“No.” Ciro clasped his hands in front of him, and I noticed tightness around his eyes and mouth. “Kai is quite gifted and powerful for a young warlock. But I was concerned by his absence, so I searched his house, looking for clues to where he might have gone. This morning, I found something hidden in his workroom. It’s an old parchment covered in Arabic, of which I only know a few words, but I believe it’s a spell. That along with something I read in one of Kai’s journals convinced me I had to bring you here as soon as possible.”
He waved at a door on the other side of the hallway. “Please, follow me.”
I started forward with everyone else, until Hamid grabbed my wrist, holding me back. I looked up at his serious face.
“We’re entering a wizard’s workroom, and there is no telling what magical traps we’ll find inside,” he said. “Stay near me, and do not touch anything until the wizards tell us it’s safe.”
“Okay.” Revulsion twisted my stomach at the thought of coming into contact with more magic, but warriors did not let their aversions or fears stop them from doing their job. This would not be the only time in my career that I would have to deal with magic, and the sooner I learned to handle it, the better.
I followed him through the door that led to the basement. I was expecting a dank, dark room filled with potions and magical instruments, and I was surprised to find just the opposite. Kai’s workroom was clean and well-lit, and there wasn’t a potion in sight. Along one wall was a workbench with cabinets above and below it, and there were two full bookcases and a large stuffed chair that looked worn from use. A woven rug covered the center of the stone floor and the windows were covered with blackout curtains. On a small table beside the chair, a book was open facedown, as if the owner planned to return any moment.
It could almost pass for a normal room if not for the lingering magic that made the hairs on my arms stand up. A month ago, I probably wouldn’t have felt the magic at all, but that was before I’d become a guinea pig for a bunch of warlocks.
The team was crowded around a table in a corner of the room, making it impossible to see what they were looking at. If it was the parchment, I’d be of no help to them anyway. I was almost fluent in Spanish, and I knew enough Mandarin to order at a Chinese restaurant, but I wouldn’t know Arabic from Russian.
Orias looked over his shoulder at us. “Hamid, can you translate this?”
Hamid ushered me toward the table, obviously not trusting me enough to leave me alone. I went willingly because despite my conflicting emotions over him, I respected his knowledge and experience. If he had concerns about this place, I wasn’t going to challenge him.
People moved aside to let us through, and I was able to see what had them all so captivated. On the table lay a piece of parchment between two sheets of glass. The stained parchment was so old it was crumbling around the edges and the writing was faded from age.
Hamid leaned down and studied the document before he began to read the words aloud in English. I couldn’t make much sense of what he was saying, but Orias and the other warlocks hung on every word. They interrupted Hamid half a dozen times to ask him to repeat a phrase, and then they’d all nod thoughtfully and go back to listening. When he came to a section he had trouble with, he explained that the language was ancient Arabic and some of the words did not translate well.
“Is it a spell?” Charlotte asked when Hamid finished.
Orias stroked his chin. “It’s a summoning spell, but not like anything I’ve seen.”
“Parts of it resemble the spell we use,” Bastien said. “But this one has many more layers to it. It’s more complex than any spell I know of.”
Ciro moved closer to touch the edge of the glass with a finger. “I believe we might be looking at one of the original summoning spells.”
Everyone started talking at once until Charlotte called for quiet. She looked at Ciro. “The breach was over two thousand years ago. How could this document have survived that long?”
“Magic maybe. I don’t know, but the evidence does not lie,” the warlock said.
I held up a hand. “Will one of you please tell me what the original summoning spells are?”
Orias turned to me. “You have heard the story of the great breach and how the archangels supposedly sealed it.”
I nodded, and the scholars in the room huffed.
“Not supposedly,” Charlotte said.
He ignored her. “The breach didn’t happen on its own. It’s said that three warlocks created spells that, when used together, tore open the barrier.”
“And you think this is one of those spells?” I asked him.
“Yes,” Ciro said with a certainty that sent a chill down my spine. “I wasn’t sure until I read the last few pages in Kai’s journal. It’s mostly scattered thoughts, but one word is written several times. Alaron.”
I had no idea what Alaron was, but based on the horrified faces around me, it wasn’t good. A pit opened in my stomach when I saw the expression mirrored on Hamid’s face. If just a mention of this Alaron got such a reaction from him, things were far worse than I’d thought.
“What is Alaron?” I asked, already dreading the answer.
I wasn’t sure whether to be reassured or afraid when Hamid moved so close to me our arms were touching. What did he think to protect me from?
“Alaron is an archdemon,” he said grimly. “His name is known to us because he tried to come through the barrier during the breach and was driven back by the archangels.”
I swallowed dryly. “You think Kai is using this spell to try to create another breach and bring an archdemon through?”
Ciro exhaled deeply. “This spell alone cannot open the barrier. I think Kai tried to summon Alaron with the intent to contain him.”
I remembered Orias’s analogy about the fisherman and the great white. There was no way Kai could have contained an archdemon, which meant he was dead or…
“Are you saying there could be an archdemon walking around in the body of a warlock?” I asked, the question sounding ludicrous to my own ears.
“It’s highly improbable,” Bastien said.
“But not impossible,” Orias added. “We can’t know for sure unless we locate the summoning site.” He turned to Ciro. “Do you know where Kai would perform a summoning?”
Ciro nodded. “He owns a small warehouse in an industrial park. I went there yesterday but saw nothing out of the ordinary. No one has been there in months.”
“If he was going to summon Alaron, he’d want some place more private.” Hamid pulled out his phone. “What is Kai’s full name? We’ll have our people dig around and see what they can find. I’ll inform the Council.”
“Bradley,” Ciro said weakly.
“What does all of this mean?” I asked the group after Hamid stepped aside to make a call. “You said an archdemon has enough power to open the barrier. Is he trying to create another breach?”
Orias looked at the parchment again. “If Kai did manage to summon Alaron and Alaron possessed Kai’s body, it won’t be enough for him. He’ll try to make a hole large enough to bring his physical body through.”
Marie made the sign of the cross. “God help us if he succeeds. In his true form, he could destroy the barrier completely.”
My head spun as I tried to come to grips with what they were saying. Everyone I loved would die if the barrier fell. Not even the Fae could protect us from what was on the other side of it.
I looked at Orias, who seemed to know the most about this. “Can Alaron be killed without his body?”
“Yes. His magic is strong, but the body he is possessing is still human.”
I let out a breath. “That’s something at least.”
Ciro’s face seemed to have aged ten years since we arrived. “I’ve known Kai for fifteen years. How could he have done this without me seeing that something was wrong with him? You don’t decide overnight to summon an archdemon. This would have taken months, maybe years of planning.”
“Why would he do it?” I asked. “What could he hope to achieve by calling Alaron?”
“Power,” Orias said without hesitation. “A warlock is only as powerful as the demon he commands, and an archdemon would make him invincible.”
I looked at the parchment. “If this spell is so important, why would he leave it here?”
“It’s too fragile to carry with him,” Ciro said. “Kai put a spell around the parchment that is strong enough to preserve it but not to travel with it. A more powerful spell might damage the document.”
Hamid joined us again. “The Council is putting people on finding everything there is to know about Kai Bradley. In the meantime, we need to go over every inch of this place and the warehouse.”
Ciro nodded gravely. “Kai has magical wards all over the house, and some might be harmful to you. It would be safest if you warriors split up with us.”
“I’ll take Jordan,” Orias said, surprising me. To Hamid he said, “I will keep her safe.”
Hamid glanced at me, and I could tell he was not happy about us separating. But what Ciro said made sense.
The group split up with Orias and me on the third floor. I suspected he took me there because it was the least likely place to find anything dangerous. I didn’t need to be a genius to see he was protecting me while the others searched the rest of the house.
“Are you strong enough to kill Alaron if we find him in time?” I asked as Orias rifled through drawers in the master bedroom.
Orias didn’t stop what he was doing. “Not alone.”
I sat on the foot of the neatly made bed. “What happens when you kill the host body? Does the demon die, too?”
This time, Orias looked at me. “He will return to his own dimension. Summoned demons can’t be killed as long as their physical body is still alive.”
My eyes went to the satchel he always carried that held his demon. “Do you keep the same demon forever, or release them after a while and get a fresh one?”
He raised an eyebrow.
I shrugged. “What? It’s a valid question.”
“It depends on the warlock. I’ve had my demon for about fifty years.” He went back to poking around in the dresser. “Now, stop asking questions, and let me work.”
It was almost midnight when we finished searching the house, having made no other significant discoveries. After some discussion over what to do with the parchment, it was decided that Charlotte and Marie would hold it until it could be sent to our archives in England for study and safekeeping.
Hamid said we would wait until the next day to go to the warehouse, so we left to find accommodations and food since the house could not sleep us all. Orias felt it would be better if we all stayed together, and Hamid agreed. He booked us rooms on the top floor of the Ritz-Carlton, and we headed over there.