I sent the two demons flying over the fence and cracked them off of a wall. I threw the two coming towards us right out into the sea and sent Nate and Joe flying backwards into the mausoleum with Lisa. I marched in, securing the graveyard against the demons. I checked them over for injuries and healed any that they had. I didn’t look at Nate even though I could feel him looking at me.
“What happened?” My voice shook the mausoleum with the power in it, and I worked on calming down and trying to get my powers under control.
Joe and Lisa both just shrugged and looked at Nate. I needed to look at him to get the answers, but I didn’t want to. It took me all my time to turn and when I did, I knew he had heard the internal struggle I was going through. With his head bowed, he refused to look at me. I needed to know what happened though so I gathered all my strength and asked, “Nathan, what happened?”
My voice cracked when I uttered his name, but I couldn’t help it. His words came out through his teeth and I knew he struggled to keep it together. “When you left me, I was standing on the beach. I got a message that I was needed back inside. In a daze, I walked to the main hall. It was quiet, except for the chief and me. She gave me, erm something...” I looked at him in disbelief as he stood, looking me straight in the eye. “I’m so, so sorry, baby. I only ever wanted to protect you.” He moved towards me, and I instinctively reached out caressing his cheek. I thought about how much I loved him, but if he was willing to kill me, there was no way I could be with him. I knew he heard me, because his breath caught and I looked up at him, straight into his hazel eyes.
I drank in his face, as tears poured down his cheeks, and missed the blade in his hands. I looked down in shock at the burning pain between my ribs, gasping and watching the blade as he stabbed it into me three more times. I fell to the ground, looking down at the blood pouring out of me. When I looked up, I saw him and Joe helping Lisa out of the mausoleum. Neither of them looked back as the door swung closed on me and I lay there gurgling and feeling my body become lighter as the pain eased.
I was there just waiting to die when I heard a little voice beside me. I looked to my left and saw a little man sitting there, about a foot tall, all dressed in green, with ginger hair and a ginger beard. He had a little bottle in his hand and from how he looked; I assumed he was a leprechaun, as silly as that sounded. He jumped onto my stomach and said something quietly. “Listen, lovey, you need to get up. Here drink this; it’s a potion to help return your strength.”
I shook my head at him, closing my mouth tightly. The movement caused a searing pain to shoot through me and I let out a scream of agony. There was a pounding on the door, but I couldn’t focus on it. Then distant screams, but I could only think about the bright light hovering above me.
Did I really need to drink the potion, I wondered, because if I didn’t I would die? Was that not a good option? My head was in disarray. Nate had just stabbed me. I opened my mouth to ask the little man something and he poured the foul tasting potion down my throat, choking me. The little man jumped off me, while I coughed and sputtered on the floor. Seeing blood and the knife, it hit me, again, that Nathan had stabbed me. He tried to kill me. I looked at the little leprechaun and sat up.
“Slowly now, easy does it. Too fast and you’ll be last.”
I managed to get up onto my knees first. Then, even though my head spun, I pushed up onto my feet and walked over to the blade. I snapped it into thousands of pieces. I looked at the little leprechaun, but he didn’t say anything. He just watched me walk around before I checked the stab wounds. They seemed fully healed. The little man seemed eager to get out of the mausoleum, bouncing up and down at the door. “Okay, are you ready to go?”
“Time to go, princess. If you dash, there’ll be no need to smash.”
He bounced over to the door, opened it, and jumped through it. I began to follow him, thinking he was insane, but knowing that I didn’t have any options. My heart thudded painfully, when I thought of the look in Nate’s eyes as he stabbed me. I shuddered, wondering where we were going and jumped when the little man laughed, singing, “You don’t need to know that yet!”
His voice sounded further and further away, as I took a step out the door. I fell into a hole in the ground. As my eyes adjusted, the room lit up and I saw the wee leprechaun, Nathan, Joe, and Lisa tied up against a wall. Nate looked right at me, as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. He struggled with the ties. I could hear him trying to say something, but I refused to look at him, turning away from him to speak to the little leprechaun, “Where are we and what’re we doing here?”
“Not here!” the little guy said and he motioned for me to follow him, while he moved ahead whistling and humming. I left the three of them behind, so angry that I couldn’t bear to even think about taking them with us. My anger protected me from the pain, and I knew when the pain of what Nathan had done, hit me, it would be crippling and all consuming
Nathan was trying to speak into my mind, something we hadn’t done in a while, but I reinforced the block and stopped him. I didn’t want to hear what he had to say, it didn’t matter. He’d tried to kill me. I had to stop myself thinking about it again, and tried to find numbness, but my mind wouldn’t let me. On our way towards our destination, I tried to block him out and find the numbness, but his pain broke through and I could feel how desolate he was. He thought he’d lost me forever and the pain of his heartache almost brought me to my knees, but I straightened my spine and made myself take one step after another.
We walked further uphill for about twenty minutes and finally reached a hole, which I had to pull myself through to get out. I was covered in dirt and blood as we emerged, into a dark room. It took my eyes a few moments to adjust, and all I could see initially was trees through a broken window.
Upon inspection we had arrived in an old dusty house, with broken and mismatched furniture, a huge fire in the range, and windows covered in planks of wood. The wind whistled through and I looked around with interest. There were lots of little men and the one nearest me, being the one who rescued me, introduced himself again as Pierce. He was small, but fierce, and had a bluebell on his cap.
The next one up was Paul, with a daisy through his cap, followed by Seamus, Charlie, Noah, and Patrick, all wearing different flowers — a rose, a daffodil, a chrysanthemum, and a sunflower. I looked around them and heard more voices from other rooms, but none were distinct enough to make out any words that they spoke.
I looked at Pierce with what must have been a glare; he stepped backwards and said, “Now lady, don’t be like that, after I just helped you.”
Looking more softly this time, I decided to be nice. “Thank you, Pierce. I really appreciate you saving me there.”
“You’re welcome then, says I!”
“What happened? How did you find me?”
He started to tell me the story about trying to find me before I disappeared.
“I was in the field that day. You remember the day that you hid under the tree stump? We heard a rumour from some fairies and pixies that an Asari and her followers had been turned evil by a hag. This meant that they existed to do the bidding for demons, hags, and other creatures of darkness.”
“We found out from our fairy friends that when you hid under that stump, an evil fairy from that coven found you and took you to their cave. But the cave was protected and for two months, they kept you in an enchanted sleep. You awoke on your own before they could arrange for the first assassin and the harpy to get to you.”
I nodded as he spoke, his words making sense. It was never a test; I had been used to find out how much power I had. Pierce clicked his fingers in front of my face and I started before looking back at him, murmuring, “sorry.”
He smiled, before continuing, “The demon boy thought you had been caught, or had left him, but we didn’t trust them enough to tell them what we knew, for fear that we too would be captured and killed. He walked through that field day after day, but we knew it would be too dangerous for us to
talk to him. We kept watch and tried to make sure that no demons found them” My heart thudded painfully at the pain Nathan must have went through, not knowing what happened to me and for a moment I wondered if that was why he’d betrayed me
“Your powers grew again in that cave, Jasmine. You are now more powerful than the evil ones could have ever imagined. When you awoke, you, yourself brought the demon boy to you and this showed your one weakness — him! The evil ones knew this, but decided to test you against the evil assassin and the harpy. They transported you into another dimension to take these tests, but on the last test, when you pulled yourself back and put the harpy into a cave that only you could open, they decided to try to kill you with another approach. The demon boy...”
At this point, I interrupted Pierce. “Do you mean Nathan?”
“The demon boy who stabbed you?” His eyes widened as he looked at me, and he bounced on the balls of his feet as he nodded, before continuing, “Yes, that’s who I mean. Anyway, don’t interrupt. Where was I? Oh yes, so the demon boy. Nathan had already been fed the idea from the chief Asari. They told him you were so powerful that the only way to stop you would be to kill you. If the demons got a hold of you now, they would be the most powerful things ever, more so than ever before.”
“Nathan did not want to kill, and defied them for weeks. He looked for answers on scrolls, sought other magical creatures to consult, but he found no answers. All the creatures he saw were under the Asari power and lied to him. Even the scrolls said it, but they were bewitched to tell him that. He didn’t want to believe it, but yesterday he realised how powerful you were. They told him he had no choice, he had to stop you. He still fought it when you heard him and his friend on the beach. But they had told him you would leave him, as you did.
“He was told that you would leave him, and if you did, he must kill you before you gained anymore power and killed all of the cave dwellers, including himself, Joe, and Lisa. You only left because there was a plot to kill you and that plot might have worked had Nathan not still loved you. He was bewitched by the Asari when she gave him the knife. She bewitched him to follow her orders and stab you with the power-draining knife.
“When you left, he was beside himself, but the call for him to go back in was too strong. You see she had control of his mind. Anleasea is exceptionally powerful and had the demons she had summoned drag him back into the cave. She could see where you were going, so she summoned the demons to capture the escapees and take them up the same path as you. It was all a set up. Nathan loves you, but he had no choice over what he did.
“As soon as he stabbed you and got outside the mausoleum, the mind control wore off, but you were protecting the mausoleum. He couldn’t get back in. He didn’t realise that because he still loved you, you would survive. The knife wouldn’t work as was intended. Another thing he didn’t know was that your wounds were healing and when I got in, all you needed was a little poteen and that would get you back on your feet, and moving again.”
When I asked him how he found all of this out, he answered, “Well you know that leprechauns are tricky and powerful?”
I just nodded to allow him to continue and he did. Leprechauns loved to talk.
“We captured a few fairies and turned them back to the right side, but we cloaked them so they would stay undiscovered. They have been reporting to ourselves and some other trustworthy creatures for the last three months, and from the information we gathered from them, we have managed to cloak you and this lair which is impenetrable. Although, we did have to steal some of your blood to make it stronger, but that’s by-the-by now. You have to go back there and fix them, feed the others some poteen, and then come back up here.” I told him I needed a moment, but he forestalled me.
“Come on, come on, we have no time. We need you to free them from the enchantments. Be quick. Down the hole with ye.” I just looked at him, mumbling under my breath as he handed me a little red bottle glowing like fire. As I lowered myself through the hole, I wondered about everything he said. Had Nate really been bewitched to kill me? How was it possible that he hadn’t had enough power to fight them off? He was always my strength? I loved him more than my own life but I was wasn’t willing to die to prove my love to him.
As I reached the ground underneath the mausoleum, I could feel eyes burning onto my skin. I knew Nate was looking at me, but I couldn’t look at him yet. Walking over to Joe and Lisa, I gave them a little poteen, which smelled like whiskey.
As they swallowed the poteen, coughing a little, I turned around to face Nate. He didn’t need to see my face to know that he had hurt me, more than he ever did while we were staying at his parents.
I couldn’t look him in the eye. I just knelt down before him waving off the rope binding him. I handed him the bottle of poteen as Pierce shouted, making us jump. “Hurry up down there. God, you’d think there wasn’t something evil afoot. Oi! Move your bahooky and get up here.”
Turning away from him, he grabbed my arm saying, “Jasmine, please wait. Please let me explain… I am so incredibly…”
Pierce yelled again, galvanising me into moving. I turned back to look at Nate, pulling my arm away, “We don’t have time for this. We have to get moving. Come on.”
Helping them all through the hole in the floor, I pulled myself through and walked over to the window, peaking through a gap in the planks of wood. I had no idea you could see the graveyard from where we were. We looked out the window and saw the Asari and other creatures breaking down the door into the mausoleum. In the next moment, a scream of fury and anger rang clearly through the night from the mausoleum, making everyone jump.
“Well, now they are looking for you. We must be off,” Pierce’s voice sounded from behind me and as I turned around, he handed me a piece of gold.
“Sure if you ever need me, just give this a wee rub and I’ll appear.”
Suddenly the house went deathly quiet; all the little leprechauns had disappeared. Nate came over to stand beside me, but there was nothing he could say to me that I wanted to hear in that moment. I just looked out into the sea, tears stinging my eyes as I avoided Nathan’s gaze, when his hand touched my arm. He moved away when I flinched and I stood like a statue, waiting for them to check our hideout.
As the creatures searching for us came in the door, they looked right through us as if we weren’t there, finding no traces of our presence. Nate walked over, closing the door, but I had a warning sensation that something more dangerous was coming. We could sense his parents and he began shaking beside me. Wanting to help him, I found I couldn’t even touch him. I was still hurt and even though my wounds were healed, I could still feel the pain of them and the burning from where the knife cut me.
I saw a sword propped up against the mantelpiece. Walking over to look at it, I heard Joe and Lisa leave the room. Turning around, I looked at Nate, shaking my head as he approached me. I walked into the room where Joe and Lisa were hiding, seeing terror in their expressions as soon as I arrived. I realised that I had to move them, just in case there was a showdown. Lisa pregnancy meant I somehow had to protect her.
Closing my eyes, I opened up my mind, searching for the old shack in Inver. Taking a few minutes away in the shack, I turned it into a liveable home, re-glassing the windows, fixing the roof, and placing basic furniture inside, along with a note, money for food, and a working fire. I also placed a charm around it that would protect it from all creatures. No one would see or sense it. Placing six stones marked with protection and safety runes around the house to make a protected circle, I prayed it would be enough to save them. Going back, I couldn’t look at Nate. Since there was no time to explain to him, Joe, or Lisa, I touched their arms and sent them into the shack.
“What have you done, Jas? Where are they?”
I shook my head at him, speaking in a voice that betrayed my emotions, “Safe. I moved them away from us.” My voice cracked as I tried to rein in my emotions and I could feel danger gnawing at my concentration. Walk
ing over to stand beside Nate, he turned towards me, “Jas, please let me explain. I couldn’t control…”
“I know, but we really don’t have time for this just now. Nate, we can talk about it later w…”
He pulled me into his arms, and kissed me with more passion than he had ever before, cutting me off. “Just in case we don’t make it,” he whispered breathlessly against my lips, and my soul shuddered. Warmth spread from my lips through me and I kissed him back with a fire, as tears rolled from my eyes, “I love you and every moment has been worth it to be with you.” I pulled away from him, closing my eyes as the levee threatened to break, but he tugged me back into his arms, his tears mingling with my own as he sobbed out brokenly, “Jas, if we live through this, I will spend every single day showing you how much you mean to me. I promise that I will not hurt you ever again.”
He turned away, leaving me stunned as we watched the procession of demons make their way up the garden path towards the house. I looked at Nate, still not meeting his eye, whispering to him that although the house was impenetrable we were by no means safe.
Out of the space between the planks covering the windows, I saw his father, brother, and uncle trying to break down the door, but I knew they shouldn’t get in for at least a few minutes. If they found us, we would have to fight. I wasn’t strong enough to take on Nate’s father yet, which posed a problem. I was far from ready for that battle.
I needed to think of a way out and as my eyes darted about, I noticed the hole in the floor. Looking over at Nathan, all I could see in his expression was fear so I took his hand, leading him over to the hole. I gestured to him to go without saying a word. He turned to me, looking like he thought I was crazy, but there was no time to explain.
I could feel the house weakening; the demons outside were seconds from getting into the house. Shoving him into hole, I followed blindly, sealing it up as the door of the house cracked and splintered open. I had protected the space around us, but wasn’t able to take us out of there or go back down the tunnel.
Ignition (Escaping Demons Saga Book 2) Page 19