Demon Heart

Chapter 24.2

CJ

When the witch, or mage, or whatever had first entered into his mind, he'd instantly thought it was Etheldreda. And when she offered freedom, he knew it was. It wasn't until Evabelle's presence had appeared that he changed his mind. He couldn't explain it, but he knew she was there with him. He'd jumped to the conclusion that is wasn't Etheldreda in his mind, but instead it was the Mistress.

Her lips, Evabelle's lips curling up and laughing at him after she'd kissed him, laughing at the sobbing eight-year-old that CJ could have saved. But he knew it wasn't the demon. The demon, while she could look like Evabelle, could never replicate the feeling of her.

He'd cried when he knew it was the real her.

CJ finally accepted that the person in his head, was who she claimed, Calandra, Etheldreda's sister. He remembered when he'd been strictly used as a puppet back at her sanctuary place, to get in with the others and lead them to the trap. He'd never personally talked to the woman, even though Etheldreda had moved words through his mouth for him during that time. She had been a hard woman, but here she was offering a plan to freedom, real freedom. A freedom that included both him and Thom.

CJ knew where the familiar's mark was. He'd felt it burn a thousand times whenever the witch took hold of him. It twanged whenever Etheldreda felt angry or overly pleased, sending her emotions into him. So when the plan had been laid out to CJ, he did best to not let it consume him as not to alert the witch to the faint inkling of hope that he didn't know could still be out there for him. He didn't want Etheldreda to potentially sense the change in him.

She hadn't spoken to him in days. Vagi had come and dropped off crap food to him as he sat alone in his lightless dungeon. He hadn't sensed her at all until a fierce spike of fear caused him to shoot up as the back of his neck flared. He'd felt it before. This fear had hit him when Evabelle had fallen over the cliff-side at the sanctuary, and Etheldreda had used him to reach over the side and pulled her back up, shocking CJ as the witch's fear rattled him. Why would she save Evabelle, especially when Etheldreda was afraid of heights? He'd never gotten that answer.

Her soul slid into the driver's seat and he stepped onto the portal, his mouth moving rapidly, almost faltering over the spell. Emotions of unbridled rage and terror drove him down the hallway toward an entire crowd of vagi.

This was it.

Etheldreda's power scolded his veins as he lifted his hand and released a death ray or whatever this autopilot thing shot. He didn't really know, but he was being used as some kind of weapon, clearly. The people in front of him collapsed and he entered into a large open room where all he had time to process was orange fire and three people about to get hit with the magic in his fist, before Evabelle appeared in front of him and a blade pierced his shoulder.

It was as though someone had split open the clouds and the sun finally shone through. He probably should have collapsed right then and there, but the sharp, flaring sting sent a flood of strength through his atrophied muscles. He opened his eyes and lifted his own hand that no longer glowed and touched the hilt of the knife that Evabelle had left imbedded there. That glorious, abrupt white-hot pain had knocked Etheldreda out of him, and without a beat between he yanked out the blade, blood flowing down his shirt, that pain keeping him tethered. He marched forward toward Etheldreda, her flames sinking as she shook herself from the pain too. She looked up dazedly at him and staggered back. "Wh-what..." CJ brought the dagger around and swiped it across the back of his neck. Etheldreda's pretty green eyes rounded as he continued his steady approach. He jumped over the fire, the tendons in his legs crying out in protest, their aching adding to the agony keeping him in control.