Grant me your protection,
from all in earth and sky!”
I move on to the candle of the south, while the others watch from outside the circle.
”Powers of Fire, hear my cry!
Grant me your protection,
from all in earth and sky!”
The flames reach up into the sky as soon as I call out the last word. Power surges through me with every candle I light.
“Powers of Water, hear my cry!
Grant me your protection,
from all in earth and sky!”
I continue to the candle in the north.
“Powers of Earth, hear my cry!
Grant me your protection,
from all in earth and sky!”
When I reach the eastern candle again, I finish the first part of the spell.
“Powers of High, listen to my plea.
May I always be protected by thee!”
All four flames burn brighter and I light the incense stick and start walking again.
“Air protects us!
Fire protects us!
Water protects us!
Earth protects us!
Whatever may appear,
no evil will enter here!
In this circle we are safe.
Nothing puts us in the grave.
Nothing here can make us bleed.
Those who kill will not succeed.
Stones and salt protect this place.
No injury will leave a trace.”
I hand the incense back to Vicky and put the piece of paper in my Book of Spells.
My heart is heavy when I turn to D’Maeo. “We could’ve created a circle like this around Kale.”
He gives me a sad smile. “Yes, but that would have been only a temporary solution, son. You can’t keep someone in a circle forever.”
I watch Vicky walk around it, collecting the candles and dropping them into the endless pocket of her black jeans. “I know, but if we’d done that, at least we wouldn’t have lost.”
“We didn’t lose, Dante. Not yet.”
Vicky has collected all the candles and brushes her hair out of her face. “He’s right. Yes, we lost this round, but in case you haven’t figured it out yet, there are nine rounds in this war. Nine circles of Hell Lucifer has to go through. We won two rounds, and lost one. We’re still ahead. As long as we win some battles, he can’t get to Earth.”
“Great.” I lower myself onto the grass and rest my head on my knees. “What if he just starts over after round nine? What if he keeps going until he has a soul for every circle?”
Maël slams her staff into the grass in front of me. “Then we keep fighting him.”
I push my fingers against my temples. “How can you remain so optimistic? Haven’t you lost hope?”
The mighty African queen squats down before me. “No, I haven’t, because we are strong. We don’t just fight to save the world, we fight to protect each other. This gives us an advantage over our enemy. Even if we lose faith in our ability to win, we will still fight for each other.”
“Sounds more like a weakness to me. It means we’re distracted.”
Jeep places a hand on my shoulder. “It means we’re alert. And that we are able to multitask, because we are used to focusing on several things at once.”
With a sad smile, I shake my head. “I can’t tell you how much I hope you’re right.”
He taps the rim of his hat. “I’m always right.”
One by one I look at all of them. My Shield. My friends. My girl. “I’m afraid there’s just not enough of us to win this. I’m still not in control of my powers. You guys are weakened, not only by death, but by curses and enemies chasing you. If it wasn’t for all that bad luck following us around, we might have a chance, but now...”
“But it’s not just us, Dante.” D’Maeo gestures at something behind me. “We have Qaddisin as back-up.”
As I turn around, he lands on the doorstep.
Mona follows him into the garden, surrounded by sparkles. “And me.”
Tears form in my eyes. “Yes, we do, and I’m grateful for that.”
Charlie appears, all clean and colorful again, his usual grin lighting up his face. “And you’ve got me.”
He joins me on the grass and throws his arm around me. While he pulls me close, he ruffles my hair with his knuckles. “You’re stuck with me until the end, mate.”
The corners of my mouth twitch. I can’t help it, I have to smile. With two hands I turn his hair into something resembling a bird’s nest. “You’re the best best friend in the world. I’m so glad I’ve got you by my side.” I shoot the others a grateful look. “All of you. You are the bravest, kindest people I know.” With a sigh, I add, “I just hope we will be enough.”
D’Maeo straightens up. “Have a little faith, Dante. Like Maël said, we already won twice. And there are others we can go to for help, if needed. Like the ents.”
“And me.”
We all whirl around and gape as a girl dressed in red leather moves lightly around the corner of the house. She throws her shiny red hair over her shoulder with an elegant shake of her head.
“Yes, I know what’s going on,” Gisella answers our unspoken question. “Charlie has been acting so mysterious lately and I overheard part of a conversation he had on the phone. Since he told me about the most important prophecies, I put it all together and figured you were the chosen one.”
She throws her arms down and her hands change into sharp, pointy blades. “I’m ready to join in your fight against the Devil.”
All eyes turn to me. Except for Charlie’s. His gaze is glued to Gisella, and his mouth has fallen open.
I push myself onto my feet, walk up to the girl in red and stick out my hand. “We’d love to have you.”
To my relief, her blades turn back into hands before she shakes mine.
“Welcome to the club!” Taylar calls out, clearly as impressed by her as Charlie is.
They all introduce themselves, while I watch with growing warmth in my heart.
“I’d love to train with you,” Taylar says eagerly.
Gisella changes her hands back into blades. “It would be an honor.”
D’Maeo looks at me. “Are you sure you don’t want to rest first, master?”
“Yes. But I have something to say before we start training.” I look each of my friends in the eye. “You were right. It’s not about winning every round. It’s about this.” I gesture at them. “All of you, all of us. As long as we stick together, we have a chance. And if any of us loses hope again, the others will be there to bring it back.”
For a moment everyone is silent.
Then Jeep opens his mouth. “What a lovely All for one and one for all moment. It brings tears to my eyes." He wipes away an imaginary tear.
I conjure a lightning bolt in my hand and aim it at him. “How about a bolt to light up your blackened heart?”
He steps backwards into the circle and beckons me with a chuckle. “Bring it on, master.”
I whip out my Morningstar with my free hand. “Gladly.”
What’s next?
Do you want to know what happens to Dante and his friends next? Are you curious about the remaining circles of Hell and what other evil plans Lucifer has in mind?
Then be sure to move on to book 4: Cards of Death - The Fourth Soul.
It will be released on February 1st 2020, but you can already read part of the first chapter on the next pages.
If you want to order the book, click here.
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The Third Sin has gone through several rounds of beta reading and editing. If you found a typographical, grammatical, or other error which impacted your enjoyment of the book, we offer our apologies and ask that you let us know, so we can fix it for future readers.
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Preview
Cards of Death book 4
The Fourth Soul
CHAPTER 1
“Is that all you’ve got?” One of the skeletons Jeep has awoken jumps on my back, and while I stumble sideways to get it off me, Jeep throws his hat at me.
I see it coming, but the skeleton pulls my head back so hard that I duck too late. The hat hits me square in the face, and its sharp rim is lodged between my eyes and nose.
I double over, gasping for breath. A piercing pain shoots through my head, and sparks explode in my vision.
“I’m sorry!”
I blink until I can make out the silhouette of the tattooed ghost. He gets the skeleton off me with a simple wave of his hand and steps up to me. “Hold your breath.”
With my eyes squeezed shut, I do what he says. There’s a tug at my head, and then the stinging feeling lifts. The blinding spots vanish, and I see Jeep bending over me. “It has already healed. This protective circle works like a charm.”
With my fingers, I examine my face carefully. I expect to find a gaping hole where the hat hit me, but it all feels normal. There’s not even a drop of blood.
Jeep hits me on the back. “Good thing D’Maeo came up with the idea of a protecting circle for us to practice in, right?”
“Yeah…” I rub my face again. “But it still hurt like hell, Jeep.”
“I’m sorry,” he repeats. “But this is the best way for you to train your skills.”
“It’s not fair. You’ve had your power for ages, and you have much more experience in fighting than I do.” I know I sound like a five-year-old complaining about not getting a second cupcake, but sometimes I feel so useless.
“Most of our enemies are better trained than you are, master,” Jeep answers, twirling his hat around on the tip of his finger. “That’s why you need training. We all do.”
“I know that. But it just seems so hopeless.” I swallow the lump that has been rising in my throat. “I’m not sure we can ever win this battle.”
Jeep places his hat back on his see-through head and smiles. “According to the prophecy, we will win, Dante. Stop worrying and focus on becoming a better fighter.”
I cock my head. “I thought I was supposed to give the orders around here.”
“Well, sometimes even a leader needs a kick in the butt.” He winks, steps back and takes on a fighting position. “Are you ready to try again?”
I know he’s right, so I poke my power core with my mind. “Absolutely.”
As he starts moving his hands again to control the skeleton lying on the ground in a heap of bones, I conjure a bolt of lightning in my hand and hit him with it. While he tumbles backwards, I turn to strike the skeleton with a second bolt. The bones turn to dust, and the wind spreads it over the grass.
When I turn back to Jeep to attack him again, his fist is only inches from my face. I release another bolt and raise up my other hand defensively. Half of Jeep’s transparent body is immobilized by a thick layer of ice.
“Nice job,” he mumbles, only one corner of his mouth moving.
In my head, I picture hail stones the size of tennis balls dropping down from the sky.
To my surprise, that is exactly what the clouds above us release, but while I grin at my success, Jeep frees himself from his ice prison and knocks me down. We tumble through the grass, and I try to hit him with more lightning and hail. Over and over I miss him, until one of my bolts bounces against a wall of grease several paces to Jeep’s left. The wall melts, and the slimy substance washes over us like a tidal wave. Something hard hits my temple and when the black spots around me dissolve, I realize it was Vicky’s head I collided with.
“Thanks for freeing me,” she says with a smile before kissing me on the lips.
I try to look over her shoulder while she wipes the grease off my arms. “Did Charlie trap you in there?”
An irritated frown wrinkles up her forehead. “He did. I thought I had him hypnotized, and then this icky stuff enveloped me.”
Charlie’s grinning face comes into view. He holds out his hand to Vicky, but she ignores it and pushes herself up.
I give Charlie the thumbs up behind her back, and his grin grows wider.
“Hey, do you guys want to switch?” he says when Jeep and I rise from the slowly dissolving grease.
My heart yearns to stay close to Vicky - not just for the obvious reason, but because I’m not sure when the curse will strike again - so I nod. “Sure, you have a go at Jeep’s skeletons for a while.”
He wipes the sweat from his forehead. “Actually, I thought it would be nice to fight you, you know.”
The disappointment must be visible on my face, because he plants his hands on his hips and says, “Come on, you can survive another ten minutes without your girlfriend, can’t you?”
My mouth opens to answer when a frightened voice interrupts us. “Dante? What’s all this?”
I turn around, and my heart almost leaps out of my chest. “Mom? You’re awake!”
A second later, I’ve reached the doorway to the kitchen of Darkwood Manor. I wrap my mom into a tight hug. “Are you okay? I’ve been so worried.”
She hardly reacts. Her body is stiff and when I hold her at arm’s length, she doesn’t meet my eye. Her gaze is locked on the circle behind me. “What is this?” she repeats.
I swallow. “Well, eh… these are my friends, Mom.”
With one arm still around her shoulder, I turn back to the others. Charlie, Vicky and Jeep smile shyly at Mom. The rest haven’t noticed her yet. They’re all too caught up in their training.
Charlie’s crush Gisella is trying to cut off Maël’s head. She manages to scrape off a couple of black curls before the African ghost queen raises her staff and puts her in slow motion.
Meanwhile, D’Maeo and Taylar are entangled in a sword fight that would make a bunch of Samurai look like amateurs. They move around each other like acrobats, their swords colliding with force.
Mom tilts her head and taps her fingers against her upper leg. “Are they actors?”
I imagine her brain whirling and clicking to find the most logical explanation for what she sees. Maybe I should just say yes. It might be safer for her if she doesn’t know about magic.
But I shake my head. No, that’s crazy. The fact that she didn’t know about magic is exactly what got her into trouble. It made it easier for a demon to take her. She had no idea what she was up against, and it almost startled her to death. Not knowing makes her defenseless.
“It’s okay, you can tell her.” Mona steps from the hallway into the kitchen, her hands full of groceries and a relaxed smile on her face. There’s a blush of excitement on her cheeks as she puts the groceries on the kitchen table, walks over to us and takes Mom’s hand in hers. “I’m so happy you will finally know.”
Mom’s eyes grow even bigger. “Know what? You’re scaring me, Mona.”
“Let’s go inside, I’ll make us all a cup of tea.” She pulls Mom with her into the kitchen and pushes her into the chair where Vicky normally sits.
&nbs
p; I beckon the others before I follow them in.
Gisella is the last to enter the kitchen. She whips her long, bright red hair over her shoulder. “I have to go home. I’ve got siblings to take care off. Let me know if you need me and when the next training is. Charlie has my number.” With a wink at him, she turns on her heels, waves and disappears around the corner.
Vicky sits down next to Mom and sticks out her see-through hand. “Hi, I’m Vicky.”
Mom doesn’t react. She’s still gaping at the spot where Gisella was standing a second ago. “That was a great costume. Creepy eyes!”
“Hey!” Charlie calls out indignantly. “She is not creepy.”
Vicky drops her hand, and I shoot her a pleading look that says, ‘Please give her a moment to adjust’.
“How about some chocolate cookies?” Mona says, holding out a plate to Mom.
Charlie’s stomach rumbles loudly in response, and he gives Mona a crooked smile. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine,” the fairy godmother says. She turns and throws him a new package of cookies. “I brought one just for you.”
“Don’t eat that all at once, Charlie,” Mom says motherly. “You’ll get sick.”
Charlie is already munching on the first cookie. “No, I won’t. I need fuel for my power.”
Mom frowns. “You need what for what?”
I hold up my hand. “Okay, okay, let’s take this one thing at a time. We don’t want to overwhelm my mom. It’s all crazy enough without the details.”
Mom turns to me with a smile. “What is, honey? Did you join an acting group? That’s wonderful! How did you manage to make them look like real ghosts?”
For a moment, a thousand thoughts scream at me in my head. How do I explain all of this without scaring the crap out of her?
Cards of Death Box Set Page 65
