Page 112 of Death Wish

As the fiery pinks, golds, and blues painted the sky, Sean, Cole, Laurence, Kay, and I gathered in Fairport Cemetery under the bare branches of an old oak tree. After consulting a few lost spirits, we discovered the first grave here predated the Revolutionary War and wasn’t actually marked by a headstone at all. A family—a husband, wife, and their three children—had all been buried beneath the giant oak after a fire had wiped out their entire farm and claimed their lives. So, under the crooked, naked-looking thing was where we had set up the ritual altar and laid out the other ingredients.

Because I couldn’t help but notice that Kay looked a little paler today, a little more sickly, I was more than thrilled today was the solstice. Who knew how much longer she would be able to hold on. It was something I hoped we never had to find out.

We had all spent the night in Wyatt’s and Sean’s trailer, partly to review the instructions for the demon cure and discuss our plan, and partly to reminiscence about a great man we were all going to miss. Cole and Sean loved telling stories about Wyatt’s life. Each one had us hooting with laughter, especially the tale of the one time Wyatt had joined Cole on one of his missions. After being shot in the arm, he’d decided his butt was better off behind a desk, reading a book and searching for information rather than on the front lines.

Could have fooled me, the way he came out guns blazing to fight the Halflings and Xaver. But Cole assured me that when his property or family was threatened, that was just the way Wyatt was. As for a job in mercenary work—not so much.

With the Breath of Life herb, Xaver’s blood, and a scoop of dirt from the Holiest ground, or in our case the soil near the oak tree’s roots, all on the makeshift altar Sean had set up, we waited eagerly for the setting sun to hit the horizon. According to the cure I’d found in Wyatt’s wife’s box, the sun’s positioning was just as important as the ingredients. And we would only have a few seconds to throw all the pieces together for the magic of the ritual to work. Cole stood at the ready, hands out, for his part in it.

“Are you sure about this?” I side-eyed him, my heart beating abnormally fast for someone who was supposed to be dead. “You seemed pretty far gone after using your Hellfire during the fight. I can’t have you turning into one of those Halfling creatures here.”

He shrugged, and while his calmness was relaxing at other critical moments, now it was just annoying. “I came back, didn’t I?”

“Well, yeah, but…” Why did I care, really? If he used his Hellfire again and became a Halfling, he’d be out of my hair forever, wouldn’t he? I wouldn’t have to worry about Azrael using him anymore. He’d be in Hell, and I’d probably never see him again.

Problem solved.

Right?

Fear gripped my muscles, cancelling out that idea. As much as I didn’t want to, I did care still. A little. I’d seen those hideous half-demon beasts up close and personal—I’d fought them—and knowing that they had once been people just like Cole was horrifying. And having to serve a full-demon’s every beck and call? No one deserved a fate like that.

“Jade, I’ll be fine. I won’t let it corrupt me. I’m stronger than that. Give me some credit.” His blue eyes bore into mine with the confidence and certainty I couldn’t muster up myself. Yet the red lining around those naturally cool irises made worry gnaw at me again.

“Besides,” he added after a second, “it’s not like there’s anyone else here who can add the last ingredient we need. I’m the only one with the power to manipulate Hell’s fire. I’m the only one you got.”

“He’s got a point, you know,” Sean said.

“Shut it, you,” I threw back at him. “You’re not helping.”

Sean made the motion of zipping his lips shut and throwing away the invisible key.

“Uh, Jade.” Kay’s fragile voice came from my left. She stood with Laurence’s arms wrapped around her for comfort. “The sky.”

I glanced up past the harbor to see the sun was taking its position on the ocean’s edge. It looked like I didn’t have time to contemplate this one any longer. We were out of time.

“All right. Let’s do this, then. Everyone say a prayer.”

Sean began to combine the ingredients together while reciting the ancient language I had gone over with him the night before. I had found more information in the box, and surprisingly, everything had been conveniently laid out for the person executing the ritual. Simplified. Organized. As if the author had had their future audience in mind. Almost like it had been done that way on purpose.

We had been lucky that I somehow could read the language everything was written in. Extremely lucky. But after everything we’d been through, we needed some good karma to help us out. Damn, I’d even go as far as to say we deserved it.

Sean beckoned Kay and Cole over. He lit the Breath of Life herb with the white candle and blew the smoke over the two of them. Then he doused the flame in two waiting bowls of dirt.

As he did all this, I went over the instructions in my head, making sure we didn’t miss any steps. I had read that slab of skin over a thousand times, had even come across a small faded note in the corner saying to add Holy Water before consuming. But that extra little tidbit had made me nervous. What if there were other notes that had faded with time, parts we were missing? This was Kay’s only chance to survive the pregnancy and birth. If this demon baby didn’t take her out in the coming weeks, there was no way she’d survive the delivery. No one had.

The amped up magic in the air slid across my skin, raising every hair on my body. Normally on the solstice, the veil between the living world and the nonliving worlds were blurred, but since the balance had been already tipped before this night, it felt like the planes were mashed together. Colliding. Unnatural.

It felt like pure chaos.

Spirits of all types and ages flooded into the cemetery, drawn to us and the magic we were playing with. There were hundreds of them, too many to just be the normal haunts who’d passed without a reaper to guide them into the afterlife or ones who had stumbled out of an open spirit door. Those cases were rare, but now I couldn’t even count how many souls gathered around us.

It seemed like the veil had been stripped away entirely, allowing spirits to cross over at will.

If that were true, that couldn’t be good.

Kay swayed in her spot nervously, seeing exactly what I was seeing.

“Don’t worry,” I whispered to her, urging her to stay focused. “I’m here.” I doubted they would do anything to us—just curious, probably—but if someone got out of hand, I’d have no problem taking them down.

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