Where the Devil Says Goodnight (Folk Lore 1)

“Yes, the Whisperer Woman told us what to do before she left. We don’t want to take any chances.”

“You mean… Emil’s grandmother?” Adam asked in a tiny voice, but followed Mrs. Janina when she stepped closer to the twin thuyas growing nearby. He could barely see what was beyond them other than yet more trees and bushes, but when the housekeeper stepped into the narrow passage between the two trees, and Mrs. Golonko pushed at his back, Adam entered an irregular clearing lit by several burning torches stuck into the ground.

Huge thuyas grew behind a corpulent man Adam recognized as Mr. Nowak. The village head wore a pig skull over his face. Its elongated shape couldn’t have been any creepier, but Adam looked around, searching for the fourth ‘believer’, as Mrs. Janina called them. And he had a hunch who it was too.

“Good to see you, Father,” Koterski said from behind Adam’s back. He was so close every hair on Adam’s body rose in alarm. But Adam made himself turn around at a slow pace, unwilling to show his weakness to the ranger, whose eyes stared back at him from behind a skull mask with long canines. It took all of Adam’s willpower not to back away from the wolf at once, even though, like Nowak, Koterski was dressed in his best suit.

“Yes… you too,” Adam said, and while it was the skull that grinned at him, he had a sense that Koterski did as well, behind all the bone.

It only then hit Adam that it made very little sense for Koterski to accuse Emil of occult practices when he was dabbling in them himself, but he didn’t get enough time to think it through, because Mrs. Golonko was growing impatient.

“Can we proceed now?” she asked, as if she were doing this solely out of obligation, and Adam remembered that this was also how she had behaved on Kupala Night.

Mr. Nowak looked at his watch. “Still a few minutes left until midnight.”

“Then wait here until then,” Mrs. Janina said and took hold of Adam’s wrist.

He followed her lead without question, even though he still hadn’t gotten any pointers or explanations as to what was to happen. There was a rocky wall looming behind the thuyas, illuminated by yet more trembling light that indicated something was going to take place there. Instead of trying to push her way through trees growing densely, as if they’d been planted that way on purpose, Mrs. Janina walked along a path winding between evergreen bushes. Torches, placed in the ground along their way transformed the clearing into a ceremonial hall with irregular wooden walls and a sky-high ceiling.

But as they walked into a more open space, the Devil’s Rock emerged from behind tall juniper bushes, just as cold and majestic as it had always been. Adam’s heart stopped when he saw a body laid out on top.

He hurried across the moss-covered ground, breathless as he took in planes of bare skin, long, muscular legs and arms stretched to the sides. Because he knew who it was, and his brain could not accept that Emil was here, strapped to the boulder with rope and dressed only in his tattoos.

Dark spots appeared at the edges of Adam’s vision as he reached the altar, the same one he’d marked with his blood just that morning. This time, flames danced in a semi-circle around the site, but they didn’t produce enough heat to keep Emil’s vulnerable form from shuddering on the rough surface of the stone.

Reality hit Adam like a blow to the head, breaking through his thick skull so he’d finally realize what he’d already found out moments ago. If Emil were the evil mastermind who orchestrated his possession, he’d be back behind the thuyas, wearing the most terrifying mask of all, not tied down like an offering to the old gods.

But as regret and shame over his earlier accusations thrashed in Adam’s chest, his gaze swept over the muscular flesh dotted with goosebumps, a servant to hunger coming from deep within. A hunger that didn’t originate in his stomach, brain, or loins but belonged to the being living inside of him.

Emil’s face, deathly pale in the warm glow of the torches, was as tense as the rest of his body, to the point where Adam’s own muscles ached in sympathy. He was conscious, but he wouldn’t look at Adam, his gaze pointed at the stars above as he pressed his purplish lips together, sucking in shallow gasps of air through his nose.

Adam froze, his mind pulsing with fear of what might happen next. In any other situation, the solution would have been clear, even if risky, but nothing had been explained to him, so the ice he was treading on might be extremely thin. Despite the pressing need to take off his jacket and at least provide some warmth for Emil, he stood still, overcome by waves of heat pulsing through his bloodstream as Mrs. Janina walked up to the Devil’s Rock and gently pushed some of Emil’s hair off his face. She seemed unfazed by his nakedness, but the ship of prudishness must have sailed once she had decided to perform rituals in a deer skull mask with short antlers.