Chapter One

Poppy

Dipping my fingers into the small bowl of ruby red liquid, I clench my jaw. It’s cold and slick, clinging to my skin. How dare those bitches call me weak?

I wasn’t weak. I was…I was…I was just a late bloomer. Halewood Academy was my birthright. I belonged here.

With two fingers covered in the pig’s blood, I finish the sigil nearest to me. I’d show them. I’d show them all. With a demon on my side, no one would call me weak ever again.

Checking that my salt circle is unbroken, I step back and wipe my hands on a rag. Drawing a summoning circle in my bedroom at the Academy wasn’t the smartest thing I’d ever done, but the building sat on a ley line and it was almost Halloween. The veil between the worlds would be at its thinnest, and I needed this to work.

Being a witch with no active gifts made me a target, my own father saw me as a disappointment and The Conclave refused to assign me a familiar. At least with a familiar by my side, I could boost my magic and unlock more of my powers, but they claimed the threads woven through me were too weak. Too unstable.

When my appeal was rejected for the third time and Fenella Lawton called me a ‘hopeless has-been half-blood hag’ while spilling star jelly down the back of my dress during transformation class, I realized it was time to take matters into my own hands. I fucking hate alliteration, even in bullying.

Being an Alderidge, a descendent of one of the most powerful magical lineages in the country, meant that there was always another way. My magic may falter, for whatever reason, but I was still smart. If my big brain just so happened to lead me down into the library vaults, and if I was friends with the elderly librarian, Iniko, well…then they shouldn’t be surprised when I take a book on summoning demons back to my room.

It was hardly unexpected, was it? Chewing my bottom lip, I glance over the circle and markings obsessively again. I would only have one shot at this. The headmaster, Master Garon, would throw me out of the Academy if this went wrong or if he caught wind of what I was doing. He already viewed me as a troublemaker. He thought my appeals to The Conclave were signs of disrespect.

My father had insisted I attend the Academy, even when my powers refused to manifest, insisting that I still needed to learn the skills and the theories behind the magic, but I know it was only his generous donations that allowed me my place here. Glancing over at the clock, I see the hands inch closer to midnight. As I light the candles around the circle, I swallow back a small bitter laugh as I realize that I’m basically lighting my birthday candles. In ten minutes, it will be Halloween. I’ll be twenty-one and busy binding a demon to me. Isn’t the world strange like that?

Candles lit.

Salt circle perfect.

Blood sigils ruining the floor.

Magic book opened on the correct page.

Here we go.

Reading the incantation carefully, I keep my voice steady and slow. I’ve been practicing for weeks, ever since I uncovered the small battered and grubby book in the depths of the library. I may not have active magic, but I am of magical blood. My body was born to wield it, and I was smart. I studied. Rehearsed the words and the symbols over and over again. I recognized the tingle as my core tightened, and the lines of my circle lit up. The doorway was opening.

Mist curls up from the floor as the blood sigils bubble and hiss as if they’re boiling. Trying not to get distracted by the scent of burning lavender and sweetgrass with an underlying smell of something bitter that fills the room, I keep reading.

The heat in the room intensifies, and sweat runs down my spine as a bright pink light fills the room. The rising energy levels are no longer like a soft tingle in my body, instead it feels like my insides are being twisted as my words falter and I squint, trying to shield my eyes as the light gets brighter and brighter, pulsing with a soft hum as it gets harder to breathe. Falling down onto my hands and knees, I keep reading, keep the words coming. I’m so close. Suddenly, the room goes silent, the humming stops and it’s like cotton has been stuffed in my ears. Everything seems to have slowed down as I glance at the way my candles flicker and the dust particles float in the air. Like it’s too slow to hear. The absence of sound is terrifying and my heart hammers in my chest.

What have I done?

BOOM!

Everything roars back into reality with an enormous flash of light that shatters the glass in my windows and knocks me backwards against the wall. I hit my head so hard that I end up biting down on my tongue. The coppery tang of blood makes me grimace as I groan.

“Well, what have we got here?”

A soft feminine voice chuckles while the pink light fades away as if it’s being pulled back into the summoning circle. “Cotton panties? Very demure.”

Swallowing, I blink slowly before glancing down and realizing that my black velvet dress has ridden up and I’m sprawled on the floor. I snap my legs shut.

“Tsh. Spoilsport.”

Rubbing my eyes as they adjust, I let the sight before me sink in. The light and mist are now swirling around the feet of the demon floating inside my summoning circle. The very pretty, pink, topless demon with the black horns and a tail that swishes around her curvy form as she glances around my bedroom. Her long hair waves around her, as if she was floating in water, and the black bands on her wrist and neck shimmer with sigils as she stretches.

Underneath the gold chains I notice tattoos, more sigils, starting at her sternum and moving down her body to the edge of her skirt. Which looks more like draped fabric, barely managing to stay on her wide hips. Why is she so…voluptuous? Is she a lust demon? Does she realize that the dainty gold chains draped over her chest are hiding nothing? Or that the skirt she’s wearing is entirely sheer as she moves in the light?

Why is there a mostly naked pink demon in my room?

What did I do wrong?

I was trying to summon a warrior. A powerful demon who could act as my familiar and be the power source I needed to prove everyone at the Academy wrong. This…tall pink Marilyn Monroe was not going to cut it.

Pushing to my feet, I grab the book and start flipping through the pages. “How do I send you back?”

Tilting her head, swirling pink eyes narrow at me as her tongue flicks out over her bottom lip. “What’s the matter, my tasty little midnight snack?”

Panic seeps in, making my stomach clench and my palms sweat. I’d made a mistake. I’d fucked up. Master Garon was going to expel me. “I need a demon!”

Throwing her head back, she laughs. “And what am I? Chopped garlic?”

Shaking my head, even I know better than to insult demons. Taking a deep breath, I straighten my spine and pull my shoulders back. Now wasn’t the time for panic. I had to fix this. “No, I just need…someone powerful and a little less…perky.”

“I mean, I guess I could make them smaller…but I kinda like them.”

She squishes her breasts together, making me blush as she bounces them with a mournful smile.

“No, the tits aren’t the problem. That’s not it.”

Even if I am kind of jealous of her right now. I’ve barely got enough to justify the bra I’m wearing under my dress. “I need a scary, powerful demon, not…pink Jessica Rabbit.”

“With a tail.”

Her red lips split into a wide grin, and I see sharp canines glinting in the candlelight.

“What?”

“Well, Jessica Rabbit didn’t have a tail. Or horns. I have both.”

She reaches up to touch the two black horns, the movement drawing my attention to her breasts again, her nipples poking through the chains, and I realize they’re pierced. Dear goddess!

“Good for you.”

I cough awkwardly.

“Wanna see what my tail can do?”