Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
“So what I’m saying is, it’s like a demon glory hole.” Charlie taps his chin and looks thoughtful. Nothing he’s saying makes sense to me.
I blink at Charlie. “A what?”
He points at the boulder-now-turned-gate-to-hell. “The hole in the boulder that freak is trying to get us to help him out of. That’s a demon glory hole.”
“What’s a glory hole?”
Charlie grimaces. “I’ve said too much.”
I pull at my hair because I don’t get what the hell Charlie’s obsession with demon holes is and why he thinks it’s important that I know what this one is.
“Drop the holes, Charlie. We have to focus. They’re here!” I throw an arm out at the trees, or at least I do in their general direction because we’re hiding behind the boulder now. The mages the demon warned us about burst through the trees right on cue just as the demon growled out a warning:
“Run. Hide. Do not let them catch you. They are not like me. You won’t be safe from them.”
Like him.
The only thing I know about him is that he’s a big scary demon that I’m pretty sure has been infiltrating my dreams. Oh and that he has massive claws.
I swallow hard remembering the sharp-tipped claw that had reached through the crevice towards me.
I threatened to cut it off, but I don’t think I’m bad ass enough to actually do it.
If the mages are worse than the demon…well, I don’t think Charlie and I are going to get out of this in one piece.
“Run. Hide.”
We ran but just barely and now we’re hiding so we got half of his instructions right.
They’re going to catch us. I can feel it in my bones.
I sag against the rock and look at my hands.
They’re still shaking. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to pull in magic.
There’s not so much as a twitch of magic in my palm.
Nothing comes. It’s like trying to bleed a stone.
“We’re in big trouble,” I whisper to Charlie. “My magic is zapped.”
“I know.”
“This is freaking bad. Why did we come out here like we were the A-Team? What were we thinking?”
“Listen, in my mind I’m Beyonce.”
“Who?”
“I swear to the gods. I got you a phone but you don’t even use it for anything important.”
I mostly use my phone to look up plants that I’m using for tinctures or potions.
I use the moon tracker on there to know what cycle it’s in and there’s also the fact that I finally have a place to store as many photos as I want in one place.
I use my phone for plenty of important things, so I tell him that.
“I use it for only the most important things, okay? You-”
“Be still! Quiet!”
We both freeze. It’s the demon.
“They draw near.”
The they is mages and a second later, a voice sounds loud and clear. It booms across the clearing. “Brothers! Gather near. The time of our greatest summoning is at hand. The Chosen One will be offered!”
I try to shimmy to the side to get a better look at the mages.
I’ve never seen one. I wonder what they look like.
They can’t look much different than us, right?
I haven’t noticed any changes in myself since last night.
I seem normal enough and Sunday is a witch and she doesn’t look different…
well, not too different. There’s a maniacal light inside her that shines bright and even if you didn’t know she was a witch you’d know to steer clear of her.
I edge closer to the edge of the boulder, focused on getting an eyeful when my right leg buckles and I go down.
I land with a heavy thud and slight umph that you wouldn’t normally hear with a meadow full of no less than forty mages but when they’re all dead silent it’s easily done.
I lay with my face in the dirt for a half second and pray that maybe they didn’t see me.
I know the jig is up when I hear the leader’s voice.
“An intruder! The spy we foretold! The Chosen One! She has been delivered to us!”
I lift my head. “I’m not a spy.”
The mage points at me and raises his other hand. Fire leaps up behind him and I can’t see the other mages anymore from how bright it is. I have to lift a hand to shield my eyes to see anything at all.
“You lie. You are The Chosen One.” He takes a step towards me at the same time Charlie grabs my ankle and starts to yank me back behind the boulder. It’s too little too late with the pyrotechnics the mage is putting on.
I sigh and kick at Charlie. “He can see me.”
“Gods damn it,” Charlie groans but he keeps pulling me, albeit…
slowly. I smile big at the mage like nothing is wrong and inch back behind the boulder at a snail’s pace.
Don’t mind me, I’m just the friendly neighborhood ritual crasher.
For a second, I think the mage is going to let it go from the way he’s staring at me but turns out that was just the initial shock of seeing me slowly disappearing behind a rock.
He snaps out of his stupor before I get a third of my body behind the rock and just like that, I’m getting yelled at again.
“Who is there with you? Who drags you so?” The mage yells. The flames grow hotter as they shoot up into the sky. They go so high that it's almost impossible to see the sky. I shield my face from the heat and shrink into myself.
“No one!” I yell and wave him off, “I-It’s magic! I’m totally moving by my magic,” I yell. “Witness my awe inspiring power, for I am a witch!” The rock gives a shudder and I know it’s the demon groaning at me, but whatever. I’m doing the best I can, given the circumstances.
The mage frowns and the flames die down to a simmer. He tilts his head and gives me a once over. “I thought you would be more powerful for The Chosen One but I see now you’re just a pitiful girl.” There’s disappointment in his voice. “You are no Chosen One.”
I resist the urge to flip him off and take a deep, calming breath like I learned from Sunday’s yoga tapes.
“Exactly. I’ve been trying to tell you that.
” I kick Charlie square in the chest. He falls back against the boulder and I finally stop moving.
Thank goodness. “Now if you excuse me, I’m going to just take my leave and you know, slide on out of here.
” I start to push myself back out of sight while Charlie makes a grab at my legs.
I have to kick him again for him to stop. “Knock it off.”
I freeze when the mage’s voice booms out across the night.
“No! As pitiful as you are, your very own people gave you away to us. No loyalty among those without honor, eh? You would do well to pick your soldiers more carefully in the future, Harbinger.” The mage points a finger at me as he talks while the flames drop down to a simmer.
I can see the other mages now. They’re chanting something.
I can’t make out their words. Their voices mingle together, words too low for me to understand what they’re saying, but even if I could understand them I wouldn’t care.
I’m focused on what the head mage is saying.
Harbinger. There’s only one person they could mean.
Buffy.
Someone gave Buffy up. He knew she was going to be on patrol tonight.
My intuition perks up and I know exactly who it was that ratted out Buffy to these mages.
It was Roy, I know it was. No one else who knew about her plan would have talked to these mages.
I have to get back to her and let her know now.
I look around the clearing with new eyes.
Before, it was a place from my dreams, but now I see it for what it really is.
This place must be the final destination for her patrol tonight. It has to be with how the mini-demons paved that pathway straight here.
Wait a minute…
If Roy betrayed Buffy, then…then…
Buffy was supposed to be the one standing here. Not me.
“The Bride of the Hell Maw. Our perfect sacrifice. You are The Chosen One.” The voices of the other mages continue to rise as he speaks. “All hail The Bride of the Hell Maw!” The other mages wail, their voices lifting up around their leader as he speaks.
Oh my gods.
“Bring her to me but only a few of you go. She might not look like much, but she is far too dangerous to risk you all. She nearly wiped out everyone in Sweet Tooth. She fought poor Ichabod and tore him to pieces for that demon of hers.”
It isn’t just that they were planning to ambush Buffy. They think I’m Buffy.
My gut goes sour when I hear the founder of Sweet Tooth mentioned. Buffy did tear him to pieces but there was nothing poor about it. He deserved every bit of it.
Who are these crazy people? Why are they besties with the Sweet Tooth’s founder? What the hells is a Bride of the Hell Maw?
As crazy as they are, I’m no better. I believed in a cult too, didn’t I?
I followed a demon. I still do. He’s just reformed now and married to my best friend.
My best friend that I have to protect right now because she’d do the same for me.
Any sane person would run, but I’ve never been all that sane so I stay right where I am.
Buffy’s out there fighting demons. She’s tracking the mini-demons that have been attacking Sweet Tooth, and she has a mole in her group.
If these mages are fussing with me then they won’t be able to get the drop on her when she inevitably shows up here.
I wonder what’s slowing her down. Though, if she’s with Roy then she’s dragging 200 lbs of dead weight behind her so that’s probably why.
My lips tug downward, almost a frown but not quite.
The most progress I’ve made in breaking my smile yet.
Who knew to get my autonomy back all I had to do was think of Roy’s loser rat face. I can’t believe I almost had to marry him or that he almost killed me. So not cool, Meadow.
“Bring her to the front of the summoning stone once you’ve subdued her. She will make a perfect sacrifice to our Lord.”
The head mage’s words yank me out of my existential crisis about nearly being killed by an incompetent bully and I snap to attention.
I turn back to look at Charlie. He’s a few feet away and from the look of him he has no plans to leave. “Charlie. Get out of here. Warn Buffy, they're waiting for her. She has to know that this is a set up.”
“What? No. I’m not leaving you.”
“I’m not playing with you, Charlie!” I whisper-scream at my friend who’s doing his best impression of a paperweight and absolutely not hightailing it out of here like I asked him to.
I kick at Charlie when he tries to grab my ankle again and roll to my feet.
“Get to the trees. Run. Don’t stop until you hit Sweet Tooth.
Tell Buffy what’s going on.” I give him a nudge but he doesn’t budge.
“Wait, what? What are you…” His eyes go round when he sees me square my shoulders and turn towards the mages. “Meadow, no.”
“Meadow, yes.”
“You can’t go out there.”
“This is a trap. I know that. Don’t you understand? Do you think I want to be sacrificed again? But they think I’m Buffy. I have to take her place to buy enough time.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to go along with it. She wouldn’t want you to give yourself up for her. You’re not supposed to be sacrificed. You already beat that.”
“Charlie-”
“No.”
“It’s going to be fine, I promise-”
“It’s not fair.”
I have to squeeze my eyes shut because if I don’t, I’ll cry.
I can hear the anger in Charlie’s voice but I also hear the fear.
I feel the fear because it’s alive and snapping in my chest. It’s trying to claw its way out of me.
It’s screaming at me that I’ll never get away from this fate. My life won’t ever be my own.
I was always meant to die.
I can’t let myself even look at Charlie or I’ll crack and break, I’ll be eaten alive by this thing inside me. I have to live for as long as I can and I won’t do it scared.
“So what am I supposed to do? Run away and let them go after her?” I ask him and take a deep breath as I open my eyes.
I ignore the tears I see shining in Charlie’s eyes.
“You heard him. There’s a mole in the group that snitched on Buffy’s patrol.
It’s Roy. You know it is. If I keep them occupied and you tell her what’s going on she can end it here.
They won’t get away if Buffy knows they’re here.
It has to end here. They’re just going to keep going after her and none of us will ever be safe.
What do you wanna bet they’re responsible for the mini-demons? ”
I’m making sense. I know I am from the look Charlie gives me. He’s torn on being a good friend to me and staying, and listening to me to do what we both know needs to happen.
“You have to tell Buffy what’s going on. She’ll know what to do.”
“But what about you?”
“Don’t worry about me. Buffy will save me before anything happens. She always does.”
“Meadow, ple-”
“I’ll be okay. I promise.” I nod towards the trees and swallow hard. “Charlie, go. If you don't, no one is going to know what happened. I-I’m doing this for you too. Get out of here. I’ll be all right. I pinky promise.”
I hold out my pinky to Charlie to make good on my promise.
Charlie hesitates and I know why. Charlie is a good guy.
A real, honest to goodness, good guy. Not one of those weird fake ones that so many of the boys in town grew up pretending to be and not like the Outsiders who used to come to town for the day and throw their weight around.
Charlie is a girl’s guy. A real friend. I’m glad pretending to be Buffy is going to get him out of here.
I wiggle my pinky at him. “Now, Charlie.”
He hooks our pinkies together and squeezes mine.
“You’re a bad ass, Meadow. Give ‘em hell.” He tells me before he takes off for the trees.
If there wasn’t a gaggle of mages waiting for me to give myself up as a sacrifice, I would watch him until he’s gone but I can’t because I do in fact have a gaggle of mages waiting for me to give myself up as a sacrifice to whatever deity it is that they pray to.
I step out from behind the rock fully intending to beat a mage, or at the very least flip one of them off, but the second I come out, they’re on me.
One of the mages hits the side of my leg and I go down while another throws a loop of rope around me.
They pull it tight, pulling my arms to my side and start working on tying a knot, or at least that’s what I think they’re doing.
I can’t tell because a second later a burlap sack gets thrown over my head and everything goes dark.