“It’s the office,” the wizard said. “I have several wards installed, including one that reveals invisibility spells. It’s not that you’re invisible in the usual sense, but the ward isn’t designed to recognize nuances. The key principles still apply.”
“So you won’t be able to see me outside of the office?”
“Not yet.” He hustled to the table at the back of the office, “but I can change that.”
“What are you going to do? Ward the whole town so everyone can see me?” I joked.
“That wouldn’t be wise,” Neville said. “Imagine the questions it would raise to see two federal agents wandering around town. It would also give the pod demons a reason to act against your physical form. Even single-minded creatures will take action to protect themselves from extinction.”
“They’ll destroy my body if they see me as a threat?”
Neville nodded. “That would remove the threat, wouldn’t it? You’d be dead. As far as they know, you’ve succumbed like every other resident who’s been inhabited. Now you can continue to work against them without alerting them.”
“It’s going to be you and me against the world if we don’t finish them off soon.” That was a horror story I wanted no part of. “By the way, we can thank Bruce Fendall for this mess.” I updated him on last night’s events.
“You see, Agent Fury,” Neville said. “There was a logical reason that pod ended up in town that had nothing to do with you. Perhaps you’re not the magnet for trouble you think you are.”
He was right. The pod demons didn’t choose to come here. They were brought here as part of a business tactic. My presence, the portal, the vortex—all a coincidence. It was a relief to know I hadn’t caused this crisis.
Neville began pulling materials off the shelves. “I remember this one time at wizard camp…”
“Wizard camp?”
He hastened a glance at me. “You didn’t go to camp?”
“Do you seriously think I’d have gone to supernatural camp? I’d rather have slit my throat.”
“Well, I happened to adore camp,” Neville said. “Where do you think I developed my interest in botany?”
“Friday nights when you were home alone and everyone else had plans?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “My, my. Astral Eden has a rather tart tongue, doesn’t she?”
“I never went to camp,” I said dully.
“Anyway, this one time at Camp ChickaMerlin…”
I barked a short laugh. “Your camp was called ChickaMerlin? Why not just Merlin?”
“I didn’t name the camp, Agent Fury. I simply attended it.” He opened a small box and retrieved a plain silver band. “Anyhoo, I had a friend at camp called Franklin and one of Franklin’s favorite pranks involved astral projection. He would pretend to be asleep. Meanwhile, he’d be running around the campground, wreaking havoc.”
“He could touch things?” I made another attempt to make contact with a solid object, but my hand went straight through the table.
“Franklin embraced his abilities,” Neville said. “He honed the skill over time. So a few of us got together after Franklin had short-sheeted our beds one too many times and devised a spell to pierce the veil, as it were, and be able to see him.”
“And you were successful?”
“Naturally. That’s when I acquired the nickname, Neville the Devil.”
I coughed to cover a laugh. “Neville the Devil?”
He shook a pair of pliers at me. “Don’t laugh, Agent Fury. Piercing the veil was considered the devil’s work.”
“Only because they’d never met my family.”
Neville turned his attention to the ring. “I need to fashion myself a charmed object, similar to your invisibility locket. Only this one will allow me to see and hear you outside of this office.”
“Will it take long?”
“Not for me,” Neville said. “Why do you think the FBM pays me the moderate bucks?”
“I’m putting in for a raise for you, Neville,” I said. “As soon as I’m corporeal again.”
“You’re too kind.” He reached for a mortar and pestle. “As long as I wear the ring, that should allow me to carry on communicating with you.”
“You’re so much cooler than Q,” I said. “James Bond would be lucky to have you.”
“And I would be lucky to have access to the British Secret Service’s research and development budget, but hey ho.” Neville shrugged. “Luckily, I can work my magic on a budget.”
Small mercies. “We have to put a stop to them, Neville. They keep multiplying. Alice only left her post for a few minutes and I was invaded.”
Neville pushed up his glasses before they could slide to the end of his nose. “I have an idea, but I’m going to have to enlist help.”
“From whom?”
He lowered his gaze. “You’re not going to like it.”
Nausea rose in my throat as the realization washed over me. “How can I object? Desperate times call for desperate measures.”
I stood beside Neville on the front porch of my house as he knocked on the door. “I wish my mother and I had a secret word,” I said.
“It would be useless in this scenario because your doppelgänger would know it,” he said. “The demon isn’t just someone who looks like you, it is you.”
Good point.
The door opened, revealing my mother in her own Day of Darkness dress. With her wide-brimmed black hat and black silk gloves, she looked ready to attend a royal vampire wedding. The body-skimming dress was more risqué than mine. No surprise there.
“Mr. Wyman, can I help you?”
At least she remembered his name.
“May I speak with you alone outside?” he said. “It’s an emergency.”
My mother tried to frown, but her forehead didn’t comply. She must’ve dipped into the anti-aging potion again. “What’s this about?” She stepped onto the porch and closed the door behind her.
“Eden’s been compromised,” he said. “You have another pod demon in your house.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “How do you know?”
“Because the real Eden is right here on the porch,” he said. “She’s astral projecting.” He removed the ring from his finger and handed it to her. “Put this on and you’ll see.”
My mother slipped the silver ring on her finger and gasped at the sight of me. “I can’t believe it! Your makeup looks just as good in ghost form. My handiwork is exquisite.”
I rolled my eyes. “Not really the focus, Mom.”
“I should’ve known it wasn’t you,” she said. “You were far too agreeable. It didn’t feel right.”
“I want you to act like you don’t know,” I said. “Let me participate today as is.”
“And why would I do a thing like that?”
“Because I don’t want to rouse suspicions and because I need you to do a few things for me. For starters. I’m going to use my astral form to cross through the ward at the Tasker farm and I need your help to do it.”
My mother folded her arms. “Eden Fury needs my help. Again. Getting to be a habit, don’t you think? At what point will you acknowledge that black magic is useful?”
“I don’t deny that it’s useful,” I said. “It’s the price we have to pay for it I object to.”
“What do you need me to do?” she asked.
“Tell Aunt Thora to stay here and make sure Grandma and Demon Me don’t leave the house.”
“Easily done,” my mother said.
“Then give Neville back the ring and come with us to the farm,” I said. “He’ll explain the rest in the car. He’s in charge. Whatever he says, you do it.”
“He couldn’t have made more than one ring?” my mother asked.
“He’s kind of working on short notice,” I said.
My mother removed the ring and begrudgingly gave it back to Neville. “I’ll be right back.”
Neville and I returned to his car and my mother emerged from
the house a few minutes later. She started to get in the passenger’s side but Neville stopped her.
“Eden’s sitting there.”
My mother peered at the seemingly empty seat. “You need to get in back, Eden, honey, or we’ll look ridiculous.”
“Has she looked in a mirror this morning?” I asked.
“Eden wants to know if you’ve looked in a mirror,” Neville said.
I tried to smack him but my hand went through his arm. “You’re not supposed to repeat everything I say.”
“Sorry,” Neville mumbled. “It was automatic.”
He backed out of the driveway and we headed to the Tasker farm. “I doubt Corinne’s there now. It’ll just be the ward we have to contend with.”
Unfortunately for Neville, he had to contend with my mother’s radio preferences. Every time he chose a station, she would change it in search of a better song.
“I don’t do country,” she proclaimed, changing the channel yet again. She settled on an Alicia Keyes song and belted out the lyrics to Girl On Fire. Finally, Neville turned off the radio in order to explain the rest of the plan.
“You’re finally straying from your no-kill policy,” Neville said.
My mother’s eyes brightened. “She is? Oh, this is the best Day of Darkness gift ever.”
“I don’t see that I have a choice with this one,” I said. “If I don’t kill these pods, the demons will kill everyone in town—or the FBM will come in and do it for us.”
“Oh, I’ve dreamed of a moment like this,” my mother said. She couldn’t disguise her expression of pure joy and I wanted to vomit, though I doubted it was possible in my current state.
“You’ve dreamed of trespassing on a farm and destroying plants?” Neville asked.
“It’s not trespassing, darling,” she said. “This is open season on pod demons and my daughter is at the helm, ready to deal them cards of sweet vengeance. Happy days, indeed.”
“I’m eradicating an invasive species to save the town, not indulging my inner evil,” I said. “Tell her that.”
“I’m not getting in the middle of family squabbles,” Neville said. “I’m only acting as a conduit for the sake of the mission.”
We reached the edge of the farm and Neville parked off the road between two large oak trees in case any pod demons happened to drive past. We approached the field with caution.
“Mind the ward,” Neville said.
My mother stepped right into it, stubbing her toe. She winced. “A little more of a warning next time.”
“No sign of Corinne,” I said. No sign of anyone except the pods.
“I wish I could watch you in action.” My mother glanced around awkwardly, not sure where I was standing. “Could I just wear the ring for the big moment?”
“Don’t give her the ring,” I warned. “I need you to be my eyes.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Neville said.
My mother’s eyes narrowed. “She told you to say that, didn’t she?”
“Tell her to get ready,” I said.
“Get ready, Mrs. Fury,” Neville said.
“Get ready for what?”
I placed a hand on her shoulder and concentrated on siphoning as much magic as I could without depleting the both of us. I wasn’t sure how this influx of magic would impact my astral form. I couldn’t afford any mistakes.
My mother’s legs began to slide out from under her. “Neville, help her,” I said.
I turned and ran straight through the ward, Corinne’s spell unable to block my astral form from crossing the threshold. Magic thrummed within me and I felt the immense pressure of it, a dull ache in my incorporeal chest.
I skidded to a halt in front of the rows of pods. New spores were in the process of forming.
“No green thumb? No problem.”
I aimed both hands and released my mother’s wildfire. Purple light streaked from my fingertips and attacked the pods. I watched with satisfaction as the glowing spores dissipated into puffs of purple smoke. Each pod then exploded, tearing up the earth around them. Dirt flew through me and splattered on the ground. The roots, now exposed, sizzled with the wildfire’s last gasp.
I felt an amorphous pang as the remaining pod disintegrated, likely an echo of what my actual body was feeling right now. I wondered whether the inhabited bodies would register the death of the pods as well. If they were connected to each other the way we believed, then the answer had to be yes.
I stared at the scorched earth for a prolonged moment. Disappointment stirred. Part of me had hoped that this would be enough. That I’d destroy the pods and snap back into my body. No such luck.
I silenced the overachiever in me. The pods were gone. This was a huge step in the demons’ defeat. I crossed the field and walked back through the ward to where my mother and Neville awaited me. I’d celebrate when the deed was fully done.
“I think I have it figured out,” I said.
“How to look good while astral projecting?” Neville asked. “Yes, you can thank the outfit, I think. All that black and lace really lends itself to a more apparitional form.”
“I completely agree,” my mother said. She seemed to have recovered from my surprise siphoning act.
I stifled a groan. “Not that. How to defeat the pod demons.”
“She means how to defeat the pod demons,” Neville repeated for my mother’s benefit.
“You’ve already uprooted the plants and destroyed them,” my mother said. “Isn’t that enough?”
“I have to take them out by root and stem,” I said, remembering Demon Corinne’s words. “The pod plants are the roots. Now we have to take care of the metaphorical stems.”
“You can’t kill any of those people, Eden,” Neville said. “They’d be lost to us forever.”
“I know they would, but I won’t.”
Neville stood silently for a beat. “You think one will be enough?”
“Now that the pods have been destroyed, yes,” I said. “They can’t generate any more spores. The only connection now is through the demons walking around. A network.”
“Like the cloud,” he said, more to himself.
“The cloud?” my mother asked, instinctively looking skyward.
“Cloud computing,” Neville said. “Where you store and access data online instead of on your computer’s hard drive. Agent Fury just wiped out the hard drive. The inhabited bodies are the network.”
My mother pursed her lips, confused. “I thought you two weren’t actually in the cyber crime division.”
“It’s not a perfect analogy, but it’s the best I’ve got,” I said. “Hopefully, everyone will be strong enough to reclaim their original forms once the bodies have been vacated.”
Neville looked at me. “How do you propose to handle this when you don’t currently occupy your own body?”
“I have a plan.”
He pushed his glasses back to the bridge of his nose. “Do you need me to help execute it?”
“Execute?” my mother asked, her eyes shining with excitement. “Who are we executing?”
I gave him a solemn look. “Always.”
Chapter Eighteen
Neville and I waited at a safe distance while my mother, Demon Me, and Aunt Thora prepared the Day of Darkness ritual at the vortex. As long as my mother didn’t slip and say something to alert Grandma, the plan should work. She’d confided in Aunt Thora so that my great-aunt wasn’t shocked by what was to come next. If Demon Corinne was willing to do magic to protect the pods, I could only imagine what Demon Grandma would be capable of.
“Look on the bright side,” Neville said. “You’re getting out of participating this year.”
I glared at him. “Forgive me if I don’t really see a bright side to this day.” Especially if it was my last. There was always that chance. We had powers, but we weren’t infallible.
Neville held up binoculars. “I see the dagger.”
“I hate that dagger,” I said. The beje
weled dagger had been in our family for centuries and was always used in the Day of Darkness ritual. To the wicked witches, it represented ceremony and tradition. To me, it represented blood and destruction.
“You’ll hate it even more soon enough,” he said.
I cringed at the thought. It was a good plan, if it worked.
“Can we trust that your mother has altered the ritual?” Neville asked.
“We can hope,” I said, “She wants Grandma back. She’d miss the barbed comments and constant criticism.”
“A strange thing to miss.”
“They’re strange women.”
“What if your grandmother notices the changes to the ritual?” Neville asked. He was clearly growing anxious the closer we got to the pivotal moment. I don’t know why he was so nervous when I was the one about to die.
“We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it,” I said. “If Grandma and Demon Me stay inside the circle, we’ll be fine.” Demon Grandma needed to be there in order to lock in the rest of the demons via the network and prevent them from jumping to another host at the last second. Even one escapee meant failure. We couldn’t afford the risk. That part was down to my mother and the ritual. Demon Me needed to stay in the circle so that I could carry out the rest of the plan.
“Waiting for the signal,” Neville said. “Your mother has just sliced all three palms.” He paused. “That seems like a lot of blood. Do they always use that much in a ritual? I’m surprised no one ever passes out.”
“Please stop the running commentary,” I said. “You’re making me nervous.”
He continued to watch the scene unfold through the binoculars. “Between your family’s magic and the vortex, this is your best chance.”
I didn’t disagree, but it didn’t make me any less scared. What if I failed? It wasn’t just my own fate I was sealing. It was everyone’s.
Demon Me stood in the ritual circle, facing my direction, flanked by my mother and Aunt Thora. It was exactly where I needed the demon to be. Even in my astral form, I could feel the powerful pulses of energy emanating from there.
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