Black Spells & Twisted Souls

by Cece Rose

  Without any more hesitation, I slice my hand lightly, before gripping the candle in my bleeding hand. “Corporis animati, novissimi una loqui.”

  The candle quickly flares to life, a blue flame shooting up from the wick. I gasp from the strong current of magic rolling through me, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. The magic flows from me and to the body lying beside me. A blue glow shines over the corpse, and his eyes suddenly shoot open.

  “She knows I remember,” Jay’s voice says frantically.

  “Who knows?” Detective Huxley asks, stepping closer.

  “She knows and she’s coming. I should have got rid of the pictures. Why didn’t I get rid of the pictures?” Jay asks us, his voice trembling. His body shakes, but he doesn’t move from his position lying down.

  “What pictures? Who is coming?” the detective demands again. I feel my entire body tremble along with Jay’s as he begins screaming in agony. Hands catch me and hold me up steady. I look at the detective curiously, surprised at him saving me from falling. “I’ve got you, try and keep the connection going a little longer,” he whispers.

  “She’s so mad. She tried to make me forget, but I wouldn’t. I saw things, things I shouldn’t know!” he shouts, his voice cracking with the words as they break off into screeches.

  “What photos?” I ask, trying a different tactic. Both times he’d asked about whoever she was, he’d freaked out.

  “Safe in my desk. She’ll never find them. She wasn’t meant to know I had them, but she found me looking for more,” he says. He starts crying, but the tears that fall are bloody, and stain his face red. I turn away, trying to hold onto the connection still without vomiting. My head turns into the detective’s chest, and he holds me tightly as he continues asking the corpse questions.

  “What desk?”

  “My desk. She’ll never find them in there,” he says.

  “Your desk at work?” the detective asks, trying to get some clarification.

  “She’s coming!” he screeches again. I scream with him, feeling every drop of terror he’s experiencing rush through me.

  “I can’t keep this going,” I cry, beginning to sob.

  “It’s okay. We have something. You can let go,” he says soothingly.

  “I don’t know how,” I mumble, leaning into his chest more. I know I’d fall if it wasn’t for him holding me up.

  “Just drop the candle, it’ll release him,” he explains gently. I take a deep breath, and let go. I feel the candle hit the floor, and all the energy and fear that was rushing through me dissipates in an instant. What doesn’t fade is my urge to vomit. I push away from the detective and only make it a few steps before I fall onto my knees and throw up the entire contents of my stomach onto the floor.

  “Are you okay, Kayla?” he asks from behind me once I’ve finished throwing up.

  “Just peachy, Detective Huxley,” I mutter.

  “Call me Kier, please. After that, I really feel we’re beyond formalities,” he mutters. Weirdly, I find myself agreeing with him. He did just break the law with me in order to solve a murder. I feel like we weirdly bonded over the bizarre situation. I wipe my mouth and turn around, seeing him wheel Jay’s resting corpse back into the cold locker. I breathe easier once he’s shut the locker door, putting the body out of my sight.

  “We need to go look in his desk,” I announce, pulling myself back up into a standing position.

  “We aren’t doing anything, you can’t come with me,” he says.

  “I have a security key card that will give us access to the building. Do you really want to wait for a warrant to search it, knowing that whoever did this might try and get to it first?” I ask, swallowing my nerves again. I’m determined to see this through. I had to know who did this. I had to find out the truth.

  He looks at me for a moment, and I can see the calculation in his eyes. “Fine. Let’s go. Are you good to move now?” he asks.

  “I’m fine,” I lie. He nods, heading for the door. I grab my bag off the floor and follow him from the room without a single look back. Shivering as I pass through the doorway, I hope that I’ll never have to come here again.

  Twenty-Seven

  Friend or Killer?

  “It’s just this way,” I whisper as we creep into the office from the stairway entrance. He’d insisted we walk up them, despite my complaints. I’d told him that it’s after closing, and that we didn’t have to worry about being quiet, to which he’d told me to shut up. And then he reminded me that the murderer might be hanging around. I’d promptly shut my mouth and walked up the stairs, even if my calves are now burning.

  “Which is his desk?” Kier asks quietly.

  “It’s just over—” the words catch in my throat as I see a familiar figure leaning over Jay’s old desk, all the drawers are hanging open, and she’s rummaging through them, trying to find something. Please no.

  “Freeze. Turn around and put your hands behind your head. If you make any attempt to use magic or pull a weapon, I will take you down before you can even blink. Do you understand me?” Kier calls confidently.

  As she turns around, her eyes widen in surprise when they land on me.

  “Please tell me you’re here because you’re trying to find a way to clear my name,” I say, looking at Lizzy pleadingly.

  “I’m sorry, Kayla,” she replies quietly, before directing her gaze at Kier. “It’s not what it looks like.”

  “Then tell me what it is?” he asks.

  “I can’t, but I didn’t kill him.” She looks back at me seriously. “Please, Kay. You’ve got to believe I didn’t.”

  “Somehow I find that hard to believe considering the fact your messing with evidence.” Kier steps closer towards her.

  “It’s not evidence of what you think it is. I didn’t kill him, but he was blackmailing me,” she explains.

  “Blackmailing you with what?” I ask, earning a dirty look from Kier.

  “I can’t tell you that right now,” she says, giving a pointed look at the man standing beside me.

  “Step away from the desk, Miss Everleigh,” he instructs.

  “There’s nothing in there anyway,” she says, moving away as instructed.

  Kier looks between me, the desk, and Lizzy. “Kayla, go look in the desk,” he demands, keeping his eyes firmly on Lizzy.

  “Are you sure that’s a—”

  “Look. In. The. Desk.” He growls. Biting my lip, I walk over to the desk slowly.

  “Hurry up,” he snaps. Somehow, I find the will to force my feet to move quicker. “Check for anything unusual and hold it up so I can see it.”

  “Okay,” I agree, casting an apologetic look at Lizzy, as I kneel down to look through the drawers. A few pens, notepads, holiday request forms he hadn’t signed off on. Nothing really catches my eye. “There’s nothing in here,” I say, breathing out a sigh of relief.

  “Check the drawers for false bottoms,” he instructs, as he steps a little closer to Lizzy. I sneak a quick look her way, and notice the panic in her wide eyes. She hadn’t thought to check for them.

  I take a deep breath and check the first of the three drawers. Nothing. I close it and check the second, nothing there either. My hand shakes as I go for the third. Panic spreads through me as a thin panel pulls up from the bottom of the drawer, revealing a small compartment that was hidden away at the bottom. A small brown folder sits inside. I lift it up, holding it in sight.

  “What’s in the folder? Open it up and show me,” Kier asks.

  “Please don’t let him look, Kayla,” Lizzy pleads.

  I turn around, so I’m facing the two of them. I open the folder so that I can see the contents, and nobody else. My eyes widen as I see what is hidden inside, a sick twisted feeling churning in my stomach. Photos. Lots and lots of photos.

  There are pictures of me, pictures of Lizzy, pictures of pretty much every woman between the ages of eighteen and thirty in our office. None of the pictures look like they were taken with
the person’s knowledge. I know for sure that mine weren’t. There are three photos of me near the top of the file. Me sitting back, eyes closed on the tube on a rare quiet night. And the other two were snapped through windows of my house. One is of me and Lizzy sitting on the kitchen counter, but the last one is worse. Me in nothing but a towel walking through my bedroom. I must have left the curtains open or something.

  Swallowing the sickened feeling, I keep looking through, and after passing through the first few photos of everyone, I notice that there are increasingly more photos of Lizzy. I freeze, looking at one photo seeing something any witch would kill to protect themselves from, or at least, try an illegal memory spell to clean up the mess.

  I start flicking through again, and the perverted pictures turn into something else. Investigation pictures. He was investigating Lizzy, and he’d found a lot. There are photos of Lizzy using magic. Lots of them. This is something that doesn’t just risk Lizzy, but our entire race. Multiple races.

  “How long have you known about this?” I croak.

  “Two months, but I took care of it, Kay. I made him forget,” she insists.

  “Made him forget what?” Kier asks, stepping towards me, holding out a hand.

  “Don’t show him!” Lizzy snaps, and I know why she’s worried. Revealing ourselves to a human was a crime. We’re meant to be careful when we practice magic. Hide our gifts from the humans, and she’d been photographed using hers on multiple occasions. Too many. Accidents can happen, but there’s no way she wouldn’t be charged with careless endangerment of our secret. Plus the illegal memory spell. Plus killing…

  “Did you kill him?” I ask seriously, looking at her. I know she’d denied it before, but this was worth killing over for most people. I could see why she’d do it.

  “I didn’t. I swear,” she answers, meeting my eyes dead on without blinking. Kier snatches the folder as we’re distracted. We stand locked in place as he looks down at the images.

  “Holy shit,” he breathes.

  “Duck!” Lizzy shouts, I hit the floor just as a flash of light zooms across at Kier. I crawl behind a desk and look up seeing as he blocks the hit and sends flames shooting back at her. I stay down behind the desk, not knowing what to do as they exchange more blows, blocking each other’s attacks with ease. They’re both so skilled, I can’t even begin to predict an outcome here, other than the office getting destroyed. Some misdirected spells explode furniture, or set fire to patches of carpet. It takes me a minute to realise that both of them are taking care to keep the chaos from hitting me.

  Kier shoots a spell that looks like red lightning off in three consecutive bursts. Lizzy blocks the first with a shield charm, the second by moving out of the way, but the third hits her square in the chest. She crashes to the floor. I jump up from my hiding spot, rushing over to her.

  “What the hell did you do?” I screech, looking up at Kier as he walks over.

  “She’ll be fine. From my spell anyway, maybe not so much from all the time I can see her spending in The Tomb.” His face is empty as he says it,

  “She said she didn’t kill him,” I whisper.

  “She had motive, and he pretty much identified her as his killer, Kayla. I know this is hard, as she’s your friend, but she was going to let you take the fall for this. Think about it for a second, she knew what really happened, and she let the suspicion fall on you. She didn’t even tell you the truth,” he says, kneeling next to me. I can hear the words he’s saying, and they make some sense, but she’s my friend, and I wouldn’t let her be thrown into The Tomb.

  Words I never thought I’d utter without setting a protective circle first run through my head, but the last week has changed everything for me. The decision is made before I can even contemplate the consequences, but honestly, the consequences of not taking this risk outweigh anything else for me. I take a deep breath. “Solas, I summon you,” I whisper.

  The smell of brimstone filters into the room first, and I swear the smell brings me relief.

  “What the hell is that?” Kier asks, I turn to face him and see his nostrils flare as he looks around.

  “Solas?” I call. As if on cue, the demon appears in front of me, smiling wider than the Cheshire Cat as he appears in his humanoid form.

  “You called, little witch?” he drawls.

  “You summoned a demon…without a circle? Are you insane?” Kier shouts, throwing up an undrawn circle around himself.

  “I’m safe for now. He owes me one.” I turn my attention back to the demon. “I have an offer for how you can repay me.”

  “I’m listening,” he says, his eyes darting around at the chaos surrounding us.

  “You’ll take my friend Lizzy away from here, and when she wakes up, you’ll take her anywhere she wants to go, somewhere safe. And you will not cause her or anyone else any harm as you do so,” I say.

  “There’s more, isn’t there? I can tell from that look on your face, it’s all conflicted,” Solas responds. I step closer to the demon, wanting to make sure Kier doesn’t hear this part.

  “You’re going to erase the last few minutes from the detective’s memory, make him forget you were ever here. Place a false memory in his head. Lizzy knocked him out, not the other way around. She escaped on her own. I was powerless to stop her.” I swallow thickly, looking at Lizzy’s unconscious body trying to see if any regret in this decision comes to me, but it doesn’t. “To me, this is worth more than the original deal we had, and I’ll take it in its place. Will you?” I ask, looking back up at his black, depthless eyes.

  “We have a deal, Kayla Harlow,” he confirms. Both Lizzy and Solas vanish from thin air. I sag with relief that she’s out of harm’s way.

  “What the hell did you just do?” Kier shouts at me, and I turn around, watching as he drops his circle now that the threat is gone.

  “I’m sorry,” I whisper, just as Solas reappears behind him, placing his fingers on either side of Kier’s head. Kier’s eyes roll back, and I notice that Solas has closed his own in concentration. He suddenly collapses to the floor, and Solas meets my gaze from where he’s standing over Kier’s now unconscious body.

  “It’s done. Our deal is complete,” he says, tilting his head as he looks at me curiously. The gesture is almost animal-like, and I wonder if his time stuck in the cat form affected him in some way. “You didn’t remember to banish me properly, little witch. I could kill you right now, and there’s not a thing you could do to stop me,” he whispers. My eyes widen as I realise that he’s right. I hadn’t made my terms specific to guard myself from him attacking me. I’d only protected those that are around as he takes Lizzy somewhere safe, and Lizzy isn’t here right now. I open my mouth to speak, but he waves me off with a flourish of his hand. “Maybe next time,” he utters, before vanishing again.

  I stare at the empty space for a few moments, before I realise he really has left. He let me live. Just went on his merry way. I choke on a strangled laugh that slips out from me. I can’t believe it.

  A groan comes from the floor, and I rush down to Kier’s side.

  “Are you okay?” I ask, hoping that I sound concerned.

  “What happened?” he asks groggily, as he tries to sit up. He falls back, clutching at his head. “Fuck that hurts,” he grunts, and I can’t help but notice his fangs are flashing. I wonder if I should scoot a little back from him or not.

  “She knocked you out, and then she jumped herself out of here. I’m sorry, I couldn’t stop her,” I lie, silently praying to the goddess that between the altered memories and my story, he would believe it.

  “It’s okay. It’s not your job to apprehend criminals,” he responds, trying again to pull himself up. He manages to get into a sitting position this time, and he tugs his phone out of his pocket as his fangs retract. “I need to call this in, and you’re going to have to explain everything that happened. Probably multiple times.” He gives me an apologetic look, but presses the phone quickly to his ear and turns away,
not giving me a chance to argue the matter. It wasn’t up for discussion.

  “Great,” I mutter to myself, sitting back against a desk as I pull my knees up to my chest. “Just how I wanted to spend my Sunday night.”

  I close my eyes and tune everything out. I’m going to burn that damn grimorie grandma left me when I get home. It’s caused more trouble than it’s worth.

  Twenty-Eight

  I’ll see you soon, Sweetheart

  It doesn’t feel the same anymore as I walk into work. I’d been cleared as a person of interest in the case, and I’d gotten the call that I could come back to work today. They actually said that they no longer felt my presence in the workplace was inappropriate. I should be furious, but if anything, I feel numb as I look around the office. There are no signs of the events that had taken place. They must have got a pretty damn good clean-up team in to hide the magical mess that had been caused.

  It’s hard to believe that it was only two nights ago that I’d watched my friend disappear. I’d broken god knows how many laws in my search to find my boss’s real killer, and then I’d broken even more, when I’d helped the new main suspect escape. But she was my best friend—she is my best friend. I look at her empty desk, the one right next to mine, and I feel my heart clench.

  Nobody ever tells you that you can feel broken-hearted from losing friends.

  There are a million break up songs for failed romantic relationships, and yet I could find nothing that encompassed the sheer emptiness I felt from losing my best friend. I might never see her again. She could be in hiding forever. She could get hurt, and she would have no way to reach out for help while running from her possible crimes.

  My teeth graze my bottom lip, and I suck in a deep breath, before letting it out slowly while trying to stay calm. I know there is every chance that she’s guilty, and that I had helped an actual criminal escape... Oddly, I find myself realising that I would have helped her even if I did truly believe her completely guilty. I guess I really am the kind of friend that helps you bury the body. I just couldn’t watch her get taken away.