Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
“There’s a summoning trap here.” Nico picked at the wooden planks from the loft’s collapse.
I barely looked up from Octavia. She kept going in and out of consciousness. Sometimes it was her; most times it was the demon. They spoke in incomplete sentences. I attempted to string words together but kept getting slowed down by knots.
“It’s…not like anything Daylan’s research covers,” Nico said. “I think it’s the contract. Or part of the contract?”
December crouched on the other side of Octavia, placing two fingers on her wrist as she counted the drum of her pulse. I squeezed her other hand, hoping for a squeeze back.
“It’s like a wheel,” I whispered to Octavia. “You take it and you keep a hold.”
“She’s still not awake,” Jonah spoke to Daylan.
Our demon expert went quiet for a few minutes after learning the demon possessed Octavia.
Getting him to speak again had been a battle I didn’t have the energy to expend.
They’d have to deal with him. Deal with everything happening outside of Octavia because I refused to leave her side for a second.
If they couldn’t figure out how to save her, I’d do it on my own.
Fix this whole nightmare with my two bare hands.
But first, I had to make sure she didn’t give up and didn’t relinquish full control.
“He says we need to restrain her.” Jonah knelt beside me, whispering in reverence as if the woman who lay before us was dying.
My jaw ticked, but I nodded. “So go get what we need and bring it here.”
Jonah and December jumped into action, disappearing out of the stable. Nico continued pulling out the planks, setting them together like puzzle pieces.
“It’s in here,” Nico was saying. “The contract. It’s here. Someone sealed it here, and from the looks of it, they knew exactly what they were doing. There are…edits, I think. They didn’t just seal the contract, they connected it to something.”
“Can we destroy it?” I cupped Octavia’s face when her brows furrowed. She tried to shake her head side to side. I didn’t let go for fear she’d bash it against the ground.
“Maybe,” Nico grunted as he reorganized the planks. “I need you.”
“I can’t leave her.”
“You have to see this,” he said. “She won’t get any better until we figure this out.”
December and Jonah were back with rope, vinegar, rosemary, and thyme.
“Let them handle it,” Nico ordered.
There would be no winner if I remained on my knees, mourning at her side as if I’d already lost her. I pressed a hard kiss to Octavia’s forehead and released her.
“This is what it’s been looking for,” Nico said when I got to his side. “Why it brought her in here during the sleepwalking. That thing couldn’t see past the seal without her help.”
“So this possession…” I brushed the back of my hand over my mouth. “It isn’t the first time.”
“No, I don’t think so.” Nico sighed. “It probably wasn’t strong enough to possess her completely. Or maybe it was conserving power until it had enough to stay inside longer.”
“Can we reverse engineer this?” I crouched down with my elbows on my knees, taking in the faded writing on the planks. None of it made sense; the swirls and sharp angles might as well have been the scribbles of a child. “Free the contract and then destroy it?”
“Don’t!”
Nico and I whipped around to find a very awake, clear-eyed Octavia standing. Jonah and December flanked her with the long rope in hand, but not close enough to bind her.
“We won’t hurt you,” she promised, holding up both hands. Octavia’s voice had a duality to it. Two tones harmonizing in the most beautifully terrible way. “I won’t let him. And he has no interest unless you stop him from killing me.”
“Then he will gain the interest,” I promised and inched closer. “Octavia—”
Her eyes went fully black for a moment before fading back to her normal dark brown. “The contract’s me now. My blood. So, destroying the original document won’t be anything other than symbolic.”
My stomach twisted. “You’re the contract?”
“I’ve been here before.” She tried to smile. “For longer than I thought. Childhood memories are always so fuzzy. The most important parts sometimes get buried beneath the parts that changed me the most. It’s strange that they’re not synonymous.”
Nico blew out a low whistle, a cue December and I knew well. But before she could move closer, Octavia grabbed her hand at a breakneck speed.
“Please don’t,” she whispered to my cousin. “It’s a delicate balance, trying to share this body with him, and if you get too close and too afraid, he’ll eat that power and push me inside.”
“Stay back,” I told everyone. “Don’t touch her.”
Octavia sighed and released December. “Thank you.”
“You won’t let us bind you,” I said. “But you know we can’t trust him to walk around in your body.”
“I know. I have to figure out whether I can rewrite the contract, cage him until he’s drained of power, or…let him kill me.”
“I like the sound of the first two.”
She smiled, sadness tainting its potential shine. “You spent weeks trapped in the barn. You wouldn’t know how to make a cage that could hold him for another seven years, would you?”
My gaze flickered to Nico. Red splotched on his cheeks and sweat beaded down his temples. He shook his head.
“We can buy some time—” I tried.
“Don’t lie to her.” Octavia’s shoulders straightened, eyes fully black. “You could have all the time in the world, and my kind would remain a mystery to you.”
“Says the thing that’s gotten trapped on a horse ranch by a civilian. Someone figured you out.”
He tried to laugh, mouth not quite cooperating. “A stumble on my part, undoubtedly. But your kind, you hunters, have been stumbling after my kind for decades with what to show for it? A seal that slowed me down but didn’t stop me from taking what I needed?”
He lifted Octavia's hand, holding it up to the ceiling to inspect how the knuckles moved.
“I never considered lingering in the flesh. It’s always felt too tight…” he murmured to himself. “But if I’m to be stuck, then why not roam in this—”
“If you won’t help us with the contract, then you’re going to call the shadows of Elmwood your home indefinitely,” I warned. “Revision or a cage.”
“I told her.” He snatched the hand down, shooting a piercing glare in my direction.
“I’m not interested in renegotiating terms with humans who don’t respect the sanctity of my contracts.
Do you know how long I’ve been on this earth?
How many dreams I’ve fulfilled for you humans? I’m trapped on this plane too—”
As he spoke, I inched closer, raising a brow at Jonah and December. The rope was still in their hands. Dark with vinegar and rosemary.
“—I follow the laws. I have never tricked one of you pathetic creatures into a deal. Seven years of luck and dreams. It’s a good deal. More than most of you will ever see. But when it’s time to pay up, you all want to reverse it. Take what you need and throw out the rest. So fucking selfish. I—”
My hand went up, and Jonah tossed me his end of the rope. December wrapped her side around Octavia’s neck while I wrapped mine around her waist. As soon as the rope touched her skin, the demon screamed, smoke piling off her skin.
“Stop!” I yelled. “Hold on.”
“It’s her and him,” December reminded me as she kept her iron grip on the rope. Octavia sank to her knees, scratching at the rope. “We can’t afford to let go.”
“She’s right,” Octavia said, even though she continued to claw. “Keep them on. I’m losing my…I may need to…Does Wilson know?”
I fell to my knees in front of her and grabbed her face, trying to get her to look me in the eye. But Octavia kept gazing down, unwilling to hold my gaze.
“Do you have even the slightest idea of how to revise the contract?” I asked.
She blinked, quiet and lost in her mind. I couldn’t even imagine what it’d become like in there. What battle she had to face.
“He would still have to agree to it if I did,” she said through labored breath. “But that doesn’t matter because…Nico, the trap, can you…”
Octavia squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, groaning as if someone had hit her.
“It couldn’t reach it.” I grabbed Octavia’s hand, so she knew I was still there. “All this time, it needed you to reach the contract.”
“This ritual is strong,” Nico spoke faster with every word. “If it can keep something like it out—”
“Then it’ll keep him in,” Octavia finished for him. “If you can figure out how my uncle set it up, you could use it.”
We could create a new prison for one inmate.
“No!” Not-Octavia’s voice yelled. “It won’t hold, not long-term.”
“Our entire job’s dealing with the short-term,” I said; it’s a part lament. But the cyclical nature of the job primed us for mending. All the hotspots and the doubling back. Endings weren’t ever part of this job. We needed to make peace with that. I needed to make peace with that.
For now, it would have to be enough.
“I’ll figure it out,” it promised through gritted teeth. “And once I do, you’ll burn with me. Next time, I don’t care if I get dragged by those hounds; I’ll make damn sure they’ll drag you with me.”
“Deal.” I pushed off the ground, hurrying toward the planks. Nico was hot on my trail.
“Do you think it’ll really work?” As he questioned, he moved along with me, piecing together the last scattered pieces. December and Jonah finished tying Octavia up. It lashed out, using her body to lunge at them with her last bits of energy.
“If it’s tossing out those kinds of threats,” I said. “This’ll work.”
Nico nodded, moving faster to match my speed.
Once we finished, the pieces created a black drawing of horses, trees, lakes, and mountains. Between the lines were words written in Sumerian. The art depicted a map of Elmwood, all wrapped in an enchantment.
“How did Daylan separate himself?” Nico asked, casting a wary gaze in Octavia’s direction.
“She can’t!” it mocked. “Not all the way.”
My throat tightened at the reality that I may lose her forever. But I couldn’t get trapped in the fear. Octavia had zero chance if I panicked this time.
I snapped my fingers so Nico would focus on me and not take in the furious sneer Octavia threw our way. “Doesn’t matter; don’t listen to it. Daylan left because he said if she can’t get it out, he’s of no use. I don’t think there’s a tried-and-true way. He got it out because he fought.”
So, Octavia would have to do the same. She’d let it in so she could figure out how to let it out. She was a fighter.
“Can you read this?” Nico pointed at the words on the planks. “Or should I?”
“If you lose,” it said, voice lowered. “You’ll lose big. I promise you, once I figure out how to rip this woman apart, I will. If you don’t let me kill her now, I’ll do worse later.”
My chest nearly caved in. I longed to wring whatever solid body this thing could form until it couldn’t speak, let alone shout threats.
“I can.” I let out a breath. “Just focus on keeping Jonah and December in position. We’ll do it like in the barn. And Octavia will have to take care of the separation."
“That’ll work?” he asked.
“It’s our best shot,” I whispered. “Now, let’s tie these planks together to make sure they’ll hold.”
Nico and I used the extra rope to bind the wood into something that could pass for stable.
My hands shook throughout the entire process.
I dug my nails into my palm, keeping the nausea from taking over.
For a quick practice, I murmured the words on the wood to myself, a taste test of how they’d slide off my tongue.
Once the tying was done, December and Jonah brought Octavia over, sitting her on top of it.
“We’ll get the torches,” December said, and they left for a repeat of our early attempt at entrapment.
“Rae.” Her voice was hoarse from the demon’s taunting. “I don’t know if I'm going to figure out how to…get him…”
I sat down in front of her, pressing my forehead against hers, and whispered, “You can. When it trapped you in here earlier, you let it inside.”
“I didn’t mean to…” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “I didn’t…”
“I know.” My throat was so tight I could hardly breathe. I brushed her tears away. “Of course you didn’t.”
“He’s hard to touch. Hard to push against.”
“Then don’t push,” I said. “Find another way to get it out. It got in, so there’s a way out.
I know you can do this. You’re the most capable person I know.
Please…Octavia, fight. When I start this ritual and lock him inside, it’ll be a prison.
I don’t want to lock you in there, too. Wilson needs you.
The horses need you. Elmwood needs you. I need you.
Now that I’ve found you, please, please don’t leave.
Because I promise you, I plan on staying planted right next to you. ”
“Rae…”
“Please,” the word caught in my throat. “There’s no tomorrow worth even considering if you won’t be in it.”
Every breath I took at this point was anticipation of being next to her. All I wanted to do was to be next to her. Everything else was so deeply secondary, so far away I could barely make it out in the fog.
“Stay here with me,” I pleaded.