Storm (12 page)

Chapter Twenty

Carter

This is on us.

I stare at Pen’s text one more time. Taylor Plum is dead, and Pen feels like we’re responsible. I was going to tell her about the mark tonight, but I can’t throw this on her right now. If Taylor Plum died using magic, then why? How do we stop it? And can we?

“Carter,” Pen says, coming up over the hill. I hug as soon she’s near, but she pulls away from my arms too quickly. It makes sense, with everything, but I don’t like it. If she’s pulling away from me already, the
n all the other things I have to tell her will not be easy.

Pen shakes her head. “She got magic and she died.”

“We’ll figure it out.”

She shakes her head, and I see the glimmer of tears in her eyes. “Figure it out? You keep saying that but we have no information! We did this, somehow, Carter. We spread that magic from De’Intero. Maybe we should come forward and tell everyone what’s happening.”

I try to pull her closer again. “We can’t do that.”

Pen jerks away from me. “Why not? We can save them.”

“How? From what? This morning the council wanted us to round up all the Statics and mark them all and—”

Her eyes widen. “That’s perfect. Let’s do that. We can at least contain the magic that way.”

“Pen, no, it’s not the solution.”

“Why?” she asks.

Now’s my chance to tell her what the mark will do to her, what it’s done to anyone in history who’s had it. “Pen, the marking doesn’t—”

“Block the void,” a voice calls from the darkness. Pen and I both look around, and the mauve demon steps out of the shadows. “Sorry to interrupt.”

That demon. Again.

“What are you doing here?” Pen asks.

“Finishing some business with you from yesterday. And him, I guess,” She nods toward me, and looks down at our still entwined hands. “Do you mind? I don’t want to disappear.”

I smirk. Last time we held hands and felt threatened we made all those demons disappear. I drop Pen’s hand, but stand close. The demon walks around us, its eyes out on the horizon. It’s still talking to Pen? “It’s beautiful up here. Almost like heaven. Or so I would think.”

“What’s happening?” Pen asks. I hear the anxiety in her voice. For a second, I wonder if she’s right about telling everyone. The Triad can clean up our mess—but at what cost? Everything, I tell myself. Sharing the truth with them is going to make everything worse because we’ll have to tell them how we know, who we are, what we’ve done. It’s only a last resort.

The mauve demon sighs. “I told you that you could trust me. I’m trying to prove that.” It steps toward us and looks at Pen. “This mess with your unfortunate witches is because of the pair of you.”

I step forward between Mauve and Pen. I don’t like the way the demon looks at her, like she’s a piece of meat or a prize. This is wrong. My hand itches. It’s hard to be around a demon and not put it out of its misery. “Demons aren’t usually so forthcoming with information,” I say.

It smirks at me. “I’m not a usual demon. We’re after the same goal here.”

“Which is?” I ask.

A smile. I really want to slit its throat. “That Static who died today? She’s only the beginning. It will change them.”

“Change them into what?” Pens ask.

The demon shrugs as if it’s bored. “If you take something pure and taint it with something else, how long will it take until it changes? A day, a month, a year?”

Turn them into demons? The Statics will turn? Pen’s face darkens. Not good is an understatement. Considering the way she talks about how that magic feels, they’d be crazy, powerful ones. “How do we stop it?” I ask.The demon smiles, puts a hand up in the air to stop us from talking. “I’m not here to answer your questions. I’m here because you owe me and I have a proposition.”

Pen takes my hand again, and the mauve demon looks horrified. It’s only a second, but the message is clear.

“I’m not in the business of making deals with demons. So, thanks, but no thanks,” Pen says.

“What do you want?” I ask. I don’t trust it, but we can at least hear it out. Pen glances at me in disbelief that I’m even indulging the demon. I’m surprised too, if I’m honest. But information is key here. We need to get as many details we can about what’s going on.

The mauve demon crosses its arms. “To be restored,” it says to me. My eyes widen as it steps toward Pen. “You can do that, Penelope.”

She’s quiet for a moment. “How?”

“The Restitution.”

That spell. The one that is supposed to bring back Pen’s magic. She was planning to do that before she met me. “You have the black dagger. You have the spell. Now you only need the demon who did this to me.”

Pen shakes her head. “I don’t have power for that.”

The demon chuckles. I hate demons. “You do. You have access, and all you have to do is let me guide you. I can teach you how to use the void, and you can harness it.” The demon grabs her hand. “I want to lead you to what you were meant to be.”

Pen jerks her hand away.

“What do you mean? How can the Restitution help you?”

The demon shoots me a look and I cross my arms.

“The Restitution brings back what was before,” it adds. “For a demon, it can return them to their previous state. For a witch without magic,” it says with a pause long enough to make Pen look. “It can make them whole. There will never be need for the Triad to question you again. You’ll be completely one of them. A whole witch.”

I glance at Pen, and she’s listening now. Fully attentive. Pen being a whole witch is all she’s wanted, and somehow I think this demon knows exactly how to spin this. This is its move.

Chapter Twenty-One

Penelope

I don’t know how to handle this.

This is exactly what I’ve always thought I’d never have. If this is possible, then I can’t ignore Lia. If she knows how to do the ritual, where to find my demon, and how to undo all of this, then I need to explore that. I don’t want use the void, or to be sought after or dangerous. I wanted to fit in, not to be a freaking target. But I can’t do that if my own people won’t let me in.

I can’t do that with the mark, without magic, on my own.

And I can’t do anything if Statics are dying.

But this is a
demon. It seems too good to be true, and Gran always says things that seem too good to be true probably are. Lia grabs my hand again, and Carter tenses. I look from her scaly mauve one to my human one.

“I will give you information. I’ve proven that I’m valuable. I have information you need—like where the demons are and what they search for—but I can’t risk my life for nothing. You don’t have long to act. Things are just beginning. If you think I suck, then you don’t want to meet the big guy.”

I scoff, pulling my hand away. “I find it hard to believe that your kind gets even worse than the ones I’ve met.”

Lia crosses her arms, but my heart is pounding. She’s offering me a chance. Even if it seems impossible, I’ve never had a demon on my side before.

“It’s only going to get worse before it gets better. You two lovebirds have unleashed one crazy ass can of worms, and the other demons won’t give you opportunities to fix it.”

“The other demons?” Carter asks, as he clenches his fist.

Lia nods. “The demons are torn. Some of them will come for you, and their plans aren’t good ones. Others—a few others—are banding forces to protect you.”

This is all too much. Demons aware of who I am, let alone be for me or against me? “Why do they care about me at all?” I ask.

“Some of us feel like you should be protected. What you did in De’Intero? You have major power.”

Carter crosses his arms. “And you want to give her more?”

“I want to be free,” Lia snaps, her normally blue eyes flashing a bright green. “If a witch getting stronger magic makes that happen, then that’s not my problem. It’s theirs.”

I don’t know what to think.

“You just said this was all for yourself. Why should she trust you?”

Lia steps toward Carter. “I’m not the enemy here. I’m telling you the facts. Some demons are for you, others will destroy you, and I promise the last thing you need is Azsis to come here.”

Azsis. My demon. The one who stole my powers, who killed my parents. The demon who destroyed my entire life. I take a deep breath so I can try to process this. This is the first time any demon has said his name openly, that he’s still alive. This is the biggest breakthrough in, well, ever. I’ve spent most of my life looking for him, and she drops his name like that.

Oh, crap. I’ve been looking so long, I’d almost forgotten to be scared of him. He
killed my parents. Stole
my magic. Turned Emmaline Spencer
into a demon
. He’s after me, too, now. He could come here and finish the job that he started.

Carter puts a hand on my shoulder.

“You know Azsis?”

The smile on her face is enough to tell me that she knew exactly what to say. “Of him. I told you Kriegen was middle management. Azsis is the prince of hell, right under Lucifer and he’s got his own level of hell.”

Azsis, my demon, is alive. He’s the assistant ruler of hell, and all of this feels so much bigger than I can even understand right now. Lia can find him. She’ll help me. All I have to do is restore her humanity, and then my magic—and outsmart an ancient psycho demon in the process while I’m marked and have no magic. Yeah, no big deal.

“If we say no, then you’ve harmed your own kind by telling us all of this,” Carter says.

Lia looks at Carter. She doesn’t seem to like him much. “I’m trying to prove that not all demons are evil. Some of us are innocent. It should be reassuring, as a demon yourself.”

I steal a glance at Carter. I don’t ever think of him as a demon, or myself, but we both are. It’s part of us, halflings, even if we hate it.

“We can find another way. There have to be other demons that have information about what’s happening. We can investigate all of this our own way,” Carter whispers.

“They won’t answer you, Carter Prescott. Not with years of hunting our kind. They won’t come near you, and now they’re on strict orders from higher up the chain,” Lia scoffs and glances between the two of us. “The pair of you surprise me.” Then, to Carter, “All I’m doing is giving your girlfriend what she wants. The Restitution. It will restore her magic as well as me to my old form, to my life. And in fixing herself, you can fix this mess the two of you have caused with the Statics.”

“How, exactly?” Carter asks.

“The magic that caused it came from her—from the void. If she doesn’t have the void anymore, then it stands to reason that the magic produced from her using it would be undone. The Restitution restores everything. It’s a reset button.”

Carter scoffs. “But at what cost to her?”

“None,” she says.

“That’s not how magic works. There’s a balance,” I say. Even with all of this new information, that’s a constant.

“There is—the balance is even. A life for a life. Blood for blood. A demon,” she points to herself, “for a witch.” My heart pounds in my ears. This is insane. It’s even more insane because it makes sense. She makes sense.

“You should go,” Carter says.

Lia nods. “I’ll come back. Think on it.” She turns to walk away and the looks back. “And Penelope,” she adds, “never say never.”

And then she flickers out.

…

Carter and I walk through the streets of downtown. We’ve found two demons, but they told us nothing about the Statics, or about the magic. I feel that Lia is right. None of the demons will tell us anything, while she’s already given us more information than we ever knew before.

People will keep dying, and each death is on us. Maybe it’s not a bad idea to take the offer.

“Don’t agree to anything,” Carter says, staring at me as if he’s reading my mind.

“I’m not.”

Carter sighs. “You act before you think.”

I step away from him, allowing space between us.

“And in the meantime, how many Statics will die? The demon had a point.”

“Maybe, but why would the demon be so forthcoming unless it wanted more than what it was saying?”

I shrug. “Maybe it has selfishly pure intentions. If it really only longs to be restored, then why should it lie?”

He touches my arm so I freeze, and he closes the space between us. His breathe is close to my face, so close that it sends a shudder through me. I want him to kiss me, right now, even in the midst of our disagreement on this. When I’m with him, the rest of the world can slip away, at least for a moment. He lowers his face toward mine, and as his lips are nearly there, he pulls away slightly.

“It’s also weird that that demon knows the one thing you were waiting for. You’ve been thinking about the Restitution for your whole life. Now it’s suddenly the one thing that can save everyone?” I step back from him, moment swiftly ended. “And this demon somehow can randomly find Azsis.”

Azsis is out there. He’s not a dream, or a ghost, he’s a real demon. The fact that Lia can get to him means that I can still fix it. “When you say it that way, it does sound suspicious.”

“Of course it does. It is suspicious.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s not real,” I snap, crossing my arms.

“It doesn’t mean it is real.”

“But it could be,” I say. “That’s enough for me not to dismiss this.”

“I’m not saying dismiss it. I’m saying we research and evaluate.” Carter rests his hands on my shoulders. “Promise me. No deals with demons unless we are clear that this is the
only
way.”

He’s right. I shouldn’t jump into this blindly. Not until I have proof about what Lia is saying. But it’s hard to ignore the fact that Statics could die from this magic. If what Lia says ends up being true, then I don’t want to see how many die before we have the proof Carter so desperately needs.

“I promise,” I say.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Carter

Not sleeping is a constant problem for me. Tonight is no exception, aside from seeing Pen’s face when I close my eyes. The way she looked when that demon offered to make her become a whole witch. Even though she promised not to make any deals, I know her—she’ll do whatever she thinks is right.

Which is why I have to show her this is wrong.

“Mr. Prescott,” Poncho says, his voice heavy, a stocking cap on his head. “It’s late.”

“Yeah,” I shove my hands into my pockets. I’m not sure why I’m here now. I guess answers equate to the library. “I couldn’t sleep.”

Poncho
hmms
. “I don’t sleep much myself. There are things that haunt whether we are asleep or awake.”

I’m really too tired to deal with his non-sentences. “Can I do some reading?”

Poncho spreads out his arms, as if welcoming me. “I’m around, if you need anything.”

Just some quiet.
But I don’t say that. I don’t respond at all. Poncho turns away from me, and I head toward one of the computers. Where do I start? I pull out the list of words that Vassago used from my pocket.

CHECK. REMAIN. DAGGER. MAUVE. OBSERVANCE. QUEEN.

Staring at them, I expect them to make sense and form some kind of message. I need to move the king in a check, so if the king is Pen then who is the queen? The color mauve is obviously the demon, and the dagger is connected. The demon mentioned the dagger. “You have the dagger,” when it talked about the Restitution. How did it even know we had the dagger?

Is the Restitution really a reset button? If so, then what does it mean for us? If it really can reset everything, then that means it also resets us. She won’t need my magic, and that’s good for her, but I can’t shake the bad feeling. And if Pen doesn’t need my magic, how long will she need me?

Always. She loves me
. But if she didn’t need me would she still love me?

Stop being stupid, Carter.

The demon is trying to get into my head. It’s trying to make me doubt, and I won’t let it win. Not when it’s obviously lying. I stare at the list and replay the conversation with the demon in my head. She said some things that don’t make sense.

We made it happen. What we did was release the magic, and that magic went into the Statics. It’s killing them. Can tainted magic really change them into demons? Is that the same thing as the Transformation from a witch to a demon?

I’m sure other people have tried this, but I open the search on the computer.

Search___

How does magic work?

A few hits pop up about the power witches possess. We learn that magic is eteneral during our Special Topics classes, the lessons weaved into our time at school. When a witch dies, the essence doesn’t die. It’s replenished to the elements where it awaits a new life in an empty host with the ability to contain the magic. Magic is reused, a continuous unending cycle. That’s basically all the article says. A few more say the same, but with different words.

Magic is basically reincarnated from witch to witch. And maybe that means demon to demon.

If the magic left the demons, it went somewhere else.

Search___

Witches Into Demons

It’s a long-shot but we’re due for a miracle. I rub my eyes as the computer pulls up results. They are only articles about witches that went to the other side. Names, dates, details. Not what I’m looking for.

I glance back at Vassago’s list and look at my search bar.

Search___

Observance King Queen

There are no coincidences. There’s no way everything happening now, with the Observance coming up, is random chance. If Vassago’s message has a meaning, maybe this will tell me what. The search only loads ten results, but that’s more than nothing. I click on the first.

The Observance dates back to the creation of witches, when we had the first encounter with the demon king, Lucifer. The fallen and his followers were adamant to stop witches, to take control of the Nons, and to reign. It was on this day the witches first discovered the use of salt as a demonic tool.

And now we celebrate that date every hundred years. Useless.

I scroll through the hits and the first four are more history I’ve already learned about.

The fifth one, though, it’s actually new information. I sit up in my chair.

With Lucifer, fell Taliel, an angel more enamored with the betrayer than God. Lucifer and Taliel built an empire, changed their names to demon, and Lucifer ruled as king of demons. Taliel served his king in all manners, but as Lucifer declared his need for a queen, for one powerful enough to rule beside him, Taliel became jealous. He alone deserved the attentions of the King.

The demon sought to claim a witch, and it was during this time the first witch killed a demon using salt, and their celebration of the Observance was birthed. This new form of murder was a surprise to the demons. As the search for a queen intensified, so too did their death rate at the hands of witches.

As Lucifer spread his search across the masses, Taliel grew tired of the king’s search. He grew impatient, tired of being pushed aside, and he longed for his old life. Taliel attempted to re-enter heaven. Lucifer, however, discovered this betrayal. As he was about to be ended, Taliel made a promise to Lucifer: Taliel had prepared a gift. The gift was given to Lucifer in bargain for Taliel’s life, but it would take centuries to be revealed. It was the only way Taliel could guarantee his survival, but eventually, Lucifer tired of waiting and killed him anyway. The gift has still not been received, nor is its origin known.

That’s weird. I run a hand through my hair. If Vassago gave me that message about the void and the gift. His other clue was the Observance. If this article is right, then all these pieces are connected. The Observance and the gift could go together. Maybe this gift will come during the Observance? That’s less than a month from now. My head hurts.

Poncho clears his throat behind me and I jump in the chair. I forgot he was here.

“I’ll be retiring for the evening,” he says.

“I should go home, too.”

I click on the button and hide my search results. But even when they’re gone from the screen they’re in my head.

“You found what you were looking for?” Poncho asks.

With a sigh I say, “I have no idea.”