“Babe, come on, you don’t need to do this,” Alistar pleaded, a few paces behind Helena as she stormed out of the building. What was this coven thinking, belittling her magical abilities like this? Granted, Helena wasn’t as quick on the uptake as any of the born witches, but she’d like to see any of them try, rolling into the magical world at the age of twenty. Those witches hadn’t heard the last of her, especially if all went according to plan.
Her backpack rattled with materials as she slung it over her shoulder. She held a book, tightly tucked under her arm. It was a heavy volume, bound in blue canvas with leaf-gold letters, slightly worn from their age, that read ‘Advanced Evocation’.
Summoning a demon to make it one’s familiar could almost be seen as a rite of passage into the coven. It was the ultimate sign that a Witch’s powers had reached maturity and essentially meant that she would finally be allowed to sit at the grown-ups table with her boyfriend.
“Helena, please, you have nothing to prove. You owe them nothing,” Alistar cried, but Helena was already out of the heavy doors, continuing her pace into the woods. She heard his footsteps padding behind her. Beat-up converse snapping twigs and crunching leaves underfoot. A cold autumn wind blew past them, blowing the black coils of Helena’s hair into her face. She heard her boyfriend, whose frame nothing short of skeletal, shudder, but Helena was boiling hot.
Helena tried very hard not to resent Alistar too much for his magical talents. He might have been born into magic, but he was also orphaned. The coven had raised him from infancy and started teaching him magic at a very young age. It was no surprise that he was the very best mage the coven had. However, that also made the coven a gaggle of particularly bloody-minded in-laws that Helena didn’t have the patience to deal with.
“Let’s just go out for dinner,” he suggested, “I’m thinking curry, but you get the final say.”
“Shut up, Alistar,” Helena snapped, spinning on her heel to face him. “I love you, but I’m just about done with them not taking me seriously.”
“Alright, then, fuck them,” Alistar said, gently laying his clammy hands on her shoulders before snaking his arms around her, enveloping her in an embrace and perching his chin on the top of her head. “We can leave them and this dank old village behind and move to the city somewhere. I’m happy as long as I can be with you, magic or not.”
Helena sighed. “You really don’t get it, do you?”
Alistar pulled his chin off her head to look in her eyes. His sickly pale skin, raven hair and hazel eyes that seemed to glow orange nearly hurt to look at in this light. Too much contrast. “What don’t I get?”
“That I devoted five years of my life to studying magic, to understanding your world. Honestly, I’ll be damned if I don’t see it through at this point.”
Alistar sighed. “You know, demonic evocation isn’t all it’s made out to be on TV…” he trailed off, tucking a lock of curling hair behind her ear.
“I don’t care.”
Finally, Alistar gave a resigned nod. “You can do it, ‘Lena. Knock ‘em dead.”
Helena smiled at her boyfriend’s encouraging words and hugged him tightly before getting to work.
As she carved the circle and symbols into the forest bed, prepared the herbs and regularly referenced her book on evocation, she noticed Alistar was pacing, fidgeting and texting constantly. As much as she didn’t like the coven, she had to hand it to them. Magically amplifying phone signals in a rural area like this was a Hell of an idea.
Finally, the preparation was done. She had just lit the candles around the circle in the appropriate places when she heard footsteps approaching her. Alistar was coming by to appreciate her handiwork, and rightly so. Demon summoning had never looked this good.
“‘Lena, there’s something I need to tell you—” Alistar started, but Helena had already started the incantation. He shot her a panicked look before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Milksop.
The symbols in the forest floor started glowing white, then red as something came up. A hand protruded from the ground, scabbing around for purchase. Another hand came up doing the same. There was something about the leather that clad the demon’s arms, though. The studs, the zippers, they were the same as—
Helena stumbled backwards, tripped over a root and fell on her butt as a head popped out of the circle. Two dark grey horns protruded from the demon’s head, and as it dragged itself out of the ground further, Helena noticed it had a spear-tipped tail protruding from its lower back as well.
“I’d forgotten how much I hated this,” the demon seethed.
Helena got on her knees and crawled to the demon’s side. It— he had sickly pale skin and raven hair. His frame was nothing short of skeletal and, oh… his eyes were definitely glowing orange now.
“Like I said,” the demon huffed, “‘Lena, there’s something I need to tell you.’”
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