Those were the words I wanted to hear—Luke would be by my side. It’s what I wanted most in the world. I looked down at my hand still in his and pulled my hand out of his grasp. “Tell your sister I’ll do it, but on one condition: when it’s done, I want to go look for my friends.”
His eyes filled with rage. “I don’t think you’re in any position to bargain.”
And there it was again—that spark of fury. It came on so quickly these days and often without provocation. The Luke I knew had always seemed in control of his emotions, but since being inside Caleb’s body, the violence flared out of him more and more. It scared me because I knew what Caleb had been capable of. I knew how much Caleb had enjoyed hurting me, and Luke was becoming more like Caleb every day.
I squared my shoulders and straightened my back. I refused to let Luke see my fear. My voice took on a hard edge. “I’ve tried my best to avoid conflict with your family and your guild, but they aren’t going to change their minds about me.” I took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. Directing my frustration at him was not helping the situation. If anything it would make things worse. I forced the irritation from my voice and tried to sound calm. “The others are out there, and I have to try and find them.”
He didn’t say anything.
In a determined voice, I stated, “Once we’ve killed the demon, I’m leaving.”
“You’re going to head off and look for the others alone?” His voice took on a cold edge. “Even if the spell works and the demon becomes human and loses it power, Gage and his followers still have magic. You thought it was insane for fifty death dealers to take Gage on, remember?”
“He must be weaker now. You saw how many of his people were killed during that last fight. I know Gage—the longer he’s out there, the more people he’ll recruit and the stronger he’ll become.” I could tell by the look on Luke’s face that he wanted to argue, so I raised my hand and said, “Wendy is waiting for us to save her. I have to go look for her.”
Luke watched me for a long moment before saying, “After you do the spell, I’ll see if I can convince them to round up a search party.”
“With or without your people, I’m going,” I said.
His hand came down hard on my arm. “You aren’t leaving here without me.”
His fingers tightened. The desire to pull away from him was almost overwhelming, but I forced myself to stay put. I didn’t say a word.
He let go of my arm, and I watched the rage drain away as fast as it had come. In a soft voice, he said, “I know things aren’t right between us. I know you’re having a hard time adjusting to…” His voice petered off. “But let me make this clear—wherever you’re going, I’m going, too.”
I could tell by the look on his face that he meant it. He was coming with me and there was no way I could talk him out of it. I knew he thought I was acting impulsively, but I couldn’t explain to him how I knew Wendy desperately needed me. The longer we waited, the more I feared for her safety. The fate of my friends haunted my every waking moment. Were they all still alive? Could we save them?
I knew it was madness to go after Gage, especially since he still had power over me. When we finally confronted him, he could use that power to control me and stop me from harming him. He could force me to hurt the allies I brought with me.
I needed to tell Luke about Gage. Even now I could sense a sort of pull in the distance—the desire to return to him. When I saw him, would I spout words of love? Would I fall into his arms?
I couldn’t keep what happened from Luke any longer. He had to know. I had to tell him. “Gage…cast a spell on me.” I stopped and cleared my throat. I can do this. I can finally tell him the whole truth.
I forced myself to continue. “He did some kind of Haitian magic on me.”
Luke’s eyes narrowed. “He did a spell on you? Did he hurt you?”
He drugged me and did some kind of magic on me that made me worship him, I wanted to say. Instead I said, “It was some kind of love spell.”
Luke reeled back, clearly shocked by my words.
“Gage wanted me by his side. He wanted to use my powers to cause chaos and destruction.”
Luke shook his head back and forth as if trying to understand. “He made you fall in love with him?”
“Not really in love. He made me think I was in love with him whenever I was close to him.” I hated admitting it out loud. I hated having to tell Luke what had happened.
The anger was there now. Luke’s fist balled up, and I saw hellfire slide across his skin. “Did he touch you? Harm you?”
“Gage used his influence on me to make me do what he wanted…” Embarrassed, I looked away. Gage had kissed me, touched me, and tried to seduce me. How could I tell these things to Luke?
“He wanted you ‘by his side’?”
“Yes,” I answered in a small voice. I still couldn’t meet his eyes.
When I finally did glance up, he quietly asked, “He wanted you in his bed?”
I didn’t answer. Flames burst in the air above Luke’s hands. “If he ever…” He took a deep breath and let it out. He was trying to control his raging emotions. “Did the two of you…?”
I forced myself to meet his eyes. “Mildred said it would be impossible to remove the spell between us if that ever happened.” When Luke didn’t reply, I blurted out, “But he never got a chance.”
“Why are you just now telling me all this?” He looked so angry.
“I didn’t know how to tell you. How could I explain that he forced me into thinking that I loved him?” I realized I was pleading for him to understand. If he didn’t, he might pull away from me, and I couldn’t let that happen. I had to make him understand. “Once Mildred broke the spell and I could finally think clearly, I felt disgusted and ashamed.”
At my words, the tension left his eyes. “He did this to you. You have no blame in this.”
“But I wasn’t strong enough to stop him.” Tears slid down my face. “Mildred gave me something to drink that weakened the spell. I could think again, but now whenever I’m near him…” I could feel a blush rising in my cheeks. “Whenever I think of him, those fake feelings wash over me again.”
“You can’t come with us. You have to stay behind,” he said.
“Like hell I will,” I answered.
“How can I protect you if you lose your mind as soon as you see him?”
“You can’t leave me behind.”
He reached up and touched my face. “Are you sure he didn’t hurt you?”
“He didn’t have a chance. We got away before he could put the rest of his plan into action.”
I remembered when Sonja had interrupted a moment between Gage and me. I had only been dressed in a thin nightgown. Gage had been lowering the strap of the gown when Sonja came in. Thank the Goddess Sonja had interrupted us. If she hadn’t, who knows how far it might have gone? I looked away, mortified.
Luke’s fingers came up and gently held my chin. He forced me to look back into his eyes. “But you don’t feel anything for him now?”
“No.” It was a lie. Every time Gage’s image flashed across my mind, a rush of fake emotions washed over me.
Luke smiled. “Good.”
My heart skipped a beat at his words. He truly sounded like he cared what happened to me. Did he really? Was the Luke I loved still somewhere inside there fighting against the darkness? I hoped it was true with all my heart. But I hadn’t told him the whole truth. I hadn’t told him about the dark wedding. What would he say when he found out Gage forced me to marry him? Would he still be so understanding?
He got up from the table. “Now get some food in you and try to get some sleep this afternoon. You’re going to need your strength for tonight.”
I reached out and touched the flowers he’d given me as I watched him walk away.
Chapter 2
I’d done enough rituals by now that the scene before me was almost familiar. A half-dozen burning torches were scattered ab
out a clearing in the woods. Within the clearing, a circle of lit red candles surrounded a large pentagram dug into the dirt.
We were about to do a crazy thing. We were a mile from camp. I wondered if Darla picked this location to keep the camp dwellers safe. The more likely explanation was that she set this up away from the camp to keep anyone with any sense from stopping us. We were about to perform a spell on a demon without any elder supervision—without the strongest mages watching our backs. We were rushing forward because Darla was hell-bent on trying to destroy the demon. And no one around her was prepared to stand up to her. Not even her brother was trying to stop her. Even I was meekly going along with her plans.
Darla was currently taking handfuls of white sea salt and sprinkling it along the lines of the pentagram. At one side of the clearing, half a dozen death dealers decked out in dark robes each held a black unlit candle.
“A choir to sing to us while we do the spell?” I asked no one in particular.
“We don’t know how strong the creature is,” said a deep voice. It was Luke. I turned to see him walking up behind me. “Once you bring the demon forth into the pentagram, we want to make sure it can’t break free.”
Just the thought of bringing that creature forth made my palms sweat. Would Darla’s spell work? Could we really force the demon into human form? Make it vulnerable enough to kill it? Kill it before it tried to kill us? If the spell worked, Darla would be hailed a hero. If it failed, we might all die. I watched Darla finish pouring out the salt. “That’s why she’s spreading salt around?”
Luke nodded. “Added protection.”
I gestured toward the robed figures. “And the choir?”
He looked pained by my sarcasm and for a second I felt guilty, but the dark glare Darla shot my way was worth his discomfort. It was petty, but if I had to help her, I wouldn’t let her enjoy the experience. “They’ll be using their magic to help strengthen the pentagram,” Luke explained.
“I thought the whole point of this was for the demon to become weak?” Goddess—was I about to bring the creature forth only to watch it slaughter us all?
His hand came up and rested on my shoulders. “We aren’t sure what form it will appear in. No one has ever seen this spell done. We’re playing around with dangerous magic, but think about it—was the demon as strong in the old mining town as it was at the hotel? When you first raised it…” He halted suddenly, looking uncomfortable, but no one was close enough to hear.
When the demon first emerged, it had killed death dealers and torn souls from bodies with relative ease. It might have been a little weaker when it attacked me at the mining town—at least, it hadn’t done the soul-eating trick or melted anyone.
Luke’s lowered his voice and continued. “Darla found a reference in an old book. A demon can possess a human body for awhile, but without a constant diet of souls, it becomes steadily weaker until it fades away and becomes nothing more than a ghost haunting its victim without the power to do anything. This spell will accelerate the process, drawing off its power and leaving it relatively harmless inside the little girl shell it made.”
I looked around the almost-empty clearing. Darla, Luke, and the small group of death dealers were the only people around. “Where’s everyone else?” I had expected to see lines of Darla’s young recruits surrounding the pentagram, ready to do battle with a demon.
Luke dropped his hand and came to my side, motioning in the direction of the tents. “The strongest of us are here, but this isn’t exactly sanctioned. We’re the only ones focused on destroying the demon. Everyone else is off trying to bring our people to safety. They think they can take care of the creature once the guilds are safe, but it’s a mistake to wait. This spell gives us the opportunity to weaken the beast. And if all goes well, we’ll destroy it. If this works, we can show the Guild Council that you’re trying to make amends for the things you’ve done. It will change the way they view you. It may change the course of the trial. There might not even be a trial after this.”
He reached out and grabbed my hand.
I didn’t believe for a second that his people would suddenly forgive me or drop the whole trial idea, not even if we did pull this off. I pulled my hand away and demanded, “Did you tell them that if I do this, I want them to let me leave so I can go look for my friends?”
“I did. They agreed to let you go.” He looked away as he said it.
I knew he was lying. He knew I wanted to leave, but every time I brought up the subject he tried to convince me I had to stay. Was it because he was worried about my safety? Or was he looking out for the best interests of the death dealers? I knew Luke loved me once, and back then I’d had no doubts about his loyalty to me, but I no longer knew the guy standing before me. How much could I trust him? If he was lying about this, what else was he lying about?
I stared at the pentagram. In a few moments I would be performing a spell. More than anyone, I wanted to see the demon destroyed. In this one desire, both Darla and I agreed.
Darla stood by the pentagram, staring off into the woods.
Suddenly I felt the air around me come alive with electricity. It was the witching hour; I could feel it in my bones. “Are we going to get started?”
“Not yet. We’re waiting for something,” Luke answered. When I gave him a questioning look, he said, “We need a hand of glory.”
I had no idea what he was talking about.
He gave me a half smile. “I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of them. They aren’t used very often. It’s no small thing to make one. The process is long and detailed.” He looked at his sister. “You have to find a guilty man who was hanged. You cut off his hand, and then you preserve it. The process takes weeks.”
“And someone has one of these hands just lying around?” When he didn’t say anything, I demanded, “Darla didn’t just find this spell yesterday, did she?” I realized with a sick feeling that Darla had been planning this for a long time.
When Luke and I had found the death dealers in the woods weeks ago, I thought they’d been going after Gage and his men. But now I wondered if they’d been hunting me.
Luke turned back toward me, his expression earnest. “Since the moment the demon came into our plane of existence, people have been working on a way to destroy it. You’re our best chance at this.”
“And if it doesn’t work?”
“It has to work.” Concern flashed in his eyes. “Colina, your powers won’t help you while you are within the pentagram. Nothing can cross the barrier until the spell is broken. Not even your spirit pack.”
That meant I would be totally vulnerable once I was in the pentagram. If Darla and her people wanted to see me dead for what I’d done, what would stop them from killing me once I was inside the circle and without my powers? I looked over at Darla. I had to believe that her desire to see the demon banished was stronger than her desire to see me dead.
All of a sudden, I saw a light flickering in the trees off in the distance, slowly growing closer. At first I thought it was a kid making its way toward Darla through the woods, but as it got closer I realized a small woman carried the light. She held a cane in one hand and a black bag in the other. When she finally stood in front of Darla, she handed over the bag.
Darla opened it, examined the contents, and gave the woman a curt nod. The woman turned without a word and walked away, into the dark wilderness. I’d never seen her in the camp, and I hadn’t heard any vehicles approach. I found myself wondering where she’d come from and where she was going.
In seconds, the woman disappeared into the darkness as if she’d never existed.
Darla lifted the bag and called out, “It’s time.”
Luke started forward, and I followed.
When I stood next to the pentagram, Darla opened the bag and took out a round, gray object—the hand of glory.
As soon as it was out of the bag, I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. The sensation was so strong and so sudden that I t
ook a step back and cried out. A quick glance around proved I wasn’t the only one affected. Darla’s face had gone pale, and she looked like she was going to be sick. The whole black-robed choir had taken several steps backward.
Only Luke seemed unaffected. He took a step forward, put out his hands, and Darla dropped the thing into them. He had a very determined look on his face as he made his way over to me. He gestured for me to take it from him.
Everything inside of me screamed not to touch it. After a long pause I reluctantly reached out, and Luke dropped the hand of glory into my open palms. As soon as it made contact with my flesh, there was a flash of light, and I was no longer standing in the clearing.
I stood on a raised wooden platform looking out at a sea of angry faces. I found my hands tied behind my back, and a weight hung on my neck. A heavy rope was looped around my neck; I could feel it cutting into my skin. Someone stood next to me—a figure in a black hood. I could see dark eyes looking at me through two round slots cut into the hood’s material. Someone said something I couldn’t quite make out, and suddenly the floor beneath me gave way. My body fell. I free fell until I suddenly jerked hard and felt such an immense pain that it snatched my breath away. The rope tightened around my neck, and I could no longer breathe.
As fast as the vision had come, it disappeared. I was standing back in the clearing. My body trembled, my breath coming out in short gasps.
Luke’s face was full of concern. “Are you okay?” He asked, taking a step toward me.
“Yes,” I whispered. The hand of glory still rested in my palms. I could feel the vibration of it bouncing off my skin. Whatever power the thing had was strong. I took a moment to look down at the hand. It was grotesque, gray, and the skin was wrinkled. The fingers were all bent around a candle. I realized in horror that, in place of a wick, the top of the candle seemed to be adorned with a thick shaft of human hair.
Darla was beside me. “It’s the dead man’s hair. The candle’s made from the dead man’s body fat.”
Legion Page 3