by Rachel Green
“Well, if you’re sure.” Harold sounded doubtful.
“I am.”
“Very well. Start your engines.” Harold opened his book.
Julie held out her palm, her lips moving as she spoke the spell to make a fetiche. When it began to form Harold cast from his book, watching for the flash as Julie’s hairs were consumed by the psychic energy. “There. What do you see?”
“Nothing,” Julie sighed. “Though I see brightness instead of the dark spirit world, which makes a pleasant change.”
She closed her fist over the fetiche. “Oh! I saw a flicker of something then it went dark.”
“How odd,” said Harold. “You don’t suppose–”
“I do.” Julie began to laugh and held the fetiche between her thumb and forefinger. “Jasfoup! You’re more handsome than I imagined, though it’s disconcerting to see both your forms at once.” She closed her eyes. “That’s better.”
“You’re seeing through the fetiche?” Felicia looked at the marble-like object. “How is that possible?”
“I don’t know. It certainly wasn’t what I expected.”
“How odd.” Jasfoup reached toward her. “May I?”
Julie handed him the object. “This is bizarre. Oh! Look at me. I haven’t so much as brushed my hair this morning.”
“You’ve had other things on your mind.” Felicia squeezed her hand. “Your pregnancy, for one.”
“Oh, yes.” Julie grinned. “Now I’ll be able to see my baby.
“Won’t this be a bit inconvenient?” Jasfoup tossed the fetiche from hand to hand. “You’ll have to carry it everywhere.”
“Could we drill it and hang it on a necklace?” asked Harold. “That would be closer to your point of view.
“Stop it, Jasfoup.” Julie made a grab for her new eye. “You’re making me feel sick.”
“Am I? Sorry.” The demon dropped it back into her hand.
Felicia squeezed her arm. “I’m so glad you’ve got a bit of sight back. It’s almost a pity you don’t have the tissue regeneration skills of a werewolf, then you could insert it in place of one of your useless eyes and see properly again.”
“You could make a second one and see normally.” Harold examined the sphere.
Julie smiled. “Then I wouldn’t be able to see the spirits. I like the idea of replacing one eye, though. Do you think a hospital would do it?”
“I doubt it.” Jasfoup laughed. “Can you imagine their faces if we asked them to replace a living eye with what looks like a marble, even if the eye doesn’t actually work?”
“We must know someone who could do it.” Julie frowned. “It can’t be too hard a job to take an eye out. I could do it myself with a spoon.”
Harold’s face was a picture. “I’d rather you didn’t. Besides, any surgery now might be harmful to the baby.”
“I suppose.” Julie drummed her fingers on the table. “The chance of me falling over is equally as dangerous for the child.”
“How about we sticky tape it to your forehead?” Harold said. “It would save you having to hold it, at least until the baby’s born.”
“We could mount it on a cap.” Felicia gave her sister a nudge. “You wouldn’t look like a total moron then.”
“Good idea.” Julie turned the eye to look at her sister, then behind herself. “What about you, Wrack? You’ve been surprisingly quiet for the last half an hour.”
Wrack shrugged. “Nothin’ much to say. You’ve got your eyesight back, so you don’t need me to guide you around no more, and you’re having a baby, so you don’t need someone to love no more, neither.”
“I still need you, silly.” Julie reached behind her head to give him an affectionate pat. “When I’ve got the baby I’m going to need you more than ever.”
“To fetch and carry, I suppose?” Wrack shrugged. “I’ll stay around for a bit but if I get a better offer...”
“He’s having a huff. He feels impotent.” Jasfoup nudged Harold. “Not like me, eh?”
“Put a sock in it.” Harold picked up his book. “I’m already tired of hearing about your virility.”
“Ha! I’ll have to put a sock on it. An extra large sock.”
“Enough, all of you.” Felicia scowled at them. “What do you think this is? The Goon Show? We should all be happy for Julie, not sniping at each other. Wrack.” She turned to the imp. “Julie has become a mage. What self-respecting mage would be without an imp? You’re going to be even more important than you were before. Jasfoup, you’ve got to be able to support her and keep her focused on the task in hand as well as see to the needs of her newborn, but you shouldn’t let her overdo things. She has to have plenty of rest. Harold, we all need to stick together.”
Harold nodded. “You’re quite right. All for one and all that.”
“Good.” Felicia sat back down and smiled into her sister’s new eye. “Wrack? Fetch me a cap and some needles and cotton.”
Chapter 38
Felicia threaded a path through the display cabinets and shelves of The Goddess Provides to find Meinwen already brewing a kettle.
The witch spoke without turning around. “I saw you coming.”
“In the cards?”
“No, through the window.”
“Right.” Felicia made a polite laugh. “Tell me, how do you feel about Hell?” Felicia spoke while Meinwen’s back was still turned. Her friend stiffened.
“I wouldn’t choose it as a holiday destination.” Meinwen didn’t turn around. “Why?”
Felicia screwed up her courage. “I need to ask you a big favor.”
Meinwen finished the drinks: instant coffee for Felicia and chamomile tea, made with the fresh herb, for herself. She carried them to the little table at the back of the shop and sat out of earshot of any customers coming in. Felicia sat on the only other chair.
“Go on.” Meinwen passed the coffee. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“Probably not.” Felicia took a sip of the hot liquid. “The only way we can defeat Puriel is by sending him to Hell.”
“Oh?” Meinwen used a pair of chopsticks to fish out the sprigs of chamomile. “Can an angel be sent to Hell? I thought they were mutually exclusive.”
“I don’t think it’s ever been tried, although technically they’re the same species as demons.”
“What good will it do? Won’t the purity of Puriel–” She smiled. “–prevent any damage being done to him?”
“Probably.” Felicia shrugged. “We’re not trying to kill him. He’s an immortal being anyway, so I doubt we could even try. All we want to do is stop him hunting us.”
“How will sending him to Hell achieve that?” Meinwen caught Felicia’s gaze. “Won’t he just fly straight back out again?”
“Not if we can drop him into the central circle.” Felicia tried her coffee again and took a long swallow.
“You mean the circle of ice? You want to freeze him?”
“Exactly. It was Jasfoup’s idea. Or Harold’s. I forget now. The point is, the ice would freeze him solid.”
“And give Lucifer something to look at as an added bonus.” Meinwen smiled. “So what’s the favor you wanted to ask?”
“Julie has an ability to make what she calls fetiches–solid little marbles that contain spells until they’re broken, a bit like spells you can carry.”
Meinwen laughed. “Holy hand grenades of Antioch? You’re having me on.”
Felicia couldn’t help smiling at the reference. “No, straight up. They work like a charm.”
“Better than my charms, probably.”
“Sorry.” Felicia grimaced at the unintended insult. “The point is, she thinks she can make a matched pair that form a sort of pipeline from one to the other, so whoever breaks one will be sent to where the other is.”
“And the other will be in the frozen pit of Hell?”
“That’s right.” Felicia finished her coffee, more to delay asking the favor than because she was thirsty.
&nb
sp; “So where do I come in? You’re not going to ask me to go to Hell and plant this charm, are you?”
“You’re a mortal. You won’t be frozen by the ice and you’re the only one I can trust to do it properly.”
“Why me? Why not you, or your sister, or one of your werewolf friends? Why not one of those demons you were telling me about?”
“We’re all nephilim. We’d all freeze.”
“How can you be sure I won’t?” Meinwen stared into her tea.
“Because you’re on a different path. You are a ‘woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars’.”
“The God, the Goddess and the spirits.” Meinwen steepled her fingers. “That’s from Revelations, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but it applies to you as well.”
“Isn’t there a prophecy about a mortal walking through Hell?” Meinwen frowned. “Apart from Dante, I mean.”
Felicia shrugged. “I’ve no idea. Who believes in prophecies?”
Meinwen laughed. “That’s rich, considering you’re staking my life on one of St. John’s.”
“That’s different. I don’t claim to be an expert on theology, but I know a man who is. He says it’s all true, within the framework of Christianity.”
Meinwen shook her head. “I’m really not sure about this. I’d balk if you asked me to go to Birmingham, never mind Hell. How am I supposed to get there? Don’t I have to die?”
“No.” Felicia stretched out a hand to clasp her friend’s. “Not dying will keep you safe and bring you back. Jasfoup will take you down and bring you back.”
“A demon taking me to Hell?” Meinwen pulled back from her. “Why am I not reassured?”
“I promise it’ll be all right,”
“What about my shop?” Meinwen glanced around at the bookshelves crammed with pagan artifacts, books and spell components. “Who’s going to look after it?”
“You’re only going to be gone for ten minutes. We’ll do it during your lunch break.”
“Today?” Meinwen paled. “I didn’t realize you meant so soon. I don’t think I can, Fliss.”
“All right.” Felicia squeezed her hand. “We’ll think of something else.”
“Really? Such as?” Meinwen stood and took a quartz pendant from the rack. “I thought this was the only solution you could come up with.”
“So far, yes, but we’ll think of something. Harold offered to try negotiating with them.”
“You can only negotiate if you’ve got something they want. All they seem to desire is your imminent demise.”
“Then I’ll come back as a succubus and have my way with you.”
“No, you won’t.” Meinwen smiled. “You know that I don’t butter my bread that way.”
“An incubus then, or a satyr.”
“Now you’re talking.” Meinwen smiled. “All right. I’ll do it.”
“Really?” Felicia couldn’t stop the relief from flooding her face. “You don’t have to.”
“I know.” Meinwen’s expression hardened. “You just make damned sure I come back again.”
Chapter 39
A combination of her religious upbringing and her art history training had furnished Felicia with an idea of Hell full of every torment known to medieval and Renaissance man. Despite Dante’s trilogy, the very idea of a mortal going there and coming back unharmed seemed highly improbable. “Are you sure this will work?” She paced across the room and back, imagining her friend being skinned alive or eaten by Saturn. “It’s Meinwen’s life and possibly her soul on the line here.”
“Of course, I’m sure.” Julie patted her hand. “Don’t look so worried! Do you doubt my ability?”
“Well yes, to be honest.” Felicia laughed and looked her in the eye. “Some of your spells have unexpected results.”
“I saved your life once, didn’t I?” Julie smiled and edged herself into a new position. “I know what I’m doing, even if I do feel the need to go to the loo every five minutes.”
She held both hands out, her face screwed up as if she was constipated. A double sphere, like a figure eight or a model of a simple molecule grew between her two palms. When they were the size of ping-pong balls, she twisted her hands and broke them apart. “There. Two parts of the same spell. If you break one you’ll be transported to the other.”
“How can we be sure it works? They look inert.”
“Only because they’re inactive.” Julie leaned back. “Look, do you want to test them?”
Felicia nodded. “I’d feel better about risking Meinwen’s life if I was certain they worked.”
“All right.” Julie turned her head. “Wrack?”
“Yes, ma’am?” The imp uncoiled from the bedpost. “You want me to take that somewhere?”
“Please.” Julie dropped one of the balls into his paw. “Somewhere quite far, but stay in the country.”
“Okay.” The imp opened a gate and vanished.
“Now what?”
“We wait until he comes back, then you can break the other one and travel there.”
“Excellent.” Felicia frowned. “Wait! How do I get back again?”
Julie laughed. “Good point. I’ll make another pair you can use for the return journey.”
She began to repeat the process, her face beading with sweat. The spheres formed part way then vanished again. “I can’t.” She fell back to rest against her pillows. “I can’t form another one.”
“Why not?” Felicia looked at the ball in her hand. “You’ve had multiple balls before. You sent me three that night, remember?”
“Three different spells.” She frowned. “That must be the problem. Each spell holds a cord of energy into the land of the dead. Perhaps I can’t have more than one of each cord.”
“Maybe.” Felicia looked doubtful. “How will we try this one then?”
“Done, mistress.” Wrack re-appeared. “You’re going to love where I put it.”
“I doubt that. Go and fetch it back. I can’t have more than one of these in operation at any one time.”
“Get it back?” Wrack stared at her. “I threw it into the wolf pen at London Zoo.”
Felicia frowned. “Why?”
“I thought it would be funny.”
“Best you go and get it back before Fliss loses her temper.” Julie wore a small smile. “Or gets hungry.”
“But.” Wrack backed away. “Wolves can see imps.”
Julie raised an eyebrow. “I hope you can run fast.”
Wrack opened his gate and vanished.
“Right.” Felicia picked up the paired fetiche. “I’ll take this one and go somewhere then. When Wrack gets back, I’ll crush it and, hopefully, come back here.”
“But how will you know when Wrack comes back? If you crush it too soon then you could end up in an imp tunnel.” She pulled her book of spells toward her. “Perhaps there’s a spell for audible communication.”
“There is.” Felicia picked up her coat. “I’ll phone you.”
Chapter 40
Felicia took a deep breath and pushed open the door to Goddess Provides. Meinwen gave the impression she carried the weight of the world. Felicia had never seen her look so terrified.
Meinwen put on what was obviously a brave face. “Is it lunchtime already? I almost closed up and went back to Aberdovey to escape the whole idea.”
“Sorry.” Felicia held up a paper bag. “I’ve brought a feta salad and raw steak in a bread bun. Which would you like?”
“Very funny.” Meinwen only managed a slight smile. “I don’t think I could eat anything.”
Felicia went through to the tiny kitchen and put the kettle on again. “That’s probably wise. I’ve never been to Hell but I can imagine going there on a full stomach might be a bad idea.”
“Sunglasses.” Meinwen picked up a pair from the desk and put them in her pocket.
“What for?” Felicia came to the beaded curtain that served as the door to the
kitchenette.
“I’ve been trying to think of things to take that might help. I wouldn’t want to go snowblind.”
“Good call. What else are you taking?”
“My ceremonial cloak, my copper circlet, a quartz pendant and a hazel staff. I want to have a connection to the earth.”
“Take something that connects you to the sun as well. How about daisies? There are some in the back yard, growing against the wall.”
“Good idea.”
Felicia carried out a cup of herbal tea. “Here. Drink this and calm down. You’ll be in good hands. Jasfoup won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I hope not.” Meinwen forced out a tight smile. “Go on then, I’m ready. Summon him, or whatever you do to make him appear.”
“I’ll give him a ring.” Felicia pulled out her mobile phone. “He’s across the road at the book shop.”
“Your supernatural powers never cease to amaze.” Meinwen shook her head. “What will you think of next?”
She sipped her tea until the demon arrived. Jasfoup eschewed the traditional demonic guise in favor a tall, well spoken businessman, his chocolate skin contrasting with the eggshell gray of his Italian suit. Only his eyes, covered with his trademark dark glasses, would have given away his inhumanity.
“All set?” He rubbed his hands together. “It’s a shame you don’t want the extended tour. I could have shown you my little cottage overlooking the river.” He grinned. “It’s out in the Styx, mind.”
Meinwen didn’t laugh. “I’m ready. How long will this take?”
“Eternity, but we’ll be back in ten minutes.”
Only Felicia noticed him touching the wood of the shelf behind him. “You’ll need this.” She handed Meinwen a ring box with the fetiche inside. “It’s half of the transportation device. I’ve got the other one here.” She held it up. “Just throw the fetiche onto the ice. That should do the trick.”
Meinwen looked at the swirling marble appearance of the spell and nodded. “Will do. Then I’m coming straight back.” This was directed at the demon.
“Scout’s honor.” The demon held up three fingers. “I’d put a jumper on, though. It can get a bit chilly down there.”