Spirit Tree (Part 5)

At last, the ending of The Spirit Tree! Let me know how you liked it, and thanks for reading :). --Elm

Jake's high chuckle and the demon's low growl blended creepily together.

"What do you think you can offer that will counter your friend's ransom?" Jake asked.

I shook my head, hoping I was right because otherwise Zachary had messed up everything. "I'm not intending to counter it. I just want you to know that it isn't really valid."

"Stop playing silly games," he said.

"Because I know what the ransoms mean," I continued. "They have to be part of you, don't they? Like it says in the spell."

Jake nodded slowly, and Dagon made a low grumbling in his throat.

"He has a girlfriend already. And if he has a girlfriend who is not me," I stressed, "then I don't have any meaning to him." I swallowed. It was harder to say than I thought it would be. "He was just doing me a favor, remember?"

Zachary watched me with a pained look in his eyes. I'd hit his foot pretty hard.

"So I want to offer something of his that means he really can go free. And then I'll stay."

"You would stay?" Jake sounded surprised. It surprised me, too, but I meant it. "Why?"

"Because I don't have anyone left up there," I said. "The only person who cares about me is down here, and I've missed her. So those are my conditions--Zachary goes free and my mama stays alive, and maybe we can work on lightening things up down here."

I held my breath. He just needed to stay away from my mama.

"And what would you offer on Zachary's behalf? We haven't had someone simply give themselves over, have we, Dagon?"

Dagon watched me out of his blistery eye. His heat made me shiver with its strange warmth. It was the only warmth I'd have so I should probably get used to it.

"His sword."

I closed my eyes so that I wouldn't see the betrayal on Zachary's face. He loved his fencing more than life itself. Probably more than his girlfriend.

Dagon's laugh grew deep and rich through the cavern. "I accept," he said.

A burning heat touched my face, and I heard a metallic whisper. I squinted and saw the slender blade glimmering, alone on the altar of offerings. Beside it, Dagon's blistered whorls churned brilliantly at their core, smoldering at the edges with almost cartoon-like darkness. I sighed. I'd been right, he was more powerful with the offering.

Zachary was nowhere to be seen.

"If you ate him..." I started.

Dagon's eye blinked. "We had a contract, little one. That is the way we do things in Hell."

"You're a demon. How can I believe you?"

He chuckled. "Is your mother not still here? I haven't sucked her completely dry."

"Mama," I called, and turned to look for her. From the far corner, a dim shade flickered and then disappeared. "Mama!"

"I'm here, Rachel," I heard her rasp. "You've chosen sorry company for yourself."

"I don't think my mother is sorry company," I said sharply. "Hey Dagon, could you turn down the heat a little? I want to actually be able to see her."

Dagon rumbled with another laugh. At least he had a sense of humor. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad with him as company. Jake, on the other hand.... The cave darkened and I focused back on my mom.

"There's something I need to know," I said.

She gazed at me expectantly and all my bravery vanished. I wanted to throw my arms around her and cry. But she couldn't comfort me. She was so far from what I'd remembered.

I straightened my shoulders. "What did the ring mean to you?"

Her face grew pinched, and I told myself to wait. It might take a while for her to remember, if she remembered at all. I wanted to see if she could.

"I don't know," she whispered.

"You are amusing, little girl," Dagon's voice rumbled. "Do you not believe in my power?"

"I just have to see for myself," I said. "So Zachary's sword..."

"Represented his skill, yes." I heard the smile in his voice.

"He'll never forgive me," I whispered, gazing at my mama. Because I already knew what the ring meant. The ring was her memory of Dad. That night she went under the tree, she'd come home different. Changed. And that's why I'd searched so hard for the gleam of treasure afterward. I wanted to bring her back to normal.

But I never could find the ring, and in place of her warmth and smiles and chatter, I began to imagine them. As she wasted, my stories and her girth grew to quench the pain. Leanne hadn't been able to cope, but I'd had to. Of course this wraith was a different person than I remembered--that's all she truly was, this whole time.

And instead of returning it, I'd kept the ring, because I couldn't bear to lose that, too, on top of my mother.

I whirled on Jake. "This is all your fault!" I shouted. "How could you sacrifice your family? How could you sacrifice my family? It wasn't yours to give."

Jake tsked. "Now, we all have to make sacrifices in order to get what we want. Don't think I haven't paid my own price."

"What price could you have possibly paid that meant enough to gain the power you wanted?" I snarled. "Do you know why you're still down here? It's because your ransom wasn't enough--you never cared about your brothers, only about yourself. And there can never be enough sacrifice because all the rest of our pain isn't yours to begin with."

Jake's expression grew confused and Dagon began his dark laugh again. I was getting tired of that laugh. Even if it meant I was right.

"Dagon said..."

"Dagon's lying to you," I rolled my eyes. "That's what demons do."

"We are in a happy hole, aren't we?" Dagon said. "This is the moment I was waiting for, all these centuries."

Jake turned to stare at the demon, his mouth working but no sound coming out. "You don't mean that," he finally croaked.

"I mean what I contract," Dagon said. "You would have the power when the right amount of sacrifice was made. Meanwhile, we've had an amusing companionship all these years. A little flat but Hell generally is filled with similar-minded company."

"Flat," Jake said, clenching his fists. "Let me tell you who's flat. Your baking is flat."

While he argued, I turned back to my mother. Quickly, before she could see what I was doing, I pulled the chain from around my neck and placed it around hers. I wasn't even sure if it would catch on her shoulders, but suddenly her brilliance was more than I could take. "I love you, Mama," I whispered, and then fire erupted all around me.

It was so hot. I could feel my skin melting, and my lungs felt like dry tinder, flaming, disintegrating like ashes.

"That was not smart, little girl," Dagon's voice vibrated my entire burning soul.

The heat went on and on and on and on.

Eventually--I don't know how long it was later, with some instinct that wasn't a part of my pain, I reached. Reached for anything that could quell this consuming fever, and my fingers touched something they knew. They fumbled at the crumbs and smeared them all over a body that was somehow still solid beneath the fire. As the heat chilled, the fields of mint that once hung in my mother's kitchen made sense. It wasn't just a nice marinade for lamb. She'd met Dagon's heat herself when she gave him her ring. Bless you, Mama, I thought.

I crawled toward the altar, now glowing white with heat. The scripted words crawled in black along its surface and Zachary's sword gleamed red. Dagon and Jake were nowhere to be seen, but I guessed they were down inside the oven, roasting together.

"Dagon," I croaked. "Have a little spice for your baking rack."

I flung my remaining peppermint onto the altar, and the ceiling rained down.

I stared up at an angel.

I thought it was an angel, because it shimmered blindingly and made my eyes ache. That's what Mama always said heaven would be like for the unworthy.

I didn't care. It was better than the cave. Then I heard the voice of my angel.

"Rae?" Zachary called.

Even if he wasn't my angel. I also heard other voices.

"Well, I'll be. There really was a cave down there."

"How did she get inside there?"

"Are you all right, little missy?"

"I'm fine," I called up. "I just need some help getting out."

A long while of considering the peppermint on the altar later, a loop of rope was extended down. I stepped onto the center and they heaved me up. The altar looked dull and somehow sad in the daylight streaming through the opening, and Zachary's sword grew small, but I couldn't risk bringing it with me.

"Do me a favor and fill up that hole," I said, coughing at the dust. "It's a hazard to your health."

Zachary wrapped an arm around my waist and dragged me to the house. I found I was glad for the support because my legs didn't want to work so well. They just kept shaking.

"I can't believe you're still alive," he said. "Can I get you anything?"

"I could use some water," I admitted. "And maybe a bagel. I feel like I haven't eaten in days."

"You haven't. It's been two days," he said. He deposited me onto a kitchen chair. "I was worried sick. The guys wouldn't believe me about the hole, and I had to pay them double to come dig you out. It took me the whole time to chop down that tree."

"Two days?" I stared at him. "It felt like two years." I put my cheek on the table, feeling like Dagon's altar... cracked. I told him what I'd realized about Jake, and what Dagon had said. "And I don't know about the peppermint. Will I have to go back?"

"Not if there isn't a hole there," he said grimly. "Rae."

He set his jaw, and I swallowed. Here came the bad part where he yelled at me for sacrificing his sword. "There's one thing that I don't understand."

"What is it?" I asked dully.

"How could you think that you had no meaning to me?"

I widened my eyes. "It made sense. That's why you offered me, so I wouldn't bother you anymore. You know, like a hangnail."

"Like a... I was trying to weaken him." Indecision wrestled in his eyes and then his jaw firmed. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of my chair, and crushed me to his chest. "You are not an irritation, Rae," he mumbled.

He ran a hand down my hair and his breathing changed. He pulled away and I shut my eyes against the loss. And then his fingers lifted my chin and his warm mouth was on mine and I gasped. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back.

"But aren't you angry?" I said afterward, unable to fathom the change. And I needed to make sure he understood. "I gave away your sword. Your skills. Everything."

"Don't be ridiculous," he smiled. "That was just a matter of waiting."

"Waiting?" I asked, confused.

"Your mama would have come back from the grave to haunt me if I'd hung around." His teeth flashed. "I didn't know she was stuck under the Tree."

"My mama?"

He blushed. "She made me promise to let you grow up."

"You promised my mama?" I asked, unbelieving. I tried to trace the conversation back to when she was normal, and couldn't.

He looked miserable. "But if I'd had to watch you date other guys, I couldn't have handled it. I had to stay away."

"Me? Date other guys?" I laughed. "Zach, I was never interested in other guys. And you have a girlfriend."

"I've dated a lot of girls," he admitted. "But they were never the one I wanted."

I scowled out the window, staring at the men filling in the hole. It'd take dumptrucks to fill that hole. The things my mama had done to keep me safe.

The yard looked so different without the tree. Empty. But the light shined everywhere.

"Well," I said, "you'll just have to wait a bit longer."

Zachary's arms dropped and I laughed.

"Just a bit longer. I have some words for my mama." I grabbed him by the hand, and pulled him out the front door.