Page 54 of Sophie’s Ruin (Crimson and Shadows #2)

CELESTE

LAST NIGHT

Demons. They prowled the earth, corrupting innocent souls.

Xanthus had sent them to restore the delicate balance.

When Sophie had defeated the Dark Witches, she’d tipped the scale, and demons were the counterweight.

The girl had been so happy then. I hadn’t had the heart to tell her that there would always be a constant battle, another evil threat to defeat.

The good could never win, just like the darkness couldn’t prevail.

There couldn’t be light without the dark.

“You summoned me, Witch?” the demon said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

Sophie had said he went by the name of Damien.

He had claimed to be Agatha’s son. No doubt in an attempt to make his deception more believable.

I had sent a message out through the threads, standing by the creek where I’d found Sophie talking to this vile creature before, and he had answered my call.

Sophie had wanted me to wait so we could confront the demon together, and I had told her I would.

I’d lied. I knew that for my plan to work, I had to be alone.

A feeling of foreboding needled me deep inside. I ignored it. White Witches listened to the world around them, but fate was never sealed. It was still possible to change the course of events.

“I did summon you, demon. It’s time to put a stop to this.”

“To what? Me promising others what they truly desire?” Damien hissed, the black from his pupils bleeding into his eyes until no white remained.

“Your promises are laced with poison. You warp their minds, twisting their perception of reality,” I said, staring into the glossy black depths.

“Or I simply uncover what they covet the most.”

I smirked, rallying my power. This conversation needed to end. Nothing good could ever come from engaging with a demon.

“What about you, Witch?” the creature asked, cocking his head to the side, the movement rigid and unnatural. “Surely there are things you want for yourself? Your power is greater than most. You should have all the things you desire.”

“The only thing I desire is to rid this world of your evil,” I said, as I felt my magic thrumming under my skin.

The demon’s features mottled in a deranged smile. “I won’t make this easy for you.”

“I know,” I told him, my magic crackling at my fingertips. “I know that nothing in this life comes easy.”

I thrust my hands out, and my power shot out of my fingers, latching on to the demon, digging like talons into his skin.

It ripped the creature out of the shell that he used as his disguise, and the human body crumpled to the ground with a thud.

The demon was now in his true form—a mass of churning shadows; a black, pulsing phantom of dark energy that thrashed in the ropes of my magic.

Do not be afraid, I whispered a reminder in my head a second before I yanked the threads back to me.

My power retreated into my fingers, hauling the screeching demon flush to me.

In me. I sucked in a sharp breath, absorbing the darkness.

Once it was inside me, there was no time to waste.

I imagined a tiny obsidian box in my chest, made of the strongest metal.

I shoved the pulsing shadows in it, slamming the lid and sealing the darkness away.

A shuddering exhale left me, and I bent at the waist, bracing my hands on my knees for support.

It was over. For now. I didn’t know for how long I could store the demon inside me, but I wasn’t delusional to think I could keep him inside forever.

When you carried the darkness within you, eventually, it always broke out.

I stood unmoving for a few minutes, waiting for my heartbeat to slow and my breathing to become even.

Once they had, I went to take a step, but didn’t get far.

Excruciating pain twisted my limbs, tearing a keening sound from my throat.

My body spasmed and twitched as I heard a voice in my head, an eerie hiss made of the blackest shadows, “I told you I wasn’t going to make this easy. ”

Abruptly, the pain stopped, and with it, everything else.

I didn’t feel anything, only numbness, as my body straightened, my limbs relaxed, and my facial features smoothed out.

My body was a vessel now. It was not my own as it began moving, walking, leaving who I was behind in the woods.

A piece of me still remained inside, but it was now confined to a tiny black box made of the strongest metal.