Chapter 16 #3
The day dragged, but at last night came, and the house around me settled into the creaking, sighing patterns of slumber.
I waited in the dark until I had heard all three of my fellow Vesper witches go to their rooms and close their doors.
Not until then did I feel comfortable pulling the new book from the depths of my pillows, and opening to the table of contents.
Conjuration Moste Wycked. Even the title of the book gave me a slightly queasy feeling.
I didn’t want to read it. I would have much preferred to remain blissfully ignorant of the mere existence of the creatures between these pages.
Unfortunately, I already knew they existed, and I couldn’t pretend otherwise.
It was time to learn what I could, and pray I would never have to use any of that knowledge in any real-life scenario.
Seeing Abaddon in the vision had been bad enough.
I didn’t think I could stop myself from fainting if I ever found myself face to face with the reality.
I peeled the pages apart. It was evident at once from the mildewy smell and the creaking of the binding that this book had been sitting on the bookshop shelf for a very long time.
I guessed that was a good thing—evidently, dealings with demons were thin on the ground in Sedgwick Cove. Well, unless you were me.
Lucky, lucky me.
I scanned the table of contents and found that the very first chapter after the introduction was titled, “A Guide to the Higher Demons.” I flipped forward to this section, my heart pounding, despite the fact that I kept reminding myself I was only reading about the demons, not summoning them.
Still, I couldn’t help holding my breath as I found the right page and began to read:
Only the most malevolent of magic practitioners will seek to commune with the creature known as the demon.
Highly clever, powerful, and unpredictable, communication with a demon is often an invitation to much trouble and chaos.
These are the risks a witch must incur if she wishes to deal with demons.
The lower demons can be easier to control, to manipulate, to bend to one’s will.
Often, a simple conjuring Circle and a binding spell will be sufficient to bring that demon into a witch’s thrall, and convince it to do her bidding.
There have even been witches who have successfully enslaved demons because their magic was powerful enough to maintain control.
But a demon, as an immortal creature, is patient, and it is rare for a witch to use a demon in this manner without eventually suffering terrible consequences.
Time is always on a demon’s side when dealing with the mortal world.
The power of lower demons is useful, and yet not powerful enough to work some forms of magic.
For the witch who ventures into this type of magic, the power and cooperation of a higher demon may be required.
These demons cannot be enslaved or controlled in the way lesser demons can.
They can be conjured and contained briefly, and they may be consulted or bargained with, but a higher demon cannot be controlled.
It will always be in full command of its decisions, and its inner workings cannot be demanded nor divined.
They are notorious for their trickery, manipulation, and devious motives; thus, dealings with them are particularly fraught with danger and risk.
All this must be carefully considered before embarking on such a conjuration, and it is unlikely the witch in question will escape the encounter unscathed.
I thought of Ambrose Wright, of his tortured face as he conjured Abaddon.
He had been desperate enough to risk anything.
And the thing he asked of the demon had been beyond the limits of any witch’s magic.
He was asking to cheat death, to outsmart it.
That was, as every witch knew, not within our power.
We could heal to a degree, we could protect in certain ways, but when death came, not even the most powerful witch could truly stand in the way.
But a higher demon like Abaddon? That was, apparently, another story altogether.
I shuddered, pulled my blanket more tightly around myself, and kept reading.
The demons of the nether realms are too numerous to be counted or known.
The names and descriptions contained herein are merely the few that our histories and tales have recorded within our magical dealings.
Some have been known to appear frequently, recorded in a number of bargains, and notorious in magical Circles.
Most, however, are wily and difficult to conjure, and the witches who survive the encounters are unlikely to meddle with them again.
It is possible, through the process of bargaining and making deals and covenants, that a witch could find herself in the service of a demon, rather than the other way around.
And of course, so many of these dealings are done in utter secrecy, the witches involved unwilling to admit to engaging in this kind of magic.
Therefore, it must be said that the following pages are by no means comprehensive, and that the realm of demons is crowded with creatures we neither know nor comprehend.
Again, I told myself I didn’t have to keep reading. Again, I turned the page and kept going.
What followed was an alphabetical list of demons by name, including descriptions of encounters with them, and details gleaned from those encounters. And, as luck would have it, the very first demon listed had a very familiar name.
Abaddon.
I closed the book, breathing hard. I knew that what I’d seen in the vision was real, but seeing it confirmed within this totally unrelated book was almost shocking.
Here was proof that the being I had seen had been seen by others, apart from Ambrose Wright.
I don’t think I realized until that moment that I’d been doubting it all on some level. That doubt had now vanished completely.
A nudge against my elbow made me jump, but it was only Freya, rubbing her head on my arm, and looking up at me with a somewhat quizzical look.
“I’m okay,” I assured her. “Just… freaking out a little bit.”
She stretched up to bump her head against the side of my face, and I breathed in the familiar scent of her until my breathing slowed back to normal.
“Thanks, Freya. I needed that.”
Freya merely stared at me as though to say, “Duh.”
Feeling calmer, I opened the book again. There was Abaddon’s name staring up at me in black and white. I began to read.
Most feared, perhaps, of all the high level demons is Abaddon.
He has been documented throughout cultures, including the Hebrew Bible and later Christian traditions.
His name translates from Hebrew as “destruction” or “doom,” and from the Greek equivalent, Apollyon, meaning “destroyer.” He is described in this tradition as an angel of the abyss, and also as the king of a plague of locusts.
Some in this tradition believe him to be the Antichrist, or even Satan himself.
For those of us in the witchcraft tradition, he is known simply as Abaddon, and his power can shift the very fabric of life and death.
My heart was pounding so hard that I felt dizzy.
I closed my eyes, trying to slow my breathing, but all the time, my own inner voice was hysterical inside my head.
Satan. Literal Satan. Well, okay, that seemed to be a gray area, but seriously?
! Couldn’t it have been like… a starter demon?
One of the slightly less terrifying ones, ones that aren’t assumed to be the monarch of hell?
A hysterical laugh burst from my lips, and I had to slap my hand over my own mouth to stop the sound.
It continued on beneath the muffling effect of my fingers until I finally managed to get a grip on myself.
Freya was looking at me warily, her tail flicking like an admonitory finger.
“Sorry,” I muttered, once it was safe to remove my hand from my mouth. “I’m just… freaking out.” I refocused on the words in front of me and tried to take them in, forcing myself to be detached, analytical. It was just information. Just take in the information.
To call upon Abaddon is to call upon a force you cannot control.
It is a risk few will take, and even fewer will survive.
Abaddon has been known to deal with humans, to bargain and barter with them, but it must be understood that he cannot be compelled to appear, and that compulsion is likely to anger him.
A witch who dares to call him forth from the depths where he dwells will place her life in his hands.
He has been known to revel and delight in the suffering of mortals, and therefore can be persuaded to engage if the conjurer is prepared to offer up their own suffering—or the suffering of others.
The price of dealing with a creature like Abaddon is devastating.
He does not trade in less than life and death, in souls and bodies.
There is no trifle that will satisfy him, no power he does not already possess.
The witch who dares to bargain with Abaddon has already lost.
That was the end of the passage.
The witch who dares to bargain with Abaddon has already lost. I thought of Ambrose Wright, trading away a piece of his soul, and shivered.
How his bargain led to the creature I now knew as the Darkness, I did not yet know; but when I had that answer, I felt that I would finally understand what I was truly facing.
I suddenly found myself wondering when the next part of that answer would come.