Page 122 of Wicked Little Games (The Four Nightmares of Castle Pointe 2)

“Because this is a spell on how to open the portal to hell.” I squeeze my eyes shut, refusing to look at them another moment.

I turn the page, a shiver rolling through me.

The first words on the page are bold, italicized.

“Lucifer shall bring death and destruction, and corrupt the innocent the day he walks the earth. The sister and brother demons will walk in his stead until this day, from the pits of hell to the land of the living, bringing devastation to us all,” I whisper the words in English, feeling such despair over them.

What have we done?

The girls are silent, not saying a word, but feeling the heaviness of it all.

I barely pass a glance at the pages with spells and rituals, refusing to even say them in my head.

I stop on a page toward the back.

“To open a portal takes a lot of power and energy. One mustn’t take this lightly, because the moment there is error, death takes control. Find your center and balance, bring fire, earth, water, air, and blood. Speak the words, clear the mind, and bring the two worlds into one.”

“We don’t want to open the portal, though; we want to close it!” Blaire shouts.

I shake my head, my fingers running across the French language. “No, this is exactly it,” I breathe, my heart pounding in my chest.

“What is it?” Vera asks quietly.

I reach forward, grabbing the spell book and opening it up to the page I read earlier.

“Reverse to right the wrongs. To open is to close. Once you say hello, be sure you say goodbye. It all makes fucking sense!” A large light bulb clicks in my brain, and I shoot to a stand, my fingers pulling at my hair.

“What?” Piper asks with just as much excitement as I’m feeling.

“We need to do exactly what we did to close the portal as we did to open it.”

“Start a fire? There’s nothing left to burn!” Blaire shouts.

“Fire, water, earth, air. We need all the elements.” I point out the window to the rain. “It’s raining already… we bring fire to the earth. All we need is us, the strength in numbers, and we can do it. We can do it.”

“Holy shit. Is it that easy?” Vera asks.

“I think so,” I breathe, feeling like there’s a lightness in my chest. I feel like for once, we can make it out of this. This isn’t the end. It doesn’t have to be over.

“We need to go burn the bridge,” I say, leaning over to grab the books. As my fingers are reaching for the grimoire, it slides across the floor, away from me, slamming against the back wall.

My eyes widen, and I shoot back as the pages flip, as if a gust of wind has hit them, floating from one side of the spine to the other, until it settles on a page.

“Let’s get out of here,” Piper whimpers.

I take a step toward the book, my knees wobbling as I bend down. It’s on a particular page, with flames and a half animal, half human, raising their hands to the sky with a human slumped in its arms. Flames burn below them, as if this demon is about to plummet the person into hell.

“Try to tame the devil,

And he will tame you.

Burn out the flames,

And they will turn you to ash.

Bring light to the darkness,

And he’ll plunge you into the shadows.

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