Demons Forever (Peachville High Demons #6) (19 page)

When we said goodbye, I pulled him close and hugged him tight. "You be a good boy, okay?"

"I promise," he said. He placed his small mouth near my ear and whispered, "I'll see you soon."

I stood and swiped at a tear as it rolled down my cheek. I smiled, hoping he hadn't seen. "See you soon," I repeated. I brought my fingers to my lips and kissed, then placed them against his cheek. "I love you."

"Love you too," he said with a toothy smile. He gave Jackson a hug too, then ran off to play with his friends.

"He seems sweet," Mary Anne said. "That's the little boy you found all alone on your way here?"

I nodded, sniffing as I held back my tears. "Come on," I said. "It's getting late. We should head back to the castle and get something to eat."

As we left the school, I glanced back and saw Ryder watching us from across the room. He placed his tiny fingers to his lips, then held them out toward me. Something he had seen Jackson and I do a hundred times.

I touched my cheek as if to accept his kiss, then followed the others through the door.

The Tattoo

There was one last order of business before we could make our way through the portal.

I had to get rid of my demon tattoo.

"I'm not looking forward to this," I said, pulling up the back of my shirt and laying down on the floor in my bathroom.

Jackson held a mortar and pestle in his hand and was using it to crush up black rose petals. "We don't have a choice," he said. "If you step through that portal the human world, Priestess Winter will know you're back."

"Worse," I said. "She'll know where the portal is. That would put this whole town in danger."

I knew there was no choice, but the idea of having the magical ink sucked from my skin made me feel sick.

"How do you even know how to do this?" I asked.

"In the beginning of my time as a human, the Order tried to brand me with one of these marks," he said. "They wanted to keep track of me and make sure they knew where I was and what I was doing at all times."

He poured a little bit of water into the mortar and continued to mix up the paste.

"They did?" I asked. "I've never seen a tattoo on you before."

He raised an eyebrow. "Exactly."

I laughed. "You figured out a way to get rid of it?"

"I found the room on the third floor with all those spell books," he said. "I used to go up there in the middle of the night and memorize the ingredients to different potions. The Order had stolen my magic, but that didn't mean I couldn't create a little bit of magic for myself here and there."

I remembered the small closet in his room, filled with different exotic ingredients. I'd gone there to make a potion of my own once upon a time.

"The tattoo is made from a special kind of ink," he said. "A sort of magical tracking device. The power inside the black roses will suck the ink from your skin. I'm not going to lie. This is going to hurt."

"Great," I mumbled, laying my head down against my forearms. "Let's just get it over with."

"When I rub the paste over the ink, you'll feel it move around and squirm," he said. "You'll want to touch it, but you have to be careful not to itch or scratch or touch it at all or the ink will soak into the skin on your hands."

I nodded, getting nervous.

"As soon as the ink is completely gone, let me know," he said. "I need to scrape the paste off with this stone and put it inside a living thing. That way, to the Order, it will seem like you're still here in the dome."

"How will I know when the ink is gone?"

"You'll know," he said with a laugh. "Ready?"

I took two deep breaths in and out. "Go," I said.

I heard stone scraping against stone, then jumped as the cold paste hit my skin. He slathered it across the length of my lower back. Immediately, the ink began to wiggle and writhe, swirling around like a cat chasing its tail.

Then it started to burn. I tensed and bit down hard.

The heat seared my skin, and I felt the overpowering urge to move. To reach back and scrape the paste from my skin. But I knew I had to stay still. I had to wait.

Just when I didn't think I could take it another second, the burning stopped.

I sighed in relief and gave Jackson a thumb's up. Quickly, he used the stone to scrape the rose paste from my back and transfer it to the soil of a potted plant next to him. I sat up, grabbing a cold cloth from the floor beside me and placing it on the burned spot on my back.

The plant trembled and shook, its leaves falling to the ground in a heap. Blue ink traveled up the length of its stalk. It swirled around, then finally settled, still and calm.

I shuddered, thinking how that stuff had been inside me for months.

"Thanks," I said. I looked in the mirror and saw a large red burn across my skin.

"Don't worry," he said, placing his hand on the spot. "That'll probably go away in a few days."

Icy power ran from his hand to my skin, relieving the burn.

I took a deep breath in, praying I'd still be alive to find out.

Back To Peachville

Hours later, after the suns had gone down, the four of us gathered in my chambers. Essex handed each of us a backpack full of supplies. He reached into his own and pulled out a handful of blue wristbands. He placed one on his own wrist, then passed them around.

"These will be your keys to Mary Anne's village in the trees," he said. Then, he handed me an extra one. "For your sister. I am very much looking forward to meeting her."

I smiled, grateful for his confidence and faith. I secured both bands around my wrist, right next to the white scrap of fabric that I'd worn for months, then took a final glance around the bedroom.

Truly a room fit for a princess. I hoped Jackson was right and that someday we would come back to the shadow world. Back to this castle.

"Ready?" I asked, energy buzzing through my veins.

Together, we stepped out onto the balcony.

"Thank you for coming with me," I said to them. "I have no idea what we're going to face, but I am so grateful to have you by my side."

"Don't sound so nervous," Mary Anne said. "We totally got this."

I laughed and she grabbed tight to Essex's hand. We stepped off the edge of the balcony and flew down to the garden below. We made our way through the gate and waded through the roses, careful not to crush them. As we walked, I felt a strange pull. Almost magnetic. I followed the feeling until we came upon a small circle of roses tucked away in the farthest corner.

It looked exactly like the entrance to the Underground, except these roses were white. This had to be it. Was I really ready for what awaited me on the other side?

I took a deep breath and tried to steady the galloping beat of my heart.

Then, I stepped into the circle and was sucked through the portal back to Peachville.

The Woman In The Wheelchair

In a breath, we stood at the edge of Brighton Lake.

Toads and crickets and other tiny little beings went about their evening as if nothing had changed. Nearby, something jumped from the water, then disappeared again beneath the surface.

None of us said a word or dared to move.

It felt strange to be back in the human world after all these months. I felt like a memory of myself. My hand drifted to my throat, where my mother's necklace should have been. Without it, there would be no Aerden to protect me.

For the first time, maybe I was strong enough to protect myself.

I hugged Mary Anne and stared into her bright blue eyes, silently letting her know that this was where we parted ways. She nodded, then shifted into a black crow. She flew away and Essex took off at a run, following her deep into the woods.

Jackson grabbed my hand and squeezed.

We walked along the worn path toward Shadowford. We passed the area above the ritual room and I paused. I kind of wanted to go down the steps to look at the portal stone and see what it looked like now that the gate was inactive, but Jackson pulled me onward.

The smaller house where Ella Mae lived was dark and quiet. It was the middle of the night here, so our hope in coming at this time was that everyone would be asleep and wouldn't notice our presence.

So far, so good.

Getting into Shadowford itself wouldn't be a problem. Manipulating locks was so easy at this point, it was second nature. We avoided the automatic light attached to the shed and came around the back of the large white house. I quickly turned the lock with a flick of my hand and we walked into the kitchen of Shadowford Home.

Only the sound of the air conditioner disrupted the silence. Jackson's eyes met mine. We'd made it safely into the house without a single issue. When we'd talked about this day, we'd considered every possibility from an army waiting for us as we passed through the portal to a set of traps placed on the entryway to the house. The fact that it had been so easy to get this far made me uncomfortable.

Where was the Order? It had only been a few days since they'd taken my sister, but that was plenty of time to create a plan and to set up traps for me.

My nerves hung on edge.

Danger lay in front of us. I just didn't know when or where. It was the not knowing that made me queasy.

Jackson and I tiptoed through the kitchen, down the hall past Mrs. Shadowford's room, and finally up the large wooden staircase to the second floor. About halfway up, one of the stairs creaked and I winced, frozen in place as I waited. Nothing in the house moved. After a moment, I kept going, keeping my steps as light as possible.

Once upstairs, I headed straight to my old room. I stared openly, surprised to find it looked exactly the same. I don't know why I'd expected it to look any different. Maybe because I had changed so much since I'd last been here.

Jackson kept an eye on the hallway as I went to the dressing table and reached for the drawer where I kept the butterfly pin. For a split second, panic filled my heart. What if it wasn't here? What if someone had taken it?

But when I opened the drawer, there it was. The white box.

My hand trembled as I reached for it, knowing there was a possibility this was the trap we'd been waiting for. Could Zara be trusted?

Just in case, I closed my eyes and created a connection to the human side of my power, feeling the hum of the earth beneath me. To make sure I had control of my magic, I opened my eyes and held out my palm. A perfect orb of dim light formed instantly, illuminating the area in a circle around me.

I carefully picked up the box, not willing to believe Zara could be evil like her mother. I set it on the mirrored dressing table and pulled the top off. Nestled in a bed of white fluff, the blue butterfly sparkled. No monsters came out of the woodwork and no witches came flying through the doorway. I let out a sigh of relief.

I picked up the pin and moved it from side to side, watching as the blue crystals glittered in the dim light of my orb.

What was so important about this piece of jewelry? Why did Zara want me to wear it now? I had no idea what kind of power or magic these stones held, but she'd taken an awful risk to remind me of it. If her mother or her sisters had seen her give the secret note to Coach King, she would have been in serious trouble.

This butterfly had to be something special.

I gathered a small section of hair near my temple and slid the butterfly pendant over it. In the mirror, I recognized the image from Jackson's drawing. Proof that one way or another, I was exactly where I was meant to be.

"Let's get out of here," Jackson whispered. "Anything else you needed to grab while we're here? If so let's get it and go."

I glanced around. There was nothing here I felt all that connected to. Hand-me-down clothes. Scraps of ribbon. My cheerleading uniform. It was all a part of my old life. As if it were a different girl who lived here once upon a time.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I don't need any of this stuff."

"We should try to get upstairs then before it gets too early and everyone starts waking up," he said.

With quiet steps, we walked into the dark hallway.

Immediately, something felt off. As soon as I stepped out of the room, an ice-cold chill ran down my spine. Jackson must have felt it too, because his eyes grew wide as saucers and his lips parted.

I spun and looked down the length of the stairs at the woman in the wheelchair. Her eyes glowed a deep blue, dark as midnight on the ocean.

"Welcome home, Harper," Mrs. Shadowford said.

Very slowly, with deliberate movement, she placed both hands on the armrests of her chair.

Then, she stood up.

You Left Me Here To Rot

I took a step back.

Jackson gripped my arm. "Did you know she could walk?"

I shook my head. "I had no idea," I said. "But I don't like this one bit."

Without taking her eyes from my face, she began to make her way up the stairs. Her steps were slow, but focused.

"I don't either," Jackson said. "I think we should go."

"Where?" I asked. "I'm not leaving this house until I've gone through the Hall of Doorways. If we go up there, she'll just follow us." I planted my feet firmly on the floor, steadying my nerves and readying for battle. "If she's coming after us, we'll just have to stand and fight. I mean, she's a witch, but she's also an old lady. There's two of us. We'll just stun her or lock her in somewhere and head upstairs. It'll be fine."

I was impressed with how confident I managed to sound despite the fact that my knees were jelly. The old lady had creeped me out from the moment I first saw her. I definitely did not want to stand here and wait for her to attack me, but if I was going to do this thing, I was going to do it one hundred percent. No backing down, no matter how scared I got.

Mrs. Shadowford placed her foot on the top step, then lifted herself level with the two of us. "I've been waiting for you," she said. "To be honest, I'm surprised to see you here, so eager to fight. So naïve and completely out of your league. I thought you would be too scared to come back, but it looks like Priestess Winter was right about you."