by Sierra Cross
I froze as if I’d gotten caught with my hand in the cookie jar. And she laughed a soft rolling laugh that filled the air. Putting her arm around me, she turned me back around and escorted me back to the edge of the picnic grounds. “All in good time, my little witch.”
I pouted. “But Mom, I just want to see where you go!”
“Oh, Alix.” She put her hand on my shoulder and looked me right in the eye. “I can’t wait to share this with you. Soon.” Her love was so thick I could feel it wrap around me. “Your birthday is right around the corner. On the first full moon after, we’ll initiate you into the coven. It will be a night you’ll never forget—trust me, it’ll be worth the wait. But until then, magic has rules that must be obeyed. Even if your bloodline does let you sneak through the wards…barely. So scoot.” She smiled and gave me a little shove.
As I climbed the hill, I instinctively veered off the path and walked through what felt like a wall of cactus spines. But that was the tail end of it, last push before I broke through the outer ward. Once on the other side I saw the mouth of the cave, but more than that I felt it. It was calling to me. It was kind of scary how deeply I felt this pull to enter.
The outside looked like a bluff—crevasses deep in the rocks that had collected dirt over the years so the scrub vegetation and thick pine trees looked as if they’d sprouted from the rock itself.
The outer ward masked the area around the cave from the outside world, but though the spot had been untouched for almost ten years, there was still a wide, clear path. I followed it to the inner ward at the mouth of the cave, steeling myself to get my skin raked with cactus spines. Surely the inner ward would offer major resistance to a breach. To my surprise it admitted me in with nothing but a mild tingle. Like it knew me. Like I belonged.
Inside, the whole room was illuminated by a soft golden light, though I could find no obvious source for it. The walls were carved from rock, polished smooth rimming the room in a perfect circle. A ledge had been carved out around the whole room for seating. Ancient symbols, expertly carved, dominated the walls around the room. And in between each set of symbols there were weapons displayed on the wall—pairs of short swords, daggers, and other things that looked dangerous but that I couldn’t identify. With its stark beauty, the arrangement came across looking like an art exhibit. Museum artifacts from a culture that suddenly disappeared. A culture I’d almost belonged to.
Over a fire pit in the center of the room the ceiling rose in a conical shape for the smoke to escape. Though the floor was dirt the room had a grand, otherworldly feel. The magic in the room felt warm and thick like golden honey dancing through my senses. It made me wish I had more than a sad spark of magic within me, so I could dip my hands into this feeling and become one with it. My mother’s words came back to me, “One day this will be a special place for you.” Not for the first time, I wondered: If Mom was as powerful a witch as my aunt and everyone said she was, why couldn’t she sense my magical deficit? Maybe she was hoping I’d grow into it. I was kind of glad I didn’t have to live through disappointing her.
Then I saw it. At the far end of the cave, under a huge carved plaque with symbols that were clearly meant to be foreboding, a gap in the jagged rocks formed a passage. It was narrow and dark, but an adult could just about fit through it. Not that I had any desire to find out what was down that way. Just looking at the passage and foreboding symbols made my skin crawl.
What exactly did our mothers do here?
I spun around taking it all in and my heart nearly stopped when I saw Matt in the room with me. In this light, he didn’t seem ethereal at all. I could see the couture of every muscle from his broad shoulders down to his narrow waist.
“I knew you’d come, Alexandra.” As usual, the bastard was more confident than he should have been. My coming here was an impulsive move he never could have predicted. Could he? “I knew you couldn’t have really forgotten about this place.”
But I had forgotten. How?
I shifted. “Maybe it would have been better for me to forget.” Because now that I was here, I could feel the allure of this place in my bones, a palpable desire for a life I could never have. I was doing just fine without that. I had never experienced the feeling of magic so I didn’t know what I was missing. But this feeling would not be easy to forget. I tried to shrug it off. “I mean, you were right, there’s a cave here,” I said. “But this was a mistake.” This place was seriously messing with all the new plans I was lining up for my future. Pulling me into an unrealistic daydream of wielding magic and following in my mother’s footsteps. “I need to get out of here.” I have a celebratory dinner with Aunt Jenn to get ready for.
“Hear me out,” Matt pleaded. And then he added, “Your mother would’ve wanted you to.”
Damn it, why’d he have to go and say that? When I was thirteen, Matt had told me he’d seen my mother’s spirit as she passed through the Void on her way to the Light, the realm that magicborn go to after they die. She’d begged him to check on me if he could, make sure I was okay. Matt was trained to fight the forces of darkness, not to be some teenager girl’s grief counselor, but somehow he came through for us. “All right.” I did owe him. I sat on the stone bench. “Five minutes.”
He pointed to the foreboding passage. “Do you know what this place is?”
I shook my head, though from what he and Asher had said I was starting to get an idea. “It is…a gate?”
Matt smiled. “Yes. It’s called a Demongate, a passage that demons use to enter this realm from their own. There are five of them across the globe, places where the veil between realms is thin enough to cross. Your mother and her coven were responsible for guarding this one, keeping the demons on the other side. The wards they set here were formidable, but they haven’t been repaired or strengthened in ten years. With every day that passes, the spells that bind it shut are weakening and more Nequam are passing through.”
“Wait, what?” Asher was right? “Those are demons that are walking the streets of the Spelldrift?”
“You can’t sense them?” He looked confused, but continued. “Not just the Spelldrift. The whole city. There’s no coven left to maintain the containment spells.”
“Is that a big deal?” I knew it was a stupid question even as I said it. I mean, demons? Still, I needed to know why they were a threat to Seattle. Maybe they just wanted to hang out, drink lattes and see the Space Needle?
“They are engraining themselves in every facet of human life. Using supernatural abilities to gain leadership roles. They are gearing up to take over.”
Demons running the world. I tried to take that in, but it was too big to wrap my mind around. “What really happened to all of you that night? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a bus accident.” I’d seen photos of the exploded bus on the front page of the local paper, but the story always seemed odd. Why would they all be on a bus?
“What do you think happened, Alexandra?” To my surprise, Matt’s voice was bitter. Pain darkened his expression. “There was a battle. Our side lost.”
I swallowed. I knew this was going to take more than five minutes but I didn’t care. “Please tell me what happened to my parents. I know it can’t be easy, but…I need to know the truth.”
Slowly he nodded. “We, the Swords of Light Brotherhood,” he began, “have served as guardians of the Coven of Fire. For centuries, our two organizations worked together to keep demons from stealing into the Mortal Realm through this gate. That night when the coven was here to celebrate the winter solstice, without the guardians present, there was a breech in the gate and a multitude of demons broke through, including several Caedis. Do you know why that type of demon is called a Caedis?”
I shook my head, totally out of my depth.
“It means killer.” Matt sounded sick at the memory. “To survive in our realm, their kind must take over another’s body, usually at the moment of its owner’s death. Their Nequam servants are all too happy to provide them with human hos
ts. One Caedis who came through that night, Tenebris Stella, lead the attack. He viciously killed everyone in his path.” Matt’s voice had shifted from sick to enraged. Murderous, even. “By the time the Brotherhood showed, most of the coven had already fallen. Your mother and Alana, my mentor, were the only two left to hold them back.”
“Alana?” Even as I said the name, my mind called up a foggy image of a smiling, brown-eyed woman about my mother’s age. “Oh, I think I remember her. She was in the coven.”
He nodded. “She was like a mom to me. Anyway, as we jumped into the fight, another wave of demons came through. The onslaught was so powerful it threatened to break the seal. Your mother and Alana…” This part seemed difficult for him to say. “They sacrificed themselves to seal the gate—throwing all their magic into one final spell.”
I was too overwhelmed to speak. Tears stung my eyes as I let my mind’s eye conjure up those haunting images. My gentle, happy parents, killed in a battle. My father murdered, collateral damage in my mother’s war. I tried to hold onto the thought that my parents were heroes. But what Matt was saying rocked my sense of reality. What about the story I’d told myself over and over for the last ten years? “But…the bus accident?” I stammered, finally.
“Standard Fidei cleanup operation,” he said, as if that would make sense to me. “You know, protecting the public from magic.”
“Fidei,” I repeated, struggling to keep my head from exploding from the onslaught. Despite the dark subject, an impish smile curved his lips. “Must have driven the pencil pushers on First Avenue crazy that they couldn’t account for my body.”
I blinked, realizing I still didn’t understand why Matt hadn’t died that night. “Did the demons toss you into the Void, then?”
“No, that was your mother,” he said, shocking me again. “Or perhaps Alana—but it was definitely witch magic that cast me out of the realm. I’m sure they were only trying to save me, mind you. Perhaps so I could help the coven’s daughters to restore it, one day.” He looked wistful. “But I’ve been trapped here ever since, waiting for a witch to set me free.”
“You’ve been alone in there for ten years?” No wonder he was sounding so desperate.
“It doesn’t feel like ten whole years have passed,” he explained. “In the Void, time moves in crisscrossed paths—there are no straight lines here. I see shadows in the mist, but I can’t see who they are or communicate with them. It’s been hard to hang on to my sanity.”
The muscles in his square jaw tensed as he bit back emotion. The heaviness in his voice pulled at my heart, but this was all too much to take in…
“The solstice is less than a month away,” he said. “Tenth anniversary of the battle.” The pain in his voice mirrored my own. Someone else who had been keeping track of the time since that horrible day. He hardened his gaze, swallowing the emotions. “I need you to pull me through to the Mortal realm,” he demanded.
“I’m sorry.” And I really was. For so many reasons. “I can’t.”
Matt looked hurt. “You would leave me here—”
“You don’t understand.” I swallowed hard and confessed. “I don’t have any magic. I can’t bring you through.”
He looked at me like I was crazy, but I couldn’t take it anymore. Not another debate about my magic, where I’d be forced to repeat the sad fact I was useless. Not when I’d just heard the story of my mother’s valor.
I’ll never be like her.
“Listen, I’ll get Callie here to help you, okay?” Suddenly I couldn’t stand to be here anymore, immersed in the past that I still mourned—and the destiny that wasn’t mine. A cushy corporate gig was no replacement. Not to my soul. “Callie seems like she’s pretty into this,” I went on, feeling numb. “Y’all can restore the coven, do whatever you need to do. Be heroes.”
“Alexandra, wait!” I heard him yelling as I exited the cave and hurried down the hill.
Moments later, my phone rang. It was Aunt Jenn. I let it ring several times, debating what I’d say once I answered. I’d never be able to get back, shower, and get to the restaurant on time. And I couldn’t even imagine sitting across from Aunt Jenn and not talking about any of this—over the years she’d made it abundantly clear she wouldn’t talk about anything to do with magic or the past.
Finally, I answered the phone and told her I wasn’t feeling well. From her tone, I could tell she was concerned and trying not to sound disappointed. I felt like a shit, but I’d make it up to her. My brain needed some time to process all of this. To let my brain unravel what I’d just committed to.
Committed? Felt more like shackled. This wouldn’t be like the Sanctum where I could just leave anytime. This was my aunt’s world I was playing in. If I started and then quit, she’d definitely take it personally.
I’d hiked all the way back to the edge of the picnic area and could see my car through the brush. There were three men hunched over and sniffing all around my car. Literally sniffing. One raised his nose to the air and then looked directly at me. His gaze was cold, otherworldly.
Those weren’t men. They were demons.
“Nequam,” I muttered.
I needed no training to know it was time to run.
Spinning on my boot heel, I sprinted back up the path. From behind me a sound buzzed in my ear, like electricity in a transformer. A bolt of current seared my hand, blistering my fingers on contact. Grunting in pain, I scrambled up the hill. My breath huffing out in shallow gasps.
The buzzing tweaked in my ears again. I whirled around to see one of the demons forming on his fingertips what looked like a ball of green lightning. His arm winding up like a pitcher on the mound told me to run. The blast burned the back of my boot, a split second before I dove through the outer ward. The green current followed me through like a heat-seeking missile.
Sprinting the few feet to the mouth of the cave, I slid face-first through the inner ward. Stone grit dug into the open wound of my throbbing hand as I scraped it across the cave floor to stand.
Chapter Five
“You came back.” The relief in Matt’s eyes shifted to concern as he took in my disheveled appearance. “What is it, Alexandra?”
“Demons!” I bent forward, hands on my knees, struggling to catch my breath. “Three of them.”
“And you let them through the wards?”
“I don’t know! They just followed me.”
A blast of green lightning bounced off an invisible barrier across the mouth of the cave.
“You let them through the wards.” Whoa, Matt was shouting at me. He sounded royally pissed. “Are you crazy? Do you want to die? It’s only a matter of time before they break that seal on the cave.”
“I didn’t do anything,” I yelled back. “I was trying not to get fried alive.”
“Damn it. You weren’t kidding about having zero training.” He blew out a frustrated breath. “Well, you’re just going to have to figure it out. Pull me through if you want to live.”
“How many times do I have to tell you? I have. No. Magic.”
He shook his head, impatient. “You wouldn’t be able to see me if you had no magic.”
“Okay, correction.” I tried to say in a way that he’d understand. “My magic is so weak it can’t be developed.” Another blast hit the ward. This time it lingered, like the barrier was thinner. We were running out of time. I swallowed. “I’m going to run for it.”
“You’d be dead in two minutes, Alexandra.”
“Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“I have faith in your magic, not your running,” he shot back. “That night in the bar, I saw magic all over your hands.”
That got my attention. He could see the tingling heat on my hands that night? I couldn’t explain how he could see if it weren’t magic, but… “Look, experts examined me.”
“Your magic manifests differently than any other witch I’ve worked with,” he admitted. “And I can’t explain why that is. But it’s strong as hell.
”
A surge of power sliced through the ward and flew right through Matt’s ethereal form leaving a black char on the pristine wall.
“You have to pull me through, now!” he urged. “Whatever you did at the bar that night, do it again. Get that feeling back in your hands!”
I looked at him, clueless. “I didn’t do anything. I just…got mad.” I felt Matt’s eyes on me, rushing me without saying a word. “Right.” I focused all the pain in my burned hand, and turned that into anger. Turned my fear of being scorched to death into anger, too. The tingle started at the very tips of my fingers and built up. I could actually see it—an electric golden light dancing across my skin.
“Reach for me!” Matt yelled.
I thrust my hand forward and felt it slide through a translucent, shimmering wall, molecules parting as my fingers came in contact. His hand reached out to mine. Our skin touched with a zing. He was warm and solid. I pulled with all my might, like pulling dead weight out of the ocean.
Across the room, the barrier on the door must have failed because three demons had entered the cave. Their glamours had fallen, revealing their true, vile selves. The glow of their red eyes reflected off their dead-fish grey skin as they turned their heads this way and that, like wild animals scenting blood. Their breath came in short erratic breaths, saliva dripping from blistered lips. Moving like a pack, they spread out and took tentative steps forward. I froze. My fear must have emboldened the one in the middle as he rushed forward.
Gasping, I gave another tug with everything I had, and Matt broke through.
He somersaulted over me, rolled to his feet, and leapt for the bench. Then, like a parkour master, he propelled himself up the wall and snatched the closest pair of weapons—spiked metal balls—throwing on his descent. One sailed wide. But the other weapon found its mark, striking the demon headed toward me in the heart. I watched, feeling a mix of wonder and disgust, as the hideous creature turned to dust upon impact.
The remaining two demons closed ranks. Shoulder to shoulder, they began pulling energy from the center of their torsos—I’d say hearts, but wasn’t sure these things had a heart—and sending it rolling down their arms like tumbleweeds of bright green lightning. Rapid fire assault, but clumsy and too hurried. They inched forward, eerily undeterred by the loss of their brethren.