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He laughed again, “No candles needed since we’ve got the place covered in battery-powered lights. Wands also do nothing except maybe stir cauldrons. And there are definitely no terrified sacrifices. Sorry to not live up to the horror movie trends, but this is it. Witches, fairy lights, and little balls of magic.”
Got you.
“Balls of magic?” I asked innocently.
“Yeah, you know, the fire we are going to use to raise him?”
I nodded like I only just remembered that he mentioned them earlier. “Oh yeah. Where are they?”
“They are being transported here as we speak. We had a bit of a delay earlier doing an extra security spell, but it shouldn’t be long until we start the ceremony.”
“Awesome. I’m super excited.” I did a little excited two-step, which Simon grinned at, as I thought up my next move. If Debs was coming soon, I didn’t have much time. I needed to lose Simon, find the fires, and free them. With a new plan, I grimaced and said, “I don’t suppose you guys set up a little men’s room around here? All that running did not help.”
“We did actually. We’re expecting the ceremony will leave a lot of us feeling a bit rough, so we got some Portaloos. I’ll walk you to them.” He turned toward the east side of the clearing, and I cursed in my head as I followed him helplessly, looking for a way to escape.
To Daithi, I whispered, “Go look around. Find them.” And he moved silently away from me, going in search of his love.
I continued trudging through crunchy undergrowth as I followed Simon. He’d mentioned something interesting, and my curiosity wouldn’t let it go unanswered. “The ceremony will leave you feeling rough?”
He shrugged and turned to face me. I realized there were blue toilet blocks behind him. “Well, draining our magic is going to take a lot out of us. If we give too much, then we’ll die. Thankfully, we have the fire to prevent that from happening.”
Jesus Christ. Why is nothing simple? Shit.
I didn’t want to kill the only family I’d ever found. I had to think of something, and quickly.
“Witches!” a voice boomed.
Fuck! It’s starting!
Simon glanced over my shoulder to the clearing where the voices had quietened to an excited buzz. “Charlie, it’s starting. You’ll need to pee quick if you don’t want to miss anything.” He had a gleam in his eyes that made me uncomfortable as he moved to walk past me and join the ceremony. Even so, he was family. You don’t let family die. At least, that’s what I assumed was one rule of family. But maybe it was different if that person was an evil witch.
I grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “Earlier, you said that you didn’t agree with the demon’s fire thing,” I whispered.
He jerked back like I slapped him. Then he narrowed his eyes and leaned close to whisper back, “Keep your voice down. Fuck, do you want me to lose all standing in the community?”
“Sorry.” I wasn’t, and I waited for him to prove to me he didn’t deserve to die.
“I don’t agree with it, but it’s necessary,” he hissed and then stared at me curiously. Probably getting another Seeker clue that something more was happening here. “Why are you bringing it up?”
His answer didn’t assure me that I could convince him to not take part, but if his morals told him it was bad, then at least he wasn’t a complete monster. I told him the truth. “What if I told you that my friend, a demon, had his fire taken and I’m here to take it back?”
Debs started her speech, and her voice spilled out across the woods like a river of poison. I cringed when it reached us. “Welcome to this joyous event. Tonight, we make history. Tonight, we ensure our survival.”
Distracted by the start of the ceremony, Simon listened, half turned to the sound of her voice. When cheers went up, he blinked. Then he glared. “Are you being serious?” he hissed.
“Deadly.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Charlie, but you can’t take it back.”
I gave him a mocking, sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry, Simon, but you can’t stop me. This is a warning because I don’t want you to die for something stupid.”
He scoffed. “This isn’t stupid.”
“Well, so far, you’ve said that you’re going to kill tortured demons to raise a protector that died centuries ago instead of just making a new one. That is fucked up, Simon.”
Debs’s voice boomed. “Otherworlders. Beings from different dimensions. More and more, there are portals opened to the human realm. And more and more people are going missing. But we can stop the otherworlders. We can block the portals. The protector’s life force protects this realm, and so we must raise him.”
Simon looked at me pointedly, and I raised my eyebrow. “Have you thought maybe summoning them from places might attract attention to the human realm?”
