The Spook's Curse
Joseph Delaney
 The book begins with Tom binding a Ripper in Horshaw. Although he is successful, the Ripper's victim, Father Gregory, the Spook's brother, dies from shock. He's sent to be buried in Priestown and the Spook goes there with Tom, to pay his respects and to finally deal with an ancient demon locked in the catacombs under the city. The demon, also known as the Bane, has already bested the Spook once and has since grown in power. The Spook makes preparations to enter the catacombs but is betrayed by his cousin, Father Cairns and is arrested by the Quisitor. Tom enters the catacombs to slip inside the prisons undetected, but only manages to free Alice. Andrew hides them into a haunted house in town and they fall asleep. The Bane comes to tempt them both in their dreams, yet although Tom refuses him, he wakes up to find Alice at the Silver Gate, where she confesses she made a deal with the Bane so that she could help him. She helps save the Spook and the other prisoners from the execution. Tom takes the Spook to his mother who heals him and they set out to find the cemetery of the segantii, the first people to have bound the Bane. Their leader, Naze, tells them that he too had made a pact with the Bane, so that if the Bane was to be freed and then enter his prison once again, he was to be bound there for the rest of the Bane's existence. Following this information, the Spook takes Alice back to the catacombs. Tom follows without his knowledge after opening a letter from his mother where she wrote that if he does not go too, both the Spook and Alice will die pointlessly. After Alice summons the Bane, he whisks her away and turns into his material form to feed for the last time from her blood. The Spook being knocked out, Tom follows the Bane on his own and binds him with the silver chain that his mother gave him on his last visit. The Bane tries once again to sway him but fails and Tom kills him. He dies, as predicted by Naze, but Alice doesn't let him go and uses the power of the mark she'd made on his arm during the events in The Spook's Apprentice to bring him back to life. The Spook, Alice and Tom return to Chippenden where the Spook tries to put Alice into the pit he had Tom dig for her. Tom uses what he knows about Meg Skelton and the Spook to demand Alice's freedom and the Spook is swayed. He allows Alice to stay at Chippenden in exchange for her knowledge about witches and her skills with latin.