‘So you know about that?’
‘That’s why we’re here, to stop Nathaniel from getting his hands on it.’
‘That is part of our goal too and it goes way beyond just the two of us.’ Logan pulled back his sleeve revealing a mark seared into the flesh of the inside of his wrist.
Justin too pulled back his sleeve to reveal the same mark. It was a small cross with a loop at the top which looked as if it had been burned into their skin with a branding iron. Theo’s gaze narrowed as he studied the mark. He recognized it, he’d seen it before in one of the history books on ancient civilizations that Olivia had shown him back when he’d first arrived in Mercy. It was Egyptian, an Ankh, the universal symbol for truth.
‘That is the symbol for truth,’ he looked up at his brother.
‘Yes’ he smiled, pleased that Theo knew what it was. ‘That is what we are.’
‘I don’t understand,’ he shook his head.
‘We are ‘In quibus sit veritas’ which translates from the Latin as Men of Truth,’ he told him. ‘We are a secret order which started with Justin and I, then Thomas Murphy joined us and then Benjamin Linden. Joseph Green who will replace Samuel Parris as Minister is also one of us. Our order is growing slowly, but soon we hope to place a few more of us in positions of power.’
‘To what end?’ James frowned.
‘To protect the innocents and those of magical descent from persecution,’ Justin told him. ‘Most of the order are descended from magical families who fled the persecution of Europe and the Old World. They thought that this would be their new world, a place they would be safe but instead they were met with greater fear and ignorance than they’d left behind in England and Ireland. All they have ever wanted was a safe place to call home and we are going to make sure that they have it.’
‘If we can get a few of our order into the highest ranks we can make sure that the trials never happen again, but more than that we will protect them from creatures like Nathaniel. This isn’t just about protecting our kin from persecution it’s about protecting all the innocents even those of non-magical descent. They won’t know and they won’t thank us but it’s the right thing to do,’ Justin told them.
‘We’re here to stop Nathaniel,’ Logan stepped closer to Theo, ‘and we’re going to start by getting your woman back.’
‘How?’ Theo asked.
‘There’s another way in and out of the house, a secret entrance that he had designed when he commissioned the house to be built. I will take you in that way but we must wait until dark, we cannot be seen.’
‘We can’t wait until nightfall,’ Theo paced towards the window anxiously, ‘what if she doesn’t have that long?’
‘Trust me brother,’ Logan said stopping beside him and placing his hand on his shoulder, ‘I wouldn’t leave anyone in that house a moment longer than necessary, but it’s not just Nathaniel who is a danger to her.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Nathaniel is still highly placed with the governor and the other officials. If your Olivia really can do the things Mother described in her journal we cannot risk her being exposed to the selectmen. The trials may be over but witchcraft is still a crime. If she is revealed as a witch she will still hang for it. Once we get her out of the house and away from Nathaniel we must get her out of Salem as quickly as possible. We stand the best chance of success under the cover of night.’
Theo’s jaw clenched tightly. He could see the logic in what Logan was saying but it still made him sick to think of Olivia trapped in that house with Nathaniel.
‘Tonight is the dark of the moon,’ Logan told him. ‘It lasts three days and there is a ritual Nathaniel performs. He doesn’t know that I know this. He will be distracted for about an hour, that is our window of opportunity to get her out without risking a confrontation with him.’
‘How do you know about the dark of the moon?’ Theo frowned.
‘We are the Men of Truth; we seek all forms of truth because knowledge is power. When we founded the order Justin and I began to learn everything we could about magic, demons and witchcraft. We sought out and read every forbidden book we could get our hands on, right under the noses of the selectmen. We know a great deal about Nathaniel but we still don’t yet know how to kill him, therefore we must avoid a confrontation if we can.’
Theo nodded turning back to the window, letting out a deep frustrated breath. The sun was starting to dip lower on the horizon but it was still a goodly way off sunset and every minute felt like an eternity as his gaze locked on Nathaniel’s house.
‘Hold on Olivia,’ he murmured, ‘I’m coming for you…’
Chapter 19.
Nathaniel looked up at the sudden knock at the door. Scowling in annoyance he glanced down at Olivia whose head had dropped forward limply as she gasped for air.
‘I do apologize for the interruption,’ he told her pleasantly, ‘I’ll be right back.’
He stepped out of the study heading towards the door. Opening it slowly his gaze dropped to the hunched, hooded figure standing on his doorstep. His beady black eyes narrowed suspiciously at the stranger, as his nostrils filled with the ripe stench of decaying flesh.
‘Yes?’ he queried.
The figure looked up, the hood of his cloak falling back slightly to reveal his rotting mismatched face and the deeply embedded stitches in his mouth.
‘What the…?’
He stared at the goblin of a figure who looked back up at him silently. Looking deeper he saw past the gruesome mask of death, past the milky half blinded eyes to the face beneath and what he saw caused his eyes to widen in surprise. He looked up suddenly, glancing into the street to make sure no one else had witnessed the stranger at his door. The sun was already setting giving everything a dim bruised cast but it was still light enough for witnesses.
‘Get inside before you are seen’ he hissed, stepping aside so the hunched figure could shuffle past him.
He paused in the hallway turning to face his unexpected guest.
‘You are me,’ it was more a statement than a question. He grabbed the figure’s face in his cold bony fingers, examining the stitches at his mouth.
‘Magic’ he mused, ‘but not unbreakable. Come with me and I will remove the stitches, then we can talk.’
The other Nathanial nodded, shuffling along behind him with an uneven gait until he was shown into the study. Once there his damaged eyes fell upon the broken and bloodied figure hunched over and tied to a hard wooden chair with witch rope. If he’d had teeth he would have bared them. A strange muted growl vibrated deep in his throat as he regarded her with venom filled eyes.
‘I see you two have already met’ Nathaniel said, his mouth curving in amusement as he bent down to retrieve a knife.
It was a seemingly innocuous implement. Small with a non-descript handle, but along the blade itself symbols and sigils were deeply etched.
‘Hold still, this might sting a little’ Nathaniel murmured as he once again grasped the ruined face of the other demon. Gripping his jaw tightly he tilted his face up and ran the knife edge along the seam of his lips, cutting the stitches and splitting his mouth open like a raw wound, releasing a pungent smell that even Nathaniel grimaced at.
‘You stink of rotting human’ he snorted in disgust. ‘What have you done? How in all the Hells did you end up stitched up into this pile of decaying pig flesh?’
His visitor coughed a couple of times, savoring once again the freedom of movement in his jaw.
‘It doesn’t matter now’ he answered, his voice a disturbing wet growl, ‘all that matters is that we can help each other.’
‘Is that what you think?’ Nathaniel raised a brow condescendingly. ‘If you were stupid enough to get yourself trapped inside a mortal body I think I can live without your help.’
‘I’m you, you moron’ he growled, ‘so unless you want to end up like this you’d better start listening to me because, trust me,
being trapped in here is even worse than you can imagine. You think it looks bad on the outside, you should be stuck in here breathing in this filthy stench.’
‘Very well’ he conceded after a moment, his eyes narrowing dangerously, ‘I’m listening. What exactly is it you think you can do for me?’
‘I can hand you the Wests,’ he said simply.
‘Why should I believe you?’ he asked suspiciously.
‘Was I ever this stupid?’ he shook his head muttering to himself. ‘Because you have one of them sitting right in front of you, you idiot.’
Nathaniel spun around to stare at Olivia who had raised her chin defiantly as she witnessed their conversation.
‘Hello Nathaniel,’ she smiled at the misshapen man. ‘Still looking pretty then.’
He growled angrily and took an involuntary step towards her, his teeth bared.
‘You really want to kill her don’t you?’ the Salem Nathaniel smiled slowly.
‘I can’t…’ he ground from between clenched teeth.
‘And why exactly is that?’
‘Because it was her mother who trapped me in this body. She sealed it with blood magic, both hers and Olivia’s blood. I can’t harm her.’
‘No?’ Nathaniel raised an eyebrow questioningly. Letting the knife he’d used on the stitches dangle teasingly from his fingers, he circled the chair Olivia was tied to until he stood behind her facing the deformed version of himself. ‘But I can harm her, can’t I?’
He drew the knife across her collarbone leaving a trail of blood in its wake. Olivia bit back a hiss of pain. That was no ordinary knife. It held power, a lot of it, which burned even as it sliced.
‘Would you like me to kill her for you?’ Nathaniel purred as he skimmed the blade lightly across the skin of her exposed throat, gauging his counterpart’s reaction and seeing the undisguised arousal in his gaze. ‘Would you like to watch?’
‘Yes,’ he whispered.
‘Well then,’ Nathaniel straightened, ‘let’s talk terms.’
‘We’re both after the same thing, we want Infernum and we want to raise Seth from Hades’ domain.’
Nathaniel nodded in agreement.
‘In order to do that you need to get your hands on the West girls or their mother. They are the only ones who currently know its location.’
Nathaniel looked down at Olivia.
‘She doesn’t know where it is’ he told him. ‘She doesn’t matter, neither does her mother.’
‘So what about the girls and their mother?’
‘There are three of them, Abigail West and her twin daughters Hester and Bridget West, but before I tell you their location I want something from you.’
‘And what’s that?’
‘I want you to free me from this body.’
Nathaniel stared thoughtfully at him, ‘I can’t do that. If it was created with blood magic only blood can break it.’
He looked down at Olivia.
‘It can’t be her’ he mused, ‘as she was part of the original spell, nor her mother, but perhaps someone else of the West bloodline. You said there were three of them?’
He nodded slowly.
‘We need at least Abigail West or the oldest of the daughters alive until we can ascertain which one of the them knows the location of the Hell book. But the spare, the younger sister? Her blood will break the prison.’
‘Very well, but the other half of my price is that I get to watch you kill Olivia and I want you to do it slowly.’
Nathaniel smiled slowly, ‘then we have a deal?’
‘We have a deal’ he nodded, ‘they are in a cabin in the woods just North of Salem. Olivia’s mother is with them. I will take you to them once you deal with this witch.’
His hungry gaze fell on Olivia once again.
‘Very well’ Nathaniel replied, ‘how would you like it? Choked, watching the life slowly leave her eyes? Or would you like to watched her bleed?’
‘Make her bleed’ he whispered eagerly. ‘Pull out her insides and make her watch.’
‘As you wish,’ he set the point of the knife against her sternum and pressed.
A bright trickle of blood seeped through her linen shift, her heart began to pound in her breast and a strange buzzing filled her ears. The candles in the room suddenly flared up filling the space with a bright flash of light. A violent wind came out of nowhere and ripped through the room churning up papers and books, yet did not extinguish the candles which continued to sputter and flare. The heavy leather bound Grimoire which had lain dormant on the desk suddenly flipped itself open and the pages began to fan frantically as if caught on an unseen reel.
‘What the Hell?’ Nathaniel released the pressure of the blade against Olivia’s skin and stepped around the chair so that he was facing her. ‘How are you doing this?’
But Olivia wasn’t listening, he was now the equivalent of a pesky fly buzzing in her ear. The moment the book opened the whispering began again, this time so loud, so consuming it was a roar in her mind, building higher and higher until it was screaming in her head. She threw her head back, her mouth opening in a silent scream as her eyes blazed a deep lavender. Suddenly the rope at her throat and wrists burst into dark purple flames.
‘NO!’ Nathaniel roared. There was no way she could overcome the witch rope; it was supposed to bind any witch’s power.
‘WHAT ARE YOU?’ he thundered angrily.
Olivia still wasn’t listening to him; she could feel the overwhelming power of the purple flames licking along her skin filling her soul. When she’d conjured Hell fire it had felt vast and ancient, carrying with it a deep sense of responsibility. Her silver Spirit fire was cool and ageless and encompassed within it the sense of an infinite number of souls. Her Earth fire was gold and red and brought with it life and warmth, but this…this fire was incredible and she instantly knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what it was, as if the knowledge had been deep inside her all along. It was Witch fire.
She reached out for it and let it consume her, bringing with it a deep sense of joy and belonging. It was as if all her sisters were crying out in one voice. Thousands and thousands of generations of witches who’d come before her calling to her soul, lending her their strength and resolve. It was like a hive mind, generations of memories and shared thought passed down to her. This was her greatest weapon.
She let the fire loose. It burst from her body exploding outwards, knocking the other more damaged version of Nathaniel to the ground. Candles tumbled over and slowly the red and gold flames caught and began to spread, devouring the papers and books in their path with a roar.
Her blazing violet gaze locked on Nathaniel’s as he stood opposite her, his fists clenched and his black eyes burning with fury.
Her mouth curved into a smile as she let her power loose. He screamed, locked in place, unable to move as his body was engulfed in purple flame. A circle of violent fire ignited around his feet keeping him trapped and immobile. Her gaze was locked on his but she was unable to rise from the chair because of her injuries and he was unable to leave the circle of fire. Trapped in a Mexican standoff she didn’t notice the other Nathaniel climb to his feet, nor did she hear him growl in anger before stumbling from the room and fleeing the fire. They were surrounded as the red and gold flames spread throughout the house consuming everything in its path.
‘I guess I’ll see you in Hell Nathaniel,’ Olivia smiled.
‘You first,’ he growled.
‘FIRE!’ Justin leapt to his feet and stared out of the window.
Bright red flames exploded out of the windows of Nathaniel’s house and were already licking up the timber frame engulfing the roof. The shouts of panic filled the street below as everyone scrambled to gather buckets of water to stop the blaze from spreading to the adjacent buildings.
Theo leapt to his feet and was already down the stairs and running out onto the street before James and Logan could catch up with him.
‘Theo NO!’ James shouted, ‘the building is already too far gone.’
As he struggled against them James caught his foot and his injured leg threw him off balance. He stumbled to the ground losing his grip on his son’s arm. Seeing an opportunity Theo swung around, his fist crashing into his brother’s jaw forcing him to release his grip. He ran for the house kicking down the door and, covering his mouth with his sleeve, plunged into the dark smoky depths of the burning building.
He pressed forward through the wall of heat which made his skin feel impossibly tight and his eyes teared up as a beam crashed down beside him. Forcing himself deeper into the building he called for her again, his voice muffled by his sleeve as he tried to keep the smoke fumes from his mouth.
‘Theodore!’ A voice had him looking up, trying to see through the smoke before his eyes locked on a familiar looking slave woman.
‘Tituba?’ he coughed.
‘This way’ she tugged at him urgently, strangely unaffected by the heat or smoke.
Tituba ran through the flames before stopping in the doorway, her gaze surveying the destruction. Flames rolled up the walls and across the ceiling and trapped in the center Olivia was still in the chair and Nathaniel was imprisoned in a circle of violet fire. Her eyes fell on the Grimoire still lying open on the burning desk and she rushed forward to grab it before it was consumed. A glint of metal caught her eye on the ground. She grabbed it quickly, wrapping her fingers around it, feeling the blade pulse with magic.
She turned as Theo burst into the room. His eyes immediately fell on Olivia and he rushed forward to scoop her into his arms. As he lifted her from the chair Logan came crashing through the doorway behind him, covering his mouth with his sleeve.
‘Theo! Quickly the house is collapsing.’
‘Tituba!’ he called out to her.
‘Get Olivia out of here,’ she shoved the book and the knife into Logan’s hands.
‘What about you?’ Theo yelled above the roar of the fire.
The Guardians Complete Series 1 Box Set: Contains Mercy, The Ferryman, Crossroads, Witchfinder, Infernum Page 144