Where the Devil Says Goodnight (Folk Lore #1) - K.A. Merikan Page 0,130

said the one who bears Chort inside him would come to the Devil’s Rock on the night before Forefathers’ Eve and give an offering of blood. Every year, we have someone waiting for him, and each time, it had been a disappointment. Until now. It’s been so many years we lost hope for Chort ever coming back. We thought—we thought the lure didn’t work, but maybe something had been holding him back, because he’s come for you at last.”

Emil was going to be sick. His life hadn’t been his own for years. He’d been watched, assessed, and condemned for failing at something he hadn’t known he was meant to do. Dybukowo would keep him as one of its own, because he couldn’t bear sacrificing Adam to be free of this valley. He should have listened to Grandma’s letter and left long ago.

Ice cold vapor filled his chest when he realized that maybe Adam’s affection hadn’t even been real. Maybe it had only been an expression of Chort’s need for the body he’d been meant to own, and had nothing to do with choice or love. But if all this had been caused by Grandma’s magic, then it was up to Emil to complete the cycle. Adam deserved to be free, just like he so desperately wished. He would go back to Warsaw, rid of the burden, and never have to look back.

Emil took a deep breath. “What do I need to do?”

Chapter 24 - Adam

Adam couldn’t believe he’d agreed to take yet another step away from the faith he’d held on to all his life. He was a priest, the last person who should be straying from God’s path, but the teachings he’d received when he was still young resonated at the back of his head, treacherously assuring him that the Church offered no way to deal with the danger to his body and soul.

God will not help you if you don’t put in the effort, was something he’d heard often during religious classes when he was still a boy. God would not help you get better if you didn’t seek help from a doctor. He wouldn’t pass an exam for you if you didn’t study. And as unorthodox as Mrs. Janina’s method seemed, maybe Adam couldn’t be helped if he didn’t try out all the options on offer?

A part of him knew it was sacrilege, but if this being wasn’t Satan or one of his demons—if it was something different, a creature lost to time—then maybe he could walk out of Dybukowo unharmed.

Unable to keep calm in his room, which seemed so cold and unfriendly since Emil’s departure, he’d spent the evening with Father Marek, who was blissfully unaware of the two snakes living under his roof. With the weight of the upcoming night on his shoulders, Adam felt lonelier than ever as he sat in the chair while the pastor watched an old TV show, too engrossed in his sentimental trip to ask Adam and Mrs. Janina where they were going once she announced they were off.

Adam had half-expected her to wear black robes, or one of those linen dresses neo pagans liked to photograph themselves in, but she looked deceptively normal in the fitted jacket trimmed with golden thread and a dark purple dress, the same outfit he’d seen her don for a family wedding two months prior. There was nothing even remotely menacing about her appearance, and that put his heart at ease, no matter how much he feared what was to happen.

The storm has passed by the time they left the parsonage and walked past the church in the sparse moonlight coming from between the thick clouds still lingering in the sky. To Adam’s surprise, a car waited for them by the gate, and he recognized it as Mrs. Golonko’s.

His heart sank at the thought of one more person knowing about his plight, but he should have known Mrs. Janina wouldn’t keep her tongue from wagging.

“Does someone else know?” he whispered, but Mrs. Golonko opened the door, and he could no longer attempt to align his story with Mrs. Janina’s.

“Hurry! I don’t have all night,” Mrs. Golonko said with her usual grace. At least this time, she actually did offer him a lift.

Mrs. Janina took the passenger seat, which left Adam to sit in the back. The vehicle moved before he could have buckled his seatbelt, and an annoying beep resonated after only two seconds. “It’s you, Father,” Mrs. Golonko said, but he didn’t comment