Page 56 of Shadow Dreaming

“Until we have her checked out, I don’t want to put it directly on top of her, but the ambient heat will warm her.” I sat by the daybed, worried out of my mind. “Why is she unconscious? Why isn’t she waking up?”

“I don’t know,” Sophia said. “Would you like me to try to summon—” There was a noise out front. “I’ll be right back,” she said.

When she returned, Seton was with her.

“Seton!” I explained what had happened, and then handed him the pendant. “She was wearing this. I know it’s not something she owned.”

He took the necklace and his eyes widened. “Let me check this out.”

He carried over to a table where we cleaned equipment. As he brought out a couple of his gadgets—I had no idea what they did—one of them let off a loud beep and a red light on it flashed. “This is a pendant made to align the wearer’s energy with that of Demonkin. Wear it too long and you’ll permanently take on a demonic aura, even if you aren’t a demon.”

“It doesn’t give you demonic powers, does it?” Sophia asked.

Seton shook his head. “No, it doesn’t.”

“When we found her, she was unconscious, near a portal to the UnderRealm. She was on the ground nearby.”

“Was the portal activated?” he asked.

I nodded. “I think so. I could sense it, though Orik couldn’t.”

“Most portals need a trigger to activate them, especially the natural ones.” He paused. “I think the proximity of the pendant woke it up.” He moved to the chair beside Penn and checked her vitals. Then, he clasped her head and closed his eyes. After a moment, he said, “She’s got a curse on her—I’m not sure exactly what kind, or how to break it.”

“She destroyed almost all of our files,” Carson said, entering the room. “First she went for the files on Brim Fire, then for the rest.”

“She’s a computer whiz?” Seton asked.

I shook my head. “No, she’s not. She’s competent, but she’s not a techie at heart.”

“The viruses that deleted our files were on a jump drive,” Carson said, holding it up. “I checked it out in a virtual OS on my laptop. Whoever wrote this is pretty savvy.”

“Brim Fire is full of intelligent people. I’m not saying wise,” Carson said. “But smart? Yes.”

“So they used Penn to get to us,” I said. “What would have happened if she had gone through that portal?” I asked.

Seton sighed. “She would have probably been captured and enslaved. Or killed. There’s no good outcome if that had happened.”

“So, do you think the demons are behind this?” I asked.

“No, I think the organization is. I don’t think the demons appreciate Brim Fire as much as Brim Fire thinks they do.” Seton sighed. “The hubris of humanity never fails to astound me.”

“Why hasn’t she woken up?” Dante asked. “She’s been unconscious since we found her.”

“I think…” Seton shook his head. “I think it’s whatever curse she’s under. I’m sensing that her true self has been buried so deep in her psyche that she’s unable to break through whatever force it is that is controlling her.”

“So, they cast a spell or curse on her, that triggered once she got back here. And it took over, sending her into some sort of fugue where she had no control over what she was doing?” Sophia asked.

“I’d say that’s about right,” Seton said.

Sophia cleared her throat. “I can try to summon Hecate again. She’s Penn’s goddess.”

“Go for it,” I said. “We need all the help we can get.”

Dante found Sophia a chair and she sat down, then closed her eyes. Once again, she slid into trance, diving deep. I watched, waiting. If Hecate wouldn’t help us, I didn’t know what we were going to do. I could look for someone who could break curses, but we weren’t even sure that was what had happened. I didn’t know if Penn was possessed, cursed, or had somehow—inexplicably—been cajoled into joining our enemies.

We waited as Sophia lowered her head, and I could feel her out on the astral, searching. She was a long ways away from her body at this point.

I glanced at Dante, who gave me a nervous shrug. I didn’t want to say anything to interrupt her trance work, but I was also nervous for Sophia. Granted, she knew what she was doing far better than I knew what she was doing, but I didn’t want her to get caught out on the astral.

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