Page 3 of The Demon's Vow
Darcy snorted. “Yes,ma’am.”
And just like that, the tension shattered.
Chapter 2
LUKAS
The air in the cellblock clung to me like a second skin, damp, heavy, and smelling of mildew and something faintly metallic. And the vague dark spots splattered across the floor and walls...it probably was old blood.Yup, definitely blood.Why do abandoned places always smell so off? Was it against the rules for them to, I don’t know, smell normal or clean or like nothing at all?Jess knelt in the center of the room, her usual nervous energy replaced by a stillness that set my teeth on edge. White paint streaked her fingers as she smoothed the tattered edges of the scroll against the concrete floor. Her other hand moved in steady arcs, painting an intricate summoning circle with the skills of someone who’d done this one too many times.
The one time I’d kill for her to change her mind or back out so we can pack it up and go, and here she is doing her thing with her steady hands. She was calm, cool, and collected.I checked my watch once more.Just past midnight.I groan.
“No backing out of this, eh?” I shot Darcy a look, trying to communicate that we can still go back home. He shrugs.
“Nope,” Jess simply says. “We’re already here. No chickening out.”
Like Darcy was going to go against her and side with me, at least when it comes to these kinds of things.I exhaled sharply, my breath curling in the cold air. “I don’t like being outnumbered, guys. Not fair.”
Darcy clapped me on the shoulder, his grin widening. “Since when has life ever been fair, Lukas? Don’t worry, we’ll be out of here soon enough. Now let’s get back to work, bud.”
Darcy and I returned to our jobs. We moved in silence, setting up the candles as directed. At least with each candle lit, the darkness dissipated a little. As instructed, we placed each one at the corner of the summoning circle Jess had drawn onto the concrete floor. The flames from the candle seemed to stretch the shadows of the cell bars into long, skeletal fingers across the walls. The graffiti even seemed to pulse in the uneven light, those names desperately carved into the walls that might’ve been prayers or curses.Wonder which one of us gets to be the next name on the wall?I couldn’t help the morbid thoughts that crossed my mind sometimes.
“You know,” I said, blowing out the last match, “if we get caught again, I’m blaming you two. My dad still hasn’t let me live down the graveyard incident.”
Jess looked up. “Relax, Lukas. The cops don’t patrol this wing after dark.”
“Yeah, because eventheyaren’t silly enough to wander around here at night,” Darcy muttered, zipping his backpack open. He carefully pulled out that godforsaken book that haunted our bookshelf—the one that looked like it had been bound in someone’s skin—and handed it to Jess.
Oh hell no. Nope. That thing was definitely cursed.“Why is it always a creepy book? Why can’t we, like, summon demons through something nice, like a manga?”
Jess handled the thing like it was made of glass, her fingers tracing the cracked spine before flipping to a page marked witha faded red ribbon. The candlelight caught the symbols scrawled there, twisting them into shapes that made my eyes ache. I rubbed my eyes and looked again.
I thought I saw something…
Whatever was in the air here was clearly getting to me.
“Okay, let’s go! Demon summoning for dummies,” I said aiming for a laugh, anything to cut through the some of the tension and hide my growing unease. “Do we at least get to pick what kind of demon we summon? Because if we’re doing this, I vote for something with a sense of humor. Maybe even a sexy demon. Nothing like the ‘Let me eat your soul’ or ‘Drag you to your eternal damnation’ type. Hard pass on that nightmare fuel, please and thanks.”
Jess’s fingers tightened around that book in her hands as she fixed me with a scathing stare. “This isserious, Lukas. We’re not ordering a goddamn pizza. We can’t pick and choose.”
“Well. You could’ve fooled me,” I replied, eyeing the book. “It looks like a cursed takeout menu to me with all those symbols and images.”
A sharp, loud bark of laughter burst out of Darcy, so sudden and unexpected that it startled both Jess and me. He doubled over, wheezing, his shoulders shaking. “Oh my God,” he managed between laughs, wiping at his eyes. “Lukas, bud, you absolute disaster—you’re really out here trying to what? Tinder-swipe your way through demonology?”
Jess groaned, but I caught the way her lips twitched trying to supress smile.
“Hey,” I said, raising my hands in mock surrender, “all I’m saying is, if we’re going to do this—you know, summon some ancient, unholy entity—can’t it at least be hot? Is that really too much to ask?”
Darcy snorted, but the sound died abruptly when a sudden gust snuffed out one of the candles. Three sharp gasps cutthrough the dark. We froze. The remaining flames danced violently. I pushed to my feet, the bone-deep chill from the concrete floor rising through my worn jeans as I moved to relight the extinguished candle.
“Oh, cool,” I said, striking another match to relight the candle. “The spooky stuff already started. Nice.”
Jess rolled her eyes before she exhaled slowly. “Okay, everyone ready?”
Darcy and I exchanged glances and nodded.
“Let’s begin. Take your positions.”
Our shoes scraped against the floor as we took our spots.
