Page 102 of Summoned
Why did I do it? The question echoes through my mind. Because I feel that she’s a part of me. Not a mark, but someone I’m meant to protect. If I voice it out loud, what would that change?
“I taught you to understand power,” I say.
The walls of the castle press me in as reality crashes through my bones. I grip her elbow, my fingers digging into her soft skin. I don’t care if it hurts. She tries to wrench away, but I don’t let her. I need her to look at me and to see the truth in my eyes. “This is real. My desire for you was never part of the game. It’s the only thing I never controlled.”
She freezes beneath my grip, her upper lip curling to reveal her teeth.“But you didn’t bother to mention that no matter what I do, I’m already doomed? Did you enjoy watching me fight your illusions, believing that I stood a chance? Watching hope blossom in me, empty and desperate, every time I thought I’d outwitted your tricks?”
“I never meant to give you false hope, Nicole.”
She pushes my hand away. The moment we part, my bones turn to ice.
“Yeah, all you ever meant to do was to take my soul!” she screams.
My lips press into a line. The walls inside me shake. And for the first time, I look away. Just for a second. Theunthinkable sprouts in my head, pushing, struggling to reach me.
I could let her win.
She whirls her head toward the wall with the tally marks. She frantically scans the numbers as if she’s reading a book—the story of my life. How ironic. I’ve lived for over five centuries, and it all comes down to a list of numbers.
One to two hundred and eighty-nine.
Two hundred eighty-nine souls I’ve imprisoned. Two hundred eighty-nine corpses I’ve collected. Two hundred eighty-nine shadows around me. And that’s not even half of the darkness that resides within me.
Still, that lightness fights and screams:I could let her win.
Tears shimmer in her eyes, but they don’t fall. And my heart clenches at the sight of her, standing tall, proud, and shattered all at once.
“You were right to fear stripping away the illusions. Now, I see why that woman cursed you.” I don’t flinch, though everything inside me recoils as if burned. I’ve survived centuries without remorse. And yet, her truth wounds deeper than any blade ever could.
Because she’s right.
“You don’t understand the magic, Nicole. If I don’t—”
“I want to leave this place and never see you again!” she screams, her voice so loud that the invisible veil holding back the shadows trembles. Her whole body shakes as tears pour down her cheeks.
I long to pull her into my arms, to comfort her, to kiss the anger from her lips.
“I want to leave this place and never see you again!” she repeats, the power in her voice fading.
Her pain strikes me so deeply that even the conjured flames in the hearth flicker uncertainly. The anger risingwithin me isn’t aimed at her—it’s at the trap we’re both stuck in, two souls caught in opposite worlds. I clench my fists, and the runes on my skin burn with fierce heat. Yet, I can’t give her what I desperately want to.
Before I let myself consider the unthinkable, I raise my hand. “As you wish.”
I draw a circle in the air with my fingers, tearing open the space between us. A portal to her home shimmers into existence.
Just as she’s about to step through, I catch her wrist and pull her into me, hard. I hold her tight, not to stop her, but because it’s the only thing I can do. The only thing left.
She fights my hold with a defiance that cuts through me. Then she breaks free and rushes to the portal.
Bitterness wells up in my chest as she disappears.
Five centuries of calculated revenge.
And the only thing that matters is…I lost Nicole.
It’s either me or them.
But it never really felt likeme, no matter how often I said it to find comfort.
