Heir of Night by Emily Goodwin
Chapter 40
Asmall blue flame dances in my hand. I look from it to the drawing and back again. “That’s where I’m summoning the fire from.”
“Julian seemed to have thought so. He said he was checking out a theory.”
Closing my fist, I put the fire out. My mind is whirling. The Underworld is another hell dimension. If I can pull fire from it, the gates to it aren’t closed and sealed like they are to Hell. Which means I can send something down.
Like the Horsemen.
“There’s one other thing.” Lucas goes back to the table, trading the scroll for a torn piece of notebook paper. “It’s in Enochian. Julian wrote it.”
I take the paper, throat tightening. Blinking back tears, I go to the dresser for better light. “I don’t know what the first line says, but this,” I say, tapping the paper, “it says to find Lucifer and give him the paper my father gave me.”
“The blank piece of paper?”
“That’s the only one.” I flip the paper over, checking for a hidden message. Did Julian even know about the paper? My brain is too fuzzy to think back and remember if I mentioned it or not. If I didn’t, then my father did. The paper has some sort of significance, obviously, and as soon as night falls, we have to go home.
To our broken house.
With bloodstained floors.
And Julian’s body.
“If the Egyptian Underworld exists, what other hell dimensions do you think exist as well?” Taking Julian’s note, I sit on the bed. I’m mentally exhausted again and want to sleep, not thinking about blue hellfire, Egyptian gods, or how I’m supposed to get Osiris to open his gates and welcome the Four fucking Horsemen in.
“According to the Book of the Dead, there are seven gates. When it was written, an Egyptian deity was assigned to each gate, or portal. The names they gave them are not the names we know today.”
Things slowly start clicking in my head. The same gods have been worshipped throughout history, being called different names as the years went on.
“Does that mean there are seven hells?”
“I don’t know.” Lucas sits on the bed next to me. “Evander is doing more research, scouring the Academy’s library for anything about it.”
“I should help him,” I say, voice void of emotion.
“That’s a good idea.” Lucas rests a hand on my thigh. He wants me to stay busy and doesn’t worry about me wandering around the Covenstead. It’s safe in here.
“Or maybe I’ll take a nap first.”
“I’ll rub your back.”
He’s trying so hard, and I feel so undeserving right now. I put a pillow under my stomach and lie down, closing my eyes. I fall asleep, jerking awake not long after from a nightmare.
Gasping, I push up.
“What’s wrong?” Lucas drops the book he was holding and reaches for me.
“A nightmare, that’s all.” I let out a breath, feeling sick to my stomach. “Paimon was there, in the yard, making me watch Julian burn over and over again.”
Bottom lip quivering, fat tears fall down my face. “How am I going to find Lucifer? He’s cloaked, and I have no idea if his powers are still bound. If they are, he won’t hear me. And where’s my dad? What if something bad happened? What if Uriel found out about me and is punishing my dad?”
“But what if he’s not?” Lucas lies down and wraps me in his arms, cool skin against mine calming. “We’ll figure it out, and I know that sounds like a bullshit line right now. Julian’s sacrifice buys us time, and he was onto something, Callie. And Lucifer is related to you by blood. There was a section about blood magic in one of the books I translated for Ruby. You could use blood magic to locate him.”
“That’s black magic. The Grand Coven forbids it.”
“Don’t you think we’re a little past caring about what the Grand Coven allows and doesn’t allow?”
“You’re right. I’ll do it. Just…just not here. I don’t need anyone detecting dark magic inside the Academy. Once the sun sets, we need to go home.”
Lucas grips my hand,slowing as we emerge from the forest. The back porch lights are on, and the mound of dirt from where the pool was dug out casts a shadow on the yard. My heart lurches. The broken kitchen window is boarded up, reminding me of when Lucas and I came to see this place when it was still in shambles.
There are no bodies on the ground, and the stones Paimon used to channel our power have been removed. If Evander was here last night, I’m sure he took them back to the Covenstead to be studied.
“Eliza is in the house putting it back in order,” Lucas tells me so I don’t get startled. “And she insisted she needed to move in now.” I can tell he’s rolling his eyes without looking at him, but we both know she’s right. My gaze goes to the spot where Julian died, and my breathing quickens.
Lucas takes his hand from mine so he can put his arm around me. I hold onto him, turning my head in and pressing my face against his chest. We stop, and he rakes his fingers through my hair, patiently waiting for me to be ready to continue. My familiars and Scarlet are walking in pace with me instead of bounding ahead like normal.
I inhale and nod, letting Lucas know I’m good. We go into the house from the back, entering into the small mudroom. The smell of cleaning products hits me as soon as I walk in. It’s not bleach, though, and I wonder if Eliza remembered me saying the research lab used bleach water to clean and smelling it triggers my undiagnosed and untreated PTSD.
Taking off my shoes, I pause for a second before stepping into the kitchen. I didn’t see the damage before, and I’m scared of how bad it looks. Scarlet’s collar is hanging on the hall tree. I put it on her, and she shifts from giant hellhound to a less-giant Irish Wolfhound.
And then I step into the kitchen, and it looks exactly the same other than the boarded-up window. My fresh flowers I keep on the table have been replaced in a new vase. I’m assuming the demons knocked that over, and I’m impressed Eliza remembered I even had flowers there at all.
I go through the rest of the house, finding it comforting and unsettling at the same time to see it looking so normal. The rug in the foyer is gone, probably covered in blood, and I’m missing a few pieces of furniture and decor from the living room. The framed photos that fell have been replaced with the original photographs. There’s a dent in the drywall from when I hit one of the photos, and that moment flashes before me.
Shaking my head, I force it away. Part of me knows I need to deal. I need to accept. I can’t shove memories away like I did with being sold like cattle by the people I thought were my parents. Nearly twenty years later and I’m still far from over it.
The stairs creak as Eliza comes down them.
“Thanks for cleaning,” I tell her. “You almost wouldn’t know what happened.”
“I’m so sorry, Callie.” She stops at the bottom of the stairs, pretty eyes filling with tears. “You’ve been through so much, and you’re so young.” She tips her head back and quickly wipes away a tear. “I really thought I’d be able to corrupt him.”
“Honestly, I kinda did too,” I tell her, voice coming out all shaky.
She comes over and gives me a hug, holding me tight against her slender body for a good ten seconds before letting me go. “You’ve been through a lot, but you’re the toughest person I’ve ever met. He knew it too and totally jumped on Kristy’s bandwagon about you being the savior.”
The bit of sass almost makes me smile. “Next thing you know, you’re going to be the leader of the Callie’s the Savior fan club.”
“Stranger things have happened.” She straightens a crooked photo on the wall. “Do you need me to do anything before we do the burial?”
“I don’t think so, but thanks.” The lump is back in my throat. In only an hour, my friends will be here to say goodbye to Julian with me.
“Food,” Eliza says. “Humans in movies are always eating and drinking while they sit around talking about lost loved ones.”
“What would anyone else have to say about him?” I don’t mean to come across so dejected, but it’s true. “He wasn’t here very much, and when he was, all he did was warn us about demons and danger.”
“You’re right. To me, it shows how much he cared. And that’s something we could talk about. He really cared about you, Callie.”
She’s trying to make me feel better, but all it does is make the guilt sink into me like a thousand tiny blades. “He cared so much he died for me, and I never wanted that. My life is a train wreck, but I’m the one driving the train. It should have been me.”
“You feel that way now,” she says gently. “And I’m not going to try to convince you otherwise. You’ll see in time what we all see.”
“What is that?”
“We need you. The fucking world needs you.” She inhales sharply and wipes away more tears, shaking her head and putting on her usual smirk. “So, what do you want for dinner?”
“Pizza,” I say after a moment.
Her eyes narrow. “That’s it?”
“Yeah. With extra cheese.”
“Okay. I will find a place to order from.”
“Thanks.”
“Of course. You really do need me.” She flips her blonde hair back. “And I took the room at the end of the hall. Farthest from you so it’ll be easier to block out the sounds of you two fucking, which isn’t easy to do when you have vampire hearing.”
Usually, just the thought of fucking Lucas sends some sort of jolt through me, but I feel nothing. “Did you bring your pigs?”
“I did, and they’re in my room for now. No one uses the attic, and there is plenty of floor space for them up there.”
“You want to take the entire attic and turn it into a guinea pig room?”
“Eventually,” she replies like that isn’t crazy at all.
I just nod, not able to come up with anything to counter that right now. “The rest of the world,” I start. “The Horsemen.” My question comes out all disjointed.
“There was an outbreak of the flu at a school in the UK. Nearly every student got it, but from what I saw, only a few are critical. We can’t necessarily say it was Pestilence. I’d assume he’d have a higher death rate.”
“Yeah. I would too.”
“Why don’t you go change or lie down? I’ll handle everything.”
“Okay.” I sniffle and go upstairs, getting into my bed as soon as I’m in my room. Binx jumps up with me, rubbing his head against my face. He doesn’t like that I’m sad, and he wishes he could take my pain way. “Thanks, buddy,” I whisper and tuck him under my arm. Freya and Pandora join us, and having my familiars around me brings me comfort and a small sense of peace.
Lucas doesn’t come upstairs. He must be digging the hole for us to bury Julian. He asked me where, and nothing felt real as I thought about the best place to bury an angel. I decided on the side yard, under a maple tree that turns a brilliant shade of red in the fall.
Wanting nothing more than to close my watery eyes and not think about anything, I pull the blankets over myself. Binx and Freya move in closer, and Pandora goes under the blanket and curls up against my stomach.
“Dad?” I whisper. “Can you hear me? We’re going to bury Julian tonight and I—” I stop, unable to continue. Turning my head, I cry into my pillow. I keep trying to talk to my dad but can’t get the words out. I lie in bed until someone knocks on the front door.
Sitting up, I wipe my eyes and pad into the bathroom to use the toilet and splash some water on my face. I strip out of the pajamas Tabatha brought me at the Covenstead and go through the motions of putting on black leggings and a black sweater.
And then I go downstairs.
Kristy, Evander, Tabatha, Ruby, and the twins are in the family room. I don’t want to make small talk. I don’t want to be told it’s going to be okay, that things will work out, and Julian knew what he was doing.
I just want to get this over with.
“Thanks for coming,” I say quietly.
“Of course, Cal.” Kristy comes to me and gives me a hug. Nicole and Naomi follow her, and the obligatory hugs and condolences make me want to throw up. This shouldn’t be happening at all.
Scarlet runs into the room, and a moment later, I hear the mudroom door shut. Tabatha takes my hands, brown eyes misty.
“Are you ready?”
My head moves up and down. Even if I weren't, what difference would it make? Julian is dead. His divinity burned up, and all that’s left is an empty body. And bodies need to be buried.
Lucas is washing dirt off his hands in the kitchen when we walk through to go outside. He quickly dries them and comes to me. I take his hand, inhale, and let him take me outside.
Binx is standing guard over Julian’s body, which is wrapped in a gray sheet. There’s a fresh mound of dirt next to a deep hole.
“Did you want to say anything, Callie?” Evander asks softly.
I let go of Lucas’s hand and kneel down next to Julian, fingers trembling as I pull the sheet back to look at his face. He looks exactly the same the last time I saw his lifeless face, thanks to the preservation spell.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper, tears falling from my eyes like rain. Elena moves around inside me, almost as if she’s telling him thank-you for saving not only me, but her as well. “I won’t let Paimon get away with this. He will pay, and the price will be his blood.” Anger surges through me, and I want to hold onto it. Being angry hurts less. Revenge won’t bring Julian back, I know, but it’s all I have right now.
Lucas helps me to my feet, and my friends take turns saying goodbye. Tabatha is last, and she places her hand on the body and then stands, holding out her hands as she chants the traditional spell said at witches’ funerals. She has asked if I wanted to have the full passing ritual, but I told her there was no point.
Julian said angels stop existing when they die. They don’t pass on to an afterlife. They’re just gone.
Lucas kisses the side of my head and then signals for Evander to lower the body into the grave with him. Lucas is strong enough to lift Julian alone, of course, but this way he goes in slower, with more dignity.
Tabatha holds onto me, stroking my hair like she did when I was a scared little girl who just escaped my own living hell all those years ago. I feel disconnected from everything and everyone as we walk back to the house. I’m reminded that I’m physically here on earth only by the movements of my baby and the way pregnancy is making me hungry and needing to use the bathroom frequently.
“Do you need anything at all, darling?” Tabatha asks me when everyone is done eating and the conversation has stopped.
“No,” I tell her. “I’m tired. Tomorrow we need to come up with a plan to take out the Horsemen and then Paimon. Julian figured out where I’ve been summoning hellfire from.” I hold out my hand, bringing forth the blue fire. “The Lake of Fire, which guards a gate to another hell dimension.”
“Another hell dimension?” Kristy echoes. “Seven devils.”
“Exactly,” I say. “Ever wonder where that phrase comes from? The Book of the Dead says there are seven gates.”
“Seven gates leading to seven hells,” Evander finishes.
“That’s why you asked for those books.” Ruby looks at Lucas and then gets wide-eyed. “We need to access one and can get the Horsemen in.”
Hope flickers inside me like the fire dancing on my palm. “Easier said than done, I know, but it’s something, right?”
“It is,” Tabatha says and closes my fist, putting out the fire. “Tonight, rest easy. We will recast the warding to keep you protected.”
“Thank you,” I tell her, and exhaustion hits me all over again. Lucas and I see everyone out. I give Scarlet and my familiars leftover pizza and continue through my nightly routine, going on autopilot. It does feel good to be in my own bed again, next to my husband.
“I know we both liked the name Elena,” Lucas starts, resting his hand on my stomach. “I did think of something else, something with meaning.”
“What is it?”
“Juliet, in honor of the man who died so she could live.”