Page 84 of Scars Like Wings
“It isn’t blood magic. Gods, far from it. Trust me, you would know blood magic if you saw it. This spell calls for something along with the name that is deeply tied to the person to call them forth. It mentioned hair or something they cherished deeply, but I have half of the bastard’s DNA and fairies hate spilling their blood so I figured this should work.”
“Is it safe, though?” Simone questioned.
“It’s perfectly safe, Simone, I promise. Once my blood connects with the ground, it will form a circle that he cannotleave. He won’t be able to do anything but answer my questions or die of boredom for several minutes. I don’t know much about fae, but I do know that boredom is to a fairy as sunlight is to a vampire. They aren’t big fans and most would rather die than deal with it.”
Simone bit her bottom lip in worry. Maisie playfully pushed her with her shoulder. “It’ll be fine, Sea. I promise.”
Finally, Simone nodded.
Maisie turned her hand, spilling the blood onto her hardwood floor. The droplets fell to the floor, but they moved with a mind all their own. The dark red became a large circle against the brown wood. Inside, I could make a symbol, a very simple rune.
“Looks like the spell worked and is summoning him here now. My blood is powerful shit, so we have seven minutes from the time he shows up,” Maisie noted, translating the rune. “Let’s hope he’s not too much of an asshole.”
I swallowed. I felt a massive pit in my stomach.Gods, please don’t this go wrong. Like, can we have something go right today?
Suddenly, the edges of the circle exploded upward in a ray of purple light entwined with dark red. It was solid, so I couldn’t see anything through its glowing walls. But soon, the walls came down to reveal a very tall and extraordinarily handsome man standing in the circle now. He was Japanese with thick brows and long, thick black hair that was pulled into a messy bun. He was lean but muscular under his t-shirt and jeans that oozed unnecessary luxury. He gave an air of pretentious cockiness, and the man immediately was rubbing me the wrong way before he had said a word. When he did speak, his voice was a deep baritone and so condescending I wanted to throw up.
“A summoning spell? How cute.”
Yeah, I was right to hate him off rip.
“Well, we all know this won’t hold me for long, so who are you and what the fuck do you want? Also, what could you possibly have that is powerful enough to summon me for…?” He looked down at the circle’s rune. The blood that made up the rune was slowly fading from the center as seconds ticked by. It was a signal of how much time we had left with this prick. “Fuck, a witch’s spell? How fucking asinine and trivial.”
“Seems to be enough to hold your dumbass, despite being sotrivial,” Maisie retorted, crossing her arms. “What a way to greet your daughter for the first time in almostthirty years, fucking dipshit.”
The man, Aran, looked up at Maisie andreallylooked at her. He raised one of his eyebrows, and his lips quirked up into a sickening smirk. “Ah, Annabeth’s brat. How is she? I bet she’s still keeping it as tight as ever.”
Maisie’s eyes flared purple for a brief second. Gods, what did Ms. Repond truly ever see in this douche canoe?
“She’s beautiful, no thanks to your sick dick. She’s absolutely thriving without you.”
“Oh, I doubt that. She still not practicing? Still weak and powerless? Seems like this—how’d you say it?—Sick dickis the reason for your powers. You should be thanking your old man.” Aran gave Maisie a full, shit-eating grin.
Maisie’s house started shaking again as her rage returned. I gripped her shoulder tightly to pull her attention away from her father. Her vibrant purple eyes locked with my chocolate brown ones. Whispering, I said. “Maisie, don’t let this asshat get to you. He wants to get under your skin to waste time. Don’t let him.”
Maisie nodded and took a breath to steady her nerves. The house quieted again, and the purple eased out of her eyes for the most part. She turned back to her father. When she did, though, he wasn’t looking at her anymore.
He was staring directly at me.
And he was incredulous.
Aran sniffed the air within the circle. He deepened his frown and sniffed again. His eyes narrowed as they bored holes into me. I felt like a rabbit in the crosshairs of a hawk just waiting to make me their dinner.
“The reason I called you here is to get your grimoire. Obviously, I have never asked you for anything since this is the first time we have even ever seen each other before. So, the least you can do is?—”
“It can’t be,” Aran interrupted his daughter.
“What can’t be?” Maisie asked.
“You,” He directed to me, eyes locked onto me as if I would disappear if he looked away. “You smell like one ofthem. It’s so strong I can practicallytasteit. But thatcan’tbe. You were hunted to death. There’s no way you exist.”
My heart plummeted.
What in the freshfuckwas he talking about?
“What does any of that mean? Wh-what are you talking about?” I asked.
“As if you don’t know…” Aran rolled his eyes. Yet, when he looked back at my confused face, realization dawned on his face and I felt like I had immediately made some sort of mistake by showing my hand in a game where I didn’t know the rules. “Oh, you reallydon’tknow, do you, child?”