Daydreams And Nightshade (DaN #1)

Chapter 30: The talk

The sudden exposure to sounds was too much for Luna's mind to cope with. She tried pressing a hand against her ear while using the blood of her other hand to draw the circle. Alexei was in no state to consider rattling the drum either. He and Lucius were fully occupied with keeping the father's ghost out of the room, and Luna doubted silence would help them at that point anyway.

Luna scrunched up her face as she pressed her finger against the floor. The small amount of blood coming out would make the ordeal take forever. She squeezed her eyes together as she picked up the shard again and bit down hard into her lower lip. Then she sliced the shard deep into the palm of her hand without allowing any second thoughts.

Noah looked up as the blood spilled onto the floor and Luna hurried to smudge it out before it dried. He made a movement to run over but Luna shook her head at him and placed a finger against her mouth.

Noah hesitated. He looked over at Lucius who still struggled to keep the door shut, and Luna reckoned she had to work even quicker or Noah would alert their father of what she was up to.

Another slam against the door boomed through the room and the ghost yelled something incoherent from the other side of it. Luna pretended as though her eyes weren't misty with tears. She couldn't help it. There was a chance this wouldn't work and if it didn't, she had no idea what they'd do. Who would be hurt first? Alexei? Or Lucius?

She finally closed the circle on the floor. It wasn't a large one, but there wasn't enough time or blood to do one of proper size. She tried to remember the symbols surrounding it next. It was hard to mimic them with blood. They could probably use more precision, but she did the best she could.

Noah's eyes filled with horror as he scanned the circle.

"You're not—" he began, but Luna hushed him. The sun had begun rising outside, spilling rays of light through the window and onto the floor with the crudely made circle.

Noah shook his head.

"But Father said it was—" he was interrupted again as Luna cleared her throat. That's when Lucius turned to look over his shoulder and noticed the circle on the floor. His eyes widened and he looked from the circle to Luna's bloodied hands.

The next few seconds were a chaotic mess. Lucius turned around completely, disregarding what he was doing and leaving poor Alexei to defend the door on his own. The latter didn't have the strength of two men however, and was soon shoved into the wall as the door flung open. Luna summoned all the concentration she could to remember the Phion text she'd studied and began chanting despite Lucius trying to reach her.

"Luna, don't!" He stumbled backwards after that. The blood on the floor lit up and Lucius' eyes glowed briefly before he covered his face with a groan. He must've been hurt on contact with the circle, which on the bright side had to imply it was working.

Luna didn't stop chanting however. She couldn't be interrupted, and she was pretty sure her father knew this as well. He removed his hands from his face and just looked at her in desperation.

Nothing seemed to happen at first, and Luna feared the ghost wasn't in the circle. She had no way of knowing, but she did know how to gain its attention. She began chanting louder and looked for any signs of where it was.

She got her answer as Alexei fell down onto his knees and crouched over, gripping tightly around his stomach as the same fire poker from before readied another swing at him. Lucius was already on his way there to try to ward the ghost off, despite having no way of doing it.

Luna wanted to stop chanting. She wanted to scream, or run to their aid, but she couldn't stop it. She had no idea what would happen.

Suddenly, something warm and wet reached her lips and Lucius turned to look at her again, visibly drawing a breath.