Caged in Darkness (Caged #1)(29)
Once they discovered the common denominator, they began researching how to capture and angel and a demon. It didn’t take long for them to realize that it was a foolish plan and was likely to get them killed. Instead, they decided to capture a fallen angel. Demons and fallen angels were alike and yet vastly different. Demons were truly evil creatures. However, fallen angels had once been ordinary angels, who had fallen from heaven and now possessed demonic power.
I had processed more than enough information for a single day. I wisely decided to push the journal away and felt into a comatose-like sleep. I dreamed that I was running through a forest, while being pursued by the demon. Its eyes were bright yellow and they floated towards me on the waves of darkness.
The next morning, Willow and I filled Izzy in on everything she missed the previous day. She looked worse than I felt. Her eyes were bruised and puffy and her skin had a grayish sheen to it. She claimed it was a simple cold, but I became more concerned when I saw her that afternoon walking through the halls like the living dead.
After school, the three of us went to my house and I showed them my journal. Willow scrutinized the sections I told her about, while Izzy slumped against the pillows on my bed and nodded absently at everything we said.
“Your parents were even crazier than I thought! They wanted to summon a fallen angel?” Willow leaned towards my sitting place at the edge of the bed. “Did they ever try it?”
I sighed. “I don’t know. I haven’t read that far yet and no you are not going to read it before me.” She gave me the puppy dog look, as if it would implore me to hand over my mother journal. “I’m guessing that they did. Otherwise, why would the fallen angel have been in the box? It had to get in there somehow. My guess is that my parents put it there.” I shrugged.
“Don’t you want to know why the thing is stalking you?” Izzy’s normally bubbly voice was now a raspy whisper. “What your parents did or didn’t do doesn’t really matter. It’s in the past. What matters is why this demon thing showed up in your bedroom. What does it want from you?”
“Any great ideas on how to find out what it wants?” Willow and Izzy exchanged awkward looks. “That’s what I thought. The only clue I have is this stupid journal. Whatever it wants is most likely related to my parents’ scheme.”
“Um, I have one idea.” Willow ducked her head and her cheeks brightened. She didn’t normally take the lead in our group and was more likely to follow our plans, not the other way around. “Well, we could take the time to read the journal, do a bunch of research, and mostly likely still be completely clueless. We would probably get ourselves killed in the meantime, or… We could summon the demon and find out what it wants on our own territory.”
Willow smirked, but I could feel my courage plummet to the ground. Summon a demon and not just any demon, but a fallen angel? I didn’t think I was that desperate.
“That is a horrible idea.” Izzy voiced, before I choice say the same. “What if the demon decides to eat us or something? Are you two powerful enough to take on a freaking demon?” Izzy had a look of complete horror on her face.
“Well, no. Just listen a second, Savannah is going to go through her ascension this weekend, which means she will have full use of her power. I may not be powerful, but I can be of some help and even you can do minor magic.”
“I can do magic?” Izzy’s color came back at the tidbit of information.
“Yep, and we can put protection spells in place to confine the demon to our circle. It won’t be able to touch us. We can even pull on the elements to give the circle that extra boost of power.” Willow jumped to her feet and grabbed her tote. She pulled out a few books from the meadow falls library. One of them was about demons, while the others looked like spell books.
“How do we pull on the elements?”
Willow was busy looking for something in her books, which meant I was the designated tutor. “Everyone has an affinity for at least one element. Usually there is a specific element that is strongest. In Ash’s case, he is strongest in the fire element. Willow is strongest in Earth. We are going to need to find out which elements respond to you. That way we will know which elements you can pull power from.”
“How do we do that? Wouldn’t I know if I could do magic?”
“Nope. The average human has no idea how to use magic and the type of books at places like Barnes and Noble do not teach the correct methods.” Izzy nodded, while the crease that resided on her forehead gained ground.
“Tonight, I’ll do some research on how to summon a demon safely. Can you work with Izzy to find out which elements respond to her?” Willow pushed her books back in her bag, and stood impatiently.
“Yeah, I’ll work with Izzy. I still don’t think I like this idea though.”
Willow left and Izzy soon followed. She was too exhausted to do anything else today and I completely understood. That night I went to read my mother's journal, when Ash came into my room. His face was dominated by an irritated expression he rarely used.
“When are we going to talk about the other night?” His tone was much lower than normal and I could see he was restraining anger.
“The sleepwalking? I didn’t think we needed to. I mean, there isn’t really anything we can do about it. Thank you for stopping me from leaping to my death.” I laughed. “That could have been awkward.”