21. Midnight
Midnight
Ten Years Ago
I t takes me a week to figure out how to summon a demon safely. I mean obviously anyone can do it, but demons are notorious for trickery, and I don’t want to get fucked over any worse than I already am.
And I don’t just want some low-level, entry-type demon, either.
I need one with power. One that can actually save Aurelia’s life. Otherwise, the sacrifice I’m going to make will be for naught.
I heard that the more you want a demon, the more powerful that demon is likely to be—the text I found said they were drawn to emotions. Given the level of desperation I have to save Aurelia, I’m not taking any chances with safety because I’m likely to summon an archdemon.
I’m all set up on consecrated ground—a local church cemetery. There were so few texts available, but the one I did find said consecrated ground and salt can help control demons. But I don’t have anyone to confirm that, so this is all guess work.
Salt first.
I draw a reasonably sized circle.
Place the herbs, crystals and the mirror down to ward off anything else from jumping across the Veil.
I drag the blade across my palm and fling the drops of blood into the circle. Then open my mouth, ready to recite the words I’ve memorised. But I’m cut off.
“It’s all bullshit,” a voice rumbles behind me.
I shriek and spin around, brandishing the knife at the intruder.
“Who the fuck is there?” I bark.
My heart is in my throat, blood rushing to my ears. I checked the graveyard on the way in, I was definitely on my own. This site doesn’t even have security.
A shadowy figure leans against a tree. He’s tall. His hair and eyes as dark as death.
“Who are you?” I say again, this time my voice trembles.
“I,” he kicks off the tree and steps into the moonlight, “am who you summoned.”
I hesitate, glancing back to the salt circle, wondering if I have magic powers because I didn’t even recite the words.
He must read my thoughts because he rolls his eyes.
“Like I said, all bullshit.”
“Then, how did you come to be here?”
He folds his arms, staring down at me. An impressive feat given I’m tall for a woman. “Because you summoned me. Keep up, I’m a busy devil. What is it you seek?”
This is really happening. I’m going to be able to save Aurelia.
“My girlfriend. She’s sick…”
“So take her to the doctor,” he drawls, his voice deep and rumbling in a way that would make even straight men reconsider their sexuality.
“Terminally sick. I want you to save her.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “It costs a soul to save a soul.”
“I know.” I researched enough to know the price. But I also know you can negotiate.
“Give me fifty years with her.”
He throws his head back and laughs, a great booming sound that billows around the cemetery.
“I’ll give you two.”
I read that deals like this go one of two ways. Either you successfully charm them enough they are open to negotiating, or they get bored and leave. I figured to grab his attention I’d have to go big. I’m never going to have a full life, not with an ask this big, but I could get some time with her.
“Forty,” I bark back.
That wipes the smile off his face, he turns to leave. Okay, shit, I was too bold.
“Twenty-five,” I offer.
“Five,” he counters.
“Ten. Final offer.” It’s a brash move from me, but I’m desperate and he knows that, or he wouldn’t have come. And devils do like their deals.
He spins to face me, his face as glimmering and dark as a starry sky.
The longer I stare upon him the colder my body grows. It’s the first time I’m truly afraid. My heart races so fast my chest hurts. I can’t breathe.
He leans down into my face, brandishing a crooked smile at me.
“Ten years, one soul for another. And no comebacks.”
He holds his hand out.
“That easy?” I breathe, my words barely audible.
“That easy, Midnight .”
“I didn’t tell you my name.”
“You already gave me your soul…”
I glance down, our hands clasped. The word deal a whisper and an echo in the air.
Entropy moths materialise, fluttering around me, their wings brushing my hair and cheeks and arms. They’re soft, sweet, oddly beautiful despite their awful meaning.
I always thought I was fated for more. But is there any greater life than one lived in service of another. And I love Aurelia enough to sacrifice everything for her.
I thought it would be a momentous occasion. Thought we’d sign in blood. That there would be a thunderclap or a rift in reality.
But I sold my soul with nothing but the dead and the stars to witness.
He turns my wrist to display his mark.
“You’re mine now, Midnight. Ten years.” He glances at his watch as it ticks past twelve.
“Oh, and happy birthday.”
Then he’s gone, and I’m left standing in the graveyard hoping and praying that I made the right decision. That Aurelia and I can make the most of the next ten years.
I thought I’d be elated, that I’d run home singing and screaming and full of hope for the next decade.
But my fingers have turned cold. My stomach has dropped, and there is an immeasurable weight pressing on my chest that I can’t seem to get rid of.
When I walk through the door, Aurelia bounces off the sofa.
“It’s a miracle. I’m healed!” she says, running to embrace me.
“I know,” I say, my voice monotone.
She halts mid-step.
“What…? What do you mean ‘you know?’”
I open my mouth to tell her, but no words come out. Only a breathy scream.
“What the fuck did you do?” Aurelia says, her expression darkening.
“I told you… I wouldn’t let you die.”
I pull my sleeve up and display Ignatius’s mark.
“No,” she says, stepping back as if I’m diseased. She shakes her head, pulling her hands over her face. “Not like this.”
“You’re going to be okay, that’s what matters.”
“How long?” she barks.
“Does it matter?”
“Of course, it fucking matters. What the hell is wrong with you? Does life mean so little to you?”
“No, Aurelia, it’s that you mean everything to me.”
“SO YOU’D GIVE UP A LIFE TOGETHER?”
“You were going to die. Now we get ten years.”
She goes still. “Ten years?” Her eyes fill, tears spilling down her cheeks.
I reach out to clasp her wrist and pull her to me. But she snatches it away.
“Don’t touch me. Who are you? Who does that? Who sells their soul like that?”
She leaves me alone in the hallway with nothing but the clock on the wall and the tick, tick, ticking.
It’s louder than before.
Just me and the clock.
And an ever-increasing weight on my chest.