Lead Demon

Suites Just Right

“When will you understand? More will die because of you. Even the friends who keep you safe—either I will kill them, or you will.” He honestly looked concerned. Like he was talking someone off a cliff. Then his mouth quirked into a smile. “You’re dangerous, Seven. To yourself, and to others. That is why Leanna wants you. You need her guidance. You need her help, before you kill everyone.”

“I’ll die before I serve her,” Seven whispered. He tried to build the fire inside him, tried to steel his voice, but being here, being back in this room, hearing those words... He didn’t have the resolve. He was weak. He was empty. He could never run far enough from this place to be anything beyond what he was—lost, scared, confused. Just like Matthias knew him to be.

“No,” Matthias said. “I know you, Seven. I’ve seen into your heart. You won’t die. Not yet. You’re too cowardly for that, and Leanna wishes for you to be brought to her alive. You are safe, so long as you do not defy me. But your friends? They are not so important to my mistress. They will die first. Then, when you have no one left to harm with your protection, you will come to her, begging for forgiveness.”

Seven looked at Matthias.

“If you hurt them, any of them, I’ll kill you.”

Matthias just laughed and dropped the journal at Seven’s feet.

“Perhaps,” he said. “But the threat of death means nothing to one like me.” He leaned in close and whispered into Seven’s ear. “Either come to me or do not. I’ll find you no matter what. And when I do, I will kill them. One by one. And you will watch them scream.”

His fingers dug into Seven’s shoulder. Pain coursed through him, and the dark room bled black.

*

Cold sweat coated Seven’s skin when he woke, and for a moment, he had no clue where he was. Then he blinked and realized the rumbling was from the car and the warm pillow beneath his head was Stephanie’s lap. He looked up into Stephanie’s face. He was sound asleep and peaceful.

“Bad dreams?” Christal asked, peering back to face him. She was still in the passenger seat, Seven behind the wheel.

“I guess you could say that,” he replied. He slowly forced himself up to sitting, every joint in his tired body reminding him that he was not built to be sleeping in the backseat of a car.

“You mumbled,” Seven said. Which, in Seven’s opinion, was a rather ironic thing to say.

“Sorry,” he replied instead.

Matthias’s words dug into his skull. He hadn’t seen that old journal since Silveron, but he knew deep in his gut that the words were true. What did that mean? Had Matthias found the journal? Or was the man able to claw into Seven’s past and read every line of his memory? His chest constricted; if Matthias could read Seven’s mind, whatever he learned would be fed right back to Leanna.

Seven looked to Stephanie. He hadn’t had anything or anyone in his life he’d worried about losing since he’d found his parents torn apart in the garden shed. Not until now.

“It’s Matthias,” Seven whispered.

Seven immediately swerved, and Christal’s head jerked back. Stephanie mumbled in his sleep.

“Not here!” Seven said, fervent but quietly. Seven let out an audible sigh. “He... He’s in my dreams.”

There was a long silence. Seven immediately regretted his decision. He fully expected Seven to turn the car around, or for them to kick him out. If Matthias was in his dreams, none of what they said was private.

“For how long?” Christal finally asked.

“Just a few days. Just after...after Water...”

She swallowed.

“Then we must be more careful,” she said. “If he is watching...”

He caught the subtext; she was grateful she hadn’t said where they were going. And she was wondering just how deep they’d gotten.

“Can you stop it?” Seven asked. He hated how his voice cracked.

Neither of them answered. That was answer enough.

“It’s getting worse, isn’t it?” Christal asked after a while. It was barely above a whisper. “Water. It is growing stronger. More violent.”

Seven nodded, wondering how much he’d said in his sleep, or how much she felt from her own attunement to the Sphere.

“We thought the end had come with the Resurrection,” she said gravely. “Now I am not so sure. The world feels once more like it did before the Howls came. An ending is coming. Even the Spheres are calling out to it.”

In spite of the heat pumping through the vents, he shivered.

“Does this have to do with the Witches? With our mission?”

She nodded.

“In a sense.” Her words were slow, picked carefully to not give too much away. “The Witches are tied to the very fabric of the world. They understand the Spheres on a level deeper than most. For them, magic is a religion, a way of life, rather than a tool to kill. They were the first to know of the Spheres, and look what the rest of the world did with their discovery. Since then, they have hidden themselves, lest their knowledge be bastardized again.”

They hit a bump that Seven prayed wasn’t a body. Stephanie snorted himself awake and looked around, eyes immediately wide.

“What was that?” he asked.

“Pothole,” Seven replied.

Stephanie opened his mouth like he was going to ask more, then thought better of it.

“Did I miss anything?” he asked instead.

“Just scenery,” Christal replied. She looked back to him. Her eyes flickered to Seven—would she mention Matthias to him? Should Seven? “It is almost morning. And we are on half a tank.”

Stephanie nodded. “Let’s stop soon, then. You guys need to sleep, and I don’t know how to drive.” He looked to Seven. “Do you?”

Seven shook his head. He was supposed to get his learner’s permit the summer after his first year at Silveron. Like so many things, that had never come to pass.

“That settles it,” Stephanie said. “We’ll stop at dawn. Find a strip of cars so we can transfer, get a few hours of sleep. Then we’re off again. Matthias won’t even know we’ve been here.”

Seven cringed.