The culprit groaned aloud as the fire blasted into him and sent him across the parking lot. Emily looked up in time to see the man sailing away from her. The fire had engulfed him, but it wasn’t burning him up. She noticed flashes of a shield around him, which kept the fire at bay.
The man landed just to the right of Marion, who looked enraged. He said something sharply in another tongue and then blew on the burning man. His breath created a breeze that turned into a powerful gust and cut into the fire, turning it—and the man—to icicles. Then Marion stamped his feet into the ground, and a terrible earthquake erupted from his feet, cutting through the ground and blasting into the frozen man.
The icicles shattered, setting the man free.
Emily swallowed hard. She couldn’t believe her eyes. This had been a trap after all. They were toast. She knew they couldn’t fight Marion plus another rove.
Emily was still grappling with her terrified thoughts when her friends formed up around her, Michael taking the lead. Rina and Joanna helped her to her feet.
“It’s a trap,” Rina murmured into her ear. The fear in her voice wasn’t helping Emily one iota.
“No shit!” Emily hissed back.
“We have to get out of here,” Michael muttered, trying to grab both Emily’s and Rina’s wrists at the same time, but Emily jerked away.
Marion wasn’t giving them much attention. He was busy helping the man to his feet. Joanna tried to pull Emily backward, but Emily refused to budge.
Michael looked over his shoulder for a fleeting second. “Now’s a good time to go all Fire Demon on those Alfreds so we can get the hell out.”
Emily broke free of Joanna’s grip. She brushed past a surprised Michael and walked several yards away from them. Something was off about this whole situation. If this was a trap, shouldn’t they all be dead or in custody already? Not standing in a huddle, facing off with Marion and this weird new guy?
When the man beside Marion had recovered, he looked up. Emily’s heart relaxed a little. It wasn’t who she’d thought it was. It wasn’t Gregory Alfred. It was Chandler.
Emily surmised that maybe he’d only accompanied Marion here for protection, and then Michael had attacked him. But then why had he grabbed her?
“Are you okay, Brother?” Marion asked Chandler, flicking specks of ice off his shoulder.
Chandler grinned dumbly at his younger brother. “I’ll live. That Michael boy packs a mean swing, doesn’t he?”
Marion didn’t smile. Instead, he turned his glaring eyes to look somewhere behind her. She knew he was now looking at Michael. It appeared Chandler wasn’t upset at almost being roasted to his bones. But Marion was.
Marion took a step toward her. Electricity began to crackle in his eyes.
“Emily, step back!” Michael warned. He sounded agitated—more than usual. “Step back now! I can’t protect you from there.”
Emily ignored him and stepped forward instead.
“Marion,” she called out. “Marion, look at me!”
Chandler stood to Marion’s side, watching the whole proceeding with amusement. He had a ridiculous smile on his face as he looked at Marion. It was almost as if he was impressed that his brother had the grit to attack his classmates.
Emily rolled her eyes. “That’s not helping!” she hissed at Chandler and took another step in Marion’s direction. This time she stepped to the side so she was in Marion’s direct line of sight.
This forced Marion to focus his wrath on her. The moment that happened, the rage melted, and he was stripped of his will to act. His shoulders slumped, frustration evident across his face.
“What are you doing, Emily?” He sounded so strained, as though he’d spent the last three nights awake.
“First, I want for you not to kill my friends,” she croaked, her face twisted into a prissy scowl.
Marion pointed an accusing finger at Michael. “He almost killed my brother!” Marion shouted. “Are you telling me to ignore that?”
Emily was happy to get Marion engaged in any kind of dialogue. Just keep him talking. Before she could reply to his statement, Michael jumped in. “I only acted in self-preservation! Your brother attacked Emily, and I moved to defend my sister. Who could blame me?”
If Emily wasn’t so happy that Michael had boldly claimed her as his sister, she might have been angry with him for even replying to Marion with such a threatening tone.
Marion didn’t take the response lightly. His anger began to fume again. “And what would you have done after that?” he asked. “Did you stop to think how outclassed you are?”
Michael scowled. “Your first mistake would be to underestimate me.” He spoke as though he’d been practicing the art of sorcery for a number of years, which was laughable.
Of course, everyone knew Michael was no match for Marion. Not even for Chandler. All this was bravado talking, with a pinch of ego and anger. It might make Michael feel good about himself, but it sure was not helping their case. Emily decided it was about time to weigh in.
“Well, I wouldn’t be making that mistake twice,” Marion said in a threatening tone. “Why don’t we go one round and see who comes out on top?”
“I’m up for it,” Michael hissed.
“Okay!” Emily snapped. “Enough!”
Marion suddenly shifted his wrathful gaze to her. “He needs to learn a lesson, Emily.”
“I—” Michael started to say, but Emily swiveled around on her heels and glared at him.
He shut up.
“Not another word,” she said. Behind him, Rina and Joanna were locked in a fearful embrace. Clutching each other like children would their parents.
Michael was about to retort at her, but then he thought better of it and remained silent.
So Emily turned back to Marion and Chandler.
“Be that as it may,” Emily said. “There are other ways to teach a lesson—and not necessarily though violence.”
Marion shook his head.
“Chandler did attack me,” Emily said. “Michael was only acting to protect me. You’re not going to punish him because he was protecting me.”
“I wasn’t attacking you, Ma’am,” Chandler insisted.
“Uh, yeah you were,” Joanna said. She’d managed to come to Emily’s side. “You grabbed her!”
“Actually, I was reaching out to brace myself,” Chandler corrected. “Not to harm her.”
Emily and Joanna exchanged weird looks. “What?” they asked in unison.
“I might have lost my footing.” Chandler shrugged sheepishly. “Translocating isn’t always easy! Sometimes you land weird.”
“Yeah, well, if you had arrived on time, like I asked you to, you wouldn’t have appeared out of nowhere and startled the hell out of everyone!” Marion scoffed.
“Whatever. I had important matters to attend to! Ending the world takes a lot of preemptive planning, you know!” Chandler bobbed his head and raised the pitch of his voice a few notches. “I can’t just drop everything cuz my wittle brother wants me to accompany him to meet his girlfriend.”
Everyone else’s gazes bounced back and forth between Chandler and Marion—as if observing a tennis match.
Marion tilted his head back and closed his eyes. “I swear to God, you clumsy moron—”
“Oh, you swear to God now, do you? That’s ironic.” Chandler snickered at his own funny.
Marion clenched his fist and pulled it back as he made to step toward his brother—looking like he was about to pummel him in the face.
But Chandler ducked, vanished, and reappeared behind his little brother, tickling him in the ribs.
“GAAAH!” Marion shrieked.
At this, both Emily and Joanna chortled loudly. Michael and Rina just stood with their mouths agape.
Marion shoved Chandler away from him and turned back to the others. “I’m sorry for my idiot brother.” Marion forced a smile through gritted teeth. “He wasn’t supposed to appear practically on top of you.” Marion fi
xed Chandler with a hard stare.
Emily shrugged, still shaking from laughter. “Apology accepted . . . I guess.”
Marion and Chandler nodded.
“And, on my part, I apologize for Michael,” Emily continued. “Obviously, he was acting in my defense. But we could have handled the fallout better. I’m sorry.”
“Fair enough,” Marion said.
“See?” Emily said. “We can work together if we agree. This is a sign that what we came here for is achievable.”
Marion raised an eyebrow. “Which brings us to the real issue. Why did you call me? You should know what we are up to and that this isn’t safe.”
Emily held her tongue. She wasn’t sure she could speak to Marion in Chandler’s presence. Yeah, sure, when they had come to attack her at Aunt Anastacia’s house, Chandler had come off to her as someone who was highly impressionable. Unlike Alice, Chandler had no backbone at all. He was just a goofy clown. Emily didn’t think he cared much for taking over the world. He was probably doing all he was doing because he was told to do it, not because he was passionate about world domination.
Notwithstanding, Emily wasn’t sure she could say everything in front of him. What if he went and spilled the beans to Alice? Or worse, his parents? Not only would their plan be ruined, but also Marion would get into trouble.
Emily threw Chandler a wary gaze, which Marion caught at once.
“He’s okay,” Marion said, gesturing at Chandler.
Emily wasn’t about to take his word for it. “Are you sure? Cuz what we need to talk about is very sensitive.”
“Trust me, Emily,” Marion reassured her. “He’s safe. You can say what you need to say.”
Emily turned to Joanna, who also nodded.
Emily glanced back at Marion and marched over to him. Joanna and the others followed. Chandler stiffened, but he didn’t act, and Marion didn’t appear concerned.
“I can’t let you go ahead with what you’re planning,” Emily said, once the distance between them was closed. “You know it’s wrong.”
Marion folded his arms across his chest. “And what do you think we have planned? What evil thing do you think we’re aiming for?”
“For one, you want to end the world,” Emily deadpanned.
“So that we can remake it into something better,” Marion replied immediately. “The system is broken. Criminals go scot-free. Innocents are slaughtered every day. Life isn’t fair. But we will make it fair.”
Did he honestly believe what he was saying?
“That’s why we’re doing this, Emily. You call us evil roves, but we call ourselves visionaries. Someone has to rise up and correct God’s mistake, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Emily didn’t think she understood what she was hearing. “Um, God’s mistake?” she gasped. “Are you joking? You want to make the world a better place by raising hell? By unleashing a beast so terrible that his rising induces the apocalypse? Do you even hear yourself?”
“No, you’re missing the point, Emily.” Marion deflated a little. “We’re not unleashing Na-Ma to allow the beast to run amok. We’re going to control him. We’re only using him to topple world governments. He’ll be the edge of our sword. It will ensure compliance.”
“So your idea of a better world is a world where everyone is subjected to a single ruler?” asked Emily. “You’re talking about autocracy.”
“That’s the issue.” Marion’s voice was filled with unbridled passion. “It’s that humans have too much free will. Take it away, and we’ll have less trouble in our society.”
Emily staggered. What he was saying was almost heretical. “And what happens when people resist you? When the government refuses to bow to your rule?”
Marion didn’t answer that one immediately. Emily could see that he was struggling with it. His eyes wavered, filling up with tears. Then he seemed to come to a firm conclusion. That was when he uttered his response: “Then they will burn.”
Emily shook her head. “You can’t mean that. Millions if not billions of people will disagree. You mean to tell me you’ll commit genocide?”
Marion shrugged. “If that’s what it takes.”
“This can’t be you,” Emily replied, shaking in her boots. The conversation was going in a way she’d never expected.
“It is me,” he replied, but Emily still didn’t believe him. Something about him was off. He looked different, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
“Who has bewitched you?” she asked. This had to be an illusion or a delusive trick of some sort. No teenager—or anyone for that matter—could talk about killing millions of people because they resisted their rule. It was unnatural. This had to be a delusion.
“No one, my dear Emily,” Marion said. “I’ve never felt better.”
Emily tensed. She decided to take the plunge. “Then why did you help me?” she asked. “Why did you betray your family and help me get the nexus out?”
“What?” Chandler blurted, staring at his brother aghast.
Marion cautioned him with a stern look. Chandler held his surprised look for a few moments before letting it go. But in his eyes was a promise that they’d discuss the issue further later.
Marion turned back to Emily. “I did it because I didn’t want you getting hurt,” he admitted. “Besides, they’d served their purpose. We didn’t really need a nexus for this next phase.”
Emily was tempted to ask what the next phase was, but she shelved it aside.
“If you’re so concerned about my safety, then why did you go to so much trouble to try and capture me when you and your siblings came to my aunt’s house?” asked Emily. “Or don’t you know what your father plans to do with me when he has me?”
Marion appeared uncertain. “He’s going to sacrifice you, alongside your brother.”
Emily frowned. “I thought you didn’t want me getting hurt?” she said, cutting in before Marion said anything.
Marion opened his mouth to reply. But before he could get a word out, Emily was talking again.
“How am I not supposed to get hurt during a sacrifice?” Emily demanded.
“A procedure . . . ,” Marion started.
“And who told you about this procedure?” Emily snapped.
Marion was startled at her aggressive tone. He thought about his answer for a bit. “My father—”
“The same father who wants me to be sacrificed?” Emily demanded. Then she shifted gears and said, “Tell me, when your father suggested this to you, did you fight him on it?”
Marion looked at her. His eyes were widening. For a moment, Emily saw his eyes wash themselves clean of deception. He saw what she was seeing. He saw that he’d been deceived. But it was for only a moment.
“Yes, but Father would never lie to me,” Marion said, not allowing her to talk. “I won’t believe that he lied to me to get me on board.”
Emily growled.
“If he says there’s a way to get you back, then there’s a way to get you back,” Marion insisted. “Plus, it stands to reason. The creature we’re releasing will open hell. Once hell is open, you can easily just walk out.”
Emily didn’t like the idea that Marion felt she was going to end up in hell when she died. Like, he thought she was that bad of a person?
“And what if I end up in heaven? I’m gone forever?”
Marion was struck by what she said. He muttered, “You can’t . . .”
“What, end up in heaven?” Emily said with an arched eyebrow. “Really? That’s what you were going to say? That I’m so awful I can’t possibly end up in heaven?”
Marion was silent.
“Open your eyes, Marion,” Emily begged. “This thing you’re planning to do, if it works, is going to lead to my inevitable end. There’s no coming back from death. I’m just now coming into knowledge about the supernatural, but I know there’s no coming back from death.”
Marion shook his head as if he were shooing away a perched bird. “I refuse
to be misled,” he said. “My dad says there’s a way. So there’s a way.”
“Listen, Marion!” Emily screamed. “If you go ahead with this, I’m going to die!” Emily saw how she’d affected Marion by stating that fact. So she pressed on. “Do you hear me? I’m going to die! A painful death. It’s not going to be pretty, and there are no do-overs! You’ve got to see that, Marion. This isn’t a game.”
“And what do you want me to do?!” Marion exploded. “Even if I help you, you can’t stop what’s coming. No one can! Not even my father!”
“Oops.” Chandler sucked his cheeks in. “You shouldn’t have said that.”
Emily’s eyes expanded in understanding. “It’s The Man isn’t it?” asked Emily. “He’s the real evil rove?”
Marion nodded, tears welling up in his eyes. “We’re bound to him. There’s nothing we can do but to follow him. It doesn’t matter that we don’t want to.”
“Do you want to?” She remembered the glee in Alice’s eyes. The girl surely wanted to wreak havoc and cause destruction.
Marion shrugged.
“When did your dad first try to do the ritual?”
“Try? This is the first time we’re doing this,” Chandler answered her.
Emily glanced at Joanna, who nodded. This confirmation was more than enough. Dad had seen the actual evil rove. Maybe even Aunt Anastacia. But surely Dad.
“His name obviously isn’t The Man. What is it?” asked Emily.
Marion shook his head. “His name is Astaroth—one of the three Great Dukes of Hell. He rules side by side with Lucifer and Beelzebub—the Evil Trinity.”
As Emily felt her breathing hitch, she heard the others collectively gasp behind her.
“He’s here possessing a human form—but not just a human, he found a rove. That’s why he’s so difficult, almost impossible, to kill.”
“So, he’s basically like . . . a demon rove then?” Joanna found her voice.
Both Alfred brothers gulped and then nodded simultaneously.
Emily covered the final distance between them and grabbed Marion’s arms. “Then help me. Help us! We can win this together. We can defeat him. I know we can.” She wasn’t sure where her confidence was coming from, but she had to keep up the act.
Born to Raise Hell: The Owl Shifter Chronicles Book Three Page 9