Ritual Magic (21 page)

"What kind of song is this?!" Gabriel's
voice rumbled from the back of the plane and the music instantly
stopped as we both swung our heads back to see Gabriel's disgusted
face.

"Classic heavy metal." Jack smiled at him
and turned back to his bass, picking up where he left off, but
leaving out the lyrics.

"My god, Celeste! Do you actually
enjoy
this music?" Gabriel's revulsion was clearly evident
in his tone.

"Of course! Iron Maiden RULZ!" I threw my
I love you
sign into the air as I rocked my head back and
forth, pursing my lips into a rocker's 'O'. Jack snickered when I
opened my eyes and winked at him.

Actually, I love almost
every
kind of
music that exists, short of death metal. Name it and I appreciate
it—classical, Gregorian chant, Spanish guitar, jazz, big band,
country, punk, rock, and yes, heavy metal. The fact that everyone
else pigeonholed themselves into only liking a couple of musical
styles was just a shame. I shook my head as I thought about how
closed-minded people could be.

"
Flight of Icarus?
" I turned to Jack
with a pleading look in my eyes.

"Of course." Jack smiled down at me, stopped
his hands, and began again at a different tempo.

It was all just so very good. It was good to
see him smiling and distracted. It was good to be relaxing, and it
was also good to be surrounded by friends.

When I was sure that Jack was completely
distracted, I pushed up and began to walk around the cabin. I was
adjusting to the movement of the jet, and my nervousness peaked
with a sudden shot of turbulence.

My eyes flicked instinctively over to the
window on the hatch where the sun was trying to fight through the
dark, rain-laden clouds. A quick movement on the wing caught my eye
and I immediately ran to the tiny window, scanning frantically for
the source.

Outside on the wing, I saw a horrible figure
walking around like it was taking a leisurely Sunday stroll. My
stomach dropped into my shoes as it turned around and eyed me with
the distinctive shadow demon black, soulless eyes.

"Solomon!" My voice shook as I banged on the
tiny cabin window.

"This is your co-captain speaking. Please
ignore the shadow demon on the wing of the plane and return to your
seats. Please place all tray tables and chairs back in their
upright positions. Oh, and buckle up—it's going to be a
bumpy
ride! Yeehaa!" Cora's voice sounded over the intercom
system as Solomon dashed over to me and grabbed me by the waist. He
practically threw me in the closest empty seat and buckled me in a
flurry before he ran back to the window in a blur of motion.

"Hey!" I snapped, squirming underneath the
belt that was clearly too tight. "You need to be seated also!"

"The hell I do!" He growled as he pushed his
face up against the window.

Jack scooted over to the empty chair next to
the window and pushed the shade up. "Hmmm, looks like he isn't
affected by the lack of oxygen or the high wind speeds. He's
clearly been charmed."

"Charmed?" Gabriel's voice sounded shaky,
reacting to the turbulence. "Who would charm a shadow demon? Those
things can't have accomplices. They don't get along with
anyone."

"There are quite a few unscrupulous magical
individuals out there. Some are susceptible to bribes and the offer
of power." Solomon shrugged distractedly. "It's the way of the
world—there is always bad with the good."

"Taking defensive measures. Hold on tight."
Leo's voice chimed over the speaker as Solomon gripped the edge of
the hatch door and we all gripped our armrests for dear life.

The jet banked quickly to the left, tilting
deeply on the side that the demon was taking his little stroll. Our
bodies shifted and the fuselage creaked with the pressure that Leo
was putting it under. For some reason, we seemed to stay that way
for an awful long time before we then rolled in the other direction
and hung there for a while.

"No good." Cora's voice came over the
speakers. "If there are any suggestions, we are open to them
now."

"Counter measures?" Jack's voice chimed
in.

"On the wing?!" Gabriel's deep voice
cracked.

I wanted to giggle because I immediately
thought of him as an unsightly, pimply-faced teenager with a voice
like a coffee grinder.
I doubt Gabriel ever had an awkward
phase, though.

"Well...I don't hear anyone else making
suggestions." Jack sounded indignant.

"Yes, I have a suggestion." I began to
unbuckle, but Solomon was immediately at my side.

"What, Celeste? What do you think would
help?" He was still looking out the window at the demon as it
reached down to the wing and began to tear away the metal, piece by
piece.

I stood up and walked over to the window
that was closest to the wing the demon occupied. Looking over my
shoulder at Solomon, I rested my hands on the cabin wall so that he
wouldn't see my hands had already begun to glow. "I need to take
care of it." I smiled at him weakly although I had intended to look
more secure.

"No!" Solomon yelled as I pushed forward
with my power, encircling myself with a ball of energy and
protective air. I knew that I had less than a second to get out of
his reach and I literally did the first thing that came to my
mind—I walked
through
the door.

Wow!
I thought to myself as I stepped
out onto the wing, watching the puffs of cloud particles whizz past
my protective ball of power.
I never knew that I could walk
through hard surfaces. I'm going to have to play with this ability
in the future.
I smiled as I eyed the wing and the missing
pieces of metal.

Walking out further onto the wing, I noticed
that I didn't feel the wind at all—it felt as if I was simply
standing on firm ground, looking down at a picture of a plane wing
instead of the real thing, even though I knew better. Turning my
head to the left, I scanned along the side of the Learjet and
noticed that there were deep scratch marks up and down the body as
if the shadow demon had been climbing everywhere, trying
determinedly to discover a way in.

The shadow demon had clearly not noticed me
yet because its back was to me as it surveyed the metal, deciding
what it was going to tear up next.

Attempting to be analytical, I thought about
what I was going to do with the demon.
Do I blast it to hell? Or
maybe I should try to capture it so that we can interrogate it.
Another piece of metal flew off of the wing and the plane shifted.
Or maybe I should just ask it questions right now like 'Who sent
you?' or 'Why are you here?' or something classic like 'Come here
often?'

I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath
as a deep pounding sounded from the other side of the door, even
over the wild sound of the wind. It was surprising that I could
pick up the sounds at all, but it was as if my hearing had
sharpened and filtered out all of the outside noises that didn't
pertain to what I had to deal with at the moment.

Solomon and Von's voices were fighting to be
heard as the demon whirled around and eyed me with deadly
intent.

"Dammit!" I yelled as it dashed towards
me.

My hands flashed with an intense light as I
thrust them in front of me. The glow around me was no longer the
lavender that I was accustomed to—it was blue with tinges of
twinkling whites. A huge swirling orb flew straight from my
outstretched hands and slammed into the body of the demon, pushing
it back as it struggled to walk forward like it was walking through
a high wind.

Narrowing my eyes, I flicked my wrists down,
balling my hands into fists and then flicking them out again like I
was tossing underhanded at the demon. The power that surged from my
hands were no longer balls of light but streaks of lightning,
surging across the tumultuous air in a line directly to the chest
of the shadow demon. The lightning pinned the demon to the wing
instead of flinging it off as I had originally intended.

Mother, you have to kill it or it will
survive!
Cora's voice was in my ears.

Are you kidding me?! This thing could
survive a drop from this height?!
I looked down at the demon as
it struggled against my electric restraints.

Yes, it could. You have to take it out
now before we land or when we get low enough, it could call out to
its brethren.
That word struck me as odd. "Brethren" implied
that these things were family. Guess it was the type of face and
personality that only a mother could love.
If it had a
mother
.

Discomfort covered me as I closed my eyes
and imagined a silver samurai sword in my hand. I imagined that it
was sharp enough to cut paper and strong enough to slice through a
neck or shadow demon heart. My heart pounded as I raised the blade
and closed my eyes.
Don't be a weakling, don't be weak.
My
mind told me that I could do this—it was a demon.
But I've never
taken any life for any reason.
I looked down at the evil
creature as it struggled and hissed.

Mother.
Cora's voice was there again.
You have to or we all die.
She didn't seem nervous at all—it
was as if she knew that I would be able to do this.

Nodding, I gulped and I could hear the wind
in my ears.
Where does a shadow demon have its heart?
I
thought to myself.

Mom, it's best just to decapitate it.
Really, it's cleaner and easier.

Yick!
My body shuddered as I held the
sword steadily over my head. I heard banging on the door behind me
again as I brought the sword down swiftly and cringed at the feel
of the metal embedding itself into the wing. The head rolled off of
the wing as I released the body from its confinement and allowed
the wind to take it. My head hurt and I was ready for a break.

Turning around, I was confronted by a tall
and intimidating man standing only a few feet away from me on the
wing. He stood about 6'7" — possibly the tallest man I had ever met
besides my own father, but he didn't count. His silvery-white hair
whipped around him in wavy snakelike trails and he wore what looked
to be the type of sunglasses that blind individuals sometimes
wore—they were almost completely black.

My mouth hung open as my eyes followed his
shimmery pale skin and up to his sharp, hard chin. His nose was
beaklike and he seemed to have just a little too much forehead.
Well, the wind
was
whipping his hair back, so it would have
been hard to tell how much true forehead he really had.

Looking down at me mechanically, he reached
out and grabbed my arm in a steel grip. My hackles instantly shot
up as a bell went off in my head, as if to mark the beginning of
the next round of fighting.

"Watch it, buster! You have to buy me dinner
before you start making moves on me like that!" I tried desperately
to shrug out of his grasp, but found that he only dug his fingers
in deeper with every renewed yank on my arm.

He smirked at me as he reached up with his
other hand and raised his glasses just enough for me to see that
his pupils were white. I gasped as I realized that this man was an
albino, and a unique one at that. His irises would normally have
been pink if he was true to the albino traits. I had never met one
in person, but I had always wanted to, just not under
these
circumstances. They actually had a bad rap for always being the bad
guy—that's what Hollywood can do with a stereotype. People don't
understand something unique and then turn it into something
bad—evil. People can be so idiotic at times.

The lanky albino tightened his grip on me as
I realized that I needed to get away—far, far away. I looked at his
hand intensely as I imagined his hand burning underneath, causing
his fingers to melt away. I could imagine the smell of the burning
flesh, feel the warmth on my unaffected skin, and see the flames
tickling his hand. Unfortunately, there was no reaction from the
stranger.

Frustration set in when he quirked his head
to the side and said, "I'm impervious to heat. Nice try, though."
His voice was rich, thick, and almost musical.

Turning my head to the side, I listened to
Von and Solomon banging against the metal hatch.
What did they
expect to be able to do? Bang the guy off the wing?

I tried to imagine myself in the cabin of
the jet as a familiar glow began to encircle me. My feet lifted
slightly off of the wing of the plane but I didn't leave the wing
at all. I was bound to it with energy—the energy that was holding
the plane together and keeping us from rocketing to the ground.

Must be Cora doing this.
I was
thoroughly impressed.
That's my girl!

I narrowed my eyes on the man before me.
"What do you want?" I yelled out, thinking that he couldn't hear me
with the wind whipping and the clouds creating sound buffers.

"It is okay, I can hear you without your
yelling." He smiled as he gripped my arm tighter and brought me
closer to him. He hadn't raised his voice as he spoke to me, but I
could hear each word perfectly. I recognized it as magic as quickly
as I realized that this man was extremely dangerous. "We need to
talk, and it is due time."

He looked down at me and I could see myself
reflected in his glasses. I looked angry, pissed.
Good
.

"Thank you very much, but I decline the
offer." I shrugged sharply, attempting again to yank my arm out of
his grasp.

He simply leaned down closer to me, stared
down through those black-as-night lenses and said with a cold,
emotionless tone. "It was
not
an invitation." He drew an
oval in the air with his free hand, looking like he was waving a
wand.

That was when something snapped in me.
He
is NOT going to take me somewhere I don't want to go! Hell
NO!