“I am no simple fiend. I am of the highest level in Hell, a commander of armies, a destroyer of all who vex me.”
“Right, but you’re still a demon. I mean, all the creatures of Hell are some sort of demon, princes included. Is that correct?”
He grunted, clearly displeased with my assessment. “Yes.”
“Great. Now we’re getting somewhere. You’re a demon prince, and you’re inside my head. Want to tell me how you got there?” Because the only sigil I had ever flubbed was Cinder’s protection tattoo.
I laid my arm next to the design on the paper. It was a perfect match, so there had to be another reason why, instead of harnessing power over chaos, I’d invited Chaos to take up space in my head.
“How did you summon me from my imprisonment?”
Fantabulous. Not only had I possessed myself with a demon prince, but I’d nabbed one straight from his prison cell. He must’ve been a bad, bad boy. “Who threw you in the brig? Lucifer himself, Hades, or do you report to someone in the middle?”
“How did you summon me, witch?”
I blew out an exasperated breath. “We aren’t getting anywhere ignoring each other’s questions. First off, I have a name. It’s Ash, and I want you to use it. You say witch like it’s a bad thing to be.”
“It’s an abominable thing to be!”
“You think so, eh? And demons are soooo nice to be around.” Frakity frak. This guy had to go. Rather than sitting around and arguing with the voice in my head, I should be finding a spell to kick him to the curb. What volume would have the steps to perform an exorcism?
My own growl rumbled in my throat as I slammed the healing book shut and focused my energy. “What was lost will be found. Near or far, show me where you are. Exorcisms.”
“What are you doing, wi…Ash? You cannot exorcise a Prince of Hell. Not without my skull.”
“Watch me.” I rummaged through the stack of books where I felt the magic pull me, but the one the spell had led me to was for exiling fae back across the veil. Still, I flipped through the pages in hopes it had a chapter on demons. The most useful thing I found was a healing salve to spread over a faery bite. Those nasty little suckers had mouths full of razors. Tinkerbells they were not.
I cast the location spell again, this time making sure to focus on demon exorcisms. A crooked stack of books stood in front of me, threatening to tumble to the floor, but I couldn’t be bothered with it. I tiptoed around it, swinging my hips away from the pile to avoid giving it any incentive, and made my way to the back of the room.
The overhead lights barely illuminated this part of the library, so I relied on the magic to guide me to the right book. Covered with black leather, the tome vibrated in my hands as I picked it up and carried it back to my desk. An embossed pentagram took up most of the front cover, and the spine creaked when I opened it.
Fabulous. It was written entirely in Latin.
I whipped out my trusty cell phone and opened the translate app. Hovering the camera over the first page, I let it do its thing. You’d think, with how advanced AI was and all, that someone would have invented a spell-casting app by now. Just tell the software what you wanted to do, and it would scan all the documents on the witchy web and find you the perfect incantation.
Maybe I’d work on that after I organized the coven library. One thing at a time, Ash, and right now, I needed to get Chaos out of my head.
“Your attempts will be futile.” At least he’d learned to modulate his volume. “No simple witch can banish me.”
“I’m no simple witch.” Now it was my turn to boast. “I’m Ash Holland, as in the Holland witches of Salem. Direct descendent of the first High Priestess on this continent. The women in my family are so important, the men take our last name.” Not that I was all that important myself, but our lineage sure as hell was.
“A Holland witch,” he grumbled.
“Damn straight. Now that you know who you’re dealing with, zip it so I can send you on your way, mm-kay?”
He responded with silence. Halleluiah.
With the help of the translation app, I found an incantation for banishing a demon across the veil. It wasn’t exactly an exorcism, but it was close enough. I hoped. The translator was far from perfect, but I knew enough Latin to get the gist of what this spell would do. Honestly, I didn’t care where it sent Chaos, as long as he vacated my head.
Closing my eyes, I centered myself. “Goddess, please assist me in banishing this demon. As I will it, so mote it be.”
Magic tingled in my stomach, working its way up to my chest. I lit the appropriately colored candles and smudged the four corners of the room with white sage.
“That scent is atrocious.”
“Of course it is to you, demon.” I dripped as much disdain from the last word as my current state of focus would allow. “Now shut it.”
Tracing my finger along the words, I recited the incantation, doing my absolute best to pronounce the syllables right. A long E spoken with a short sound could be the difference between banishing this creature and turning my beautiful blue locks into swamp moss.
Yes, I knew that from experience.
When I’d uttered the final word, I closed my eyes, inhaling deeply and bracing myself for whatever it felt like to have a demon forcibly removed from your body. I’d seen plenty of movies about it, but I highly doubted it would be as painful as if a Catholic priest were in charge. Witches did everything with more finesse.
So much more finesse, in fact, that I didn’t even feel the creature leave my body. “Huh. That didn’t hurt at all.”
“That is because I’m still here.”
“Well, crap.”
“I told you it wouldn’t work. You cannot remove me from your person without my skull in your possession. You should not have been able to summon me without it.”
I dropped into my seat, the chair creaking as it absorbed my weight. Looked like a squirt of WD-40 was in order for this thing. Hey, witches didn’t use magic for everything. We’d exhaust ourselves with menial tasks and have nothing left for the important stuff like monster hunting…and book cataloging.
Flipping through the pages of this ancient text, I scanned the Latin with my phone, hoping to find a more specific exorcism spell. No luck.
“Why is my mark on your person?” Chaos asked, his voice dripping with annoyance.
I was the one with a demon knocking around inside my skull. If anyone should be annoyed, it was me. Then again, he didn’t possess me on purpose. Maybe a little communication with the beast wouldn’t hurt.
