A Darker Past (Entangled Teen) (The Darker Agency) (23 page)

Oh craps. Was that why he was here? Because Lucifer sent him to get the box back? I launched into defensive mode. “I know it looks bad, what we did, but I swear we have a plan.”

“You’re playing with a dangerous lineup. You understand that, correct?”

I nodded.

“And you are aware that the sand in the hourglass has almost run its course, yes?”

Another nod.

“Then I leave you to it. I will inform Lucifer that you are on track and, despite the somewhat murky appearance of your actions, I will vouch for you. But be warned… I won’t step in should Lucifer decide he’s unhappy with your methods.”

It felt like a ten-ton weight lifted from my shoulders, and I let out a breath.

Valefar shook his head. “Why do you act so surprised? Did I not tell you I watch out for my own?”

He’d tricked me into fifty-five years of service, and I trusted him about as far as I could toss him, but for a demon, he was as honorable as they came—which wasn’t saying a hell of a lot. “Thank you,” I said. “And thank you for—”

His eyes flashed red, and before I could finish, he lunged at me.

Chapter Thirty-One

“Never,” he whispered in my ear, “thank a demon.”

My heart pounded against my ribs, and all I could do was nod.

“To thank them is to acknowledge that they’ve done something for you. If they’ve done something for you, then they are within rights to request something in return.”

I found my voice. “What—then, what do you want?”

He stepped away. Downstairs, the bell over the front door chimed. Mom was back.

“I have no need to request anything further from you. I have all that I need.” He bowed and disappeared in a plume of inky black smoke, his voice lingering. “Be safe, Jessie Darker.”

“You ready to do this?” Mom said from the doorway a few moments later.

I swallowed and turned, heart still jack hammering. “I’m—yeah.” There was no reason to tell her about Val dropping by. “Gonna tell me what your little side trip was all about?”

She shrugged and tossed me my jacket. Well, it was Dad’s actually. He’d given it to me when I was younger, and I’d been wearing it ever since. “I told you before. I was just securing a little extra insurance.”

The wicked grin on her face told me I should be worried.

Like, very worried.

Sadly, I was kind of excited.

…

“Déjà vu,” I said, stuffing both hands into my pockets. The three of us were standing in the Archway again. There was a slight breeze, and the flames on the candles around the altar flickered. The spell Cassidy planned to use on the box had never existed, so we were back to square one.

“What’s the plan?” Cassidy asked. She was eyeing the box, and it was making me nervous.

Mom noticed, too. She fixed a challenging gaze on the witch, daring her to make a move. “We summon the demon.”

“And?”

“And, what?” Mom snapped. “You’ve left us no choice. We either hand over the box and hope to hell you can trap him, or we prepare for a shitload of bloodshed, starting with ours.”

Cassidy didn’t respond. Instead, she faced the altar and knelt for a moment, lips moving in a silent prayer. When she was finished, she stood and nodded to Mom. “A blessing. For success.”

Blessing my half-demonic ass. She’d probably just cursed us. But there was nothing we could do. It was go time.

Mom held tight to the box and in a booming voice, yelled, “Gressil!” The sound bounced off the trees. In the darkness loomed an eerie disturbance to the peaceful illusion of the Archway.

His laugh came before he did. “I was beginning to wonder,” he said seconds before the appearance of thick purple smoke, followed by his body taking solid form. This time he wasn’t alone. A second form wavered for a moment before becoming solid. Kendra looked scared, but in one piece.

Cassidy took a step forward, but Mom yanked her back. She stepped in front of the woman and placed the box on the ground. “The prison.”

Gressil laughed. He wrapped his fingers around Kendra’s arm and fixed his gaze on Cassidy. “You did well.” A single shove and Kendra came flying forward into her mother’s arms as Gressil bent down to retrieve the box.

Cassidy gave Kendra a quick squeeze, but instead of pushing her out of harm’s way, held tight. Shoulders squared, she took a step toward the demon, dragging her daughter along. “And?”

The demon chuckled and held out his hand, upturned and extended toward Cassidy. One minute his palm was empty, the next there was a small piece of glass. It looked like a piece of the mirror that he’d been trapped in.

With unadulterated hunger in her eyes, Cassidy reached for it without hesitation, but he closed his fist and jerked it away. “First, I’m curious about something. What does your daughter think of your
sacrifice
?”

“Bastard,” she cursed. “You got what you wanted. Everything that you wanted. Now settle our deal.”

“What is he talking about?” Kendra asked. Her voice cracked, and she wrenched free from Cassidy’s grip and took several steps back until she was standing next to Mom and me. “Sacrifice? What deal? What did you do?”

When Cassidy didn’t answer, Mom did. She was the only woman I knew that could look fierce, yet sympathetic at the same time. “She tricked us into getting the prison by letting you be taken, insinuating that she wanted to stop Gressil from killing more of her coven sisters. But there’s more, isn’t there, Cass?”

Cassidy glared at her, but didn’t deny a thing.

“The Belfair line has fallen so far,” Gressil said with a short laugh. He opened his hand again, this time extending it toward Kendra. The glass. “In return for this, your mother agreed to supply me with the prison—and the means to break back into the Shadow Realm.”

It took me a second, but when the realization of what he was saying hit, I was sick. I tasted bile and swallowed it back, a trail of acid burning its way down my throat. After the demon’s release from the mirror, he was weak. The only way to recharge and gain enough energy was to steal magical souls. “Oh my God…”

“It wasn’t about revenge,” Mom said, frowning. She understood, too, and she looked as sick as I felt. “All those witches—
your coven
—you set them up.”

“Set them—” Kendra’s face paled. “You
fed
them to him.” In all the years I’d known her, I’d never seen such disgust in her expression. Such hate. I didn’t think her capable of it.

“For a piece of glass,” I added.

Mom let out a short laugh. “It’s not just glass, Jessie. It’s the key to the missing Belfair power. It’s what Lorna sacrificed in order to trap Gressil in the mirror. Her power. Am I right, Cass?”

Gressil laughed again. “Foolish humans. So obsessed with power. When you told her my mirror had been broken, the witch knew I would come for her. She summoned me first. Asmodeus’s prison and three witch souls, in exchange for the opportunity to restore her line and coven to its former glory.”

I glanced at Kendra, my throat dry. “Three?”

“The young Belfair’s soul is part of our deal.”

Kendra snatched the glass from Gressil’s palm as Cassidy watched. It was obvious her mother wanted to snatch the shard away, but she kept silent and still. “You sent our sisters to die over this…” It wasn’t a question. It was a curse. Kendra’s voice cracked. “You sent
me
to die.”

“Your sacrifice is needed for the glory of our line. We will be stronger in the future. We can rebuild. I did this
for
the coven,” Cassidy yelled, expression hardening. She made a grab for the glass, but Kendra jerked it away.

“No,” Kendra said. She dropped the small shard of glass to the floor and stomped hard on it, grounding her heel. The sound it made as it shattered was drowned out by Cassidy’s scream.

She dropped to her knees and began scraping up the bits. “What have you done?” she wailed, letting the dust slip through her fingers.

As Kendra moved her foot aside, she glared at her mother. An expression filled with disdain and fury. “This had nothing to do with the coven. You did this for you.”

“You’ve killed our line. Doomed us to—”

“To what?” Kendra fired back. This was the newly improved Kendra. The one who’d started standing up to her mother and gained confidence through her craft. “To be like other witches? I think Lorna was right. The Belfairs have a sad history of power abuse. It’s going to change. We will do
good
with our magic.”

“Enough!” Gressil boomed behind them. “I grow tired of this squabble. I will take the witch and the prison.”

It all happened in a matter of seconds. Purple smoke erupted from the tips of Gressil’s fingers. It shot across and wrapped around Kendra’s ankle, sending her off-balance and to the grass. She screamed as Mom tried to keep the demon from dragging her away. I blinked. That was all. In an instant, the smoke had transported her to Gressil’s side and he was bending to retrieve the prison.

The moment his finger’s touched the thing, the temperature in the clearing dropped twenty degrees. “What—”

The smoke around Kendra’s ankle dissipated, and she scrambled to her feet, sprinting back to us. Swirls of transparent blue rose from the ground and oozed from the box. Shapeless forms churned around him. They created a barrier, and struggle as he did, he couldn’t seem to break free.

The demon raged against his prison and let out a roar that sent the hairs on my arms jumping to attention. The blue blobs continued to swirl around him, making me dizzy, but they seemed to be slowing down. Keeping him frozen in place. “This won’t hold me forever.”

One of the blue blobs rose above his head, and with an audible pop, exploded.

“What are those things?”

Mom didn’t take her eyes off Gressil. “Paulson’s special blend of insurance.”

“Ghosts,” I said, understanding.

“
Witch
ghosts,” Mom said. She shoved Cassidy aside and grabbed Kendra’s arm. “Hurry. You have to trap him.”

“Trap him?” she squealed. Her eyes grew wide as Frisbees, and she shook her head. “Are you insane?”

“Kendra,” my mom snapped. She grabbed my hand and Kendra’s. “Focus!”

“Oh my God,” I yelled, remembering that we had sort of an ace in the hole. “I totally forgot about this.” I dug into my pocket and pulled out the glass that Lukas took from the floor of the Town Hall. The glass from the mirror imbued with the missing Belfair magic. The last shard left.

Cassidy was power hungry. She’d sacrificed her own people and her daughter, so it shouldn’t have surprised me when she made a grab for the glass. Kendra was quicker, though. She took the piece from me and jumped back.

Mom glared at Cassidy. “The spirits won’t be able to keep it up much longer. Cass, if you’re not going to help us, back away.”

She wasn’t giving up so easily. “Give me the glass. With it, I can trap him.”

I stepped between Kendra and her mother. “Your track record for backstabbing just shot through the roof. You think we’re going to hand over a chunk of über-magic? A minute ago you were willing to feed your only daughter to a demon for this thing.”

Cassidy stiffened, and a smirk spread across her lips. The expression of someone who holds all the cards. “You have no choice. I have the spell.”

“Are you kidding?” Kendra balked.

“Kendra, that glass will kill you. The power is too great. Give it to me.”

My friend faltered. To me, Cassidy was as transparent as air, but to Kendra, she was still her mother. Her coven leader. “Lorna was on to something. Helping people is a good use of the coven’s power.”

Gressil let out another roar. The spirits surrounding him were starting to wane, and it wouldn’t be long before he was free and lighting us up like Roman Candles.

“Kendra,” Mom said. She laid a hand on her shoulder. “We’re out of time. This is your choice. Give her the glass or absorb the power and trap Gressil in the box.”

“Please,” Cassidy pleaded. “I’m sorry. Give me one more chance. I will make you proud to be a Belfair.”

Lips pressed thin, Kendra sighed. “Lorna makes me proud to be a Belfair, Mom. Not you.” She lifted her hand and opened her palm, the small shard of glass in the middle. “Never you.”

She closed her fingers, making a fist around the glass, and brought it to her forehead. A blinding flash of light followed, and Kendra gasped, her entire body going ridged and pale. The sound of Cassidy’s scream as she charged forward was drowned out by Gressil, who was almost free of the prison. We needed to do this.

Now.

I reached for Cassidy as she lunged for Kendra, but she slipped past. It didn’t matter, though. Kendra had it all under control. She brought her hand away from her head and opened her fingers. The glass was gone. “Too late.”

It took more than that to derail Cassidy Belfair. She matched her daughter’s grin with a wicked one of her own, and folded her arms. “All that power didn’t help Lorna without the spell.”

“The spell. Good point. I’ll be needing that, too.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Kendra placed her palm flat against Cassidy’s forehead. The skin beneath it glowed bright white, and with each moment that passed, the little ribbons of that light traveled down her fingers, along her arm, disappeared under the sleeve of her shirt before reappearing on the side of her face and seeping into the skin.

The center of her eyes turned gold. Cassidy gasped and stumbled away. “What—what did you—you took the spell. How did you do that?”

She opened her mouth, but Gressil’s scream cut her short. The spirits were almost all gone. There were only three remaining, and it was obvious they were struggling to keep him rooted—and they were losing.

“You will pay for this,” he roared.

“Blah, blah, blah,” I said. “You bad guys need new material.”

Mom smacked me across the back. “Don’t taunt the demon.” She turned to Kendra. “Can you do this?”

Kendra nodded and took a deep breath. “I think so.” She stepped around Mom and me, and walked over to the demon like she was marching down death row. Terrified. She was absolutely terrified.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed, either. The demon let out another roar. “Foolish child. Having great power doesn’t mean you can wield it. I am almost free, and when I am, you will beg for death.”

“You can do—” The rest of my pep talk was lost as the air was knocked from my lungs. Something black and massive hit me, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mom go down as well. Kendra screamed, and I managed to squirm onto my back despite the ten-ton weight on top of me. Hellhounds.

The one hovering above me snarled, snapping its jaws twice before throwing back its head and letting out an ear-bleeding howl. Thick, yellowish slime oozed from between its razor teeth. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t wiggle my fingers into my pocket where a quartz-tipped pocket knife sat in wait.

“Sorry, boy,” I said as calmly as possible. “No treats today. Come back tomorrow.” Or, yanno, never.

The demonic Fido wasn’t happy. Black lips pulled back, it opened its mouth wider and—howled in pain. Dad stepped from the shadows behind it, driving a blade into the back of the creature’s neck. The thing screamed and gagged, and the slimy yellow ooze dripping from its mouth turned red.

With a hard shove of his boot, the hound fell sideways, and Dad extended his hand to help me up. He was a mess. Covered in blood, his clothing was shredded, and he was missing a shoe. “You okay?”

I nodded, then remembered Kendra. She was backing away from Gressil as a hound approached. It crept low to the ground, slinking along with bared teeth and a wicked snarl. Dad and I sprang into action, but Lukas, who stepped from the shadows right behind the beast, got there first. He dove at the thing, tackling and rolling with it for several feet. Massive jaws chomped hard, and I was sure they’d latch on to something vital. His neck, just inches from the hound’s deadly teeth, would be nothing more than Swiss cheese when the beast was finished with him.

But Lukas, always surprising me, had it under control. As I watched in awe, he made a fist and punched through the demon’s chest. No… He’d
shadowed
through. “How the hell—” When he brought his hand back, it was covered in black blood, and in his hand was a roundish mass. The creature’s heart. Its eyes rolled back and body went still.

“In one piece?” I said, finally reaching Kendra.

She was staring at Gressil. “I
can
do this, but I need some time.”

“Not sure how much you’ll get,” Dad said. He turned and faced the clearing as another round of hounds stepped from the shadows. With a grin, and a wink at me, he called over his shoulder, “But we’ll see what we can do to cover you.”

And with that, he lunged forward to meet the next wave, Lukas on his left, and me on the right. Mom was charging toward us from the other side, where she’d just downed two of her own. With one last look over my shoulder to check on Kendra—she was in front of a still struggling Gressil with her eyes closed and lips moving furiously—I charged into the battle.

We fought them back, but they just kept coming. One after another, groups of snarling, drooling demonic dogs with a hankering for people parts. Dad crashed into one as it leaped at Mom. She didn’t notice. She was too busy gutting the duo that had just tried to take her out.

Lukas was fierce. He attacked the beasts with demonic vigor, the spark of excitement in his eyes reminding me of Dad.

For the moment, the coast was clear, so I rushed to check on Kendra.

Sweat beaded across her brow, and her breathing was slightly labored. “I can—I can feel the pull of the magic, but it’s—” She opened her eyes. “Mom’s right. I can’t do it. I’m not strong enough.”

“You are,” I said, taking her free hand.

Cassidy, who’d been watching silently from the sidelines, laughed. The sound of it sent chills down my spine and made me want to punch her all the more. “You’ve killed us all, Kendra. That demon will be free soon, and it will rip us all to shreds.”

“Then help her,” I demanded. “You’re willing to risk your own life because you’re pissed about the glass?”

She didn’t respond.

In that moment I had a new kind of loathing for the woman. I turned back to Kendra. “Just close your eyes and focus. Think of Lorna. Her strength and determination. Here, take my hand. Ma?”

Mom ran up beside me, brushing chunks of hound from the front of her pants. I didn’t want to know. Okay, well, I
did
, but now wasn’t the time. I nodded to my hand in Kendra’s. Mom placed hers over top of it.

“Lorna and Charles had a son, Ken. Samuel Darker. We’re not witches, but Belfair magic is in our blood. Pull the strength you need from us.”

There was a moment of shock, and then her hand tightened around mine. What started as a barely there whisper steadily increased to a power-filled chant. My stomach churned, and a warm feeling erupted, then spread to all of my limbs. With each breath I took, I found it harder to stay upright. It felt like I’d just gone ten rounds with a demon, then launched into a sprinting match with a pack of werewolves.

My breath became ragged, and when I glanced over at Mom, she looked like she was in the same boat as me. Not Kendra, though. There was a pale light surrounding her, and her eyes were golden.

Gressil roared, then doubled over. The last spirit popped out of existence, but instead of coming forward and ripping our heads off, purple ribbons of light shot from the ground by the demon’s feet. They twined around, wrapping him like a loose cocoon. In a matter of seconds, they had him completely covered, and Kendra’s iron grip on my hand was the only thing keeping me on my feet. The purple ribbons pulsated, then turned a sparkling gold, looking more like rope. They tightened around the demon, and he dissolved into smoke.

For a second I thought we’d failed and Gressil had escaped, but the smoke danced in the air, then dove into the box.

I collapsed to the ground, vaguely aware that Mom had followed me down. The box lay in front of us, smoking, but it looked as though we’d won.

I took a deep breath and geared up to congratulate Kendra, when the ground rumbled. “Seriously? Can we ever catch a damn break?”

Mom was climbing to her feet with Dad’s help, and suddenly Lukas was behind me, dragging me off the grass.

Kendra took a step back. She still hadn’t taken her eyes off the box, and Cassidy, in turn, hadn’t stopped staring at her. It was like she was seeing her daughter for the first time. And if the expression on her face was anything to go by, she
didn’t
like what she saw.

A thunderous clap split the silence, and everything went dark.