“Like, a demon manual?” Ramona asked, peering.
Azareth tilted the book away from Ramona’s stare. “Just the standard issue. Ah. Here. Section 8633, subsection 12, line 734.” Azareth didn’t look up. “‘In the event of an unauthorized summoning resulting in a binding tether, the summoned entity must remain within sixty-six feet of the summoner until such time as the original spell conditions are met or the bond is ritually severed.’” She snapped the book shut. “Sixty-six feet.”
Ramona’s brain was working through the implications. Slowly. “Sixty-six feet.”
“If I go farther than that from you, we both experience excruciating pain. The manual describes it as ‘like being torn apart from the inside.’” Azareth tucked the manual back into her pocket. “Very poetic.”
“I have a job.” Ramona’s voice came out quiet. “I have roommates. What am I supposed to tell people?”
“That’s not my problem.”
Ramona scoffed. “Itisyour problem. You’re here.”
“Only because you summoned me.”
“By accident.”
“Intent is irrelevant to magical law.” Azareth glanced at her watch. “I have approximately sixteen hours before Hell’s HR department notices I’m missing. Which means I need to figure out how to break this bond before I’m AWOL and they dock my PTO.”
Ramona rubbed her temples. The wine headache was setting in. “If you’re bound to me, does that mean you can’t hurt me?”
Azareth’s expression shifted slightly. Something that might have been surprise. “That’s actually a smart question.”
“I’m drunk, not stupid.”
“Debatable, Mortal.” Azareth pulled out the manual again, flipping to a different section. “Section 8634, line 892. ‘A binding tether prevents the summoned entity from causing direct physical harm to the summoner.’ So yes. I can’t hurt you. Even if I wanted to.”
Ramona paused, looking Azareth up and down. “Do you want to?”
Azareth smiled, and Ramona’s heart gave a distinctly prey-like squeeze. Were those fangs? Did this demon havefangs? “Ask me again in the morning,” Azareth said.
“Good enough.” Ramona reached for the grimoire, pulling it into her lap. The pages crackled under her fingers. “How do we meet the conditions of the spell? Do you know how to undo this? The tether?”
Azareth was quiet for a moment. Then she sighed. “In theory, yes.”
“In theory?”
“The spell has conditions. You summoned aid for success and fortune. The tether breaks when those conditions are met — when you achieve what you were asking for. Or…” She paused. “There’s a ritual severance. But it requires specific components.Rare ones. And it has to be performed at a convergence point during a new moon.”
Ramona did a mental calculation. “Three weeks.” Three weeks would be mid-February. After Imbolc, which she would surely be skipping now. But before Ostara — the Spring Equinox Gala — which was toward the end of March.
The Ostara Gala was the magical community’s most important event of the year. More significant than Imbolc, more formal than the Harvest Ball. It celebrated the spring equinox, the balance of light and dark, renewal and rebirth. Every coven in the greater Thornwood area attended. The Thornwood Coven hosted a table. The High Priestess would be sitting with the Magical Council — the five most elite, powerful witches from Thornwood, Fernwick, and the surrounding areas. It was the kind of event where you wore your best dress, your most elaborate glamours, and smiled while pretending your life wasn’t falling apart.
Kate and Simone would be there.
Ramona had skipped the last two years, citing work obligations that didn’t exist. Her mother had been “understanding” the first year. Disappointed the second. This year, she’d been clear: “You’re coming to Ostara, Ramona. People are starting to talk.”
But if she couldn’t break the tether at the new moon in three weeks…
“The night before Ostara,” Ramona said slowly. “There’s another new moon the night before Ostara.”
“March twentieth,” Azareth confirmed, pulling out her phone.
Ramona blinked. The phone was sleek, matte black, but something about it was… off. The screen had a faint red tint that made her eyes hurt to look at directly. And were those flame patterns moving along the edges?
Azareth tapped at the screen. When the interface loaded, Ramona caught a glimpse of app icons that looked wrong. Way too corporate. Was that one called “BrimstoneBox”?
“Looks like there’s a rather close convergence point close to downtown Fernwick. And another two hours north. In the mountains,” Azareth said, still scrolling.
