Page 141 of Summoned
And then, almost as if he’s known my exact location all along, he lifts his head and stares at me. Those bottomless obsidian eyes stab straight through my solar plexus, and I’m thrown back to the days when I wasHarvest 290. My knees weaken again.Trust him, my heart whispers.
Even though my mind is screaming at me to run, I don’t look away. I simply nod. Then, the suffocating silence pressing on the room finally reaches me. For a moment, I think it’s all over. Then I realize that the people are still moving. They stumble, scramble, try to escape, arms flailing,bodies crashing into each other in panic. Yet their mouths are wide open… and no sound comes out.
Gaetano turns to the crowd with the confident tone of someone who already knows the answer. “Is there anyone else who wishes to give up the trial?”
The chaos explodes like a bomb of muffled screams, hysteria, and limbs smashing into walls and each other. An unseen wave of terror spreads through the space. People run in erratic directions, tripping, falling, then getting up, some sobbing, others laughing wildly.
Gaetano moves through them with ease, as if the crowd parts to let him pass. Sometimes he stops in front of someone, leans in, whispers, and collapses them. Soul after soul detaches, and he catches them, leaving only crumpled clothes on the floor. And memories of people who once were.
I remain rooted in place, my hands clawing into the wall behind me. My throat feels dry, and my heart pounds so hard it hurts.
Six souls taken.
Gaetano pays no attention to the others in the crowd.
Seven. Eight. Souls claimed.
With each soul, he appears less and less human. His bones seem to stretch, skin pulled taut, and the shadows surrounding him grow darker.
Nine.
I hold my breath, biting the inside of my mouth. The taste of blood floods my tongue.
Ten.
My pulse crashes into my skull. One more soul, and it’s done. Just one more…
Gaetano halts under his dark dome. His figure seems to shrink as he hunches forward. The shadows writhe like mistaround him, struggling to escape the grip of his clenched fist.
He stays there for several seconds—seconds that stretch into eternity. A thousand thoughts race through my mind. Did something go wrong? Is there no eleventh contract? Did he change his mind?
He straightens slowly and faces me, locating me above the crowd. My pulse slams in my temples with each step he takes toward me. An instant later, he stands before me, stealing my breath.
The shadows reach for me—a plea to be saved.I’m sorry, I whisper inside.I’m sorry, I’m sorry.
He stares at me for a long moment, as if I’m a stranger he’s trying to recall. A faint glimmer sparks in his eyes, like a small ember of the soul that once matched mine.
But it vanishes just as fast as my hope for a life with him.
Now only the Black Joker remains before me. Bitterness rises in my throat, mingled with the blood from my bitten lips.
The truth roots itself in my chest. It seeps through me in the manner of a slow, corrosive acid, destroying me from the inside out. An intense sorrow floods every part of me, tearing me apart.
The final soul…
Will be mine.
Iam Harvest 290.
I’m just the last one to be taken.
He reaches for me.
47
Gaetano
To seal a pact with myself and become Harvest 300—that is the very core of my revenge, plotted over the past five centuries. It’s the only way I could outplay Madeline.
