“He folded my sweaters.”
Nina froze.
Then screamed at me. “Oh my God. You’re gone.”
“I’m not gone.”
“You are beyond deceased.”
I opened my mouth to defend myself before the ring burned hot enough against my palm that I nearly dropped it. At the exact same moment, every candle in the apartment lit on its own.
Nina backed away from the ritual circle. “Oh this is SUCH a bad idea.”
Gold lines across the floor began glowing faintly beneath the candlelight while dark smoke curled upward from the center of the circle.
The apartment temperature dropped so fast it made my stomach twist, and I finally admitted to myself that this situation had become genuinely terrifying.
Nina noticed my expression. “Eva.”
I faced toward her, and the lack of sarcasm between us was far more unsettling than any joke would have.
“If this gets weird,” she said carefully, “I’m calling a priest.”
“That feels fair.”
The smoke in the center of the circle twisted violently before splitting open straight down the middle.
A portal actually felt too dramatic for what it was. This thing looked more like the air itself had been ripped open. Like reality itself had torn open inside my apartment. Red light spilled across the floorboards while distant voices echoed faintly from somewhere deep inside the darkness beyond it.
Nina stared at the opening in complete horror. “…Yeah no. That looks deeply unsafe.”
And she wasn't wrong. For once, Nina was making complete sense.
The massive hole in reality practically screamed illegal. The portal was something humans should absolutely not walk into. And it had all the signs of a very bad decision.
Everything inside the rip was wrong. Dark smoke moved strangely through the red glow, and somewhere far below I could hear what sounded suspiciously like screaming.
Then a familiar voice came quietly from inside the portal.
“…You actually came.”
My heart stopped the second I saw him.
My demon was different now, standing against the red light behind him. Sharper. More dangerous. His dark clothes werestreaked faintly with ash, and shadows curled softly around his hands before disappearing again.
Unfortunately, he was somehow even prettier than before. It was completely unfair for someone to be that devastatingly beautiful while I looked like absolute crap from missing him.
The second he truly saw me, he stopped moving.
I gave a weak little wave from the middle of the ritual circle. “Hi.”
My demon stared at me in disbelief. “…You actually did it.”
“Well YOU told me to come get you.”
“That was not supposed to work this quickly.”
Behind me, Nina whispered loudly, “That feels romantic and threatening at the same time.”
