by Sara Snow
Carter seemed to think for a minute. “I don’t know, but whatever it is, it doesn’t seem good.”
I think we could all agree on that. Our relaxing breakfast was quickly turning into another mission.
Jacob
Getting into Paimon’s palace was never going to not be completely nerve-wracking. The security outside was even more intense than usual, and I was sure they were expecting us to try something again. I hated that I was making Paimon right, but there was no way I wasn’t going to try if there was any way I could help Georgia get through this a little more easily. I had to reassure myself several times on the drive over and once again as I was standing in front of the gates after hiding my car farther away than usual, since I didn’t have the benefit of Olympia’s cloaking spell to hide the car this time.
It was still too early for the sun to be up and demons circled the dark perimeters at regular intervals. I peeked over the stone fence around the yard, counting at least ten demons that would stand in my way. I was starting to get nervous. I knew my plan was half-baked at best, but this wasn’t the time to start second-guessing myself. I had to dive in completely or I would never be able to pull this off. I slipped my backpack off my shoulder, digging around for Olympia’s potion. I popped the top off and gave it a hesitant waft, the odor sending my nose into overdrive with a raw, earthy smell that reminded me more of manure than a perfectly clear liquid.
I took a deep breath, pressing the bottle to my lips and throwing my head back, letting the liquid slide down my throat as I chugged as fast as I could. Surprisingly, the aftertaste left in my mouth once I’d finished was less manure-like and more reminiscent of plain dirt with maybe a few fragrant herbs to liven things up. It wasn’t good, but given what I’d expected it to taste like, it was a pleasant surprise.
I sat for a moment, giving a bit of pause for the potion to take effect. It didn’t feel any different, but as I studied my hands, I began to see it take effect. It boggled my mind a bit to watch myself disappear, though it was a bit of a different transformation than last time. When Olympia had casted her spell over us, we had had this iridescent, mirage-like look for a moment before we became completely invisible. I was sort of waiting for that to happen now, but the shimmering, oil-slick appearance didn’t seem to be going away.
I was a bit worried by that point. When I looked at myself, I was, for all intents and purposes, mostly invisible. The fact that the sun hadn’t risen yet was another point in my favor and would hopefully conceal whatever image of me was left perceptible to the naked eye. I was in too deep at this point, and I had to commit.
Taking a deep breath, I slid around the stone fence, carefully timing my movements so that I was only in motion when as many demons as possible were looking away. One step at a time, careful not to crunch too loudly on the grass or kick any rogue stones laying around, I walked towards the fortress. It was painstaking, each step sending adrenaline rampaging through my body, and I was sure that if demons had sharpened hearing, they’d be able to hear my heart beating at a considerable distance.
I was treading into dangerous territory, beginning to cross over the paths of the guards, carefully lowering myself to a crouch to hopefully avoid being spotted at eye level. I went to take a step but froze suddenly, a guard turning sharply and unexpectedly back only a few yards away, heading directly for me. If he tripped over me, I was screwed. I held my breath, shifting to the side as subtly as possible to get out of his way without attracting too much attention to myself.
A drop of nervous sweat dripped down my face as he grew closer, his heavy boots crushing the grass in his path. I was too close to keep moving safely, simply hugging my knees to my chest with my head down.
After what felt like a hundred years, the guard marched past me. He was so close that I could feel the slight breeze behind him, yet not close enough that his cape had brushed me. I waited a few moments to give him time to increase our distance and then slowly exhaled my held breath in relief.
I made it to the front door and slipped inside, relieved that at least that was over. The inside presented a new challenge, though. With my mirage-like shimmer, the torches were much more of an obstacle than they had ever been, making my glow even harder to ignore and worse yet, it seemed to be wearing off altogether. I caught the occasional glimpse of my skin as a wave of visibility washed over me periodically, becoming more and more frequent as I continued on.
The hallways were just as I’d remembered them, decorated with frequent alcoves housing statues and paintings, some with decorative drapes or other display cases lining the walls. It seemed like hiding myself was going to be my best bet.
I crept through hallway after hallway as my potion wore off, making me more and more visible. I was cautious, taking turns with cautious deliberation. As I wandered through, I was taking stock of my surroundings, noting any rooms that seemed to stick out as being important, wondering if I’d be able to find any hints in a special library or office or something of the sort.
Guards seemed to be relatively easy to dodge after I’d gotten the hang of it, managing to duck behind statues and drapes if any did happen to approach. It never calmed my nerves, though. With every approaching footstep, my heart was racing, always on edge.
Remember who you’re doing this for.
And when I did, the fear melted away, at least for the time being.
Georgia
Things were getting strange. We had all hurried our way through breakfast, trying our best to come up with any ideas as to where Jacob could have gone or what he could have been doing, but all I could do was worry when I should have been theorizing. The absence of the Telum prong had me worried more than anything. I couldn’t imagine what he could be doing with it, especially since it didn’t seem to respond magically to anyone except me. I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
Carter and I decided to search his room for any clues we could find as to where he’d gone. I almost expected a note, but I supposed that would have been too easy. We looked around, though we didn’t really find anything outwardly suspicious. His backpack was missing, but that seemed like it should’ve been expected regardless of where he went. Taking a backpack wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Or at least, that’s what I told myself.
“You know where he possibly went, right?” Carter asked me as we searched fruitlessly for clues.
“I do,” I said.
“And what if he didn’t go there to fight?”
“What do you mean?”
Carter took a breath. “What if he went there to return the piece of the Telum to Paimon?”
I was speechless. I knew Carter didn’t get along with Jacob, but that was a bold accusation to be making. I could hardly even begin to process it.
Carter seemed to sense my shock, continuing. “Think about it, Georgia. He’s at a low point. He lost his dad and it’s clearly taking a toll on him. We can’t even give him any dumb platitudes about Kingston being in a better place or whatever because we don’t know that he is! Kingston was supposed to return to his angelic form after defeating the Tenebris, but we haven’t done that yet and now he’s dead. Jacob has absolutely no way to know what happened to his father now, and Kingston is the only one who would have been able to answer that question.” Carter held up Kingston’s notebooks, which he’d picked up off Jacob’s desk. “He clearly has been trying to figure all of this out, and my bet is that it’s not working so well.”
“Carter, that’s…” I couldn’t find the words. “Jacob wouldn’t—”
“Think about it, Georgia. Paimon is a demon king with knowledge of almost anything you could think of. Who else would be able to say what happened to a fallen angel who died? And he has a bargaining chip now. He can leverage that information in exchange for the return of the dagger. Or at least, he probably thinks he can. He’s still new to this; he doesn’t know as much about this stuff as we do. Maybe he thinks those demons will actually bargain with him like in the movies.”
I couldn’t believe that. It just didn’t make sense. Something wasn’t adding up, but I had to admit that it was starting to seem bad. When Olympia rushed into the room seeming completely freaked out, I knew things were about to get worse.
“My potion,” she huffed, out of breath. “Some of my potion is missing!”
“What potion?” Carter asked.
“Remember that invisibility potion I was brewing? The one that wasn’t ready in time to go in to get Georgia from the palace? I went to add the last ingredient after breakfast and there’s less liquid in there than there should be,” she said.
Carter and I perked up, and suddenly I feared the worst.
“Are you sure about that? Do you know exactly how much should be in there?” I asked.
“I’m a hundred-percent positive. Potion brewing needs to be precise—it may be magic, but it’s almost a science. It’s short almost exactly five hundred milliliters,” she confirmed.
My heart sank. I didn’t want to believe that Jacob would just steal from Olympia and go off like this, but the evidence was getting stronger and stronger for Carter’s case. As if he could sense my distress, he placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Maybe there’s a good explanation for it. Maybe… I don’t know, maybe Paimon put a spell on him when he was in the castle at some point or maybe he charmed him somehow. I’m trying not to jump to conclusions for real. All that before was… Well, I was just thinking out loud, I guess,” he said. “Either way, we have to figure out exactly what happened to make him leave. We’ll get the others to look around the rest of the warehouse, maybe see if he left any clues anywhere else and we’ll figure it out. Ok?”
I was sure he was only walking it back for my sake, but it did help just a little to hear it. I pressed myself into him, letting him wrap his arms around me.
“We’ll figure it out,” I said, more to myself than to him.
“Yeah, Georgia. Yeah we will.”
Carter
Jacob, you fucking bastard.
I did my best to control myself, definitely not wanting to upset Georgia further, but this was just unbelievable. This was how he wanted to lead the Venandi? By running off to a demon king the second things got hard? I knew he’d be a bad leader, but this was something else entirely. I was nearing rage, but I preferred to keep it to myself for the time being until I could find concrete proof of my theory. For whatever it was worth, he was still Georgia’s friend and I had to do my due diligence before making any more accusations, though Olympia’s missing potion seemed to be pretty damning as far as I was concerned.
All of this was so strange. Why now? Why not join up with the demons when we were already in their castle? I got that maybe he didn’t have a bargaining chip yet since he didn’t know about the dagger, but surely he could have come up with some other way to save himself a trip if this was his plan. Maybe he’d thought of it spontaneously once he saw the dagger piece and couldn’t avoid a trip back at that point. I didn’t know what was going through his head, but whatever it was was completely idiotic.
“Why don’t you keep looking in here and see if you can find anything else,” I said to Georgia, finally pulling her from me. “I’m going to go look around elsewhere and see if I can’t figure this out. Maybe we’re overlooking something.”
Georgia nodded and I turned to go. I wasn’t even sure what to look for or where to go. I just needed to walk and think. I had to make this make sense somehow. There was an explanation, and I was going to figure it out, even if that explanation was that Jacob was a bastard traitor who sold us out for information.
23
Jacob
I wandered for so long, feeling like I was walking in circles. I had to admit in that moment that in my excitement about the prospect of helping Georgia, I’d forgotten about the magic that kept the layout of the castle constantly shifting, beginning to get frustrated as I found myself walking through the same dining hall again for what felt like the third time. I felt like an idiot for thinking I could rationalize my way through it.
By that point, my semi-invisibility had worn completely off and I was getting close to deciding to quit. I checked my phone, wondering if I could make a phone call to Olympia to help me scry my way out of here, but naturally there was no signal. I hadn’t really expected there to be, but the disappointment was there all the same. That was when I heard a guard with much lighter footsteps approaching, and I hurriedly ducked into a small alcove that would hopefully keep me out of sight.
I was a bit thrown off by the lightness of the footsteps. As they approached, the whisper-quiet steps didn’t seem to grow much louder, though I could hear a bit of urgency in their quick pace, and I had a harder time gauging their distance. I started to doubt that it was a guard at all, assuming that anyone marching the halls would have much louder footfalls than that, a theory which was quickly confirmed when I saw a girl sweep past me dressed in a beautiful flowing dress, white hair reaching her waist. My mind was suddenly drawn back to the girl that Georgia had mentioned—the cambion from the palace whose name was escaping me.
I felt bold. If she helped Georgia, then surely she’d help me too. Or at least I had to assume. At this point, I was running out of options and she seemed like the best one. Quietly, so as not to scare her, I stepped from my hiding place, pausing behind her.
“Um, excuse me,” I said as gently as I could.
She turned quickly, her eyes wide, irises a beautiful violet just like Georgia’s. I couldn’t help but admire her beauty, her dark skin seeming to glow, the delicate curve of her waist flattered by her dress. Her plump lips parted slightly in a small gasp, and for a moment I almost forgot what I was going to say.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” I said, holding my hands up to indicate no harm. “I’m just a little lost and I was hoping you could help me.”
She looked around and for a moment I feared she was looking for a guard, though she stayed still, just watching me.
“Are you… an intruder?” she asked, her voice as soft and silky as her footsteps, though it wavered slightly.
“No! I mean, I guess technically yes?” I asked, trying to seem casual. “Sorry about that. I promise I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important. I’m a friend of Georgia’s.”
She relaxed a bit, though she seemed to reserve a bit of caution, still keeping her distance from me. The look in her wide eyes shifted from fright to curiosity, cocking her head slightly to the side.
“You’re Georgia’s friend?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m actually here to help her,” I said, nodding. I knew that it was a bit of a long shot, but at that point I was desperate. It seemed like a good time to test the effect the power of my angelic veracity would have on a half-human. I considered my words carefully, deciding which phrasing would cause her to truly believe she needed to help me.
“We need to find the other two pieces of this… this magic trident. It’s important. The only way to save Georgia’s life is by finding those pieces and it’s important that you help me.”
“I see… You’re looking for the pieces of the telum,” she said.
“I have to get these dagger pieces… the telum. I have to help Georgia get the telum or else she’ll be in grave danger.”
The girl’s lips pursed as she seemed to think. I thought for a moment, wondering if I’d been too vague before. I figured that maybe I had to say something more concrete with less room for interpretation.
“You need to help me,” I said.
That would be it. No ambiguity, no fluff, it didn’t rely on her emotional connection to Georgia, and it was straight to the point. Not to mention the fact that I, myself, absolutely believed it was true, so there was no room for error on my part.
She turned back to me, worrying at her bottom lip. She surveyed the hallway we were in, spotting a door nearby and gesturing to me to follow her. She opened it, revealing a small, dark room full nearly to the brim with shelves and supplies.
“Hide in here for just a few minutes,” she said. “I have an idea.”
I hesitated. I began to debate whether or not my angelic power had worked on her, doing my best not to set myself up for a trap. I looked at her, and she must have seen the hesitation in my eyes.
“I know where the guards keep their spare uniforms. Wait here while I get you one and we can walk around the castle as we please,” she said.
I didn’t have many options besides trusting her. If worse came to worse and I had to fight her or a few guards, I thought I would be ok. If she went and brought any of the higher up demons to wrangle me, though, I’d be in hot water. But if I didn’t at least try this, then I was left back at square one.
I braced myself, hoping that willingly hiding in a demon’s closet wasn’t going to be the stupid thing that got me killed. I stepped in and watched her close the door behind me, leaving me in the tiny space to wait anxiously for her return. It seemed to take her forever and in the meantime I found myself holding my phone with the flashlight on and studying the shelves, all seeming to contain various household items that seemed standard for a castle—spare sconces and torch holders, drapes, out of commission decorative pillows, and a few other things that almost seemed too mundane to be found in a demon’s palace.
The longer I waited, the more antsy I got. I found myself pacing as much as the space would allow, the possibility of being ambushed by demons when I next emerged from the closet becoming increasingly real. I had a bit of anxiety surrounding the thought that maybe, because she was only half human, my power hadn’t worked on her and she would be alerting guards to my presence right at that very moment. My brain started coming up with all sorts of horrific images of that huge demon with a war hammer, envisioning his three closest friends standing with their oversized weapons just outside the door waiting to pummel me when I opened the door, or some equally stressful hypothetical fight awaiting me.