blood oozes through her fingers. She shakes her head, while tears form in her eyes. “No. Please no.”

  The howling of the vortex gets louder. Gray branches with black leaves attached to them fly past us.

  Behind Vicky, a white, crooked form hauls itself up. It braces itself against the storm and reaches for Vicky’s neck. Slowly it opens its mouth.

  Anger flushes over me and makes me forget my injury. With a growl, I pull my Morningstar from my stomach and throw it at the hollow-eyed creature. It hits the thing square in the forehead and it topples backward.

  Vicky pushes her hands on my stomach with a cry of surprise.

  My insides go cold. “What?”

  She lifts her hands and for a moment I’m dumbstruck. There’s nothing there. No hole, no blood.

  I start laughing. Vicky frowns when I pull her into a hug. I push her down when a monster ball flies past.

  “What are you laughing at?” she finally asks above the roar of the approaching vortex.

  “I thought I was dead. And then I wasn’t. We can’t get physically hurt here, but I keep forgetting that.”

  “How’s that funny?”

  “It’s not. But your face was when you saw that the hole in my body was gone.”

  She moves her sword behind her back, slicing an arm off of a mutant. “If we weren’t in such a hurry, I would kick your ass right now.” With two more strokes, she kills the thing.

  I smile. “No you wouldn’t. You’d kiss me.”

  “This is not funny, Dante. We opened a portal to the wrong world. Now creatures are coming through it.”

  I get up, haul in my Morningstar and swing it toward the vortex, making sharp balls fly everywhere. “I know. So let’s close it already.”

  I take my athame, which is safely tucked beside the notebooks, and start moving forward, one slice at a time. I can hardly hear the monsters howling above the racket the wind makes.

  “Should I say the spell in reverse or do you have a spell to close a portal?” I yell.

  Her answer gets lost in the screaming of three monsters simultaneously attacking her. She moves her sword like lightning and pieces of flesh surround her for a moment.

  When they are blown away by the wind, Vicky is no longer there.

  “Vicky?” I turn my head in every direction until I’m dizzy, and squeeze my fingers around my weapons. “Vicky! Are you okay?”

  The only answer I get is a dark laughter that chills me to the bone.

  CHAPTER 5

  “Looks like your love went home without you.”

  With my chin down, I blink against the strong wind. The portal and moving vortex are darker than ever and seem to suck all the light out of the Shadow World.

  I squint to clear my vision and raise my athame in front of me.

  “Opening a portal to Tartarus is never a good idea, didn’t anyone ever tell you that?” the raw voice continues.

  The bow of a small boat slides into view. An oar moves through water that appears under it. The last of the mutants and spike monsters dive out of the way and disappear screeching.

  “Well? Don’t you have anything to say… chosen one?” He extends the s’s, like a snake.

  I look around quickly. Every creature in sight has run away. There’s no sound, except for the splashing of the oar. Even the wind is holding its breath.

  There’s still no sign of Vicky. The hairs on my arms stand up at the thought of something bad happening to her.

  I step back, but change my mind and straighten up. “Who are you? What do you want from me?”

  Half of the boat is now visible as my eyes slowly adjust to the dark. Bones held together by black strings and skulls still attached to the spine cover the wooden boards it’s made of. The high bow ends in a hand holding a lantern.

  The boat comes to a halt and a large figure steps closer. “My name is Charon. You might have heard of me. I am the ferryman of the Underworld.”

  “No way…” I whisper. My mind whirs. I’m trying to remember whether this man is good or bad.

  “I am neither,” he says calmly. “My only job is to carry the dead across the river Acheron. I do not judge those who arrive on my shore.”

  “Oh good,” I reply, mimicking his calm tone, while my hands and feet tingle with fear.

  Now that the lantern lights his face, I can study him a bit. Not that I want to. I’d rather turn and run as far away from him as I can. He may sound like a friendly old man who smoked too much, but he certainly doesn’t look the part. Dark rags hang upon his tall, slender form. A hood covers most of his face, but not enough. I can still see the sunken cheeks, bony nose and lipless mouth. I’m glad the hood covers his eyes, if he even has those.

  Charon leans on his oar. “So why did you open a portal to my world?”

  I grimace. “That was a mistake. We were trying to get home.”

  “I see.” His skinless fingers tap the wood of
his oar. “I’d better close it, before something crosses that disturbs the balance.”

  I lift my head, automatically trying to make eye contact. “You can close the portal?”

  He puts the oar back in the water and pushes the boat back slowly. “Sure.” His mouth twitches into a dark smile that shows sharp teeth.

  While he retreats, darkness creeps up on me again. My palms get sweaty. Something tickles the back of my neck.

  “Could you perhaps…” I clear my throat. “Would it be possible for you to open a portal back to my world for me?”

  The boat comes to a halt and I swallow.

  The ragged cloak ripples as the ferryman pulls the oar out of the water. “There’s no need to be afraid of me, young Dante. I am one of many appointed to keep the balance in the universe. This balance currently depends on your success.”

  So even he knows about the prophecy. I drop my gaze, emotions raging through me. Doubt and fear take the lead.

  “A little insecurity is good for you,” Charon’s voice says right beside me.

  I jerk my head up and gasp for breath. The boat is still in the same place, with the ferryman on it. I am, however, no longer standing a couple of feet away from him. When I look down there is no white ground. I am standing in the boat.

  “Wait,” I say hoarsely. “I don’t-“

  “You’ll come with me for a while. There are some things I need to show you.”

  When I open my mouth again, he raises a bony finger. “After that, I will send you home, so you can finish your quest.” His skinless finger moves down slowly. “Sit.”

  We float through the portal, where the spiky balls crawl away as soon as they see the boat.

  I look back and gather all of my courage to ask a question. “Are you sure that Vicky is no longer there?”

  He remains silent, stroking the end of his oar and moving his head slowly from side to side.

  He whispers something in a language I don’t understand and a blue glint slithers down the oar and drops into the water. It moves like a snake towards the portal and when it hits the dark edges, the hole starts to close.

  “Your girlfriend is fine. For now.”

  My head swivels back to the dark figure.