Page 56 of The Wishing Game

"You can't possibly?—"

"Fine," Cer interrupts me. "That is a small enough enclosure. But"—he pauses, looking both of us straight in the eye—"you stay put. You do not leave the room until I tell you it's safe to do so, understood?"

"Yes, sir." Thea cackles, while I mumble a low, "Fine."

Cer pivots, heading backstage, and we follow.

The women's dressing room is not very spacious, but it's filled with colorful gowns that immediately catch Thea's eyes—and if I'm honest with myself, mine too.

"Remember what I told you. Stay here," Cer warns once more before he closes his eyes, white-blue light shimmering in his palms as he directs it to the door and the walls around. "This will keep anything out of here, but the moment you step outside of the barrier, it will automatically dissolve."

Thea and I nod, while Cer seems rather conflicted about leaving us here by ourselves. Eventually, though, he shakes his head and exits the room.

"Oh my, Luce! Look at these gowns! I'm in love!"

"Shouldn't you be... I don't know, more worried about our lives?"

"Nah." She waves my concerns away. "I trust Cer with my life. Always. He's good at what he does, Luce. He would never let a demon harm us."

"If you say so..." I mumble, taking a seat on a chair at the vanity table.

With the barrier in place, I feel more at peace, but that doesn't mean I'm not still worried. Is Nikki here as well? Is he by my side and I don't know it? Or is he trapped outside the barrier, somewhere in the theatre where he could be the next meal for this damned demon?

"Thea," I suddenly speak. "How can you talk to a spirit?"

She's already taken off her clothes, standing completely naked in front of me—unabashedly so. She's holding two dresses in her hands, one blue, one purple, regarding them with her lips pursed.

"It's very hard to say," she adds absentmindedly. "You can bait them, but usually they are the first to make contact. It also depends on the level of awareness they have. An old spirit like Olive would be easier to goad into showing herself to us—if she weren't demon food, of course."

"Not a newer one?"

"Those are the most unpredictable. I pity those teams who got assigned to a fresh soul." She shakes her head.

"Your brother mentioned mid-level demon. What's that?"

Thea turns slightly toward me.

"Demons have hierarchies too. A mid-level demon means that it's sentient and often cunning in how it lures its victims. It could be why people have been seeing Olive's ghost."

"You mean he might have been masquerading as her?"

She nods.

"At this level, however, they are still monsters. The higher up the ladder you go, though, the more humanoid they look. They also don't get their hands dirty like this. They have their army of minions to do their bidding."

"Do they also possess people?" I ask, thinking of those horror exorcist movies I would watch with Nikki.

"The low-level ones. They have no corporeal form, so to speak, so the only way they can consume a soul is from within," she explains.

"So how do exorcisms work then? Because there are a lot of stories about that... Also, how do Christianity and God and the Bible fit into all of this? How do any religions fit into this?"

Her lips curl up.

"It's the intention that matters. Your Christian priests are no different from Buddhist priests or any other priests—they all pray for the good of the soul. The legend goes that eons ago, the Primordial gods created mortals in their image as an experiment—or, if I'm honest, as toys. But after mortals were created, the gods saw that mortal souls, created from the purest source of energy, were actuallyimmortal. And soon, these souls developed their own free will, thinking themselves omnipotent. Not wanting their toys to turn against them, the gods combined their forces and wove into each soul nine threads of fate—controlled by the Gods of Fate. This way, they regained control over that mortality, and the Gods of Fate were able to sever the threads whenever they wished. Naturally, the soul would survive to be reincarnated at a later date, but without memories or knowledge of the past, thus making it impossible for them to ever rebel."

Thea pauses, taking a big gulp of air.

"Cultures evolved, religions were created, gods appeared and perished. Yet when mortals invoke a higher power, it doesn't matter under which name they do it—the gods listen. So when you have your exorcisms, regardless of what tradition they are carried out in, they channel the same purifying energy."

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