Demons Forever (Peachville High Demons #6)

by Sarra Cannon

  I made a choking sound. "At what cost? My soul? My friends? My memories?" Bitterness swelled within me. "Do you really think power is worth all that to me?"

  Honora's mouth fell open. "Yes," she said. "Everyone wants to be powerful."

  "I just wanted to feel like I belonged to something," I said. I looked down at my sister. Her face twisted in some secret horror that made my heart ache. "I just wanted to have a family. Not that someone like you could ever understand that. You have to actually have a heart to care about other people."

  I swallowed back tears. I knew this conversation had gone on long enough. Honora hadn't come here to talk. She'd come to destroy me. And I intended to be ready for her.

  I took a deep breath, centering myself. I knew this battle would be my first true test. I connected first to the earth beneath my feet. Beneath the floor. Deep within the ground, a powerful energy flowed. I sucked it into myself, fueling my body for the fight to come.

  "You shouldn't be so quick to throw it all away for people like her." She looked down at my sister, disgust written across her face. "Trust me, having sisters isn't all it's cracked up to be."

  I studied her and wondered what she must have meant by that. Did she know Zara had betrayed them? I thought of the butterfly in my hair, but didn't dare bring attention to it.

  "I'd like to judge that for myself," I said, praying Angela and I would make it out of here safely.

  Honora shook her head. "She's never going to wake up," she said. "I've made sure of that."

  Anger ran through me. I gripped Angela's hand. I wouldn't let her stay like this forever. Whatever they'd done to her, it was torture. I could see it in every grimace. Hear it in every moan. I had to save her.

  "You'll need a potion to wake her up," she said. She placed her index finger on her chin and paced in front of me. "Of course, I'm sure mother would be happy to give your sister one. That is, if you were willing to make a trade."

  I clenched my jaw tight. "What kind of a trade?"

  "An even trade. You for her. If you agree to become Prima, all these nightmares go away," she said. She waved her hand and the air shimmered as the barrier between us disintegrated. She stepped closer and crouched down beside me. "We could even take away your memories and replace them with happier ones. We could make you forget about Jackson. You wouldn't even miss him. Besides, Zara's upstairs right now with Selene, making sure he can't come down here to save you."

  My head snapped up. "What?"

  Zara had betrayed us after all? This couldn't be happening.

  "Think about it, Harper. You could still have your sister and your friends in the Order. You'd be rich, beautiful. You'd have so much power and influence. It would be a dream life. I promise you. You wouldn't remember any of this."

  Was she serious about this? Did she really think I'd give up so easily? Even after all that I'd been through?

  "The only alternative is death," she whispered. She placed a hand on my sisters arm and Angela's body convulsed in pain. "For everyone you've ever loved."

  Rage fueled my inner demon. I came alive with it, my hands tingling. Every inch of my skin buzzed with it. "Becoming a prima would be worse than death," I said.

  Honora stood, a heavy sigh breaking from her lips. "Don't be foolish, Harper," she said. "This won't end well for you."

  I let go of Angela's hand and stood, my eyes locked on Honora's face. She had become my first target. And once I'd finished her, I would move on to anyone else who dared to stand in my way. Even if I had to find Priestess Winter herself and force the potion recipe from her mind.

  I breathed in, feeding my power with two kinds of energy. I was both witch and demon. The earth hummed beneath my feet. Life-force pulsed in the air around me, animating my demon side. I gathered it all in, ready to fight.

  My hands burst into flame, and I sent a wave of red fire toward Honora.

  She lifted a single finger and my fire stopped, frozen in time as if she'd merely pressed pause. The flames hovered in the air between us for a brief moment. Then, she put her lips together and blew, extinguishing the fire with a single breath.

  My heart stopped. Shock weakened my knees and I struggled to breathe.

  She raised an eyebrow and waved her finger from side to side, clucking her tongue. "You shouldn't have done that," she said.

  Before I had a chance to recover, she reared back, then pressed her flat palm toward me. A great invisible force pushed through the hallway. It hit me like a bulldozer. My legs came out from under me and I flew several feet backward, landing on my ass.

  The impact jarred me. I shook my head, trying to get my bearings.

  Down the hallway, Honora cursed. She had a strange expression on her face, as if she were confused. She tugged on her hair and frowned.

  I scrambled to my feet as Honora reared back and threw a ball of light toward me like a baseball.

  I lifted my forearm in front of me, forming a shield at the last possible second.

  Honora's spell slammed into me. Her energy turned to black oil against my shield and a foul taste coated my tongue. Her darkness seeped into the shield and into me. Coughs shook my body, forcing me to bend over.

  I clutched my chest and gasped for air, panic consuming me. I'd completely underestimated her. Was I strong enough to defeat her?

  I had to try. For both mine and Jackson's sake.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw a darkness swoop down on me from above like a bird. I screamed and crouched low to the ground as something brushed against my shoulder. A crow? I forced my eyes open, searching for familiar red eyes and knife-like talons. Instead, there was only shadow.

  My shirt ripped at my shoulder, but whatever she'd sent after me hadn't been able to touch my skin.

  Honora stomped her foot, an angry sound rumbling deep in her throat.

  I straightened and gathered a new spell between my fingertips. I threw a bolt of white-hot lightning toward Honora. She caught it as if it were a baseball, then threw it right back at me. I exhaled, letting go of my human form. My body transformed to smoke as the lightning flew through me. I somersaulted through the air, then reformed closer to where she stood.

  Surprise flashed in her eyes, but she recovered quickly. With a flick of her wrist, she sent a flock of shadowbirds toward me, their pointed claws outstretched.

  I formed a circle of flames at my feet, then crouched and drew them up around me like a dome. The birds screeched as they burned. When the last shadow had died against my fire, I pulled the energy together into a single fireball, then hurled it toward Honora.

  She moved to dodge it, but the fire grazed her skin. She cried out, clutching her arm. When she pulled her hand away, her skin was blackened. She spun toward me, fury in her eyes.

  I took advantage of the moment and reached out to the earth deep beneath her feet. I planned to rip through the cement, pulling whatever vines and rocks and soil I could from under the house, but before I could do it, she spun her body around like a tornado, a large gust of air nearly knocking me down and breaking my concentration.

  Jesus. I didn't know she could do that.

  I struggled against the wind, but managed to stay on my feet. She stopped spinning and stared at me, mouth open.

  Rage reddened her face. Her entire body shook with tension. She pulled both hands up and away from her, forming tight fists that began to glow with a bright blue light.

  Fear raced through me, and I tried to shift, but something about that light put me in a daze. I worked to close my eyes or look away, but I was helpless against it. Like a deer in headlights, I stared forward, unable to move.

  She lifted her hands and shot the light toward me. Terror ripped through me as the light approached. I could feel the heat of it on my skin, but I could do nothing to protect myself or turn away. I screamed, bracing myself for the pain, knowing from the fury in her eyes that this was it for me. The end of it all.

  The light made a direct hit, and although I felt the extreme power b
ehind it, I felt no pain.

  Honora stumbled backward, eyes bulging. Her shoulders slumped and she gasped for air. "What have you done?" she asked. "How did you resist that? I... I put everything into that spell."

  She stuttered in fear and confusion. She leaned against the wall, her chest rising with each pained breath.

  Confused, I studied my skin, patted my body to make sure I wasn't missing something. I hadn't done anything. I had no idea why I wasn't dead or in excruciating pain.

  Then, something began to burn the skin near my temple. I reached up, confused. My hand touched the bobby pin in my hair.

  Zara's gift. The crystal butterfly. Somehow, it had protected me from Honora's magic. It had been protecting me all along. That must have been why she seemed so angry and confused every time she tried to cast a spell at me.

  The force of her light spell must have been too much for it. The butterfly burned so hot against my skin, I had to rip it from my hair and throw it to the ground. The blue stone in its center flashed bright, then faded and cracked.

  Honora stumbled forward, eyes narrowed. She fell to her knees near the broken pin. "Where did you get that?"

  I stared down at the butterfly in awe. I was wrong. Zara hadn't betrayed us. She must have put some kind of protection spell into the stone. How had she known back then that I would someday need it?

  Tears of gratitude stung my eyes.

  She had saved my life.

  You Won't Remember A Thing

  "She got it from me," Zara said.

  She stood with Jackson at the bottom of the steps. The sight of the two of them together and safe made my heart soar. Hope filled me from head to toe. Were we actually going to make it out here alive?

  Honora stood up, then stumbled against the wall, her power drained from the intensity of the fight. "You'll pay for this," she said, daggers in her eyes as she stared at Zara.

  "Maybe," Zara said with a shrug. "Then again, maybe not. Jackson, can you hold her for a second please?"

  Jackson sent coils of smoke at Honora, wrapping them around her. She struggled, but her strength was gone.

  Zara stepped closer to her sister, then pulled a tiny vial from the small white purse she carried. Honora's eyes grew wide.

  "What's that?"

  "This?" Zara stared at the potion, then cut her eyes back toward her sister. "This is my insurance you won't tell mother about my trick with the butterfly pin. You won't remember a thing."

  She lifted one hand toward her sister's throat in a claw like motion. Honora's head snapped backward, her mouth pulled open. Zara uncorked the small vial and poured it down her sister's throat, then forced her mouth shut until she swallowed it down.

  "Good girl," she said. "Now, why don't you lie down and get some rest. You look tired, sister."

  Honora went limp in Jackson's coils. He set her down gently, her eyes closing the moment she hit the ground.

  I ran up and threw my arms around Zara. "Thank you," I said. "I would be dead if it wasn't for you."

  Zara hugged me back. "I'm so glad it worked," she said. "I'll explain everything to you later, but we really need to get out of here as soon as possible. Selene is locked in a similar sleep upstairs, but I don't have a potion strong enough to hold my mother."

  She turned to head back up the stairs.

  "Wait," I said, crouching down to where Angela lay on the floor. "What about my sister?"

  "I almost forgot," she said. She looked inside her little purse again, then pulled out a larger vial that glowed with an orange liquid. "Here. This potion should pull her from her sleep."

  I took the vial and gently opened Angela's mouth. I poured the liquid down her throat and waited.

  "How long will this take?" I asked. I felt the ticking of the clock.

  "It should only take a moment," she said, glancing back up the stairs. "We need to hurry."

  "I can carry her," Jackson said.

  "What if the potion doesn't work?" I asked, tapping my foot.

  Beside me, Angela stirred and my heart leapt. Her eyes fluttered open and she stared into my eyes. I nearly cried with joy.

  She smiled and started to lift her hand toward my face, then her body went completely limp.

  "What happened?" I asked. I shook her gently. "Angela, wake up."

  Jackson turned to Zara. "The potion isn't working."

  Zara shook her head. "It worked," she said. "She wouldn't have opened her eyes if it didn't. She's just too weak. I think she passed out."

  "You'll have to carry her," I said. "We need to hurry."

  Jackson nodded and picked Angela up into his arms. He shifted, flying up the stairs and around the corner out of sight. Zara nodded to me, then morphed into a small butterfly. With a silent prayer of thanks and disbelief, I looked down at Honora's still form, then shifted to smoke and followed them up toward the Hall of Doorways.

  She Couldn't Have Taken That News Well

  The four of us flew high above the tree-tops toward the crow village.

  Zara flew as a butterfly and Jackson and I were in our demon form. Angela was still too weak to shift or fly, so Jackson carried her. We flew as fast as we could, careful to stay high enough up that we could pull energy from the growing leaves rather than something on the ground that would be much easier to track.

  When we reached the crow village, Mary Anne paced, waiting at the entrance.

  My body tingled as I passed through the barrier into the protected zone. I couldn't believe the difference in the village from the last time I'd been here. While some of the houses were still burned and in ruins, four of the houses on the far side of the circle had been completely fixed up. Mary Anne and Essex had been busy.

  Jackson entered behind me, and Essex rushed over to help him carry my sister.

  "Is she okay?" Mary Anne asked. She threw her arms around me. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you. I was so worried."

  Essex nodded toward a small blue house up ahead. "We have set up a special room for your sister," he said. "It will be very comfortable for her while she is recovering."

  "Thank you," I said. I started to follow them, then remembered Zara was still outside, unable to enter without one of the blue wristbands.

  "What's she doing here?" Mary Anne asked, scowling.

  "She's going to be living here," I said. "Do you have one of those blue bands I can give to her?"

  "I'm not letting her in here." She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "She's one of them."

  "You don't know what she did for us tonight. We can't leave her out there," I said.

  "You're right. Now that she's seen this place, she'll probably go tell her mother where to find us," Mary Anne said. She looked around, a finger pressed to her lips. "We could set up a temporary jail down in the library."

  I let my head fall back. "She's not going to tell her family," I said, anxious to get to my sister's bedside. "She saved our lives and helped us get out of there. Why would she have done that if she planned on turning us over to her family now?"

  Mary Anne shrugged. "I don't pretend to understand everything the Order does," she said. "Maybe Priestess Winter wanted to know where your friends were hiding and sent her here as a spy. All I know for sure is the Winter family is our enemy, and I don't think we should let her in."

  Outside the barrier, Zara conjured a small pink blanket out of thin air. She laid it on the ground and sat down, legs crossed. She fluffed her skirt around her and smoothed her hair, not looking worried or concerned at all. In fact, she looked happy.

  I held back a smile, then turned to Mary Anne. "Do you really want to go there?" I asked. "If we were judging everyone here by the actions of their family members, would you even allow yourself in here?"

  Mary Anne frowned. "Point taken."

  She pulled a blue wristband from her pocket and held it out to me.

  "Can you give it to her?" I asked, already walking toward the house where they'd taken Angela. "I want to be there when my sister wake
s up."

  Mary Anne rolled her eyes, then nodded and stepped through the barrier toward Zara.

  I took off in a jog, anxious to see how my sister was doing. The potion Zara gave her had pulled her from the nightmare sleep, but she'd been unconscious the whole way home. I knew she'd lost a lot of blood and we didn't exactly have the means to give her a transfusion up here. We couldn't take her to a hospital either. Not without risking everyone's lives.

  I prayed Jackson's limited healing powers would be enough.

  I climbed the steps up to the blue house and walked through the open door. "Hello?" I called.

  "We're in here," Jackson said, poking his head from a door at the back of the house.

  My heart pounded as I stepped into the room. Angela King lay on a queen-size bed in the middle of the room, her eyes closed, but her breath steady and strong. Someone had placed a tray of basic medical supplies on the bedside table. Bandages. Alcohol. A bottle of painkillers. There was even a small vase of purple flowers on the table.

  I was touched by their thoughtfulness, but held back my tears.

  I sat down on the edge of the bed and took her hand in mine. "She's burning up," I said. I placed my hand on her forehead and was alarmed by the heat. "Did you find a thermometer?"

  Essex reached into a small black bag and pulled out a digital thermometer. I took it and placed it under my sister's tongue, already knowing she had a high fever.

  When it beeped, I pulled the thermometer from her mouth and cringed. 102.2. Not life-threatening, but high. Too high.

  "Is there running water?" I asked Essex. "Ice? Anything we can use to try to bring her fever down?"

  Jackson moved to the other side of the bed and pulled up a chair. He sat down and placed a hand on the wound on her head. He closed his eyes.

  Essex came back carrying a wet wash cloth and a bucket of ice. "Will these help?"

  "Yes, thank you," I said, taking the washcloth from him. I placed the cloth over Angela's forehead and motioned for him to set the ice down on the table.