The Spell Caster

Chapter 16

LAYLA

M y ears were ringing. I couldn’t form words as Calamus strode over to the place where Costi had been standing.

“Did you see that?” His words were like ice picks, too loud. I felt raw and strange.

“Wh-What did you do?” I forced out through numb lips.

Calamus looked back at the circle, now a stable, glowing ring in the center of the burned-out tracing. “The spell is working,” he said with a frown.

“What did you do , Calamus? Bring him back!” I cried, my breath coming too fast.

He placed his hands on my shoulders and shook me. “Layla, calm down. We have to think. I didn’t do anything. The spell is working.”

I wrenched myself away from him. “You have to bring him back.”

Calamus paced, examining the circle and the floor.

Oh fate, what if Costi is gone? What if he’s dead ?

He paused. “Invoke,” he said.

“What? We have to—”

“The spell is working , Layla,” he repeated, turning toward me. “Invoke your familiar.”

“How is that going to—”

“Layla, invoke!”

With nothing else to hold on to, I did as he suggested. It took me a few times to concentrate, but I finally made it through the mental sequence I had tried a hundred times without effect—

And I felt it catch. The enormity of it scoured my soul before my conscious mind could process it.

“What the fuck was that?” Costi’s voice was venomous.

I cried out and rushed toward him, but Calamus clamped a hand around my wrist with a bruising grip that forced me to jerk to a halt.

“Let go!”

“Layla, don’t,” he said urgently.

Costi stepped toward me, and it was then I realized he was inside the circle. A barrier flashed as it shocked him with energy, and he swore viciously, jumping backward. He was trapped in the spell.

I looked at him and jolted as if I had been shocked.

“You better take your hand off her,” Costi said in a low voice that promised immediate violence. He whirled and delivered a volley of lethal kicks to the barrier. Light crashed over it and cracked in sparkling waves, showing the cylindrical shape of the spell, but it held. The magic resettled, leaving him inside, clenching his fists and breathing heavily. “Drop the spell, Grey. Now .”

I felt Calamus shaking. He’d been holding on to me to keep me in place, but now I thought he was holding on for dear life. He drew in a shuddering breath. “Are you a demon?”

“Do I look like a fucking demon?” Costi snarled.

Calamus and I were silent. Because… he did look like a fucking demon. More precisely, he kind of looked like the demon we had contacted in Hell.

I stared at my best friend and almost-lover. His eyes were too silver, his ears tipped with wicked points that framed a sharp face.

Costi, but not.

Oh fate, he was not human .

Costi stared at us in confusion, then glanced down at his hands, as if checking that he was himself. As if that jarred something back into place, his face returned to normal.

Unsettled, I took a step back, colliding with Calamus.

Costi’s human-gray eyes tracked the movement. “What exactly is going on here?”

“I’m calling my father. The Arcaenum. Daire,” Calamus announced. He pulled his phone out of a pocket in his robes and nearly fumbled it. He backed to the door, obviously unnerved.

“ Grey ,” Costi hissed. “Drop the spell. I’m not gonna do anything to you, just chill.”

Calamus slammed the door closed.

Costi barked a laugh. “He thinks I’m that dangerous, and he just shut you in here with me?”

I felt tears begin to track down my cheeks.

“ Layla, ” he said in alarm, pushing his hands into the barrier with a flash. He stalked around the confines of the spell, unable to get closer. “Fate, you know I’d never hurt you. I was pissed, but I’m calm now. Please don’t be scared of me.”

I shook my head, unable to speak.

“Talk to me,” the demon creature with Costi’s voice begged. “Tell me what’s wrong. Do you know how to break this thing? Let me out.”

I trembled. I knew exactly how to get him out.

“Not mine , ” the demon Adriel had said. Because I was someone else’s.

I banished my familiar, then invoked him again.

Costi appeared by my side.

***

“Oh,” I breathed. The tears came harder, but Costi made no move to touch me. When I looked up at him, his face was frozen in a shocked expression—he had just put the terrible puzzle together as well.

“How…?” He swallowed. “How’s this even possible? How could I not have known?” He wrapped his arms around himself.

I scrubbed my eyes with my sleeve. “You were only seven—”

“Natural summoning,” he murmured.

It fit. “From… from Hell?”

“Fucking fate!” Costi slammed a hand over the top of his head, feeling around.

“You don’t have horns,” I said hoarsely. “But… the ears…”

He clamped his fingers over the side of his face, then yanked his phone out of a pocket, using the camera to peer at himself through the cracked screen.

“You look normal now,” I said. My voice sounded distant.

“What kind of magic…?”

The sounds of people walking up the stairway came from the hall. “We have to get out of here.”

Costi swore. “There’s no other exit.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Tell them it’s not your fault. You didn’t know about this.”

“What about you ?”

He pushed his hand through his hair. “I’m screwed . They’re never gonna let me—” He straightened as the door opened.

Calamus took us in coldly. Cedar Grey, looking less intimidating without his council robes, stood with Daire, who was glaring angrily. Behind them strode Ewan and the other guardian Grey seemed to be using as personal security.

“You let him out?” Calamus accused me with a pointed finger. “You invoked him out.”

Calamus tried to fall back, but his father and Daire advanced into the room. Costi and I stepped back in one motion. There wasn’t any question whose side I was on.

The security coordinator was in her black guardian uniform, her hair bound in a tight braid around her head. “All right, Blackthorn, your spell caster insisted we get here as fast as possible and is hurling some frankly wild accusations,” Daire said, cutting her gaze to Cedar Grey and then back to Costi. “You wanna tell us what’s going on?”

“Layla had nothing to do with this,” Costi said, standing at attention and looking into Daire’s eyes fearlessly.

“Care to elaborate?” Councilor Grey raised an open palm with exaggerated patience.

“ I will explain,” said Calamus, shouldering past his father. “I traced a circle spell to retrieve Layla’s missing familiar, and I caught him instead. Blackthorn is a demon.”

Daire scoffed. “He’s a pain in the ass, but I wouldn’t go that far.”

“I witnessed Layla invoke him like a familiar. I saw him change shape ,” Calamus seethed.

“My son wouldn’t make up fanciful stories.” Councilor Grey gazed at Costi warily. “Did you find a way through, demon? Are you here as a spy?”

I knew what he was talking about—the mirror Calamus had opened to communicate with Hell. I glanced at Daire, who looked confused. He’d kept her in the dark.

Costi was uncharacteristically quiet. Whether it was the shock of the situation or a strategy to avoid the normal kind of escalation he liked to cause, I didn’t know.

“He’s not a spy.” I was suddenly the new center of attention in the room. My face heated. “I think… I think it was a natural summoning.”

Grey glowered at me. “And you didn’t think anything of it? Your Circle didn’t notice a grown man appearing next to you suddenly?”

No, but they had noticed a young boy who couldn’t speak our language and who they couldn’t keep away from me. “We were children. I was three,” I said.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Daire. “No one summons that young.”

Grey put a hand to his chin. “The more likely scenario is that at some point your childhood friend was… replaced. ”

I shook my head, wrapping my arms around myself. “No. I know him. He’s the same.”

“What are you gonna do with me?” Costi interrupted.

Our guests looked at each other.

“I suppose we should call an emergency meeting of the Arcaenum and get this straightened out,” said Daire, scratching her chin uncomfortably.

“Let’s not be hasty,” said Grey. “Some of our councilors are… easily influenced. They don’t think strategically,” he hinted, looking at Daire intently.

I took in an uneven breath. “You have to call the Arcaenum. You can’t keep secrets like—”

Grey interrupted me, glaring down his nose. “We needn’t bother them for every little thing.”

Daire looked to Grey. “Perhaps we should discuss it privately.” She turned to Costi. “In the meantime, I think you should come with me to headquarters and hang out there tonight.”

“You’re arresting him?” I blurted.

“It’s all right, Layla,” Costi said, his head bowed. “I expected it.”

“Her too.” Calamus looked at me sadly. “She can invoke him. She’ll let him out.”

Daire raised an eyebrow at me. “If that’s true, I would consider that a breach of security.”

Calamus’s casual betrayal felt like a slap. “I’ll come.”

“Keep them separated,” Councilor Grey told Daire. She gave him a tight nod.

Grey motioned the guardians in, and they each took one of Costi’s arms. Ewan snatched Costi’s phone.

Even though the guardians were both tall and physically fit, I was certain Costi could take them out easily if he wanted to. But he allowed them to restrain him. He was cooperating.

Costi looked back at me over his shoulder. His eyes were like a bank of storm clouds, sad and distant. It wasn’t any threat from the guardians that was keeping him in line. They had me . Calamus’s circle wasn’t nearly as good a trap.

Daire turned to me. “Walk with me, please, Layla.”

The guardians escorted Costi through the Circle, with Daire and me following, creating a spectacle that made me want to turn inside out. We’d done nothing wrong. Witches who committed actual crimes weren’t even treated like this.

Daire led us to a smaller building next to the barracks. A hasty sign had been affixed to the bricks—Security Headquarters. Down a short hallway, she paused in front of a door.

“Take him to the holding cell,” she told the two guardians.

Costi locked eyes with me. “Call Diana,” he said. Diana Blackthorn—the woman who fostered him for ten years after he’d… arrived . I nodded, my eyes filling with tears. “Be good, Layla,” he told me as they pulled him away.

I forced my head up and clamped down my feelings. I wouldn’t break in front of Daire.

The room she ushered me into seemed to be her personal quarters. She showed me to a guest bedroom with an attached bathroom.

“You’ll stay in here,” she told me. “I’ll be working out there. The windows are secured. I’ll know if you get up to any shenanigans.”

“I won’t,” I promised. I guessed she didn’t consider me much of a threat.

“Your mom doesn’t deserve this. I’ll talk to her and Councilor Grey, see if we can get you out of here.”

When I said nothing, Daire sighed. “I don’t know what to think about this demon nonsense.” She turned a shrewd eye on me. “Blackthorn’s a terror, but you are a good kid. This is why you’re supposed to keep away from the Troubled.” She nodded to me and closed the door. I heard something rattle into place on the other side—she’d locked me in.

I stared numbly at where she’d disappeared from. The feelings I’d been suppressing slammed back into me with a vengeance. I started to shake violently, holding my hands desperately over my mouth to stifle the sounds of my uncontrolled sobbing.

How? How could this happen? He hadn’t known. No one had known. And I loved —

I took a shuddering breath, stopping myself. That line of thought had to end immediately. We’d just gone from absolutely not allowed to astronomically complicated . I wished I could talk to Costi about it, but his advice would probably amount to “Shut up and kiss me,” so…

I had to get a hold of myself and help my… my friend. I dragged myself to the bathroom and washed my face. They’d taken Costi’s phone but not mine. The battery was languishing at half empty since I’d been out most of the day, and I didn’t have a charger, but it was better than nothing.

I pulled up Diana’s contact info and hit Call, hoping she hadn’t changed her number.

“Layla, sweetie!” Her rough voice came through the speaker. “Everything okay?”

“Not really. Are you at the Mountain Circle?”

“Yeah, I’m… Hang on, I gotta get somewhere where I can hear you better.” There was a rustle, voices in the background. “I’m here. What’s wrong, baby? How’s the boy? I haven’t heard from him in a while.”

“I’m calling about him,” I said.

“Fate, what’s he done now?”

I blew out a breath. “This is hard to know how to tell you.”

“He get you pregnant? Always knew he had a thing for you—”

“ What? No!” Fate, how long had Costi had a thing for me? “It’s… How much do you know about where he came from?”

Diana made a humming sound. “Unfortunately, not much, honey. They found him on the playground right after that bad attack in Greece. Couldn’t speak a word of English, but they were afraid to bring in a translator from outside in case he talked about witch stuff. We just put him in school, and he picked it up well enough.”

“Did he say anything later? Remember anything?”

“He remembers quite a bit from… before. You should ask him. What’s this all about, Layla?”

“You know he’s different,” I said.

“He’s had his challenges,” Diana said defensively. I warmed at her protectiveness toward him.

“Not like that.” I picked at a loose thread on my skirt. “He’s really different.”

She was quiet while I hesitated, listening to the phone’s light static. “Wherever he… came from,” she said carefully, “he’s one of us now.”

“You knew.”

“I don’t know. But I had my ideas. Especially when he first came to me…” Her sigh rushed through the speaker. “What’s going on? You best put him on the phone, Layla.”

“Something happened.” I swallowed thickly.

Diana’s voice was grim. “All right. Tell me.”