Revenant (5 page)

Now
that Gage knew the bodies were falling apart, he wanted to find some
kind of
spell to fix them. He’d said that he
had access to a great library of dark books.
Maybe if I get my hands on those books, I can find a spell to destroy
him
. Along with that question came another, more important thought:
Maybe I can cast the demon back to hell
.

Gage
was doing the demon’s bidding. If we destroyed him, there would no doubt be
another evil henchman waiting in the wings to take over. There had to be a way
to banish the demon. I shuddered, remembering how Macaven had formed the dark
creature using countless innocent souls, including my pa’s. Somewhere inside it
was my father’s spirit. And my
brother’s. Guilt
and despair washed over me.

I thought I’d released my brother when I killed the mage that
bound him—and I had, for a moment—but it was just long enough for
the demon to suck in James’s spirit.
That evil thing now possessed my father
and
my brother. When I faced it back in
Macaven
’s
ballroom,
it had morphed for a moment, and its face had become my pa’s. My pa’s eyes had
blazed red, full of evil and hatred, eyes that I’d only ever seen full of
kindness and love. I could feel anger rising inside me and I forced myself to
take a deep breath.

There
had to be a way to kill the beast and release Pa and James. There had to be
people who dealt with demons before. I wracked my brain desperately, trying to
come up with an answer. There were demon killers once—maybe there were still
some around.

“There
are no more demon killers,” Wendy whispered, reading my thoughts.

“Are
you sure?”

Dean
answered, “No one practices the art anymore. There are no guilds of demon
slayers. No books of their magic. They might have walked among us once, but
there is no trace of their kind now. At least, not that I’ve
heard of
. Maybe once they
banished
the demons, the demon killers were no
longer needed. I’ve heard rumors that their magic was destroyed, that it’s
forbidden.”

“But
there
is
a demon now.” I couldn’t
meet his eyes when I said the words. It was my fault the creature was loose,
but Dean didn’t know that. Dean hated the girl his mother had told him about—the
mystery girl who had raised a demon and brought horrors down on the death
dealer clans. I didn’t want him to know it was me.

I
tried to think logically.
If you kill a mage,
the banshees bound to him
go
free. Does the
same principle work with demons? If we kill the creature, will the spirits
used
to form it
be
released
?
If it worked the same, maybe I could finally free my father’s
and brother’s spirits.

I
looked over at Wendy. “There has to be some way to get rid of it.”

She
looked at me in silence.

There
had to be a way to send it back to hell and free my father and brother. I
refused to believe it was hopeless.

Dean
was now standing in front of me. He gave me little choice but to face him. “Colina,
we need to get out of here. I need to get back to my family. The guilds are
under attack and I need to make sure they’re okay.”

I
could hear Luke’s voice in my head.
Run
if you get
a chance.

“It’s
too risky trying to escape now.” If we managed to escape, what would we face on
the outside?
There were too many
questions and not enough answers. If we didn’t get the answers before we tried
a foolhardy escape, all of us might end up dead. I wasn’t going to risk our
lives until we knew what we were
up against
.

I
looked from Dean to Wendy. “We’re safe for the
moment.
Gage…needs me.
He’s promised
he won’t
hurt either of you as long as I do what he wants.” I wanted to believe that. I
really
did.

“What
happens when he no longer ‘needs’ you? What happens to you? To us?” Dean
started to reach for my hand, but his fingers stopped just short of touching
mine. “Gage doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who’s going to let us go
merrily on our way.”

“I
just…need more time,” I answered.

“To
do what?” he demanded.

I
scrambled for a response. “He…he told me he has an extensive magic library. I
need to get a look at his books
to see if
there’s anything in them that can help us get out of here.”

“What
does he have you doing?” Dean was as incessant with the questions as Luke, but
just like with Luke, I knew I couldn’t tell him. What would he do when he
realized I was the girl who’d brought terror to his people? “I can’t tell you.”

And
also just like Luke, anger filled Dean’s eyes at my refusal to answer his
questions. “Why not?”

I
had a hard time meeting his gaze. “You don’t want to know.” My words were a
whisper.

“I
don’t think you get to say that to me. Not when they’re holding
me
prisoner to force
you
to do…whatever you’re doing.” Dean
moved closer. His face was now only inches from mine. “I want to know what this
is all about.”

I
wanted to tell him, I wanted to come clean—but the words wouldn’t come
out.

The
anger left his voice. “Colina.”

“Let
it go!” Wendy shouted. Anger twisted her face and she raised her hands as if
she was going to attack him. Then, just as before, she seemed to catch herself.
She took a deep breath and said, “It doesn’t matter why we’re here.
We’re here
. They can do whatever they
want with us.”

At
her words, Caleb’s threats echoed in my mind.
What about that dark-haired friend of yours?
She’s a pretty
one,
she is… I think Jacob
here has taken a real shine to her. Haven’t you, Jacob?

I
looked at Wendy’s torn shirt. “Did anyone hurt you?”

She
rubbed her right hand against the wounds on her left forearm. “No one touched
me.”

I
pointed at the gashes. “Then how did you get—”

She
turned away before I could finish. I knew by her body language that even if I
got the question out, she wouldn’t answer it. What if Gage wasn’t lying? What
if Wendy tried to harm herself?

The
door swung open and Sonja sauntered into the room. She carried a large metal
bucket. She walked over and put it down at my feet and then gave me an amused
smile. “Gage said you need to clean up before tonight’s festivities.” She
pointed toward the hallway. “In the kitchen is a bathtub.” She gave me a wide
smile. “Unfortunately, princess, we’re roughing it out here. There is no indoor
plumbing. I’m afraid if you want a bath, you and your friends are going to have
to fetch and carry the water yourselves.” She motioned toward
the door
in the corner. “There’s a well a couple
dozen feet from the house. You should be able to get all you need from it, but
the water can be a little…brisk. I suggest you heat it up on the wood stove.”

She
turned and gave Dean a long, appreciative stare. “There’s a pile of wood around
back. Looks like you shouldn’t have any trouble chopping up some wood for the
stove. And if nature calls, there’s an outhouse back there, too.” She turned
back to me. “And just a word of warning—I wouldn’t try to escape. There
are things out there that love to chase after anything with a heartbeat.”

I
couldn’t help myself. I had to ask. “What type of things?”

Sonja
didn’t answer, but Wendy looked off into the distance and then sucked in her
breath. When she looked back at me, her eyes were wide with fear. “Hellhounds.”

Sonja
nodded her head. “Gage does love his pets.” She gave me a look that left no
doubt of what she was implying—I was one of those pets. “As long as you
stay close to this building, nothing will harm you. We wouldn’t want anything
to happen to
you
, not since Gage has
taken a real liking to you.” She moved closer and brought her long red
fingernails
up in front of my face.
“Here’s another word of warning—hands
off.
Those things out in the woods may be the least of your worries.”

“I’m
not interested in Gage,” I said between clenched teeth.

“You
say that now, but he has a way of worming into a girl’s heart. You’ll see.
Before you know it, you’ll be
mooning
at
his feet like all the others. No one is immune to his charm for long. He has a
magnetic personality.”

“A
psychotic personality,” I said under my breath.

She
gave a quiet laugh. “Just wait. Before you know it, you’ll succumb to his will.
We all do. We can’t seem to help ourselves. But he’s mine. Got it?”

I
put up my hands in surrender. “Got it. He’s all yours.”

She
turned and sauntered out of the room.

Dean
spoke
up. “Pleasant
girl. Can’t wait to
meet Gage. Maybe she’s lying about the creatures out there.”

“She’s
not.” Wendy grimaced in distaste and moved to look out a dirty window. Over her
shoulder I could see the looming shapes of the trees.

Dean
turned and looked at me. “So what now?”

“We
do as she says. We get cleaned up,” I answered.

His
eyes narrowed. “That’s the plan? Follow their orders? Whatever the crazies say,
we do?”

I
nodded. “For now, that’s the plan.”

He
didn’t look happy at my answer, and I didn’t blame him, but I wasn’t about to
rush into anything. I would not risk everyone’s lives by doing something
reckless.

I
walked over and picked up the bucket. “You can chop some wood, and I’ll get
some water from the well. You heard her—we’ll be safe as long as we stay
close to the house.”

Dean
and I stood face-to-face, glaring at each other. Wendy stood watching the two
of us.

He
finally shrugged his shoulders and gave a loud sigh. “Fantastic. Always wanted
to be a lumberjack.”

Without
another word, I headed for the door. When I opened it, sunlight blinded me.
They’d kept me in the dark for days, only allowing me outside at night, and now
I was feeling the repercussions.

Dean
blinked quickly, looking up at the sky. “Nice day.” He gazed off into the
distance.

Two
men dressed all in black were standing guard about twenty feet away. They had
guns slung over their shoulders.

I
scanned the nearby woods, looking for a glimpse of the hellhounds. I didn’t see
them.
Could Wendy be wrong?
I
remembered the last time I’d seen one, how it attacked a mage, rushing the man
and somehow tearing out his soul. The sound of its growls and teeth gnashing
had given me an uncontrollable desire to run. If I closed my eyes, I could
still hear the mage’s screams as the beast consumed his soul. How can we get
past hellhounds?

I
forced my thoughts back to the task at hand. The bucket swung back and forth in
my grip. I spotted the well and headed for it. It was not unlike the well I had
fallen into when I had run across the fields outside the renovated barn Luke’s
cousin owned so long ago. It was during the rituals—during the time when
I was opening myself up to the darkness. That well had something down inside it
that had tried to drown me. I looked down into the well in front of me now and
wondered what evil may be lurking in its depths.

At
the top of the well was a wheel with a rope attached. I struggled to pull the
rope hand over hand until a bucket full of water eventually rose to the top. I
clumsily poured the water into my bucket. A good portion of it splashed onto
the ground. When the bucket was mostly full, I hefted it up and with two hands
carried it back to the house.

I
met up with Dean in the kitchen. He had five or six pieces of wood in his arms.
He dropped them onto the floor. “Someone already chopped some wood. Too bad—I
was hoping they would leave me alone with an
axe
.”

“You
think you could use an
axe
against armed
men and hellhounds?”

His
eyes didn’t meet mine. “If I’d finished the trials and was a dark mage, I would
have learned the spells that made me bulletproof.”

Luke is bulletproof
. I hadn’t learned that trick
yet. When I found the old mage, Walter, who’d helped me, I’d been intent on
only one thing—bringing Luke back. He hadn’t taught me the spells I
needed to become a proper death dealer.

Dean
started to load wood into the old stove. “I know Gage said that any magic you
use will cause my collar to collapse, but he specified
your
magic. I don’t think he would tie his
own
hands. So I
was thinking
,
if we can somehow disarm those men, I could rush them and maybe get them to use
some magic on me.” He looked up at me. “Wendy told me about the night we
escaped the asylum and how I became
really
strong. If I’m strong enough, maybe I could overpower the hellhounds.”

I
wondered if the horror I was feeling was showing on my face. “She told you what
happened?”