Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
SKYE
Ifollow the smell of pizza into the main dining room, the one the guests use.
There are no guests tonight, so it’s all ours.
The others are all already there—I got distracted by a message from Tom suggesting I tell Daniel about the time his cousin Lou got caught in the mincer and almost lost his thumb.
I don’t know what that’s about, but I’m sure I’ll laugh when I find out.
Lou was fine, by the way. Tom’s nonna had the brains to pull the plug on the mincer, and they managed to get him free with only minor cuts and scrapes to his hand.
“What’s the occasion?” I ask, grabbing a plate and piling it high before I take the chair next to Daniel.
His hand immediately lands on my knee, and a smug happiness settles over me.
I love that he’s always touching me, like he can’t be near me and not have contact.
Not even in my wildest daydreams was he this affectionate and loving.
“Not a good one,” Connor says. “Sorry. You know how I asked you before if you felt like something was about to happen?”
I nod. “Sure. The brain itch. Why?” I glance around the table and see grim faces. “Oh, fuck.”
“Yep. Pretty much everyone feels the same. Dan went into town and says it’s the same there. And wildlife has gone to ground. Something’s gonna happen.”
“Have you called the Collective?” Josh asks. His pizza is untouched on his plate. Can’t say I blame him—my appetite’s dwindling by the second.
Gabe sighs. “Yes. This is a widespread issue, and they have no idea what it means.”
“I hope someone’s taking notes so that if this ever happens again, people will know what it all means,” Ewan says mildly. I like that idea, since for this to happen again, it would mean humanity wasn’t wiped out the first time. This time.
I make myself take a bite of pizza. Gotta keep my strength up if we’re going to be fighting off a horde of demons. Is it a horde? “What’s the collective noun for demons?”
Heads turn, and I find myself the focus of a roomful of disbelieving gazes. “What? It matters. If I’m going to die, I want to know what killed me.”
“You’re not going to die,” Daniel orders fiercely, like either of us is going to have any say in it. “You’re going to live a long and happy life.”
“Look, that’s my goal,” I agree. “But first we have to fight off the demon…” I trail off leadingly, waiting for someone to supply a noun option.
“Legion,” Gabe finishes. “A legion of demons.”
“That sounds like a lot of demons,” Josh says.
I nod. “It does. More than I want to deal with.”
Connor snorts. “Trust me, one is more than you want to deal with. Especially the higher demons.” His face gets that slightly hollow expression it had all those weeks ago when he told me about the time he fought a higher demon.
“So… what do we do?” Daniel asks. “Is there anything we can do? People in town are antsy.”
“We are too,” Gabe reminds him. “And so is everyone, according to the council. But we can’t fight demons until there are demons here to fight, and if the little information we have is correct, when the demons come, they’ll be in such great numbers that we won’t be able to fight them anyway.”
I put down my pizza as the little I’ve already eaten turns to stone in my stomach.
“I hate waiting for something I’m going to fail,” Kieran mutters, scrubbing his hands through his hair. “We need to strike first. Stop them before they get here.”
Nobody says anything, though I’ll bet we’re all thinking the same thing: How? How do we stop something we don’t know the details of and probably wouldn’t fully understand if we did?
“I know it seems like the Collective is useless,” Connor says, “but they’re not just sitting on their hands.
There are teams all over the world searching for anything that might help us.
Information, spirits, demons… they’re even inspecting all known gateways for additional resonance or other signs that they might be affected or influenced in some way by demon activity.
If there’s something out there for us to find, it’ll be found. ”
“Okay, so… what can we do?” Daniel repeats. “We’re here. I don’t think I can just sit around and wait.”
I put my hand over his where it rests on my knee and squeeze. My Daniel isn’t a sit-around-and-wait kind of person.
Connor shrugs. “We can keep looking for a spirit to talk to Skye. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find one who has lots of deets to spill.”
The doubtful expressions around the table reflect how likely we think that is.
“Or we could—” He cuts off and stiffens. From upstairs, there’s a bellow.
“What is it?” Kieran leaps to his feet, and the rest of us aren’t much slower. “The gateway?”
“Connor!” Norval pops into the room, followed by the other ghosts.
“Not the gateway,” Gabe says, face pale. “A demon.”
“Where?” Josh gasps, looking around wildly. “I don’t… wait…” His face changes, eyes getting big.
“Not far, and getting closer,” Connor confirms grimly. “You feel it now?”
Josh nods.
“That’s what a higher demon feels like.”
From the sick look on Josh’s face, I should be glad I can’t sense it. Though I am getting a tingle of dread… Could that be it? Or am I just reacting to what the others are saying?
“What do we do?” Kieran asks. Connor and Gabe exchange looks, and everything they’ve said about fighting higher demons floods back to me. If it was all true, there’s nothing we can do. We don’t stand a fucking chance.
“Salt,” I announce. “I know you said it won’t stop it, but maybe as a distraction? And quartz. They might be as insignificant as flies to the demon, but—”
“Flies can bug the crap out of people. Good thinking,” Gabe says. “It can’t hurt to try. Con and I will get our kits.”
“Salt and quartz,” Kieran says as we all scramble toward the door. “Which direction is it coming from? Where’s the best place to set up?”
Gabe and Connor both pause, as if concentrating. “Is it… coming along the highway?”
“Seems like,” Con says. “I guess the front entrance.”
We scatter. Daniel and Ewan go to get the big twenty-pound sacks of salt from the storeroom, while Josh, Kieran, and I collect the chunks of quartz that we put in the Garden Suite.
“This is exciting,” Maisie says, trailing behind us. “But terrible,” she adds. “Simply terrible.” She pauses. “Is this the kind of demon that eats the souls of ghosts?”
“Don’t know, Maisie. Probably. It seems to be the baddest of the lot,” Josh murmurs, then shivers.
“You okay?” I ask.
“It’s getting closer.” He glances over at me, arms full of quartz, eyes shiny. “I’m so afraid, Skye.”
I swallow through a dry throat. “Me too.”
“And me,” Kieran says, holding out a shaky hand. “But we face this down. Now or later, we don’t have a choice.”
As depressing as that little truth is, it bolsters me, and from the way Josh straightens his shoulders, he feels the same.
We gather every bit of quartz we have, then head down to the front entrance.
Daniel’s there already, pouring a thick salt line.
The housekeepers are going to murder us when they see the mess.
Though… either we’ll all be dead already, or we’ll survive this and can clean it up ourselves before they get here.
“We’ll do another line outside,” Dan’s saying. “Try to slow it down before it gets to the house.”
“I’ll help.” I grab another bag of salt and haul it out the front door, Daniel following close behind.
Connor meets us near the bottom of the steps, and as Daniel explains what we’re doing, I look down the hill toward Gabe’s cottage and see him on his way back.
We have the salt poured in a thick semicircle by the time he reaches us.
Per Connor’s instructions, we leave enough room that they can swing their swords if they need to…
which I hysterically muse sounds dirty but isn’t.
I’ve seen Connor’s sword before—after Kieran told me about it, I asked him to show me.
But I’ve never seen Gabe’s. It looks similar, but a little different.
There’s still a line of quartz embedded in the center of the blade, making it very pretty.
And yet these pretty swords have dismembered many demons and may be the only thing to save us today.
Ewan comes around the side of the house, one of the huge hammers he uses at the forge in his hand. I’m not sure how much good it’ll be against a demon, especially a higher demon, but seeing it still gives me comfort.
Josh and Kieran come outside, the ghosts following them, and we all stare in the direction of the road. Part of me expects the wind to pick up, or clouds to hide the late afternoon sun, but there’s nothing like that. It’s a gorgeous day, clear as a bell, and promises to be a warm, lovely night.
“It’s close,” Connor says, squinting. “Is… is that a car pulling up to the gate?”
Daniel blinks. “What, so the demon drove here?”
“Not fair,” Johnny mutters. “You won’t let me drive.”
I stare so hard at the car, my vision blurs. It looks familiar, somehow, even at this distance and with the gate distorting my view.
Josh’s phone alerts, and we all jump.
“Is that the gate buzzer?” The incredulity in Kieran’s voice is clear, and I don’t blame him. No way a higher demon is casually buzzing the gate.
“Are we sure that’s the demon?” I ask, peering toward the gate again. “Wait… is that Tom’s car?” My heart clutches in my chest. “Tom’s out there and the demon’s coming!”
“Are you sure?” Gabe asks, taking a step toward the gate while Josh whips out his phone. It buzzes again in his hand.
“That’s Tom’s car.” I’m sure of it now. “Let him in, let him in!” Oh my god, how close is the demon?
Josh hits the release for the gate, and I watch anxiously as it slowly swings open. “Hurry up, hurry up,” I mutter, clinging to Daniel’s hand.
“Fuck,” Gabe mutters softly, even as Norval lets out a huge harrumph.
“What?” Ewan asks, his voice unusually sharp. He hefts the hammer.
“Let’s all stay calm,” Connor says slowly. “But I think the demon is in the car with Tom.”
“No!” gasps Hattie. “Not dear Tom!”