Legion

by Catrina Burgess

  The hallway was quiet. Where was everyone?

  As if reading my mind, Luke said, “Mildred needed some time to prepare for the spell.”

  We’re bringing a demon over soon. The thought terrified me, but then a sudden realization hit me. “Wait, Luke—what about the demon babies? They have horns!”

  Luke shook his head. “Their horns are too small. Mildred says she needs a large portion to work with.”

  “When does she want to do it?”

  “Tonight during the witching hour.”

  “So soon?” I tried to keep my hands from trembling.

  His fingers held mine tight. “We don’t think there’s much time left.”

  How long would my heart keep pumping before the poison overtook me? We had to do the ritual tonight. “What if more Redeemers show up?”

  “We’ll worry about that if it happens.”

  I was more tired than I wanted to admit, but I was scared to lie down. I worried that I might not be able to get back up again. “Why don’t you come with me?” I offered. “You look tired. You could use some sleep.”

  “Dean and I are on watch. The Redeemers know we’re here and we have their leader. I have to believe they’ll be coming for Wendy’s father at some point.”

  The battle, Jacob’s death, Wendy’s father, the demon children… It all seemed so surreal. “I can’t believe Jacob went to the Redeemers for help.”

  Luke looked thoughtful. “He must have gone looking for Wendy’s family. He probably thought they were mage-born and belonged to a clan or guild that would help him rescue her.”

  “And instead he found himself face-to-face with the Redeemers.” I couldn’t believe Jacob had thought the Redeemers would help him.

  “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Luke said suddenly. I gave him a confused look, and he continued, “Jacob quoted that line back to Gage. Jacob thought that by going to the Redeemers he was saving Wendy from Gage.”

  “Especially since their leader is her father. Of course he thought her dad would care what happened to her.” I looked back through the door at Wendy. She still lay motionless on the bed, her chest rising and falling steadily. “Wendy told me he was a businessman off traveling around the world.”

  “I can understand why she wouldn’t want to tell anyone the truth.”

  “I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for her. Growing up with a parent who hated everything she was.” The sadness Wendy carried with her now made sense. “I couldn’t live with someone who thought my gifts came from pure evil.”

  “And yet the Redeemers were eager enough to use magic on their quest to destroy Gage,” Luke said.

  That part of the equation just didn’t make sense. Why would the Redeemers use borrowed magic? “It didn’t save them in the end.”

  Luke’s eyes filled with concern. “But it means they’ll go to any lengths to see mage-born humans killed.” He sighed. “You need to rest. I can see how tired you are.”

  “About the ritual tonight…” I wanted to tell Luke about all the fears swirling through my head, but wasn’t sure where to begin.

  He moved closer until his body was leaning against mine. “Are you worried about it?”

  Worried was an understatement. What we were about to do was pure madness. I wanted Luke to know how sorry I was that I had wasted so much of our time together. Back at the death dealers stronghold I should have believed in him. Believed in us. “If things go wrong…”

  Before I could get any words out, he pulled me into his arms. “It will work. We can do this. We will do this, and then you’ll be healed. Now let’s go find you an empty room so you can get some rest.”

  I let him lead me down the hallway but couldn’t help looking back at Wendy’s room. She'd lost the love of her life. How many more deaths would there be before the night was over?

  Chapter 14

  Of course, I dreamed of Gage. It made sense since he was in such close proximity to me. In my dreams, we were dancing in a meadow. He was whispering words of love as zombies crawled out of freshly dug graves. Dozens of little children ran around the meadow, horns sprouting from their foreheads.

  When I woke, I had a pounding headache. My limbs, my body felt like it weighed five hundred pounds. I forced myself out of bed and glanced I looked over at a half-burned candle, wondering what time it was.

  “Colina,” a voice whispered from the shadows.

  I jumped at the sound and Mildred walked into the candlelight. “Gage says he will help us but we both know that, given the first opportunity, Gage will imprison us all again or worse: slit our throats. How can we trust him?” I asked.

  “Because he loves you,” she said.

  When I started to shake my head, she lifted her hand and said, “In his own way. He doesn’t want to see you die. He’ll do whatever he can to keep you alive.”

  “Every time Luke looks at Gage I can see the hate in his eyes. How can they work together?” When she didn’t answer, I asked, “How can I convince Luke to keep his cool and let Gage help us?”

  She gave me a smile. “You have to sweet-talk him into accepting it.”

  “How? You see how he reacts to the way I fall all over myself anytime Gage is around.” Even saying his name or thinking about Gage standing next to me during the ritual set my heart aflutter. I knew the thoughts I kept having of Gage were perverse, but that didn’t stop me from having them. When it came to Gage, I had no self-control.

  Mildred watched me for a long while before she said, “Colina, we have no choice.” She reached out and patted my arm. “Strength, child. Keep strong, soon you’ll be well again.”

  I truly wanted to believe her. “Where is Luke?”

  “He’s checking out the roof. We’re going to do the ritual up there,” Mildred answered.

  “You really think you can control Gage?”

  “We have to try. I have a strong binding spell I’ve used many times that we can use on Gage, it should keep him in check until the ritual is over. It won’t last forever, but it will last long enough. If we had more time or there was another way, I’d do it.” She pointed to my exposed wrist, and I gasped in shock. The black lines of poison were pulsating. “We’re running out of time.”

  “You mean I’m running of time.”

  She nodded.

  “What happens if this doesn’t work? You’ve never tried this before.”

  “It will work.” Her arms waved in the air. “It has to work.” She reached out and patted my shoulder. “Have faith, child. You will get through this. Have faith that you’ll survive this.”

  “Sometimes that’s hard to believe.” My head felt so heavy. I wanted desperately to lie down again. But I knew sleep would not make this feeling of fatigue go away.

  “You’re so much stronger than you realize.” Her fingertips reached up and touched my forehead. “Strength of mind.” She touched my shoulder. “Strength of heart.” She gave me a smile. “Most importantly—strength of spirit. It’s the thing I most admire about you. You never give up.”

  I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. “Mildred, I’m so tired. I want to believe we’ll all make it out of this in one piece, but—”

  She interrupted me. “So believe. We’ll do the ritual tonight, we’ll get the demon horn, and none of us will let you down. We’re all here to help you, don’t you see? You’re not alone. You just have to believe that everything will work out. Believe that you’ll live to see another day.”

  I smiled back at her through my exhaustion and doubt. “Okay. I’ll try.”

  “Good girl,” she said. “Now go out into the hallway and tell Luke I need an obsidian mirror and some black candles. I’m sure Gage has stashed his magic supplies somewhere in the castle.”

  “I’ll tell him.” I began easing out of bed and when I looked up, saw that I was alone in the room. Mildred had done her ‘pop away’ magic. I wondered where she’d gone.

  I started after Luke and found him in the hallway.
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  “I hate that we have to work with Gage. Do you plan to just let the madman free? Do you really believe he will just go along with your plans?” He was pacing back and forth.

  I tried to keep my voice neutral. “What choice do we have?”

  He stopped his pacing, and he stormed up to me. “We untie him and he’ll use his magic, use his blood sword to kill us all.” Luke’s face was full of anger. He looked like he was ready to go into battle.

  I raised my hand and put it gently on his chest. “Not if we put a binding spell on him. Mildred says she has a spell that would keep him from harming us.” I knew I was pleading with him to understand. “It won’t last forever, but it should give us enough time to get safely through the ritual.”

  His hand came up and covered mine. “I don’t like it.”

  “We don’t have a choice.”

  Luke’s gave me a hard stare. “Admit it: you want him there.”

  It was true, a part of me did. Even though I kept the magic pouch in my pocket, the pull I felt toward Gage seemed to be getting stronger. Was it because we were in such close proximity, or was it because I was growing weaker by the minute? “I can’t help how I feel. I didn’t ask him to put the spell on me.”

  Luke looked away. When he looked back, he gave a loud sigh. “I know it’s not your fault. But that doesn’t make watching you swoon all over him any easier.”

  I took a step closer. “You know I love you, right?”

  “And I love you.” He leaned in and kissed me. When he pulled away, the anger was gone from his eyes. “Mildred is sure this binding spell will work?”

  “She’s seems pretty confident.”

  Luke’s expression hardened. “I don’t like it. I don’t trust him.”

  “I know. Neither do I, but you, Dean, and Mildred will be there. Gage is not strong enough on his own to overpower all of us.”

  “Okay. What choice do I have but to agree?” His eyes filled with concern. “You don’t look well.”

  “I’m fine. Mildred says she needs an obsidian mirror and some black candles. Obsidian, isn’t that some kind of rock?”

  “It’s volcanic glass. People cut it, polish it, and use it as a mirror in spells. It’s often used like the scrying bowl. Does the old bat have any idea where I’m supposed to find one?”

  “She seems to think that Gage has a closet filled with magic supplies.”

  He reached out and put his hands on my shoulders. “I’ll go see if she’s right, but first I’m finding a comfortable chair for you to sit and rest in until we’re ready.”

  I looked into his eyes, then reached up and brushed his lips with my fingertips. “I believe,” I whispered.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” I answered. Mildred had said I was strong in spirit. That I never gave up. I straightened my shoulders and took a deep breath. I would keep fighting, keep believing with all my heart that everything would work out despite the urgent voice inside my head whispering that we were all going to die.

  * * *

  “I would appreciate it if someone brought me a glass of wine. Preferably something French and red.” Gage’s voice rang out in an authoritative manner. He was used to giving commands, and being our prisoner apparently didn’t faze him.

  “Are you sure we can’t kill him?” Dean muttered. He had a black bag slung over his shoulder, but more noticeable was the metal breastplate covering his chest. He’d stolen it from a suit of armor he had found in some corner of the castle, determined to keep from getting “shish kebabed” by a Redeemer.

  Luke stepped out of the shadows.

  “Caleb. So good to see you.” Gage squinted at him for a long moment before shifting his gaze to Mildred. “Aren’t you a tricky one?” He looked back at Luke. “I didn’t see it at first, but you’ve been in the body for awhile now, yes? Your power is showing through. I can see the glimmer of it on you.” He turned to Mildred. “And you… I thought I could trust you. After all we’d been through.” His head snapped back to Luke. “And Caleb, is he in there now sharing quarters, or should I say ‘squatting’ like Dean used to?”

  “No,” I interrupted. “Your hellhound killed Caleb.”

  “Too bad. He was a boy with such a bright future.” He gave me a broad smile. “Since the committee’s all here.” Gage took in each one of us before pausing. “Where’s your dark-haired friend?”

  “Wendy is not feeling well,” Luke said.

  “She took the loss hard.” Gage nodded, his eyes filled with understanding. “I would not have hurt a hair on that boy’s head. I was prepared to forgive Jacob for his indiscretions.”

  Gage could fake compassion all he wanted, but I didn’t believe for a moment that he cared at all about Jacob’s death. “You think I believe you would have let Jacob live after he brought the Redeemers to your doorstep?”

  Gage’s eyes gleamed with a reddish hue when he answered me. “I would have doled out some form of punishment, but I would never forgo one of my own.” He gave me a smile. “We are a family after all.”

  I let out a harsh laugh.

  Gage ignored my guffaw and addressed the others. “As I was saying. Since you’re all here, you must have finally come to the realization that I have some value.”

  “We need your help,” Mildred said.

  “Of course!” Gage motioned toward his bound wrists. “Just release me, and I’ll be happy to help.”

  Luke took a step forward. “Not so fast. No one trusts you.”

  “Now that hurts. It really does,” Gage deadpanned.

  “We’re going to do a binding spell on you to keep you from hurting us,” I said.

  His eyes narrowed and then a smile flashed across his face. “Whatever you need to give you comfort.”

  Mildred started forward with a pair of scissors in her hand, which she held like a weapon. Gage watched with unconcerned eyes as she came up next to him and carefully snipped off a lock of his hair.

  Dean put the bag down, opened it, and began pulling things out.

  “The candles go all around him.” Mildred waved the scissors in the air as she instructed Dean. “And put the mirror close to one of the candles.”

  Dean did as he was told. When the candles were all placed and lit, Mildred withdrew a black ribbon from her pocket and tied it around the piece of Gage’s hair.

  “Now I need a piece of hair from each of you,” she said. She handed the scissors to Luke, who snipped a piece of his hair and then cut a piece of mine. He handed the scissors over to Dean. Soon we all held bits of our hair.

  Dean gathered them all and handed them over to Mildred. “What about Wendy?”

  Mildred lifted a long strand of dark hair from her pocket. “I have hers already.” Mildred laid the clumps of our hair on top of each other, withdrew a red ribbon from her pocket, and wrapped it around the small pile. She then placed the red ribbon bundle on top of the black ribbon bundle, walked over to the candle sitting in front of the obsidian mirror, knelt down, and started to chant. As she muttered, she lowered the bundles into the flame of the candle and dropped the burning bundles in front of the mirror, which reflected the flames, but the mirror’s reflection was higher, more intense than the actual flames. The fire in the mirror took on a pinkish glow, and as it did, Mildred’s words petered off.

  When there was nothing left but ash, Mildred rose to her feet and said, “It will take a few minutes for the spell to kick in. Until then, I think we should keep Gage tied up.”

  Now that the ritual was over, I examined Gage. I expected to see him look worried or apprehensive, but there was no concern on his face, no fear. He looked bored.

  Before I could stop myself, I blurted, “I want to talk to Gage alone.” I was almost as surprised as everyone else when the words came out of my mouth.

  Luke started to say something, but before he could Mildred had him by the arm and dragged him out of the room. It was almost comical watching Luke being bullied by the old woman. She was much strong
er than she looked.

  Dean stood for a moment, his eyes shifting from me to Gage and back again. “Be careful,” he said before turning and leaving the room.

  When we were alone, I approached Gage. “Have you figured it out yet?” he asked.

  I wanted to ignore him, but despite everything, Gage knew things that I wanted to know. But I was thoroughly on guard when I answered. “Figured what out?”

  “Why the Legion chose you, of course.”

  “It chose me because of what I can do.”

  “Yes, but how did it know?” He was enjoying himself. There was nothing Gage liked more than to talk.

  I tried to make a snappy comeback, but my brain stuck on the question. How did it know I was capable of raising a demon? Had I done something to show that particular curse at a young age? I couldn’t think of anything. Why did the Legion pick me?

  Gage saw that he had me and leaned back in his chair with a satisfied smile. “The Legion has been watching your family for a long time, waiting for the gift to resurface.”

  “‘Resurface’? What gift?” I hated myself for rising to his bait, but if he wasn’t lying I had to know.

  “Oh yes.” He cleared his throat, settling a pretenious expression on his face and continuing in a lecturing tone. “In 1922, Harry Houdini offered a cash prize to anyone who could successfully demonstrate supernatural abilities. This offer held no attraction for those with real power, as they had suffered hundreds of years of persecution and prefered to remain hidden.

  “Many posers were tested by Houdini and his committee, and all were debunked. That is, until one young man betrayed his family and clan and worked real magic in hopes of gaining the prize.

  “His powers were weak, as he was the offspring of a mixed mage and non-mage couple, but he had access to his clan’s library, and he used it to resurrect a dark spell he did not fully understand or have the ability to control.” Gage leaned forward then, his eyes sparkling with dark, feverish excitement. “He opened a Hellgate, releasing demons into the world and changing life forever.”