Cards of Death Box Set

by Tamara Geraeds

  I slowly breathe in and out and try to keep my calm. My eyes scan our surroundings, but there’s no one here but us. No one visible at least.

  My palms get sweatier with every second that passes. I check if everyone is okay and my heart stops. “Kale?”

  Suddenly everyone is moving, checking every spot they can see. Above our heads Simon is laughing like a maniac. He must have turned into his air form so we’re unable to see him.

  ”Kale? Are you still with us?”

  A rush of cold air hits my face and Simon shows himself, suspended in the air. “I’m sorry, your friend has been taken, Dante.”

  I ball my hands into fists, crushing the bolt that was still there into tiny sparks. “Taken where?”

  Only Simon’s grin is visible through the mist as he backs away from us. “What does it matter? You’re too late to save him.”

  A frustrated yell escapes from my lips and Simon’s hand appears in the sky, his index finger pointed upward. “One point for us, Dante. One point for us.”

  As his voice fades away, I turn to the others. “We have to find a way back home.”

  Maël is moving her staff slowly from left to right. “I’ve almost got it.”

  “What?” I ask, stepping closer.

  “Their trace. If I can locate the remnants of the portal they went through, we might be able to follow them through before it closes.”

  There’s a soft moan behind me and I whirl around, a bolt already flickering in my palm.

  But it’s just the Horseman, reaching for his head.

  “Hit him again if he moves,” I instruct Taylar, who has already rushed to his side.

  “With pleasure.”

  The Red Horseman looks up at him angrily, but his expression changes when he meets the young ghost’s eyes. “Well well, look at you.”

  Taylar frowns down at him. “Why? What do you mean?”

  The burnt man just grins and when Taylar is about to hit the answer out of him, Maël beckons us. “I’ve found it. Come quickly.”

  We all gather around her and grab each other’s hands.

  The Red Horseman gets up and tries to join us, but an invisible string pulls him back to the tree and he lands on his back with a curse.

  “Wait!” he yells, as Maël steps through the portal, pulling us with her. “Lift the spell and I’ll tell you!”

  I tighten my grip on Taylar’s hand. “Don’t listen to him, he’s a liar.”

  He nods feverishly, but I can see the doubt in his eyes. “I know.”

  CHAPTER 40

  We land in the northern forest, not far from the silver mine by the looks of it. We all stumble to regain our balance on the uneven ground.

  A shaky voice calls for help from only a couple of feet away.

  I pull Vicky upright. “That’s Kale.”

  We move forward without waiting for the others, but I can feel they’re close behind.

  There’s a small clearing just beyond the two pine trees blocking my view. I peer out from behind the overhanging branches and my whole body goes cold.

  The young boxer is standing in the middle of the clearing, with his arms outstretched and a terrified look on his face.

  “Please stop,” he whispers. “I’ll do anything.”

  “Oh, I know,” a meandering female voice says from his left. “But all you have to do is die.”

  An Asian looking girl with blue hair flowing down to her ankles and greenish skin paces up and down in front of Kale.

  The boxer throws her a pleading look. “Please let me go, I didn’t do anything to you, did I?”

  She puts a finger with a long nail under his chin and smiles. “No, you didn’t. You are part of a milestone in the history of Earth. You’re a piece of the power change puzzle.”

  “What if I don’t want to be?”

  “I’m afraid you don’t have a choice, love.”

  She steps back, licks the tips of her fingers and moves her left hand in a circle at her side. Drops of water spring from her fingertips as she slowly moves her arm back and the circles get wider.

  Kale lets out a pained cry and I dive forward, hoping the others are ready to follow. “Now!”

  We don’t get far. As soon as we step onto the clearing, we hit a wall of water.

  The greenish woman turns around. “Oh look, your friends have arrived. Too bad they’re too late.”

  I hit the water wall with lightning and when nothing happens, I try to freeze it. Slowly it turns solid.

  “That’s impressive,” the woman says. “But it won’t help.”

  She turns back to Kale and starts drawing circles in the air again, making the boxer scream in pain.

  When the lower half of the wall is frozen, I nod to Jeep. “Hit it with your hat.”

  He throws it and as soon as the rim strikes the surface, the ice breaks with a satisfying crack. While the hat zooms back to the tattooed ghost, shards of ice crash to the ground. I wait for the rest of the water to fall so we can jump over it, but the ice is replaced by new water in the blink of an eye.

  Kale is screaming his lungs out, and when I look at him through the wall, I can see why. Every time the blue-haired woman reaches the end of her circle movements, tiny drops of water are pulled from Kale’s body.

  “What are you doing?” I yell at her. “Stop that!”

  “It sucks, doesn’t it? Watching helplessly.” A second woman appears. Leisurely she strolls along the other side of the wall. Her orange hair reaches her knees and her skin has a yellow glow. If she hid in a coral reef, you would never find her.

  She waves at me with a lazy smile. “Hi, I’m Galene and this is my sister Nerida. We’re water elementals. I would shake your hand, but I’m afraid I have to keep this wall up a while longer.”

  I step closer to her and look her in the eyes. They are mesmerizing, even more beautiful than Vicky’s, with the green that fades into blue. She looks so peaceful and pure, that I can’t believe she’s evil.

  “Why are you doing this? You don’t look like the kind that wants to hurt people.”

  The corners of her mouth curl up unnaturally far. “Well, you look like a smart guy, but I guess looks can be deceiving, right?”

  I focus my freezing power on her instead of the wall. “Come on, Galene, we must be able to come to an understanding. Maybe we can help you get what you want without killing Kale.”

  She shivers. “I don’t think so.”

  “Please? Just stop whatever you’re doing to him for a minute so we can talk.”

  She leans closer to the wall and runs her fingers through the water. “It’s too late for your friend. Nerida is pulling all the water out of his body. He’ll be dead soon and the sand demons will take his soul to Hell.” She throws back her head and lets out a shrill laugh that doesn’t fit her appearance. “You should give up, chosen one. You can’t win this.”

  With a quick shake of her shoulders, she sheds the ice that’s been building on her cheeks. Then she turns on her heels and walks over to her sister. “Are you almost done? I’m getting bored.”

  Drops of water are pulled from every pore in Kale’s body. He has stopped screaming, his head hangs limply on his chest. He looks like a tattered doll.

  It’s not too late yet. We just have to break through this wall.

  Once more, I reach for my power core and imagine the water freezing rapidly. “Jeep, when I say go, hit the ice as many times as you can.”

  I want to look over my shoulder when there’s no response, but I have to keep my focus on the wall.

  “Jeep?” I repeat. “Did you hear me?”

  Galene turns back to us and twists a string of orange hair around her finger. “I think he’s out of the game, love.”

  My heart sinks when I hear my friend groan. It takes only two seconds for Vicky to confirm my fears. “It’s his tattoos, Dante. We have to hold him down before he hurts himself.”

  “What ab
out the hand cuffs?”

  D’Maeo sighs. “I’m sorry, Dante. I can’t find them. I must have lost them in the Shadow World.”

  For a second, I squeeze my eyes shut. We can’t give up. We can’t let the Devil win, not even once.

  “Vicky and Charlie, stay with Jeep,” I say. “The rest of you, come here and keep your weapons ready.”

  From the corner of my eye, I see them line up in front of the wall. “Good. When I say go, hit this wall with everything you’ve got and keep hitting it until I’m through. Then follow me if you can.”

  My voice sounds more confident than I feel, and Galene’s smirk doesn’t make it any better. She just stays where she is, her arms folded like a school teacher waiting for her students to do something stupid.

  “Hold on, Kale! We’re coming!” Taylar yells.

  “Go!” I shout, and the clanging and pounding of steel and wood on ice fills the air.

  As soon as the ice breaks, I step forward. For a moment my heart jumps, as I realize I’ve made it through. Then I hit another water wall and scream in frustration.

  I whirl around. “Maël, can you stop time?”

  She nods and lifts her staff high above her.

  “Hurry, please,” I whisper when Kale drops to the ground like a puppet whose strings have been cut.

  The two water elementals stop moving, the cry of a bird above us is cut off abruptly and the trees no longer rustle.

  As fast as I can, I freeze the new wall.

  But before I’m even halfway done, everything starts moving again.

  The ghost queen slams her wand into the ground, then lifts it again. There’s a frustrated look on her face.

  The movements of the water elementals are phased, as if someone is pushing the pause and play buttons over and over.

  And just when I think things can’t get worse, three lizard heads pop up behind Kale, sniffing the air eagerly. They move closer on the rhythm of my heart beat, their moments of freezing and unfreezing like a gruesome game of Red Light/Green Light.

  “Maël?”

  She sighs loudly. “I’m sorry, my power is not working.”

  The demons now approach in a steady pace. Their beady eyes are fixed on Kale´s motionless body.

  Next to me, D’Maeo, Maël and Taylar are trying to breach the wall, but it´s no use. We´ll never reach Kale in time.

  Unless…

  “D’Maeo, can you deflect the power used to create this wall?” I ask.

  My last hope shatters when he shakes his head. “I already tried.”

  Jeep appears next to me, panting. “I’m back, tell me what to do.”

  I rest my head against the water wall and fight my tears. With gritted teeth, we watch as the demons form a circle around Kale and bend over him. Their tentacles slither over his body and I groan in frustration.

  “There must be something we can do.”

  “Call Quinn!” Charlie says.

  I hold up my hand. “No, we can’t. If he gets involved too much, they will bring in their strongest warrior. We can’t even fight these, imagine what Beelzebub would do to us.”

  Vicky turns around and leans against the wall. “It’s too late anyway.” The sorrow on her face is almost tangible.

  She grabs my wrist when I turn back to see what the demons are doing. “Don’t look.” Her eyes are pleading, but I can’t help myself, my gaze drifts back to the middle of the clearing.

  The two water elementals have stepped back. They watch with satisfaction as the lizard monsters pierce Kale’s body with their tentacles. I expect blood to pour out of him, but all I see is a gray mist rising up. It slowly forms the shape of a boy, and the lizards each grab onto a limb.

  “Is that his soul?” Taylar asks softly.

  I have to swallow several times before I find my voice. “I think so.”

  A face appears in the misty figure and it opens its mouth and eyes wide. It’s screaming without sound and kicking its legs in an attempt to free itself.

  Taking their time, the demons drag it from the clearing and through the trees. Galene and Nerida follow without looking back.

  A couple of minutes later, the water wall evaporates and I fall face forward onto the musty ground. I don’t bother getting up. All I want to do right now is curl up into a ball of misery, fall asleep and wake up to a world without magic.

  Someone places a hand on my back. I know it’s Vicky before she even speaks. “Come on, let’s go home.”

  No words of comfort. I suppose that says it all. We failed miserably.

  CHAPTER 41

  For the first time, I let Charlie drive Phoenix. No one says a word. We all just stare out of the windows at the world that moves on without knowing what it has just lost. It doesn’t know it got one step closer to a radical clean sweep. I wish I could be so oblivious.

  Mona greats us at the door, but her big expectant smile fades when she sees our faces. Without a word, she leads us into the kitchen and makes us hot chocolate.

  We sit there quietly until the Cards of Death rise up out of my pocket, float to the middle of the table and turn into dust. It’s as if they want to rub in our failure. I can’t bear to watch the pieces float out of the house, so I bury my head in my arms.

  After about a minute, someone gently takes my hand and folds it around my cup. I pick it up and swallow the hot liquid without tasting it.

  “How’s Mom?” I ask, hoping to distract everyone’s mind, but mostly my own.

  “She was awake earlier,” Mona says, “but only for a few minutes. She asked for you.”

  I hold up my cup for a refill, too beaten to get up myself. “Did she remember what happened to her?”

  Mona goes around the table pouring more hot chocolate, before she returns to D’Maeo’s side. “Not much, I think.”

  “Good.” I try to smile at her, but it hurts my face.

  “You can check on her later, she just fell asleep. It’s best to let her rest.”

  I nod and take a deep breath. “Anyway, as you might have gathered already, we lost Kale. The demons took his soul.”

  She rubs D’Maeo’s arm as if to comfort all of us. “I’m so sorry.”

  “We were tricked,” Charlie explains. “By Simon. You probably know him. He used to be our friend.”

  She nods. “Yes, I’ve seen him a couple of times. What happened?”

  Charlie summarizes everything quickly, helped by Taylar and Jeep, whose face is full of guilt when they mention his fit.

  “That’s not your fault, you know,” Charlie says. “I can’t imagine how hard it must be to keep those ghosts trapped in your body all the time.”

  “Especially when you don’t even have a body,” I add.

  The others respond with small smiles.

  Mona walks to the sink and starts cleaning the kettle. “So those water elementals took Kale from the Shadow World?”

  “Yes, or another air elemental like Simon, who knows,” I respond.

  Vicky leans forward in her chair. “How was that even possible? I thought no one could survive the Shadow World?”

  D’Maeo finally speaks up. “Anything is possible if you have the Devil on your side.”

  “Or the chosen one,” Charlie comments, unwrapping a pack of chocolate cookies. “Look at me. I’m fine, too.” He gestures at his stained shorts and wrinkled shirt. “Well, almost fine.” He pushes back his chair. “I’m taking a shower upstairs.” He walks out of the kitchen, but his footsteps come to a halt before he reaches the stairs. “Unless you want to go first, Dante.”

  “No, it’s fine, go ahead,” I call back.

  “I want to train for a while, if you guys don’t mind,” I say to the others when Mona turns off the tap.

  Vicky wrinkles her forehead. “You want to train now? Didn’t we fight enough already today?”

  I slam my fist on the table. “Apparently not, since we just lost Kale!”

  The pained lo
ok on her face makes me want to take back my words. But they are true and there’s no use denying it.

  I rub my face hard. “I’m sorry. Look, all I’m saying is, I don’t want to lose any more souls and the only way I know to increase our odds, is to get better at fighting. So are you all with me?”

  They stand up as one and pull out their weapons. Taylar is already halfway out the door when D’Maeo stops him. “Wait, there’s something we should do first.”

  The white-haired ghost turns around with a disappointed expression on his see-through face. “What?”

  D’Maeo looks at me. “A training session is most effective when you don’t have to hold back. You have to fight like you would in a real battle.”

  “But then we’d hurt each other,” I say.

  “Exactly. That’s why we need to form a ring of protection, that will make sure no one can get hurt.” He pulls open a kitchen cabinet and takes out the salt. “Vicky, do you have some incense?”

  “Sure.”

  D’Maeo walks to the back door and beckons us. “Follow me.”

  After some instructions from the gray-haired ghost, we dig a shallow circle with a diameter of about sixty-five feet and I sprinkle salt in it. Then we fill it up with small rocks and place a white candle from Vicky’s pocket at every wind direction.

  I study it with my hands on my waist. “It’s a fairy circle!”

  D’Maeo grins. “Something like that, yes. Now, for the spell…” He turns his head. “Vicky? Do you have pen and paper? And the incense stick?”

  Vicky hands it all to him and the old ghost writes the spell down for me.

  “A friend of mine made one of these in a field where we used to play when we were young,” he explains. “It was the first time I ever saw someone cast a spell, that’s why I remember it.”

  He hands me the incense stick and the piece of paper. “Step into the circle. Light the candles while chanting the first part of the spell, then move the smoke over the rocks and keep walking until you’ve called out the rest of it.”

  Vicky hands me a matchbox and I walk to the first candle.

  “Powers of Air, hear my cry!