Page 123 of Summoned
“Is there really nothing we can do?” she asks against my chest.
I breathe in the scent of her hair and let her warmth seep into my skin. A dark force stirs within me. It’s not the first time. Now, Nicole’s words feed it,giving it shape. It’s a root of evil. It’s a pillar of hope.
“There is,” I say carefully. “But it’s practically impossible.”
She jerks back, eyes locking onto me with such fierce expectation I can’t meet her gaze. Despite the aching desire to turn the world upside down for her, I’m not ready to burden her with the cost.
“Whatever you think of me, it’s a shadow of the truth. I’m not a good man.”
Nicole raises an eyebrow. “I figured that out when you threatened to set Sofia’s elite on fire.” I suppress a grimace. “I get it. You survived. So did I. I wore the mask of the Little Baroness. You wore the mask of the Black Joker. Yours just came with… harsher terms.”
A bitter smile tugs at my lips. “The problem, my sweet baroness, is that I served darkness long before I ever became the Black Joker. You want to know why Madeline cursed me? I’ll tell you. I was plotting behind her back, preparing to take everything from her. What I wanted was her place as the head of one of the most powerful witch clans in the world. I’d already undermined her from within. The next step was to do it publicly and shatter her image in front of the most influential magical families.”
Nicole shakes her head, almost childlike. “I’m sure she deserved it.”
I want to believe that.It’s not that simple though. And it depends on who you ask—the man I was then, or the one I am now. “Yes, Madeline was cruel. Manipulative. Greedy. Willing to ruin anyone who wouldn’t kneel to her. But the truth is… I wasn’t any better. Just more discreet. More cunning. And while you may have never had a choice, being your father’s daughter, I went to her willingly. I begged her to take me in, to teach me everything she knew about dark magic. Without limits. Did she deserve what I planned? Probably. The point is, I was every bit as corrupted as she was. And now I’m even worse.”
Nicole’s brow furrows as she processes that, then she gives a sharp shake of her head. “Gaetano, I don’t care. When I’m with you, I feel like myself. Like I’m in my own skin for the first time. I want more of that.”
My heart stumbles in my chest, overwhelmed by a feeling I can only call love. The magic responds—flaring in my veins, rushing outward—not with a hunger for power, but for the woman in front of me. The urge to stay with her wins.
Isn’t that what soulmates are for? To give the best of yourself, even when the cost is steep? How could I do that while trapped behind prison walls?
I untangle our fingers and cradle her face in my hands. “My little baroness…” I drink in the perfect lines of her cheekbones, torn between longing and pain. “The only way for both of us to be together… is for me to collect elevenharvestsbefore the time on our contract runs out. Eleven living beings would have to summon me before the last hour. They must be over twenty-one for the contracts to take immediate effect.”
She turns to stone before me, locked in silent contemplation. Though I’m touched by her considering it, I know that her conscience will prevail. And I’m ready to accept it.
I can’t resist pulling her into a kiss. My lips meet hers, claiming them with a hunger I’ve never felt for anyone else. If our time is short, I want this—her.
She breaks away, searching my face. “Has it ever happened before?”
“What?”
“So many people summoning you at once. Taking all their souls in one go?”
The question makes me wince. “I’ve pulled it off twice.Once, I tricked aharvestinto believing she could survive if she convinced her friends to summon me. I harvested all their souls together. Hers included. A century and a half later, I did it again.”
She holds her breath. “So, it can be done?”
“Nicole… You do realize we’re talking about murder? These people willdie.”
The light in her eyes dims. Her lips part, but no sound emerges. Her grip on my hands loosens. A long silence settles between us, heavy with everything that’s been said. In that stillness, every fragile seed of hope—no matter how selfish—withers. She has her whole life ahead. I can’t bind her to this.
“What if I just wish you free, when I win?” she asks.
I shake my head. “That’s one of the hidden clauses in the contract. You can’t use the wish to undo my curse.”
“It’s not fair!” She bites down on her lip and looks away.
“Life never is, my baroness.” The pain in my chest rises, swelling as if something inside refuses to be contained.
Just when I thought she’d given up, she straightens her shoulders. “Fine then. I’ll help you gather the elevenharvests.” The cave echoes her words, emphasizing their significance. “There are enough people whose disappearance could benefit the world.”
I grip her hands, smiling at her defiance. “You have no idea what thatwill cost you.”
Her features sharpen as a fire ignites in her. “You show up, push me to stand up to everything that’s crushed me all my life,to stand up to my father… You talk about how we’re soulmates, and then you plan to leave and expect me to be okay with it?”
A shiver runs down my spine as her words strike deep. Raw, ancient magic wakes like a beast stirring from sleep,fed by her fire. It moves through my veins and rises to the surface. My pulse pounds with it, and for a moment, I stop pretending I’m anything but what I am.
