A Demon's Wrath: Part II (Peachville High Demons) (4 page)

A terrified scream rang out across the darkness. A
girl, but not a demon. No, this voice was different. More fragile
somehow. It was coming from someone deep inside the light. Someone on
the other side of the portal.

I didn’t understand it and even though I
strained my eyes toward the light, I couldn’t make out what was
going on deep inside. I could only see the dark figure I’d seen
before. She was wearing a hooded green cloak. A cloak identical to
the one the shadowed figure had worn in my vision just before Aerden
was ripped from my life.

My stomach twisted.

After more screams, the cloaked figure raised her
hands and spoke again. The screams were silenced.

“Shyla, demon of the Shadow World, we call
to you. Enter into this sacred place. We demand your presence.”

The chorus of voices began a new chant and this
time, the emerald light rose up from the ground like an orb.

No. Like a doorway.

Inside the light, a girl lay suspended in mid-air,
her body trembling and naked. She was not grotesque and rotting like
the creature who had stood here before. She was beautiful and young
and terrified.

I gasped. I recognized this race. She was human.

I had heard stories of humans and seen drawings of
them in history books, but those same books taught us that the humans
were lost to us centuries ago when portal magic was banned by the
king. Lea’s grandfather.

Something told me this group of humans did not
care about the rules of our kingdom. They served a much darker
purpose. One that was only then becoming clearer to me.

The chorus of voices continued to chant, but then,
a low humming began. More voices? Or was it the sound of the light
itself? The green portal grew stronger and brighter.

The light nearly blinded me, blocking out what
little view I had of the room beyond.

The group around me tensed and I saw Andros reach
for his sword.

This was it. I could feel it in the energy of the
air. My muscles froze and tensed as tight as ropes.

Another scream pierced through the darkness, but
this time the sound wasn’t human.

The demon’s scream was short-lived. Some
invisible force silenced her, but her mouth remained open and
contorted. Her dark form was drawn to the summoning stone with the
terrifying force of a magic I didn’t quite understand.

This demon, Shyla, must have been dragged from the
false safety of her own bed. Somehow, the ritual had summoned her
here in an instant when her name was spoken.

In the bright emerald light her form was a pure
black wisp of smoke.

I watched the others in my group, expecting them
to stand and fight. But they didn’t move. They simply watched.
And waited.

Anger rushed through me like a flame. Surely we
weren’t just going to sit here and do nothing. We could save
her. Why weren’t they even trying?

I shook my head, trying to make sense of this. A
demon was being stolen from our world to who-knows-what kind of
torture on the other side. How could we just sit here and watch it
happen?

I moved to stand, but the younger demon next to me
grabbed my arm again. She shook her head and threw a glance at the
green portal.

“Don’t,” she whispered. “Not
yet.”

Andros looked back at me, then held up his palm,
telling me to be patient.

“I can’t just sit here,” I said
in a harsh whisper. “I’m going to help her.”

Andros turned and put his hands on my shoulders,
holding me down with a greater strength than I’d known he
possessed.

“This is not the time,” he said
sharply.

“From the looks of it, this is the only
time,” I said. “They’re taking her.”

“I know,” Andros said. “And keep
your voice down. If they discover you, that hunter will be back in an
instant and you can kiss us all goodbye. Do you want to die today?”

Hunter. Is that what they called the creature in
rags?

I flinched. Every single thread of my being
protested against this, but I had to trust him. I knew nothing of the
power of this group of humans or their hunter. Well, nothing except
the fact that they had been powerful enough to defeat my brother.

The humming inside the portal stopped and I looked
over, feeling more helpless than I ever had in my life as the demon’s
form was sucked through the portal to a foreign world.

I strained to see beyond the light, but I couldn’t
make out anything at all. Maybe the form of the girl hovering in the
light? The green cloak of the leader?

We were losing any chance we might have had. “We
have to help her,” I said.

“She’s beyond our help now,”
Andros said. “Just watch. I know it’s difficult, but you
wanted to know the truth. I’m showing you.”

I made one last attempt to stand and run after
her, believing that if I could get to that green light, maybe I could
do something to help.

But Andros held me to the spot, forcing me down
toward the ground.

Then, a clear voice rang out from the other
dimension.

“Shyla, demon of the Shadow World, we bind
you.”

The demon’s shadow began to seep through the
portal to the other side.

I couldn’t just sit here and watch this
happen. I gathered my strength and tore out of Andros’s grasp,
rushing from the cover of the tall firegrass and into the clearing.

Inside the light, the hooded woman turned, her
eyes meeting mine just as the green portal collapsed downward toward
the stone.

“No,” I shouted, rushing forward.

The moment I reached the circle of black roses, a
strange energy pulled me forward. I lost control of my own form, the
force of this dark magic drawing me into its circle.

I cried out, fear freezing me as I felt myself
being dragged inside the circle.

The right side of my body crossed into the circle
and a great fire sizzled against my flesh, tearing into me like a hot
knife. I screamed as several sets of hands grabbed hold of me and
pulled me backward.

I fell back against the burned grass, my vision
blurring from the pain.

“How stupid can you be?” one of the
others yelled. “Andros told you not to intervene.”

I couldn’t speak. My world was upside down
and all I could think of was the intense pain that spread from my
foot to my shoulder. Lea appeared at my side, gripping my hand tight
in her own.

“You could have gotten us all killed,”
the other demon said. She had white eyes the color of snow.

“We have to get out of here,” Andros
said. “The hunter might be on her way back. The prima, did she
see your face?”

I shook my head, not understanding. “I don’t
know,” I said. “Who is the prima?”

“The woman inside the portal. The one with
the hooded cloak who was running the ritual. Did she see your face
when you stood up?”

I sucked in a breath, my side on fire. I nodded.
“She looked right at me.”

He cursed. “We have to go. Now.”

He placed his hand on my shoulder, then shifted,
pulling me with him. The world turned and spun in circles as we flew
through the air. I had never moved at such speeds. He led us back
through the dark forest, over a pathway that looked as though it were
made of pure silver, and finally high into the hills near the
northern icelands.

He stopped at the edge of a modest grouping of
small huts built out of mud and thick grasses. The remnants of a fire
in the center of the space let off a smoldering haze of smoke.

“Where are we?” I asked.

He didn’t say anything. He just motioned
toward the young demon I’d been next to during the ritual. She
laid down a makeshift bed of nettleweeds and willowgrass. Andros set
me down on the bed of weeds and I winced at the pain.

“You should have stayed back like I told
you,” Andros said. He paced the area at my feet. “Don’t
you think we all wanted to help? Don’t you think we would have
helped her if we could have?”

I sat up, ignoring the pain as best I could. “I
honestly don’t know,” I said. “We were feet away
from one of our own kind being stolen from us and we did nothing. Six
powerful demons against what? A group of humans?”

Andros’s lips curled up into a grimace of
disbelief. “You really are stupid, aren’t you? Do you
think a normal group of humans can just conjure a portal and summon a
demon into their world?”

I couldn’t answer. I knew almost nothing of
the humans other than what I’d read in storybooks as a child.

“Humans don’t have magic,” Lea
said. “At least that’s what I had always believed.”

“No, normal humans don’t have magical
powers like we do, but centuries ago, when portal magic was first
discovered, demons traveled from our world to theirs. Some of those
demons even mated with humans,” he explained. “When a
child is born from both a demon and a human, they are often born with
magical powers. Even humans born several generations later will have
these powers. Every single human witch is a descendant of a demon.
Their magic is supposed to be much weaker than our own, diluted by
blood. But somehow these witches—this Order of Shadows—is
growing stronger than even we can understand.”

“The Order of Shadows,” I said,
repeating him. “Is that what they are called?”

“Yes,” the white-eyed demon woman
said. “They are a coven of witches with evil intentions. They
have been taking demons from our world for years now.”

“What will they do to her?” I asked,
my voice trembling. I thought of my brother. “What will they do
to the demon girl who was taken?”

Andros ran a hand across his face. “We don’t
know,” he said. “We can only ever catch glimpses of
shadows and figures through the light.”

“The emerald light,” I said. Something
triggered my memory and it hit me so hard I had to lie back for a
moment.

“What is it?” Lea asked, leaning over
me, her face etched with worry.

I closed my eyes, thinking back to the day Aerden
was taken. The day of our engagement ceremony. After I passed out, I
was taken into the king’s chambers where they asked me to tell
them what I’d seen in my vision.

When I mentioned that I’d seen a portal—a
bright light inside the black roses—my mother had asked me if
it was an emerald light.

Hot tears welled up in my eyes. “Andros was
telling us the truth,” I said to Lea. I opened my eyes as a
tear escaped down the side of my face. I struggled to sit up, then
took her hand in mine. “Our parents do know what’s
happening here. This is the proof, Lea, don’t you see?”

She shook her head. “I agree this is a
horrible thing, but there’s no proof here that our parents know
this is happening. I won’t believe it.”

“My mother knew,” I said. “When
Aerden was taken, it was a blue light I saw, not a green one like
tonight. But my mother, don’t you remember? She specifically
asked me if I had seen an emerald light.”

Lea looked away, toward the fresh fire that had
been built in the center of the small village. Tears gleamed in her
eyes, and I knew she remembered it too.

“It was them,” Lea said. “That’s
what your mother said when you’d finished telling your story.”

I nodded, the burn of this betrayal more painful
that the real physical burn down my side.

“They’ve known about the Order all
along, haven’t they?” she asked, looking up at Andros.

“Yes,” he said. “I’m sorry
to be the one to bring you this pain, but it was a truth you needed
to know.”

“The king has gone to great lengths to
suppress the truth of what’s happening in the villages,”
the white-eyed demon said. “He has sent guards out to the
houses of those who have lost loved ones, demanding their silence in
loyalty to the crown.”

Lea closed her eyes. She looked tired and suddenly
older than I remembered, as if she had aged a decade in the blink of
an eye.

“What is your name?” I asked the demon
with the white eyes and matching white hair.

“Ourelia,” she said with a slight bow
of her head. “I am sorry we had to meet on such terms.”

“Me too,” I said. I looked to the
younger demon who had been by my side during the ritual.

She bowed her head. “My name is Azira,”
she said. She nodded to a larger demon who was busy putting food out
on a roughly made wooden table nearby. “And he is Washan.”

“Our group is small but we are growing in
numbers,” Andros said. “All told, The Resistance boasts
about seventy members. Some of us have set up our homes here in this
camp near the border of the icelands, while others still choose to
live in their own villages for now. Someday we hope to build a city
for ourselves where we can train our armies properly.”

“The king would never allow it,” Lea
said.

“Perhaps not,” Andros said, one
eyebrow raised. “But the king does not know everything.”

Lea narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you
do—this army of yours?”

“We pay attention,” Andros said. “We
seek the truth.”

“But you do not fight,” I said. “Why?”

“We used to,” Ourelia said, sadness
creeping in to her tone. “But the Order is too strong. We have
lost many friends to them over the years.”

“Our goal now is to watch and learn,”
Andros said. “We gain power through knowledge. The more we know
about the Order of Shadows, the more powerful we become.”

“And what did you learn tonight?” Lea
asked.

“Every time a portal opens, we see the same
things. We hear the same ritual being repeated, but we can’t
figure out exactly what they’re doing with the demons they
take. And there is always a human girl as well, hovering in the
light. She is always young and always afraid.”

“A sacrifice of some kind?” Lea asked.

“That would explain her fear,” Ourelia
said. “Death can be a powerful thing.”

“In our world, when one of our elders passes
on, it’s a choice,” Azira said softly. “A loving
choice that gives us great power. When the energy left behind is
poured into a soul stone, it’s strong enough to power an entire
city for decades. Centuries even, if the demon’s spirit was
strong. That act of self-sacrifice is powerful enough to allow a new
life to be born into this world. Maybe it’s similar in the
human world in that a sacrifice is a way to gain power.”