Page 79 of Heartless Heathens

“Fine. She’ll come to class with me at twelve then.” Sonny decided and turned on his heel back into the depths of the hallway like a demon returning from his summoning.

“Congratulations little lamb, looks like you won one.” Corvin smirked.

“Why do you want to go back there so badly?” I asked her, not understanding why she was so desperate for a taste of his indoctrination.

“At first I wanted the opportunity to learn, just like everyone else. Now I just want him to stare into my face and try to pretend like I’m not scarred into his life like he is in mine.” It was a sliver of a girl I hadn’t seen yet, even if it was just a momentary flash of her.

“Is that wrong?” she asked when I didn’t respond.

“No pretty girl, it isn’t wrong at all.” I smoothed her hair and sat down, pulling her into my lap.

We’d put on another movie and she fell asleep about twenty minutes in. All I wanted was to lay there, entwined with her, breathing her scent into my soul and wearing it like a mark. But the others were waiting for me to start and I couldn’t guarantee how long she’d stay asleep. I pulled the blanket over her and made my way up the attic stairs, knowing I’d find my brothers up there.

They were already starting, boundaries drawn up around them and demonic sigils scribed on their chests with blood.

It was the Disordered’s symbol. A triangle with overlapping edges.

Digdin.

It was the only way to find clarity, to make certain we were on the right path.

I removed my shirt and tossed it aside on the attic floor, joining them in the center of the salt-lined circle. Corvin lit each candle one by one, making sure they were properly coated in the fine dust of ground up herbs.

Sonny approached me, dipping his fingers into the wooden bowl, coating them with what little blood remained before making the overlapping triangle on my chest. We clasped hands and began the work, calling with the dead language created from the depths of the abyss to invoke the ancient one and help us define our journey.

“Norai Savac Arimalus, Dynosi chassis orecai.”We repeated the chant in the dead language.

The bloody bowl filled with fire, scorching the remnants of Sonny’s life essence and turning the flame from a bright flickering blue, into a black one. The sigil painted on my chest burned like a brand but I knew better than to focus on it. That’s how you lost yourself to the chaos. We’d been doing this far too long; we knew the Devil took with the same hand he gave. It was a beautiful exchange of power, of surrender. The trick was pushing away the fear and remaining in control.

A clicking sound filled the air, like a metronome with no rhythm, setting off with no rhyme or reason. The hairs in my arm stood and Sonny’s eyes turned dark all around, consuming the white of his sclera. He didn’t blink. A comforting sense of dread and heaviness filled the room like a thick fog, blurring my vision, filling my head with pressure. Sonny opened his mouth to speak but another voice came out instead.

“Black,” it hissed out like a serpent.

“What are you doing?” Her meek voice broke through from the stairwell.

My vision cleared with the next blink and Sonny’s eyes returned to a bright blue once again. The sigil on our chests had been smeared, as if someone wiped their hands over it to break the triangles open. Sonny breathed heavily through flared nostrils, closing his eyes and doing his best to diffuse the chaotic energy flowing through him.

“You shouldn’t be up here.” I walked over to her, cupping her cheek in my hand and directing her away from the ritual.

“Who’s blood is on you?” She asked and her eyes darted over to Santorini and the bandage on his arm gave him away.

She gasped and broke out of my hold, running over to him. He snarled and Corvin pulled her away from him, lifting her up in the air, back pressed to his chest while he carried her out of the attic. Her legs beat against him while she struggled in his hold, protesting and yelling Sonny’s name.

“You good?” I turned over to see Sonny doubled over, one knee on the ground while his hand supported him.

He nodded and waved me off, still breathing heavily as he attempted to rein in his composure.

“Better go answer your little girlfriend’s questions before she gets scared and runs off.”

I left him, unsure what it was I would even say, how I’d explain to her what it was she was seeing. I came down the stairs and stopped in the hall once I heard Corvin’s voice.

“It was a spell.” I heard Corvin say with ease.

I walked on and turned my head to see him between her legs while she sat on the kitchen island.

“Like magic?” she asked.

“Yes.”