Demons Forever (Peachville High Demons #6)

by Sarra Cannon

  "Then what happened?" I asked, sitting on the edge of my seat.

  Mary Anne stared ahead, as if seeing the ritual play itself out before her. "She became younger," she said. "Not exactly beautiful or anything, but somehow less grotesque. And stronger."

  I lay my head in my hands. The similarities were obvious. Both Priestess Winter and the crow witch had somehow eaten the demon spirits to give them power and strength. "But the crow witch was how old?" I asked. "Over a hundred years old, right?"

  "Yes," Mary Anne said. "About one hundred and twenty."

  "And she was in rough shape," I said, remembering the old woman's leathery skin and clawed hands. "Priestess Winter was still young and beautiful. She was only, what? Fifty back in 1995? Fifty-one? She didn't even look that old at first. I don't understand why she aged so fast when she was wounded. It doesn't make any sense."

  "It makes sense to me," Lea said, standing to join us. Her strength had returned completely thanks to Courtney's abilities.

  "How?" I asked.

  "Because she wasn't just fifty years old," she said. "She was two hundred."

  The Greater The Cost

  "That's not possible," Zara said. "You think my grandmother lived for two hundred years?"

  "I think she's still alive," Lea said. "You yourself said you didn't think your mother was the same after she took over as Priestess Winter."

  "This is completely ridiculous," Lark said. "No one can live that long."

  "Don't you see?" Lea slammed her hand down on the table and everyone jumped. "She's been keeping herself alive all this time by using dark magic. She's powering her own body with the souls of demons. That's why she keeps killing those demon gate towns. She needs the demons' power."

  I shook my head. Was this really possible? Could Priestess Winter really have kept herself alive for that long? If the crow witch had been able to do it for over a hundred years, didn't it make sense Priestess Winter could keep it going for much longer? She was so much more powerful and had access to a lot more demon souls.

  The skin on my arms erupted in goosebumps.

  "Her fallen spirit will fuel my withered heart for eternity," I said.

  All eyes turned to me, questioning.

  "Those were the last words we heard her say before we left the vision in Tennessee," I said. My pulse raced. "Priestess Winter was telling my grandfather that his wife would never know freedom because her soul had become fuel. She plans to live forever."

  "Are you telling me that my mother really isn't my mother?" Zara asked. "That I was right about her?"

  "That's exactly what I'm saying." Lea rubbed the back of her neck. "I think the original Priestess Winter, the oldest sister who started the Order of Shadows, has never died. I think she's been using the spirits of the dead to keep her looking young."

  "But she looks just like my mother," Zara said.

  "A glamour," Lea answered. "All she would have to do is use a glamour to switch places with her oldest daughter when the time came."

  "There's no way she could keep that up twenty-four hours a day," Lark said. She stood from her place at the table, a frown on her face. "I think this whole thing is a stretch. Maybe you didn't understand what you were seeing."

  "I know what we saw," Lea said.

  "There is a way to make a glamour permanent," I said, remembering Lydia Ashworth's story. She'd said all magic has a cost. "Almost any spell can become permanent if you sacrifice a life to create it. A memory spell, a glamour, anything. The greater the magic, the greater the cost."

  "All she would have had to do was sacrifice a human life in order to make the glamour last a very long time. Years, even," Lea said. Then she gasped. "That's why there was usually twenty or thirty years between one Priestess Winter and the next. Maybe her glamour was starting to fade."

  "But who would she have sacrificed?" Lark said. "Don't you think someone would have noticed if all these people kept going missing or being murdered?"

  "That's the beauty of it," Lea said. "She sacrificed the oldest daughter. The one who was next in line to become priestess. No one noticed she was gone because as soon as she took her daughter's life, she switched places with her. To everyone else, it looked like the grandmother had died and her oldest daughter had taken over as the next priestess. In reality, it's been the same woman changing faces every twenty years or so."

  Zara made a choking noise. "I knew it," she said, clutching at her heart. "I knew something terrible had happened to my mother."

  "But how does she keep having children if she's so old?" Angela asked.

  "She doesn't," Lea explained. "That's why she waits until the oldest daughter has three daughters of her own. That way there's always an heir who will grow up, have three children of her own, and then die. It's brilliant."

  "So when my oldest sister Selene has three children, you're saying my mother will kill her?" Zara asked.

  Lea nodded. "When Selene's youngest daughter turns five. She'll kill her. Then she'll become her," she said. "It's a never-ending cycle of sacrifice."

  I shuddered at the thought.

  How could someone be so cold-hearted that they would be willing to sacrifice their own daughters and granddaughters, generation after generation? I thought of my own mother and how she had done the opposite.

  She had been willing to sacrifice everything to keep me safe.

  Someday, if I ever had a daughter of my own, I knew I would do the same. I would never let power become so important I would sacrifice someone I loved to have more of it.

  "I still can't believe this is happening," Zara said. She pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them tight to her body.

  Jackson stood and walked over to put a hand on Zara's shoulder. "It's been a long day," he said. "This is a lot to take in. I think we should take a break, rest for a little while and think this through. Some of us have been through a lot lately."

  I nodded. We still had a lot to do to get ready for the battle ahead, but for Zara's sake, I knew he was right. Angela had already finished the wristbands and sent them out, so more people would be arriving throughout the evening and in the morning. Now was a good time to rest and let all this soak in.

  The group dispersed, people pairing off or going to their rooms to be alone.

  I stood and took Jackson's hand in mine. Together, we walked up the steps to the gray house we shared. We stepped inside and closed the door behind us. Without a word, I fell into his arms, holding tight to him, wishing I never had to let go.

  Proven

  "We need a plan," I said.

  Jackson sat at the table drinking a cup of coffee. I was glad we had a place we could go to be alone. I needed to talk to him without everyone else's noise in my head for a few minutes. Since we'd come through the portal back to Peachville, it had been one revelation after another.

  My mind was about to explode from all the new information.

  "What did Zara find out about the master stone?" Jackson asked. "None of this matters if we don't have all of the original ritual items."

  "Lark actually confirmed it for us," I said. "I talked to her about it earlier and forgot to mention it to you. She asked her mother and found out that the portal stone is actually referred to as the master stone in the older ritual books."

  Jackson sighed in relief. "This might actually work, Harper," he said, his eyes sparking with hope.

  "As long as we can keep Priestess Winter away long enough to give it a shot."

  "If Lea's right and Priestess Winter really is the original two-hundred year old Eloisa, the oldest of the five sisters who created the Order, maybe we can use that to our advantage," Jackson said.

  "How?" I asked, sitting down across from him. "She might be old, but what I saw in Clement explains why she's so extraordinarily powerful. She has hundreds of demon spirits inside of her, using them like a battery to keep herself alive. According to the pattern, that power lasts at least twenty years or more. It's only been eight years since she last pow
ered herself with a major town. And Aldeen was only what? Six months ago?"

  Jackson nodded.

  We both sat quietly, thinking this through.

  Had my father been right all along in saying Priestess Winter was an impossible enemy? I'd watched her almost single-handedly take out fifteen demons, one of them a powerful king. I hadn't actually seen his death, but I knew she'd killed him.

  How could I fight against that kind of power?

  "We have to be smart," he said. "What about Zara's protection spell? Couldn't she make stones for all of us to carry that would protect us from Priestess Winter's magic?"

  "She could probably do it, but that won't last forever," I said. "Honora cast maybe three or four spells at me before my stone cracked, and she isn't half as powerful as Priestess Winter."

  "Maybe if we used bigger stones?" he asked.

  "We'd have to ask Zara," I said. "The thing is, we're all taking a big risk inviting so many people here to the village and explaining our plan. If any of them are spies or traitors, Priestess Winter will know everything we plan to do. I wish I could say I trusted everyone with all my heart, but I don't know anymore. The whole world feels like it's upside down."

  "So who can we trust?" he asked. "Without any doubts?"

  "Each other," I said.

  He smiled. "That's a given," he said. "Who else?"

  "Angela," I said.

  "Mary Anne and Essex."

  "Zara."

  He nodded. "They've all proven themselves in big ways."

  "That's it," I said. "If we're truly talking about people we can trust without even a hint of a doubt."

  "We can trust Lea," he said. "I know she isn't the easiest person to get along with, but I know her. I know she would never betray us. Especially not to the Order."

  I bit my lip and stared down at my hands. "I can't believe it's come to this," I said. "That we're sitting here talking about our friends, trying to decide if any of them are possibly about to betray us to our enemy. It makes me feel sick to my stomach."

  "Me too," he said. "What's worse is that the list of people we know we can trust is very short."

  I nodded.

  "So we talk to Zara in secret," I said. "Ask her to make larger protection stones for the seven of us and hope that in the end, it buys us enough time to fight back."

  "How much time do you think we'll have before Priestess Winter shows up?" he asked.

  "There's no way to know," I said. "I think we have to go in there assuming she'll be waiting for us, just in case someone does betray our plans to her. To the group, we'll say we expect her to arrive in fifteen minutes. As soon as the blue portal reactivates, she'll know."

  "Every witch in Peachville will know," he said.

  I put my head down on the table. This was impossible. Was I about to get everyone killed?

  "We'll need someone on the other side," he said. "Someone we can trust with the blue ring."

  I nodded. I'd been thinking about that too. In order to reactivate the blue portals, we'd have to put the anchor back in place. That meant sending someone to the quarry of blue stones in the Southern Kingdom. But who?

  "I need Mary Anne, Angela and Zara down in the ritual room with me," I said. "Do you think Lea would go?"

  He shook his head. "We need Lea on this side with us since she'll have a blue protection stone," he said. "Can you think of anyone else we could trust with the ring?"

  I ran a hand through my tangled hair. Who else was there? It would have to be someone strong enough to fight against hunters, yet trustworthy enough not to hand over the ring.

  I suddenly remembered my father's words. He'd said the people of the domed city were my people. That they would lay down their lives for me. That they could be trusted. I lifted my head.

  "I know who we can ask."

  Would They Help Us?

  By morning, people had started to arrive.

  Lea had contacted the other demons. Cristo, Erik, Mordecai and Joost. They arrived first, blue wristbands in hand.

  Lark's mom came soon after, pulling me into a tight hug. "So glad you're safe," she said. Several other Peachville witches followed her inside.

  I knew more would be arriving throughout the day with their wristbands. One by one, I explained to them why they'd been asked to come. I told them I was the daughter of a demon king. I gave them information about the journal we'd found.

  Jackson slipped away in the middle of the morning, careful not to be seen or followed. He needed to be sure no one saw him go back through the white roses to the domed city. When he got there, he would talk to Piotrek, Liroth and some of the other guards and ask them to join us in our fight.

  I worried my father would be angry with me for asking the guards for help, but since we weren't asking them to come here to Peachville, I knew he couldn't argue too much. The guards would be doing what they always did. Fighting hunters and keeping the Southern Kingdom safe.

  If they agreed, Jackson would give them the ring. It was a leap of faith, but I felt that we had come to know those guards really well during the two months we'd lived there. They would never betray their king and country. They would die before they would hand that ring over to the Order.

  Jackson also took a special stone with him that Essex had made for us. When the time came, I would be able to signal Piotrek to let him know when to return the ring to the quarry.

  I waited nervously for Jackson to return and let me know the plan was in place. For now, we were the only two who knew about it, but later, if the guards agreed, I would fill everyone in on the plan.

  He was gone much longer than I expected, leaving me to worry whether something had gone wrong. Finally, just before dark, he slipped back through the barrier. My eyes sought him out and waited for a sign. Had they accepted? Would they help us?

  His eyes locked on mine and slowly, he gave a subtle nod.

  Together We Are Stronger

  Everyone gathered in the pavilion.

  They sat on rows of stone benches, anxious looks on their faces as they stared up at the altar where I stood with Jackson.

  The weight of the moment pressed against my heart. I had never asked to be a leader. I had certainly never imagined myself to be the kind of person who would start a revolution or set out to change the world.

  Yet here I was.

  And one way or another, after tomorrow, everything would be different.

  "I can't tell you how much it means to me that you're all here," I said. "I know it's a lot to ask of you. There are no guarantees the ritual will work. There's no way to know if any of us will even make it out of there alive."

  I studied each face. Zara had given up everything to stand by my side and fight against her own flesh and blood. Mary Anne had risked her life several times to save mine. My sister had sacrificed her own freedom to wait for me. Lea had left behind her friends in the Resistance to warn me of their plan. Every person sitting there had given up something valuable in order to do what was right.

  "But there are some things I do know." I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat. "I know that what we're doing is noble and good. I know that together we are stronger than any one of us would be alone."

  I took a deep breath, determined not to cry in front of all my friends.

  "Tomorrow, we have a very specific plan in place, and each one of you has a very specific role to play," I said. "In the shadow world, some dear friends of ours are in charge of reactivating all the blue portals. When they do, every witch connected to a blue demon gate will probably feel the change, including Priestess Winter. It may take them a few minutes to put two-and-two together, but we can expect to be attacked within fifteen minutes of those gates going active."

  I cleared my throat. Saying our plan out loud made it all seem so real. So final.

  "The Sullivan family is in charge of creating a diversion," I said, looking to the prima family from Cypress. I was touched they had come, but wanted to keep them as far from the real act
ion as possible. "It's supposed to be a stormy day tomorrow anyway, so you'll be in charge of amping up that storm. Especially on the roads between downtown Peachville and Shadowford."

  "How bad do you want the storm to be?" Caroline asked. "Are we talking tornadoes and hail? Or just some strong winds?"

  "I'll leave it up to your judgment," I said. "I would say go as strong as you can without drawing unnecessary attention to yourself. If things go terribly wrong tomorrow, I want the three of you to be able to act as shocked as everyone else that all this happened. I don't want Priestess Winter to know you had any idea what we had planned."

  Eloise Sullivan sucked in a nervous breath and nodded, clutching the hands of both her daughters.

  "Everyone else will be coming with us to the ritual grounds," I said. "Only six of us will go down into the ritual room to perform the actual ceremony. Zara, you'll play the part of priestess. Angela, Mary Anne, Courtney, Lark and myself will stand on the five points of the star that surrounds the portal stone."

  I picked them each out of the crowd and they all nodded in understanding.

  "The rest of you will be with me up top," Jackson said. "We will form three rings of defense around the area. Lea will head up the front line where all of the demons will stand. We'll set up heavy traps and protection spells here, so if any of you know a special spell that will help, this is where you will cast it before the ritual begins. If the battle is able to make it through this first line, they'll hit the second line, which will be led by Essex. That line will consist of all the witches who have joined us from nearby towns."

  I looked out, amazed that so many had come. Angela had sent out wristbands to only about twenty witches, but some of them had brought friends. People who wanted a way out and resented the Order's lies.

  "The inner circle of defense will answer to me," he said. "All of the witches from here in Peachville will make up this inner circle. Our primary job is to protect the entrance to the ritual room so that no one gets down there."