Ghost (The Halloween Boys #1) (78)

I didn’t know what that meant, my brain spinning with fear and adrenaline. “Someone should help them . . .”

“Who? The legion?”

“Not the time for jokes.”

He squawked as we padded down a grassy knoll. “I’m not joking. The Halloween Boys have faced worse. Though perhaps . . . not so many at once.”

Worry constricted my heart just like the force the legion put on me earlier. And then my mind went to the willow spirit in sorrow. “The spirit of the willow. They sacrificed themself for me.” My throat went raw. Raven’s warm, feathered arm wrapped around my shoulder and pulled me close to his chest as we walked. “I know. It is an honor for us to . . . do that. They went happily.”

The words dragged behind me like chains in the grass. How could that be true? Such a tender and light soul . . . was ripped apart by something so dark and dirty. All they wanted was a game of hide and seek. And now they were gone with a gruesome and unwarranted death. Something I brought here. It was my fault. All of this was my fault. And I’d been too blind, too afraid, too ignorant and avoidant to even want to try to help fix it until now.

“You can speak when you’re in bird-form?” I asked, the words sounding odd as they fumbled out. So much had transpired so quickly.

He understood, reaching out a wing to help me down a steep step. “If needed, but I prefer not to.”

We traveled in silence, finally reaching pavement and the illusion of security that civilization brought. The clock tower in the center of town displayed four-thirty in the morning. “The sun will be up soon, and they’ll have to stop. Demons like the legions can’t survive in light.”

My heart gripped again in remembrance of the spirit’s bright light. The light that saved my life.

We paused in the town square. Raven’s gaze, and beak that followed, darted from left to right. “What is it?” I asked, wrapping my arms around myself against the cold.

“The Archdemon would have me take you to his church. He has the authority there and you would be safe. However—” He looked to the left. “—the crone is on equal standing as the Archdemon, and the witches are heavily warded against all manner of things.”

“You mean my apartment? Magia Eclectics? There. I want to go there.”

Raven looked me up and down, still pondering. “My obligation is to you and no other. Ghost will be cross, but you will be safe, if not safer there than Lamb’s Blood.”

“It’s settled.” I marched past him to Magia. As I approached the front door of the faintly purple glowing shop, Raven cawed. I startled as talons landed and gripped onto my shoulder. “Oh, so this is a thing now?” I asked rhetorically. “I just want to take a shower and go to bed. This night has been too fucking weird.”

The usual wa ha ha greeted me as I flipped on the lights . . . and the room remained enveloped in dark. All at once, crystal balls began lighting from within. Some swirled purple, others white, or navy. A woman in a cloak walked forward, carrying a dripping candle. Three others stood behind her, also cloaked and holding candles. The old woman removed her cloak, letting her aged and feminine features dance in the flicker of candlelight and the soft glow of the orbs.

“Come with us, child,” Marcelene ordered, ushering me forward.

I glanced up at Raven, who seemed nonplused, and followed. A woman lagged behind, putting a soft hand on my back. I met her gaze briefly under her flame. Yesenia. We walked upstairs to my room, and the women eyed me in the lamp light. There was Marcelene, another older woman, Yesenia, and the witch I recognized from Hallows, the one who read my aura. Or, my lack thereof.

“Did you offer yourself willingly to the Archdemon, child?” Marcelene asked abruptly.

“Abuela!” Yesenia said in shock, arm still around me.

Marcelene’s mouth straightened into a straight line as she eyed my knees, up to my muddy and black-covered thighs. I felt naked and exposed under their scrutiny and suddenly wondered if I would have been better off in the foreboding attic of Lamb’s Blood Church, waiting for Ames to return.

I swallowed, steadying my tired frame. I didn’t contend with my stepfather’s body containing a legion of demons just to be cowering under some old woman’s judgmental gaze. “I did,” I replied. “And I’d do it again. Yes, I know who he is and what’s he’s done, and no, I don’t care. If that bothers you, I can go elsewhere. If not, I’d really like to shower and go to sleep.”

The elder witch’s mouth dropped, while the witch who read my aura lifted a hand to her mouth to conceal her grin.

Yesenia’s abuela huffed, shaking her long, curly white and gray hair. “You have no idea what you’ve done. What you’ve agreed to. He will never stop now. You will never be free of him so long as your soul roams this Earth. He will always find you.”

I felt Raven’s talons prick at my shoulder in show of support. “I’m used to being chased by monsters. I can handle it.”

Marcelene let out an exasperated sigh and puffed out her dripping taper candle. “Get some rest. We’ll speak in the morning. There is much to discuss.”

The women turned to leave. Yesenia pulled me in for a hug. “Blythe, I’m so glad you’re okay. When we sensed the legion, it was already upon you and—”

“Yesenia,” Marcelene snapped. “We have hours of spell work ahead of us. The wards need strengthening.”