| |
The narrow lanes were as black as pitch; only the car’s headlamps lit the way ahead, giving Alex and Avery brief flashes of hedges, gates, and fields.
“I didn’t think a spirit walker could physically attack someone,” Avery said. She peered through the windscreen, trying to see if she could see anything in the sky overhead.
“They can’t, normally.” Alex drove quickly, his eyes on the road. His car was a classic Alfa Romeo Spider, Boat Tail, and it whipped through the country lanes. “I expect El and Reuben will be fine, but I don’t know what attacked us. I’m not even sure it was human.”
Avery felt a heaviness settle into her body as she thought of demons, ghosts, and other creatures of the night. “What could it be?”
“Either someone wielding dark magic, or a demon.”
There. The word was out now.
“But they don’t exist.” Her voice sounded tinny and weak. She looked at Alex’s profile as he concentrated on the road, willing him to agree with her.
“We both know they do.” He flicked her a glance. “We just haven’t encountered one before.”
“Necromancy was very popular hundreds of years ago. Do you think our ancestors summoned demons?” It was a horrible thought.
“They must have done, or why have I got so many spells about them in my grimoire? From what I’ve seen so far, they certainly engaged in darker magic than we have. And you must have some demon related spells in yours.”
She had to grudgingly admit she did. “I thought it was more theoretical than practical.”
“Everything’s theoretical until you decide to act on it.”
A thought struck her. “How did you learn to do the whole lightning bolt-thing?”
“The grimoire, of course. And there’s a whole lot more in there, too. No wonder someone else wants them.”
They crested a rise and the hedges fell away, the headlights spilling onto the downs. Alex turned down a rutted lane and the car bounced as they raced along. Avery braced herself against the sides, hoping she wouldn’t be brained on the car roof. The Alfa didn’t like the uneven surface.
They could see the bleached outline of the building ahead of them, but there was no sign of El or Reuben. Alex screeched to a halt next to El’s battered 4x4 Landover. They bounded out, the slamming of the car doors loud in the silence.
By unspoken agreement they looked around carefully, and the silence of the night fell around them. Nothing moved. Even the normal night sounds had fled. From here they could see White Haven, its lights twinkling, and out at sea the lights of the boats. Close by, however, there was only darkness, the downs invisible, with only a sense of the openness of the unseen landscape. Avery directed her energy so it formed a ball in her hands, ready to fling at any unwanted visitors, and then focussed her senses outwards, looking for something, anything, but there was nothing else there. Only Alex.
She looked up, but the sky above was clear, the stars unflinching, with no sign of whatever had happened earlier. Was she imagining it, or could she detect a strange smell? It was like an unnatural rot.
Satisfied there was nothing waiting to attack them, Avery walked to Alex’s side, and together they headed into the remnants of the house. They passed through the shell of rooms, with their broken walls and a trace of foundation showing like bones. There was still no sign of El and Reuben.
Alex whispered, “The lines ran up the hill, remember?”
He led the way, watchful and silent. They both muffled their presence with a spell, cloaking their bodies so they appeared like shadows. The locators of El’s spell were still visible, pale lines marking long vanished foundations of maybe an earlier dwelling. Within a few minutes they came to a black hole in the ground, its opening several feet below the surface. Piles of earth and stone stood either side, and a huge stone square like a flagstone lay upended to the side. The smell of rot was stronger now, coming from the hole.
“What now?” Avery asked. “If we go down there they could attack us by accident, or what if something’s down there with them?” She trailed off, her meaning apparent.
“I’ll look.” Alex dropped to his knees and put his head in. He summoned light, and projected a pale light from his hand downwards. Avery stood close by, hoping nothing would emerge from the surrounding blackness.
After a few seconds Alex said, “It’s an old cellar. Follow me.”
He gripped either side of the opening and dropped from sight. As soon as he was in she took a last look around and followed him. She felt him grip her waist and hold her, gently lowering her to the ground.
A passageway snaked away from them, a pale light ahead. They had only taken a few steps when a scream rang out, and then a shout of rage. Alex ran and Avery followed, her heart pounding. She again summoned energy into a white-hot ball in her hands, and as Alex rounded a corner, he came to a stop. A few passages opened up, but only one was lit, and he again raced down it, following its turns. Another scream echoed around them; Alex stopped and she thudded into the back of him. He stepped aside quickly and for a brief second, Avery took in the room.
It was long and low, lined with rough brick and rotten timbers. The smell of rot and damp was strong. A lamp hung from the ceiling and the faint yellow light showed a wooden box on the floor against the far wall. Reuben was standing in the centre of the room facing a shadowy beast in the corner that crackled with heat. His arms and legs were wrapped in coils of flames that seemed to be trying to pull him towards the beast—or pull him apart. Reuben was straining to pull back, roaring with pain. As they entered the room, the flames disappeared, and Reuben fell to the floor.
The beast swelled in size, and red eyes glowed within its centre. Avery could just make out misshapen limbs; it exuded malevolence. It was a demon, and El struggled and writhed in its grip, screaming as flames crackled around her.
Alex ran to Reuben and dragged him back towards the entrance.
If they attacked the demon, they attacked El, but the box was intact, and it looked similar to Alex’s. It must be the other grimoire. Avery directed her ball of glowing witch light at the box and shouted, “Release her, or I destroy the box.”
For a second the demon waited, its flames slowed and the crackle subsided.
Avery felt rather than saw Alex move next to her. She shouted again. “I’ll do it! El means more to me than the grimoire.” The ball of light swelled in her hands and she stepped closer to the box. The demon needed to know she meant business. She sent the blast towards the box, engulfing it, and the demon roared with an unearthly howl.
Avery waited, the ball of light cradled within her hand again. “Release her now!”
From deep within the depths of the demon a column of fire rushed towards her and she rolled, flattening herself against the far wall as Alex threw up a shield in front of both of them. “Blast it again, Avery!”
She threw another blast at the wooden box and the demon howled again, this time flinging El to the floor as it charged across the room towards them. Avery redirected her aim to the demon and Alex joined her, battering the demon with their combined powers. Avery saw El staggering to her feet and she joined them with another blast of energy. The demon was surrounded, but it grew in size, filling the centre of the room.
The room now sizzled with heat and magic, and the white-hot blast surrounding the demon was almost blinding. Was it feeding off them? Avery was dimly aware of the dampness in the walls and the earth surrounding them, and she changed her focus, drawing on water instead. A jet of water shot from her hands and this time steam billowed around them as the demon howled with an unearthly cry that covered her skin in goose bumps. With a final flash of power the demon streamed upwards and out of the cellar, and suddenly the room was empty.
El fell to her knees and Alex rushed over to her. “Are you all right?”
“I’ll be okay, I’ve just used a lot of energy, and that thing sucked some from me. Is Reuben all right?”
Avery felt dazed and exhausted, but she turned and checked Reuben and found him groggy and weak. “I don’t know, but he’s alive. We need to get out of here before that thing comes back.”
“We’re not going anywhere without that box,” El said, standing on slightly shaky legs.
“Oh, we’re definitely taking that box,” Alex agreed. He looked at Avery, “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I’m fine. I think. Better than Reuben, anyway.” She turned and pulled Reuben’s arm, trying to avoid the blistering already coiling around his forearms. “Hey Reuben, you need to get up. We have to get out of here.”
He looked up at her, his skin ashen, his tattoos even more vivid against his pallor. Avery could see blistering around his calves, as well. He extended his hand and she pulled him to his feet.
“I feel like crap,” he said with a grimace.
“We need to get Briar. She’s better at healing than any of us,” El said, looking worried.
“Go,” Alex said. “I’ll bring the box. We need to get out of here, before that thing comes back with friends.”
***
They met at Elspeth’s flat. Unlike Alex and Avery, Elspeth didn’t live above her shop. She lived on the top floor of an old, converted warehouse overlooking the harbour. The walls were a mixture of warm brick and ornate dark wallpaper like her shop; the floor was made of solid oak, and the windows were long and metal framed. And it was small. “I love it, but it costs me a fortune,” El had once complained. Lamplight pooled in the corners and incense filled the air—a protection spell.
They had squashed into the rickety lift and mostly fell into her flat, all of them exhausted. The wooden box was on the floor, looking ominous. Avery gazed out of the window at the harbour below, illuminated by the streetlights, and watched the gentle rise and fall of the waves and the boats bobbing gently on the swell. She could feel the box behind her. Half of her wanted to see what was in it, half of her wanted to be at home, tucked up in bed, asleep. Or maybe with Alex. She was aware of his presence everywhere, like a tickling of her senses, and she longed to touch him again.
A loud knock at the door disturbed her reverie and Briar came in, followed by Gil.
“I wasn’t sure you’d be able to come,” Alex told him.
Gil frowned. “Reuben’s hurt. Of course I’m here.” He rushed to Reuben’s side. “How you doing, Reu?”
“I’ve been better,” he said. He sat on the sofa, sipping a strong coffee. “The burns are the worst. That thing lashed me with these weird flame ropes.”
“It was a demon,” Alex said seriously. He stood leaning against the kitchen counter. “We have to call it what it is.”
Gil and Briar looked shocked; the others were used to the term now.
“When you said it over the phone, I thought it was a joke,” Briar said. She sat on the floor next to Reuben, unpacking her bottles and salves. She was pale without makeup, her hair bundled on top of her head.
“It’s no joke,” El murmured from where she sat in front of the fireplace, black candles burning there instead of a fire, to ward off the spirits. “That thing wrapped me up in its demon fire. I’m lucky I wasn’t burnt either. I presume it needed me - maybe to open the box.”
“I have some salves for burns, and a spell for spirit fire. Let’s hope that helps,” Briar said, choosing a pot.
“Tell us everything,” Gil urged.
Alex started, telling them about the spirit walking, and then El told them about their investigations which had led to the house. She turned to Alex and Avery. “So you saw something during your spirit walk? Was it the same thing?”
“I don’t know.” Alex shrugged. “But we were above you and it rushed at us. It was a dark mass. It looked like the demon in the room, but it could have been someone with dark energy disguising themselves.”
Avery leaned back against the window frame, its cold steel digging into her shoulder. “If the demon was controlled by necromancy, then it could be that whatever—or whoever—was spirit walking sent the demon.”
Gil had been watching Briar expertly tend to Reuben’s wounds, but now he looked at Avery. “You’re saying somebody controlled that thing. The demon.”
“Why would a demon need a spell book, Gil?” she asked. “They don’t. Witches need spell books. Witches control demons. Or at least, some do. It was very popular in medieval times. And someone clearly is willing to do anything to get those grimoires.”
It was a horrible thing to acknowledge, but they had to. She watched Gil and Reuben. They were both so different. Reuben the handsome surfer who had supposedly turned his back on magic, and Gil, his older, quieter brother. Gil’s hair was darker and shorter, and he was slightly thicker set, but now that they sat next to each other, Avery could see the family resemblance around their eyes, and the set of their mouth.
“So instead of healing and nurturing magic, we’re now dealing with dark magic?” Gil looked at Avery accusingly. “You’ve caused this, by finding that box and those papers.”
Avery felt like she’d been punched. “Sod off, Gil! I didn’t cause this! And I didn’t find those papers, or even look for them. They were left to me. If you want to blame anyone, blame Anne!” She was angry now, and she could feel her magic ready to sizzle again. “In fact, blame your relative. She’s the one who dragged Anne into all this.”
The tension in the room was palpable as Gil stood. “We only have Anne’s word for that. It could be a lie, or a double cross. Something to draw us into looking, all for someone else’s purposes. Anne went to a lot of trouble to point us in the right direction. When she was dead. Very convenient.”
Avery stepped towards Gil. “You had no idea about your history. Stop trying to blame someone else. It’s probably your mad uncle Addison who tried to kill us tonight.”
“Stop it. Both of you.” Alex stepped between them and then looked at Gil. “You have to accept this, Gil, like it or not. I suggest you start looking for your own grimoire. You too, Briar. The gods only know what’s in there.” He turned to Avery, a ghost of a smile in his eyes. “I’ll help you find yours.” He then announced to all of them, “And we need to stick together. I don’t know about you, but I have no idea how to summon a demon, control one, or destroy one. That thing we encountered tonight is only banished. It will be back. And we need to be ready for it.”
