The Seventh Crow

  Copyright © 2021 Tamara Geraeds

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Cover design by Deranged Doctor Design

  Editing by Ambition Editing LLC

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  MAKE A DIFFERENCE

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  PREVIOUSLY, IN CARDS OF DEATH

  Our fight with the Devil isn’t over yet, but we’re getting closer to the end. Whose end that will be–our or his–I’m not sure yet, but I have high hopes. You see, a couple of good things have happened lately. Dad visited me. Unfortunately, his transparent state confirmed that he is indeed dead, but he hasn’t left us. The lingering fear that he might have turned evil before he died is gone now, because he told us what happened: He was under the influence of the White Horseman and was later killed by his black brother. These two have also held him captive since he died, but he managed to escape to tell me about the Devil’s back-up plan to get out of Hell. There is a way to open the circles of Hell without having all of the souls. If they manage to make the chosen souls commit the sins of each circle, Lucifer can use that somehow to break through the circles.

  Anyway, Dad went back to his prison, in who knows where, to see what else he could find out. He’ll try to join our fight later, so I hope to see him again.

  But not everything is going well. A while ago, we lost two members of my Shield: D’Maeo and Jeep. D’Maeo got sucked into the box we captured the Black Void in; the thing that killed him and took parts of his soul. Jeep was sucked into another world when we returned from Purgatory. And I haven’t seen Mom since she fell into the pit to Hell. I knew we needed more power to keep fighting, so I added another ghost to my Shield: Kessley. After a hesitant start, she’s turning out to be an excellent addition to the team. She can multiply herself and shapeshift into any living thing she chooses! And besides that, she’s got a great personality, and she can be so funny when the alcohol takes over─since she died drunk.

  With Kessley as extra back-up, we went to see Gisella’s aunt, Kasinda, who put the curse on Dad (which jumped over to me when he died and caused Vicky to have the same Exorcist-like fits that Mom used to have). We managed to break the curse and transfer Kasinda’s dark powers to Gisella, who is still working on learning to control all of them.

  After that, we found out that Shelton Banks not only–probably–killed Vicky’s grandmother and sent the pixie that killed Taylar’s brother, but that he’s also the one touching Vicky’s grave, causing her to get pulled to the Shadow World. We took Taylar’s adjusted memory to the police, and they brought Shelton Banks in for questioning. Meanwhile, we went to his house and killed all of his troll and pixie servants. We found some interesting things in his mansion: three books, evidence of a murdered angel, a Devil’s shrine, and… Jeep.

  CHAPTER 1

  A couple of weeks ago, I would’ve considered what I’m seeing now impossible.

  I’m in a secret room, looking into another secret room with a portal in it. That’s weird enough to begin with, but it gets crazier. I’m surrounded by several ghosts, who are all part of my Shield, which means they protect me, because I’m the chosen one, the only one capable of keeping the Devil in Hell. Every time I think about this, I question my sanity. Maybe I fell asleep and got caught up in a really long, crazy dream? Did I get into an accident and end up in a coma? That could explain the unbelievable turn my life suddenly took. I mean, an angel as a friend? Two friends who turned out to work for the Devil himself? Making love to a ghost? Traveling to other worlds, meeting the ferryman of the Underworld, Saint Peter and the Four Horsemen? All in my head, right? I made all of this up in my dream to escape from Mom’s horrible fits, Dad’s disappearance and… a car accident? The weird things started happening after we all drove home from school in Quinn’s car, so why not?

  Sure, Mom’s fits were also strange. And strange is an understatement here. At least once a week, she acted like she was possessed by a demon. Of course, demons don’t exist, so we searched for some other cause. Brain damage? Severe epilepsy with something else on the side? It was none of that.

  My mind short-circuited and came up with this explanation: The world is filled with magical beings. Humans with powers, monsters of all kinds, demons, and, to make the horror complete, Lucifer. Maybe Mom’s lunacy is hereditary. That makes much more sense.

  I shake my head to get rid of the images from the past that roll by before my eyes. I see Jeep, the necromancer of my Shield. He’s trapped behind the portal in the secret room. Can a dream feel so real? Can you love the people you meet there? Because my heart breaks at the sight of Jeep suffering like this. Just after he died, his wife was attacked by a bunch of ghosts. He was able to fight them off and save his wife, but the only way to beat the ghosts was to trap them in his tattoos. He’s been fighting to keep them there ever since, and now, they’re escaping. Being trapped in the empty world behind this portal must have consumed the last of his energy.

  The tattooed ghost doesn’t look up when we call out his name. He doesn’t even seem to hear us, although that’s hard to tell with only a faint, small light shining down on him in an otherwise completely dark world.

  Vicky is the first to break the stunned silence. She dives forward before I can stop her. Then, with her nose inches from the portal, she comes to an abrupt halt. “No! Jeep!”

  The ghost is on his knees with gritted teeth and closed eyes. He trembles violently. Stretched-out bodies rise from his tattoos. Bony, transparent hands push the bodies from the pictures that have been their prison for so long.

  “Do something!” Taylar yells behind me.

  My foot moves forward on its own. It bumps against an invisible wall. My heart stops beating when I hold out my hands to find the same obstacle.

  “No…” I breathe. Why is this happening? We finally found Jeep. The thing we’ve been fearing for a while has come true, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Th
ere’s no way of reaching him.

  I put my arm around Vicky and pull her close. All we can do now is watch in horror as our friend gets surrounded by the evil souls he trapped under his skin, souls that have been yearning for revenge for decades.

  Vicky’s hand clutches mine as we watch helplessly.

  I ball my hands into fists and will myself to wake up. Enough of this. I want my life back. I’m going to wake up now in a hospital bed. I will find Mom sitting next to my bed, with an exhausted, but relieved look on her face.

  “Dante?” Vicky’s voice startles me.

  I realize I’m swaying on my feet.

  “Stay with us, Dante. We need you. We need to figure out a way to get to Jeep and help him.”

  She sounds desperate. There’s a mixture of emotions on her face that I can’t fully read.

  Mom’s voice comes to me from the corner of my mind. A Christmas memory. Me and Mom sitting at the dining room table. Me with my sketchbook, Mom with her sewing machine. “Winter Wonderland” playing in the background. Mom is staring at me, and I put down my pencil. ‘What is it?’

  She smiles. Pride and love shine through her eyes. ‘You are so talented.’

  I look down at my drawing. It’s a portrait of a snow owl surrounded by trees covered in white bliss. I shrug. ‘It’s okay.’

  ‘It’s more than okay, Dante. Can’t you see that?’

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘You should apply for art school. If you want to make a living with this.’

  It’s probably the tenth time she brings this up. ‘I don’t know. I’m not that good.’

  ‘Yes, you are.’

  ‘I’m good at one thing, Mom. Drawing animals. Nature.’

  She stands up and walks around the table. With her arms wrapped around my neck, she studies my work again. ‘You could draw something else. Practice with other materials, see what else suits you.’

  ‘That’s just it, Mom. I’m not really interested in anything else.’

  She lets out a sigh. ‘Try a fictional animal then, to start with. Do it for me.’

  Of course I agreed to try it, but it didn’t work out. Not enough imagination, like Dad would say.

  With a jerk, I jump back to the present. Not enough imagination. Dad wasn’t only talking about when I am awake. Even my dreams are much more realistic than those of other people. Even in my sleep I lack imagination. Which means I could never come up with all these powers and this whole crazy plot about the Devil wanting to escape the nine circles of Hell by myself. Which means… this is all very real.

  I blink and see Jeep hunched over on the floor, alone and unable to defend himself against the angry souls that are still pulling themselves from his tattoos.

  “This isn’t right,” I say, and I take a step back, dragging Vicky along. I turn my head to face my other friends: Charlie, Gisella, Taylar, Maël and several Kessleys. That last ghost is certainly something I could never have imagined myself. Someone with the ability to shapeshift and multiply? No way. “Everyone, hit the barrier with everything you’ve got, in three… two… one…”

  It rains lightning, gel balls and weapons around me, but they all bounce off against the invisible wall. Gisella slashes away with her blade hands, but although sparks fly everywhere, they don’t penetrate the barrier.

  “Again!” I yell.

  We hit it even harder, Maël with her staff, Taylar with his bare hands and Vicky with powerful kicks.

  Nothing.

  We cease our attempts, panting hard.

  “Vicky, try going invisible,” I suggest.

  She vanishes instantly, and the wall lights up.

  “Yes!” I cry out. But my excitement is premature. Vicky appears again, on our side of the portal.

  We have some success though. Jeep looks up from his place on the floor. The souls still swirl around him, most of them attached to a tattoo by only a small sliver now.

  “Jeep!” Vicky and I call out at the same time.

  I move closer to the portal. “Can you hear us?”

  “Guys?” Jeep’s voice is hoarse.

  “Yes, it’s us!” Vicky shouts.

  “We can’t break through,” I explain, although I’m not sure he can hear us. “Try to damage the wall from your side.”

  A glint of hope flickers in Jeep’s eyes. He swats the souls away that try to wrap around his face. Two other ones grab his wrists, but his newfound hope makes him stronger. He frees his arms and reaches for his bowler hat, which is lying two feet away.

  “Hit the wall once more with everything you’ve got when Jeep’s hat connects with it,” I order the others.

  They all prepare, their faces contracted in concentration.

  Jeep’s hand is an inch from the rim of his hat when one of the souls finally manages to pull free completely. The tail of the dark wisp frees itself from the tattooed skull and shoots up high into the emptiness of the world Jeep is in.

  “Watch out!” I yell as it drops back down.

  But Jeep is too late to avoid it because the other souls hold him down. The sliver of black mist slams into him, and he screams in pain.

  I pound my fists against the wall. “No! Leave him alone!”

  Vicky joins me. “Keep fighting, Jeep!” Tears stream down her cheeks while she moves her fists forward with all her might.

  But Jeep stays down. One by one, the souls escape from his tattoos and slam down on him like bricks. They wrap around his wrists and ankles and pull.

  CHAPTER 2

  Jeep moans and screams.

  “Make yourself invisible!” I tell him.

  He flickers like a bulb that’s about to die. It’s no use; the souls keep him in a death grip. They will literally tear him apart, and we can only watch as they do it.

  Vicky stops pounding and rests her forehead against the invisible wall. “If you can hear me, Jeep, I want to tell you something.” Her voice is fragile and full of sorrow. “You mean the world to me. You watched out for me from the moment I was added to the Shield. You supported me, taught me how to fight, and had faith in me. You never failed me.”

  Jeep stops struggling and looks up at her. He wants to answer, but as soon as he opens his mouth, a dark sliver covers it.

  “I want to thank you for the great time we had together, Jeep,” Vicky continues. “I never thought it would end like this, and I’ll miss you terribly.” She wipes her nose and looks Jeep in the eye. “I love you, Jeep.”

  For a second, Jeep’s mouth is uncovered, and his lips form into a sad smile. “I love you too.”

  The ground rumbles, and a thin golden line trickles from Jeep’s forehead. Vicky grabs her head as the same happens to her. Slowly, the two lines stretch toward each other. Vicky’s travels through the wall unharmed. The moment the two lines touch, the rumbling gets louder. I jump back as invisible bricks hit me in the chest. The pain barely registers. The wall is breaking down!

  Vicky reaches forward and steps over the shattered barrier and into the empty world. I follow her, afraid of the wall mending itself. The ground still shakes, and the souls loosen their grip on Jeep. Vicky has reached him and helps him up with both hands.

  I bend over to pick up his hat before hitting the fleeing souls with lightning.

  Balls of gel zoom past my head. Something tugs at my leg, but I kick it with my other foot, and it lets go.

  Four Kessleys take their place behind us and fight off the souls that are trying to reach Jeep again.

  Vicky and I swat the rest of the slivers away from him. Mouths appear at the end of one and snap at me. Others have blinking eyes, and I even see an arm.

  “They are transforming back into their human forms,” Maël says, smacking a half-formed head with her staff.

  “What happens after that?” I ask, throwing Jeep’s arm over my neck.

  “I do not know.”

  “I’d rather not find out,” Gisella says while she cuts souls in half w
ith her blades.

  Taylar holds his shield up above Jeep’s head as two souls dive down. “Can we lock them back inside this room?”

  Maël and I answer at the same time, “I hope so.”

  Slowly but surely, we get closer to the portal. I try to ignore the feeling of oxygen getting sucked out of my lungs with every step I take. There’s something off about the air in here. It’s unnaturally dry.

  The Kessleys, Taylar, Charlie, Vicky and Gisella try to block the souls’ way back to Jeep.

  Maël moves faster than me, unaware of the lack of oxygen flowing to my brain.

  “Hurry, Dante,” she says, and I urge my feet to keep going, and my arm to hold up Jeep. But the longer I am in here, the foggier my mind becomes. All strength floods from my limbs, and suddenly I’m falling. In the corner of my vision, I see Jeep tumbling to the ground as Maël loses her grip on him.

  I gesture at her to pick him up. “You go… on. I’ll… follow.”

  “No!” Jeep’s voice is suddenly strong. He lifts his head and meets my eye. “You… safe…”

  Maël hauls him back to his feet, and he leans on her heavily. “I’ll take him out and come back for you.”

  I nod and rest my head on the ground for a moment.

  “Babe!” I feel Vicky’s cold touch on my cheek. “Don’t give up. It’s only three more steps.”

  “I can’t,” I whisper without moving. All energy has left my body, as has the will to even try to get up.

  “Vicky! Hurry up!” I hear Charlie yelling.

  Then Taylar’s answer, “We’ll never be able to trap them in here. Can you use the shadows, Gisella?”

  Someone tugs at my arm. “Come on!”

  My eyes have closed, and no matter how hard I try, my eyelids refuse to open.

  Then, something wraps around my ankles and drags me along. Hurried footsteps follow me.

  I force my eyes open and see shadows hovering in the air, diving left and right whenever a soul tries to pass. Fresh air flows back into my lungs, and I push myself into a sitting position.