Being High Priestess is a solitary job, my mom always said. You must be capable of doing it all on your own, and there is no room for errors.
Well, shit.
“What’s done is done. We’ll find out soon enough.” I climbed into the car and set the skull on my passenger seat before strapping a pair of daggers to my thighs.
Maybe this was a good thing. I was planning to travel to Hell and back, so maybe having a demon prince in my back pocket would come in handy. Or maybe it would be the death of me. Who knew?
Mine was the only mark on his skull, so whatever bond I had accidentally created, he didn’t share with anyone else. I could use it to my advantage…as soon as I figured out what it was.
I buckled my seatbelt and headed back to Salem. I would summon Discord in the sacred clearing where my parents had summoned the trickster. The veil would still be thinner there, and it was far enough away from home that no one would notice if it formed a little rift.
After leaving my car in a lot half a mile out, I slipped the skull into my bag and hiked the rest of the way. I wanted to run. My leg muscles tightened, begging me to sprint, but I refrained. I walked with long strides and entered the forest, my pulse thrumming as I set down my bag and retrieved everything I needed to summon the Prince of Hell.
4
DISCORD
When the witch first cast her rudimentary spell, attempting to bind herself to me, I laughed. The magic was weak, but the audacity of the woman intrigued me. The fact someone with such limited skill thought she could not only find me, but summon me, stirred in me the first emotion I had felt in centuries. Possibly millennia.
I had been imprisoned for Lucifer knew how long, denied the use of my senses. Without a corporeal form, my concept of time deceived me. Shadow and darkness, once old friends, had become my wardens, taking pleasure in my mind’s demise.
In the beginning, I had stewed in rage, my anger at Isabel, the insolent witch who had tricked me, gnawing at my soul, devouring my essence until nothing but this emotionless shell of a former demon remained.
I had failed my brothers. Failed Hecate and my creator. I barely existed anymore, and I wished with every thread of my being that I would slip away into the nothingness. That I would cease to be.
Then I sensed it. I would like to call it first a tingle and then a pinch, but I had no physical or spiritual form to feel such sensations. So, how could it be?
My consciousness had awakened when the spell took hold, the sensation of my eyes opening, of my lungs drawing a deep breath though I possessed neither in this form, reminding me that I did indeed exist. As the tether formed, no stronger than a single strand of hair, a hint of the witch’s essence whispered across the thread. A tiny spark, reminiscent of the fury I felt for Isabel, flared in my being, but it suffocated beneath the weight of my apathy as quickly as it had formed.
This witch was not the one who had vanquished me. The bond she created indicated weak magical ability, mediocre at best. Isabel possessed the power to summon my brothers and myself on her own. Now that she had stolen Hecate’s amulet, her strength and that of her descendants would be unmatched.
This witch was neither a descendant nor did she possess the amulet. It wouldn’t be the first time someone with limited power attempted to harness mine, but it would be this woman’s last.
If the bond she created between us was a true indication of her minimal ability, the vim it would require for her to attempt the feat of summoning me would drain her completely. She would die in the process. Any witch versed in demonology should understand the tax of evoking a Prince of Hell.
Perhaps she knew not of my power, of my rank. Or perhaps she, too, wished to end her existence. The reason mattered not. The conclusion would remain the same. She would die, vim depleted, and I would remain floating in this sensory-deprived state for the rest of eternity.
I should appreciate the entertainment while she made it available. A bonding spell like this would last two days at most, so I…
What in Lucifer’s name?
The pinch of the elementary bonding spell turned into a clench. The tether strengthened into steel, wrapping around my essence, penetrating my soul. A stabbing sensation pierced the left side of my imaginary skull, and the sensation of my entire body seizing rocked me to my very core.
That was the binding spell of a worthy witch. An elemental fire witch.
Hours passed, or it could have been minutes or days. Time was irrelevant. Her intent to set me free, however, was overpowering. I felt it through the bond she had created. Her strength, her determination, her sense of urgency… I felt it all, and it was enthralling.
A vibration formed at the base of my would-be head, spreading downward and taking root in my chest. The tether between us tightened, coaxing me toward the barrier of my dark prison, toward the veil.
The prison fought back, shackling my essence with tendrils of despair, but the bond the witch had created between us was stronger than any magic I had ever felt. Her essence called to me, demanding I appear before her. It was a call I could not ignore, not even if I tried.
Her magic, her command, unraveled the prison around me. My shackles dissolved with her intent, and the veil, normally impenetrable for a creature of my level, dissipated into a thin fog, allowing me unhindered passage.
In the form of dark green smoke, I poured through the opening, my essence billowing into the summoning circle the witch had created for me. My skull lay in the center, atop a sheet of parchment bearing my sigil, and my fluid form spiraled around it, my senses returning with overwhelming force, the realm and everything in it coming into sharp focus.
The witch’s mark, a triangle inside a triquetra, marred my bone, binding me to her, rendering me incapable of causing her harm in this realm. A clever woman, indeed.
My essence gathered around my skull, the bone absorbing my being as it lifted from the ground. The page bearing my mark sparked flames, burning to ashes in seconds as my body finally took form.
