Chapter 305. Summonings II

Chapter 305: 305. Summonings II

Maisie

My face went cold in chilly room. It was insane. I had an insane demon standing in my bedroom, asking after my mate because it believed Soren was its son.

I was such an idiot. I had read about summoning demons. But I hadn’t reached the part on how to banish them, because I had never needed to with Gruer. He was claustrophobic and always left whenever he wanted.

This thing wasn’t leaving. It didn’t care about claustrophobia. And the terrifying realization settled in that the only thing keeping me alive right now was the fact that it kept forgetting it could break my circle.

If it remembered its own strength for three consecutive seconds, it would snap my circle like a dry twig and turn me into a red smear of brain matter on the wall.

I began to drag myself backward slowly, scared that any sudden movement might break the trance or was in, and then it would resume trying to break the circle again.

"I’m sorry," I whispered. "I don’t know your son."

It jerked forward so suddenly, I screamed, falling back. It hit the circle and rebounded again, and then it moaned softly, curling into a fetal ball. "Please. Please. Please. You have to..." Gasp. It rocked up and down. "You have to tell him I’m alive. That I didn’t abandon him."

Wet eyes met mine over the snarls of her red hair. "What did she name him?"

Demons lied all the time. Demons deceived. I knew that, but I felt an ache swell in my chest anyway. I didn’t know if demons were capable of feeling pain, but it looked like it was in so much pain, I began to feel sorry for it.

Then I remembered how easily the dragon had played on that particular weakness of mine and I steeled myself. "I didn’t summon you. If you’re here, it’s because you want something."

It stopped rocking and sobbing, and the demon jerked into motion.

I shrank back as it slammed into the circle, anger twisting its features and for a second, where its cheeks were pale and rosy, there was rot and maggots crawling up its pus-filled face. It looked like it had both been decayed and burned.

"I called for you, Maissssie Adamssss," it hissed. "Come find me. Come find me. Come find me, keeper."

Its mimicry was spoken in a child’s soft cry and the hairs on my arms rose as it dawned on me that this was what called to me every night in my sleep.

I faltered.

It saw the recognition in my eyes and sneered at me. It’s teeth were no longer a perfect white with two pointed fangs. It now had a row of too many jagged, sharp teeth.

"Where is it?!" it shrieked at me. "It’s happening again. The tides are shifting again. They wait for the veil to thin. Where is it?!"

"I don’t know what you’re talking about!" I cried, pressing myself as flat against the wall as humanly possible.

"The ruby!" she wailed, suddenly sounding lucid, her milky eyes wide with genuine horror. "You have to destroy it!"

I jerked upright, shock briefly cutting through my panic. "Destroy it? Why?!"

Instead of answering, she screamed, digging her clawed fingers into her scalp and tearing her own dark red hair out in massive, bloody clumps.

"It’ll happen again!" she shrieked, laughing hysterically between sobs. "Again and again and again! Oh... perhaps I’ll see home again. It’s been so long..."

Her voice trailed off. She dropped heavily onto her knees, her shoulders curving inward as the madness swallowed her whole once more.

"Have you seen my boy?" she whimpered softly, staring at her bare lap. "He’s wrapped in a blue shawl. Lys promised... She promised she would look after him. Did she look after him?"

Slowly, her decaying hand reached out, resting lightly against the shimmering red line of my blood circle.

"Will you look after him for me?" she whispered, looking up through torn skin. "He’s lonely. Always lonely. My sweet boy..."

I swallowed past the lump of dread in my throat, forcing myself to nod. "I will... I’ll look after him. I promise. Just tell me why I need to destroy the ruby."

A terrifyingly sweet, grateful smile stretched across her rotting lips and she was back to looking like a beautiful illusion again. "It’s the only way to stop her. She’s lost her mind... She’ll ruin everything--"

Suddenly, her eyes went completely flat and empty.

"Wait!" I lurched forward, desperation forcing me closer to the circle as I tried to pull her back before she lost her train of thought. "Who?! Who will ruin everything? Do you mean the Queen?!"

The demon didn’t hear me. Her mind had drifted into the void, her glazed eyes fixed on the empty air behind me.

"Lys? Is that you?" she murmured, her clawed index finger reaching down to scrape against the hardwood floorboards, carving deep, jagged grooves into the wood as she spoke to nothing. "Have you come to put me out of my misery? No... No one. It is no one. I’m so cold, Lys. Have you seen Trenton? He promised to bring me a blanket..."

Her body began to flicker like a failing hologram.

And I got the strange feeling it wasn’t truly... here.

It flickered again, going translucent, and its image was once again the rotted figure in tattered clothing, and as it uncurled from the shape it had etched into the floor, whispers from the darkness wrapped around me, leaving a chill behind.

Find me. Free me.

And then, it was gone, taking with it the darkness and the chill.

The light bulb flicked back on and I shivered as warmth filled the room again.

I collapsed onto my hands and knees, shivering uncontrollably, my heart hammering like a trapped bird against my ribs.

What in the hell was that?

My eyes were drawn to the shape it had drawn into the floor and I crawled over, breaking the circle as I peered into it.

It was a symbol of an arrow shot through a the head of a morphed Lycan.

It was the crest of House Hunt.