Demon Day Penelope Fletcher (which ebook reader TXT) 📖

blending in or being part of the ‘in’ crowd. Yet, Ihad been taken in and raised by these people. Living as a humanshaped who I was, how I saw the world and it always would. Therewas so much good in them, and holding onto thoughts of how Lex usedto be, Samuel’s kindness, and the Priest that had secured my futurewhen I was a baby, I strengthened my resolve. I would protect themas my own.

I stared Breandan down until he noddedhis acceptance.

Taking my hand, he turned to facethem. “You may go,” he bellowed, his voice amplified by magic intoa melodious boom. “Remember the kindness you have been showntoday.” He motioned to me. “If not for her you would bedead.”

“Or eaten,” Lex mumbledunder her breath.

The Disciples did not need anotherword to be spoken. Blubbering between themselves, they scrambledup, and stumbled away in a tight knit group, jumping, and shriekingat every shadow. Zoe held her head high and kept her back straight,moving with decisive slow steps. And she was not the only one. Thetruly hard and strong of them simply glared over their shouldersand calmly walked away. From those calm few would come the nexthatemonger, but that was a worry for another day, and one I knew Icould handle. The key to dealing with the humans was getting to thePriests. I knew they were simply full of fear and confused. I hadto reach them somehow and make them hear me.

“We cannot stay here toolong, Rae. They will come back to fight,” Ro said.

I rubbed my head. “I know you allthink I’m making a mistake letting them leave, but we’re not thebloodthirsty demons they think us to be.” Lex snickered and therewas a honking laugh from Ro. I bit my lip to stop my answeringsmile; their inappropriate humor was infectious. “If we act likeheartless creatures it will vindicate the lies of the true monsterslike Cleric Tu.”

“Well said. Once we havethe grimoire everything will change for the better,” Conall saidfirmly. “We use the spell, dispose of Devlin and put you andLochlann in your rightful places. The rest will follow.”

“I don’t know, Conall,”Maeve said in her high chime. Alec smiled down on her and her flushof pleasure had a purple stain blooming across her cheeks. “Afterwhat we’ve seen here do we still think using witchcraft is theright way to do this? At first I agreed wholeheartedly, but now …after seeing Rae struggling to deal with such darkness … no … I’mnot so sure using the witches’ grimoire is the rightway.”

I almost missed the meaning of whathad been said, so focused had I been on the backs of the retreatingDisciples. Samuel glanced over his shoulder at me, dipped his headthen he was gone.

“Uh, wait,” I butt in andfrowned as I ran Maeve’s words around in my head again. “Thewitches’ grimoire … you mean the book was written by witches?”

The fairies fell silent.

Papa Obe had made me thinkmore on the significance of the spell book since he explained theVodoun had helped keep it from witches, but I hadn’t realized whythe witches wanted it so badly now.I kept looking at the grimoire as Lochlann’s wayof taking the High Lordship from Devlin whilst keeping within therules of fairykind, essentially, a book of fairy magics, but thatwas not the case. The book had a bigger role to play, especially ifthe witches had written it. It made the magics it contained dark.It explained why the witches were interested in finding me, and whytheir attention had fallen on the Temple. They wanted their bookback, and I had the key, the amulets.

The look Conall gave me was apologeticand almost ashamed. I narrowed my eyes, looked at each of theirfaces slowly. Maeve looked discomfited, resolute, but ashamed. Asalways, the only one in the dark and having revelations wasme.

After a full minute ofsilence, I found my voice, and I yanked my hand from Breandan’s tomove away from him. “You have got to be out of your minds? You weregoing to try and depose Devlin from the throne by usingwitchcraft?” Conall wincedat the power of my voice. Good. Cause I was pissed. “Why was I nottold this?”

“We didn’t want to frightenyou,” Breandan explained. “You only knew witchcraft to be an evilpractice.”

“That’s because it is,” Isaid furiously. “They feed off darkness and you want to use it tobring down the fairy High Lord?”

“The Vodoun use blackmagic, Rae.” Breandan pointed to Lex, who started guiltily. “Youstood in the way of natural order to save your friend. You calledon the Loa and used the dark arts to bring her back. Were yourintentions not good and noble?”

I shook my head. “You’re twistingeverything. What I did wasn’t an accident, but it wasn’t exactlyintentional either. I reacted in a moment of grief.”

Breandan glowered at me. “Our actionswere intentional and carefully planned as what was considered bestfor the fairy people. You saw what Devlin was doing tous.”

“One wrong does not cancelout the other,” I said firmly. “Ana told me Devlin could be removedby a spell in the grimoire, but I didn’t understand theimplications of what she was saying.” I looked at him pointedly.“You once told me Devlin could be removed by majority vote. Ifoolishly assumed the two were tied.”

He was already shaking his head. “Thepeople won’t vote against him. They are too frightened, and thevote cannot be cast without him present. He has been a lord forover seven centuries Rae, and High Lord for two of them. Even ifthey fear him, they respect him. They won’t vote againsthim.”

“So I’m clear your family,”I spun to Conall to include him in my damnation, “and mine decidedto lead a revolt against a rightfully appointed sovereign who isstill in power because the people respect him even if they fearhim?” They all looked away from me and I had my answer. I wasbeleaguered with anger. This was not what I had been led to believewas happening. “You lied to me.”

“No,” Breandan and Conallsaid as one.

I made an impatient movement with myhand. “Fine, but you twisted everything to make it seem like Devlinwas this evil tyrant who needed dragging down