Page 4 of The Demon's Vow
Jess handed each of us an item. Mine immediately snagged on my hoodie’s sleeve, a jagged black thorny branch wrapped with coarse gold, black yarn, and what looked like matted animal hair. The fibers stuck to my sweaty palms.
Darcy recoiled. “Fuck’s sake, where’d you get this, Jess? I thought we had everything we needed?”
“It’s doesn’t matter now, just that we need this.”
She turned to me. “Lu,” she said, grabbing my wrist. Her pupils were blown wide, the blue of her eyes almost completely gone. Just black orbs in the candlelight catching the whites around them.
“Do. Not. Bleed. On. This.” Each word came out sharp as the thorns. “We don’t need actual human blood in the mix. I have no clue what that would do to you—or to us.”
My stomach dropped.
“You’re joking.” The stick trembled slightly in my grip as I stared at the three glass vials she’d just pulled from the small pouch around her waist. The dark liquid sloshing inside looked way too thick and too close in color to real blood to be anything else. “Oh, tell me that’s not?—”
“It’s pig’s blood, chill,” she cut in too quickly, handing me a vial. My shoulders sagged with relief. “From the butchershop near campus.” Her thumb rubbed compulsively over one vial’s label where the word “animal” was visible beneath old scratched-out ink. My shoulders dropped, the tension draining from my muscles like water. A shaky laugh escaped me as I wiped my palms on my jeans.
“Well, thank fuck,” I breathed. The adrenaline spikes and subsequent crashes were starting to leave me a little lightheaded.
“Is there anything else you forgot to mention, Jess?” Darcy’s voice cut across the room, sharp. We both turned to him. His usual laid-back grin was gone, replaced by a clenched jaw, and his fingers tapped an impatient rhythm against his thigh. His long, dark hair obscured his face, but we didn’t need to see it to know he was pissed the fuck off. And worse? I didn’t blame him.
Jess sighed. “I’m sorry, Darcy.”
“So when were you planning to tell us the summoning circle needs blood? Should Darcy and I prepare ourselves for another last-minute surprise?” My voice dripped with sarcasm. Jess never kept secrets from Darcy. He was her literal shadow, her partner-in-crime. My throat went dry. Whatever the fuck we were doing right now might actually be more serious than first I thought.
Jess finally looked at me, but her eyes flicked away just as fast, focusing on the summoning circle like it’d save her from this conversation. Her fingers worried at the edge of her cape. “I didn’t want you two freaking out…prematurely.”
She sighed and walked over to Darcy. The silence stretched as she crossed the room, her steps hesitant like she was walking toward a wounded animal. “Please,” her voice was soft, pleading, “forgive me.”
Darcy’s shoulders sagged, exhaling a slow breath, his anger visibly draining from his posture. When he finally spoke, hisvoice had lost all of its edge. “Don’t do that again, Jess,” he said, softer now, almost tender. “We’re partners.”
“I know.”
While I was glad they’d made up, I was low-key fighting the urge to gag. Enough with the fucking heart-to-heart.
“Okay, lovebirds,” I clapped my hands together. “You’ve had your moment and made up. All is forgiven. I’d say get a room, but can we focus on the fact that we’re standing —” I gestured to the candles, the markings on wall and the floor, the items in our hands “—in whatever the hell this is? I’d like to get thisritualstarted and get on with our night.”
Jess whipped her head around. “Oh my god, Lukas. Fine!”
Chapter 3
LUKAS
Jess stepped into the center of the circle, the book’s spine cracking as she laid it open on the floor. The pages whispered as she flipped through them, and the symbols inside glinted under the candlelight as if the ink was still wet. Darcy and I took our places across from each other, the air between us thick with the scent of burning wax.
“Open your vials,” Jess ordered. “Pour the blood over the branches.”
The glass vial was slick in my grip. The moment I uncorked it, a foul stench hit me—rotted copper and something sweetly putrid, like meat left in the sun. My stomach lurched. “Fuck.” The thick liquid oozed over the twisted blackthorn branch, the yarn soaking it up like a sponge. A fat drop splattered onto my sneaker and coated the white shoelaces. I shuddered.God, I needed a fucking shower.
Next year? We were hitting a goddamn party. No rituals or séances, no cursed books—just beer, vodka, and bad decisions like normal college students.
Jess began to chant.
Her voice danced through the room, syllables rolling in an unfamiliar language. It wasn’t only words—there was a rhythmand a pull, like something tugging at the base of my mind. Her eyes were shut, hands raised to the sky like she was summoning a storm.
Had she memorized this? I shot a look at Darcy. His lips moved silently, eyes closed like he was in prayer.
What the hell? When did they rehearse this?
The branch in my hand was tacky, the drying blood giving it a glue-like grip that made my skin crawl. I wanted to fling it across the room, scrub my hands raw. But then…
