We landed back in the library of The Brown House, scaring a class of students who were in the middle of a lesson.
The teacher, a woman with short, blonde hair and dazzling blue eyes merely glanced up from the book she was reading from. Huh, I guess a bunch of people suddenly appearing out of nowhere was a regular thing for them to deal with.
"Sorry Mona," Victoria said "Bit of an emergency, can you take the kids back to their classroom?"
The dozen or so kids, dressed in their uniform of maroon jumpers and black trousers looked from Mona to Victoria, obviously wondering what was going on. I noticed the logo on their jumpers, two crossed wands in a pentagon, embroidered with golden stitching.
Mona smiled at them, "I'll explain everything later," she reassured them as she raised an arm to send a white smoke-like substance out through the door "Just go back to class and Mr Hatch will be waiting for you."
At her words the children left in a rush, one girl's braided pigtails swinging out behind her. Mona turned her attention back to us.
"What is it? What's wrong this time?"
"That's a long story," Victoria replied, glancing at Callum "And frankly we don't have that much time."
She reached over to the side of one of the heavy wooden desks where a stack of old books was piled up. With great care, she picked up the top book, glanced at it, before putting it on the floor.
"I'm looking for anything that we have on portals, alternative dimensions and Lucifer."
Her words caused Mona to raise an eyebrow in surprise "You're not looking for a way to summon him, are you?" she asked "Because, that is dark magic, even for you to mess around with Victoria. The Coven would not be impressed, and neither would The Council."
"Oh, we don't need to summon him, he's already been released from hell," Victoria said as she picked up another book "What we need is a way to find out if it's possible to create a crossing between dimensions. I think the cause is rooted in the spell used to release Lucifer, but, I can't be sure. I know that I read nearly spell to release him somewhere..." she trailed off muttering something under her breath, before shaking her head "I just don't understand how Will was able to open a portal without being able to control it in some way."
Thinking back to the night that Lucifer had been released and our fight with Will, I remembered how at first, the spell didn't seem to work.
"I don't think he was in control," I said "I think that it was just chance. At first, the spell didn't work, or at least, it didn't seem to. But, what if it did work, just not to release Lucifer."
"I don't see how that could happen," Mona responded after a moment "There must have been a counter spell cast by someone who could control the spell, change it to open a portal instead."
"This is very confusing," Callum said "All this talk of magic and Lucifer, this is a dangerous place."
He wasn't bloody wrong, but, Moonstone was home. Deep down it was a part of me. Supernatural apocalypse and all.
A feeling of dread crept its way into my chest as I recalled the showdown with Will. There had been someone else there who was fully capable of transforming the spell: M.
The mysterious sorcerer was a question mark in the grand scheme of The House Of The Apocalypse. It was clear that they needed him, but he was far more powerful than any of them on paper.
Why the fuck would he be working for them? More to the point, why was he doing the bidding of Dorian Gray?
It just didn't make sense.
"Could M have created the portal?" I asked.
"The old wizard?" Harry Jekyll cut in "I know him from my days in The House. He's certainly capable."
"Who is he?" Kian asked "M? He obviously doesn't like people knowing who really he is, and why is he working for The House in the first place?"
That was exactly what I had been wondering. If his connection with The House Of The Apocalypse went as far back as Harry Jekyll's time then did they have some sort of hold over him?
"I honestly don't know why he was working for them," Harry Jekyll replied "But, he was already a member when I joined."
Damn. So, his connection went even further back than we originally thought.
"M?" Mona frowned "We'll, there are a few wizards with 'M' as the first letter of their name, but, not many that go as far back as we're talking. Sorry. I'm a bit of an expert on The House Of The Apocalypse. The legend of them, at least. I never thought they were still going. If we assume that M joined them at the very beginning then we're looking at somebody who was around when magic was still being used freely."
"You're talking before The Coven had formed as well," Victoria said "I think we have some documents from that time, but, there wasn't much that survived."
Frankly, I was now struggling to follow any of what they were going on about. Why was nothing ever bloody simple? This whole thing was getting more and more complicated the longer it went on, and, while we struggled to put the pieces together, Lucifer was out there doing fuck knows what. Most likely working on bringing about the end of all things.
Yeah, that wasn't a happy bloody thought...
And the main problem was that we had absolutely no idea what our next move should be. How were we supposed to fight him, or even find him?
"Well, that doesn't help us much," I muttered "So, what do we do now?"
"It appears we've hit a dead end," Kian mused. He took a closer look at the cover of an old leather-bound book that sat on one of the many shelves that lined the walls "So, we need to arm ourselves with information. We read."
Victoria nodded "We look for any mention of alternative universes, anything at all to help us," she added, handing out volumes with titles like 'How To Summon A Fallen Angel, The Book of the Dark One' and 'How To Curse Your Enemy'.
I ended up with a small black book with golden writing embossed on the cover that read 'The Little Book of Shadows'.
We all dispersed to various desks, I followed Kian and sat next to him, while my mum teamed up with Dylan while Callum went with Michael. Victoria and Harry Jekyll stayed at the bookshelf.
"This is going to make my bloody head hurt," I said as I sat down next to Kian and opened the book Victoria had given me "I've done enough studying."
"Your head will be fine," Kian laughed "You only have a few months before the end of college anyway."
I glared at him "Shut the fuck up, I've got universities to look at after that. If the world doesn't end before I get there. I don't think my mum is going to let me give up on my education just because I'm a werewolf."
Kian laughed "Yeah, 'If', although the world ending puts a different perspective on things. Grades won't matter if you're dead."
Damn it, he always knew how to make me feel better about situations like this.
I kept flipping through the pages until I came across a chapter title that immediately caught my attention '3- Alternate Universes and Places'.
Jackpot.
"Kian, I think I have something here," I said putting the book in the middle of us so that he could read it as well.
He studied the page for a moment before shaking his head "This is wild," he leaned across the desk slightly, getting closer to me. His voice tickled my ear, and the warmth of his breath made me shiver "I don't understand it. All this stuff about the other realities, parallel universes, other worlds, whatever you want to call them, none of it makes any sense."
"Me either," I admitted, leaning closer to him myself and staring hard at the book.
The handwriting was short, neat, and thankfully easy to read;
Alternate universes are not just a concept of the mind. They are as real as the grass beneath our feet or the sky above our heads. I know you will ask if they cannot be seen, how could they exist?
There are a great number of such worlds out there, each different from the other. They exist because of the choices that we make. Each decision creates a parallel world where things play out as if you made a different choice.
There was a time when this was thought to be the truth. Maybe at one point, it was, but this was all just theory. We never knew for sure until the day that 'M' opened a portal to one of these different words...
"Wait, M, opened a portal before?" I said pointing out the paragraph to Kian.
"Oh, fuck, we need to tell the others," Kian said picking up the book. I followed him back to where Victoria and Harry Jekyll were still sorting through books.
They both looked up at our approach
"Okay, let me guess, you found something useful?" Victoria asked, taking her attention away from the pile of books in front of her.
"Yeah, we did," I confirmed passing her the book.
As she read her expression changed to one of disbelief and shock "Shit..." she said as she eventually put the book down "Well, this complicates things."