“Get it together, Seb!” snapped Ezme.
She was right. I was being pathetic and letting her do all the hard work. Taking advantage of her desire to mollycoddle me and make everything better, was not cool. I could do better.
“Let’s go!” ordered Ezme as she strode away.
“Where?”
“To summon your boyfriend.”
“Now?” I sputtered as I scrambled to my feet.
“Yes, it’s a dark moon, there is a spot in Hangman’s Woods where three ley lines cross and now we have the grimoire.”
I stared at her dumbfoundedly for a long silent moment. “You could have warned me.”
“And what?” she snapped. “Let you work yourself up to hysteria?”
She was right. Ezme was always right. I glared at her sullenly and she glared back. Reflexively I twitched my three fingered hand. It didn’t hurt anymore and I had adapted to life with seven fingers surprisingly quickly. Physically I was fine. Emotionally, well I didn’t think I’d ever get over being tortured in my own home, so if we waited for me to heal fully from that, we would be waiting forever.
“Shoes!” she prompted, as if I was Daisy.
Grumbling under my breath, I did as I was told and then followed her out to her car. My palms were sweating and my heart was hammering. I hoped the woods weren’t far, I didn’t want enough time to work myself up into an incompetent state.
It was fully dark by the time we reached the woods but Ezme was fully prepared. She handed me a flashlight as well as a rucksack full of supplies. As we walked, she told me what she had packed. Black candles, herbs, crystals and the skull of a serial killer.
The theory behind the skull was that it was connected to a soul now in Hell. The connection was like an invisible thread that could be followed and expanded on. It was worth a try. I’d studied summonings for years, with a view on how to stop them or reverse them. I’d never actually tried to summon a demon myself.
I didn’t like people who summoned demons. They were dangerous, greedy, foolish, reckless and generally unpleasant. But I had to admit they had skills. What if their ability was beyond me? It was strangely humbling.
Daisy stopped walking so abruptly that I nearly walked into her. In front of her was a giant tree. It stretched up to the sky with a multitude of twisting gnarled branches. There was no undergrowth underneath it. It was like it demanded its own space in the forest. Silent, hulking, terrifying. Definitely the perfect place to summon a demon.
I stared at it helplessly, casting my flashlight over its contorted branches and creating freaky shadows that did not help my sense of ease at all. Meanwhile, Ezme got to work setting out the skull, crystals and candles. When she was done, I managed to rouse myself into action. I walked around the circle she had created and lit the candles and the braziers with the herbs on them. I then circled everything with a ring of salt.
Standing back to admire our handiwork, my stomach flipped over. It looked so dark, so evil. It reminded me that as sweet as Jinx seemed, he was a demon. I had five seconds of doubt before my mind filled with images of his goofy grin.
I adjusted the aquarium cap on my head and opened the grimoire. Three paragraphs of incantation glared back at me. I swallowed. After all the weeks of preparation, the short amount of text seemed like an anticlimax. All I had to do was speak the words written on the page, push my magic into them and it would either work or it would not.
Fear of failure clawed at me. I fought it down before I spiraled into a full-on panic. Taking a deep breath, I began. Somehow the words came out of my mouth clearly and calmly. I pushed all my magic into them with the full power of my soul.
I ran out of words and silence fell. The candles flickered, the tree branches creaked. I didn’t dare breathe. Just as a wave of disappointment threatened to crush me completely, an explosion of black smoke appeared in the circle, making me jump.
The breeze carried it away, to reveal a very naked and a very surprised looking Jinx. He saw me and his eyes lit up with pure joy. Hurriedly I broke the salt circle with my foot. I’d placed it just in case I accidentally summoned someone else.
He ran over to me and bounced up into my arms, his legs wrapping around my waist. His lips descended on mine and he kissed me as if his life depended upon it. I held him tight and kissed him back passionately. Far too soon, he broke the kiss, and I thought he was going to say or sign something, but he merely snatched the hat from my head and placed it on his own.
Then he went back to devouring me with kisses, and all was right with the world.
Chapter thirty
Three months later
“Nowwereallyaregoing to be late,” I gasped.
But I didn’t stop pinning Jinx against the wall. He turned his head over his shoulder to look at me. He was panting and flushed and utterly beautiful. Even when he scowled accusingly at me.
Reluctantly, I stepped back. Releasing him. Sheepishly, I looked around at the various items of his tux that were scattered over the floor. Nothing looked too crumpled.
“It’s your fault for looking so damn hot,” I muttered.
