Mom wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure? This will go down fast. How will Kendra know what to do?”
“She won’t need to do anything. I simply need to use her energy to fuel what little magic I have,” was Cassidy’s reply.
“That’s awesome, and as long as we can get him to hand Kendra over first, it’ll work, but what are you trapping him in?” I looked around the clearing. It didn’t seem that she’d brought anything with her. But I didn’t know squat about magic. I’d seen Kendra do plenty in recent weeks without physical supplies.
She blinked twice. “The prison is strong enough to hold a Prince of Hell. If I put him in there, too, he’ll never be freed accidentally again. Where is the box?” she asked with an icy tone.
“It’s safe,” Mom said. “I wasn’t going to take any chances until I was sure you’d come through on your end.”
Cassidy’s face turned a bright shade of scarlet. “You’re playing a dangerous game with my daughter’s life, Klaire. If anything happens and Gressil—”
“No!” Mom shouted. Craps. To call the demon, we had to simply speak his name.
True to his promise, he appeared in a thick puff of purple smoke. “You Darkers do live on the edge, don’t you? You almost missed your window.”
“Where’s Kendra?” He was alone and that worried me. This wasn’t going to work without her. We had no intention of handing over the box, and without her to help trap him, this was going to head south pretty damn fast.
He crooked a finger and turned to Mom. “My item, if you will?”
“Where’s Kendra?” Mom repeated.
Cassidy stepped up beside her. She was watching us from the corner of her eye, and at one point, I was almost positive that she’d tackle Mom. Did she really believe we’d do anything to put Ken in danger? “My daughter first, then the prison.”
Gressil laughed. He laughed, then laughed some more. In fact, it was like someone had slipped him crazy juice, because he couldn’t seem to stop laughing. “Poor, stupid little witch. Do you not remember our deal? Did you really think to double cross me? Get them to give me the prison, and you shall get your offspring back.”
Cassidy froze, turning paler, and a sick bubble formed in the pit of my stomach. Sure, he could have been referring to the bargain he made with all of us. The prison in exchange for Kendra. But there was something about the way he was studying her. Something that screamed of secrets and lies. Also, there was the fact that she looked ready to shit kittens.
“Give me my daughter back,” she roared.
He was on her in an instant. I made a move to help, but Mom, who watched the whole scene with a rare expression of shock, grabbed my arm and pulled back.
Gressil laughed again, this time in Cassidy’s face. “Did you think your cohorts wouldn’t find out, witch? How very simple of you.” He backed away and turned to Mom. “You have an hour. Bring what I requested and call to me. If you fail, I will rip the little witch apart and leave her in pieces at your feet.” And he was gone.
Cassidy let out a scream and collapsed to the ground, but she didn’t stay there long. Mom was on her in the time it took me to blink. She hauled her off the grass and threw her back against the altar. “Double cross him? What the hell did you do, Cass?”
She glared up at Mom, meeting her gaze with a look of defiance. “What I had to.”
“It was a setup,” I said, finally understanding. “She set the whole thing up. You let him take Kendra.”
Mom looked sick, but not surprised. I realized that must be why she refused to bring the box. She’d been suspicious. “You knew we’d get the prison. That we’d never leave her to die… You used us.”
“And you lied to me,” Cassidy said, but it was weaker than normal. It lacked some of her usual venom. “You said you didn’t know where the prison was. I knew damn well that was bullshit. I did what I had to do to save my coven.”
Mom slapped her. Not a closed fist punch or an elbow to the jaw. A slap. I’d never seen Mom slap anyone before. It was equal parts awesome and disturbing at the same time. “You risked the life of your child to trick us into getting him that prison?”
“I did what I had to—”
Mom hit her again. The sound echoed through the clearing and sent a flock of birds fleeing from one of the trees overhead. “Don’t say it,” she warned. “What the hell did you think was going to happen? We told you we had no intention of giving it to him.”
“But Cassidy did,” I said. I’d never been more disgusted with anyone in my life. Human or Otherworlder. “That’s why she freaked when we didn’t come with the box. She was going to hand it over.”
Mom was enraged. “Do you have any idea what the death toll would be if he sets Asmodeus free? How many lives would be lost?”
Cassidy opened her mouth, then closed it, shoulders falling forward. “I needed to save my coven. It was the only thing I could think of. I am willing to sacrifice anything—anyone—to do that.”
“Like I said before”—I couldn’t keep my mouth closed any longer—“if you’d just worked with us from the start, none of this would have happened.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Try explaining it,” Mom yelled.
Cassidy didn’t bother. “I just want my daughter back unharmed. What do we do to make that happen?”
I wasn’t sure if I believed her anymore. After all, she’d just said she was willing to sacrifice anything. Anyone. There was a spark of something familiar in her eyes. Desperation mixed with…what? I couldn’t place it, but it sent off every internal alarm I had. In the end though, it didn’t matter. My head drooped. “We don’t have another choice anymore. We need to give him the box.”
…
We all agreed to meet back at the Archway fifteen minutes before our time was up. Cassidy was leery of letting us out of her sight, but Mom coldly said that, unlike her, we didn’t sacrifice people to get what we wanted. That shut her up fast. She slunk away, and I made a promise to let Smokey terrorize her just a little when this was all over.
Mom left me at the office to get ready, and went to take care of something. No matter how much I begged, she wouldn’t tell me what, but after she left, I noticed she’d taken the prison with her. All she would say was that she was buying us some extra insurance. She still didn’t trust Cassidy, and I was right there with her.
I changed into my lucky Mashing jeans and had started toward my closet to load up on weapons when a voice behind me sent my body about ten feet off the ground.
“Don’t we look fetching? Going someplace fun, I hope? Possibly someplace with bloodshed and mayhem? That would be my idea of a good time.”
“Hell in a hailstorm. I swear I’m going to tie a bell around your neck,” I said, glaring at the demon lounging on my bed. “Tight.”
“I came for an update,” Valefar said, fingering a handful of my bed sheets. “How can you sleep on this? It’s like burlap.”
I dived forward and slapped his hand away. “Could you not paw my things? Like, especially my bed. It’s creepy.”
He stood and fixed his gaze on me, and all the breath left my lungs. The air turned colder when he got that expression. Dark and threatening. “I’m technically pawing my things. You belong to me. And what belongs to you belongs to me.”
I didn’t correct him.
“Now, update? Word on the street is that you’ve been a busy little beaver traipsing in places you ought not to be.”
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 c
hange. 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.