“Okay. So it agrees to leave Evander’s body to enter mine—this sounds so sexual.” I wrinkle my nose. “Then what?”
“A trapping spell.” Tabatha peers in through the open doors, checking on Evander. “There’s a hex-box in the magical defenses classroom. It hasn’t been used it years, but should hold the demon until it can be vanquished. Ruth has perfected the invisibility spell. She can cast it on the box and it will be virtually undetectable. We can have it right next to the demon.”
“Are they going to go along with this?” I ask in a hushed voice even though we’ve cast a silence spell. “Ruth…Ruth has it out for me.” I feel bad lying, but Tabatha already has enough to be worrying about right now. She doesn’t need to know a woman she’s looked up to and respected for years is out for Satanic powers.
“I’ll present it as my idea,” Tabatha tells us as footfalls echo down the hall. Long shadows stretch before Naomi and Nicole.
“How is he?” Nicole asks, stopping right before me and throwing her arms around me in a hug.
“Hanging in there,” Kristy replies. “We have a plan. Walk with me and I’ll explain. We have to go wake up a couple senior students.” The twins follow Kristy down the hall, and Tabatha and I go back into the office after breaking the silence spell.
Sister Ross is holding a crystal over Evander’s head, reading his aura. I stay in the back of the room, watching and doing my best to keep my heart from racing and stomach from flip-flopping with nerves.
“His vital signs are good,” she tells us. “I’ve only seen true demonic possession three other times, once when I was a young witch and twice during my studies. I have to say this case is mild compared to the others. The demon doesn’t seem to have a strong hold on Evander—yet.” She trades the crystal for a stethoscope and puts it to his chest, listening to his heartbeat. “How did he become possessed? Demons go after the weak.”
“There was a rift in the Ley line,” Tabatha says and Ruby’s eyes dart to mine. I had warned her about it, told her I sensed something was off about the Ley line. If she did anything about it, I have no idea. “Callie and Evander went to repair it under my order. They were able to seal the rift but not before a demon tapped into the power and jumped into the first warm body it could find.”
“So you were there?” Sister Ross asks me, and I nod. “Did you get a read on the demon? Or a name?”
“I tried,” I tell her. “But of course it wouldn’t tell me its name. It just said basic demon bullshit, ya know, come with me and have more power.”
“It didn’t attack you?”
All these questions make me feel like I’m on trial and I’m going to give something away. I’m too nervous to keep the lies straight in my mind right now, and since Sister Ross has dealt with demonic possession before, she could use any information she can get to possibly help Evander.
“No, it, uh, seemed more interested in trying to get me to agree to take power from it.”
Sister Ross nods. “So, the demon itself isn’t likely to have powers. That’s good news for us. Just the fact that the sleeping spell is enough to knock out both Evander and the demon proves this demon isn’t as strong as it’s claiming to be.”
The others come back, and I’m told to take a seat behind Tabatha’s desk. Ruby stays near me like a babysitter as everyone talks, and I’m starting to lose my battle with my nerves. I can’t hear what the others are saying, and if Ruth nixes our plan, I don’t know what we’ll do.
Precious minutes pass, and Evander starts to stir. Finally, Tabatha turns away from the other witches. He eyes meet mine and she nods.
We’re doing this.
Chapter 4
I lay down on the altar in the gathering hall, carefully avoiding the candles around me. The four students Kristy and the twins woke are sitting around me, holding candles with intricate sigils carved in. They’re a bit excited as well as nervous, since this is beyond any skill they’ve learned in school.
“Whatever you do,” Naomi starts, eyes darting from student to student. “Do not break your concentration. Demons are tricksters by nature.” Binx meows in agreeance and settles on my chest. I close my eyes, let out a breath, and start the spell to astral project myself out of my body.
I appear in the hall outside Tabatha’s office. Kristy is right outside, waiting for me to open the door. Everything has been laid out, ready for us to try and trick a demon. Naomi’s words ring in my head. Demons are natural tricksters. They’re cunning and think differently than we do, putting themselves before everyone and everything.
“The box is directly in front of Evander,” Kristy whispers, opening the office doors. “Four squares away.” I nod and look at the rough-cut squares of stone that make up the floor of the office. I count them out, finding the spot where the box is hidden from sight. Ruth really is good at the invisibility spell. It’s seamless.
I take my place in the center of the protective circle that’s been drawn on the ground with white chalk. A bowl of smoldering herbs is right in front of my feet, and I have to be careful not to bump into it. Well, not bumping would be the problem. I’d go right through it and it would be a dead giveaway that I’m not really here.
Wax drips down the candles around the circle, and I take in one last shaky breath before looking at Tabatha, giving her the signal to start. We had to perfect our plan a bit, knowing that the demon wouldn’t leave Evander’s body with several other witches hanging around.
But without the other witches, there’d be no one here to do the trapping spell. I can’t cast spells in astral form, and I don’t think I could conjure an energy ball strong enough to kill the demon.
Kristy takes Ruby’s hand and steps back into the shadows. Ruby grabs Ruth’s hand, who then takes a hold of Tabatha’s. Sister Ross links her fingers through Tabatha’s on her other hand, and then Ruth starts chanting, casting the invisibility spell over them all. They disappear from sight and from all feeling. It’s unsettling, really, to not be able to sense the witches I know are only a few yards from me.
Tabatha’s voice rings out from nowhere, awakening Evander. I push my shoulders back and zero my gaze in on the demon. Evander is fighting hard against it, and his body tenses, eyes fluttering before rolling to the back of his head.
“Evander, stop!” I yell and hold up my hand. “I need to speak to the demon.”
Evander’s body shakes and my heart jumps to my throat. I’m not in my body but it’s still reacting and feeling my emotions as if I were.
“Speak to me?” Evander’s eyes darken and he tips his head up.
“Yes. I want to make a deal.” I look down at the bowl of herbs and inch forward, careful not to come too close to the bowl. “Quickly, before the others come back.”
The demon inside Evander smiles, flashing his teeth. It’s not the way Evander really smiles, and seeing that forced look of evil joy on his face causes anger to flash through me. “Coming to your senses now, half—”
“I said we don’t have time,” I hiss, fighting against the urge to look behind the demon, to where the other witches are standing. “My High Priestess will be here soon, and she’d forbid it if she knew I was talking to you.” I shuffle forward again. “Let him go. I’m the one you want. Save him and take me.”
“Such a martyr. I’ll have to beat that right out of you when we get to the pits of Hell.”
“Fine. Beat me. I don’t care. Just leave my friend. He’s innocent in all this?”
“Is he?” The demon tips his head. “I’m inside his mind. I’ve seen things…heard things…your precious friend might not be as innocent as you think.”
“True or not, I don’t care,” I spit. Demons lie. Demons do anything to rattle you. That’s how they work, and getting under your skin, making you second-guess everything is their tried and true method of breaking down one’s spirit so they can get inside. “I’m far from innocent so who I am to judge.” I shrug. “My offer stands, but only for another moment. The second that door open
s, the deal if off the table. Take me.”
“Your offer sounds too good to be true.”
“Trust me, it’s too good for you.” I quickly shake my head back and forth. “But I’m done with others getting hurt because of me. Whatever you want…it’s between you and me.” I hold out my hands. “I’ll let you in.”
“Nice try.” The demon looks at the circle I’m standing in. “We both know I can’t pass through that warding, though I am curious to what your plan was from there. I’m smoke and shadow. I’ll be gone before you have a chance to spin a spell.”
Making sure I look rightfully nervous, I step out of the circle. “There. I’m out. Now please, they’ll be here any moment and I…I just want to save my friend.” My hands shake and I blink back tears. I’ve never been good at acting but I’m really selling it right now.
I hope.