Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Daemon
SUMMONED
Standing in line to cast my ballot, I tried to make myself smaller, less noticeable.
It was a considerable challenge, since I towered over almost everyone.
The disgust I felt participating in this barbaric tradition made it seem as if everyone knew my true opinion, even though hardly anyone paid me any mind.
Having to mask my hatred for voting out a woman made me feel like an imposter when surrounded by those around me who seemed eager to write down a name. Like it was a sport to them.
It was sickening.
I saw Vosten and Vhaena standing near the front of the line waiting to cast their vote just as I arrived at the back of the line.
Asher was speaking with them, and I could see the tension in Vhaena’s muscles even from here.
But once they walked away, she seemed to relax a bit.
My eyes cut to the sky, instructing the raven to take flight behind them.
I stared at the voters and other people standing around. Everyone looked too damned happy to be here. Humans and demons, they were excited to cast someone out or more than enthusiastic for who they’d get to hunt this year. Including Asher.
“You don’t need the Hunt to kill someone, you know.” The voice inside me clawed its way out of the hole in the back of my mind.
“Maybe the others, but Asher… He just can’t resist the urge like I can,” I said, more to myself.
Though, with the exception of my brother, I didn’t disagree, and in this case, I’d have liked to make an exception to my rule of not allowing the darkness inside me to emerge.
But I refused to appease that temptation.
Asher came up to me a few moments later when he spotted me, a wide grin on his face.
How he had become so different from me, even being raised in the same household, was beyond me.
Being only two years apart, we used to be close, and he used to be the one person I could always confide in.
We played and trained together, I used to teach him all I knew and kept him close to watch out for him.
That was until he became a teenager, when he began to change and we drifted apart.
Now, we couldn’t be more different. Not only in our morals, but also our looks.
He was more than a head shorter than me with a lanky body compared to my broad physique. He got his light brown hair from our mother, while I had darker hair closer to our father’s. My mother gave me her bright, amber eyes, and Asher got brown ones.
We grew up together and shared the same blood. He was my little brother, and I still wanted him to turn out alright, but he was just a little lost. I still had the notion I could make him see how cruel and wrong the world was before it was too late.
“Hey there, Dae! You ready to cast your vote?” he chimed. He wiggled his brows and added, “Who do you have on there?”
I gave him a flat stare.
He rolled his eyes and moved up the line with me while he talked with the others around us. “Still on your high horse about all this, I see,” he scoffed. “I’m just trying to make small talk, but here you are still acting like you’re better than me.”
I honestly didn’t care if he knew I circled Anora’s name, but I wasn’t going to tell him regardless.
He went on and on about the importance of keeping with the tradition of voting for the Hunt for the “safety of the town”.
And it was times like these that made me wonder where our upbringing had gone astray, and I hated being around him.
“I don’t think I’m better than you, Asher, but we certainly have our differences. Your beliefs are your own, and I want no part in them.” Ever since that day with the foxes, I had distanced myself from him—and he resented me for it.
Finally, I stepped to the front of the line.
“Na—” Evangelo started, but stopped short when he glanced up at me and Asher. “Uh, Corse brothers… Thank you for your vote. I’ll mark your names down.”
I put my parchment in the ballot box and walked off, hoping to get away from Asher and get on with my day.
“What’s your hurry?” Asher asked, jogging to catch up.
I spun on my heel to face him, done with being around him and his fucked-up beliefs. “Tell me what you want, Asher, or go away.”
His lips lifted into a twisted smile. “You’ve been summoned.”
Ten years ago
“Come on, Dae,” Asher said. “It’s not that hard. Just catch one.”
I released a frustrated groan as I, once again, missed the red fox. I pushed myself back up to my feet and dusted myself off after I dove for the varmint and practically ate the dirt.
“Yeah, well, it’s not easy. These bastards are fast, not to mention smart.”
My father had gathered up several foxes and put them in an enclosure, and part of our training was to catch them. I understood why, sure. It was to make us faster, rely on our reflexes and instinct. But I wasn’t that damn quick, and it was beginning to piss me off.
Asher rolled his eyes and widened his stance as he approached the fleeting creatures. When one of them bolted, he lurched for it, catching it by the tail and holding it out for me to see.
“I guess you’re just not capable of outsmarting them.” He had a pompous look on his face that irritated me to no end.
Great. I was being outdone by my little brother. I was happy he was doing so well, of course, but it was still bruising my ego. I had the strength, but he surpassed me in speed.
I decided to give it one last try for the day. Staying light on my feet, I slowly neared the remaining three foxes along the fenceline. I just needed to catch one.
“You know you can just make them slow down…” that voice inside my head drolled.
“Shut up. I’m not doing that. It won’t make me any faster.”
“You don’t need to be faster when you can be more resourceful.”
“Leave me alone so I can concentrate,” I snapped. I wasn’t about to cheat with this.
The moment one of the foxes so much as flinched, I moved, dashing toward it as fast as my legs could go before diving through the air. I felt the fur on the end of its tail brush against my fingertips before it ran out of my reach, and I landed on the hard ground. Again.
A snarl ripped from my throat, and I smacked my fists on the ground, pounding the earth with such force that my hands carved divots in the earth.
I had been at this for nearly a week and my father’s voice rang in my head—demanding, drilling, commanding, and putting pressure on me to complete this one stupid task I just couldn’t seem to manage.
I didn’t want this. Any of it. He was the one obsessed with shaping me and grinding me down until I fit his mold to train for the Hunt. I would eventually be forced to partake in it when I was older. It was what he wanted. Not me. And I was sick of it.
The palms of my hands burned, and something warm trickled inside my fists. I stood and unfurled my hands.
Oh no. No, no, no.
Claws were tearing through the tips of my fingers.
I was losing control—the one thing I couldn’t afford to do. I lost my temper for only a moment, and I was already becoming something I despised.
“Well, look at that. Good for you!” Asher praised when he noticed.
“Shit…” I cursed under my breath, then louder, “I don’t know how to make them go away.”
Asher came up beside me, still holding the struggling fox by the tail in his hand. “Stop trying to hide it. Just let it be. You’re a demon. Accept it.”
I blinked back my surprise. Hadn’t he seen what atrocities demons were capable of like I had? Hadn’t he learned of the same ruthlessness? He acted as if this were some momentous occasion, like it wasn’t as horrendous as it was to me.
“I didn’t do this on purpose, Asher. I got pissed for only a second, and look what I did.” Surely he understood the gravity of what this meant. We always saw eye to eye on this. Or, at least, I thought we did…
He shrugged.
“Can you not see— Look at my hands! What if I hurt someone? What if I’m hanging out with Vosten and I lose my temper? I could hurt him if I can’t keep myself under control.”
“So what?” he scoffed, lifting the fox so it was eye level with him and grabbing its neck.
My head reared, completely taken aback from him.
“He’s just a human, Daemon.” The fox screeched as Asher tightened his hold. “There are plenty of them to go around. They outnumber us a hundred to one. So what if you kill one of them?” At the same moment, he yanked his arms in opposite directions, ripping the small creature in two.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, and all at once the sweet innocent little brother standing before me shifted into someone I didn’t recognize.
And I didn’t want to.
I stormed off, not looking back, not even paying attention to where I was going.
And I kept going. Far past my family’s property, far beyond the town’s limits, until there was nothing and no one around for miles.
Thankfully, during my walk, my claws had retracted.
I pressed my back against the trunk of a tree and slid down to sit with my arms resting on my knees.
I had just lost more than anyone would ever know.
I didn’t want to be a demon, yet I was. No matter what, it was carved into me.
I wore the skin of a human, felt the pull of their lives, their laughter, their warmth—yet I wasn’t one of them.
I couldn’t talk to any other demons about how I felt, and at the same time, I couldn’t even tell Vosten, my best friend, who I truly was.
Asher was the only one I had ever been able to confide in.
He was the only one who had ever understood.
Until now.
I had no one, anymore. I didn’t belong anywhere. I was utterly, damnably alone.
“Ow!” Something thumped on the top of my head, and I saw an apple roll to the ground between my feet.
I glanced up and saw a figure up in the tree.
Vhaena. The moment I laid eyes on her, my anger began to evaporate.
She had her hand outstretched toward a branch and was staring down at me with a look of humiliation.
“Uh, sorry,” she said sheepishly. She had on a white dress with thin straps that showed her sun-kissed shoulders due to the summer. Her fiery red hair swayed with the breeze.
“What… What are you doing up there?” I got up to my feet, rubbing the top of my head.
“Trying to learn how to fly,” she said with a grin. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m picking apples.”
“I can see that, but why?” I leveled a flat stare at her.
She blinked. “Because I need apples.”
“Obviously.” I rolled my eyes. “I mean, why are you picking apples from this tree? Don’t you have an apple tree at home?” It was a rhetorical question. I knew she did. Vosten and I had picked apples from their tree several times over the years.
“Yes. But the harvest has been terrible this year, and I needed some apples for a dessert I’m making later.”
I glanced around, finally taking in where I was exactly. “Isn’t this old man Anders’ farm? Is he okay with you taking his apples?”
“He will be so long as you don’t tell him.” She batted her eyes innocently.
I crossed my arms and raised a brow. “You’re going to get caught.”
“Not if you help me get out of here?” She grinned, and I couldn’t help but smile right along with her.
“Fine.”
“Great! I’ll lower this branch, and you grab those two on the end. I should have enough after that.”
She walked out on the branch, balancing with her arms on the tree limb above her. The branch sank with her weight, and I plucked the two apples she needed.
Then she climbed down the other side of the tree before coming around with a small basket filled with apples she’d picked.
“So, what are you brooding about, out here all alone?” she asked, taking the apples from me and placing them in her basket.
The temporary reprieve from my thoughts vanished and so did my smile. I slumped back against the tree again and sat down.
“I can’t talk about it,” I muttered, keeping my eyes on the ground as I took blades of grass between my fingers and pulled them from their roots over and over.
“To me?”
“To anyone.”
“Hmm. Well,” she sat down next to me, placing her basket between us and handing me one of the apples before taking one for herself, “if you can’t talk about it, how about I sit here with you and you can pretend to tell me.
” She looked at me with the sweetest smile, like everything in the world would be okay. And at that moment, it was.
“I’d like that.”