Sharon Karaa The Last Challenge (Northern Witches Series #1)

by Unknown

  I felt the allure reaching out to me and envisaged a shield between the two of us. Surprisingly, it worked, and the magnetism ceased.

  “My soul is not on the table,” I replied, maintaining eye contact.

  He threw his head back and laughed. “You really are naïve, Lauren. You came to me. You leave me only if I want you to, and I must say, I’m inclined to keep you around. You interest me.”

  “That’s a lie, Satan! Any person who comes to you to deal is allowed free passage, otherwise you wouldn’t need to have contracts,” Natalia retorted, her hands on her hips.

  He spun on his heel and looked at her. She stood her ground and Agnes came to stand protectively beside her.

  “She’s right. We can leave any time we want.”

  “Only where it suits ME, hag!” he roared. His eyes glowed red in anger.

  “So are you saying you intend to keep us here?” I said quickly, trying to deflect his attention away from Agnes.

  He turned slowly, looking down and over at me. “I haven’t decided yet.”

  “So maybe this will help you decide. We didn’t bring the souls with us. You want them back, you deal,” Natalia said bravely.

  He laughed again, putting his hands behind his back and pacing back and forth. When he was finished chuckling, he turned to me. “Not so naïve after all,” he said. “Unfortunately, there’s one slight problem.” He turning on his heel and re-took his throne. “I can’t deal with you for Matthew’s soul, as it does not yet belong to me.”

  I looked at him, confused.

  “Until his soul is judged, he belongs to no one.” he clarified. “He’s in purgatory, over which I have no control, unfortunately. It would save a lot of time if I did,” he smirked.

  “So we’ve wasted our time?” Selina said, opening her mouth for the first time.

  “I have no control over him yet, that doesn’t mean I can’t do something for you,” said the Devil.

  “Oh?” I stared at him. “And what would that be?”

  “I can relinquish my rights to his soul; cancel the agreement, as it were. This would allow him to be judged now, and then he would be mine,” he said. “But it has to be at the right price,” he said, leaning forward and flexing his muscles.

  “I’ve told you, my soul is not part of this deal,” I said.

  “The souls of the three were mine in any event; their early demise bought me Matthew’s soul, a soul I otherwise wouldn’t have acquired. It’s a numbers game, Lauren. I need a soul to replace the very tasty soul I would have acquired. For your soul, I would relinquish Matthew and end the curse. Yours or… Selina’s?” He spun on his heels and faced my friend who stood quivering in fear.

  “What do you say, hot stuff? Fancy a ride on the merry-go round?”

  I jumped to her side and pushed her behind me. “Back off, red boy!”

  Natalia inserted herself between me and Satan. “The curse would end with Lauren anyway. She is the last in line.”

  Satan glared at Natalia, his eyes flaring red. “Is she?” He turned and looked at me. Then he looked at my stomach. “You do know how babies are made, don’t you Lauren?” His eyes came back up to my face and he arched an eyebrow.

  A white hot needle of fear ran through me. I was pregnant?

  I had no time to process this thought, as just then, Daniel materialised in the middle of Hell, chanting a return spell and forcing us all out and back up through the portal.

  “What the fuck did you think you were doing?” he snapped at me. His eyes were blazing and I’d never seen him so angry.

  Agnes and Selina materialised to my left, and Gerwyn came running in from the kitchen. A second later, Natalia appeared.

  “I have nothing to say to you, Daniel. Leave.” I replied, equally angry.

  “Our personal issues aside Lauren, you shouldn’t have gone to Hell without me. You’re not prepared, none of you!” He swept his gaze over the others and Agnes hung her head, shamefaced. I think it was that more than anything that finally tipped me over the edge.

  There was no build up, just an atomic explosion of anger and I’m pretty sure sparks were flying off me as I turned on him.

  “Get the fuck out of my house and don’t come back,” I snarled. He took a step toward me and I raised a hand. Agnes’ eyebrows shot up and Natalia took a step toward me.

  “Lauren, you have to listen to me. It’s not what you think,” he said.

  “Are you married?” I asked him.

  “There’s more to it than that,” he said, his eyes beseeching.

  “ARE YOU MARRIED?” I screamed.

  “Yes but…”

  I didn’t give him the chance to finish. I closed my eyes and muttered a banishment spell I didn’t even know I knew. Daniel shouted, “No! Don’t do it! You have to listen to me!” But I continued the chant, closing my ears to his pleas. Then with a pop, he disappeared.

  Natalia looked at me, astonished.

  “What have you done to him?” asked Selina, shock written all over her face.

  “Don’t worry, he’s back in his own home. He hasn’t disappeared altogether,” Agnes replied.

  I turned and dropped down onto the sofa, my hands shaking and tears burning the back of my eyeballs. I refused to cry and pushed Daniel out of my head. I had other things to worry about now.

  “So what happened?” asked Gerwyn, confused. “Did it work?”

  As Agnes explained to her what had happened, my hands went to my stomach and I considered what the Devil had said. I could trade my own soul for the soul of Matthew and save my child and any future child of theirs from the same torture I had gone through. I could end this for everyone but me. Could I afford not to?

  Natalia dropped to her knees in front of me.

  “Lauren, this is all trickery. Think! The curse can’t continue unless we return the souls to Hell. If you are pregnant, and that’s a big if, then your child is safe. We have the souls and he doesn’t. He’s trying to trick you.”

  I looked at her, a shadow of doubt entering my mind. Was she right?

  “The worst case is that we’re no better and no worse off than we were before,” said Agnes. “Short of you being up the duff, of course.” She sank into the armchair, legs apart and arms lying heavily on the arm rest.

  “We need to do a test,” Selina exclaimed. “I’ll go to the chemist.”

  Natalia snorted and turned to me, pushing me back in the seat. She put her hands about a foot from my stomach and closed her eyes. I waited, barely breathing, and after what seemed like an eternity, she smiled and opened her eyes.

  “You’re not pregnant Lauren, he lied.” She sat down heavily on the sofa, and for the first time, I could tell she’d been worried.

  “You’re sure?” asked Selina. I was still struck dumb.

  “I did tell you he was hard to deal with,” said Gerwyn, smoothing down the side of her dress.

  “So what do we do now?” I asked, emotionally drained.

  “Wey are yis all stupid?” Geordie shouted, hanging over the end of Selina’s pocket. “Ye gan ti purgatory, find Matthew, and replace his soul with the three spirits! It’s not fuckin rocket science!”

  Gerwyn looked over at Geordie with a frown on her face. “What makes you think that would work?” she asked as she picked him up and placed him on the table. Geordie took a seat on his thimble.

  “What happened when Matthew cursed em? pen’t pass Go, pen’t get the chance of redemption, gan straight ti Hell and pen’t collect two hundred quid.”

  Agnes picked him up and kissed him soundly on the head, much to Geordie’s disgust.

  “You know what, that might just work!” said Gerwyn, excited. “That could just be enough to cancel out the sin!”

  “Yes, but how do we get to purgatory?” asked Selina.

  Gerwyn smiled broadly. “I might just know a way!”

  We had spent three hours debating and coming up with a plan before retiring for the night. Tomorrow night, we’d go to purgato
ry. The day after, I’d return to my life. I wasn’t so sure that was something to celebrate but at least not having to fight for my life every five minutes would be a bonus.

  No one mentioned Daniel’s name, and I held myself together well, at least until I retired to bed and was alone with my thoughts. I didn’t even have Cat for company. Not that it would have made a difference. I’d just shared a room with three and a half other people and I’d never felt so alone in my life.

  Missing him was like a part of my heart had been ripped out. I felt constantly sick and had to work hard to focus on what was going on around me. And if I forgot about it, even for a second, the realisation that he was gone from me was so shocking, I wanted to scream with the pain of it. One thought kept me going. Everything gets easier with time. Then I remembered Agnes’ sorrow over Matthew. And I knew it was a lie.

  I woke up the next morning as the sun was coming up, and lay there watching the dark turn to light. Unable to stand the thought of trying to con myself to sleep again, I climbed out of bed and tiptoed to the bathroom.

  After a shower, I dressed quietly and made by way to the kitchen to find Agnes awake already. What do I know; maybe ghosts don’t need to sleep? She looked up at me from the kitchen table and smiled. If I didn’t know her, I would have bought it. Instead, I saw through to her sadness.

  “You want a coffee?” she asked me, as she pushed her chair back and made her way to the kettle. I let her hide her face and took a seat at the table while she busied herself getting cups from the cupboard. When she couldn’t hide anymore, she returned to the table with the steaming cups and set one down in front of me.

  “Thanks.” I smiled at her, then looked back down at my cup. I couldn’t bear to see her pain. “Do you want to talk about it Agnes?” I asked her.

  She sighed deeply and put her hands around her own cup, looking into the milky brown liquid like it was a crystal ball that would give her all the answers she needed.

  “I don’t know if he’s aged,” she whispered, finally.

  I looked at her, confused, and then it hit me. I pushed my cup to one side and placed my hands around hers.

  “Agnes, we aren’t what you see on the outside. The person inside is what someone falls in love with. You will still love him and he will still love you.”

  She snorted. “Easy for you to say, looking the way you do! I’m old, Lauren! What could a thirty-four year old man want from an old woman?”

  Shocked, I sat back in my chair. I didn’t know what else to say to her. Eventually, she stood and walked out of the room, fading to nothing as she reached the door.

  I sat there until my coffee went cold, and when I woke up from my stupor, I got up and threw it in the sink.

  “Enough!”

  The word echoed through my mind. Only, it wasn’t my voice. It was Beth’s.

  I turned slowly and she stood before me. “Lauren, there is too much sadness here. I need to fix this.”

  I looked at her, shocked into silence, and watched as she took a seat at the kitchen table. Clearly, she wasn’t going anywhere. I took a step forward, unsure of what I was doing, and then my feet took control and I sat down beside her. In hindsight, I wasn’t entirely sure if I’d done it under my own steam, or if I’d been magically assisted. Boy she was good!

  “What do you want, Beth?” I asked her, not wanting to make eye contact as I wanted no reminder of his brown eyes.

  “I need to explain something to you, Lauren. And hope that when I’ve finished, you will find it in your heart to forgive me.”

  I looked at her now, wondering what she had done that would warrant forgiveness.

  “Daniel’s wife was called Louise. They met when they were both children going to the same nursery school.”

  I wanted to get up and walk away from her. I wasn’t ready to listen to tales of happy families gone wrong. My body, however, had other ideas, and try as I might, I couldn’t move a muscle.

  “Daniel and Louise attended every school together and even went to the same college afterwards. Her parents were very good friends of ours, and we all hoped that one day, the two would fall in love and marry. It wasn’t to be. Louise proved very popular at college, too popular, and quickly took up with the wrong crowd. She allowed herself to get pregnant and refused to tell her parents who the father was. One day, after a particularly vicious fight, Louise named Daniel as the father.”

  My eyes almost popped out of my head. He had kids as well?

  “She had lied, of course, but I didn’t know that at the time. When Colin and Sheila, Louise’s parents, came and told us, we were shocked and disgusted that Daniel could allow Louise to carry his child and not do the honourable thing. Daniel’s father and I decided to step in and do something about it. We fed Daniel a love potion so that he would fall in love with Louise and at least want to look after her and their child. I let Daniel’s father convince me that was the best course of action. Eight weeks afterwards, they were married. On the night of their wedding, I caught my husband and Louise fighting. He wanted assurance that Louise would not consummate her wedding vows. The baby she carried would have been Daniel’s brother. My…my husband was the father of the child.”

  She stopped talking as a single tear slid down her cheek and landed with a soft plop on the table. I, of course, said nothing but sat there, waiting for her to compose herself. This wasn’t my choice, but for some reason, I seemed to have been glued to the chair and couldn’t have opened my mouth with a hammer and chisel. After a moment, she continued.

  “I reversed the spell on Daniel and transported him home. I told him what had happened and begged his forgiveness. He kissed me on the cheek, then packed his bags and moved to Newcastle.”

  Again she paused, overcome with emotion. Again, I sat there like a prize turkey, my head ready to explode. I couldn’t take it in!

  “My husband and I fought that night but I ended up staying with him. I like to think it was because of the girls, but in all honesty, I don’t know why I did. When I eventually couldn’t face him or the guilt of what I’d done to my own son, I packed my belongings and took Imogen with me. We came to stay with Daniel, and eventually, Felicity joined us because her father couldn’t cope with her anymore. I think what he really meant was, he couldn’t continue his affair with her in the house. We told the girls nothing, but I knew they thought I couldn’t bear to leave Daniel and that was why I’d left. I never told them the truth, and perhaps if I had, Felicity wouldn’t have blamed you or Daniel for this whole mess.”

  She pushed herself back, and as though I’d never been controlled, my body was now my own. I looked at her in shock. She had drugged her own son and allowed him to take the blame for the split between herself and her husband. On the face of it, it sounded so terrible, but given the circumstances, I could find it in my heart to forgive her. I looked at her and then pushed the chair back and stood up quickly.

  “Where’s Daniel?” I asked. Then she said the words that ripped my world apart.

  “He’s gone to deal with the Devil. He’s gone to offer himself as a replacement soul.”

  And I realised in that moment, that was what she wanted forgiveness for.

  Everyone worked quickly and Natalia managed to get Gerwyn back to open the portal by lunch time. Beth had returned home to break the news to the girls and to tell them the truth about their father. Selina and Agnes had spent their time cooking up more protection potions, and Geordie and Natalia hadn’t bickered all morning which was in itself a minor miracle.

  For myself, I honestly couldn’t say how I’d past the last six hours.

  At last, it was time to take the portal, and as quickly as Gerwyn could pour the familiar black liquid into the circle, I was stepping through and floating downwards. I angled my body as I’d seen the skypers do on television, trying to speed the whole trip up, but it still felt as though it took a lifetime to finally come to a stop and turn my body so that I landed on my feet.

  I scanned all around, look
ing to see if I could see the hellhound’s light, and as I finally spotted it, Selina, Natalia and Agnes arrived, Natalia scowling at me.

  “You should wait for us, Lauren. It’s not a good idea to go running in to Hell without backup,” she said, brushing imaginary fluff off her leather clad legs. Seconds later, Geordie floated down and landed on Selina’s shoulder.

  “Wey man, that was betta than the twista at Spanish City! Wohoo!”

  Selina quickly grabbed him and shoved him in the front of a pinafore she’d tied around her waist for the purpose.

  “Sorry about that,” she said as her cheeks turned pink. “I didn’t have time to pick him up and he just jumped in behind us.”

  “Come on, it’s this way,” I said, marching forward. My band of merry warriors followed me.

  A minute or so later, we stood before the ugly mastiff, his jowls dripping saliva.

  “Back so soon?” he drawled.

  “Just tell your master we’re here, mongrel,” said Natalia. He growled in response and turned on his heel.

  Just as he disappeared from view, Satan materialised, sitting on the same throne.

  “Ahh, you missed me, Lauren?” he sniggered, and I felt the familiar tug of attraction at his handsome features, naked chest and bulging loin cloth.

  I immediately started to chant, and this time, he changed in front of me, his glamour fading and leaving behind a four foot eight balding man with a thin frame. He was so thin and small, the loin cloth now looked like an oversized nappy.

  I couldn’t help it. I laughed. Natalia smiled, and Agnes, standing outside the immediate eyesight of Satan, waved her hand back and forth, shaking her head and mouthing “No!” at us. I realised she was trying to warn us off and I looked quickly back at Satan. He growled and then looked down at himself.

  “Awe fuck,” he said, sighing. “All right, you’ve got me,” he muttered, jumping down from the throne and almost losing his loin cloth in the process. Grabbing it quickly in both hands, he pulled it up and marched forward. “I suppose you’re here for Daniel,” he said, looking up at me, a grimace on his face. “So what’s in it for me? You going to take his place?” he asked as hope sprung up in his eyes.