I stirred my cereal nervously. “Please tell me that this doesn’t involve the
Sphere of Devouring again.”
“No, don’t worry. We’re only going to be summoning a few demons.”
My spoon froze halfway to my mouth, and bits of fruity cereal slowly
dribbled off into the bowl. Why did my long-lost family have to be insane?
5
Savannah
Half an hour later, and after much protesting, I found myself in my aunt’s
“workshop,” a massive candlelit room in the bottom of an old, elaborate red
stone
building. The floor was inscribed with dozens of interlinked magical
circles, rings of arcane runes.
I slowly stepped across the black stonework, deliberately avoiding the
magical sigils. I had no idea if anything would happen if I stepped on them,
but I wasn’t about to experiment.
“These look similar to the ring that contains the Sphere of Devouring,” I
said uneasily, then met my aunt’s eyes with an accusatory stare. “As well as
the circles of blood the sorcerer used to summon blood demons.”
Aunt Laurel swept effortlessly across the floor to the center of the room,
her silver hair trailing behind her. “Circles are powerful tools for containing
and controlling magic. Some of these are for focus, others for protection, and
some for summoning demons and other spirits.”
My stomach churned, and it felt like something was trying to push its way
out of my chest. Probably the massive boatload of doubts I had about this
particular venture. We needed to talk about this before things got out of hand.
I steeled my nerve. She was my aunt, but also as intimidating as a dragon.
“Aunt Laurel, I don’t want to be rude—you’ve been so kind and opened
new worlds to me—but we need to have a frank discussion. I have some sort
of twisted shadow magic, and you’re about to summon demons. These both
seem…”