Chapter Four

Chapter Four

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 opens, 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.

Also, I’m slightly terrified for real. So many things could go wrong, from the demon refusing to leave Evander, making us go back to attempting another exorcism. It’ll be pissed then, and who knows what kind of damage it will purposely wreak on Evander’s body. And if it does leave Evander’s body and we—I need to stop.

Or else I really will freak the fuck out.

“You won’t regret this,” the demon tells me. “You and I together.” The same sick smile plays on Evander’s face and the demon’s murky eyes glow in the candlelight. “With you behind me, I shall rule the underworld.”

Evander’s body starts to tremble, and his head painfully flops back. Gray smoke pours from his mouth and eyes. I hold out my hands, bracing myself. I have to sell it until the last second or else we’re all at risk.

The smoke billows toward me, moving faster and faster. If I were really standing here, wind would blow my hair around my face and my skin would prickle from the pure demonic energy that’s bounding near.

But the demon passes right through me. I whirl around, conjuring a small string of magic at my fingertips. It’s just enough to throw down at the box, triggering the spells that have been laid out.

“I stand behind no one,” I sneer.

Ruth breaks the invisibility spell and everyone steps forward, chanting. Not wanting to risk my body being a host for the demon, I pull myself out of the office and back into the gathering room.

With a gasp, my eyes fly open. Binx stands and nuzzles his head against me, needing to check and double-check nothing came back along with me.

“I’m okay,” I tell him, feeling all out of breath like I’d just ran from Tabatha’s office and into the gathering hall. He moves off my chest and I slowly sit up, moving with caution so I don’t get hit with a case of the dizzies that can sometimes happen after astral projecting.

“Did it work?” Nicole gives her candle to Naomi and reaches down, helping me to my feet.

“I think so,” I tell her, looking around at the students. “Things were playing out as we hoped when I left. I should go there to make sure.” I rub my thumb over my fingers, conjuring another string of magic. This one glows bright blue, sizzling and sparking around my hand.

“Holy shit,” one of the students mumbles. “You just astral projected and can still conjure raw magic?”

“She’s pretty impressive, isn’t she?” Naomi winks at me. “Quite handy to have around in times like this. Play nice if you want to keep her on your good side.”

I give Naomi a look, smiling as I shake my head. “Everyone’s okay here?”

“I feel a little weak,” one of the other students confesses.

“That’s normal,” Nicole tells her. “That kind of magic can take a lot out of you, and you were a little jittery before things started. The adrenaline is wearing off.”

“It wears off fast,” I warn them, raking my hands through my hair. “You might want to stay here—and near the circle—until we give you the all clear. I’ll send Binx back after we check things out.”

“And you’re okay to go?” Naomi arches her brows. “Like your fan over there just said, you did just astral project.”

I nod. “I’m fine. Well, not fine. But I’ve done more while feeling a lot shittier.”

“She has a point,” Nicole says, helping the girl who was dizzy sit down on the steps of the altar. “I’ll bring you water once it’s safe to leave. Put your head in your hands and lean forward. Focus on your breathing.”

“The first time I cast a strong circle like this I almost passed out,” I tell the girl after hearing two of the male students behind her snickering. I leave out that I was only twelve and had no idea what the hell I was doing. The Academy fosters what’s considered “healthy competition” between the students to encourage them to be the best witches and wizards they can be. I’ll be the first to admit a bit of competition can be a great motivator to do well on tests and study your ass off, but I hate the sense of needing to be the best in order to have self-worth.

“Thank you,” I tell Naomi. “For coming here.”

Her eyes meet mine and she gives me a small nod, saying more with that little gesture than she does with her words: we are friends. Sister witches brought together for a reason, and no matter what, through thick and thin, we have each other’s backs.

“Be careful, Callie. We all know how reckless you can be.” She winks, helping to ease the other students’ nerves.

“I can’t make any promises. But I’ll send Binx back if I need you to come save me again.”

I step out of the circle and rush through the gathering hall, closing the door behind me as soon as I’m through.

“Spatiumque hanc iniuriam,” I whisper, waving my hand over the doors. It’s a simple warding, but one that would give Nicole and Naomi enough of a warning that something malicious is trying to get in. The circle hasn’t been closed yet, and with their collective powers, nothing would be able to break through.

Well…not nothing.

But I’m not even going to think about that right now.

Binx runs along next to me, and my footsteps echo through the empty halls. My heart is already beating a million miles an hour as I race up the steps leading to Tabatha’s office. I work out for this reason. You never know when you have to run away from—or in this case, run toward—a demon.

My fear is getting to me, though, making me so anxious it’s hard to think about anything else. My body is going into flight-or-fight mode already and I need to snap the fuck out of it or I’ll be exhausted by the time I get to Evander.

Who’s going to be okay.

He has to be.

This plan was solid…well, maybe more than slightly opaque. The demon left Evander’s body. There are powerful witches in that room and hidden protective circles, plus the whole room has been outlined in salt and warded. The demon can’t escape it.

Binx shadows ahead of me, slipping in through the crack under the office doors. I telekinetically throw them open, needing to see Tabatha undoing Evander’s restraints. Kristy will be holding the hex-box and even asshole Ruth will be smiling triumphantly, looking smug and already planning on how she’s going to take credit for this.

But that’s not what I see. Not at all.

Evander is still tied to the chair, but it’s been tipped over. There’s a cut on his forehead, and blood pools around his head on the floor. The hex box is in pieces on the ground before him, and Kristy and Sister Ross are in a corner of the room, huddled together inside a protective circle.

My heart stops beating and falls to the floor. It’s my worst fear come to life, and I duck out of the way just in time to avoid being hit by a ball of energy, thrown by Tabatha at the gray smoke that’s billowing around the room.

“Callie!” she screams, making a move to run forward. Ruby grabs her arm, pulling her back and into the protective circle. Ruth is in the other circle between Kristy and Tabatha.

I turn, eyes wide, and my breath leaves me. A cold wind sweeps through the room, putting out the candles. The office goes dark and I hold my hands up, conjuring bright blue energy.

Oh shit.

I opened the door and moved the salt line. The demon can smoke right past me and possess anyone in the entire Covenstead. Binx, who’s already one step ahead of me, shadows along the doorway, keeping the demon confined to the room.

I hold up my hands, lighting up the room. Where is the demon?

I spin around again, trying to get a read.

“Callie!” Kristy shouts in warning. But it’s too late. The demon hurls itself at me, and I jump out of the way. My foot goes down on a broken piece of the hex-box, and I slip, landing hard against the stone floor. The magic I was holding onto is released into the air, and everything goes dark.

I can conjure more magic. It will only take a second. But that second is all the demon needs, because the next thing I know, dark smoke is swirling around me, suffocating me as it forces itself inside and possessing me.