AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The restriction being the summoning’s leash on his ability to communicate with our wraith.
Belle smiled coldly. “That’s not going to happen. Tell me where he was the last time you connected.”
He gave us an address. I had no doubt Samuel was now ordering another team to that location and hoped like hell they had someone from the Heretic Investigation Center with them. While the HIC didn’t deal with wraiths, per se, they did hunt and kill dark witches. If anyone had the experience to deal with our wraith, it would be them.
“That three,” the demon scratched. “Release now.”
“Sorry, that’s not how this game ends,” Belle replied, and began the banishment spell.
As the words of power rose in the air, the demon once again screamed, twisting and fighting the spell that curled around him. His sharp movements pulled at the glowing cage and the protections that kept us safe, but he wasn’t strong enough to either slip past them or destroy them.
With a final high-pitched scream of fury, he was cast back into the hell he’d come from. The wraith couldn’t recall him. Not without making a new bargain, and that would severely weaken him. Plus, the cost of a new agreement would likely be far higher now, given demons apparently lost face and power every time they were banished. Or so I’d read in one of the books Belle’s gran had written about the critters.
Belle took a deep breath, pulled lightly on my strength to replenish her own, then began the second banishment spell, this time using the name the demon had given us.
This spell was trickier, as we had no idea where the demon was located and no idea whether distance would lessen the potency of the spell. There’d been no mention of it in the incantation book Ashworth had drawn it from, and it was normal procedure to list all necessary warnings. It would, of course, have been easier to just summon it as we had the first demon, but not only would it have pulled too much strength from everyone, it also gave the wraith a chance to protect his demon.
As the banishment spell reached toward its peak, the air stirred oddly beyond our protective barrier. I frowned and glanced around, my nostrils flaring to find some hint of what might be happening
No unusual scent or sound touched the air, and yet... And yet, the psychic part of me said that was all a lie.
We were about to be hit.
I opened my mouth to scream a warning to Mom, Ava, and Samuel, but I was too late and too slow.
With a roar that sounded like an avalanche, the three of them disappeared under a cloud of dust, magic, and death.
Chapter Thirteen
The wind was so strong it pushed Belle several feet sideways. I grabbed her just before her foot slid through our protection circle, and screamed—both physically and telepathically—for her to keep spelling.
She nodded. I kept my grip on her and scanned the clearing. The four men remained at the cardinal points, their bodies braced against the force of the wind. The dust beyond the outer protection circle was so thick that I had no hope of seeing Mom, Ava, or Samuel.
The little I could see chilled me to the bone.
Shapes.
Skeletal shapes. Unnatural shapes. The supernatural and the dead. Summoning this many en masse would normally have required a huge sacrifice, but perhaps the wraith’s desperation had broken the “unnatural” order of things.
Either way, it looked as if the wraith had broken open the doors of hell itself, and then raided its cemetery for good measure.
They battered the protection circle’s wall with fists and claws, each blow not only weakening the barrier but also the men who’d raised it.
The wraith obviously did not want his remaining demon banished, and that meant that was exactly what we had to do, no matter what.
But there were too many of them and too few of us. They would break through the outer protection circle, if not the inner, by the time the banishment spell was completed. We had to do something. I had to do something.
And for me, there was only one viable option.
I dug my toes deeper into the soil and called.
The wild magic answered.
It burned up from the deep recesses of the earth’s inner core and ripped through every part of me, burning through flesh and muscle and bone, sweeping away all that made me human while making me so much more.
This power was life itself. And she was mine to control.
Lizzie came a distant shout. Don’t take that path. Come back.
