The Devil's Due (The Earthwalker Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  As he was heading back towards the truck, Dad turned to me and smiled. “That’s a nice young man you’ve got there.”

  “Thanks, I think he’s pretty great too.”

  “He seems quite taken with you,” Dad pressed the subject further. “I hope you’re being smart and thinking about the bigger picture.”

  I frowned, not sure where he was going with this. “What are you saying?”

  “Well honey, you’ve just started school and living on your own — that’s an important time in a young person’s life. I just don’t want you to drop out or make any rash decisions when you could be using that time to better yourself and improve your education.”

  “Dad! I have absolutely no intention of dropping out.”

  He nodded thoughtfully as Nate and I shuffled behind him on the sidewalk. “You know I love ya, hon. I’ll support you no matter what, I just want to make sure you’re not getting swept away with things.”

  I smiled. “Thanks, Dad, but Caleb isn’t pressuring me.” He looked like he was going to interrupt when I stopped him. “However, I appreciate your concern and see where you’re coming from. Right now, it’s still very new with Caleb, and we’re just enjoying being together. I’m not going to let that change my plan.”

  “And what is your plan?”

  I pursed my lips together and gave him a tight, and apparently unconvincing, smile.

  “I see. Well, we love ya, hon. I just want you to be happy. Nate and I need to start heading back, we’ve got a long drive ahead.”

  “I love you, Dad. I’ll see you at Thanksgiving.”

  ~ * ~

  “Remind me why we’re doing this,” I hissed at Caleb in the seat beside me.

  “We’re here to support Charley,” he responded instantly. “She was kind enough to get us tickets, it’s the least we could do.”

  “Alright, alright,” I grumbled. Fold out seats in auditoriums were always awful with arm rests that were still and unyielding making it impossible to get comfortable.

  “Besides, it’s a free date night to the symphony, change of pace from our usual night of hanging out.”

  Ryan was in the seat beside us, wearing a smashing black suit and tie and a bouquet of red roses in his hands. It was more formal than I was used to seeing him, but it worked for the concert hall surroundings. Lacey had loaned me a sleeveless white blouse with black silk tie, so I wouldn’t feel out of place going with them. My red hair fell out in a French braid beneath a fedora I stole from Caleb.

  As we sat there waiting for the symphony to begin, a few of the musicians wandered out onto the stage and took their seats, setting up their instruments and sheet music. Soon the air was filled with delicate trills of the string and woodwind instruments getting tuned and rose to a dull roar.

  The house lights dimmed, and the conductor stepped out on stage where black chairs and music stands had all been arranged in a semi-circle around the maestro. I was always struck by the magnitude of being in a proper theater: the charming balcony seats and elaborate carvings in the proscenium, all framed by a velvet curtain. It was completely different than the culture I was used to. I tapped the playbill in my hands anxiously against the armrest as the conductor began to speak.

  “The Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra is proud to introduce its new first chair violinist, Charlene Maxwell, who will be joining us this evening for the Scheherazade solo. Some of you may know the story this instrumental masterpiece. It follows the story of the Arabian queen Scheherazade as she spun elaborate tales to entertain her husband and keep herself from being beheaded. You’ll hear the woodwinds in the background echoing the violin solo in response to the fanciful storytelling. Eventually, the sultan fell in love with her and the stories were collected in a book known as One Thousand Arabian Nights. It is one of the most difficult and expansive musical pieces ever written and takes years of study and practice. We are truly honored to have her as part of our ensemble.”

  As the maestro spoke, whispering voices in my head started enticing me with wicked thoughts. “It won’t be long now; her patience is wearing thin.”

  “Silence!” another hissed. “The Guardian sits beside her.”

  The first one cackled menacingly. “He isn’t a Guardian anymore. The boy cannot protect her.” I could almost hear the demon smiling when he said that and it made my blood run cold. I swallowed the lump in my throat and ignored them, giving my attention back to the conductor’s introduction.

  The audience all clapped politely as she stood up on the stage and took a bow. Her blonde hair flipped out around her shoulders, and you could still see the hints of vibrant blue coloring underneath. Her tattoo was hidden by a thin, black lace cardigan that covered both her arms. She looked very clean and professional standing up there amongst the other musicians. I noticed her smile when she glanced in our direction, and Ryan gave her thumbs up in the seat beside me.

  As she took her seat again, the lights in the audience began to fade, and I sat back in my seat and sighed.

  The orchestral music started and I was blown away by the majesty of the powerful instruments. Music had always spoken to my soul, but never moved me in such a profound and meaningful way before. From the rolling thunder of the timpani drums to the high bird like song of the piccolo, I could feel it deep within my bones.

  I was mystified.

  As the end of one song faded into silence, Charlene stood up in her seat and began to play the beginning of her solo. Her nimble fingers danced across the neck of her violin as she drew the bow across it. Such angelic and beautiful sounds I’d never heard before, it was almost hard to believe I wasn’t dreaming. The song drew on and on with the dark and rumbling rebound of the woodwinds in response to the violin’s singing. Her eyes were closed as she played, perfectly serene and focused on her task. The notes grew higher and faster, so much so they almost reached the very top of her instrument.

  When the song ended, the audience was on its feet clapping a standing ovation. Charley blushed and bowed again on stage, that’s when I realized I was crying — completely blown away by the talent and passion she embraced. For a moment, I just allowed myself to feel it and remember the vibrations in my skin.

  The lights came up in the house, and I watched the audience members leave. “Let’s go find her in the green room,” Ryan suggested.

  I sighed as Caleb and I followed him out the aisle and towards a door at the front of the concert hall. It was heavy and built for soundproofing, so it required the full weight of his body to open it. We followed him as he led us down the hallway to the orchestral locker room.

  “There she is!” Ryan cheered once he spotted her at last. She smiled up at him as he handed her the roses. The flowers were magnificent, with long stems and blood red petals. “You were wonderful,” he complimented her with utmost sincerity.

  Charlene accepted the flowers and smiled up at him. “Thank you, sweetie. Hey, guys!”

  She carefully set the instrument in its case. It was a smooth black violin with a matching fiberglass case. The black velvet hugged her bow fit neatly in the lid.

  As she closed the lid on it, Caleb added, “It’s was beautiful, Charlene. Thanks for inviting us.”

  He offered her his hand, and she placed her dainty hand in his and shook it nervously. “Thank you for coming.”

  “Of course! We wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

  I managed to snap out of the daze I was in and stared at her in awe. “I didn’t know you could play like that. I didn’t know anyone could play like that.”

  Charley grinned, snapping her case closed and peered up at me with wide green eyes. “There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me.”

  My jaw dropped as I gazed at her, still processing. She shifted her weight uncomfortably, exchanging a glance with Ryan, then smiled. I was surprised that even when I examined her in search of fault, Charlene’s smile reached her eyes — it was genuine.

  After a minute of awkward silence, she realized
she forgot something and set her bag down on the table. “Oh! I almost forgot I got you something. Happy birthday,” she told me happily, retrieving a package from her bag.

  I raised an eyebrow in surprise and eyed her curiously. “That’s not until next week.”

  Her smile widened as she said, “I know.”

  How? I wondered curiously. Oh, I guess Ryan must have told her.

  Still skeptical, I took the package from her and began to undo it’s wrapping. I tore away at the layers of colorful tissue paper to reveal a beautiful, leather-bound journal. “Oh, Charley, it’s perfect,” I told her honestly. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”

  “I know, but I wanted to. Thanks for coming to the concert. It meant a lot.”

  As she picked her bag and violin off the counter, the shoulder of her lace cardigan fell open. I swallowed slowly, my eyes fixing on the brand of Belphegor on her skin, emblazoned beneath the surface and hidden beneath the Wonderland tattoo.

  Charley’s eyes met mine and saw what I was looking at. She smiled weakly and sighed, repositioning the fabric, so it was no longer visible as we headed for the door. Just then the lights flickered, and there was a buzz of electricity.

  Ryan glanced up at the burst of sounds and said, “What the...”

  All of us searched around confused, the lightbulbs started exploding one at a time. Pop! Pop! Lacey gasped with fear, jumping back as the glass shattered with an explosive pop and tiny shards fell down on us from the ceiling.

  The hum of chatter from all the musicians fell silent in confusion. One … two … three … Pop! Another one exploded, then another.

  “Augh! What is happening?”

  My demon sense started tingling, and I felt the breeze of something move within the shadows. The four of us looked around frantically as they burst with a spray of light, and the entire room went dark. As the lights went out it became utter chaos as everyone started bumping into one another, tripping over our own feet as we headed for the door.

  I felt a cool breeze on the back of my neck and had the uncanny feeling that there was something nefarious in the room with us. “Let’s get out of here!” I told them urgently.

  The danger was not lost on anyone and the musicians followed suit, scrambling to get out alongside us. I felt Caleb take me by the hand, but was ripped away in the madness. I lost track of him and Ryan when something grabbed me by the wrist and yanked me hard towards the lockers, pulling me away from them.

  “Wynn? Wynn, where are you?” Caleb called to me in the darkness.

  Struggling against the claw-like hand around my wrist, I managed to break fee but long nails dug in across my flesh and cut deep gashes across my arm. “Augh!”

  Caleb heard me scream and I heard something crash against the locker. “Wynn? Are you okay?”

  I cradled my arms against my chest and ran, following the sound of his voice until his arms found me in the shadows. He held me protectively and guided me towards the only light source that was coming from the hall. “Yeah, let’s get out of here!” I told him.

  When we stepped out into the light and the fluorescent bulbs from the hallway could illuminate the scene, I gazed down at the bloody claw marks on my skin. I guessed that it had to be a woman that attacked me, or the nails wouldn’t have cut so deep. “Damn,” Ryan commented when he saw it.

  I groaned in frustration and scowled in Charlene’s direction. “Was that really necessary?”

  She just stood there with a confused and innocent expression and demanded, “What?”

  “That was not a fluke accident, it was magical, and you’re the only other demon in this room.”

  Charlene swallowed hard and observed what was behind me on the floor, her green eyes wide with fright. “Wynn, that wasn’t demon energy, that was angelic.”

  I furrowed my brow confused, and she pointed to the ground where she was looking. There, on the polished tile floor, was a black feather.

  Maya.

  Chapter Ten

  Lord of the Flies

  Iyawned into my reflection as Caleb parked his truck outside Griffin Farms in a field that had been temporarily repurposed for the Tuscaloosa Fall Festival. The rustic Alabama farm had been decorated with a pumpkin patch display, complete with corn husk dolls and bales of hay scattered around the entrance. When we stepped out onto the grass, a pervasive smell of horse and hay lingered in the air around us. You could smell the dirt and country roads for miles that set us distinctly outside the city.

  Lacey climbed out of the back and smiled at the spectacle of autumn colors, pointing towards the entrance. “Hey, it’s Ryan and Charley. They got here before us.”

  Caleb took me by the hand, and we all started walking over so we could join them. “Hey, guys!”

  We chatted amicably about the fair and eventually made it to the end of the line to buy our tickets. “Oh my gosh, I’m so excited!” Lacey squealed. “It smells amazing in there. I bet they have apple cider.”

  “Get used to that,” I warned Caleb with a grin. “Because the second a leaf falls in September, it becomes pumpkin everything.”

  “Hey, Charlene, about the other day,” I started nervously. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions, and you obviously didn’t have anything to do with what happened in the Theater.”

  She smiled, and wrapped her arms around me in a hug. “It’s okay, we were all scared.”

  I exhaled nervously as she released me and Caleb gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze while Ryan pointed towards the food trucks. “I think there is cider over by the food vendors. We were going to check out the hayride if you want to join us.”

  “Yes!”

  As we walked over to the festivities, we realized it was a trailer that had been hitched to the back of a tractor with bales of hay lining the side for us to sit on. Caleb offered me his hand and a boost up into the trailer, and we sat down beside each other on the end.

  It was a two-mile loop around the outskirts of the farm before the driver brought us back to where the ride had started. Caleb and Ryan were getting along swimmingly, and I was glad they were becoming friends. Lacey was warming up to Charley and seemed to genuinely like her, which made me start warming up to her as well.

  I followed them around the grounds and listened to their conversations, eating some delicious food and mulling over the situation to myself. “Is that a corn maze?” Lacey asked curiously to no one in particular.

  We all glanced over to where she was pointing, and there was a giant field with people disappearing into the rows of tall vegetation. “It seems like it,” I agreed. “I haven’t been in one of those since I was a kid.”

  Caleb nudged me with his shoulder and smiled. “We should try it then.”

  They finished the rest of their candied apples and stood up from the picnic table. Sensing my hesitation, Lacey nearly dragged me from my seat and giggled all the way across the field to where the maze started. “Come on, Wynn. It’s gonna be fun!”

  Caleb chuckled, watching her drag me along. Ryan, Charlene, and Caleb all went into the cleared-out path along the foliage and disappeared around the corner. Lacey’s smile widened and got even more excited at the prospect of getting lost. She dropped my hand and went running after them, but I was unable to keep up. In a matter of seconds, I was lost and had no idea where Caleb or my friends had gone.

  “Caleb?” I called out nervously. A cricket chirped, flying past me in the maze and I whirled around at the sound of it. My “demon sense” was on high alert, and it put my nerves on edge — I knew something was wrong.

  I turned around to continue down the path and another bug chirped from somewhere in the corn field. As I looked towards the sounds of a cricket, the biggest one I’d ever seen jumped out from the stalk of corn and onto the path and began crawling. It was huge, large enough for me to see its mouth and pincers writhing in search of more food.

  Another locust soon followed, then another. The corn began to move even
though there was no wind and a wave of insects tumbled out from the vegetation.

  They were everywhere.

  I tried to turn back to escape and felt them crunching under my boots. The locust jumped and flew, I could hear the cutting and gnawing of their jaws in the leaves. They became tangled in my hair and ears as I tried to brush them off in disgust. I screamed and batted when out of the corner of my eye I saw something bigger coming closer.

  A scarecrow, that had definitely not been there before was crossing through the maze. I would have dropped my jaw in shock, except I was trying not to breathe through my nose. It’s rotten pumpkin head was sunken and black from mold, the juices dripped down from a dark carved mouth onto the hay underneath. I almost vomited in my mouth from the sight and smell of it and quickly started backing down the path.

  The locusts parted to let him pass, but continued to swirl around us as it lumbered towards me slowly. I swatted at them wildly, trying to keep them from my clothes and stumbled off the path into another. The locusts cleared, and my eyes caught sight of the giant bug-like creature that must have been controlling them. He was tall, though hunched over in a hard, green exoskeleton. A putrid smell rolled out from all around his body, and sharp pinchers clicked noisily at his mouth. It was one of the Demon Lords from the Grove, though I didn’t know his name and I’d never heard him speak. I stood up tall to face him and set my jaw professionally. “Who are you?” I demanded.

  The Lord of Flies stared back at me through his one crazed eyeball that wasn’t hidden beneath the leather mask which had been sewn into his face. At first, he didn’t speak, but then a voice echoed from somewhere in my head, and I could hear the creature speak to me.

  “I am Beelzebub, the Lord of Envy,” he clicked in a high and grating tone. “I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you, Miss Wynonna Hendricks.”

  “You’re here to test me,” I stated calmly.