Maël comes to an abrupt halt. She points her staff at him and he backs up. “You really don’t. In case you forgot, you just committed the sin of violence. You deserve punishment, yet we protect you.”
I put a finger on her staff and push it down slowly. “Don’t be so hard on him. He was played. And besides, he did it to protect me and Charlie.”
Maël gives Kale a once-over. “Really?”
He bows his head. “Yes, but it was still wrong. I should’ve stopped when he was down, but all the anger that has been bubbling up inside of me just came out.”
“Hmm.” The ghost queen turns on her heels, making her golden cape billow up.
“What does that mean?” Kale inquires.
I pat him on the back. “I think it means she’ll give you another chance.”
“Keep up!” D’Maeo calls over his shoulder. “This fog is treacherous.”
Taylar passes us with his shield held before him. “Tell me about it.”
I can’t help but grin. My faith slowly returns. We lost two people here before and still made it out. We can do it again.
CHAPTER 38
“So, since he’s committed the sin of violence, now would be a great time to figure out what the wavy line on the Card of Death means,” I whisper to Vicky after walking on silently for about a mile.
Taylar moves closer to us, scanning the ground ahead. “Yeah, we know it’s water, but will he be killed in a river, by a tidal wave, by rain? Crushed by ice?”
“Keeping him away from water seems like our best option,” Vicky says.
“Hey guys, is it just me, or is there really something pushing us back?” Jeep calls out.
I thought I was just getting tired after all the fighting, but when I take a look at the others, I see that they all have trouble walking.
Charlie is panting. He’s even lowered his fourth bar of chocolate. “It’s not you, I feel it, too.”
Vicky grabs Kale’s arm. “We’re not pushed, we’re pulled.”
I stop and turn around. Behind us there’s nothing but gray. “D’Maeo, can you block this power?”
He takes a couple of steps back and comes to a halt beside me. For a moment he just stands there, motionless, with his hands stretched out in front of him and his eyes closed. “I think we’re close to the red tree. Someone or something is trying to pull us back. I can block them, but only if I stay like this.”
I rub my chin. “That won’t work. We have to stay together.”
Maël steps up beside us. “I can slow them down. That will make the pull weaker.”
She holds her staff high and fixes her gaze on the fog in front of us. The tip of her wand, just above the entwined twigs, lights up and sparks fill the air around her.
Kale’s voice right behind me makes me jump. “What is she doing?”
“She’s slowing down time so we can get ahead of whatever is chasing us.”
“That’s a kick-ass power to have.”
Maël lowers her staff. “You can let go now, D’Maeo. Let us see how it feels.”
As soon as he drops his hands, the pull returns, but it’s not as strong as before. We can still walk away.
“Okay guys, let’s pick up the pace,” I urge the others. “I don’t want to stay here for too long.”
We hurry on through the fog. Jeep, Taylar and Vicky at the front, Charlie, me and Kale in the middle and Maël and D’Maeo at the back. It feels like an expedition into uncharted territory, where we keep the most vulnerable of the group in the middle to protect him. We didn’t discuss this tactic, but it feels like the most logical one. If only we knew what to watch out for.
Suddenly I bump into Taylar. I grab his arm so he doesn’t keel over.
The front of the group has come to a sudden halt.
“What is it?” I whisper, peering in all directions.
Vicky flips back her hair. “I thought I saw something red.”
I join her and follow her gaze. “Is it the tree?”
She sucks in her breath and wraps her hand tightly around my wrist. “No, it’s not.” In one swift move, she makes a quarter turn and pulls me with her. “Run!”
We haven’t taken two steps before there’s a loud hiss. The air around us heats up and the stench of sulfur makes me cough.
I look over my shoulder to check on the others. They’re following close behind. Maël is aiming her wand at the stream of lava on our tail, but soon shakes her head. “I can’t slow it down.”
She catches up to us soon, but the lava is moving much faster than we are.
“We’ll never make it!” Taylar yells.
My mind races to find a solution. And then it hits me. I stop dead, bringing Vicky to an abrupt halt. “Wait. Stop.”
The rest of the group runs a little further before pausing.
“What is it?” Vicky is pulling my arm. “We don’t have time to stop.”
“Sure we do.” I take a deep breath, ignoring the foul smell and the ash that hits my lungs. “We’re in the Shadow World, nothing can physically hurt us here.” I point at the river of lava, flowing rapidly towards us. “This lava can’t harm us.”
D’Maeo nods. “You’re right, but do you remember the time it took us to believe that? We can’t afford to wait for Kale to catch up. And we also have Charlie with us.”
My best friend shoots the old ghost a hurt look. “Hey, I have a strong will. Don’t worry about me.”
All heads turn to Kale. The young fighter is backing away from us and the lava with wide eyes and trembling lips.
“Okay, you’re right,” I admit. “There’s no time to convince Kale nothing can hurt him here. We’ll have to outrun the lava.”
Charlie shakes his head. “That’ll never work, you know.” He wipes the sweat off his forehead. “I’ve got a better idea. But I’ll need your freezing power.”
The buzz inside me flares up when I poke it with my mind. “You’ve got it. Tell me your plan.”
He rubs his hands together hard. “I’ll build a wall to divert the lava back to where it came from. If you freeze it, it won’t melt so fast.”
“Good thinking.”
While the others step back further, Charlie blasts out one block of grease after the other. I concentrate on the wall that’s forming quickly and imagine it freezing instantly. The first block holds back the lava, although some of it splashes over the top. Specks of smoldering liquid hit my cheek and some of it lands on Charlie’s bare legs but neither of us flinches. All I think about is cold, cold, cold. Let it change into ice. And it does. The first block melts a bit at the bottom, but once I’m totally focused, the frozen wall seems to build itself.
It surprises me that I can keep up with Charlie’s dazzling speed. It takes us only a couple of minutes to create a barrier that forces the river of lava to turn back.
Kale finds the courage to examine it up close. “That was brilliant!”
“I know, right?” Charlie gives me a high five. “Great teamwork, mate.”
He jerks his head back when four bars of chocolate are pushed under his nose.
Vicky winks at him. “I thought you’d want those.”
He takes them from her and eagerly tears the wrapper off the first one. “Thanks.” He looks her up and down before sinking his teeth into the bar. “You ‘ave an en’less sumply of bars in that mpocket of yours?”
She grins. “Almost.”
Charlie nudges me. “You shoul’ keep ‘is girl close.”
I lean closer to him and whisper. “Trust me, I already do.”
“Eh… guys?”
Jeep’s alarmed voice makes me swerve my head around. The tattooed ghost is standing a few paces away.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, already dreading the answer.
He points at something in front of him. “I think I’ve found the tree.”
CHAPTER 39
In a split second, we’re all standing next to Jeep.
Kale lets out a soft moan and Maël grabs her wand tighter. Vicky squeezes my hand, while Jeep keeps turning his hat around in his hands. Charlie even stops chewing.
Meanwhile, I try not to show my fear. This tree looks scarier than the black one that captured Maël not too long ago. Bright red blood drips from its branches and deep gashes run along the bark that is split in half in the middle. The edges are ragged and dark and the blood that hits the bark leaves burn marks. A soft creaking, like the opening of a rusty door in a dark abandoned house, rises from the tree every time it moves. The ends of its branches seem to grow sharper by the second, as if it’s getting ready to attack us.
“We need a spell to bind the Horseman to this tree,” D’Maeo says, making us all jump.
Charlie puts away his chocolate bars. “Aren’t they already bound?”
D’Maeo’s gaze moves over the tree. “Yes, but he is able to leave this world, while the tree is not. If we bind them tighter, the Horseman will be stuck here, just like the tree.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” I say, reaching for my father’s notebook.
I flip through it as fast as I can.
Meanwhile, Kale paces up and down, glancing at the tree every few seconds.
“Shouldn’t we also bind his powers, so he can’t attack us?” he suddenly says.
I look up from the book. “What, you mean two spells in one?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know, I’ve never cast a spell. Couldn’t you just do two?”
Charlie slaps my back. “He’s right, you could just rewrite it, or combine two, you know.”
Suddenly I get the feeling of something approaching. Something evil that makes my skin itch. I turn the pages faster. “We have to hurry.”
Maël frowns at me, then turns in all directions, holding her staff in front of her. “You’re right, something is coming.”
The others gather around Kale, holding their hands or weapons high.
“Is it the Horseman?” Taylar asks, fear seeping through his voice.
“I’m not sure,” I answer.
Charlie takes out one of the remaining bars and stuffs half of it in his mouth.
Jeep nudges Taylar. “I can’t use my power or my hat here. Do you have an extra sword?”
I hear the white-haired boy whip out a weapon. “Of course.”
While my heart beats twice as fast as it should, my eyes scan the pages. The lump in my throat gets bigger with every second that passes, until I can hardly breathe.
And then I finally find it. The words seem to glow, as if they know I need them.
Binding spell
“I’ve got it,” I pant, regaining my breath. “Vicky, I need a long piece of black string, a piece of cardboard, a black pen and…” I pause when a chill runs through me.
“And what?” she asks, pulling a piece of string out of her pocket.
My shoulders sag. “A part of that tree.”
Taylar whirls around without hesitation. “I’ll get that for you.”
Although I admire his courage, I doubt that tree will just let him cut off a piece of it. But there’s no time to tell Taylar that, since he’s already charging the tree.
Its branches shoot forward as the young ghost comes close.
My warning catches in my throat when Taylar evades the attack with a somersault and cuts off a twig in the process. While the trees lets out a loud howl, the ghost boy picks up the severed twig and rolls out of reach.
With large strides he walks back and holds it out to me with a grin. “Here you go.”
I can’t help but grin back. “Thanks! You’re getting better every day.”
His smile fades a little and he fumbles to take his shield from his back. “Well, I have to stand out at something.”
I place a hand on his arm. “You stand out just fine, trust me.”
“Thank you, master,” he says with a slight bow of his head.
Vicky hands me a pen and a piece of cardboard, on which I write The Red Horseman. Then I take out my athame.
I’m getting a bit tired of cutting myself, but since the spell requires my blood, I have no choice.
It doesn’t even hurt anymore when I push the tip of the blade through the flesh of my finger. Blood wells up and I draw a pentacle over the name on the cardboard. Then I fold it three times, hold the twig against it, pick up the piece of string I dropped when Taylar charged the tree, and take a deep breath. “Here we go, guys.”
With every line I recite, I pull the string around the cardboard and twig, binding them together tighter and tighter.
“Hear me now, Powers that be.
Bind these creatures, three times three.
Keep them in this blackened place,
unable to move through time and space.
Hear me now, Powers of High.
Let this creature’s strength run dry.
Keep his powers out of sight,
so he can no longer fight.
Hear me now, Powers that be.
Bind them for eternity.
Make them feel their faulty ways,
from now until their final days.”
As I turn the cardboard and twig sideways, I start again. The feeling of evil approaching gets stronger and I talk faster and faster, until D’Maeo gently touches my hand. “Remember to stay calm. Every word has to be pronounced clearly or it won’t work.” He nods reassuringly. “Keep going.”
For the last time, I turn the package in my hand and recite the spell.
I haven’t even finished the first line when a chilling laugh echoes through the mist around us. It takes all of my concentration to keep my eyes on the package and my mind on the spell. Especially when I recognize the voice. It’s not the one we were expecting.
For a second I meet Charlie’s troubled gaze. He’s heard it, too.
“You guys look like a bunch of boy scouts,” the voice says, menace audible in every word.
“There must be something wrong with your eyes then,” Charlie retorts.
“Nope.”
For a second I look up as my former friend emerges from the mist. He looks oddly different but still the same. His brown hair, now more like a shade of gray, still blocks half of his view. His almost black eyes have no glint of light anymore, and there are gray spots, like ash, spread across his face. His jawline is even squarer than I remember and instead of skinny, he’s bony.
But there’s no time to look at Simon now, I have to finish this spell.
So I tear my gaze away from him and proceed with the next line.
“I see you’ve found yourself some new friends, Dante.”
“Yeah,” Charlie answers in my place, “we found that some of our former friends were actually pretty bad company, you know.”
From the corner of my eye, I see Simon throwing his head back. He laughs uncontrollably. “Oh yes, but bad company is so much more fun to have.” He spins on his heels with his arms wide. “And it can give you so much power.”
I pause, trying to remember the next line of the spell. It’s hard when my former friend, killed by me, is in front of me. I have a feeling that this is all just show. Even though I didn’t know Simon as well as I thought, I know he’s up to something now.
“Make them feel their faulty ways,
from now until their final days.”
As soon as I finish, the mist around me starts to swirl. It pulls the cardboard and twig package out of my hands with a jerk and lifts it high above us. Then it explodes. Large flames break through the mist and press it down.
I dive out of the way just before the fire hits the ground. It extinguishes on impact and giant clouds of ash rise up, forming a human body.
Behind me, Simon brings his hands together in mock applause. “You did it! Great job. I have to admit I didn’t see that coming. Too bad it won’t help you.”
While I bac
k away further, the ash turns red and slowly the figure becomes clearer.
It has bright red, straw like hair and looks like the slender brother of Frankenstein’s monster.
Simon is right, I did it. I bound the Red Horseman to the red tree.
I bite my lip as the gaze of the burnt man locks onto me. He doesn’t look very happy.
“Did you think you could bind me and not suffer the consequences?” His voice is so deep here that I can feel it vibrate in my stomach.
“Well…” I start saying, but he doesn’t let me finish.
He lifts his hands and gives me the most menacing look I’ve ever seen. I hastily conjure a lightning bolt, but I don’t need it.
The Horseman turns his hands around with wide eyes. “What? What did you do to me? How is this possible?” His voice reaches an earsplitting volume, making the mist around us tremble. “No one can beat me!”
He charges and I release my bolt. It hits him square in the chest, but he keeps coming. I should have made him easy to kill, too.
In one swift motion, I pull out my athame and prepare to swing it at his neck.
“No, don’t!”
D’Maeo jumps between us and hits the Red Horseman on the head with the hilt of his sword. He crumbles to the ground with a soft thud.
I approach with my athame still raised. “What did you do that for?”
Vicky hands the old ghost a rope and he starts binding the Horseman’s hands together. “We can’t kill him, he’ll come back with all his powers restored, and unbound.”
I recoil. “Oh, good thing you stopped me.”
As I put away my weapon, I remember something. My head swerves from left to right. “What happened to Simon? Did someone take him out, too?”
They all shake their heads.
With a soft poke, I bring back the lightning in my hand and chase away some of the mist. “Then where is he?”
There’s a cackle from somewhere above us. “Oh, I’m still here. It’s not easy for me to leave this place. But it is for my friends.”
Taylar joins me, his shield held in front of him. “What does that mean?”
Cards of Death Box Set Page 63
