“Fair enough.” Olivia nodded. “Then in the interest of full disclosure, I should probably tell you that there’s a demon trapped in the woods.”
“What?” Jake blinked slowly. “Seriously?”
Olivia sucked in a breath. “Basically, the short version is that the serpent seal branded into all the murder victims is actually a demon seal. The two serpents represent demon brothers, one named Seth and the other Nathaniel, as in Nathaniel Boothe, the man Theo knew back in 1695. It turns out he wasn’t a cleric at all, but a demon disguising himself as a priest. You gotta love the irony. Anyway, he followed Hester to Mercy, and she lured him into a devil’s trap in the woods and sealed it with her own blood. The place where he was trapped was named after him, hence the name Boothe’s Hollow.”
“Wow.” Jake dropped back down to the couch, trying to assimilate the information. “There’s really a demon in the woods?”
“Yes.”
“A real live, actual demon?”
“Yes,” Olivia repeated. “That’s the presence I’ve been feeling.”
“But you didn’t feel it back when we were kids.” Jake frowned. “We played in the woods all the time.”
“No, I didn’t feel it back then. I don’t know, maybe it was dormant back then.”
“I guess the question is, what changed?” Jake mused.
“The murders,” Olivia answered.
“You think the murders are directly linked to this demon, Nathaniel?”
“Maybe,” Olivia mused. “Each of the bodies was branded with the seal and dumped in the woods with body parts missing. It’s possible they’re sacrifices of some sort, some part of a raising ritual?”
“It does make sense, doesn’t it?” Jake mused, scratching the stubble at his jaw. “The original murders twenty years ago would mean someone was trying to raise the demon even back then.”
“That’s what I thought,” Olivia agreed. “Although, whoever it was must have been interrupted before they could complete the raising.”
“But why wait twenty years to try again?” Jake asked. “I hate to say it, Olive, but it’s not looking good for your dad.”
“I’m well aware of that,” she murmured quietly. “That’s why we have to figure out the truth before the ritual is complete and a demon is let loose on Mercy. Last time, Nathaniel managed to manipulate everyone into a witch hunt. Could you imagine the kind of damage he could do now with access to social media and the internet, not to mention modern technology?”
“Jesus,” Jake breathed out. “He’d probably make Charles Manson look like a Sunday picnic.”
“Exactly.”
“Who’s Charles Manson?” Theo interrupted.
“I’ll tell you later.” Olivia brushed the question aside.
“Where do we go from here?” Jake frowned. “I don’t exactly have any experience with demons and raising rituals.”
“None of us do.” Olivia shook her head. “We’re just kind of winging it here. But I suppose the logical place to start would be to find out how Hester locked Nathaniel in the trap, and how it could be broken. If we could find out how the murderer intends to open the trap, maybe we can figure out a way to stop him.”
“How do we figure out what spell Hester used?” Jake asked. “I hate to point out the obvious but the woman’s been dead for three hundred years, it’s not like we can ask her.”
“I’m reading all her journals to see if there is even a slight mention of it. To be honest, what we need is her Grimoire, but I have no idea where it could be, or if it even still exists.”
“I need a beer,” Jake grumbled.
“I’ll get you one.” Theo moved toward the door. “Olivia?”
“No thanks.”
As Theo disappeared into the kitchen, the doorbell rang, the strident sound startling them out of their musing. Following after Beau, who scrambled frantically on the wooden floor and skidded out into the hallway barking, Olivia picked him up and opened the door.
“Mags?” she blurted in surprise at the sight of her friend.
