Accidental Demons by Clare Edge
Bernadette Crowley, Ber, is a middle school blood witch and has just accidentally unleashed a minor demon into her biology classroom. As she struggles to remember which classification it is to banish it, it's some kind of Mischief demon, it tears around the room, making people drop their pencils, sneeze, pinching them and terrifying the classroom lizard. If Ber had summoned the demon on purpose, which she's definitely not allowed to do because she's just a kid, she'd just let it run its course, because once a demon completes its duty, it'll head back to the demon dimension on its own. But she didn't do it on purpose, so it has to be banished and she can't do that until she properly identifies it. She finally remembers what it is, an Annoyance, says the banishment spell and spits on it. Cai, the boy next to her, notices that she said something under her breath, but hopefully not that she spit. Normally it would be difficult to summon a demon because it requires a blood sacrifice and who goes around pouring out their own blood all over the place all the time on purpose? Diabetics do. And Ber was just diagnosed with type 1 diabetes over the summer.
Ber’s parents have to go deal with a summoning in another coven because something bad happened that is undisclosed, but the former head witch of that coven was Ber’s mom’s best friend so she feels like she has to help them even though it seems like they don't want her help, like, at all. Before they leave, Ber’s dad asks if she had any accidental conjurings at school that day, she said there was just one, but there were definitely more, including a Messenger demon she sent to her grandma. Later, Ber’s older sister, Maeve, suggests they summon a blood demon to monitor Ber's blood sugar because they can't afford a constant glucose monitor or a service dog because insurance sucks. They begin to do research and will ask their Grandma Orla, who is a very powerful witch, for help if they find a good enough demon.
Grandma Orla comes into the kitchen from her little house in the backyard while Ber and Maeve are talking about which demon they could possibly summon, scrolling through different demon types on their very on-the-nose-named but nonetheless very excellent app iDemon. Grandma Orla has always been on Ber’s side and convinced Ber’s parents to let her continue school like a normal kid instead of being homeschooled after she was diagnosed, and she thinks their plan is a good one, but they have to figure out which demon will be the best to help and which one their mother will allow, which is a pretty tall order. Maeve isn't good at blood magic but is very smart, so surely she'll be able to come up with something.
Before they can think more about the glucose monitoring demon, Ber, Maeve and Grandma Orla, plus their three magic cats, Mars, Frangi and Dar, need to complete a full moon ritual. It's good practice for Ber and Maeve and Orla lets them lead it while teaching them at the same time. Maeve wants to do more advanced stuff, but because her blood magic isn't very strong and because she's not old enough yet, Orla insists she stick with intermediate magic. Maeve argues about lots of things, including other types of witches, like weather witches, but Orla insists that blood magic and blood witches are the most pure. It feels a little supremacisty, but they move past it quickly and continue with their ritual and plan to summon a demon to multiply a piece of pie. They get everything ready and begin, but even though their cats are witch cats, they are still cats, so Mars jumps in the middle and is duplicated by the Compound demon they were going to use to make more pie.
Orla sends Ber and Maeve inside to clean up the house while she unduplicates the cats. Ber tests her sugar level and uses that blood to summon a Tidy demon that will do the dishes, but her sugar level is high and going higher, and the demon seems to have the same sluggishness that Ber is feeling. Maeve is intrigued by this and offers to stay with Ber through the night if she needs it because she’ll have to constantly test her sugar level and take insulin to get herself back in check. Ber would prefer that Maeve just figure out what type of demon they could summon to monitor her instead.
The next day, in trying to figure out the diabetedemon, Maeve gets upset, but Ber is tired from testing every two hours, so she's not up for arguing, even if it is to help her. Maeve wants to ask a question in the spell when summoning, but that is forbidden, FORBIDDEN! and Mom, Grandma and Dad all agree, even though, really, it would keep the demon around for as long as it needs to be because it technically can't complete its task since its summoning is open ended. Maeve is frustrated and storms off, but she's looking a little rough since she was up late thinking about the diabetedemon, so Ber uses her glucose test to summon a Cosmetic demon to fix her hair. Maeve has a very witchy aesthetic and Ber and Grandma think it would be funny to make her hair beautiful and curly for the day. Maeve is frustrated but goes with it.
In another room, Mom and Dad are talking about what happened the night before and think the Kalispell coven is up to something fishy, especially since Lindley, the daughter of Mom's former friend, isn't allowed to use blood magic because she has a clotting disorder. Ber worries about this because they're all talking about how dangerous it is for Lindley to practice magic because she has issues with her blood and she's literally summoning random demons almost every time she checks her sugar level. Are they going to decide that she can't practice either? She goes to Grandma's house and discovers there is someone other than Grandma inside!
Lindley is there and it seems she's looking for something, but she tells them all that she's there to invite them to her induction ceremony as the new head of the Kalispell coven and she needs the Rocky Mountain coven, led by Ber’s family, to attend. They wonder about how she's going to lead the coven since she's not supposed to use magic and Mom demands she'll have to explain, but Grandma Orla gets to hear that because Mom needs to take Ber and Maeve to school. On their way out of Grandma's, they see one of their cats with a dead bird, which is kind of weird, but cats attack birds all the time.
Ber makes it through her first couple of classes of the school day and decides she wants a snack, so she tests her sugar level. It's a little bit high, so she decides to take some insulin and have a delicious granola bar, but oh no! Her injection causes a little bit of blood, which can happen to any diabetic, but Ber isn't any diabetic and she accidentally summons a demon. She chases it down the hall and, eww no, into the boys‘ bathroom. Luckily the demon is a Tidy and it (and Ber) are perfectly content for it to clean the disgusting bathroom before it vanishes on its own.
Ber is nearly late to her next class, Phys-Ed, but she makes it just in time, putting her glucose meter in her pocket. It's a good thing she does because after a few serves of volleyball, Ber realizes she forgot to eat her granola bar and is all wobbly with a low sugar level. She checks, hoping against hope that she doesn't accidentally summon a demon because her sugar level is only 33. Cai waits with Ber while her teacher grabs some glucose tablets, but Ber can't focus on them. She stares up at the Mayhem demon she has summoned. This is bad.
The Mayhem demon causes all sorts of well, mayhem. Ber uses the chaos as a distraction to test her sugar level again (47) and uses her blood to summon a Messenger demon to send a plea of help to her grandmother. Cai notices her saying the spell and is confused, but Ber tries to play it off like she's just weird from the low, WHICH IS ENTIRELY A THING. Cai leaves Ber to go see how their classmates are doing. They are understandably freaked out, but he manages to calm them down. Luckily Grandma Orla shows up quickly and takes care of the Mayhem.
After school, Ber’s Mom, Dad and Grandma decide she'll have to stay home for a while until she's better able to control the accidental demon summoning. She begs for one more chance and they agree, but now it's time for them to go to the Kalispell coven induction ceremony. Maeve has to stay home with Ber which she knows is really going to upset her sister which also makes Ber feel 1000 times worse. Mom tells Ber that everything's going to be okay and that everything was taken care of at the school, thanks to her friend who is a Mind Mage (WHAT!) who convinced everyone that the air conditioner was malfunctioning instead of a demon messing everything up. She also tells Ber that her Mind Mage friend has a son who goes to school with her. (WHAT WHAT?!)
When Maeve gets home, Mom, Dad and Grandma Orla head out to the thing with the Kalispell coven even though it's pretty suspicious. Maeve chatted with their older cousins about using questions in spells and if it's ever been done. Turns out, they found a spell on an old old piece of paper that was barely legible, but it definitely ended in a question mark, so they decide to try something similar because Ber is tired of being a burden to everyone. The spell requests a simple task to be completed: using smell to keep high and low sugar levels at bay and keeping Ber in balance. It ends with the question: What does Bernadette Crowley need now? Maeve thinks nothing happens and that they failed, but Ber is surprised to find a very weird looking demon that Maeve apparently can't see. What did they do??
They summoned a Mystery demon, that's what. A very high level one. Ber seems kinda out of it, so Maeve sends her to bed while she tidies up from their “failed summoning.” In her room, the Mystery demon, called Fin, tells Ber she was not the Bernadette Crowley they were expecting and that when they heard her name in the spell, they replaced the little Maintenance demon she was trying to summon. Then they tell Ber her sugar level is 327, which, according to a test, is exactly right. Ber doesn't know what to do. Should she tell her family about Fin the Mystery demon or let them help her with her diabetes, even though it's clear they're up to something and here for another reason? After Ber realizes the cats seem to trust Fin, she decides maybe she can, too.
On the bus ride to school, Ber and Fin chat about why they're really there, obviously not just for diabetes, but Fin isn't at liberty to say, which might be Fin’s favorite catchphrase. They only tell Ber that she might be good at basic magical theory, but magic is so much more complex and so much more open to interpretation than she or her family realizes. They also tell her that they were once bound to the original Bernadette Crowley and they had unfinished business, whatever that means. Before they can discuss further, Fin tells Ber that her sugar level is high, so she gets out her insulin pen and takes a shot. Two kids in the seat next to her are horrible bullies and tell Ber that she's gross and she should take her shots in the bathroom because they have a needle phobia. Ber tells them to look away, but instead of responding, they cluck like chickens. Fin assures Ber the clucking will wear off soon, but the bullies will have nightmares of chickens and needles for weeks.
Ber has a test in her science class that she did not study for, but luckily Fin knows a lot about a lot of things, including biology! They tell her pretty much all the answers which she appreciates but also feels kinda bad about. There's a break after class and Ber thanks Fin for helping but also asks them not to talk so much during class because it's distracting. They alert Ber that she's going low, which is when Cai pops up. It turns out that he can see Fin. Oh also, he's the Mind Mage!
Ber and Cai eat lunch together and Fin joins even though they don't eat much, except for the occasional lower level demon and other things that they're not at liberty to say. Ber learns a lot about Cai’s abilities and that they're pretty different from her own. He knows a lot about blood witches and plant witches and weather witches and a lot of other things, and it's because he can kind of read minds, or at least glean things from them, and because his mother taught him well. He can also control moods and anxiety, which he has done to Ber before, but promises to only do it from now on if she gives permission. Cai seems to be pretty great and maybe Ber has a crush on him just a little bit.
After school, Ber’s parents are very proud of her for not summoning any accidental demons. Obviously she can't tell them that Fin has been helping her all day. When they make her test before movie night with popcorn, a demon starts to reach through, but Fin sends it back to the demon dimension. Mom and Dad both notice and Fin suggests she make up a story about renewing her focus and they believe her and are even more proud.
Overnight, Fin wakes Ber from a cold sweat. Her sugar level is dropping quickly and all the snacks she keeps at her bedside table are disgusting. The only thing she wants is a peanut butter sandwich so she drunkenly shambles to the kitchen where Fin makes her a snack. Ber thinks about her doctor telling her a low is like being drunk, and then about her mouth being numb, which is all very weird and silly, but everything is right now. Things get less silly when Maeve sneaks in and screams. Turns out, when Ber’s sugar level is low, Fin is visible! Uh oh!
Ber and Fin, mostly Fin, convince Maeve not to run screaming to their parents and not to try to banish Fin even though that wouldn't work anyway because they are bound, not conjured. Ber is convincing by telling Maeve that she had her first good day since she was diagnosed. Fin is convincing by telling Maeve that they won't let anyone know that the friend Maeve was out with, past curfew, is her girlfriend who is also a weather witch.
The Rocky Mountain coven gathers at Ber’s house the next day for their autumn equinox meeting, but Grandma Orla is late in joining them. Fin is made to hide outside and will use a cat to alert Ber if her sugar level starts dropping. Some members of the coven aren't very nice and if anyone found out about Fin, well, it would be very bad. Grandma shares that she and her family want to try to summon a demon to monitor Ber but they want the coven to know about it and agree beforehand. Whoops. She also shares that she wants to banish the Kalispell coven because of something she suspects they are doing, but she has no evidence and gives no details. Before things can continue, there's a growling. Fin has come inside and looks like he wants to eat Grandma Orla.
Luckily no one gets eaten and no one sees Fin, but everyone keeps arguing about Grandma suggesting the Kalispell banishment and so Grandma leaves in a magical flourish. Fin also disappears. After everyone is gone, Mom and Dad suggest going out the next morning for brunch because Ber hasn't had any accidental demons in two days, but really, she and Maeve are freaking out, wondering where Fin went. Luckily they're just in Ber’s bedroom and they didn't eat Grandma. They don't reveal why they immediately wanted to attack her, though, except for the fact that they have history. Hmm.
Unfortunately brunch is postponed because Grandma Orla needs Mom and Dad's help with the Kalispell coven, but when they're finished with whatever it is they're doing, they should have sufficient evidence to ban them. They leave Ber and Maeve at home for the day and have a quick heartfelt moment about trusting each other with secrets, like demons and girlfriends, and then Maeve tells Ber that her girlfriend, weather witch Tempest Snow, will be coming over soon to meet her. Ber gets a call from Cai then and he comes over, too, with his friend, plant mage Phoebe Fang.
Everyone meets everyone, except Tempest already knows Cai and Phoebe, so really Ber and Maeve meet each other's friends and then they all meet Fin, too, which freaks Tempest out at first, causing her to have an asthma attack, but eventually everything is okay. Tempest and Ber chat a little about having disabilities and the difficulties they provide in using magic, but Tempest teaches Ber that being sick just means you have extra variables to work with but doesn't make you any less magical. The day is pretty amazing and includes watching Little Shop of Horrors and eating popcorn. Ber wonders why she didn't or couldn't make magical friends before now, and it's hinted that blood witches pretty much stick to themselves and don't care for other types of magic users.
The day of fun ends when a Messenger demon arrives from Mom, Dad and Grandma Orla, alerting them that the Kalispell coven led them into a trap. There are other voices in the background and it seems like they're in a lot of trouble. Ber and Maeve are warned not to trust somebody but they don't know who because the Messenger demon stops talking. Since they don't know who in their coven they can trust, they decide they can only trust each other, and their friends, even though Maeve doesn't want the kids getting involved, but Ber has to help her family and only her blood magic is powerful enough to summon a Movement demon to travel them to where the Kalispell coven meets. Cai touches Ber’s arm and tells her it's her decision who gets to go with them since it's her magic getting them there, but she doesn't know if he's supporting her or making the decision for her using his mind mage abilities. Either way, she wants her friends with her and she wants to save her family, so she summons a huge Movement demon and they are all transported, including the cats!, to a lake near where the coven meets, but not so close as to be discovered.
Since they're still kind of far away from the island where they need to be, they discuss summoning another demon, but Fin suggests against it because there is some sort of blood magic siphoning happening, which surely means bad bad things are happening to Ber and Maeve’s family. As they're trying to figure out what to do, Phoebe talks about indigenous magics in the area, because apparently she can feel magic. Oh and Tempest can, too. Phoebe ends up making Ber feel really bad about what she doesn't know about other magics, but it's not her fault she was taught poorly by her blood-magic-is-the-best-magic family. She wants to do better and learn, but Phoebe is still kind of harsh about it. Cai holds Ber’s hand, probably to help soothe her embarrassment and anxiety about the way Phoebe is treating her, but also probably because he just wants to, which is precious. They decide that Tempest can probably use her weather magic to help them across the lake, which leads them to finding and stealing a sailboat.
Thank goodness for cellphones and YouTube, because soon after finding the sailboat, they learn how to sail it. Well, kind of. Everyone gets on board, including the cats who Cai communicates with to hunker down, and Tempest uses wind magic to get them moving. Unfortunately her wind is too powerful and they're sailing way too fast and then things get worse when Cai gets knocked into the water. Fin jumps in to save him, but after getting him back on the boat, Fin tells Ber her sugar level, 147, and then disappears beneath the water, telling her they'll come back when they can.
Tempest calls a breeze and gets them all to the island, but nothing feels right and they're all kind of worried about Fin, whether they are good or bad, it's hard to tell. Cai says he felt something in the water that wasn't an animal mind and was kind of like Fin’s, but they stop worrying about that when they realize they need to check out the mansion on the island. Cai can't feel any minds currently inside it, but knows magic was done there. Where is everyone? Cai thinks he might be able to tell where everyone is from a better vantage point, so they go to the top floor of the mansion. When they get there, they see lots of dead animals and find Grandma Orla’s dagger. Then they see lots of demons swirling around another island and realize they're in the wrong place.
Shortly after that realization, things get worse. Cai and Phoebe start screaming. Phoebe says something is happening to the plants and Cai says whatever he felt in the water is in immense pain. It's a giant serpent in the lake, which they all thought was an urban legend but it's definitely real and Cai can communicate with it, or her. She tells Cai they can call her Komorebi and that she will help them get to where they need to go to stop the witches from whatever it is that they're doing that is causing her so much pain.
They arrive at the next island and it's clear Komorebi is suffering. The cats lead the way to a house and they find Fin there and it looks like they're controlling a bunch of very evil, very powerful demons, but there are two even scarier ones on the roof of a nearby house and Cai says they're the ones who are trying to control Komorebi. They all look around and see dead animals in cages all over the place and that's when they realize what's happening. Lindley has been sacrificing animals to use magic since she is unable to do blood magic with her own blood. And now it seems that she wants to sacrifice Komorebi. Oh this can't be good at all.
Ber and Maeve decide they need to banish all the demons because they realize their family is trapped inside the house and they have to save them. Luckily Ber packed some supplies before they left the house including some cleansing water, which is good because, if you'll remember from the beginning of the book, you have to spit on demons to banish them. Cleansing water works too though, but she only has a little bit. Tempest offers to turn the cleansing water into a cloud and make it rain on the demons, which is brilliant, and will make it much easier to banish them all at once. Phoebe offers to get a message to their family inside using the plants to prepare them to fight back as soon as the demons are gone. It seems like a good plan that might actually work!
Maeve begins crafting a spell that will banish all the demons, including Fin who they're still not sure is helping them or working against them and Ber isn't sure about that. Fin is the only chance she has at a normal life. Cai helps them focus their minds while Tempest calls a storm and Phoebe sends a plant message to their family inside. The spell works and the bad demons are banished, but Fin remains. Komorebi is free from the demons trying to summon her and she wants revenge, so she basically destroys the house before Cai can get to her and help calm her down. When she turns to leave back to the water, Cai is hit by her massive fins and is knocked out. Ber has to leave him for now because she has to get to her family in the collapsed house.
When Ber approaches, Lindley is there, yelling at her and Fin, thinking Fin sent the demons away. Fin tells Ber to go ahead and that they'll hold Lindley off and catch up. Ber goes inside what's left of the house and finds her family still tied up facing the scariest demon she's ever seen. It's a Cataclysm and is very very powerful. Ber tries to explain that she and her friends banished the demons and set Komorebi free, but they struggle to keep up, really only focused on the fact that Tempest is a weather witch, and they get more confused when Lindley comes in the room with Maeve and Fin tied up, but Ber's other friends aren't with them. Ber tries to explain that Fin is helping them, but they're all so focused on the fact that they are a Mystery demon.
Lindley begins her villain monologuing and demands to know the third part of a spell that will open a Tairseach, a portal to the demon realm that the original Bernadette Crowley used to go to the demon realm and return as a very powerful witch. Ber tries to convince Lindley that maybe she can learn to use magic without sacrificing animals since she can't use her own blood like she has learned to control her accidental diabetic summoning, but Lindley is set on sacrificing whatever she has to to create the Tairseach, and that might be Maeve.
Before anything really dreadful can happen with Maeve, luckily Cai, Phoebe, Tempest and all the cats appear and cause a lot of chaos. Fin shouts for everything to stop and freezes the Kalispell coven. They tell Ber her sugar level is dropping and tell her to eat a snack, but then they turn on Grandma. Fin yells at her about her family using blood magic and summoning demons willy nilly without ever actually paying for their sacrifice. They question what they think actually happens when a demon is summoned and banished, but Ber starts losing track of the conversation because her sugar level is so low. Then the Kalispell coven start chanting and the room begins to heat up.
Mom looks through Ber's bag for a snack while Lindley holds a dagger to Maeve’s throat. She plans to sacrifice Maeve, but Grandma tells Lindley that "the only precise sacrifice is self-sacrifice," meaning she's going to sacrifice herself to save Maeve. Cai and Phoebe try to help by binding Lindley in vines and connecting to her mind. Cai tells Lindley that Maeve is not the one she wants to sacrifice, and he's right. She definitely wants to kill Grandma Orla. Grandma and Fin work together to open the Tairseach, Grandma telling Fin to keep everyone else safe and telling Ber that she knows she'll find a way to bring her back. She sacrifices her magic and goes through the portal, and her cat goes with her.
When Lindley tries to go through, though, the portal won't let her. Fin reminds her that it was Orla’s sacrifice, so Lindley will have to sacrifice something too. Her husband holds out his arm to offer his blood, but she stabs him through the gut instead and she and the rest of her coven walk through the portal into the demon realm. Fin begins to flicker and Ber thinks it's because she's still low, but no, Fin tells her they are bound to Orla now, too, and that she needs to let them go. Fin gives Cai permission to look into their mind to learn what they'll need to do to get Grandma Orla back and then they teach Ber what to do to unbind them.
When Fin is gone, the Tairseach closes. Ber is upset and begs Cai to tell everyone what Fin shared with him, but it's a lot. Mom convinces them that they can't do anything right now so they need to go back home. They conjure Directs and are home in just a couple of minutes. Phoebe and Tempest’s families come gather them but Cai’s mom allows him to stay the night, which is good, because it gives him time to share the information Fin left with him. It's not a spell but kind of a story. A story about making your own story and following your true path being the only way to bring Grandma Orla home, confusing!, but Maeve is very smart and Ber is very powerful. Surely they, with the rest of their friends and family, can figure out what it means.
Cai offers to help Ber control her mind while she tests her sugar level at school which will hopefully prevent accidental demons, but he also suggests that maybe he can convince a dog from the shelter to learn how to be a diabetes dog, which everyone thinks is a great idea. A few weeks later, they go to the shelter and find a great little dog who tells Cai she will help. Ber and Cai have gotten close over those few weeks and he's helped her control her mind a lot. After they select a dog, Cai asks if he can kiss Ber, and she agrees, then the new dog joins in the kissing too with happy face licks. Ber knows that the next part of her journey, finding Grandma Orla and working to manage her diabetes, even with her new dog friend, will be difficult, but she's got friends and family who will help her along the way.
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