His body is bare, spare the opaque ribbons of night that cover his groin and wrap around his hips like a makeshift pair of briefs. His muscles and smooth planes are on display, making desire and fear swirl in my stomach.
He inhales deeply, and I involuntarily flinch. His eyes narrow on me, and I instantly regret my decision. He smiles wide, his plush lips curling in amusement. Demons and supernatural creatures have heightened senses and abilities.
He can probably smell my fear…and my arousal. He knows I made a huge mistake summoning him… I’m not worthy.
He steps toward me, and a low, preternatural growl fills the space. It echoes, like a unison of dozens of voices merging together. The sound infiltrates me down to my marrow, sending chills down my spine.
I realize that I summoned this perilous creature without casting a protection spell for myself or any barrier magic. Not even a simple salt circle or crystal chamber. There’s nothing trapping him in one place. He can easily rip me to shreds. Limb by limb.
I was so desperate for protection, I made myself the prey.
My heart vibrates inside my chest. I can’t breathe. This…thing… is going to kill me.
When he takes a second step toward me, my flight or fight response kicks in. I snap up from the ground and run as fast as I can past the clearing into the trees. I hear heavy footsteps behindme. And even though I’m too scared to turn around and look, I know it’s him.
My heart pounds harder, battering my chest as my vision blurs with tears. Thesnapof the leaves and twigs crunching underfoot as I run faster in a desperate attempt to escape is deafening.
I run as fast as I can, trying to dodge tree limbs from above and roots on the ground. The uneven forest floor makes me stumble, but I right myself and keep pushing forward. With every step, my head feels as if it’s splitting open, but I can’t let the pain stop me. I need to survive.
There’s another clearing up ahead, an old cemetery I used to read in as a child. The decrepit grave markers and headstones have long crumbled and faded. Some of the graves aren’t even marked. But the stone mausoleum has stayed intact. I climb up the wide steps and open the door. A feral, deep growl behind me makes my chest cave in—it’s coming from right behind me.
When I turn my head, my fears are confirmed. He’s charging at me, ascending the steps with ease. I can try to escape. Hide. But I know it’s no use.
How can I possibly outrun a demon?
I run to the very back of the mausoleum until I’m cornered by a large stone crypt on a raised platform. He steps inside the small, cold space, seeming larger than life. He barely fits in here without having to crouch.
He steps toward me, until my back is flush to the crypt behind me, the stone cold and rough. The moonlight and stars visible in the open doorway are extinguished by a creeping, slithering shadow, throwing the entire mausoleum into a deep darkness. I can barely see a foot in front of me, and the other crypts are mere outlines.
Tendrils of black darkness wrap around me and bind my arms behind me. I’m unable to see the shadow demon, but I can feel him.He’s close.
His hand clamps down on my shoulder, and this instant connection thrums to life between us. He invades my senses, bringing me to my knees at his feet. I simultaneously fear him and want him. My desire for him makes me want to worship him.
I hear a gravelly, rumbling laugh right next to my ear. When I look out of the corner of my eye, I see nothing but darkness. I feel something cold and rough, like the pad of a finger, stroke my cheek.
“You summoned me, witch,” he states, his voice raspy, unnatural—like a million voices at one time and unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. “Yet you run from me.”
I tremble, unable to speak as my fear immobilizes me. The same cold roughness from before grabs my jaw and forces it upward. I see the faint outline of his face and his icy gray eyes peering down at me. His full lips are set, the smirk from before long gone.
“Speak, summoner. Explain yourself,” he orders.
I try to form words, but choke on my own sobs. “I–I—Please?—”
He kneels in front of me, still towering over me from his sheer massiveness. Holding my face with both hands, he uses his thumbs to wipe my tears away. I feel a probing at my mind, like a soft knock at the doorway of my thoughts.
He softly whispers,Let me in.Except his lips aren’t moving. I think I only hear him in my mind. Or my fear is making me delusional.
The feeling becomes more insistent until I yield and let him in. The adrenaline coursing through me is cut off, and the walls around me cease to exist as I’m plunged into a silent, emptyvacuum of darkness. My own memories fly before my eyes like a movie reel.
Meeting Caulder at my parents’ graves. Sitting in his lap. The evenings he’d come over to cook dinner with me and watch movies. The nights he’d sleep in my bed and we’d take pleasure in each other. The mornings he’d make his excuses before leaving. Text messages that went unanswered. Caulder ignoring me in public, laughing with the other witches about how awkward I am. His cold, dead stares when I’d try to talk to him. His dismissive laughter when I’d ask him why he treated me like that. The fights, his cold shoulders that lasted for weeks. Him yelling at me to know my place.
Emotions overwhelm me as each memory plays, as if I’m experiencing them all over again. His rejection and mistreatment sting even worse the second time around. They pile higher and higher, until I’m choking, unable to breathe or beg the demon to stop. When I get to the memories of what happened tonight, I feel my heart ripping out of my chest.
His engagement announcement. Flora’s radiant glow and his indulgent smile. Him showing up at my house unannounced, yelling at me, slamming me against the wall, and smacking me. The blood that ran down my cheek…
The demon growls again, but this time it’s a ferocious, angry timber. The sound is so sharp it breaks me out of my spiral. The darkness recedes, uncovering the moon and stars in the open doorway. Sound slowly starts to filter back, and I can see his face as he stands above me.
His attractiveness is undeniable. A rough, primal manliness blended with an ethereal beauty only a creature from Hell can possess. Despite the grimace and clear disgust on his face toward me, I can’t help but desire him. I’m ashamed he knows how weak I am, how unworthy I am to summon him and ask for hisprotection. We stare at each other for several moments in silence while tendrils of darkness weave around him like a cloak.
