Revenant (16 page)

He watched me with a malicious
half smile
on his face.

“Caleb is uncommonly skilled, even
amongst his people in the Dragon Guild. Aren’t
you,
my
boy? He is not the type to toot his own horn, but he’s a powerful
death dealer.” Gage waved his hand in the air. “Show her.”

Caleb raised his right hand and wiggled
his fingers. Orange flame rose, dancing between his fingers.

At the sight of the flames, my heart
pounded hard in my chest. He burned me with that flame
.
My hand went to my leg, where the still-raw burns were starting
to scab over. Caleb smiled widely as he watched my unconscious gesture.

Gage seemed unaware of the panic that
filled me. There was pride on his face as he looked at Caleb. “As you know, most
death dealers can raise
flames
. They use fire
for many things, but it doesn’t have the attributes of
real
fire.” Gage cautiously reached
out to touch Caleb’s hand, but quickly pulled his finger back and shook it in
pain. “Caleb’s fire
actually
burns. The
boy has true talent. It’s not often you find someone who can wield hellfire.”
Gage waved his hand in the air. “Do you smell it?”

The overpowering scent of sulfur hung
in the air. I remembered smelling it the night Caleb attacked me, but at the
time I’d thought it was from the hellhounds.

“Brimstone.” Gage patted Caleb’s
shoulder again. “He is the only death dealer I’ve ever come across that can
raise true hellfire. He’s truly gifted.”

Hand still aflame, Caleb advanced on me
with a cold violence in his eyes, and I retreated from him instinctually. My
mouth had gone dry.

He wouldn’t try to hurt me, not with
Gage standing
right there
. I took a deep
breath and straightened my back. Though I was still uncomfortable, I forced
myself to meet Caleb’s eyes.

He gave me a hard look before turning
and flinging his hand to the side. The flames shot out toward one of the
chandeliers. Fire hit the wax candles and they melted into a puddle on the
floor.

“Quite impressive. You should see what
it does to human flesh,” Gage said.

I couldn’t help
but
cringe. I was afraid, and Caleb knew it. He gave me another
smile. I swore to myself that if the opportunity ever arose, I would force that
smile from his face. I’ll burn it off with my
own
magic one day.

Gage walked over to
a table
on the side of the room. When he came
back, he held a gun in his hand. “I couldn’t decide if I should bring a thirty-eight
or a
forty-five
. Don’t look so scared,
the spell is a powerful one.” Before I could say anything, Gage motioned to
Caleb.

Caleb turned, and with long strides
made his way to the center of the room.

Gage gave me a smile and then aimed the
gun at Caleb. A loud
boom
ripped
through the air as the gun went off. For one brief moment, I thought all my
prayers had
been answered
and Caleb would
fall down
dead.

An instantaneous burst of orange light interrupted
the thought, extending a few inches from Caleb’s body.

And that was it. Caleb was still alive
and breathing. The death dealer’s bulletproof spell worked
, just like the times
I’d seen it used in Luke’s uncle’s shop by the men trying to kidnap us and at
the mansion the night the demon rose. There wasn’t a big hoopla, no loud
noises, no fireworks whizzing around the room—just one small burst of
light.

“I assure you, I didn’t miss.” Gage
raised his voice. “Caleb, show her.”

Caleb reached down and picked a
miniscule object up off the floor. He walked over to me and opened his hand. In
his palm lay the bullet.

“See? It’s quite an effective spell,”
Gage said. “The death dealers came up with it ages ago in response to guns. It
doesn’t make them immortal—you’ve seen they can
be killed
firsthand. Spells, enchanted blades—there are many
ways to kill a death dealer, but non-magical weapons can’t seriously hurt them.”
Gage handed the gun to Caleb. “Now it’s your turn, my dear Colina. I’m going to
leave you in Caleb’s capable hands. I’ll be back in a bit to see how you’re
doing with your lessons. Once you master this one, we will move on to the next
spell. Your education has been sorely lacking, and the world is becoming a more
dangerous place. As you know, death dealers now have targets on their backs. I
think it’s important you’re able
to protect
yourself fully
.” Gage turned and started to leave the room.

He wanted me to learn magic? All this
time he had forbidden me from using any. Frustrated, I yelled at his back, “Why
teach
me
magic when you won’t let me use
it?”

Gage stopped and faced me again. “I’m
hoping that one day soon you’ll come around. You’ll see that you belong with
us.
We’re your best bet at survival, Colina.
I’m serious when I say I want to work with you. Nothing would make me happier
than having
you,
Luke, and Wendy join our
ranks.” His expression turned sullen. “I don’t like to threaten. I don’t like
holding your boyfriend prisoner. I know, given enough time, you will come
around.” He gave Caleb a cold stare. “I expect to see some progress when I get
back.”

Caleb nodded.

“Now play nice,” Gage instructed before
leaving the room.

We were alone.

Caleb
still held the gun in his hand. “Are you ready to get started?”

“Do I
have a choice?” I asked, looking at the gun.

He
ignored my sarcastic tone and answered in a serious voice, “This spell is more
of a state of mind. It’s not like the other spells you’ve learned.” He started toward
me.

I
backed away, looking behind me for any possible escape. No way was I going to
let Caleb have a free shot at me.

He
rushed forward, breaching the distance between us, and roughly grabbed my arm.

Without
thinking, I slapped him hard across the face.

Fury sparkled
in his eyes. His hand came up and rubbed his cheek. “I’m not going to hurt you.
The only way you’re going to learn how to do this is if you let me get close to
you.”

“Go to
hell.”

His
fingers dug into my skin. “The boss will not be happy if you refuse to try. I
don’t think you would like to see him angry.”

That
stopped me in my tracks. As much as I hated to admit it, Caleb was right. Gage
scared even his
own
people. I’d seen
firsthand how he’d killed one of his employees without a second thought.

Caleb
gave me a hard, painful squeeze before letting go of my arm. He tucked the gun
behind him, into the waistband of his jeans. “I’m going to stand next to you. Please
try to restrain from hitting me again.” His voice lowered, full of irritation. “I’m
not thrilled to be doing this, either. But what
the
big
man wants, he gets.”

Caleb
moved
closer
. Every nerve in my body was
screaming to get away from him. I took a deep breath and forced myself to stand
still. I could feel the heat of his body against mine.

“Every
person has their
own
energy swirling
around them. Some people call it an aura. Others call it chi,” Caleb said.

“I
know about energy. I used to be a healer.” My mouth was dry. I could feel my
heart pounding in my chest.

“That’s
right, I keep forgetting. Your kind pull on the energy from the ether sea and
then push it into people.”

I
nodded.

“This
is different. You have to become aware of the energy that is swirling around
you at all times. Your individual chi. Get a sense for it. Close your eyes.”

I
looked over at him skeptically.

“I
told you, I won’t hurt you. Look, I’m not thrilled to be doing this, either,
but what can we do? The quicker you learn, the faster you can go back to the
house and your buddies.” He moved away, then slowly came up behind me until his
whole body
pressed
against mine.

I
couldn’t help it—I started to jerk away, but his arm came around my
waist
and pulled me close to him.

This isn’t
happening.
But it
was
.
He held me tight. “You can sense
when someone is in your space, feel if something breaks across your energy
field. Can you feel where your energy starts and where it intersects with mine?”

All I can feel is a blind terror because a
monster is holding me.

“Try
to focus,” he demanded.

I
tried to clear my head, but Caleb’s proximity made it impossible.
I want to
hurt him so bad.
Pay him back for what he did to me.
I could hear my
screams echoing in my ears from when he burned me. I was trying so hard to keep
the emotions at bay that I could feel tears of frustration slide down my
cheeks.

“Let’s
try something else.” Caleb sounded annoyed.

He backed
away from me and I let out a sigh of relief. He moved until he was a few feet
in front of me. “Close your eyes.”

Caleb
was standing in front of me, and he had a gun.

“I
told you—I won’t hurt you,” he growled. “Now close your eyes.”

I
forced my eyes closed.
That gun is going
to go off any second… He’s going to shoot me dead.

“Open
your eyes when you feel something close, invading your space.”

I felt
nothing
—
and then I did. A
strange tingle ran up my back. I knew with certainty that something was close
to me. I opened my eyes. Caleb’s finger was an inch from my nose.

“Good.
Now take a deep breath and become aware of the same energy that always swirls
within you. As a healer, you pull energy in from the earth or sky, but what I
want you to do is to push
out
the
energy from within yourself until it’s all around you.”

“Push it
out where?”

“Think
of it as creating a force field around you. Think of pushing a barrier out just
a few inches from your body.”

He
turned and walked to the closest table. When he came back, he was holding a thick,
black leather-bound book. He opened the book and flipped through the pages
until he found what he wanted. “Here it is. This spell is the one
you
’ll be doing.” He moved to my side and held
the book out in front of me.

I
looked down at a page full of Latin words. “Mages don’t say all this each time they
make themselves bulletproof.” There were too many words. A bullet
is shot
within seconds. There’s no way they would
have time to evoke the spell before the bullet found its mark.

“You’re
right, they don’t. You just have to say it once. You go through the ritual and
say the spell. When it’s all done, you’ve raised your
own
personal shield. And it’s up all the time around you.”

“What
kind of ritual?” I force myself to ask.

His
eyes narrowed. “I would love to say I get to strangle you on my family’s graves.
I can’t say I haven’t daydreamed about doing just that. But no, this ritual is
more about visualizing the energy all around you. The energy inside you.” He
handed me
the book
, then retrieved a bag
from the same table. He opened it and pulled out some black candles and a
different dagger, one with an ivory hilt. Caleb twirled the small dagger around
in his hand, his eyes gleaming. “A sacrifice must be made during this ritual.”

My
mind flashed back to the memory of Gage slaughtering the girl during Wendy’s
demonic possession ritual. “Going to kill more chickens? Slit another young
girl’s throat?” I forced out through stiff lips.

He
laughed. “Nothing so drastic. A drop of your blood will do the trick.”

I
looked at the dagger in trepidation. Symbols covered the steel. “I have to cut
myself with that thing?”

“
I
have to cut you.”

The
way he was holding
the dagger,
the look
in his eye… I had no doubt he would like to thrust that dagger straight into my
heart. I looked around the cavern. We were utterly alone.
If he wants to kill me, he can.

I
looked around distractedly as Caleb set up objects for the ritual. We stood at
the back of the cavern, in front of the stream. Caleb placed a total of twelve candles
in a
circle
and laid a raven feather
between each one. I expected him to draw a circle in the dirt, but instead he
pulled out a bag of black-colored powder. He carefully sprinkled the powder
along the dirt until he’d created the lines of
a
pentagram.

He
motioned for me to stand in the middle of the pentagram. I took a hesitant
step, but it wasn’t fast enough for his liking. He shoved me hard from behind.
I stumbled forward until I was standing in the center. I took a deep breath and
tried to force
back
my fear
. You went through three death dealer
rituals, Colina. You can do this
.