Chapter Twenty-five

Harry arrives at Victor Sells’s lake house and opens his Sight, perceiving the building as saturated with malignant energies and parasitic spirit-things. Inside, he follows the pulse of ritual power and sensuous music matching earlier crime-scene cues. Below the platform, he finds crates of ThreeEye and potion ingredients, realizing Victor is mass-producing a magical poison keyed to users’ emotions.

Thunder builds as Victor chants a lethal ritual using a rabbit bound with Harry’s hair, fueled by the Beckitts’ lust in a supporting circle. Harry ignites the stereo to break the ritual’s musical component, then rides a wind spell up to the platform, revealing himself to Victor mid-ceremony.

When Victor moves to complete the killing spell, Harry hurls a plastic film canister through the primary circle, breaking it at the instant of release. The storm’s power backlashes, blasting the room, shattering the Beckitts’ circle, and sending debris flying. Victor counters with fire; Harry, without his usual focus, throws up a hard air shield that diverts the flames into the ceiling, setting beams alight.

Victor arms himself with a bone focus, but Harry closes the distance physically, slamming him into a wall and pummeling him. Mr. Beckitt opens fire; the gun grazes Harry’s hip before jamming amid the wild magic. Seizing the moment, Victor dumps dried scorpion husks and animates them, commanding them to grow and attack.

As the scorpions swell to monster size and skitter toward the kitchen, both Beckitts, naked and feral, recover with guns in hand. Harry, injured and retreating, grabs a fallen broom while the burning, chaos-charged room and the advancing constructs leave him cornered and outnumbered.