The Haunted High Series Boxed Set

by Cheree Alsop

  “Finn, you’re supposed to be resting!” Dara said.

  “Looks like he’s doing anything but that,” Briggs said with a look of disapproval on his face.

  “Wait,” I gasped. “I need…I need to know how to tell….”

  I sucked in a breath in an attempt not to pass out. I put my hands on my knees.

  Professor Briggs must have seen something in my expression because he crossed to me and set a hand on my back. “Take your time. Breathe. You can ask us anything, but we need to be able to understand you.”

  I felt it the moment Dara set a hand on my arm. My panicked breathing slowed and my thundering heartbeat eased. The fears that had pressed against me faded until I could think again. I rose and sucked in a calming breath.

  “Thank you,” I told her.

  She nodded. “What was that?”

  I couldn’t decide where to start. I went with, “How can I tell if one of our team is actually a demon?”

  Everyone looked at each other.

  “Really,” I said. “We have a very serious problem.”

  “Who do you think is the demon?” Professor Briggs asked levelly.

  I pointed at Alden.

  Everyone stared at the Grim with wide eyes.

  “Me?” he said. The hurt in his gaze ate at me, but I didn’t take back the accusation.

  “Where are your ghosts, Alden?” I asked him. “I haven’t seen them around in a while.”

  “I told you. They realized I can’t help them like my parents can and got bored of following me around,” he replied, rising from the wooden table.

  “What about destroying my cellphone and you talking about your mother like I’m missing out on something important?” My voice threatened to catch, but I pushed through it. “You wanted to destroy any contact I had with my family so I would search for Mom in the one place I knew I could find her. You almost had me trapped in the Otherworld without a way to get back. If it wasn’t for the fact that she didn’t know about Chutka’s mark, I might have fallen for it.” I raced through the thoughts that had spurred me on since we came out of the tombstone. “What about dropping the flashlight that alerted the Demon Knight? What about that?” I demanded. “You’re the reason Sparrow died!”

  My chest was heaving. Professor Briggs stood between me and the small Grim. Alden’s innocent light blue eyes didn’t fool me.

  “Slow down,” the professor told me. “You’re accusing Alden of being a demon?”

  “I know he’s a demon,” I replied. “I just need to prove it. Lyris, Brack, isn’t there a chant or something you can do?”

  Lyris gave Professor Briggs an anxious look. “Not that we know.”

  Briggs shook his head. “There’s nothing like that.”

  I decided to play the last hand I had. “Vicken and I found Amryn.”

  The briefest flicker of green fire surfaced in Alden’s gaze, then vanished just as quickly.

  “There! Did you see it?” I exclaimed. “Did you see the demon fire?”

  My teammates exchanged glances. I could tell nobody believed me.

  “Finn, calm down,” the professor said. “Did you really find Amryn?”

  I nodded. “We went back to the Otherworld and searched until we found her in her room, but when we brought her out, the demons were gone.”

  Professor Briggs’ eyes widened. “Gone? All of them?”

  I nodded. “Every single one.” I pointed an accusing finger at Alden. “And he knows where they’ve gone.”

  “You know me,” Alden said with hurt in his voice. “How can you accuse me of something so horrible?” His voice deepened when he asked, “How can you think something so appalling about a friend of yours?” His face twisted until it was unrecognizable. “And such a good friend at that?”

  I fought back the urge to cower away from the vehemence that had taken over Alden’s voice. I clenched my hands into fists and stood firm. “Who are you and what have you done with my friend?”

  Alden’s hands lifted to his face. He began pulling off shreds of skin. Everyone backed away in horror. He covered his face and let out a shriek, bending over until his elbows were on his knees.

  “Alden?” Lyris asked with fear in her voice.

  “I’m not Alden,” he replied in a deep voice I recognized.

  “Back away!” I told my team.

  “What’s going on?” Vicken asked from the stairs.

  “Stay back,” Briggs told him.

  As the being raised his head, he grew. The shadows of the room gathered around him as though drawn to his dark soul. By the time the Dark Knight stood at full height, he towered over even Brack. Other shadows appeared in the room; demons began to pour from the walls as though they had been waiting for the Knight to reveal himself.

  “Keep staring, little werewolf,” he said in a thundering voice. “You’ve already failed to protect this school.”

  Screams rang out up the stairs. I took a step toward the door, but I had no idea what to do. Did I leave my team with the Dark Knight and run up to protect the rest of the students with what little I could do against the demons, or did I stay and pit myself against one of Chutka the Shambler’s subordinates?

  “Save them,” a voice whispered next to me. “They’re all dying.”

  I glanced over but no one was there. I gritted my teeth and stood still. “What do you want from us?” I demanded.

  Glee showed in the Knight’s burning eyes. “I don’t want anything from you,” he said.

  While the Demon Knight spoke, Professor Briggs began silently moving my team toward the door and away from him.

  I moved so that the Knight’s attention stayed on me as he continued with, “I want my demons to become you, to possess you until they know how you think, how you act, and how you feel. I want them to infiltrate your families and pretend to be a part of them until I am ready for them to take over and destroy the mythics completely.”

  It was the same thing Lyris had told us, yet it still didn’t make any sense to me. “Why?”

  “To see the world cower in fear from Prince Chutka. Chaos upon chaos, betrayal and fear in the streets and terror in the homes of both humans and mythic-kind.” The Demon Knight’s sharp-toothed mouth widened behind the hole in his helm. “A world ruled by demons is a beautiful thought indeed.”

  I studied his armor as he spoke. The dark plates slid together when he moved. But where the sound of metal on metal should have been, only silence reached my ears. I looked for chinks in his armor, for anything that would give me hope that I could beat him. My eyes lingered on the center of his chest. The armor looked misshapen there with a mark that looked vaguely like…a key! My heart leaped into my throat.

  I heard Brigg’s voice again when he said, “They must be using an object to let themselves into our world, something from here but not of here.”

  “You have a very twisted view of this world, Knight,” I said as I thought quickly.

  “The world is already twisted, werewolf,” the Demon Knight replied. “It needs only a nudge to fall off the edge completely.”

  Briggs silently stood in front of the door and motioned the girls to go out behind him.

  “I don’t believe you,” I said to keep the Demon Knight occupied.

  “Would you believe that your little attempt to distract me has failed?” the Demon Knight replied.

  He raised his hand toward the door. Dara let out a scream as she was lifted into the air. Her back arched and she shrieked in pain.

  “No!” Briggs shouted.

  He lifted his cane and pointed it at the Demon Knight. At a single word from the professor, orange flame ran down the length of the walking stick. He swung it at the Knight as if it was a sword.

  The Demon Knight’s attention broke from Dara when he turned to defend himself. Brack lunged forward and caught the empath before she could hit the ground. The Knight opened his hand with a flourish. His fingers grew into thin, pointed swords that he used to block Briggs’ advan
ces.

  “Get up the stairs!” I called to my teammates.

  Briggs let out a cry of pain and stumbled. Brack pulled him back against the door. The warlock’s hand showed red when he took it away from the professor’s side. Brack helped him onto the stairs and stood in the way so the Demon Knight couldn’t get to him.

  The three vampires attacked. I had never seen such fast movement as Vicken, Lorne, and Jean fought with daggers they pulled from their sleeves. I wondered if Mercer had treated them with poison as he had promised to do when they were done training, but by the reaction from the Demon Knight, their attacks were only making him more angry.

  “Lorne!” Vicken shouted an instant before the Demon Knight shoved his five finger blades into the vampire’s chest.

  Vicken and Jean fought with desperation to save their friend. I lunged in front of Lorne and pulled him back toward the door. Jean let out a cry of pain and fell to the floor clutching his thigh. Vicken grabbed his friend and hauled him back.

  Red colored my vision at the sight of my teammates bleeding on the stairs. Dara and Lyris did what they could to bind the wounds, but by the pallor of Lorne’s face, I knew he didn’t have much time left.

  The Demon Knight laughed. “Your attempts to stop me are pathetic. Give up now or lose more of your friends!”

  The demons behind him laughed with cruel cackles.

  “Shut the door, Brack!” I shouted over the demons’ mocking laughter.

  “What about you?” the huge warlock asked with fear on his face.

  “They’ll have to go through me to get up those stairs.”

  “They’ll have to go through us,” Lyris said. She and Dara climbed carefully over the wounded and made their way out the door.

  Vicken followed close behind. “Through us,” he repeated.

  “Shut the door so none of the demons can get up the stairs,” I ordered.

  Brack made the door slam shut and stood in front of it, trapping us inside the basement with the demon horde and their cruel leader.

  “Begin the chant,” Vicken said.

  Lyris and Brack spoke the foreign words aloud. A shimmering golden orb surrounded us, attesting to how much stronger they had gotten since they last used the chant. But the iridescent bubble looked frail compared to the glowing eyes and reaching claws of the demons behind the Knight.

  The Demon Knight advanced. I glanced around quickly for any possible weapon. With Briggs injured and Jean trying desperately to patch up both Lorne and the professor, it was just myself, Vicken, Lyris, Dara, and Brack standing in the way of a demon horde ready to take over Haunted High. I wondered briefly how I had gotten myself into such a situation.

  The demons began to spit flames from their mouths and nostrils. The green fire grew, roaring over them as they waited behind the Demon Knight with an eerie calm. The flames raced up the Knight’s armor until he glowed with the intensity. I glanced at Vicken and saw the desperate fear on his face. There was no way we could survive so much fire.

  I looked away from him and my eyes landed on the Mercer’s box in the corner.

  “I have an idea,” I told the others.

  “Don’t leave the shield,” Vicken said, his yellow eyes wide. “You’ll die out there!”

  “Protect the others,” I commanded. “I’ll be back.”

  I stepped through the orb and took off running the moment my shoes touched the ground. There was a small path between the demons and the wall. I told myself that if I kept to it, I would be safe from the fire. The green flames immediately lapped at my shoes, proving me wrong.

  I told myself with each step that the fire couldn’t hurt me. It had no power if I didn’t let it overcome my self-control. But man did it hurt.

  I slid to a stop next to the box and threw the lid open. I picked up the smaller box inside and withdrew the always-lit candle without bothering to use Mercer’s special tongs. The fire spilled over my arms as I ran back toward the shield. I bit my tongue as I leaped over the outstretched claws of demons who lay waiting to snag me on my way past. I fumbled the candle once, but managed to catch it before it could hit the ground. Luckily, the Demon Knight appeared content to watch my pathetic attempt at survival and didn’t stop me when I leaped back inside the orb.

  “What are you doing?” Vicken asked. He shied away from the green flame I held as if it was as deadly as the fire outside the shield.

  “Fighting fire with fire,” I said.

  “What are you talking about?” Dara asked.

  Lyris and Brack watched me with wide eyes as they chanted in unison.

  “We’re going to die, right?” I asked them. I looked at each of their faces in turn and saw that they knew the same thing. “I say we give it one last shot.” I swallowed as what I was about to ask them to do went far beyond the scope of a team. “I need you guys to trust me.”

  The warlock and witch nodded with fear bright on their faces.

  “We trust you,” Dara said. Her voice shook only slightly as she looked from me to the demons waiting just outside the shield.

  I held Vicken’s gaze. The vampire looked from me to the flame, then nodded. “I trust you.” The fear in his eyes told how hard the words were, but his voice didn’t waver.

  I threw the candle to the floor. The green flames raced along our feet and up our legs.

  Lyris screamed and Brack’s arms lowered. The shield wavered.

  “Don’t lose your concentration!” I yelled.

  They began chanting again. Lyris closed her eyes as tears streamed down her cheeks. Dara winced as the pain of the flames intensified.

  I grabbed Vicken’s shaking arm and pointed to the key engraved into the Demon Knight’s chest plate.

  “That’s what we’re looking for!” I shouted above the roar of the flames. “It’s our only chance!”

  The fire I had started rose higher.

  “You’ve killed yourself,” the Demon Knight said with a grin of triumph. The flames from his demon horde danced all over him with such a bright green light I could barely look in his direction. “How sweet to choose suicide as a team rather than death by my demons. Though you won’t stop us from reaching your families. You’re only delaying the inevitable.”

  “Finn?” Dara shouted as the flames reached even higher.

  “On the count of three, drop the shield and join hands,” I told them. I met Dara’s gaze. “I’m going to need your help.”

  She nodded with tears in her eyes at the pain of the flames.

  My gaze shifted to Vicken. “Hold her other hand and don’t let go no matter what, understand?”

  The vampire nodded. His face was white with shock at the fire that covered his legs up to his waist.

  “One,” I called. I could barely breathe past the pain of the flames that crawled up my shirt. “Two,” the Demon Knight stepped closer, intent on finishing us the moment the shield was down. “Three!” I shouted.

  Lyris and Brack stopped chanting together and the golden orb vanished. The fire from the demons surged forward, but met the roar of the fire I had started and was repelled. I grabbed Dara’s hand and lunged toward the Demon Knight. The moment I set my hand on his chest plate, it felt like my fingers, wrist, and arm melted away. I realized my mistake in grabbing Dara with my left hand and using my right against the flame, but I didn’t have a chance to switch it without risking everyone. Dara gasped at the force of the pain, but she held fast, pulling what she could from me so that I could stand it.

  I gritted my teeth and reached for the key. The Demon Knight didn’t realize what I was doing until my fingers brushed the imprint. But I couldn’t quite reach it. I leaned forward, worried that he would step back out of my grasp and I would lose my only chance. In a moment of desperation, I let go of Dara’s hand and grabbed the key with my good hand. A shout of pain tore from my lips when my fingers closed around the burning key. I felt hands grab my shoulders. The pain lessened as I was yanked backwards. I fell into the circle of my friends. The fire roar
ed around us, demons hissed and clawed at the imitation flames, and the eyes of the Demon Knight followed me as I landed on my knees on the flaming ground.

  Afraid that I had failed, I opened my hand slowly. The silver key sat on my burned palm; the bright metal glittered in the green firelight. We all looked from the key on my palm to the Demon Knight. His green flame eyes narrowed, then widened at what he saw. He reached up and touched the hole in his chest where the key had been.

  I held the key up. “Leave our school and never return!” I shouted.

  The knight clawed at the hole in his chest. The hole widened until it was larger than his head, then he began to collapse inward. A strange shrieking noise sounded as the Demon Knight’s arms and legs were pulled in followed by his torso, his shoulders, and finally his head. There was a sickening pop as the last of him turned inside-out and then vanished.

  The demons who had filled the room behind the Demon Knight scrambled backwards in fear. As we watched, their fires went out and they retreated to the shadows. Their bodies became insubstantial and they were sucked back through the bricks of the basement as though they were being pulled by a giant vacuum. Within seconds, the demons had vanished completely.

  Vicken used his cloak to smother the flames of the fire I had lit. While there was relief on his face, the tightness of his gaze and the way his hands shook as he got rid of the last of the fire told just how hard standing there had been on him.

  Lyris and Brack dropped to their knees as soon as the fire was gone. Dara and I supported each other, our chests heaving and hands remembering the pain of the fire that had tried to devour us. Yet when I looked at my right hand that held the key, it hadn’t been damaged any further by the flame.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “You did it,” Dara said.

  “We did it,” I replied.

  “Using the imitation fire to block the demon fire was brilliant,” Vicken said. “But could you warn us next time? That wasn’t pleasant.”

  “At least we’re alive,” Dara pointed out.