The Demon Trappers: Foretold Read online

  The universe had a truly bizarre sense of humour.

  This time she wouldn’t be working solo: it was her job as a newly minted journeyman trapper to help train the latest batch of apprentices. They were a mixed lot: the eldest was forty years old, a former DJ at a radio station. The next youngest was in his late twenties and a computer wizard Harper had already decided this guy was going to excel at trapping Techno-Fiends. The third was redheaded girl in her early twenties proving that Riley’s stint as the only female in the Atlanta Guild was drawing to a close. She had blazed the trail and now it was time for others to make their mark.

  The three were lined up in front of her, but there was no smirking or disdain. Ever since video footage of her battling an Archangel had found its way on the Internet, she was someone to be taken seriously. In fact, there were rumours that Hollywood wanted to do a spin-off of Demonland, the lead character being somebody a lot like Riley Blackthorne.

  Just what I need.

  As she was about to lead her charges into the library, her cellphone rang. She’d been expecting this call: Beck was about to sit the National Guild’s exam for master demon trapper.

  ‘Give me a sec, guys,’ she said, then stepped away from them for privacy.

  ‘Hey, lady,’ Beck called down the line. ‘Lie to me and tell me this is goin’ to go OK.’

  ‘You’ll be fine. You’ve memorized the exam’s questions, you know the answers and they’ll give you plenty of time to answer them.’ They’d even allowed him to type his answers into a computer, since writing was so painfully slow for him. ‘You will pass this, Beck. No question in my mind.’

  ‘God, I hope so. I’ve never been this nervous. Well, except when I asked ya to wear my ring.’

  He really was worried if he was back to using ‘ya’.

  ‘Take your time and ask if you don’t understand something,’ Riley advised. ‘The masters want you to pass, so don’t worry.’

  A long sigh came down the phone. ‘I wish I had yer confdence.’

  ‘Dude, you took out an Archangel. An exam is nothing, OK?’

  ‘I hope so.’

  ‘Once you’re done, we’ll go out for food and celebrate.’

  Beck perked up. ‘Yeah, that’d be good. Maybe I’ll have a couple of beers and we can play a few games of pool.’

  Armageddon Lounge, here we come. Dating a Georgia boy wasn’t for wimps.

  ‘Sounds good. Now go kick some butt.’

  ‘Love ya, Riley girl.’

  ‘Love you, Den. Later.’

  The library didn’t look much different and neither did the librarian. The former was in good shape – bookshelves all in perfect alignment – while the latter was as neatly dressed as always.

  ‘Any chance of a recurrence of your last visit’s issues?’ the woman asked.

  ‘No. That Grade Five demon is dead and none of the others would dare try that stunt now.’

  Once the paperwork was completed, Riley channelled her father the teacher.

  ‘So pay attention, guys . . . people, because I will be quizzing you at the end.’

  Riley walked them to the door of the Rare Books room and laid down a double line of Holy Water, one inside and one outside the room, because you could never be too paranoid.

  Then she went in search of the demon in question. Once she’d found evidence of its destruction, she lined her charges up in a neat row. The plastic cup came out of her backpack.

  ‘You trap with a sippy cup?’ the older guy said, taken aback.

  ‘Demon trappers have jack for a budget so you use what you can find. A Grade One demon fits inside one of these and, if you screw the lid on correctly, it can’t get out.’

  ‘And if you don’t screw on the lid right?’

  He’d taken the bait like she’d hoped. ‘Then it’ll get loose while you’re driving and you just might nearly rear end a cop. Been there, done that. Learn from my mistakes.’

  Riley heard a chuckle from one of the nearby tables. It was the hunky guy who’d dissed her after the trapping debacle. She frowned him into silence and went back to the hands-on instruction.

  ‘See there, between the constitutional law book and the one on civil procedure?’ she said, pointing upward.

  All three of her newbies followed her finger and then stared in fascination at the Biblio-Fiend rending his way through a volume devoted to maritime law.

  ‘It’s . . . way ugly,’ the girl trapper whispered.

  The demon hissed in response and Riley knew what was coming next.

  ‘You might want to step back,’ she warned. Two streams came at them: one of green demon pee and the other of Hellish obscenities.

  ‘Eww. That stinks,’ the young guy said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

  ‘Lesson Number Two,’ Riley began. ‘Demon trapping is never like you see on television. It’s a dirty job.’

  ‘But someone has to do it?’ the younger dude suggested.

  ‘Yeah. And now it’s your job. Let’s get this pest out of here before he does any more damage.’

  It went down like clockwork: deploy Herman Melville’s demon-stunning prose, collect comatose fiend and drop it into sippy cup, tighten down the lid.

  ‘Sweet!’ the girl trapper replied. ‘When do we get to do that?’

  ‘Next week. Read up on Biblio-Fiends in your manual and then we’ll start having you guys trap these things.’

  The older apprentice eyed her. ‘It can’t be that easy. There has to be a catch.’

  Riley was really beginning to like this dude. He had just enough life experience to be cynical.

  ‘Yes, there is a catch or two. Let’s get the paperwork signed and then I’ll tell you exactly what happens when you screw things up.’

  ‘Another been there, done that?’ the guy asked.

  ‘Totally.’

  When the Biblio awoke, it flipped off the girl trapper and swore at her, which earned it a laugh in response. Then it glared up at Riley.

  ‘Blackthorne’s daughter,’ it said, using both middle fingers this time.

  ‘Why does it do that?’ one of the apprentices asked.

  ‘Because Hell isn’t very fond of me.’

  Which was an understatement.

  As the apprentices chattered among themselves, Riley followed them out of the library. This time there were no EMT units or new vans, no upset Backwoods Boy or frantic phone calls from her father. Just a quiet campus on a gloriously warm late July morning.

  Life had come full circle.

  Riley found herself smiling at how things had turned out. In one month’s time Beck would be off to Scotland to begin the first phase of his Grand Master training. Uncharacteristically, he’d obsessed about every little detail, alternately jazzed and incredibly spooked. To put his mind at ease, she’d agreed to housesit while he was gone, watching over Rennie. Relieved, Beck had hinted that maybe they should make that a permanent arrangement when he returned, then invited her to come visit him during his training. She knew what he had in mind..

  He’ll propose in Scotland, on my eighteenth birthday.

  There was no doubt what her answer would be.

  When Riley’s life had been so terribly bad and there had seemed no end to trouble, misery upon misery heaped on her, her father had always reassured her that everything would be OK. For a long time OK was as good as it could be.

  Now all those dark days and nights had spun themselves into a promising future that shone like newly-minted gold. She was a journeyman trapper and caretaker of Denver Beck’s heart. Even Hell knew her name.

  Blackthorne’s daughter would never settle for ‘OK’ ever again.

  From now on, it’s awesome or nothing.

  Acknowledgements

  Wow! I can’t believe this is the fourth and final book in the series. The whole story is finished and yes, gentle readers, you will know how it all falls out for Riley and Beck. I hope you found the ending as joyful as I did.

  There are many good folks to t
hank for helping me complete this book in record time. First and foremost, my amazing editor Rachel Petty, who helped me figure out how to work through some of the plot issues and how to bridge the Atlanta and Okefenokee scenes. You rock, lady! My endless gratitude (and sheer awe) for the speed with which Samantha Swinnerton, Fliss Stevens and Tracey Ridgewell sped this manuscript through copy-editing and typesetting. Also, a shout out to the wonderful publicity and marketing folks at Macmillan Children’s Books, especially Hattie Adam-Smith, who fell in love with this series from the very beginning and shared that love with the world. And as always my literary agent, Meredith Bernstein, deserves a hug and a big thank-you for all she does for me.

  Because of the short time I had to write Foretold, I needed lots of support, and that was amply supplied by my dear friends Jean Marie Ward and Michelle Roper. They went the extra distance to keep me sane and managed to beta read my manuscripts in record time despite their busy lives. Also, a hug to my spouse, who kept telling me ‘It’ll be OK’. He was right, of course. He always is.

  A special thank-you to Steve and Jo Knight of Okefenokee Pastimes (www.okefenokee.com) for the extraordinary guided tour into the beauty and majesty that is Okefenokee Swamp. I’ve come to love that magnificent natural wonder as much as you two do.

  Sometimes you just have to have a mortician’s advice and this time it was supplied by Shane Burton, who made sure I didn’t goof up the funereal parts. Thanks, guy. The Innis & Gunn is on me, my friend.

  Again I used the Scottish expertise of William MacLeod (just as I did in all the previous books) to ensure Grand Master Angus Stewart sounded for real. Thank you, William. Because of you, Stewart is one of my favourite characters to write.

  Finally my gratitude to my readers, who have travelled along with Riley and Beck on their torturous journey and rooted for them every step of the way. The series would never have done so well if it hadn’t been for you. You guys are truly #TeamDemonTrappers.

  Jana Oliver’s imagination has always had the upper hand despite her attempts to house-train it. When she’s not on the road tromping around old cemeteries, she can be found in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and far too many books.

  Books by Jana Oliver

  The Demon Trappers: Forsaken

  The Demon Trappers: Forbidden

  The Demon Trappers: Forgiven

  The Demon Trappers: Foretold

  First published in the US 2012 by St. Martin’s Press

  First published in the UK 2012 by Macmillan Children’s Books

  This electronic edition published 2012 by Macmillan Children’s Books

  a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

  Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR

  Basingstoke and Oxford

  Associated companies throughout the world

  www.panmacmillan.com/childrenshome

  ISBN 978-1-4472-1608-7 EPUB

  Copyright © Jana Oliver 2012

  The right of Jana Oliver to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Visit www.panmacmillan.com/childrenshome to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title page

  Dedication page

  Epigraph page

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Acknowledgements

  Author biography

  Copyright page