Page 79 of Deal with the Devil

“Do it,” Gael breathed, shuffling on her knees closer to Amelia.

“Gael—”

“I don’t want to bethisanymore, Ms. Armstrong. I don’t want to be a monster anymore. I just…if I can’t be Gael, then I don’t want tobeanymore. Please!” Gael cried out, blood trickling down her cheeks as it welled in her eyes. “I’m sotired of hurting people.”

Amelia swallowed hard as she picked up the book in both hands.She doesn’t deserve this.Her hands shook as Amelia twisted to be knee to knee with Gael. The teen girl blinked away the bloody tears, smiling up at the ceiling.

“You know, this is the freakin’ nicest place I’ve ever been. Even nicer than the basement of the casino and that used to be the nicest place I’d ever been. And I just…I just wish I could thank Mr. Zrazduel and Hellen for saving me and doing everything they could. I know they didn’t stop looking and…it’s funny,strangers cared more for me than my parents and my friends.” Gael’s attention dropped to Amelia, ripping her heart from her chest.

Amelia let go of the book and let it lunge forward. Gael closed her eyes as the book flew through the air.

It’s not fair.

Aravis lurched forward but stopped as Amelia snatched his hand out of the air and pushed it to the ground.

She was so innocent…just another innocent person Declan destroyed.

Amelia tore her eyes away from the book as it wrapped its pages around the teens head.

Knox would have done anything to get Gael revenge against Declan…Knox would have wanted her to win in the end.

Silence filled the foyer as the book thudded to the floor. Amelia inhaled sharply, staring through watery eyes at the blood-soaked floor.

“Amelia,” Aravis breathed.

Amelia shook her head vigorously.

“Amelia…” Gael murmured.

Eyes wide, heart stopped, Amelia jerked to look at Gael. Red eyes gone, fangs gone, skin full of reds and pinks and life. Gael had brown eyes and chocolate hair with a sweet cluster of freckles across her cheeks and throat. Amelia’s lips flapped open and shut in confusion. “What…what how?”

That one’s different…like she’s not infected like the rest of us…Everyone’s eyes dropped to the book as it flipped open. Red soaked pages covered in sharp letters, gibberish flew past their eyes as it fluttered quickly. Then, with a jerk, it stopped in the middle.

A spell was described on the page in swirling ink. Arcane glyphs and sigils sprawled across the page with strict instructions underneath. Delicately, Amelia picked it up andflipped across a massive section that seemed dedicated to a ritual. “This must have been what Declan stole the book for. This book…it’s promising all a person’s deepest desires in exchange for something I can’t parse but, that’s typical. Any adventure novel would tell you the exchange is worse than the power it promises. Declan fell for an eldritch horror and paid the price…”

She stopped on a final phrase at the bottom of a page. The book wanted her to read it. Like it pulled her mind by a string and forced her to focus on it. She read it over and over while trying to parse why it was important.

“Beware descendants of madness?” Amelia blurted out.

“Gael,” Aravis sighed, eyeing the teen beside Amelia. “Your family…you don’t happen to have a Nightmare in the family?”

“My grandmother was a wight…why?” Gael blinked in confusion at the two of them.

Amelia and Aravis shared a look, “Descendant of Madness.”

“What?” Gael grimaced.

“Declan didn’t read the final print. He fed from someone with Nightmare realm in their ancestry. It’s why you were able to break away as much as you could, and why he couldn’t control you as well as he did Rick and Kyle. It was just enough to give you an advantage. It…it also looks like you were his downfall.” Amelia closed the book and tucked it under her arm.

“But I didn’t kill him, I basically stabbed Knox and tried to fight you?” Gael grimaced.

“Yes, but if he hadn’t bitten you and Knox didn’t find you in Kyle’s basement…Declan might have gotten away with this, might have won. But you kept leading us where we needed to be. The book buried in the woods, Buttons, all of it; if you weren’t there we might not have figured it out.” Amelia put a warm hand to Gael’s shoulder cap and squeezed it. “Come on, let’s get you home. You deserve to finally see your own bed.”

Gael frowned, picking at the wool blanket around her.

“What?” Amelia blurted out.

“Could I stay with you? With Penny, Brayden, and you?” She peeked up with puppy dog eyes. “It’s just, when I went to hide from Declan, my parents freaked out at me and my friends got me so angry I ate them…but I haven’t felt that weird homicidal rage when I was with y’all. So, maybe, I could sleep on the couch or something?”

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