by Clare Kauter
“As much as I appreciate you sticking up for me, Nessa, I think we have more pressing issues at hand,” said Death.
“Right,” I said. “Well, you know all those magicals who have been going missing around here lately?”
Death shrugged. “No.”
I frowned. “Well, I guess you wouldn’t if they didn’t end up dead,” I said. “Anyway, I want to know what happened to them, and these guys aren’t answering my questions.”
“We only arrived in Hellfire Shire two days ago,” squeaked one of the grabbers.
“What about Ravi?”
“Who?”
“This ghost here. Did you kill him?”
“No!”
“Tell the truth!” I roared.
“We didn’t kill anyone,” said the male grabber, his bottom lip wobbling. “We kidnapped a couple of wolves. They’re back in our tent. I’ve never seen that ghost before.”
I turned to Ravi. “Do they look familiar to you?”
He shook his head slowly. “No,” he said. “They’re not bringing anything back.”
I sighed and turned to Death. “I don’t suppose you saw what killed him?”
The Reaper shook his head. “Nope. Sorry.”
“Where did you pick him up?”
“Outside your place,” Death replied. “The cemetery.”
“And you don’t know who dumped him there?”
Death shook his head. “I didn’t see anyone,” he said. “Including you.”
There was a hint of accusation in his voice. Not that he thought I’d killed Ravi – he was just fishing for information about where I’d been.
“I wasn’t home,” I said. I didn’t tell him that I’d been in Hell, just in case he didn’t know about Ed’s crack. He eyed me suspiciously, but didn’t push the issue.
“Are you going to let us go now?” the male grabber asked.
“Don’t be an idiot,” I said. “You’re going to prison.”
Chapter 17
After we’d sent Ravi home, Death created another portal and dropped Henry and me off at my place before taking the grabbers to Hell. It was mid afternoon now, which meant we still had a while before we had to be at the church for our coven meeting. I brewed Henry a healing potion to help him recover from the forest’s light-sapping energy and we sat in my lounge room eating pineapple upside-down cake.
“What now?” I asked.
Henry, who was back in human form, sighed. “We need to get back to that forest,” he said. “Once I’ve got my strength back a bit. There must be more clues in there. That must be where Ravi was killed.”
I nodded. “We’re going to have to give you some amulets and other potions before we go back, though,” I said. “That place really knocked you around.”
“We’ve got the coven meeting tonight, but in the meantime, maybe you and I could examine Ed’s crack.”
I grimaced. “I really wish you wouldn’t say it like that.”
Once Henry was feeling a little better, we set out for the tree with the crack, rejoicing in the fact that this forest was filled with birdsong and sunlight and nice energy. No creeping darkness here. We sneaked through the forest, avoiding any other magicals, until we reached the crack. I pointed it out to Henry and he studied it, fascinated.
“Phenomenal,” he breathed. “It must be related to you living so close by. Everything seems to crack around you.”
I crossed my arms. “That’s not true.”
Henry looked over his shoulder at me. “Really.”
“Just clouding spells and…”
“Reality?”
“Yeah.”
He shifted into a gorilla and extended a hand to me. “Shall we?”
I took his hand, ignoring my heart fluttering (why did he look so good as a gorilla? WHY?), and followed him through the portal. We stepped through into Hell and I felt around for the door handle. Eventually I found it and pushed it open. When we emerged from the closet, Ed stood facing us with his hands on his hips, totally naked.
“Wow, both of you this time? I’m flattered, really, but I think it would have been better etiquette to request to join me in the boudoir rather than just show up. You don’t even know whether I’m into this sort of thing.”
“You’re definitely into this sort of thing,” I said, “and that’s definitely not why we’re here. Henry just wanted to see your crack. He’s obsessed with it.”
“I – I didn’t –” Henry turned to me. “You couldn’t think of a better way to phrase that?”
I turned back to Ed. “We’re going to the library.”
“We are?” Henry asked, surprised.
“Yes, we are,” I said. “I want answers, and I suggest you don’t try to stop me.”
Henry put his hands up in front of him. “OK. If you’re sure that it’s a good idea.”
“I’ll just get dressed and come with you,” said Ed.
“That wasn’t an invitation.”
“It’s a public library. It’s not like you can stop me from going there,” he replied. “It’s not like you can really stop me from going anywhere.”
“You’re the worst,” I said.
We didn’t have a choice but to wait downstairs for Ed, since we couldn’t get through the door without his help. Finally he joined us in the lounge room and led us to the door. Grinning, he stood between me and Henry and extended his hands. “M’lady,” he said to Henry. Henry just rolled his eyes and took Ed’s hand. I wrapped my fingers around Ed’s wrist.
“Not even a little hand hold?” Ed asked. “I get it. You’re worried Henry will get jealous. After all, we both know he has a crush on me.”
“You’re the most repulsive being I’ve ever encountered, Ed,” said Henry. “I’d sooner shift into a shark and crush your head in my jaw than have a crush on you.”
Ed pulled his head back slightly and gave Henry an appraising look. “Henry, I think you’ve been spending too much time around His Majesty,” he said, jerking his head towards me.
“His Majesty is getting sick of your shit, Ed,” I said through gritted teeth. “Just let us out of your hovel. We don’t have much time.”
“Somewhere to be?”
“We have a murderer and a serial kidnapper to catch,” I said. “Grown up problems.”
“You haven’t been up to your old tricks, I suppose?” Henry asked him.
Ed shook his head. “Afraid not,” he said. “Alright. Since your schedule is so packed, we’d better get going. Henry, since this is your first time, it might be uncomfortable for you. When we get to the other side, just make sure you vomit away from me.”
“What are you –”
Henry’s question was swallowed by the wooden door Ed was already pulling us through. My stomach flipped and flopped and squidged about until finally we popped out the other side. I took a couple of deep breaths to fight off the nausea before glancing over to see how Henry was doing. He was standing normally, arms crossed, frowning at me.
“Is that all?” he said. “You guys are wusses. You should try shifting some time.”
We walked through the cobblestone streets bathed in red from the moon hanging above us until we reached the library. When we were seated around the table under the glass dome in the restricted section, I decided to see if I could glean any information from Death’s two minions sitting across from me.
“When Dick kidnapped me and spoke about the king, he was surprised that I didn’t know what he was talking about and asked if I’d ever picked up a school textbook. I tried to find a book like that at the shop today, but I got sprung before I had the chance.”
Ed nodded slowly. “It makes sense that Dick would say that. The King of the Damned is a pretty well-known mythological figure.”
“So why haven’t I heard of him?” I asked.
The two of them shifted uncomfortably and said nothing, but that was answer enough.
“What don’t you want me to know?” I asked. “I already know some pretty dark
stuff. How much worse does it get?”
Again, the uncomfortable shifting. Seriously? That bad?
“You’d be better off avoiding school textbooks,” Ed said finally. Henry nodded, agreeing with Ed. A rare moment indeed. “Start with the books here.”
“There are no books here,” I said. “Or at least I’m not looking for them in the right place. And why should I avoid the textbooks?”
Ed hesitated before answering. “The school textbook will give you the big picture, but these books will be better for nuance.”
I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out what they weren’t saying.
“OK, so I’m the reincarnation of this king dude, right?”
They both shrugged and made noncommittal noises.
“I’m not?”
They made the same noises again.
“Can’t tell me or don’t know?”
Same noises.
I looked up at the ceiling and concentrated on slowing my breathing. My necklace was heating up in time with my temper, and since I didn’t want to kill them (much), I needed to try to stay calm.
“OK, whatever,” I said finally. “But you think that whatever is written about the king in textbooks will upset me somehow, right?”
Same noises.
I banged my fist down on the table. “You two had better start answering my questions or so help me –”
“If only you could break secrecy spells with your weird magical radiation,” Ed mumbled.
“You think I shouldn’t read any history textbooks, though.”
“Definitely not,” said Henry.
“Absolutely not,” said Ed. “No way.”
“This might be the only thing I’ll ever agree with Ed on.”
This was infuriating. “All this time, Ed, you’ve been trying to get me to find out more about myself and now you’ve changed your mind?”
“There’s a reason you haven’t stumbled across any random books on the subject in all your research, Nessa,” said Henry.
I frowned. It had always seemed a bit odd that everyone around me knew about the legend of the king, whereas until recently I’d known nothing about it. I’d been raised by Satan, and she’d tutored me in all sorts of dark magic, yet she’d somehow missed this one massive thing that everyone else knew. Satan had taken an interest in me after she’d seen me kill a couple of grabbers, and I’d always assumed she’d known what I was but for whatever reason hadn’t told me. Henry seemed to be confirming as much.
“So Satan did keep this from me intentionally,” I said. I frowned, looking back and forth between Henry and Ed. “And Death, too. He’s told you to stop me from finding out this thing about me.”
They made the same noncommittal noise again.
I groaned. “I can’t deal with this.”
“We can help you find out the important stuff,” said Henry. “Your abilities and such.”
“What happened with the king the last time around isn’t important,” said Ed.
Narrowing my eyes, I said, “So you want me to know what I can do, not what I did do. That’s what all this is about, right? Last time around I did some crazy shit, and that’s why everyone’s so cautious around me.”
This time, they didn’t make any noise. They both just shrugged.
“Great. So the last king was super deranged and you’re scared I’ll turn out the same way.”
“Well, after all the human sacrifice ceremonies in your honour, are you really that shocked?” Ed asked.
I glared at him. “Now’s not the time, Ed.”
“Were you still holding out hope that the king was some kind of benevolent figure? Seriously? After all the people you’ve accidentally killed?”
“Ed, I’d strongly suggest you shut up,” I said, the companions and Doomstone glowing so bright they were visible through my shirt in the dim room. “What happened to me?” I asked again.
“We’re not telling you,” said Henry. “It doesn’t matter. You’re not the same person as the last king. One day you’ll find out what happened with the last king, but you don’t need to know that right now. It doesn’t matter to you. You might have the same abilities, but you make your own choices.”
“He’s right,” said Ed. “For once. Don’t worry about what he did. Worry about what you do.”
“Very motivational, guys. Thanks,” I said drily.
“Ed, do you know of any books that might help Nessa better understand her abilities?” Henry asked. “I assume in all your searching for the Doomstone you learned a thing or two about the king.”
Ed nodded and headed off to find some books. Henry turned back to me. “I have an idea,” he said. “I know you’re annoyed that we can’t tell you certain things, and I want to make it up to you. Seeing as Ed and I have some knowledge of the king’s abilities, how about we help you learn what you can do? You already know a bit about that, so we should be able to work around the secrecy spell. I can put together a crash course to help you control your powers better.”
“And in the meantime you can stop me from finding out whatever this big secret is?”
Henry took a deep breath before exhaling and answering, “I can’t defy Death.”
“So you admit you’re going to keep certain information from me intentionally.”
“Nessa, it’s this or you keep researching on your own, and you and I both know how well that’s going.”
I crossed my arms and glared at him. Ed returned, dumping a stack of books on the table. “I, for one, think it’s a great idea,” said Ed. “You should learn to use your abilities as quickly as possible.”
“Ed, you’re not fooling anyone,” said Henry. “We all know you just want her to be able to bring you back from the dead.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m happy being dead.”
“And I’m happy with you being dead,” I replied. “Although it might be fun to bring you back so I could kill you again.”
“Where do we start with this crash course?” Ed asked Henry, ignoring me.
“I’ll get started on creating a syllabus.”
Ed and I both gave Henry identical looks of disbelief.
“You’re not serious,” said Ed.
“I am. Deadly,” said Henry. “We’re going to do this properly.”
“And the final lesson of the semester will be whatever everyone’s keeping from me, right?”
“That’ll be more like the last lesson of your three year degree,” said Ed. “Will there be exams?”
“No,” said Henry. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Yeah, Ed,” I said. “That would be ridiculous.” I didn’t mention that I’d been wondering the same thing. Henry already had his phone out, tapping away and writing up lesson plans or something.
“It’s not going to be a formally recognised qualification, so exams would be pointless,” Henry continued. Of course. How silly of us. He typed things into his phone as he thought aloud. “I’d like to make sure you’ve mastered each task before we move on to the next, though. And I’ll need to make sure we start with the most basic and move to the more complex. There is the problem that we don’t exactly have step by step instructions for how the original king performed most spells, but I’m hoping if we start with the simpler tasks you’ll be able to figure out how to perform them, Nessa. You’ve figured out some things organically, after all.”
Ed and Henry each picked up one of the books Ed had brought over and studied pertinent passages, building the course outline on Henry’s phone while I watched on, perplexed.
“She’s managed to crack clouding spells and open a portal already, Henry,” Ed said. “We can probably work on them earlier in the lessons.”
“Yes, but she hasn’t done those things intentionally,” said Henry. “They’re complex operations. She’s going to need to work on controlling her powers first. And controlling her temper.”
“I’m right here,” I snapped.
They both jumped at the sound of my voice, then quickly
returned to working on the syllabus. I pulled the necklace out from under my jumper and began to play with the charms hanging from it. They glowed as I touched them, although they were cool now seeing as I’d calmed down and I wasn’t in any immediate danger – unless being annoyed to death by the others was a possibility.
I frowned, studying the companions and Doomstone. As I obtained more of them, my powers grew stronger, but my temper also seemed to get worse. Henry was right. I needed to work on controlling it. Maybe I needed to take up meditation or yoga like Death – he was usually pretty chill. Or maybe I could start hitting the potions like Ravi.
Even though I knew they made me snap more easily, I still wanted to get my hands on as many companion objects as possible, if only to get them out of the hands of other nefarious characters. OK, so maybe I could be a little capricious, but at least I had good intentions. These objects were better off in my hands than the other seedy creatures who sought them.
The others saw me studying the objects and fell quiet.
“It’ll be easier for her to focus her energy if she finds more of the companions,” Ed commented.
“Again, I’m right here,” I said. “Stop talking about me like I’m not around.”
“It’s a good thought, Ed,” said Henry, “but we don’t know where there are any more. We need to just work with what we’ve got.”
I continued to play with the arrowhead, my most recent acquisition. “I think Pierre has one.”
Henry slapped his knee. “I knew it!” he said accusatorially. “I knew you weren’t looking for Honey out of guilt. You want to steal the item from Pierre!”
“I do so want to save Honey!” I protested.
“Nobody’s buying that, snookums,” said Ed. “We know you better. You’re only in this for yourself, just like always. Remember that time you tried to convince lover-boy here that he was insane to save yourself?”
Henry and I both turned to glare at him.
“I don’t know why you’re so angry at me for bringing it up,” Ed said to Henry. “It’s not like I was the one who did it. I can’t believe you’ve forgiven her. Me? I’d never trust her again.”
“You’re not the right person to talk about being trustworthy, Ed,” said Henry.