Luke turned toward the door. "Freddy's still in there, on the other side of the room. We split up. We were keeping watch for you."

"How did you get the cloaks and masks?"

He touched the silky black material. "We came in a side door. They had these all laid out on a table for people to take." He took a step and put his hand on the doorknob. "I'll go get Freddy."

I started to follow.

He pointed toward the tapestry. "You wait in the hidden passage. I promise I won't be long."

"We should stick together." If he was going back in there, I was going with him.

"From the sounds they're making, who knows what kind of twisted magic they might be doing. I've got a better chance on my own." He turned and faced me. "Colina, I promise we will find a way to help your brother once we get Darla out."

James's spirit is in there, bound to that madman. "Can you make someone release a banshee?"

Luke put both hands on my shoulders. "No. You have to kill the mage. As soon as a mage dies, all the spirits bound to them are released."

I clenched my fists. "If I kill Macaven, my brother's spirit goes free?"

"It's not as easy as it sounds. Macaven is a powerful mage who's been practicing ancient spells. He's more powerful than anyone I've ever come across."

"And my only powers are raising the dead and helping spirits cross over." I grabbed his arm. "Do you think I could force my brother's spirit to the other side like I did with Thomas?"

Luke shook his head. "Not while Macaven has him bound. His magic would hold your brother's spirit here. You'd have to somehow break his spell to release James."

"If I could get the dagger, I could slit Macaven's throat like he did to my father." The violent words that came out of my mouth surprised even me.

Luke's fingers dug into my skin. "That's your anger talking. It's an enchanted dagger. Killing Macaven with it, you don't know what that might do, what spell or thing that might set free." He let go of me and said in a soft voice, "Trust me, we'll find a way to release your brother, but right now we have to get my sister. Stay here. I'll get Freddy."

Without another word, Luke walked through the door and shut it quietly behind him.

I stared at the closed door. I could free my brother by killing Macaven. I wanted to kill Macaven as vengeance for my family. But even if I wanted to, how could I kill a powerful mage? I made my way behind the tapestry, into the passage, and stood at the top of the staircase, waiting.

Minutes passed, and there was still no sign of Luke or Freddy.

I was starting to seriously worry when I heard footsteps coming down the passage. There was no place to hide, no place to duck into. If it wasn't Luke and Freddy, I was in real trouble.

I heard a familiar voice call out. "We come in peace." Freddy wore a black cloak and held a mask in one hand.

I gestured down the stairway. "I think Darla is in a room at the bottom, but I couldn't get in. There's a heavy lock on the door."

Freddy opened the cloak and revealed the bag hanging over his right shoulder. He patted it. "No worries, I brought a few things that might help."

We made our way down the stairs and stopped in front of the door.

Freddy took off his cloak and put the bag on the floor. He opened it and rummaged around, withdrawing a bizarre assortment of implements. A hammer was followed by a can opener, then a bundle of bungee cords and a box of cookies. He swore quietly and shook the bag around to peer at its contents before finally pulling out a pair of bolt cutters.

"What didn't you bring?" Luke asked.

Freddy smiled up at us. "Like the Boy Scouts, I'm always prepared." He reached up with the bolt cutters, and after a few tense moments of wrestling, broke the lock.

I didn't have any proof that Darla was in there, only a gut feeling. We had no real idea what we were about to walk into.

Luke took the lead and leaned his hand on the door. "Stay behind me."

Freddy passed me a flashlight. "I'll stay out here as a lookout."

The door swung open, and I followed Luke inside, moving my flashlight in a wide arc. It illuminated the room, showing two dozen bodies sitting and laying on the floor. Some turned to look at us as we entered, their eyes flat and hopeless, but most didn't even react to our presence. Their captors had placed tape over their mouths and bound their hands and feet with thick rope.

As I shone my light across fear-stricken faces, I came to the conclusion that these were the ones who'd refused to join Macaven's ranks. How could someone round up innocent people to be sacrificed? How many have they already killed? I could feel the anger building inside me.

I finally came across a face I recognized and gasped. There were bruises on Darla's face, and her mouth had been taped over. Someone had blackened one eye, and there were bruises on her face, but that wasn't the worst part.

They had hacked off her beautiful hair.

Where golden strands once fell almost to the floor, her hair was now short. It was chopped hazardously around her head above her ears. Her eyes were locked on us, and she tried desperately to rise despite her bound hands and feet. Luke rushed toward his sister. He pulled out a pocketknife and started to cut the ropes binding her hands.

I reached up and touched her face, which was wet with tears. "Darla, what did they do to you?"

Luke reached up and grabbed one edge of the tape covering her mouth. "This is going to hurt."

Darla nodded her head, and Luke yanked.

A cry of pain escaped Darla's mouth. Her now free hands reached up and touched her brother's face. "You found me. I knew you would." They embraced.

I didn't know how much time we had, but there were a lot of people to untie. I moved to the body closest to me and started to work on the ropes when I heard Freddy's voice. "Someone's coming. There are lights coming down the staircase."

Luke's large hands grabbed at me. "We have to get out of here."

"But we can't leave them," I said, looking around at the people that filled the room. Eyes pleaded with us to save them. The looks on the faces, the fear in their eyes. We couldn't just leave them.

Luke pulled me roughly to my feet. "We can't help them if we get caught. We have to get out of here now."

I wouldn't leave them to be slaughtered like my family. I fought against him, but Luke pushed and shoved me out of the room. Freddy supported Darla as Luke roughly shoved me down the passage.

At the end of the hall was another set of stairs. We didn't have a choice—we headed up. We went through another narrow passage and came to an exterior door.

Luke opened it and stuck his head through. "It's clear."

We made our way out of the hotel, across the patio, and back into the bushes. Darla rushed into Luke's arms as soon as we were a reasonable distance from the hotel. Luke held his sister as she cried softly into his shoulder.

Freddy dropped his bag and went over to join them. The three of them stood there, huddled together.

Freddy spoke up. "There were a couple dozen people in that room. Why have they taken so many people hostage?"

"So Macaven can kill them," I answered.

Luke held his sister at arm's length, examining her, and then drew her close again. "Not everyone Macaven has taken is dead. My guess is that he's building some kind of coven. And they're recreating the spells of old. The girl from the lake—Sarah. She said they gave her a choice, and she refused to give them what they wanted, right? I'm betting they wanted her power, whatever it might have been. They wanted her will given over to the group."

I was trying to understand what he was telling me, but none of it made sense. "But why?"

"So, they could combine and become more than just themselves. Groups are dangerous. My people never combine our magics. We're a guild, true, but everyone wields their own power separately. Centuries ago, there were covens—groups of magicians. The problem is that the leader of the group defines what that magic is like, its flavor, you could say. They take over the coven's free will. Everyone in the coven becomes like the banshees, in a way, a living person magically bound to the coven's leader. Bound to do their bidding."

"Macaven is trying to form a coven with the strongest mage members he can find? And if they won't play along, he kills them?" I shook my head. "But they didn't sacrifice Sarah. They just killed her."

Luke's eyes met mine. "There are tales in the old books about covens hunting people for pleasure. For the thrill of killing. The violence inside them takes over in a way that's dangerous. The power that runs through the blood of the mage-born is addictive. Macaven could lose control of them at any moment; but from what we just overheard, he's close to letting the demon out."

"And if he does?" I demanded.

Luke frowned. "Demons haven't roamed the earth for a hundred years."

Demons. Luke is talking about demons. A shiver went down my spine at the thought of such an evil creature set loose on the world. "How do you stop a demon?"

"There were people trained to kill them, to force them into oblivion, but those arts have long been lost." Luke slowly shook his head back and forth. "There are no demon killers in this day and age."

"The demon would have free reign, and Macaven would control it?" There will be no one to stop him, I thought immediately. But Luke said Macaven was still preparing for the spell, which meant we still had time to stop it. "How will he raise the demon?"

"If he has enough people in the coven, they'll help him generate the power he needs," Luke answered.

"And my father, you think his spirit is in the dagger?" I asked.

He looked away. "Your father is gone." Luke left Darla's side and came to mine. He reached over and grabbed my hand. "It's not like your brother. Your father's spirit, his very essence has combined with the others who were sacrificed with the knife."

"Combined with the evil ones?" I said through clenched teeth.

Luke's voice was grim. "The darkest hearts and souls."

I couldn't believe my father would be trapped forever in the dagger, turned into the power source for some evil spell. "There's no way to release him?"

"None that I know of," Luke answered.

"We have to stop Macaven." We couldn't let that madman go through with his plans. How many had he killed, and how many more would die at his hands if he raised a demon? We'd left all those people. All those people in the basement were going to be slaughtered, killed brutally just like my family. The image of the bullet tearing through my mother's forehead flashed before my eyes. I could still remember the smell of my father's blood as it gushed from the wicked gash across his neck.

Everyone bound and gagged in the basement of the hotel was going to die, and we hadn't done anything to stop it.

***