Free Demonosity by Amanda Ashby Page A

thumbed through her MP3 player searching for a song, but before she could put it into the docking station she caught sight of the grimoire, at the far end of the desk. The MP3 player fell from her hands as she saw a pair of swirling amber eyes staring out at her from the cover. They were there for only a second, and then they disappeared.
    Cassidy had to clamp her hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming as her heart pounded in her chest. They were the same eyes she had seen last time she looked in the grimoire. The same eyes that she’d seen on the owl. Thomas had told her that he’d been using the owl to seek her out, but now she wondered if he was looking at her through the grimoire as well.
    However, as she stared at the book, her panic was replaced by anger. She was
so
sick of people telling her what to do. First her mother and now Thomas. Why didn’t anyone seem to understand that no meant no? Then she froze as something else occurred to her. If the book didn’t exist, then Thomas would no longer be able to find her.
    If the book didn’t exist . . .
    That was it, and before she could change her mind, she reached for a pair of scissors and dug them deep into the leather cover. After all the drama the book had put her through, she almost expected it to make some kind of noise and perhaps ooze some black sticky goo, but apart from the sound of the blade slicing through the leather, there was nothing.
    Cassidy stabbed at it again, this time making sure she ripped the pages as well, until all that was left was enough shredding to keep a hamster happy for a month. She gathered up the disemboweled tome and scooped it all into a plastic bag, quickly making her way to the front door.
    Her nerves jangled at the idea of being outside, but the thought of having the grimoire in the house for another minute, even in its slashed state, made her stomach churn, and she forced herself to step out into the inky night. The sharp October weather prickled her skin, but she ignored it as she cautiously checked that no one was around—and by no one she meant owls or apparitions of sullen knights with blazing, mismatched eyes. However, apart from a cat howling somewhere up the street, there was nothing. Her heart hammered as she hurried to the curb and quickly threw the grimoire into the garbage can. Then she hurried inside and back down the hallway, so scared that she could barely breathe and—
    “Cassidy, is that you?” asked a voice from the kitchen, and Cassidy froze as she realized that her mom must’ve come home. She reluctantly peered in to where her mom was standing next to the microwave, clutching a sharp knife in her hand.
    “I-I didn’t hear you come in,” she stammered.
    “I did call, but when there was no answer, I thought you were asleep. What were you doing out there?” Her mom looked confused as she put the knife back down on the bench.
    “Um, I was just getting some fresh air.” Cassidy crossed her fingers and tried not to look as if she’d just been disposing of a mutilated ancient book that a time-traveling, demon-fighting knight who was now dead had given her.
    “Fresh air? But it’s freezing out—” her mom started to say before glancing over to where the articles she’d left had once been sitting. “Oh, let me guess. You were throwing away the information I got for you before the trash gets collected tomorrow.”
    No
, Cassidy started to protest before remembering that she had, in fact, thrown it away earlier, but before she could say anything her mom opened up a nearby drawer and pulled out another bunch of papers.
    “I guess it was lucky that I made duplicates.”
    “You what?” Cassidy bristled. “So you thought that since I didn’t want to read them once, it would be good to give me a second copy? Especially when I’ve already told you that I’m not doing the school play. Why can’t you respect my decisions?”
    “Because you don’t know what you want,” her mom said as