The Serpent's Fury: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Joey Finch Book 3) (The Joey Finch Series) by Peter J. Woods

Author:Peter J. Woods [Woods, Peter J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781922728081
Publisher: Stingray Press
Published: 2023-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

31

I called the Master Wizard using Madeleine’s phone. Miss Blackthorne’s number was the only phone number I remembered besides my own. I told her we were on the way to the Old Substation Building and explained, in as few words as possible, that Astaroth and Beelzebub were gunning for her.

“Joseph, I can assure you that I am quite capable of protecting myself thank you very much.” I sensed that she was smiling, but that might have been my imagination. She hung up with the reminder to keep our eyes on the sky, since there were still plenty of harpies about.

Madeleine steered us through the Sunday morning traffic, and we discussed what we knew and what we didn’t. Lamia was working with the archdemon Beelzebub to build some kind of Bridge that would presumably link the Dark Realm to ours. In order to do this, Lamia was infecting people with the lethargy, turning them into insomniac vegetables by giving them a drink of who-knew-what.

“Venom,” Madeleine said. “That would be my guess.”

And who could say no to a free drink given by a friendly young lady? If Lamia was sneaking into parties to spread the lethargy, we had our work cut out for us.

Don’t accept drinks from strangers, kids.

“But how did the sigil get on the wall?” asked Bree. “It’s not like she snuck into everyone’s houses to tag the walls… Did she?”

“She didn’t have to,” Madeleine said. “Her venom wouldn’t be the same kind that you’d find in a snake’s fang. Her venom is imbued with magic, much like the rest of her. Think of it more like a strong potion, preprogrammed to make people carry out certain actions. Drawing the demon sigil, going into a state of unrest, erasing it all from their memories…”

“Chanting the words to an ancient Greek ritual,” I chipped in.

“Exactly,” Madeleine said. “It’s impossible to be certain, but given what we know, I’d guess the chanting you heard is the ritual that creates the Bridge, and the sigil acts as a navigation marker, giving the Bridge coordinates for where to anchor its other end. In this case, the anchor is with Beelzebub in the Dark Realm.”

“That’s the solution then,” Bree said. “We go to everyone’s houses and wipe the demon’s sigils from their bedroom walls. Easy.”

Madeleine clicked her tongue. “It may be slightly more complicated. A demon sigil isn’t a rune. A rune is used for spells, wards and the like. But a sigil allows a sliver of a demon’s soul to trickle through and, in this case, embed itself into whatever poor sod drew it. Everyone suffering from the lethargy already has a sliver of Beelzebub inside them.”

I swore.

“So, every lethargy patient is tethered to Beelzebub. Following that logic, the more people infected with the lethargy, the more tethers there are between our world and the Dark Realm, the stronger the Bridge gets.”

Madeleine nodded silently.

“So it’s really Beelzebub’s Bridge,” Bree said. “Lamia’s just recruiting the workers.”

The barriers were weakening. That’s what Saleos had said. If

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