A Darker Past (Entangled Teen) (The Darker Agency) (15 page)

Chapter Twenty

We followed Valefar’s instructions and walked three blocks from Value Far’s building to the water. It brought us to an impossibly tall structure that reached upward as far as I could see, the top of it seeming to disappear into the cloudless sky. It wasn’t a building. At least, I didn’t think so. There were no windows or doors, and the front surface appeared glossy and flat. I waited for a moment of clarity, and when it came, unlike everything else here, this thing seemed to be exactly as it appeared. Some kind of stone surface. That’s it. Just stone.

“What is this place?” Lukas took my hand and stepped to the edge, peering down into the inky blackness of the lake. In front of us, a tuft of white drifted from the still surface and floated about knee-high before exploding in a sickening pop-scream. One of the poor souls condemned to spend eternity in the river. My grandfather was in this muck someplace. He’d refused to hand over my mother after she was born, welching on a deal he made with Valefar to save my grandmother’s life. He’d been dunked not long after Mom got pregnant with me. I had to wonder how many other Darkers were cooling their eternal heels in here.

“No idea.” I set the box down on the ground to my left and dropped beside it to balance on my heels. “I wish I knew what Samuel did to get dunked…”

“Jessie,” Lukas warned. He was beside me in a second. “Don’t even think about it.”

“How’s he going to know? One little question won’t hurt.”

“You’re a fool if you think he won’t know. He knows everything. Valefar has his hand in all of it.”

The bitterness of his words was like a bat to the head. All of it? That was pretty damn specific. I stiffened and looked up at him. “Why does it sound like you know something you’re not telling me?”

He sobered quickly, expression going blank, but I wasn’t fooled. I hadn’t known Lukas
that
long, but he was so damn easy to read. “Please, Jessie. For once, just do this the right way? Follow instructions.”

I wanted to argue, but didn’t. He was probably right. Knowing Valefar, we were on some kind of demonic reality show, and he was listening to the entire thing, waiting to hit me with the Shadow Realm equivalent of slime the moment I slipped up. I already had a pissed-off Regent of a full-blooded demon on my ass. I didn’t think I could handle two. At least not this week.

“Fine.” I took a deep breath and silently apologized to Samuel Darker. Whatever he’d done, I had a hard time believing he deserved to end up here. No one did. But there was nothing I could do. “I summon thee, Samuel Darker.”

The wind kicked up, and a flash of light lit the sky to our left. It was getting bigger, coming toward us. And fast. Lukas saw it, too. He pulled me back and stepped in front of me, spreading his legs and ready to fight.

As it came closer, I realized it wasn’t coming from the sky like I’d thought, but from the river. Just beneath the surface. It zoomed along and stopped in front of where we stood, then exploded from the water. It was huge. A shimmering, nearly translucent mass that vaguely resembled a man. It twitched several times, face taking shape for a second—maybe two—before jerking up, then down, and crashing into the wooden box Valefar had given me.

“Whoa,” I said, bending to pick it up. I hesitated, fingers brushing the surface, and pulled away because the box, previously a simple hunk of wood, now hummed with power. With life. It was warm to the touch and sent shivers of electricity zipping through me.

There was a sound coming from inside. A nondescript whisper. Once in a while I could make out a word or two.
Pain. Help. Lost…
I stuffed down the urge to try communicating and nodded for Lukas to follow me. The faster I handed this off to Valefar, the safer I’d be. I wasn’t good with temptation.

…

Before heading to the Archway to meet Kendra, I tried again to get Valefar to tell me what Samuel did to earn his Dunking, but he wasn’t spilling. He not-so-gently reminded me that time was ticking, and that I should be focusing on trapping Gressil rather than sticking my nose where it didn’t belong.

Sadly, he had a point. Gressil’s deadline, not to mention Lucifer’s threat, was ticking away, and if we didn’t find a way to draw out and trap the demon, both Lukas’s and my gooses were going to be roasting over a Shadow Realm fire. Not to mention Mom and the entire Belfair coven. Our best bet at the moment was Kendra and her mystery plan.

“I don’t like this,” Lukas said as we walked through the entrance to Dobbs Park. A gust of wind kicked up, making me pull my jacket tighter. I’d shadowed us to the edge of the park, into the brush, just in case someone was looking. “Whatever she has planned, no good can come of it.”

I rolled my eyes. “Overdramatic much? This is Kendra we’re talking about, not me. She’s the cautious one.”

He kicked at a stone as we went. It banked to the left, bouncing twice before hitting a large pine tree. He shot me a sidelong glance. “I think not.”

We took a right at the end of the path, then veered into the woods. The Archway was just beyond the next set of trees.

“Jessie,” Kendra called, coming out of the woods a few feet ahead of us. We met her halfway. “Hey, Lukas,” she added with a smile.

“Do I even wanna know what’s in there?” I asked, inclining my head toward her bag.

It moved. Lukas groaned.

As we pushed past the last row of trees, she frowned. “You don’t wanna know.”

Of course, that naturally made me want to know.

“What’s going on?” Lukas asked as we reached the small stone altar. He bent down and unzipped the bag, and a pair of long white ears popped out. They were attached to a tiny head with a pink button nose and frightened eyes. “Why is there a rabbit in your bag? Is this like that joke? Only without the hat…?”

“No joke.” She gently pushed him aside. I didn’t like the look in her eyes. Sadness with the slightest hint of fear. “So my idea… We need to talk to Lorna, right?”

I hated to agree with her because I had a sneaking suspicion I wasn’t going to like where this was going, but it was true. We were up a demonic creek without any quartz, and other than Charles, Lorna was the only one who knew what they’d done to get Gressil into the mirror. “It would help…”

She squared her shoulders and stood a little straighter. “I’m going to make it happen.”

“But didn’t you say witch souls couldn’t be summoned?” I asked, suspicious.

“I said I didn’t think a necro could do it.”

“But you can?” Lukas was understandably skeptical. A month ago Kendra had given him paws. It’d only been for about five minutes during a practice session—one he
volunteered
to help with—but the damage was done. After his ex and her magical mayhem, Lukas wasn’t a fan of witch spells.

“I can’t summon her, no. But I can channel her.” With shaky hands, she pulled out the rabbit and set it on the grass in front of her. “I think.”

“You think?” Lukas snorted. He grabbed my hand and waved it in front of her. “You two make a great pair, you know? I’m not sure which one of you is more detrimental.”

Kendra rolled her eyes at me and nodded slowly. “I see what you mean.”

“What?” Lukas dropped my hand and looked from her to me. “What does that mean?”

“Oh,” I said, patting his shoulder. “I just told Ken the truth. You know, how you can be a little…dramatic?”

He was annoyed, but tried to keep it to himself. I could always tell, though, because the top right corner of his upper lip rose slightly and his eyes got all squinty. “Can we just get on with this?”

“Good call.” Kendra grabbed the rabbit when it started to hop away. It squirmed as she set it back down in front of her, then dug into the contents in the bag.

That’s when it hit me. “Oh my God. You have to kill the Easter Bunny to do this, don’t you?” My stomach turned. “You, who will spend an hour trying to catch a fly so you don’t have to squish it? No way.”

She gave a shrug, trying to come off as casual, but I could see it in her eyes. She was freaked. “Sometimes you have to suck it up…”

This was a Kendra I was unfamiliar with.

I snorted and her eyebrows rose. “I’d think you’d be thrilled. Didn’t you, like, already try to kill the Easter Bunny?”

Wasn’t she funny… Bringing up my childhood trauma. I knew I couldn’t be the only kid freaked out by those costumed mall people. “I was six. And I wasn’t trying to kill him. I was trying to get away.”

“The type of magic you’re talking about is dangerous,” Lukas interjected. His lips twisted in a grim line, and I knew he was thinking of Meredith. “I think I speak for the entire town when I say that this is not a spell you should be attempting.”

“That’s a little offensive,” I said.

He narrowed his eyes and folded both arms. “Am I wrong?”

He wasn’t, and that was the problem. Kendra was still learning to use her magic. Yeah, she’d passed the tests and had been inducted into the coven as a full-fledged member, but that didn’t mean she should go slaughtering rabbits and channeling powerful, dead witches. At least, not yet. “I love you, Ken, but—”

She stood and shooed us away, then spilled a circle of light blue powder around herself. “I know what you’re thinking, and normally I’d say you were right.” She frowned. “Trust me, no one is more aware of my limitations than me…”

Great.
Way to be a supportive best friend, Jessie
. “I didn’t mean—”

She held up a hand and finished the circle, setting the vial down. She then picked another and repeated the process, this time with a green powder. “It’s okay. I get it. But you’re running out of time, and this really isn’t as hard as it looks.”

Lukas unfolded his arms. His jaw was clenched and his stance ridged. If he was still saddled with Wrath, it’d be duck and cover time. “Any magic involving a blood sacrifice is as
hard as it looks
.”

She ignored him and kept her eyes trained on me. “Jessie, please. Let me do this. I know I can do this.”

I couldn’t believe I was even considering this. “Worst case scenario?”

“If it doesn’t work, you mean?” She set the vial down and sank to the grass in the center of her colorful circle. “Nothing happens. I have a major headache for a few days, maybe lose my voice.”

Okay. Not so horrible. “There’s no chance of you summoning something with demonic teeth? Maybe a creature bent on munching humans?” I nodded to the rabbit. “Maybe turning Bugs here into a lethal killing machine with a grudge?”

“None. If I fail, nothing comes through, which is a definite possibility. The spell works better if you have an item belonging to the witch you’re trying to summon.” She grinned. “For my thirteenth birthday, Mom channeled my granny using one of her favorite muffin tins. It was kind of awesome. I don’t have anything that belonged to Lorna, so this might be a waste of time.”

“And since Lorna seems to have disappeared after helping Charles with that last job, I’ll bet no one has anything belonging to her.”

Kendra shook her head. “Nope. I searched everywhere. Unless there’s information in the archives—which I’m now locked out of—all her stuff went with her.”

Lukas sighed and stuffed his hands into his pockets. A second later, he sucked in a breath. “What the—” He pulled his hands out.

In the middle of his right palm was a small shard of glass. Unassuming, with a crack that ran partially through the middle. It took a minute, but when I realized what it was, I jumped and clapped. “Oh my God.” It was the fragment he picked up off the floor in Town Hall. From Lorna Belfair’s mirror! I took the glass from him and held it out to Kendra. “I dunno why you kept that, but yay.”

Lukas shrugged. “I guess I forgot about it.”

Kendra took the glass from me, excitement gleaming in her eyes. “This should be a huge help.”

I pulled Lukas back and forced myself not to squeak like a little girl as Kendra pulled out a small dagger. She didn’t flinch, and neither did I, as she reached for the rabbit. I didn’t turn away as she jerked the blade across its throat or as the rush of deep red poured from the now-still animal.

Lukas took my hand and tugged me back a little farther as I tried not to cringe. “I know I’m supposed to be this big paranormal-busting badass, but I can never unsee that…”

“I’m sorry,” he said and squeezed. “Power that potent requires sacrifice.”

I wondered what Lorna had sacrificed. An animal? A person? In order to trap Gressil, it had to be something big.

The wind kicked up, and Kendra bowed her head. Through the curtain of her swirling hair, I saw her lips moving. Every once in a while she’d twitch, and I’d want nothing more than to rush in and drag her out.

When the wind calmed, Kendra looked up—only I was pretty sure she wasn’t just Kendra anymore. The irises of her eyes were snow white, and there was an orange glow around her head and shoulders. “Why have I been called to this place?”

“Lorna?” I asked, taking a hesitant step forward. “Is Kendra all right?”

Lorna lifted Kendra’s hands, turning them over several times with wide eyes. She picked up a strand of hair, then pulled at the edge of Kendra’s jacket. “Kendra… That is this girl’s name? She channeled me?”

“She did,” Lukas confirmed. “We have a problem, and Kendra felt you might be able to help.”

“I do not understand. How was she able to do this? She is a Belfair, is she not?”

“Um, yeah?”

Lorna tilted her head and watched me. Kendra stared back, the same thin-lipped glare I’d seen most of my life, but it was different. Colder. “That is…curious. Who are you?”

“This is Lukas Scott, and my name is Jessie Darker. We’re—”

“A female Darker? This is a welcomed surprise.” Lorna laughed. A bubbly sound that seemed so wrong in that moment. “Less of a surprise is seeing you two together—the Scotts and the Darkers. Still twisted up in knots. Apparently, history repeats and makes fools of us all.” She shifted and climbed to her feet, taking care not to step over the powder line. “You Darkers have your hands in everything, don’t you?”