Page 78 of Deal with the Devil

“Nope!” Persephone quipped with wicked glee.

“So…I’m just…a horror?”

“You connected with a tome of madness, little horror, no human could survive that. You saw what happened to Declan who suffered a single bite from it. You are tethered to it, able to wield its unknowable knowledge; what did you expect to happen? Plus, there’s the little deal of you now possessing the soul of a devourer.” Persephone pulled out a flask and dunked it deep into the gurgling cauldron. The skin around her arm hissed and sizzled but just as soon as it was burnt away, it returned. She pulled it out and capped it before handing the dripping container to Amelia. “Hold that, you’ll need it later.”

“Okay?” Amelia held it and the book tightly as Persephone climbed to her feet finally. She cracked the whole way, groaning with delight. “So, what now?”

“Well, you’re a Book Guardian now. First one in a dragon’s age. The old Hungry One ate all of their previous guardians. Kind of why that shit-for-brains Declan was able to break in and steal a tome in the first place. But, now that you’re a guardian, you ought to go put that book back in the library.” Persephone waddled to the front door of the cottage and pushed the creaking wood open. A gust of dry, hot wind rushed through the cottage.

“Whoa! Wait, what about Knox? I thought you said you could help get him back?” Amelia ground her heels into the floor of the cottage.

“I did,” the crone motioned vaguely at the flask, “I said you were going to need it. And you will. But the answer to how to bring him back is in the library and…well, you completed me and Knox’s little deal when you showed up here in my cottage. And you’re not mine, little horror. You and that book belong to the Library of Madness and the Hungry One. Out you go now, you got one more person to return to the book before you can put the book back.”

Amelia tentatively stepped out of the door and blinked rapidly as she stepped out of the office.

She jerked around, glancing every which way only to find herself in Knox’s manor.

Alone again with less answers.

Chapter Thirty-two:

Amelia

TW: Mention of feeling like vomitting/Emesis

Amelia crept down thehall, listening for any sound. The massive house was completely void of life. She crept over bodies and chunks of whatwere probably bodies. It was strange to see the house not thrumming with staff. No sound of Penny and Brayden, no hooves clomping down the halls, no idle chatter between maids and chefs in the doorway to the kitchen. Amelia’s chest weighed a thousand pounds as she pocketed the flask into her pajama pants. The book purred as she stroked it unconsciously.

“Ms. Armstrong?”

Amelia jerked toward the front door, finding Aravis Blightwood the only living thing in the house.

“No, don’t…don’t tell me…” she croaked. Her heart couldn’t take another blow.

“Everyone is safe and sound. We’ve returned Penny and little Brayden back home. I was hoping to find you returned by now.”

Amelia let out a heavy sigh of relief. Her legs bowed and she fell to her knees. The book allowed her to drop it before her as she dry heaved. The fear of hearing they were dead dissipated, leaving only the heartache.

Aravis knelt before her, placing a massive, clawed hand to the center of her back. “Your turn, what happened in there?”

“I…I killed them…” Amelia shuddered. Her head was a bowling ball attached to a bungee cord, barely functioning and too heavy to lift. Shoulders rising and falling, she tried not to vomit all over the eldritch tome. Her stomach was clenched tight, and her mind was a swirling vortex of screaming thoughts. “They got their power from the book, so I gave it back…but now he’s gone.”

Tears welled up in her eyes. Shivering, she gulped down air, but it only made it worse. Splashes of her misery hit the flesh bound book and soaked into its binding. Amelia cried out, the agony too great.He’s gone and he left me here alone.Aravis rubbed her back in soothing circles as she screamed into the house full of only dead things. Her throat cut out after a long time, leaving just a hoarse, raspy sound as she gasped for air.

“Amelia—”

“The witch told me I could bring him back,” Amelia snapped back from him, glaring at the Lord Commander. “I need to know how to get to the Library of Madness. I need to talk to the Hungry One.”

Aravis furrowed his brows. “How do you know those names?”

Amelia snatched up the book, waving it in front of him. “The book! It’s the whole reason was what he was! He stole it from the library, and it bit him. I made it bite him back. She told me to put the book back, so I’m gonna fucking put the book back. I’m…I’m gonna put the book back… But I need one more person…”

She glanced down at the book. It was suspiciously quiet. Aravis reached toward it and the book immediately growled. Snapping its teeth at Aravis, the book flapped sharp pages at the Lord Commander.

“I wouldn’t do that, Mr. Blightwood, that books pretty bity.”

Both adults glanced to the front door. Gael, shivering under a massive wool blanket, tiptoed into the room. She crept up toward Amelia, kneeling beside her. Her pretty ruby eyes apologized as best they could to Amelia. “I’m sorry…”

“You weren’t in control of yourself, Gael, I don’t blame you.” Amelia brushed tendrils of her hair away from her sweet face.One more person to return to the book.The book snarled in her arms, wrenching back and forth. Aravis slid an inch away from the rotten magic.Gael is the last of his spawn… the last touched by the book.Rick was gone, Buttons was gone, Kyle was gone, and Declan was gone. It was just the sweet teen who never should have been mixed up in it at all.

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