Page 87 of That Mafioso Magic
Once the chalices had filled, Sage and I followed the instructions from the grimoire and drew a circle on the carpeted floor. Our fingers began at opposite points and ended up in opposite points to form a complete circle. Inside the circle, we had to draw sigils that represented a lock, cell, demon, soul, dark and light, and life and death. Four sigils each, with me handling the easier ones, like cell.
With the last sigil drawn, the seal sparked to life. It glowed red, then a flame raced around the seal, burning it into the carpet before dying out, leaving the sigils and circle smoking.
“Well, that ain’t coming out,” Xavier said.
“I’m not worried about it,” Sage said as he rose and scooped up Lacey’s body, then placed her inside the seal.
Once she was in place, Sage knelt back down on the opposite side of me and we joined our hands over Lacey to prepare to say the incantation.
“You ready?” I asked.
He nodded.
I steeled myself and together, we spoke. It was imperative that everything we did had to be in sync. “With our blood, we call thee. With the cell, we bind thee. With our power, we evoke thee.” Sage and I said the incantation and the circle lit up again and four red lights crossed over, forming the magical bars of the cell. Then the light disappeared but the cell was still in place. I could sense it. And it was just in time as Lacey’s eyes opened up and she released a snarl that was out of this world creepy.
“You fools!” the demon raged, and I could tell it was struggling to move, but couldn’t. “What have you done to me?”
“Nothing yet, demon,” Sage said. “But we will, since you like harming little girls.”
The demon grinned, its razor-sharp teeth looking menacing in every way. Its eyes glowed red with black slits. “I will free myself from this cell. You can’t contain me, mages.”
I didn’t want to see if it could. I just wanted to finish working the spell. Trapping the demon was the first step. “Let’s keep moving,” I urged Sage, who nodded. I felt it was best not to engage the demon, just in case it was trying to buy itself time. The next step was to draw sigils on Lacey’s body to be able to free her from the demonic spirit. The blood of the Griezel was what we needed now. “You have to do this spell.” This was the part that required the dark magic that flowed through Sage.
He read over the grimoire to see what he had to do, then took the heart from the box. It was a sickly gray color, but definitely fresh. He cut it open with his knife and dipped his finger into it.
“You will fail! This body is mine!” the demon roared.
I was thankful that both Jewel and Xavier remained quiet. We needed to concentrate on the spell at this point and couldn’t afford distractions. Thank goodness Sage dismissed the pilot and staff when he had come on board. They didn’t need to see any of this. I didn’t know if they knew what he was, or if they knew about magic, but at least they didn’t ask questions during our round trip. So, I appreciated that, because I hadn’t been ready to explain why we had a little girl with us that seemed like she was dead.
I watched as Sage moved around Lacey’s body, drawing sigils on her forehead, both palms, and the bottoms of her feet. With each sigil he drew, the blood was a dark red from the griezel’s heart, almost black in color. It lit up red as it fastened itself to Lacey’s body. The whole time we worked our spell, the demon raged and cursed at us. Declared that we would fail, that the girl’s soul was long gone and could never be restored.
Sage sat back down on his knees, and I could tell it had taken a bit out of him to perform that spell, but he nodded. “It’s done. She’s ready.” He placed the heart on the floor. It had served its purpose.
“We can do this. We have to. Hand me the Light of the Devine,” I said, pointing to the orb close to Sage’s foot.
He reached back, picking up the orb and handing it to me. I held it in my palm, then reached out to Sage with my other hand. “I have to draw on your power in order to activate this orb.”
“Anytime,” Sage said, then took my offered hand into his own. Every time we touched, something happened that made me feel closer to him and I was sure he was feeling the same by the way he smiled at me.
He nodded, giving me permission to draw on his power. I closed my eyes and concentrated on drawing the elements of magic from Sage and the atmosphere around me. I could sense the tingling inside my body, it was unmistakable, the magic flowing through my limbs. I opened my eyes and blew on the orb, giving it the breath of life granted by Azraelle, which charged it with the magic that it would need to be able to harness the soul of Lacey. First, we had to destroy the demon that was inhabiting her body in order to anchor her soul back onto this plane of existence.
The Light of the Devine was glowing white in my hand. I placed it on Lacey’s chest, over her heart. Then I took Sage’s other hand and together, we read the incantation from the grimoire to pull the demon from its host.
“I will kill you!” the demon yelled in a voice far deeper and more dangerous than the soft-spoken Lacey could ever sound like.
The windows of the airplane cracked from the power of the demon trying to resist our spell. Sage and I continued to say the words over and over again. “Espiritus daemonitus eviticus mortoirum exosiodus.”
The plane shook violently and I could feel my heart thumping in my chest and my pulse thundering in my ears. I almost stuttered on the words out of sheer fear as sweat poured from my flesh. But Sage squeezed my hands and I felt his calming nature coming over me. Our eyes met and he was staring directly at me, ignoring the demon’s antics and all else in the plane. He continued to say the words, encouraging me to not falter. I felt renewed in my determination to save Lacey, no longer afraid of what the demon might do to us.
Xavier and Jewel weren’t as confident and they both settled into seats and buckled themselves in just in case. It was smart as the plane shook as if it were going through the worse turbulence. The demon called us names, did everything it could to force us to break the connection, but I just kept looking at Sage and as we spoke the words, the windows of the plane burst inward and Sage squeezed my hands tighter and kept chanting. I nodded and kept going. Lights flickered, wind blew in cold and painful like needle pricks against my flesh. I was sure I felt it more keenly than Sage did. Luckily, my amulet took the brunt of it because I was able to press through. I think we both understood it was the final lashing out of the demon that was about to be killed.
The metal of the plane creaked as if it was going to collapse in on us, but before anything like that could happen, Lacey’s body arched as the demon roared. Its evil spirit left the body against its efforts to stay inside. It looked like a black shadow with red eyes. Its clawed hands clung to the body as it screamed, but once it was completely separated from the body, our incantation began to destroy the spirit of the demon. Slowly, it dissolved into smoke until it was gone completely. The plane stopped shaking and the lights stopped flickering. Even the wind that had blown in through the broken windows ceased its gusts.
Sage’s grip on my hand lessened a bit and we both sighed as we had to regroup from that spell. That was just the first part… or was it the second? Shit, I didn’t know. I just knew I was exhausted and still had to bring Lacey’s soul back. No time to waste. I held Sage’s hand to continue to draw on his power, but this was the part of the spell that my light powers had to complete. I placed my hand on the orb, pressing it to Lacey’s body, then began to chant the incantation.
“Retunicus espiritus innocentius,” I said repeatedly as I channeled my magic into the orb and into Lacey’s body. I could feel the magic flowing into me and out of me, which was draining, but I refused to give up. The orb began to glow brighter, almost blinding, and when I thought I’d have to look away, the light in the orb was absorbed by Lacey’s body. Once again, the body arched as her tiny mouth opened, gasping in her first breath.
I let Sage’s hand go and scooped her up into my arms as she coughed, trying to catch her breath. Oh my God, it had worked. “Lacey, it’s okay. You’re safe now,” I said.
