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“Mark glyphs on the floor around all the beds,” I told her. “Protection and easy sleep. Tie them together if you can.”
Caroline nodded, her eyes gleaming nervously, and accepted the chalk. As she crouched down to start drawing, I pulled out a handful of the lavender powder. Its dry pungent scent filled my nose. I set the bag with the rest of its contents down by the wall and stepped into a larger form.
My feet carried me from the foot of one bed to the next, around Caroline and her hastily drawn glyphs, the movements partly drawn from forms I’d learned under my tutors’ eyes and partly coming together on instinct. The brilliant light of my spark flooded my limbs as I moved, as if eager to bring my intentions into reality. My arms swayed with my magicking dance, wisps of lavender powder slipping through my fingers.
Let peace settle over this room, I thought, willing that hope into every gesture, every step.Let their thoughts settle and their bodies quiet. Let them drift off into sleep if that’s the soothing they need—a soft soothing sleep. Let nothing touch them—not fear or pain or the claws of an enemy.
A stillness crept through the room, silence falling over us. Nothing reached my ears except the whisper of my feet over the floor and the faint rasp of the chalk as Caroline drew the last few glyphs. Selena leaned back on her hands, her white hair streaming down, the tension in her face seeping away.
The witch by the wall sank onto her cot and curled up there, her eyes drifting shut. The one who’d clung to her pillow rolled onto her side. Her gaze followed my movements dreamily.
I spun one more time after Caroline finished the last glyph, and then I eased to a stop. My own limbs felt comfortingly heavy, as if they’d been wrapped in a cozy blanket. The worried sympathy that had wrenched through me minutes ago had melted into sorrow-tinged relief.
Caroline straightened up, her stance more relaxed now too.
“We should do the magicking in the other room too,” I said. “They all need some peace.”
“I’m just glad we can do something,” she said.
I snatched up the bag of lavender powder and ran into Thalia in the hall. “Good thinking with that spell,” she said. “I can handle it for these girls.”
I might have protested that I was happy to do it, but I could tell from the set of her jaw that she desperately wanted to be the one providing that comfort. These women were like her sisters, fellow prisoners who’d come through the same torment she had. I handed over the bag without a word other than, “Of course.”
The witch who’d gone to the supply room had brought a few pieces of chalk, so Lesley and I joined Caroline in marking the floor around the second dorm room. As Thalia continued her magicking of the space, the three of us relative intruders retreated to the lounge room where I’d helped encourage the circle of recovering witches before.
Stepping into that familiar space, my gut twinged. How much was this threat going to set back their recovery? They’d been starting to move past the horrors of their experiences, and the demon’s approach had brought all that pain back again.
“How close is it?” Lesley asked, looking to me. “Do you know?”
I shook my head. “Not exactly. Lady Northcott didn’t think it could reach the edge of the city until sometime tonight.” Of course, the demon could start moving faster. I decided not to point out that fact. We had enough to be depressed about as it was.
“That far away, and it’s affecting them this much…” Caroline shuddered.
“It’s horrible,” I said. “It just… doesn’t belong here. I can’t imagine how easily you must start to sense those energies once you’ve been exposed to them over and over.”
“I still can’t believe—” Lesley cut herself off and swiped her mousey bangs away from her face. “I’ve only been able to find out a little. Everyone’s too busy to tell me much. But it sounds like my father got sucked into this ‘faction’ just a few years ago. I don’t even know why. What mattered to them enough that he’d decide it was worth doing that to me? It could be me freaking out with them right now if I’d given in to his pressure.”
“I’m sorry,” Caroline mumbled. “If I’d had any ideathiswas what my parents were involved in… If I’d stood up to them earlier…”
“It’s not your fault,” I broke in. “It’s theirs. They made the choices. They hurt all those witches for their own gain, and they got very good at hiding it. My father was part of it from before I was born, and I didn’t realize until I was almost twenty-five.”
If I hadn’t,Icould have been one of these disturbed witches right now. Queasiness bubbled in my stomach.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be calling the demons evil,” Lesley said. “They don’t have any reason to be kind to us. They’re like… like wild animals, following their natures. We’re supposed to be a community, and look at what we do to ourselves.”
She looked so exhausted that I touched her arm. “Not all of us. Not even most of us. Those who committed those crimes will see justice when this is over.”
She nodded, but she didn’t seem all that comforted. Maybe because we all knew there was no telling when this catastrophe would be over—or whether any of us would survive it.
A thump sounded from the room Thalia was in, followed by a cry. The three of us dashed back to the doorway.
Crystal’s cot was tipped on its side. The young witch was clinging to Thalia’s arms, tears trickling down her face.
“The gate,” she said in a strained whisper. “They’re pushing at the gate. They want out—all of them. They’re trying to scrape their way through to come here.”
Thalia’s panicked gaze meet mine. “She was the last one the demons fed on,” she said quietly.
The one with the rawest wounds. My throat tightened.
