Page 17 of By Mistake
Never see Oresti—Prince Oresti—ever again.
He closed his eyes, willing away the hurt and anguish, then opened them and pushed himself to his feet, setting his shoulders as he held his hands out, fingers up, palms to the circle, and recited the words to activate the spell.
The marks lit slowly, in scattered patches of many colors, flashing in and out for several minutes before the colors began to hold, slowly but steadily lighting the circle up in a rainbow, filling the room with brilliant light.
Smoke filled the circle, swirling like it was caught inside a glass bottle.Bit by bit, it trickled away, leaving…
A cat.A large, sleek black cat with glowing green eyes.
That…that was not right.That was very, very wrong.Precious few demons could shift into animals, and all of them were class one or worse."What areyoudoing here?You are not what I summoned!"
The cat made a noise suspiciously like a laugh—then blurred, like water spilled across glass, changing in size and shape before fading into clarity again.
As an impossibly beautiful man with eerily pale white skin, night black hair, and eyes that now glowed red.He was dressed all in black, including a long, draping coat that had been in fashion decades ago and even now remained popular amongst much of the working class.
"Who are you?"Andrus whispered."I just wanted to summon a brownie."
The demon quirked a delicate brow and turned in a slow circle, eyes on the spell work."Well congratulations on being either the best or worst summoner in existence, because you missed 'brownie' by fathoms and went straight to me, and unless mortal rules have changed since the last time someone was this stupid, summoning me is dangerously illegal."He turned back to Andrus and swept a beautifully elegant bow."Shimari of the Harvest, at your service, Master."
Andrus was going to throw up.Shimari of the Harvest was azeroclass demon, so impossibly powerful and dangerous that even thinking about summoning them was illegal.He'd been trying to summon a brownie, for the love of the gods, not a demon of death.How had he gotten it so terribly, horribly wrong?
Forget running away, he'd be lucky if he made it out of this room."How…" He stopped, froze, as Shimari stepped out of the circle like it wasn't even there.That shouldn't be possible.
"Tsk, tsk, little human," Shimari said, the words making him shiver helplessly, swallow the lump in his throat as his heart threatened to explode in his chest.Cool fingers traced the line of his left cheek, those red eyes searing him down to the bone."Who are you, my brazen, foolish mage?"
"Bothwell," Andrus whispered, because what did it fucking matter if the demon knew his full, true name?He was dead anyway.Gods, he hoped somebody would be able to capture and banish Shimari before he destroyed the whole city."Andrus Bothwell."
To his astonishment, Shimari dropped his hand and stepped back."Bothwell?As in Sendrus Bothwell?"
"Yes, my great grandfather," Andrus said."What's it to you?"
Shimari looked him up and down, an expression on his face that Andrus would have taken for worry on anyone else, but why on earth would a demon worry about a human?"I think the questions and answers will have to wait until you are not seconds from collapsing, little human."
"I'm fine."Pushing away from the wall he'd scrambled back against without even really noticing, Andrus forced himself to take a step forward—
And everything went dark.
Six
Oresti wanted to cry.He'd been thrown out of Andrus's house hours ago, the sun would set in just a few more hours, he'd accomplished nothing significant the entire day…and he didn't give a damn.
All he wanted was to undo that horrible moment where he'd messed everything up.He'd known Andrus would be upset, but he hadn't expected to be thrown out, for Andrus to look at him like he was worse than a prison sentence.Worse than Farthing.
Distantly he heard his bedroom door open, voices talking in quiet murmurs.Hopefully Greivs would get rid of whoever was trying to bother him; he wasn't in the mood to talk, let alone socialize or whatever else his family wanted from him.He just wanted to lick his wounds for the night, then he'd get back to work.Bury himself in that, try not to dwell on a man who hated him now.
"You look the most anguished I've seen you in years, Ori."
"Father?What's wrong?"Oresti turned and rose from the window seat he'd been curled up in.The last time his father had come all the way to his chambers, instead of simply having him summoned, had been the night his mother died.He'd come to warn that she didn't have long, and he needed to come say his goodbyes.It had been the worst night of Oresti's life, even if he'd only been twelve at the time.
"That's what I've come to ask you, silly boy," Oranti said gruffly."They say you've been hiding in here for hours and look on the verge of pitching yourself out the window."
"I'm not quite that miserable yet.I've no one to blame but myself, really."
Oranti pushed him back into his seat and pulled up a chair to sit close."Tell me, Ori."
Sighing softly, Oresti did so, from the moment he'd seen Andrus in the street all the way up to being thrown out of his house.
"Of course you would pick the most controversial person in the entire kingdom to be enamored of," Oranti said with a laugh."They will talk about this more than they gossip about my poor wives."
