Where the Devil Says Goodnight (Folk Lore #1) - K.A. Merikan Page 0,129

Nowak, his body hair bristling. “What will happen to Adam? What are you talking about? Speak! For fuck’s sake, speak!”

Nowak hung his head before glancing at Emil again. The rain was slowly getting sparser, and the thunder—more distant, as if the sky didn’t want Emil to miss a single detail. “Chort has left us twenty-six years ago in the body of a tourist. Her child has carried him since. But Chort grew in power since he came back to his domain, and tonight, he’ll claim his new body for good. He won’t be content sharing with a human priest any longer.”

Emil couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. And from Nowak at that. A man who never expressed interest in the supernatural, too engrossed in his businesses. Your typical dad, with a pot belly, and who occasionally grew a moustache. “You know something about the things that have been happening to him? How? And… where’s Adam? Are you saying he’s in danger?” His head throbbed with sudden heat. No matter how disappointed, how furious Emil was with Adam, he would still jump through fire for him.

Nowak wiped his face clean once the rain became only a drizzle. He cleared his throat. “It’s a goddamn long story, but I’ll keep it short,” he said with his eyebrows lowered, as if he were offended by having to report any of this to the likes of Emil. “You might know Chort as a demon, or even think it’s just another name for the devil, but he’s always been fair to his own people. The people of Dybukowo and the whole valley. But the people have forgotten him, so he deserted us.

“You’re too young to remember but bad things started happening overnight. The crops died, we had a flood, people and cattle died from rare illnesses. Things became so dire, we turned to the Whisperer Woman, your grandmother, for help. She convinced some of us that we needed to turn to the old ways and invite him back. So she created a lure to attract Chort to Dybukowo. In you,” Nowak said, pointing his finger at Emil.

Emil shook his head in disbelief and curled his fingers in his wet hair. “You just said that Chort wants Adam, not me!” Thoughts of Adam’s parents churned in his head. He remembered the story Adam had told him about his mother meeting a pregnant nun, about her conceiving on the trip to Bieszczady. He remembered the nun present in all the Kupala Night pictures until the one taken in the year Adam’s parents had visited Dybukowo.

His thoughts buzzed, sending nauseating vibrations down his body.

“Chort is trapped inside of Adam, but you are the intended vessel. It’s what your grandmother wanted. For you to be our protector. That’s why misfortune of the whole village focused on you. Her plan was for Chort to realize he’d left us in peril, so he’d come back fast, but he didn’t, and your situation took a turn for the worse. You couldn’t take it all on, so your grandmother gave her life to give birth to Jinx. He takes the brunt of the dark forces which would have killed you otherwise.”

Emil’s jaw dropped, and he glanced at Jinx’s black eyes. “Did you just say my grandmother gave birth to a horse?”

Nowak stepped closer. “What do you want me to say, Emil? It’s dark fucking magic, and we’re at the last stage of her plan. Chort has come back to the valley inside of Adam, but who he really wants is you, and tonight is the one night of the year when the world of spirits is close enough for the exchange to happen. You can’t leave.”

Emil laughed out loud. Of course. That was why Nowak had offered him the car, and Mrs. Golonko had wanted to hire him. Were they all a part of this insane scheme?

“Or what?”

Nowak exhaled. “He’ll die.”

Bile rose in Emil’s throat, and he took one more step to grab Nowak by the shoulders. “And you’re only telling me now?”

Nowak wouldn’t look into his eyes. “You will never be able to leave Dybukowo after this night, but you’ve been marked, and you can take Him on. He won’t consume all of you the way he would Father Adam.”

They—whoever ‘they’ were—had planned this all along. He wouldn’t have been surprised if someone from this cult had been the one to set his house on fire. “How long have you known this?” he whispered.

“I only found out last night, Emil. Your grandmother