“Thank you for agreeing to this meeting,” I started. “I am Yolanda Aleksiev. This is Headmaster Colin.” I hesitated, thinking it was probably stupid of me to introduce him. But on the other hand, only Merrit and Klaus knew the headmaster personally. As far as I knew, the others had never attended Grim Reaper Academy. “Davien, Seth, Adrian,” I introduced the men I secretly thought of as my lovers.
“I am Jasinda Merton,” the woman said.
“Corey De Marco,” one of the men introduced himself. He was dark haired, with a sexy beard, blue eyes, and a dreamy air about him. He looked Latino.
“Ioseph Elkin,” the other introduced himself. He had a bit of an accent. He was tall, well-built, with long, dark dreadlocks.
“Merrit Castegny.” I didn’t know Merrit personally, but Mila had told me a bunch of things about him. He’d tortured her when they had both been students here, and she always said the guy was an asshole back then and was still an asshole now.
“Klaus Hamelin.” I did know Klaus. He gave me a smile, and I smiled back. “Merciful Death. Mila told me. Nice.”
“Well, I ended up in the cabal she should’ve been in.”
“Nah,” Klaus said. “Just because her name means ‘mercy’ doesn’t mean she’s merciful. What does your name mean, anyway? Yolanda…”
I cocked an eyebrow. In fact, I had no idea.
“It means ‘violet’,” Jasinda offered. “As in the flower, not the color.” When all eyes turned on her, she shrugged. “I’ve studied ancient Greek.”
I saw Merrit roll his eyes. He stepped forward, clearly impatient.
“Okay, let’s cut the pleasantries. My scythe will probably start glowing soon. We’re here because Lorna said you need us.”
“Yes, I do. Did she tell you…”
“Everything? Yes, she did.”
“And can you… help?”
“We’re the descendants. We must.”
Klaus stepped forward. “The second we found out about the Great Old Ones and the ritual, we all started looking through our families’ papers, artifacts, diaries, spells… everything we could get our hands on.”
“Did you find anything?”
“Yes,” Corey said. “The De Marcos have kept everything that ever belonged to us since the founding of our house. The object, manuscripts, memorabilia… have all been spelled to endure the passing of time. I found a detailed account of what happened when the Watchers came to the mages and asked them to take away their immortality in exchange for… well…” He cleared his throat. “Genitalia.”
“I found a pretty detailed account, too,” Ioseph said. “Both of the ritual itself and what happened after it was completed.”
“This is great news!” I exchanged a glance with Seth and Davien. “This means you know how to perform it, right?”
“Well, it has to be performed in reverse,” Klaus said. “We’re trying to do the opposite of what was achieved back then. But that’s not the problem. Between the five of us, we will figure it out.”
“What is the problem, then?”
Merrit was the one to give me the bad news. He was good at that, for sure. “After it all went fifty shades of fucked, our ancestors realized what they’d done, and they started looking for ways to undo it. The monsters that came through the open portals devoured entire communities. There weren’t cities of countries back then, so yeah… let’s call the human settlements communities. Unfortunately, they couldn’t do anything. The creatures were too powerful, and they were literally out of this world. They couldn’t be reasoned with. The mages concluded that they were entirely foreign forms of life. They couldn’t be killed, so after they ate to their heart’s desire, they hid under the ground and fell into a deep sleep to digest their food. For the rest of their lives, the mages tried to banish them. They eventually figured out a way, but the problem was… the time was never right. Apparently, the stars had to be in the exact same position they were when the creatures entered our world. Klaus is right. We can figure out the ritual. But we need exactly five things to perform it.”
A chill ran up my spine. This wasn’t going to be good. Oh, it was going to be pretty frigging bad.
Merrit counted on his fingers: “Blood from a revenant, an angel’s feather, a demon’s horn, blood from one of the Great Old Ones, and soil from their universe.”
I felt like my knees were going to give in. Davien sensed it too and stepped closer to support me. His arm encircled my waist.
“Get us the five ingredients, and we will do what needs to be done on Christmas Night this year.”
I nodded, but I couldn’t find my voice to say one word. The only word that was accepted in this context – “yes”. I couldn’t.
“A demon’s horn,” Davien whispered. “No demon would ever sacrifice one of their horns. Not even if they had a dozen.”
Merrit shrugged. “You can either do it, or you can’t.” The blade of his scythe started glowing red. “Oh shit.”
“An angel’s feather is easy to get,” Seth said. He gave Davien one of his signature smirks. “You can ask Domina, right? She’d do anything for you.”
“Fuck off, Khepri.”
Seth ignored him. “The blood of a revenant. You can ask your cousin.”
“That’s certainly not the problem.”
“Soil from their universe,” Adrian said, shaking his head gently. “Yolanda, you can’t go there again.”
“I have to. That’s not the problem, either. I can get some soil. Blood from a Great Old One. From Yig, in this case. Now that… that I don’t know how to get.”
“I’ll get it for you,” Adrian said.
I turned to him, inevitably pushing Davien aside. “How?”
The Unseelie removed his whip from his belt. He held the thong coil with one hand while he squeezed the handle with the other. He released it, pulled his arm back, and cracked it in the air. The sharp echo traveled over the cliffs and the ocean. The Hydra’s Tail was at least sixteen feet long. I had the feeling it could extend as much as its master wanted it to extend.
“With the Hydra. The fall must lick the monster once to draw blood.”
“Yig lives in a well! How are you going to…”
“Don’t worry about it,” he cut me off. “I got this. I got this for you.”
“Well, if this is all, I’ll be going now. Duty calls,” Merrit said as he walked toward the edge of the cliff. Before he teleported away, he threw over his shoulder. “Call us when you have the stuff.” He vanished.
“I should go, too,” Klaus said. “You can do this, Yoli. I know you. You’re just as stubborn as Mila.” He chuckled. “It runs in the family, doesn’t it?”
I nodded. The truth was that I couldn’t focus anymore. Klaus teleported away, followed by the last three mages. I’d thought this would be easy. I’d thought I had everything I needed – the date when it had to happen, and the five descendants who could do it. The news about the five needed ingredients had crushed me. And now Adrian was saying he wanted to confront Yig and get its blood.