Caged in Darkness (Caged #1)(39)
“Izzy, it’s okay. Just tell me what you want to say.” She turned the phone off and placed it between us.
“I saw it.”
“What did you see?” I looked in her eyes, while she searched for words.
“The demon was here.” My eyes widened and before I could speak, Izzy motioned with her hand for me to remain silent. “I’ve been having these nightmares lately; about the demon. I thought it was because you and Willow were telling me about them. Tonight I got out of bed and saw a shadow moving in my mothers’ room. My Dad was at work and my mother wasn’t big enough to have a shadow that large. When I looked in the room, I saw it…” She broke into sobs.
I pulled Izzy into my arms and soothed her hair away from her face. “It’s okay. I’m not going to let it hurt you.”
“Savannah, it took something from her. This white smoke came out of her mouth and flowed into its mouth. I think Willow is right and the demon is feeding on people to gain power. It killed my mother and I bet it killed Jessica. Plus, a lot of other people in the surrounding towns have been dying mysteriously too.”
Oh God. I couldn’t stand to think that I was responsible for their deaths. I was the clumsy one, who tripped over the box. If I hadn’t knocked the lid off, those people would still be alive. Izzy’s mother would be alive. How was I ever going to fix this?
“Willow’s coming over. She wants to do the summoning tonight. She’s bringing the supplies.”
Izzy sounded calm now. The summoning gave her a small portion of control in the face of this horrible event. I was not going to take that away from her, which is why I didn’t protest performing the circle tonight. I thought it was a bad idea, but reasoned that the sooner we learned everything, the better we would be.
Willow arrived an hour later. We moved around the dining room furniture to create a clear space on the wooden floor. Izzy sat in one of the kitchen chairs, while Willow and I prepared the circle. Candles were placed to represent the five points of a pentacle. Symbols were etched into the wax of the candles to provide protection. Willow took a jar of dirt and poured it in a circle to connect the candles, but left an opening for Izzy to walk through.
Willow drew a pentacle within the circle, while I used an athame to slice open my palm. Witches rarely used blood in a ritual, but it was powerful and we needed protection from a demon. I allowed the blood to drip into a chalice, dipped a brush into the blood, and began drawing symbols within the star of the pentacle. We places object that represented the five elements at each point of the star to draw on for extra power. The outer circle would be for us, while the demon would be confined to the inner one.
“Izzy, were ready.” Willow spoke in an absentminded voice, while she paged through her notebook.
Izzy took her place by the representation of air, while I closed off the outer circle. I then sat between spirit and water, which I would draw power from. Willow sat between earth and fire.
“Okay, what we need to do is clear our minds of outside influences. Your mind needs to be completely focused on the elements, my voice, and our task.” Willow looked at Izzy as she spoke. I already knew the way to do a ritual, but Izzy was new at this.
I closed my eyes and concentrated on my breathing. When it was a steady rhythm, I sought my orb of power and encouraged it to spin. As it spun, I grasped threads and braided them together. I made three braids and sent one towards the spirit element and the other to the water element. The moment the braided strands collided with the elements, they lit up as bright as a star.
The end of the braids were attached to the elements, while the roots remained attached to my core. I grabbed the elemental braids, pulled to make them longer, and braided them with the third braid. I tied them into a lasso and I sent it out to wrap around the inner circle.
My braid of magic was like an electric blue current, while Willows was a soft green. Izzy’s was barely noticeable against ours, but it was a pale orange. We exhibited some pressure and our braids expanded and spun to form a whirlpool. Willow began to speak the spell in Gaelic. Gaelic was a language of power, which was used for the most powerful spells. Her voice rose as the whirlpool gained speed and the apartment filled with a roaring sound.
A spark glimmered in the center, but it continuously shorted out before it could build enough power to remain stable. The spark resembled a lighter that had run out of lighter fluid, but created minor sparks when the metal was rolled. I willed more of myself into the braids and watched as the spark brightened to a constant glow. The eyes glowing within the whirlpool paralyzed me. It was watching us; it could see us. Panic set in, but I knew it was too late to turn back. Soon, the demon would step through the portal we had created. We were on a course that could not be broken; the point of no return.
A loud crack shook the apartment, making me think the demon was breaking through the circle. My chest tightened, while the crack changed to a shuttering, and suddenly a large portal appeared out of the wall behind Willow.
A terrifying sight stepped through the hole in the wall. It was a woman with flaming hair, flying behind her in an angry battle. Her eyes took in our circle, while she opened her mouth to let loose a high pitched howl. I had to cover my ears to prevent the sound from destroying my eardrums. The black hole behind her transformed into a vortex. Her howl heightened, while she stretched her arm toward the whirlpool, and her hand slowly clenched. The whirlpool abated in sync with her hand until only a small portion remained. She gestured and the energized whirlpool was pulled into the vortex behind her.