I was the only person within these walls, living or dead, who wanted to get into a cell—especially the cell of a psychotic serial killer’s ghost. But there was only one way to destroy him and if I was going to do it, I needed the element of surprise. And about eight minutes.
That was all the time it would take me to draw the one thing Darien couldn’t use his disappearing act to escape.
The Devil’s Trap.
I pictured the intricate design as I stepped back into Darien’s cell—the pentagram inside the circle, within a heptagram inside another circle—every line, every shape, every letter of languages I didn’t recognize.
The square cell was tiny. If I drew the outer circle big enough, the curved lines would touch the walls, leaving only the four corners of the room unmarked. Darien would have to step inside the symbol when he entered the room.
How can I get him in here?
It didn’t matter unless I finished the Devil’s Trap.
Shouts echoed from the other end of the hallway.
My hand started to move. I worked quickly, trusting the part of my mind that remembered the details on the face of a dollar bill, and the spot where every kid stood in our kindergarten class picture. I ignored everything else but the voice of my memory.
Seven names surrounded the circle—Samael, Raphael…
Looping the script perfectly, I copied the unfamiliar symbols like I’d written them hundreds of times. But I was careful, haunted by the entry in Jared’s journal from the night the Legion summoned Andras.
What if I make a mistake?
I stopped, momentarily paralyzed by the thought, until a metal door slammed at the end of the hall.
My hand shook as I finished the last few details.
“Where are you?” an agitated voice called.
Darien.
How could I hide the Devil’s Trap long enough to get him to step inside?
I glanced at the tiny window cut in the door, hoping the spirit wasn’t as close as he sounded. The opening was only about eight inches across. If I stood right in front of it, Darien wouldn’t be able to see anything except my face. My knees buckled as I stumbled toward the door with the final piece of the Shift in my hand.
“I’m right here.” I held up the cylinder, my face positioned in front of the window.
We were only a foot apart when his body passed through the door. I scrambled into the corner—one of the only places the curves of the Devil’s Trap didn’t touch.
Darien looked down, his feet firmly planted within the confines of the circle. His eyes mirrored the terror in the faces of the men that had flashed over Alara’s in the electric chair.
He lunged forward until his fingers hit the edge of the circle. The supernatural force field threw him back into the center. “What have you done?”
“I think we both know.” I huddled in the corner, clutching the Shift’s casing against my chest.
“Kennedy!” Jared and Lukas called out, their footsteps getting closer.
Darien focused on the door. The metal rattled and the cell’s heavy bolt clicked into place.
Bodies slammed against the door on the other side, and Lukas’ face filled the small opening. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” I slid my back up the wall until I was standing. Drawing the circle up to the very edges of the walls had made it easier to trap Darien. Now I realized that it also made it impossible for me to get out.
“Don’t move,” Lukas said. “If you step inside the circle, he can hurt you. Stay there and the Devil’s Trap should destroy him.”
Should?
It sounded like something else they weren’t sure about.
“How long will that take?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Lukas answered.
What if he found a way to get out before then?
Darien ignored Lukas and pointed to the cylinder in my hands. “You have to put it back or innocent people will die. That’s what she told me.”
“Who?”
“The one who asked me to hide it.”
“You mean the demon,” Lukas shouted from the other side of the door.
Darien sank to his knees. His shoulders sagged as though he couldn’t hold himself upright. The Devil’s Trap was slowly killing him a second time. “A woman gave it to me. She told me I could redeem myself. Make my worthless life mean something.”
What was he talking about?
“He’s lying.” I recognized Jared’s voice immediately. “Vengeance spirits lie just like demons.”
Darien frowned. “I killed six men in this prison protecting that thing and gave my life to the chair. That’s no lie. You put that piece back where you found it before people get hurt outside these walls.”
Jared’s face appeared in the window. “Don’t listen to him. He knows we can use the Shift to destroy Andras.”
The spirit’s eyes widened in horror. “The Shift doesn’t destroy Andras. It frees him.”
“What did you say?” I asked.
Darien spoke each word slowly. “If you assemble the Shift, it opens the gate.”
“Liar!” Alara shouted from the hallway.
Panic spread through the spirit’s hollow features, and he charged at me. I didn’t have time to turn away before Darien hit the outer boundary of the circle again. His body convulsed like he was caught in an electrified fence. Then the force threw him back, and he slid across the concrete on his side.
“Kennedy, put it together now,” Priest called out. “If the Shift can destroy Andras, it might be able to destroy him, too.”
“I’ll just wait until—”
Priest cut me off. “He’s not giving up. What if he finds a weak spot in the circle?”
My hand shook as I searched my pocket for the disks.
I sat down and piled them in my lap. I slid the first disk into the cylindrical casing. One of the symbols cut into the metal lit up, casting a beam of pure white light across the floor in the shape of the looping script.
Darien opened his eyes, still lying on his side. “I sacrificed my life to protect it for nothing.”
“You didn’t sacrifice your life,” Jared snapped. “You were executed because you’re a murderer.”
My whole body trembled. “I should let you guys put it together. I can stay here until the Devil’s Trap destroys him.”
If it destroys him.
“Kennedy,” Lukas pleaded. “You’re too close to the circle. Don’t give him the chance to break through and take it away from you.”
I struggled with the next piece, sliding it into the wrong chamber before I realized each disk fit into a specific one. The second symbol emitted the same clean white light.
Darien crawled to the edge of the line separating us, so close I could reach out and touch him. “I killed men inside these walls. Evil men who tried to find the piece and give it to the servants of the demon. I promised to keep it safe.”
Our eyes met, and I pressed myself flatter against the wall, trying to create distance where there was none.
My hands shook as I lined up the next piece, and I lost my grip.
The Shift rolled toward the edge of the Devil’s Trap.
I scrambled for it, and Darien lunged at me again.
For a split second, it looked like his hands were going to cross the edge of the circle, or the cylinder was going to roll into the Devil’s Trap. Darien hit the supernatural force field and my fingers caught the casing at almost the same moment—just as it reached the black line and Darien’s body was hurled back into the center of the symbol.
“Kennedy!” Jared pounded on the metal door, but I didn’t move. I couldn’t.
I scooted back against the wall and slid the third disk into position.
Light poured from the arced shape.
Darien flickered, his cheek pressed against the cold floor I knew he couldn’t feel. “I failed. We all did.”
“Who?”
“Don’t talk to him,” Jared begged. “Just put it together.”
“The spirits protecting the other pieces,” Darien finished.
The last disk balanced between my fingers. All I had to do was slip it into place, but my hands weren’t working. Every doubt about my mother’s past, the Legion, and the four people who believed in me resurfaced.
What if I made the wrong choice?
“What if he’s telling the truth?”
Jared pressed his forehead against the square opening. “Don’t let him get in your head. You saw the journal. You know what it says.”
Lukas shoved Jared out of the way, taking his place. “He’s a vengeance spirit working for a demon. You can’t trust him. Trust us.”
Alara edged her way in front of the opening, her face blurred by my tears. “We’re in this together.”
“You’re one of us,” Priest called out from somewhere behind her.
I was tired of being afraid. I wanted to trust them—the people who meant so much to me now, the ones who believed in me.
“Kennedy, please.” Jared took Alara’s place, and his eyes found mine. This time he could see my tears. “We need you. I need you.”
You can’t choose the person who really sees you—the person who knows what you’re feeling without you saying a word, the person who can make you laugh and cry and everything in between just by looking at you. The one you can’t imagine being lucky enough to have, or unlucky enough to lose.
I was staring at him—the boy who was all those things and more.
My hand trembled as I aligned the final disk.
Darien faded, sputtering out like a candle burned to the wick. I snapped the disk into the casing and the final symbol illuminated.
Darien blinked one last time and whispered, “May the black dove always carry you.”
His spirit exploded.
The Shift grew hotter and hotter until it burned my hands. I barely felt it, paralyzed by Darien’s last words.
May the black dove always carry you.
I dropped the cylinder, and a blinding light poured from the strange symbols as it rolled across the floor.
I thought about the other spirits—the girl in the yellow dress protecting her doll with the disk inside.
Millicent’s words from the well: “I won’t let you take anything else from us.”
The magician’s spirit promising he had tried to keep it safe before I destroyed him.
The disk hidden in a room protected by the spirits of dozens of dead children, and the words of the one carrying the sledgehammer it was hidden inside: “If I watch over what’s his, he’ll come back for me.”
And Darien Shears, a serial killer who put the cylinder inside the base of the chair that electrocuted him—a spirit who knew the phrase used by the members of the Legion.
Were the spirits protecting the pieces all along, or did Andras’ reach extend farther than we thought? Maybe Darien heard a member of the Legion say the words and remembered them?
I should have asked before I used my specialty to destroy him.
My specialty.
Salt spilled in between my fingers as I rubbed it over my wrist. I pictured the final section of the seal embedded in my skin and imagined my friends holding their arms against mine to complete the seal.
What will it feel like to be one of them?
I glanced at the Devil’s Trap one last time to be sure. There was nothing inside, not a speck of dust. There was no doubt I had destroyed Darien’s spirit.
But did I really trap a devil?
I waited for the lines to carve themselves into my wrist, hoping it wouldn’t hurt. Familiar voices called out to me as I leaned over my arm, tears dripping down onto my perfectly smooth skin.