by Lily Velez
This was the end for us. And if what I’d already witnessed was any indication, it was going to be a brutal end. The staggering truth of it left me momentarily paralyzed. I almost gave in to the defeat. I almost curled up right there on the floor to await my doom.
But I couldn’t give up. I refused to. I took Jack’s hand again, kneading the muscles gently the same way he’d once done for Alison. Please help me, I urged his magic. Please fight against the spelled iron and come through.
I waited and waited and waited, but there was nothing on the other end of my call. Nothing but silence.
I sank back onto my heels, holding Jack’s hand on my lap.
And then my eyes fell upon the demon’s mark.
I froze.
Outside of wishing the mark away…nothing is off limits…
My heart started hammering against my chest.
Jack had only used one wish, meaning there were still two left. He’d made a promise to his father, but all things considered, surely Redmond Connelly would’ve insisted on using up another wish if it meant saving Jack’s life. And perhaps if I was the one making the wish, it’d spare Jack from being exposed to the dark magic, thus keeping him off whatever path Alison had seen in her visions.
I rubbed my thumb over the mark, feeling the bumps of the raised skin. I didn’t know the first thing about summoning a demon, whether or not there was an incantation I was supposed to utter or gold coins I was supposed to offer up like Jack had done with the fear gorta. I didn’t even know if this would work, seeing as how the mark belonged to Jack, not me, so what business did I have using up a wish?
Still I closed my hand over the demon’s mark and let my eyelids fall shut. Please come, I whispered in my mind. And then I tried every other invocation I could think of.
Awaken.
Come forth.
Arise.
I summon you.
I evoke you.
I beg you.
Please.
I pictured some red-eyed, horned beast in a forsaken land of the Otherworld hearing my call. I imagined it materializing in this cell, ready to do the bidding of the mark’s bearer, no obstacle, not even spelled, iron bars, too great for its powers.
Then I opened my eyes.
But I was only met with the same darkness as before, Jack and I the only occupants in the dank cell. It hadn’t worked.
Despair flooded my chest, and I could’ve wept.
And then a low, smooth voice from behind me suddenly spoke.
“You have a lot of nerve summoning me…”
32
“You’re not Jack.”
I didn’t process the demon’s words at first. I was too busy wrapping my mind around the fact that he didn’t look like a demon at all. That is, of course, if you excused the wisps of black smoke floating off his person as if he’d been singed.
His hair, dark as midnight, was disheveled under a lopsided crown. He wore a patterned, medieval tunic with a lace-up front and black trousers that disappeared into oversized boots. A gold chain of office was draped over his shoulders, outfitted with blue emeralds and pearls and rubies. All so very human. But the eyes gave him away. At first, I mistook them for brown, but then he shifted ever so slightly, and in the flickering firelight, I realized they were actually a deep garnet.
They were also currently glaring at me. At a loss for words, I moved out of the way so I no longer blocked his view of Jack.
The demon seemed to not understand what he was looking at initially. Then he muttered a foreign word I assumed was meant to be a curse. “As if this night couldn’t have gone any more spectacularly.” He strode over to Jack and nudged his body with the tip of a boot. As he passed me, I caught the distinct scent of burning leaves. “You can never seem to keep yourself out of trouble, can you?”
“Can you help him?” I asked. “Us, I mean. There are hunters—”
“Let me stop you right there, little witch. The mark only functions in a certain capacity, and once you’re outside of its rules—”
“I get it. Jack’s technically the only one who can summon you. But can’t you make an exception in this case?”
“I could,” the demon said, “but I won’t. I’ve had about as much family drama as I can stomach for one evening. Now if you’ll excuse me...” The ribbons of smoke reappeared, slowly wreathing around the edges of his form.
“Wait! If you had no intention of helping, then why did you come at all?”
He shrugged, adjusting the cuffs of his tunic. “Clearly a momentary lapse of judgment on my behalf. I felt the summons, and I foolishly answered.”
“I don’t get it,” I said. “Jack’s bound to you, isn’t he? Wouldn’t his welfare matter to you?” And then I realized my error. If Jack died now, the demon would get to have his soul sooner than expected. Why would he ever want to intercede considering what he had to gain?
“Bound to me? On the contrary. He’s bound to the Dark Lord. I’m merely an associate who handles the more mundane tasks of each bargain. Wish-granting and the like.”
“And yet you’re deliberately denying this wish. If Jack was conscious, he’d want you to save us. You know that. It’s bad enough he has to give this ‘Dark Lord’ his soul in three months. The least you can do is abide by the terms of the bargain and fulfill one of his remaining wishes. It is the right thing to do.”
That drew a quick laugh out of him. “I’m a demon. I don’t exactly live by a robust moral code.” But the edge of his mouth twitched up in the slightest smirk, and the smoke receded just a bit. “Which hornet’s nest have you landed yourself in exactly?”
“They’re called The Black Hand. The leader of this particular sect is a real piece of work. I didn’t catch her name. I can describe her, though. Maybe you know of her. Tall, thin, waist-length, white blonde hair.”
Something flashed in the demon’s garnet eyes. He studied me, considering something. “Tell me, how badly do you wish to save your precious Jack? I may be willing to provide my assistance in an arrangement separate from his mark and its mandates, but it’ll come at a price.”
My pulse thundered in my veins. A demon’s bargain, like the one Redmond had once made, the one that had eventually destroyed his family. “What exactly is the price? And before you say it’ll cost me my firstborn, I’ll go ahead and tell you that’s off the table.”
The smirk deepened, his garnet eyes glittering like jewels. “Not to worry. Firstborns aren’t really my thing. I’ll only ask a favor of you.”
“What kind of favor?”
He shrugged. “That’s yet to be determined. But whenever I come to you—be it tomorrow, next month, next year, or twenty years from now—you must oblige me. Should you deny me, it’ll cost you.”
“And are you going to tell me what that cost is?”
He waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, merely the eternal damnation of your soul. So on and so forth. You know, the usual fine print in matters such as these.”
Because that was a fair exchange. A chill raced down my spine. I looked at Jack’s unmoving figure, the paleness of his skin, but I already knew what my answer would be. This was our only hope. There was no other way to escape the hunters. “Just to be clear, I won’t kill anyone for you. Nor will I marry a demon or spawn the anti-Christ.”
“Bless Hollywood and their portrayal of my kind. Now then, are those your only stipulations?”
I wracked my mind for any obvious loopholes. “And by help us, I mean help us get out of here. Alive.”
“Of course,” he said. “You have my word. Do we have an agreement then?”
A small part of my rational mind urged me to back out of the deal before I struck a bargain I’d later regret, but it was either this or whatever gruesome death the hunters had prepared for us. “We have an agreement. Now let’s go.”
“Not so fast.” With a snap of his fingers, his appearance instantly changed in a plume of smoke. His crown disappeared and his ebony hair was slicked back in a perfect shi
ne. His face, which had been slightly flushed, regained its complexion, and replacing the medieval clothes was a sophisticated black suit with shiny dress shoes. In his hand, a saw-toothed dagger appeared, its polished ivory handle made from an animal’s jawbone. I recognized it at once.
“You’re the same demon that attacked Jack at the rugby game.”
He scoffed at that. “Please. My approaches are a bit more decorous than that. We all bear these weapons. As for the demon who paid you and Jack a visit, he was merely a fellow associate. A sycophant really, one trying to curry favor with the Dark Lord.”
I didn’t like the glint off the blade and took a step back, uncertain what his intentions were. The cell suddenly seemed three times smaller now that I was sharing it with a demon. “Did that associate possess an Xavier student then? I thought he had, but when I banished him, he completely disappeared.”
“That was simply a form he fashioned for his purposes. We can possess humans, yes, but more often than not, we prefer a custom, hand-made fit.”
“So is this one of your custom ensembles?”
“Oh, no. Some of us are just this handsome.” He glided to me, the smoke dancing around his figure. I retreated until my back was pressed against the rock-hewn wall. When he was close enough for me to touch, I could smell the lingering wine off his thin lips.
“Enough stalling,” he said. “You’ll need to drink my blood.”
I pushed past him and put several strides between us. “Excuse me? What on earth do I need to drink your blood for?”
“It’ll strengthen you against the hunters.”
I stared at him blankly.
He examined his nails, using the point of the knife to clean their undersides. “Come now, little witch. You didn’t think I’d fight your battle for you, did you? That’s not how this works.”
“You gave me your word. You said you’d help us get out of here.”
“Yes, but I never specified how, now did I?”
“What are you saying? You actually want me to face them? Look at what they did to Jack. He still hasn’t gained consciousness.”
“He’s perfectly fine,” the demon said. “His magic’s keeping him under for the time being to let his body heal. He’ll wake up eventually. It’ll take more than a beating from a rag-tag bunch of hunters to bring down a witch of his caliber.”
“I don’t get it,” I said. “Why can’t you just whisk us away and be done with it?”
“As it happens, I have a nasty score to settle with this particular lot of hunters after my last contretemps with them. I’ll ensure your escape, but we might as well have a bit of fun with our predicament, don’t you think?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said. “Fun is the last thing I’m interested in having right now. If you want revenge, why don’t you attack them yourself on your own time?”
“A fair question,” he said, clasping his hands behind his back and strolling the length of the cell as if on a Sunday walk in the park. “Members of The Black Hand have defenses against my kind. You think you witches have it bad. You should see what they do to us. Spelled iron is nothing opposite my power, but the amulets they wear can capture a corporeal demon and keep him imprisoned for ages. So I have to rely on puppets like you to get a dig in now and then.”
That’s all I was to him then. A puppet. My temples were pulsating. I raked my fingers through my hair, my eyes stuck on Jack’s motionless figure. “What will happen when I drink your blood? And this time, don’t leave any of the fine print out, thanks.”
The flickering shadows danced across the sharp planes of his face. “Within minutes, the dark magic will spread through your system and be at your command. My powers will be your powers, to wield as you wish. It’s only temporary, but you’ll have enough time to leave quite the impression.”
I hesitated.
“Oh dear. Don’t tell me you’re one of those holier-than-thou witches who wouldn’t touch dark magic with a six-foot pole. Or did you think dark magic only meant practicing forbidden spellcraft? It encompasses many things, not the least of which is communing with demons.”
Jack had already told me using the mark meant calling upon dark magic. I just hadn’t thought it involved drinking demon blood. Is that what Jack had done to revive Connor?
“Will something happen to me?” I asked.
“You mean will you become a red-eyed, raging monster who eats little children at every meal and picks her teeth with the bones of her enemies? Sorry to disappoint. It isn’t nearly as grave as you’re making it out to be. The dark magic will fade away in a few days’ time. Those cautionary tales your people feed impressionable minds are about witches who continually abused dark magic. In doing so, they became its slave.”
I hesitated, doubt crawling all over my skin like hundreds of tiny insects. I hated that I had to take a demon’s word for it. What if he was lying? What if this was all some cruel trick to somehow forever bind me to him? My eyes dropped to his dagger.
“Is this what’s bothering you? Say no more.” The weapon vanished and in its place was a champagne flute filled with a near-black liquid. “Some prefer to drink straight from the source, but I can appreciate those with a bit more class. But tick-tock, little witch. We really are wasting valuable time.”
“I have a name, you know. It’s Scarlet.” I instantly regretted sharing it. I didn’t want to be on a first-name basis with a demon.
“Kai,” he replied, giving a mock bow as he smirked.
Footsteps echoed from far off, and my stomach turned over. “They’re coming.”
Kai extended the champagne flute to me with an arched brow. I wanted to wipe the amusement clean off his face.
I snatched the glass from him, his blood sloshing from side to side.
I drank.
33
I didn’t put up a fight as they strapped me to a cruciform in the Chamber, though the iron cuffs burned against my wrists and ankles. The room was aptly named. It was a torture chamber straight out of the Middle Ages, one that made my heart stutter in my chest.
Black manacles hung from the walls, joined by sinister-looking collars with nails facing inward. There was a wooden table with rollers on either end to stretch a person’s limbs, a coffin-sized iron tomb with spikes on the interior, and more cages than I could count. Nevermind the tools and instruments laid out with care on a table beside me, each one sharp and frightening.
Click, click, click.
Even with a demon at my disposal, the familiar sound filled me with paralyzing dread, as if lethal venom were slowly spreading through me. I hadn’t liked the plan Kai had shared as I drank his blood.
“Are the theatrics really necessary?” I’d asked before insisting yet again that he forget about his revenge and simply take us away from this place, my lips warm from his blood. I’d practically retched when the first drops rushed onto my tongue, only to be surprised by the sweet taste of it, and far more surprised when I easily downed the entire drink within seconds.
“I’m doing you a favor, little witch,” Kai replied, already fading into his wisps of smoke. “Do you want to elude them, or do you want to strike fear into their tiny, black hearts?”
What I wanted was for me and Jack to be alive when it was all said and done, but before I could argue further, he’d vanished with the empty, blood-stained champagne flute, and moments later, the hunters were already unlocking the cell, leaving me to simply wipe the blood from my mouth.
“It occurred to me,” the blonde woman said, stopping inches from me, “that perhaps you might have better sense than our beloved Jack here.”
Jack and I mirrored each other on opposite ends of the Chamber. He hadn’t yet roused, and his head was lolling to the side in an eerie way.
“The Chamber Master can be such an animal,” she went on. “I assure you you don’t want to endure what he’s prepared for you and Jack this evening. Between you and me, I never watch when things progress to this gruesome point. I only overse
e each detainee’s Purge.”
“What’s the Purge?” I asked. The word alone sounded horrifying. My throat felt swollen as it left my mouth.
“You poor thing. Has no one ever told you?” She tutted her tongue. “Probably for the best. It only means there isn’t nearly as much wickedness in you. The less time you’ve spent among witches, the better.”
“Why do you hate us so much?”
“Oh, it’s nothing personal, darling,” she said. “This conflict between my people and your kind has been in place for ages. But we’re only doing the sacred work we’ve been called to do. You see, you and those like you are the offspring of a most unholy union, one fashioned between man and the devil eons ago. Where do you think those abilities of yours come from? It’s the byproduct of great evil. Yours is an unnatural and dangerous bloodline that must be eradicated before you contaminate all of humanity. Otherwise, we face a future where every man, woman, and child carries a drop of the devil’s blood in their veins.”
Had the circumstances not been quite as grave, I might’ve laughed. Jack had called the members of The Black Hand zealots. He’d been much too kind. “You can’t honestly believe that.”
She secured the straps holding me in place, the edges of the leather rough against my arms. “I suppose in your stories, we’re the monsters. But tell me this: would a monster concern itself with the salvation of your soul? Call us what you will, but at the end of the day, we’re doing you a great kindness. When someone like you goes through the Purge, you’re delivered of your tainted blood. Every corrupt drop is drained from your body to free you from its evil. And when the end draws near, we administer the last rites that absolve you of your wickedness, commending your redeemed soul into the life beyond.”
The room started spinning. The food in my stomach from hours ago churned unpredictably. Kai, I said in my mind, panicked. Please tell me you’re there.
I must say, I haven’t seen Mary-Anne in years. I’m almost relieved to know she hasn’t changed in the slightest. Still as sociopathic as ever.