Free Homeward Bound (Journeyman Book 1) by Golden Czermak Page A

dusty grimoire spells are incredibly powerful and even their names are meant to scare you away from casting them. It takes genius level talent to do that and an even greater mind to understand what it is those spells are actually doing. Most, if not all, of the incantations and recipes were sprinkled with unequal dashes of riddles and consequence. Of course that time was no different, Georgie taking what the spell was at face value. Again, his dumbass move numero dos. A little humility over hubris would have gone a long way.”
    Adrienne continued, her voice dipping into sadness. “Yup. After the doorway was opened, it quickly became evident to Thurston that it was a massive mistake. We really don't know what it was, but it called itself Andhakara, a name or creature that nobody has found referenced in any of the lore books. It was dark, gruesome, and pitiless, some accounts saying it was so appalling that looking upon it could drive you insane. Now I don’t know if that’s just exaggerated writing from one of the chroniclers, but we all knew that it desperately wanted to be here, in our world. That's when shit hit the fan. Thurston was killed almost immediately trying to placate it and thankfully the Order knew he had the book, so mustered a quick response to the situation. Only a small part of the being managed to manifest itself here before it was stopped using everything the Journeymen had brought to bear upon it. Sadly though, not before there were a lot of casualties and an even longer list of lasting impacts. You’ll notice if you ever see the present day Council: humans are outnumbered on it these days.”
    Joey shot a sideways look toward her while she heaped scrambled eggs onto their plates. Thanks for your input, he thought with a hue of rancor. I'm the knowledge base, bitch. He got up from the table and went to the fridge for some more juice.
    “The icing on the cake?” he said as the liquid poured into his glass. “Andhakara was never actually destroyed. It was only banished back to where it came from, taking the book along with it. So, it's still out there, along with its brethren. We can thank Thurston for yet another opportunity for an apocalypse, as if we didn’t have enough options already waiting.” He looked over to Gage as he sat back down in his seat. “So you can see big guy, Gold channel being active again means the Order is concerned about the Noctis in a big away. Something is definitely happening with these demons up in the North, along with other movements in Eastern Europe and Australia. Not to mention the mobilizing of monsters in response even here in Houston. Whatever is happening, it’s global and it’s scary.”
    Adrienne came by to set their plates down, returning to grab hers and another cup of coffee before joining them.
    “I thought they were big trouble,” Gage said as he started eating. “But damn, this is bad news.”
    Joey nodded. “What I was able to gather from what I heard upstairs is that they – the Noctis – are positioning themselves for something massive based on the scale and distribution of their activity. They haven't made any offensive moves yet, appearing to be on hold. Nobody seems sure what they are waiting for, but I would not be surprised if the Order called an Assembly within the next few weeks, my guess would be around Halloween, to address the situation.”
    Gage crammed more food into his mouth, freezing at the mention of a meeting. “Say what?” he murmured. “I guess I missed that class too. We have mandatory meetings?”
    Adrienne let loose a titter, as did Joey. He slapped the tabletop before taking another drink. “Dude, you have definitely been kicking ass off the grid since day one.”
    “Um, yeah,” he said nonchalantly. “That's what we do as Journeymen out here in the field; aka the real world. I thought this was more of an ‘individually owned and operated’ type of thing anyway, doing things my own way, how I like it, to help