First And Last - By Stacey Kennedy Page 0,36

next five minutes trying to come up with every excuse to get out of this. As always, they all fizzled out.

“Fine,” I finally succumbed. “Show me the damn rune.”

Chapter Nine

Ten minutes later, I sat staring at the symbol on the page, thinking that Quinney had in fact up and lost her mind. “Er…isn’t that a pentagram?”

Quinney shook her head. “From the writings here, it says that this is what is known as a Pentacle. You see how it runs straight up and down. A pentagram is upside down.” She pointed to the rune on the page. “Each point of the star represents one of the elements—with the highest point of it representing Spirit. The circle around it is the sacred space which resembles the collation between each element and the unity it holds.”

“So, it’s not an evil symbol?” I asked.

Tyde leaned over my shoulder, examined the rune for himself. “Far from it. I’ve never seen this rune drawn.”

I swatted him away from my face. He laughed, which earned him a scowl.

I focused back on Quinney. “And this will banish demons to Hell?”

Quinney shrugged heavily. “From what I read, yes. The one who used this rune years ago did just that. But in truth, I really don’t know. Let’s go test it.” She looked excited as she and the others started headed toward the door.

I wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic. “Okay, wait…” They all turned back to me. “What if it doesn’t work?”

“Then, I’ll finish off the demons for you.” Tyde assured.

“But won’t that make me look…weak?”

“I’m positive this will work,” Misa said. “So, we will not need to even worry about this.”

“All settled?” Azar asked.

Kyden nodded, and glanced back at me. “They’re waiting for you, Álainn.”

Nerves rattled me. “Just give me a second. Geesh!” I rubbed my shaky hands together and met Azar’s gaze. “What are we going to do about Mammon? How do you banish a Demon Lord?”

Azar sighed deeply. “We’ll need to look into this further. Finding him will be the tricky part and to send him back will be even harder. The only time Demon Lords were banished was when the Fae intervened.”

“Oh, Aaliya, right?”

He nodded. “It was Aaliya who banished them, along with Satan, when they chose to stay with him.”

This seemed easy enough. “Can’t we just contact her and get her to do it again?” Loud laughter filled the room.

“This is not something she’ll assist with. It’s only if the Earthworld was in danger would she step in.” Quinney answered and patted my shoulder in a very reassuring. “I’m sorry, Nexi. You must deal with this on your own.”

“Great.” I glanced at Kyden. “It only gets harder.” I grumbled.

He reached out and wrapped his arms around my waist, protectively. “I’ll be with you. We’ll get through this just as we have gotten through everything else.”

All right, well that earned him a half smile. At least I had that. I didn’t have to face all this scary shit alone. There was some reassurance in that.

I stepped out of Kyden’s arms and looked back to Quinney. “What do I have to do?”

“It’s quite simple. The fact that you can draw runes at all shows your strength, and by the looks of this rune, I’m pretty sure the Pentacle is meant to banish those who have done wrong.”

“How can you be so sure of that?” I asked her.

“Because this rune is White Magic based. It’s pure—perfect in every way. As you’ve seen with the Pentagram, it’s flawed since it’s upside down, which is why it’s a symbol of Black Magic.”

“A demon or any being from the dark realm couldn’t use this rune.” Misa added.

“Why?” I needed to ask.

“It would destroy them instantly.”

Like that answered my question. “And the reason is…”

“It is going against the grain, so to say. A demon cannot use a rune that is meant for White Magic. Therefore…” Tyde explained.

Oh yeah, now I was seeing it clearly. “A White Witch shouldn’t be able to use the runes that are meant for Black Magic.” They all gave a firm nod. “What does that mean then? Why could I draw that rune before and not be destroyed by it?”

Azar shrugged, his white hair bounced on his shoulders. “That’s a question we cannot answer. Why you can have Black Magic respond to you when you do not hold it is completely unknown. It should not be so.”

Kyden grazed his finger along my arm and drew my gaze to his. “I wouldn’t expect any different from you, Álainn. You have