Chapter 8

"D

o you think she'll go?" he asked Xavier, who came to visit.

Not that he really, no, not really, cared. Jared paused before an open window of his castle set high in the mountains of Peru. He liked Peru, liked the Andes mountains and seeing snow-capped peaks in the distance, and he liked the history of the bloodthirsty Inca Indians who worshipped gods. Incas had one main god – Virachocha. The Incas sacrificed children aged from four to ten, sometimes burying them alive.

Jared detested such sacrifices, but he did enjoy being left alone and revered from afar.

Here in his hideous beastly form, he could be regarded as a god amongst a certain ancient cult, instead of someone to avoid and fear. An elderly woman in the village below, Jallu, came every week to the castle to cook and clean for him. He paid her well. Not that he required a housekeeper, for magick kept him fed and his quarters shining, but damn he was lonely.

Not that fear wasn't a good thing. It could be a very good thing. But when you were trying to break a curse and find true love, it didn't help to have women run away screaming in fright instead of moaning in pleasure.

Mountains ringed this ancient stone temple. When he was cursed more than 100 years ago, he discovered the temple, only beginning to be explored as an historical site. Jared scared away the historians and claimed the temple for his own.

Xavier lounged on the crimson throne chair Jared used to watch Netflix and cable shows. One leg dangled over an armrest.

"I cannot foretell her future, the same as I cannot foretell with you. It is murky."

"Get a goddamned crystal ball then, wizard. I don't want to waste any time I have left in human form, chasing down someone who can never break the curse."

Xavier turned his attention away from the video game he played, a wizard's version of a popular one amongst human gamers. "You'll never find what you need with that attitude, Jared. You may find what you want, but not what you need."

Growling, he turned. "And what the hell do I need?"

Xavier pressed two fingers to his head as if divining the future and then snapped his fingers, his tablet vanishing. "You must look within for answers."

"I'm not a fucking magic 8 ball, wizard."

Infuriated, he whirled and sent a bolt of pure dark energy hurling toward Xavier. Not even blinking, the Crystal Wizard caught it with his right hand. It instantly turned into glittering crystal shards.

Xavier threw the crystals back at Jared. He braced himself as they hit.

"Ow," he said mildly.

Other creatures surely would have dissolved or have been seriously injured by such an attack. The wizard's crystal magick killed. He'd seen it happen with an unfortunate Other Xavier punished.

"You try my patience, demon. No matter how much my beloved Sonia adores you, you are close to destruction. Do not tempt me further." Xavier sat up, flexing his fists.

Jared shrugged. "You're a father now. You need to have your patience tested. Makes you a better parent."

The wizard didn't laugh, as expected. Instead, he joined Jared at the window, staring out at the rugged mountain peaks, the sunshine dappling the magnificent terrain of the Andes.

"You think no one can love you. You must break that mindset, if you are to woo Harper."

He shrugged off Xavier's hand from his shoulder. "Why should I even bother?"

"Not for your salvation, but hers. She needs you as much as you need her, perhaps more."

Ready to dispute this, he glanced up, only to find empty space. A disembodied voice spoke.

"The volcano. Harper is headed there to search out her destiny. Be there. But beware the demon."

"Beware myself?" he called out, shaking his head.

"SaqraYazez, you fool. The demon that killed her parents will pursue her for the same reasons once Harper acknowledges her power. For her to bind to you and save your soul and break the curse, she must acknowledge her magick. In doing so she will awaken Yazez."

Xavier's voice droned on, explaining exactly how Harper's parents had died.

Jared recoiled. SaqraYazez was a powerful demon who served the Dark Lord of the underworld. Even he was not a match for the powerful creature. Saqra attacked magick beings and killed them slowly and painfully, then draining their magick to enhance his own powers.

Jared once saw SaqraYazezrip the head off someone who displeased him.

After that he made certain to avoid him. Fortunately, the demon slept beneath a mountain and only awakened to feast on power once every 2,000 years.

Exceptions were made for Otherworlders who possessed the power to emit coldfire from their fingers, but since few Others could control the dangerous fire, the demon slumbered on.

Until… now?

"What the actual fuck?! You never told me that! She's going to be fodder for one of the most powerful demons in Inca history if she uses her powers? But she has to use her powers to bind with me? What the fuck am I supposed to do?"

Silence.

"You said all I had to do was get her to fall in love with me! Now you're saying she's moving up the demon food chain to become fodder?"

More silence.

Jared had a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling.

Harper usually enjoyed travelingto new destinations and made time to acquaint herself with local culture and cuisine. On this trip, her first to Indonesia, she bypassed all those habits. On the island of Java, she barely noticed the beauty of the location, or the chatter of other tourists.

Anxious to visit the volcano, at her hotel in Banyuwangi, she booked a midnight expedition with a local tourism company. The brochure left in her room looked intriguing – Wizard Wonder Tours! See the rare blue flames of the volcano!

The leader of the expedition, a nice man named Xavier she reached online, said the group would be small. She felt bad paying so little for both the one-hour ride to the volcano and the guided hike, and decided to tip him generously later.

The team from the university wouldn't be here for another two weeks, so no chance of running into them.

At eleven p.m., she went downstairs to the hotel lobby to wait by the door as instructed. To her surprise, only one other person was present. The tall, blond man dressed all in red named Gideon looked like a British tourist. For some reason, he made her nervous.

An equally tall, dark-haired man joined them. She recognized him from the photo on the brochure. Xavier had dark hair, a short beard and mustache. Handsome, wearing bright green shorts and a yellow shirt that made him look more like a tourist than hotel guests, he seemed cheerful, yet an odd air of otherworldliness and power clung to him. He didn't look Indonesian. Or American. Or British. He seemed…ancient as the mountain they would climb.

He made quick introductions and shook her hand. His palm was warm and tingled as if electricity filled him.

"If you're ready, let's go," Xavier said.

Get into a car with these two men? Harper balked. "Maybe I should wait until tomorrow when there's more people…"

Xavier and Gideon exchanged glances. Gideon seemed amused.

Suddenly a petite and lovely blonde woman in blue jeans and a white blouse seemed to appear out of nowhere, though she must have drifted through the hotel door without Harper seeing her.

"Oh good, I'm not too late. I thought I'd join you. I'm Ciara, Xavier's wife. He said conditions tonight are perfect for seeing the blue fire." The woman extended her hand and Harper shook it.

She glanced at her husband. "Tristan and Nikki are baby-sitting Sonia."

Having another woman on this trip made her relax. The woman didn't seem as otherworldly as the men, who seemed to radiate a crackling power.

As they reached the vehicle, a sleek and contemporary four-wheel SUV, the two men began to argue.

"I'm driving," Gideon announced. "You drive like a bat out of hell."

"You only got your license and considering the volcano does seem out of hell, my driving would suffice," Xavier countered.

Ciara sighed and motioned to Harper. "Let's sit in the back and talk. Men. Good thing I know the way there because they'd never ask for directions."

Shortly after, they were on the road, with Xavier driving after Ciara gave him directions. They passed rice paddies, and tall palm trees. A lemon wedge of moon against the backdrop of craggy mountains made for a picturesque scene, but she barely noticed.

Only the volcano itself mattered. Harper couldn't understand her frantic obsession.

"The hike itself is less than five miles round trip, but you need to be careful when reaching the crater. It's a steep and dangerous path. Keep up and always follow me," Xavier said, peering into the rear-view mirror.

When they reached the parking lot of Ijen and climbed out of the vehicle, Harper felt an urgent need to abandon the group and hike ahead. She could have hired a man with a wheelbarrow to carry her, as she'd heard some liked to do, but the less people around, the better.

Yet no other cars were in the parking lot. The men with wheelbarrows were gone as well.

Xavier handed out hardhats with headlamps. She wondered about the gas masks. Perhaps Xavier would pass those out along the hike.

None of them were wearing gas masks. Harper breathed in the gaseous air. For some reason, it appealed to her instead of making her cough and strain for oxygen.

As they hiked up to the crater, he made jokes about "hot stuff" and how his daughter Sonia would love coming here to play with the blue fire. His wife kept shaking her head and telling him to stop encouraging their daughter.

"You're the reason she likes to play with fire," Ciara told him.

"At least she stopped playing with poisonous spiders," Gideon remarked.

She ignored their inside jokes and finally, they reached the crater's rim. Harper glanced down.

Disappointment filled her. Curling smoke wafted upward from the crater, obscuring the view of the lake and the lava.

Xavier cleared his throat. "Perhaps conditions will change."

"The fumaroles around the volcano emit high concentrations of the sulphur crystal," she mused. "It's what causes the blue flames because sulphur has a low melting point and the heat the volcano produces melt the sulphur and produces the gases and the blue lava."

"Come on baby, light my fire," Xavier murmured.

Ciara glanced at her husband with a small smile.

"Ijen was formed about 300,000 years ago," Harper added.

"Caderyn was not around at that time. Or perhaps he was," Gideon remarked.

"Hard to tell. Though he acts that old," Xavier said.

She couldn't tell if they were joking. Caderyn was the name of the mysterious so-called "wizard" who'd given her the letter, but it didn't matter. The volcano beckoned to her like a siren song, eradicating all logical thought and questions.

"The crater lake gives off toxic fumes, including hydrogen sulfide. We should be wearing gas masks." Harper looked at Xavier.

In the light of her head beam, his face took on an eerie appearance.

"Do you need one?" he asked. "Can you breathe?"

Harper started to say she felt suffocated, and then took a long breath. Strange. The sulphur didn't make her cough or gag as it should.

It didn't make sense, nor did the odd desire to draw closer to the heat, see the blue flames closer. Clouds of steam waxed and waned, showing peeks of blue fire in the distance like a curtain jerking back and then dropping again.

"I wish there wasn't as much steam, so the flames were more apparent," she murmured.

Xavier rubbed his bearded cheek. Suddenly the smoke cleared, leaving a splendid view of nearly iridescent blue flames running down the mountain. Harper craned her neck, fascinated by the sight.

They climbed downward. Light from their headlamps beamed the way.

Thirty minutes later, they reached the bottom of the crater. Harper frowned as they neared a mining area. No miners were around, though from her research, she discovered they usually went to work late at night to mine the rich deposits of sulphur.

Entranced, she watched the bright light spill down the hill, flames flickering in the night.

She squinted, wondering why the flames attracted her. Harper thought back to her research. The fumes didn't burn her face or make her eyes water. The otherworldly atmosphere enchanted her. It was a geological phenomenon she had longed to see, and now she witnessed it. Yet it wasn't enough. She wanted to get closer.

"The miners get the sulphur by pouring water over the emissions and it hardens and solidifies," she explained, staring at the flames. "The smoke should be irritating, even with a gas mask and we're not wearing any."

Another odd thing – they were alone. No miners, no other tour groups.

Harper walked over to the flat ground where the miners worked, where piles of yellow sulphur sat, along with baskets the men used to cart the crystals up the mountain. Flames flickered near the area. Blue fire…it held power, more than ordinary mortals knew.

Harper tossed aside her hardhat with its headlamp.

Unable to resist, she walked closer, crouching down to the flickering blue flames. Her logical mind screamed she was getting too close, it was dangerous, she'd get a severe burn and the pain would lash at her…

Reaching out her hand, she touched the fire.

It danced in her hand, swirling in a tornado and then she unfurled her palm. Blue flames shot out of her palm in a vortex, rising into the sky several inches…

Oh dear heavens! Harper clenched her fist and the fire vanished from her palm.

Heart racing, unable to grasp what the hell had just happened, she looked at her palm. It made no sense. She should be screaming in agony.

"Do not fear, for you are not burned," Xavier said quietly. "You were meant for this, Harper Ashley."

Crouching down, against common sense begging her to get a grip on reality, she touched the blue flames once more. A fireball leapt into her hand. Sensations pummeled her, an intoxicating feeling of power, so much power she fell back onto the ground. Harper felt the power race along her veins, invade her pores, her vital organs.

Blue flames shot out of her fingertips, her toes. She opened her mouth and blue flames shot out.

Fighting terror, she wrestled with the power threatening to overwhelm her, made her faint. Harper reached down deep inside, thought of her parents and thought of slamming the power down, as one would stomp out a campfire.

The flames ceased, but she felt the power humming inside her, a low but stable current of … what?

Magick.

"This isn't real. I'm dreaming." Her gaze whipped around, searching for Xavier, for Ciara and Gideon.

They had vanished.

Harper put her trembling palms to her face. Her warm face that seemed alight with power and magick.

"I'm a scientist," she screamed aloud. "This can't be happening to me!"

Steam broiled up from the fumaroles. In the distance she heard a horrible sound, the cackling of something nasty and otherworldly. The steam cleared and she glimpsed a being rising from the rocky ground about one hundred yards away. It glowed red, the stuff of nightmares, and its features were misshapen.

Twisted.

Harper screamed again. "Leave me alone!