Page 142 of Summoned
I rest my hands on Nicole’s shoulders. The black magic erodes my thoughts, transforming them into tendrils that crave to suffocate and destroy. But my heart recognizes the woman before me as someone I must protect at all costs. That’s exactly what I will do.
I teleport us to the cave, never letting go of her trembling body as she takes in the textured stone walls. The pain wraps around my bones, crushing out every remaining shred of hope. Not because of what’s to come. Because of what I’m leaving behind.
Nicole’s presence was a beautiful distraction from the inevitability of my fate. For a moment, I believed I could turn my back on the past and move forward.
Her eyes are wild, filled with tears and confusion. I cradle her face in my hands, holding her gaze. “Stay here for at least an hour. Then go straight to the exit. You’ll need to find a ride on your own, but I couldn’t think of a safer place. Madeline doesn’t know about the cave, and she’d be too preoccupied with me to search for you. And after tonight, she’ll no longer be a threat.”
Right now, fear paralyzes Nicole, but she’ll wake up soon and understand my words. And she’ll hate me for abandoning her.
My self is being torn in two. One half stays here with Nicole, while the other observes us from the side. It barely recognizes me in the features of the creature I’ve become. It resembles a shadow of myself, hollowed out by black magic. A complete perversion of the man I could have been for Nicole.
I ache to touch her, to wipe away her tears. But I’m too far gone. Too tainted to lay my hands on her.
“I wish I had more time to tell you everything I feel,” I say.
Something clutches at my soul and starts to pull—harder,harder…
Nicole’s face blurs.
“I truly saw a life with you,” I say. My whole being stretches like a million cords, each one a conduit of unbearable pain.
“Don’t do it, whatever it is!” Nicole screams, snapping fully awake.
“I’m going to destroy Madeline so you’ll be safe.”
Every thread of my being tears with a soundless, internal scream. I no longer see her in front of me, but from the outside. My face shrivels, skin turning ashen.
Nicole reaches for me with chaotic, trembling hands, trying to hold my pieces together. I want to tell her it’s okay, to lie and say I’ll be fine, just so she won’t worry. I yearn to erase the pain twisting her expression.
No sound leaves my mouth. My lungs stop expanding. My blood freezes, filling my veins with black tendrils. My body decays.
Harvest 300 is complete.
I’m finally free of the curse, and nothing holds me back from delivering my revenge. Alas, I’m also dying.
The last speck of light inside me quivers, barely holdingon before succumbing to the Black Joker’s essence. He’s pure energy, shaped by dark magic. A force capable of striking the kind of deal with the Higher Powers even Gaetano couldn’t have pulled off.
The Black Joker is the only one who can destroy Madeline. And in doing so, he will annihilate himself.
It’s not like I didn’t know that all along, right?
48
Nicole
He’s dyingbefore me.
His skin darkens like coal, shrivels, and dries into lifeless bones. But life lingers in his eyes until the very end—a boundless sorrow clouding his irises, screaming from his pupils. A cry rises in my chest, shaking my skull with overwhelming force, but it never reaches my mouth. At that moment, the last spark of life in Gaetano fades, leaving only the endless darkness of the cave.
“Gaetano?” I stare into the void. No, it can’t be. “Gaetano?!” My scream echoes off the stone walls and slams back into my chest like a bullet.
I collapse to the floor and start crawling, blindly patting the ground for his clothes. I need some proof that it really happened. That he was here… and now he’s not.
A distant thought pierces through the haze. Iwon’tfind any clothes because he didn’t have any. When he dropped the illusion in the castle, he had nothing on…
The castle. He must have gone to the castle.
My fingers seek the dagger strapped to my thigh. My heart clenches along with my fist around the handle. Gaetano can’t be dead. Because if Gaetano is dead, the curse of the Black Joker and the castle itself would cease to exist. The very thought freezes my muscles, as if I’ve been locked inside a coffin with no air.If you need me, speak my name to the blade. Portal.The words ignite in the dark. The blade’s icy touch offers me a glimmer of hope.
