by Pond, Simone
“So, what’s the plan?” Rocco asked.
“We’re definitely not going back on the road,” I told him. “Asher’s going to transport me and you to Rhapsody Grove. Screw it. It’s our only option … probably should have just gone with that plan in the first place.”
“Just the two of you?” Charlotte asked.
“Yeah. You and your sister aren’t coming. I need you alive for potential healing. And Lilith’s dead weight.” I glanced at Lilith. “Sorry, but it’s true.”
Lilith shrugged and went back to sipping her diet soda and watching the news.
“But what if you need me right away and you can’t get back here?” Charlotte asked.
“Yeah, and then Cagliostro captures you and uses you as leverage. We know how these things play out,” I told Charlotte, then turned to Asher. “Also, we’re gonna need more silver,” I said.
“Won’t hurt to stock up,” Rocco agreed, biting down on his matchstick.
Since everything was closed for the night, we decided to look around for silver in the morning. The motel night manager mentioned some shops in Olde Mistick Village.
“Buy out every jewelry shop in town,” I told them.
It was late, so we decided to get some rest. Asher and I shared one of the double beds, while Lilith and Charlotte took the other one. Rocco lounged in the chair, keeping his sonar tuned. Though the room filled with the sounds of deep breathing, none of us were actually sleeping.
Asher spooned behind me and wrapped his arm around my waist. I felt his pulse through the tips of his fingers, the energy vibrating off him and melding into me. Finally, I closed my eyes to try to get some sleep. All night I dreamed of those damned demon-bats latching onto my skin and setting my blood on fire.
***
I awoke to a door slamming shut and sat up in the bed. Asher was gone. Lilith was still sleeping. Rocco sat in the same chair he had been in all night, sipping black coffee and staring at the television, cursing under his breath.
Charlotte came into the room, carrying a bunch of shopping bags. “Not much of a selection,” she said.
I dumped the contents of the bags onto the bed. The pieces of jewelry were clunky and obnoxious, items tourists might buy when they’re on vacation and are desperate to bring something back home. But there was enough to get a fair amount of silver dust.
“Anybody know where Asher went?” I asked.
Rocco glanced up from the tube. “Said he needed to check on something.”
“Any clue what that means?”
“Probably went to scope out the area around the Grove.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. At all. But we had work to do, and Asher could take care of himself. I handed a bunch of the silver jewelry to Rocco, and we started shaving the clunky bracelets and pendants into fine silver dust. Charlotte gave us some empty glass bottles—also souvenir memorabilia—to contain our stash.
When Asher still hadn’t returned, I started getting fidgety and began pacing around the motel room. I checked my phone every few minutes and texted him over and over. He was either out of battery juice, or something horrible had happened.
“Where did he say he was going again?” I asked Rocco one more time.
“He didn’t. But I’m figuring he went to check out the area. We’re gonna have to hit the road soon so we can figure out a way into this shitstorm. With or without him.”
I nodded, agreeing with him, but feeling sick to my stomach. A feeling I was experiencing a lot more frequently. “Any thoughts on how to get there?”
“I say we use our speed and pray we don’t get detected.”
It wasn’t ideal, but it was all we had at the moment.
Around noon, Asher still hadn’t returned, so Rocco and I decided to leave without him. Charlotte wished us luck. Lilith waved with her stubbed wrist, rubbing it in one last time.
Rocco and I stood near the edge of the two-lane road. He bumped my shoulder with his elbow. “If you see something out there, we ain’t stoppin’. No repeats of last night. Cagliostro obviously has some industrial-strength mind control going on. Don’t let him fool you.”
I stared down the road, the queasiness in my stomach increasing.
“Farrow? You okay?”
“I’m worried about Asher. It doesn’t make any sense.”
He patted my shoulder. “He’ll be all right. He’s a bounty hunter.”
“Ex-bounty hunter.”
“He’s an angel, Farrow. He’ll be fine.”
I kept quiet and prepared myself for our mad dash to the Grove, letting Rocco use his bionic sonar to lead the way.
thirty
Rocco and I cruised along at an even pace of about 300mph, and we got to the edge of Mattatuck State Forest in less than ten minutes. Though the sun was bright, the dense woods allowed very little light to come through. We inched slowly among the trees, looking and listening for unusual sounds. The only noises I picked up were woodland critters skittering about and the trickling of a brook somewhere in the distance. Before we walked deeper into the woods to find the clearing where Rhapsody Grove was located, Rocco closed his eyes and mentally scanned the surrounding area.
“I’m gettin’ a read on something.”
“Like what?”
“Don’t know, but it ain’t a demon or bloodsucker, I don’t think.”
“You don’t think? Can you get a little clearer on that?”
He turned around and walked toward a thicket of trees. I followed behind, calling on my sword and shield just in case we had any visitors.
Rocco walked ahead. A branch snapped, and I quickly turned around and inhaled, trying to pick up any scents. Nothing but forest smells.
“Whoa,” Rocco said, stopping.
I caught up with him and peered around his broad shoulder. Something was hanging from one of the trees. I inched closer, keeping my shield tight around me. Rocco grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back.
“Don’t,” he said.
Ignoring him, I walked faster until I got close enough to be absolutely sure of what I was seeing.
Asher was hanging upside down, all the color and light drained from him. I ran over to his limp body and tried to tug him down from the branches, but I was shaking and freaking out. I couldn’t get a grip on him. Tears sprung into my eyes as I clung to his body, praying for the sound of a heartbeat, or an inkling of the energy that usually bounced between us.
But there was nothing.
Nothing.
“Is he dead?” I cried.
Rocco said nothing as he helped bring Asher’s body down to the ground. I collapsed over him and pressed my ear against his chest. Again, nothing. I started pounding on his ribs, begging him to wake up.
Rocco grabbed me by my shoulders and pulled me closer to him, wrapping me into a cocoon. “Shh, this ain’t gonna help. You can grieve later. We have a duty. And right now, we gotta get that Scroll back and stop that bastard Cagliostro.” He held me tight as I whimpered into his chest. Everything in my body shook with a fiery hatred.
“I’ll kill him! I’ll kill the evil son-of-a-bitch! Who the fuck does he think he is? Come on, Cagliostro! You want me? Here I am!”
Rocco covered my mouth and pressed me down until my back was against the dirt. “You gotta keep it together, Farrow. Take some deep breaths.”
I listened to the detective and took in some painfully deep breaths until my heartbeat settled down and the burning hole in my stomach eased.
“I’m going to make that asshole pay for this,” I whispered.
“We get the Scroll. Then Julian. Priorities, Farrow.”
“That’s bullshit!” I yelled.
“Look, I know this is hard. I’ve lost my fair share of people. That’s why I decided not to get involved with anyone. Like Maddy at the diner. Not worth the pain.”
I didn’t agree with Rocco. What kind of lonely life was that? I wanted to experience relationships, fall in love, get into spats, make up and oh, I don’t know �
� have sex with someone.
“The Protector life is a lonely one, Farrow.”
“That’s lame and sad. And not the life I’m going to live.”
Standing, I brushed away my tears and shoved the ache in my throat down and down until I couldn’t feel a single emotion. Until all of the Light in me was centered in my helmet and I was ready to shoot lasers from my eyes at anything that got in my path.
“Cagliostro is going to pay severely.”
Rocco shook his head sympathetically, then glanced up. He was about to spew some more Protector bullshit wisdom my way, but instead he yelled, “Watch out!”
But it was too late. A giant black cyclone of those demon-bats had flown into the woods and was heading straight toward us. Rocco jumped to his feet, swinging his sword and slicing through the mass of venomous creatures. They hissed as they swooped in unison, circling us.
“Use the Logos,” he shouted.
Before I could utter a single word, a string of the demon-bats unraveled from the pack and wrapped around me like a black snake. My limbs were locked by my sides and I couldn’t kick or squirm. Then a million vibrations twitched in my muscles, paralyzing my body. I tried to yell out to Rocco, but my mouth wouldn’t move. The loud screeching, spinning cyclone had sucked me into its fold and carried me away.
Below, Rocco stared up toward the sky, still swinging his sword and zapping what he could of the demon-bats. He yelled something over and over, only I couldn’t hear a thing. My eyeballs bulged out further the tighter the band of demon-bats squeezed around me. My head felt like it was going to pop off. And then, everything went as black as night.
***
I woke up completely discombobulated. My feet were above my head and I was hanging upside down. Once my eyes adjusted to the shadows, I could see that my ankles were chained to a rusty pipe running along the ceiling of some sort of cave. My wrists were cuffed behind my back and I was naked except for my Armor, which seemed to be deactivated. I let out a huff of satisfaction. Cagliostro might’ve been able to remove my clothes, but he’d never be able to remove my Armor. Only I could do that. And nothing—on earth or in any other dimension—would ever get me to remove my Armor. However, it wasn’t doing me much good since I couldn’t break free of the chains. Or call on my sword. Yeah, the demon mage had even more power than I had suspected. Mental note for the future: always assume the head demon mage of the Shadow Order has more power than suspected.
The whole thing was entirely too cliché, being thrown into a cold and dark cave and hung upside down to be humiliated and tortured. I twisted my head around, and a sharp pain lit up my neck. A warm trickle of liquid rolled down my cheek, and I watched it plunk into a puddle below me. Cagliostro was slowly draining my blood. Exactly the same way he had killed those people throughout the Southwest. The same way he had killed Asher in the woods. Was Asher really gone? It didn’t seem right. I refused to accept that Cagliostro had killed my boyfriend.
“Bastard,” I mumbled, choking on my own saliva.
“Shh,” someone hissed in the darkness.
“Who’s that?” I asked, completely ignoring the request to be quiet.
“Dude, shh.”
Julian.
I swiveled around in the dark, trying to locate Julian’s whereabouts. But whenever I moved, the flow of blood draining from the deep slice in my neck increased and needled my body with pain. I had to remain still to keep the bloodletting process from speeding up. Also, what an annoyingly melodramatic way to kill someone. But Cagliostro was nothing if not that.
“Julian, where are you?” I whispered.
“Dude, if you’re not quiet, you’ll wake the bats. And trust me, you don’t want that to happen.”
“What are you talking—”
He didn’t need to elaborate because just then the demon-bats stirred awake. I could hear their wings flapping as they dropped down from the ceiling and began to encircle me. Tiny bites pierced my bare skin, and a loud gurgling followed. The little bastards were feeding off of me. And it burned like liquid fire being injected into my pores. Their sharp teeth must’ve been releasing a venom while they sucked on me because my head began to throb and my mouth went dry. The only thing I could do to alleviate the pain was allow myself to pass out.
thirty-one
I awoke to the sound of Julian shouting. I had no idea how much time had passed, but the pool of blood below my head had increased in radius. The demon-bat bite marks sizzled against my skin like tiny bubbles of acid. Two hulking demon shifters with red skin and black swirling runes were yanking Julian down. He kicked and writhed against their stronghold.
“You’ll be okay. You still have the Armor,” I tried to yell, but it came out as a deflated murmur.
Julian reached out to me as they pulled him away, his fingers brushing against my arm. “Whatever he does—I mean whatever—don’t help him decipher the Scroll. Just keep your—”
Julian was cut off when one of the demons slammed the butt of a dagger against his forehead, knocking him out.
Where were they taking him? I wondered if he had already given Cagliostro information about the Scroll. He couldn’t have. Otherwise he’d be dead. I wanted to pull myself down from the pipe and help my friend. But I just hung there like a helpless fool, the blood draining from my neck, while they lugged Julian’s hapless body away. I couldn’t imagine the type of torture Cagliostro would inflict upon him, trying to unlock the Scroll. But I was sure I’d find out.
***
Some of my blood made its way into my mouth. The bitter metallic taste jolted me awake. Had I fallen asleep or slipped into unconsciousness? It was hard to know at that point. Either way, my body was tingling and aching. My ankles felt like they were going to snap off.
In the distance, the sound of someone’s footsteps grew increasingly louder, until the shadow of a man stood before me. The stench smacked my face: boiling tar and sulfur.
“Miss Farrow.” Cagliostro almost sang the words.
I didn’t answer.
“I’m sorry we couldn’t meet under better circumstances.” He stepped closer to where my body dangled upside down like a side of beef in a meat warehouse.
“You might as well kill me, Cags. I’m never giving you what you want.”
“So you’d rather die a martyr for that out-of-date relic called the Monarchy?”
“I’m no martyr. I’m just not an idiot. If I unlock that Scroll for you, the world as we know it comes to an end. And I’ll die anyway, but disgusted with myself for having intentionally helped you.”
He chuckled lightly, kneeling down to meet my eyes. The blacks of his eyes gleamed like two inky beetles. “Oh yes, the end is coming. But I have a feeling you’ll be more than willing to share your decoding secrets with me. By the time I’m finished, you’ll be singing out how to unlock the Scroll.”
“Nothing you do will get me to help you. You already killed Asher. And now you don’t have any leverage. So why don’t you just walk your demon mage ass out of this cave and let me die a painfully slow death?”
“So confident, Miss Farrow. I like that about you. Your blind faith in yourself. It’s quite admirable.”
I ignored him, closing my eyes. I tried picturing Asher and me in the shower; his strong hands massaging my body. A grin must’ve appeared because Cagliostro struck my cheek hard with his foot, causing a river of blood to roll down my face.
“You’ll change your mind,” he said, then clapped his hands.
Two more of those hulking red demons came marching into the cave carrying torches. The place lit up with an orange glow. Suddenly, I felt incredibly exposed, being naked and all. But when my eyes adjusted to the light, it wasn’t Cagliostro or his minions that caught my attention.
Directly across from me—upside down with their eyes blindfolded and their mouths gagged—hung my parents.
My parents!
“Mom! Dad!” I yelled, but they remained still.
It had been over four years
since I had last seen them and there they were just five feet away from me hanging upside down. I needed to free them. I needed to save them from whatever torture Cagliostro had been inflicting the last four years. But I was helpless. My blood began to boil. I twisted and jerked around, wishing I had the strength to get down and tear Cagliostro apart with my bare hands. Why wasn’t my Armor working?
I called their names again, but neither of them made a sound or stirred. But I knew they couldn’t be dead because Cagliostro would need to use them as leverage. He’d torture them to get me to cooperate. Force my hand at giving him the secrets embedded within me to unlock the Sacred Scroll. Or maybe he’d torture me to get them to cooperate. No doubt about it—torture would be happening soon. Hot tears welled in my eyes and rolled down my face, dripping into the blood below.
***
Cagliostro blew out an abrupt breath along with a few indecipherable words and my parents snapped awake.
“Fiona!” they cried out in joyful unison.
But that was short-lived because one of the demons slammed a heavy whip across my father’s back. The sound of skin tearing echoed through the cave. I cringed for my father and let out a sob.
“Please, please don’t!” I yelled, knowing this would do no good. Cagliostro wouldn’t stop until he had what he wanted.
“Fiona,” my mother whimpered. “Do not give him the cipher. Whatever they do to us, please don’t—”
The other muscular demon took a club and smacked it across my mother’s ribcage. The sound of bones cracking reverberated off the cave walls. Why weren’t they using their Armor? What was going on inside this cave? Cagliostro had some powerful mind control going on, leading us to believe we were powerless. But we weren’t. Not if we were wearing the Armor.
“Mom, Dad. Remember the Light is in you,” I called out.
Cagliostro cackled like a maniacal jerk. “The Light can do nothing for you down here.”
I glanced over at my parents. Something wasn’t right. I couldn’t see the glow of their Armor. They wouldn’t have removed it. They knew better than to part from the magical suit of protection. But I couldn’t detect it. Maybe that’s because the two people hanging from the ceiling weren’t my parents but some sort of mind control trick that Cagliostro was using to break me.