Free Demonosity by Amanda Ashby

mother
still
hadn’t come home from the office, her dad had gone to bed an hour ago, which was about the same time Nash had arrived in answer to Cassidy’s desperate text message. He’d been saying “This is extraordinary” ever since.
    “Sorry.” He instantly lowered his voice, his gaze never leaving the book in front of him. “But honestly, it is amazing. I can understand only about one word in ten, and yet all of a sudden, you can read it like it’s a magazine. I wish it would choose to accept my touch so that I could read it, too. Tell me what this one says. Is it a spell or an instruction? Oh, I bet that it’s a—”
    “I think you’re missing the point,” Cassidy cut in while trying to avoid looking at the grimoire, since, unlike Nash, she found it more than a little disturbing that it was no longer a blurry mess of confusion but rather was completely legible. Mainly because if that part of what Thomas had told her was true, then it might mean that— No! She slammed the lid shut on that particular thought, since no good could come of thinking it.
    Nash regretfully shut the grimoire. “You’re right, I’m sorry. It’s just hard not to get carried away. The implications this could have are unprecedented. And this Black Rose that he talked about. You do realize that he’s referring to immortality. The fifth element: spirit. The unknown factor that every scientist, philosopher, and alchemist has searched for, since . . . Aren’t you curious?”
    “Not even a little bit,” she was quick to assure him.
    Nash heroically seemed to swallow his disappointment while trying not to look like a scientist who had just had his lab equipment taken away. Then he perked up a bit. “So if this Thomas of yours comes back, perhaps you could just ask him a few questions for me?”
    “He’s not
my
Thomas,” Cassidy quickly protested. “And you’re forgetting that I don’t want to see him again. Ever.
Ever, ever, ever
. That’s why I’ve got to figure out a way to make sure he doesn’t come back again, since one run-in with a freakish knight is enough to last me a lifetime.”
    “Do you really think he will?” Nash studied her face.
    “He was pretty intense—you know that crazy look Mr. Kirkland used to get in his eyes when he talked about dung beetles? It’s like that but doubled. I get the feeling that he’s not the kind of guy who likes taking no for an answer.” As she spoke she glanced over to Nash’s silver Zippo, which he had left on her desk. He didn’t smoke and as far as she knew he didn’t have any major pyro tendencies, but he often did his best thinking when staring into the flame of the lighter. She suddenly wondered how well it would burn through leather book binding.
    “Okay, okay.” Nash suddenly stood up and pocketed the Zippo, as if somehow reading her mind. Then he headed for the window. “I’ll help you, as long as you promise not to do anything dumb. Let me go see Howard. You know, my antiquarian friend. He’s an insomniac who owes me a favor or two. Hopefully, he’ll let me do some research on grimoires and the best way to deactivate them.”
    “Thank you.” Cassidy gratefully followed him over to the window and watched as he effortlessly swung his long legs over the ledge and dropped out into the garden of the one-story house.
    “Don’t mention it. And try to get some sleep. You look exhausted,” he advised before he disappeared out into the night and started to jog the three blocks back to his own house. Once he was gone, Cassidy crawled into bed and closed her eyes, but regardless of how tired she felt, her mind refused to shut down. Instead, it went over and over her disturbing encounter with Thomas. And no matter how much she tried to block it from her mind, it just kept coming back. In despair, she finally pushed back her comforter to turn some music on, in the hope that it would take her mind off everything.
    The wooden floor was cool beneath her feet as she