Prologue

PROLOGUE

" N ow, little witch," the dark voice calls, the husky timbre making me shake.

For a god, he truly is a patient man, being held in my trap for so long. When I set it and cast a summoning spell, I didn't expect this, but I had nowhere else to turn. The magic in me called something dark, and I need help or it will be the downfall of my coven, my court, and this world as we know it.

"From the beginning once more," he urges, sitting cross-legged.

He disappeared a few days ago, and I panicked, but he returned, which begs the question—if he can leave, then why hasn't he?

"I told you," I say as I pace. "I don't know how I called it, and neither does the demon that feeds on our magic. When you left, I was trying to rid my coven of it. I thought if I could show them I could banish the demon, we would be okay, but I called something much worse." I peer at him. "I called something wrong, something dark . . . something dead. Please, Phrixius, please help me."

I feel the demon I speak of pushing from the shadows as if the world takes a pause when such evil emerges. A cold chill goes over me as the demon's heat meets my back. The god stands then, anger furrowing his brow as he meets the demon's eyes—the eyes of the demon I've been haunted by my entire life, the demon I tried to rid myself of before I got all of us into this mess.

"He cannot, but I can. I told you, little witch, just make one pesky little deal and I'm yours," he purrs in my ear. His voice is smooth and relaxing, making me sway into him, wanting to give in to the bargain he has been peddling since I turned eighteen.

One I can never agree to, but for a moment, I falter.

"No," Phrixius snaps, his fury breaking me from the spell the demon weaves around me, and with a furious look at the chuckling demon, Phrixius steps from the spell circle, righting his suit, and he doesn't stop until he stands before me.

Their powers surge through me, leaving me breathless.

"I will help you. You called and trapped me, after all," he counters.

"What could a god know of such dark, evil things?" the demon retorts.

"More than a lowly ground crawler," the god replies, leaving me swaying between them, my head aching from their power.

Something dark, evil, cold, and dead grasps my ankle and yanks me down, and with a scream, I reach for the demon and the god, but it's too late.

The thing I called forth rips me from my cave and into its grasp.