The Promised Witch.
Piper was lingering behind her, not a member of the council, but someone with a role to play nonetheless. Her mother must have known better than to offer her daughter kind words or a supportive hand on her shoulder. It would be overfamiliar; they weren’t there yet. Hella had warned her what the agenda of the meeting would be and, when she had arrived, taken her aside and told her only to attend if she would support Hella—which meant not supporting the production of the Deme blades. If they were going to take out the demons, it would be with their own magic. Reluctantly, Piper had agreed.
Now, three council members strolled in and sat themselves at the heads of the table. They were familiar to her from Harrow’s trial. Julie Ventus was there, her long, white hair up in an artful do that Hella thought it was too early in the morning for. There was the Mettalum, John, who had been so eager to vote Harrow guilty (Harrow had told her how he’d been during the ceremony, and she felt Harrow tighten under his gaze). Then there was Semmon Scire, stiff-backed and with his face carefully impassive. He had voted Harrow not-guilty, but she felt a wave of disapproval waft from him. The final council member, Tahlia, already sat with them. It was a bold move, Hella knew, to literally side with them, and she appreciated it. In Hella’s mind, Tahlia’s support today made up for them not rescuing her from The Force. It might be some time before she voiced that, though.
Hella got to her feet, hoping that her anxiety wasn’t written all over her face. ‘Council members, thank you for joining me.’ Tahlia had made it clear that it would be Hella who ran the meeting. It was an audience for her, after all. She would be expected to make a case for how to prevent the demonic attacks, present the information Tessa had gathered, and propose a promised-witch based solution. She had given it a lot of thought and talked to Tessa further about her demon encounter.
The council members all inclined their heads in acknowledgement. Hella had been texting with Net, confirming or discarding theories based on what he could gather in the books from the store. She had even asked Piper a few questions to formulate her plan. She was counting on this working. But the permission of the council and their support would be paramount. Hella took a steadying breath.
‘I have come to you today to propose a plan to get rid of the demons,’ Hella said, as if she needed to be specific. ‘As I’m sure you know, my name is Hellora Corvime, and I am the promised witch. With the help of those beside me, I have defeated the angels that, for so long, plagued your world. I ask for your help this time in saving you again.’ She tilted her head, measuring their reactions.
Semmon Scire looked reluctant. John Mettalum’s dark eyes slid to Harrow, angry. Julie leaned forward, her hands touching the fingers together. She was the picture of calm composure. She waved Hella on. ‘Please share this plan with us, Hella.’
Piper had come to lean behind Tommy, her back against the wall, clearly on their side, but not presumptuously seated at the table. Hella glanced at her now. ‘Some of you may know my mother, Piper Harlem. Piper shares a measure of my power. Together, we restored Warlock House.’
‘After you destroyed it.’ John seethed, his eyes on Harrow.
Hella ignored him. ‘Together, Piper and I are very powerful,’ she went on. ‘I believe, based on a witness statement, that the demons now terrorising our world, have reason to fear me.
‘Teresa Mea was approached by a demon recently and, once her blood was drawn, it would not attack, even though it was ordered to guard a post. Once she mentioned her connection to me, it ran away, terrified. Now, my plan is simple: Azazel and his demons will come here. I don’t believe he will attack Faerie House, but you should evacuate, as well as Warlock House. Piper and myself have set up a base at my store. Azazel will come for me there. We can send out pulses of magical shock waves that will kill him and his demons. I don’t, however, have full control of the damage that may inflict upon the town, which is why you need to leave.’
Hella let her words settle over them for a moment. Julie seemed to take her the most seriously. ‘And how do you suggest we evacuate? To where?’
‘Over a hundred years ago, Azazel attacked Australia. Wiped it out. We—humans—were taught that it was a massive earthquake. As history tells it, no one survived. But I happen to know someone who did. Someone who was there. Meele Scire. She also informed me that those who repopulated our country had their superstitions, their suspicions, after all, the ground was not broken the way an earthquake would have torn it. Those people, for fear of future disaster, built tunnels, going right out of Mill Valley. Piper has magicked an exit through her home in Townsville, West End, where you will all be safe while this is going down.’
Julie raised a delicate eyebrow. ‘I see. You seem to have thought this through, Hella.’
‘I have,’ Hella said. ‘There’s something else. I know each of you here represent your own Houses: Faeries and Warlocks. But there are also vampires and werewolves—’
‘We’ve gathered reports from The Force,’ Julie said, her pale brows drawn together. ‘According to their data, the vampires and wolves appear to be either working with Azazel, or have just taken advantage of the chaos and seem to be attacking more boldly.’
‘Yes.’ Hella nodded. ‘I’m not suggesting we all go and make peace, I’m saying that, despite them, there may be innocents among their packs. I want you send an envoy to each known location of a pack or nest to warn them.’
‘If they’re working with Azazel, they might betray you,’ John said. He seemed to perpetually be scowling. Hella supposed the loss of a son would do that. That didn’t excuse his behaviour, though. Every time he glowered at Harrow, she wanted to put a protective hand on his shoulder.
‘That’s a possibility,’ Hella admitted. ‘But this is the right thing to do.’
‘No offence, witch, but how do we know you can kill not only one demon, but all of them? That lot killed fourteen thousand people not three days ago,’ Semmon Scire said.
Hella felt her mouth pull into a smile. ‘I’ll get back to that in a moment, if you don’t mind. First, I need to mention that, as a former human, I’m concerned about the potential casualties of what Piper will be doing. I need you, Julie, to set up a plan with The Force to orchestrate a town-wide emergency: fire, gas, whatever. Something to get everyone to leave.’
Julie opened her mouth and closed it again. ‘We don’t do things like that.’
Hella looked at her, hard. ‘You don’t save human lives?’
Julie blinked back the insult. ‘Hella, that’s not our job.’
Hella leaned forward on the table. ‘I warned you,’ she said, her voice low and dangerous. ‘I am not of either of your Houses. It’s not my job, then, to save you?’ She let the threat hang heavy in the air. She had hoped they would step up and do the right thing. Sometimes Cambions preferred not to know. Or act. After so long, hiding from angels, they seemed to do it naturally now. ‘Have the angels rendered you all cowards in the face of adversity?’ Each one of them flinched. Even Tahlia beside her, which Hella regretted. ‘Even if I were not the promised witch, I would do my best to save every one of you—despite the horrifying ceremony you put Harrow through.’
Hella glared pointedly at each of them for their hand in hurting him.
‘Do you know why? Have you forgotten? I’m betting that most of you have at least one person in your lives that you care about. That you would want to protect. Well, so do humans. My adoptive brother is a human. He and my adoptive mother are caring for the cast-offs your Houses have kicked out, right now. We have to save the humans, and if you don’t agree, I have a back-up plan.’ She snapped up straight, daring them to refuse her.
‘Might I press my earlier point, witch? What makes you think you can take out the demons anyway?’ Semmon Scire said.
Hella pulled out the Deme blade she had claimed and placed it carefully on the table. A few of them realised what it was and leaned back, away from it. ‘This is a special w
eapon,’ Hella explained. ‘Made from severed Cambion Marks. It is an abomination that will not be tolerated, and will not be used.’
Hella reached out for Piper who came to her side. According to their plan, they held hands, focused, and created a pulse of electric force that blew up the room. Every one of them was blown backwards from their chairs, tumbling to the floor. The window’s glass pane shattered outward and the books on the shelves burst into flame. And the Deme blade, once shining and solid, was now a small black puddle of liquid searing through the wooden table like acid to melt onto the rug below.
Hella let go of Piper’s hand. ‘Believe us now?’ She couldn’t help but sound a little smug.
John swallowed visibly. ‘Very good,’ he said, now clearly nervous as they all got up off the floor. ‘Never doubted you,’ he added. ‘And, uh, if I may ask, what exactly was that back-up plan?’
Hella felt for the notebook she had tucked into the waistband of her pants. ‘Just pray to your stars that I won’t need it.’ It could get messy, Hella thought worriedly.
Julie was still busy straightening her once-perfect hair. ‘Yes, well,’ she puffed out. ‘Thank you for your, uh, display there, Hella. And Piper.’
Semmon looked a little terrified, and Hella was a little glad.
Hella looked down at her little group: Harrow was wearing a wicked grin, completely pleased. Tahlia looked a little shaken, but mostly awe-struck. Tommy looked entirely unruffled as usual, but he was smiling. ‘That was a good plan,’ Piper murmured to her quietly. The council took their leave, probably wanting to put some space between them for the moment.
Only Julie remained behind. ‘Um.’ She cleared her throat politely. ‘Hella, when are we to do all of this? When is it all going to happen?’
Hella looked out the broken window. ‘Tonight,’ she said. ‘It’ll all happen tonight.’
Hella sat quietly in a window alcove of the Faerie Library, under orders not to be disturbed. Astral projection still required a lot of concentration on her part: she admitted it was her weakest power (though, after her trip to Valhalla, it was certainly improving, even if she had set a fire there). She focused on what she wanted to find, the darkness of his being, and zeroed in quickly.
‘Azazel,’ Hella said, looking at the demon. He was facing a mirror, the same old man with yellow eyes who had soundlessly chuckled at her in the street that day. His eyes glowed again now, seeing her. He was wearing a sharp suit, mostly in human-form, but when he saw her, a black mist seemed to seep out of his pores.
‘Witch,’ he said. A black forked tongue escaped his lips and he whirled around.
‘When I first saw you, I didn’t know what you were,’ she told him conversationally. ‘But then I learned what I am.’ She touched her fingers to the amulet around her neck. ‘I was told what I was supposed to be. I was prophesied.’ She stepped a little closer to him, and realised that they were standing in a cave with a hole in the wall that peered out over the ocean. ‘And then you came to me, and you were the first one to offer me a choice. Did you know that?’
Azazel straightened his tie. An oddly human mannerism. ‘No,’ he said. ‘But I’m sorry to say that I’m not surprised. Is that why you’ve come here now?’
‘You know, it was humans who locked me up, at the behest of my old guardian. She worried I was too powerful to be controlled.’ Hella hated how all of this was true. ‘And when I got out, even after defeating the angels as I was made to do, they said my job wasn’t done.’ She hung her head. ‘They all want me for my powers, but they don’t care what I want. I’ve lost friends and loved ones.’ Her tale might be twisted, but her guilt and anger were real. ‘I still wonder what would have happened if I had gone to meet you that night.’
Azazel looked at her the way you might look at child who had been robbed of a candy. ‘Oh, child. Such sadness.’ He tilted his head, unnerving yellow eyes following her. ‘Why have to come to me?’
‘I want a choice,’ she said firmly.
‘And what do you want to choose?’
She looked him over. He was alone in his cave. Where the other demons were, she could not tell. A part of her wanted to kill him here and now—though that wouldn’t work in astral form, and was not the plan. ‘I want to choose you. Freedom. I don’t want to be used.’
Azazel smiled and she did her best not to let her chills show. ‘I see, little witch. You would be welcome with my kind. Where are you?’
‘I’m in Mill Valley. At the store where you first found me.’
‘Well, come to me. I see you’ve found me here.’
‘I can’t. They won’t let me leave. I’m theirs.’ She let her anger and pain colour her voice. ‘You have to come to me. Bring your demons, your forces.’ Her eyes blazed in purple fire. ‘Burn them all down, and get me out of here!’
Azazel looked positively giddy. ‘I will come for you, little witch. But I need only one promise from you in return.’
‘What is that?’
‘You’ve met your mother, haven’t you? Your real one.’
‘Yes,’ she said. This wasn’t part of the plan. What was he talking about?
‘Once I’ve freed you, Hella. I want you to find out who your father is. Where your power comes from. Can you do that?’ Azazel asked.
It was something she had asked Grace, but she hadn’t known. Hella hadn’t asked Piper, but she was curious. She nodded in agreement.
‘When shall I come for you?’
‘Tonight,’ Hella said. ‘Come at sunset. Come and get me.’
Chapter Seventy-Four
Immego
‘This is incredible,’ he said, staring out the window at the line that had formed outside their house. ‘Are you seeing this, Jac, more are turning up by the minute. Word has spread. They know we’re making Deme blades.’
Jacqueline was busy pouring out the liquid Marks into the moulds. ‘I know.’ She glanced up at him with a grin. ‘I can’t keep up. You’ll have to sever them and set them aside until I’m ready.’
Immego nodded, letting another one in. This was an older woman who had clearly been living on the streets for some time. Her clothes were tattered rags and she was too thin. ‘You’re the ones making those weapons, aren’t you?’ She looked up into Immego’s eyes, her own pale brown ones full of hope. ‘You’re the ones who are going to save us from the demons, right?’
He led her inside. He had set up his bedroom accordingly, some of the others waiting in the loungeroom, their bellies being filled with warm soup. ‘Yes,’ he said, leading her into the plastic-covered room. ‘We are. But we need your help.’
‘You just need our Marks, don’t you?’ Her thin mouth crinkled into a smile. ‘I can help you.’
‘Of course you can. Let me see you,’ Immego said, and she shimmered obligingly.
A smattering of obsidian-black Marks sprouted along her wrinkled skin, their smoothness unaffected by her age.
‘Very nice,’ Immego said. ‘You’ll be rewarded for your bravery.’ He set the money down on the counter. He took up his Deme blade and began slicing off her Marks to add to the ever-growing pile.
This is how they win the war, he thought. This is how it was meant to be. He would be a hero.
Chapter Seventy-Five
Hella
Hella blinked and was back to her body in the library. She let the creepiness of her conversation with Azazel wash over her and did a weird full-body shudder. Hella heard a giggle.
‘What are you doing?’ Tessa emerged from behind a stack of books, obviously she had been watching her.
‘Oh,’ Hella said, feeling a little embarrassed. ‘I was, uh, never mind. What are you doing?’
Tessa held up a book. ‘I know the world is kind of ending—again—but I love reading.’ She smiled sheepishly. ‘I just love books.’
Hella smiled. ‘So do I, you know. Actually, I wanted to be a writer.’
Tessa came over and sat with her in the wi
ndow alcove. ‘That’s wonderful. Though, from what I saw from the meeting, the way you spoke, how brave you were, maybe you could be a teacher.’
‘You were eavesdropping in the meeting too? How?’ Hella narrowed her eyes at the girl.
‘I might have been hiding in one of the closets,’ Tessa said, partially hiding her face behind her book. ‘What? No one tells me anything, so I have to find out for myself.’
Hella chuckled. ‘Well, I don’t think I would ever be cut out to be a teacher. I don’t even go to school anymore,’ she added. ‘Do you guys have teachers?’
‘Sort of. We have the same people for everything. Whether it’s the council members, our own family, or just another one of our House, there’s always someone to teach somebody: about history, or cooking, or magic and things like that. But it would be great if we had someone to teach us about humans, and witches,’ Tessa said dreamily.
‘It would be great if someone had taught me about all this before it exploded into my life,’ Hella admitted. It was hard to remember what life had been like before, but she knew it would have been easier if she had somehow grown up with this knowledge. If she had known who she really was. Perhaps she wouldn’t still be scrambling to catch up. Maybe she wouldn’t have hurt Harrow with her over-healing, or collapsed Warlock House, if she’d grown up with her magic.
Tessa looked at her quizzically. ‘That must be weird,’ she said sympathetically.
‘Of course, you guys all know who you are when you’re young, don’t you? Why is it that humans are always left in the dark?’ Hella said.
‘Because maybe they can’t handle the truth,’ Harrow offered, letting himself into the library. ‘How’d it go?’
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