Forsaken (Book #1)
Chapter Twenty-Nine

We exited Cassie’s house through the backdoor and Elysia – using magic – melted all of the snow in our path, giving us room to get to the road. I brushed my hair over my shoulder as we walked out onto the street.

“So where are they going to try to summon Darya?” I asked as we headed away from Cassie’s house.

“That’s the thing, we aren’t entirely sure.” Elysia confessed. “We have two solid ideas, but nothing concrete. Liyana’s thinking a warehouse and I’m thinking a park.”

“I’m thinking graveyard,” Grayson interjected. Elysia looked at him perplexed. “What? Darya’s a Demon, and graveyards are filled with dead people. Particularly the souls of dead people. She’s going to be weak after she rises and souls will make her stronger.”

“Then we’ll check the closest graveyard.” Liyana said her tone brooking no room for argument. “They won’t go too far to summon her, and they’ll want her to be close to a high population of souls so she can wreak havoc.”

It took us fifteen minutes to walk to the closest graveyard, and as we grew closer to it a sense of foreboding welled up inside me. It grew stronger as the moon came out. The cemetery was bathed in an eerie red glow and my hands automatically dropped to wear Ilya’s swords rested at my waist. I pushed open the squeaky wrought iron gate, and crept quietly into the graveyard.

In the center of the graveyard were at least twenty or more Witches. Standing off to the side watching the ceremony go on were even more. In the center of the circle was drawn a large red pentagram, and around the pentagram was a circle of fire burning.

It looked like something from on occult movie. The hair rose on the back of my neck and I took a deep steadying breath to avoid psyching myself out and raise the risk of us getting noticed.

The Witches – and maybe a few Warlocks – raised their hands, and in deep, emotionless voices began to chant words in Latin. The fire surrounding the pentagram leapt into the air, and the pentagram began to glow. I glanced to see Liyana and she nodded at me.

When she charged towards them, her sword raised I figured that that was the signal. Everyone else streamed towards Liyana as they tried to interrupt the summoning. I crept slowly towards the pentagram trying to go unnoticed and disrupt the ingredients. On different parts of the pentagram in bowls laid a heart, coal, ashes, wood, and an oily black substance. In order to mess with the ingredients however, I had to get passed the fire.

The only thing standing between me and the pentagram were the Witches. With as much subtlety as I could I unsheathed my swords stealthily approaching one Witch from behind. Quickly before she could notice I stabbed her in the gut. With difficulty I yanked the blade from her body. She pitched forward, blood spilling onto the earth.

The fire surrounding the pentagram faltered and several of the Witches even stopped chanting. With a nudge and a look from a few of the other Witches they started up again causing the fire to jump back up towards the sky.

Liyana and the others were quickly taking down the Witches that were supposed to be back-up. Killing that one Witch had caused them to falter and the spell to weaken, so killing a few more would do the same thing. I darted towards another one of the Witches, stabbing her in the chest.

As I moved on to kill another one, they seemed to wise up and started to be a little defensive. It wasn’t until I killed two more did they really start to attack me. By then the fire had died to merely embers. A bolt of magic was sent sailing towards me and I hurriedly brought up my sword attempting to block it.

I was able to do so but the force sent my blade spiraling out of my hand. Using their momentary distraction I leapt into the center of the pentagram just as the flames reared to life once again trapping me in it. I grabbed the bowl closest to me, feeling the heat of the flames on my back.

I turned chucking it into the fire. The flames sputtered and I grabbed another bowl chucking that way over the fire and kicking another one of the bowls out of place. The flames died and the Witches shrieked angrily at me.

I stumbled as a force hit me in the back. Then suddenly I was surrounded by Demons. At the forefront was Lucian a cold look in his normally soft golden eyes. I brought up my sword shifting into a fighting stance, warily watching them.

As one unit they attacked. I stumbled, slashing wildly. The way they fought was intricate and I found myself in an intricately tangled dance. I managed to land a few blows but it wasn’t enough. I was on the losing end of this fight. Then suddenly like an avenging angel Grayson was there, blades glinting ominously in the moonlight.

He battered back most of the Demons, and I leapt back into the fight. My side screamed in protest. I bit back a wince determined on doing my best and not being dead-weight. One by one the Demons fell to either Grayson’s blades or my blade until only Lucian was left.

“Lucian why are you so angry?” I whispered. Yeah, I had kissed him and Grayson, but when I had kissed Grayson I had had no idea that Lucian even liked me let alone loved me.

“You used me.” He stated plainly. “You kissed him then you kissed me. You still have feelings for him, feelings that you are denying because I’m the ‘bad boy’. You only wanted me so you could get information for New Haven.”

“That’s not true.” I whispered, my heart crawling into my throat as I saw the hurt and embarrassment in his thoughts.

“I saw it in your thoughts!” Lucian shouted. “Your thoughts are so loud, because you haven’t been taught to control them yet. I saw it in your thoughts, Calla.” He swallowed and took a deep breath. “You didn’t truly care for me like you led me to believe.”

I just continued to stare at him flabbergasted. How had he even come to that conclusion? What had I even done to lead him to thinking this way? It couldn’t have just been the one kiss I had before I knew that Lucian had feelings for me. Lucian used my distraction to leap towards me.

Grayson intercepted his blow and I snapped out of my trance, joining in with the fight. I knew that Lucian had to be a good fighter, but I had no idea how good until we started to fight. He was equal to if not a better fighter than Grayson. Lucian faltered and I figured that he had picked up on that passing thought.

He disappeared. The only sign of his reappearance was agony lancing through my back. I stumbled my mouth opening wide in shock. He had stabbed me right in the back. With a harsh tug Lucian pulled the blade out of my body and disappeared.

Without the pressure of the blade and him holding me close, I fell to the ground. The earth was cool beneath my flesh. The last thing that I remembered before succumbing to darkness were red and blue lights flashing and a searing pain where Lucian had stabbed me.

Then I remembered no more.