by Various
‘When we’re doing our … field research, let’s say, how will we know which paths are dangerous? Most of us are still fledglings, and we don’t sense danger the way you do,’ said Rosa, loud enough for Arianna to hear from way across the circle. Her eyes didn’t even flicker, and she never turned her head. Rosa sighed inwardly.
Old Mim, who was named such for her wisdom and not her age, dipped the wooden spoon into the bean stew and took a bite. She covered her mouth as she replied, chewing the beans thoughtfully. ‘Just steer clear of the southern fields for now, girls.’ She frowned as she swallowed. She picked up the salt pot and dashed a few pinches into the pot.
‘We can’t be too careful. Tune yourselves to the energy in the eastern moors and go there. You might find it useful for your kitchen ingredients. The moors there are abundant in herbs and berries and the like. You’ll want to take your books with you to identify them.’
Rosa nodded and watched Arianna’s face for signs that she had been listening, but, as usual, she had not.
More than once, Rosa had leapt to her friend’s rescue when the other girls chided, all because she hadn’t listened. There was the curse incident, when Arianna had cursed a paying customer rather than bless her, and the customer’s hands had erupted in blisters. Rosa had ground together a paste to heal them, but convincing the customer, who had wept at the sight of her hands, not to tell Old Mim had been the real task.
Fortunately, Rosa had been doing her reading. She’d cast the brief-illusion spell on the customer and ushered her safely to her car, knowing that, by the time she had driven half a mile down the road, she would have forgotten all about the practising caravans. Rosa knew she would have to watch out for Arianna’s safety on the moors.
As Arianna cast her circle, she remembered nothing of Old Mim’s words, just as Rosa had predicted.
Her mind was preoccupied, and that was her problem.
She was too busy thinking of the man she longed for, the man she was denied while still studying with the coven.
Oh, not any man in particular – just the one from her dreams who caressed her parts and brought her to ecstasy every night, making her cry out in her sleep. Dating was forbidden in the sisterhood, and Old Mim had no patience for witches who saw others, as she called them, while studying under her name.
But Arianna couldn’t help the men she saw in her dreams, and how they set her body on fire in ways that she had never experienced before. She had told Rosa, once, how she longed for a man’s touch, but Rosa hadn’t understood.
‘Your sisters’ touch is the only one you need, Arianna,’ she’d said, reaching out with her hand. Arianna had gasped as Rosa’s hand cupped her breast and rolled it around, her thumb softly prodding the nipple. ‘We are tuned in to one another’s senses, you know that. Old Mim says the spells will only work if we are united.’
‘But a man has … you know, certain … protrusions–’ Arianna stumbled, trying to find the right words to describe what happened in her dreams. It wasn’t something Old Mim would have condoned dreaming about, she knew that much. Then again, Old Mim didn’t condone males full-stop.
Rosa had smiled, running her other hand down Arianna’s navel towards the moistened softness between her legs, making her shudder and grind. ‘Ah, my sweet sister. We have those as well. Fingers, tongue, hands – these are the only protrusions we need for our pleasure.’
But as Rosa had worked Arianna up to orgasm, it wasn’t her friend’s expert hands or breasts or tongue her moment of pleasure came for. It was the thought of the erect male part, its glistening head, its long shaft sliding into her, pounding her into oblivion – that is what she came for.
Arianna breathed in the soft scents of the meadow, feeling her circle alive and pulsating in the space around her. She was ready to begin the summon. Her pussy pulsed at the thought of meeting her lover, though she didn’t know where or when, or even what he would look like. That was the fun of it.
Arianna had dressed for the occasion in pink satin, with a crown of dried roses on her head. She walked swiftly to where she had placed her ingredients and plucked two red roses and a pair of scissors from the pile.
She arranged the flowers in a cross-shape near the hawthorn tree, and cut a lock of golden hair with the scissors. Then she cut a length of ribbon, tied the hair with it and laid it next to the roses. All the while her heart thumped with eagerness, wishing that everything would work perfectly.
Next, she fetched her chalice – gold plate encrusted with red stones – and filled it with wine. She recapped the bottle and left it in the grass while she returned to the tree and put the chalice before it. Now, it was finally time. Her tummy squirmed excitedly, and already she felt the sensual caress of the satin on her nipples, as if every fibre of her body was ready for what was to come.
She slipped the dress off and revealed her nakedness to the meadow. She felt the forest hold its breath as the elements roused keenly to the presence of her plump breasts, her full thighs, the hot moisture between her legs. Arianna thought nothing of Old Mim, or Rosa, or any of her coven sisters as she waved patterns with the thin material of the dress. She hummed a tune, one that they liked to sing in the coven, and swayed her body to the belly dance of the sisters.
She could feel the night reacting, the way the insects hushed and the wind sailed longingly over her skin, making the hairs rise and prickle. She danced with passion, letting the soft material of the dress fan around her like a long scarf, twirling it while she thrust and swayed her body to the tune she hummed. Her clitoris throbbed dully, teased into wakefulness by the wind and the pollen.
‘By soil, by wind, by rock and sea, I summon a lover to come to me,’ Arianna chanted. Her nipples hardened as she spoke the words aloud, her sex slickening as her mind wandered to thoughts of the male she awaited. ‘By this dance and hawthorn tree, I summon my lover to come to me.’
The wind quickened, making the grass sway about her legs. She felt the soil moving beneath her, disturbed by her words. She shouted louder, knowing her lover would hear her.
‘By aura raised I send my plea, I summon a lover to unbind me!’ Arianna threw the dress on top of the roses. Without hesitating, she took the lock of hair and tied it by its ribbon to a thin branch on the tree. ‘Bring my plea to fruition,’ she said, bowing her head as she tied a bow.
Arianna picked up the chalice and poured the wine at the foot of the bush, before tapping the vessel against the foliage and saying, finally, ‘Blessed be!’
She stepped back and put the chalice on the ground, taking long, deep breaths. She didn’t know when the lover would appear, whether it be now or later when she had placed her chalice back on the altar. All she knew was that the spell was cast, and now it was only a matter of time.
‘Sister! What are you doing?’ came a voice, making Arianna spin round. Emerging from the path was Rosa, wearing a long green skirt and a white blouse, her eyebrows narrowed.
‘Hush, Rosa!’ said Arianna, grabbing her dress to cover her body. Rosa snatched it from her hands and revealed her body once more, making her cheeks go pink.
‘What is all this you’re doing?’ She looked from the dress to the roses, and finally to the ribbon on the tree. Her mouth dropped open. ‘Not a lover spell?’
‘Yes. A summon.’ Arianna confessed. ‘I will have my man despite Old Mim.’
Rosa covered her face with her hands, despairing of Arianna. She could feel the heat from Arianna’s sex pulsating just inches in front of her, so in tune was she with her fellow sister. But she knew this was a terrible thing, for it would have made the summoning more potent, and she was almost certain Arianna had wandered onto the endangered ground Old Mim had spoken of.
‘You stupid girl!’ she said, making Arianna smart. ‘Don’t you listen to anything your elder sister tells you? Don’t you know this is the dangerous ground? I knew you hadn’t listened! But here I am thinking you were just picking berries when you’re out here casting spells. Who knows what’s be
en listening, or what you’ve awakened.’
Arianna realised, suddenly, that Rosa was right. She had been half-listening to Old Mim’s warnings, but she hadn’t taken them seriously. This was the dangerous ground she had spoken of. But as she looked around at the woods cloaked in darkness from the night’s sky, and the empty meadow, and the whispering hawthorn bush, her heart sank.
‘It doesn’t matter anyway,’ said Arianna, sighing. ‘I thought my spell was working, but I can feel now that it didn’t. It was only the wind.’
Rosa could sense her friend’s disappointment, but she could’ve sworn that she felt the ground beneath her quaking. There was energy emerging, too, but it wasn’t Arianna’s circle – she would have known. No, something was stirring. Something big.
She took her friend’s arm. ‘I think we need to leave,’ she said. ‘I’ve practised more than you, sister, and I know something is happening. I can feel it.’
Arianna pulled her arm away. ‘You might think you’re a stronger witch than I am, Rosa, but if something is stirring then it is my power that awoke it. If my man is coming, I want to meet him.’
‘Your man?’ Rosa barked. ‘Old Mim said this land was demonic! There are no men but creatures from the demonic realms.’
Arianna’s face turned ashen. Suddenly she looked uneasy, out in the open with her bare flesh quivering. ‘Fine,’ she said, her voice a mere whisper. ‘Let’s go.’
A howl made them pause as they were about to fetch her chalice and get the hell out of there. They flinched and looked at one another. The howling came again, a long wail, emanating from beneath the hawthorn bush. The branches shook violently, and the sisters could hear a grunting noise. But before they could run, they saw something emerging, and suddenly neither of them had the courage to flee.
‘I’m sorry.’ Arianna whimpered, clinging to Rosa’s arm. They watched the bush, holding their breath for whatever monster was behind it. Something shot out. A hand, an arm. Blood red.
They screamed as another arm shot out, blood red also, and a huge being emerged and towered over them. It came seemingly from the roots of the tree itself, its skin smeared with mud. It was at least seven feet high, with a rippling abdomen and biceps so thick the beast could tear them apart with one tug. It was certainly a man, but one like they had never seen before. His skin was the same blood colour all over. Black hair tumbled over his shoulders, and his eyes were hard and black like stones.
Between his swollen thighs, amidst a patch of thick black hair, his manhood hung long and low.
Rosa daren’t stare him in the face or at his naked form, but she saw the huge ebony-coloured war axe that he carried on his back on a leather strap. She quivered to see it, and her eyes darted to the floor.
Arianna thought differently. Despite his colour and size – a colossal giant compared to her – she was beguiled by his intense yet very human face. A chiselled jaw; angular black eyebrows; a straight nose. Though his expression was emotionless, his brow creased, she could see that demons were not just creatures, but men.
Fear rippled over her body, and she clenched her stomach to withstand the demon’s gaze. But she did it, and she vowed to herself that no matter what happened, she would not shy away.
‘You,’ he said, raising a huge hand to point at Arianna. ‘You are the being that summoned me. State your purpose.’ His voice rumbled so deep it was almost hard to discern what he was saying, but the girls heard him all right.
Arianna looked at his long finger with its black nail, and found she couldn’t muster the words. Her throat seized up.
‘Speak,’ he boomed, staring down at her. Rosa feared that someone might pass and be terrified to see the beast in front of them, or, worse, be killed. But of course they were out on the moors, she remembered, and this late at night there wasn’t a soul around.
‘I –’ Arianna stuttered, not knowing where to start. ‘I am a witch, just a witch. I performed a lover’s ritual. I didn’t know this was dark grounds. I –’
The demon watched her quivering, his eyes unblinking. He turned his head just slightly to the right and looked at Rosa, who shivered under his gaze. ‘You await a lover? Mating between witch and demon on ancient soil is an empowering ritual in itself, more so than with any mere bewitched mortal.’
Rosa blinked, perplexed. ‘Wh-what are you? I mean, of course, where are you from?’
The demon uttered a name from a language that neither witch had heard before. ‘Kalahsi,’ he said. ‘Those of the Kal will bargain with witches when summoned. What the young witch desires is not beyond my power, but it will cost.’
‘But she didn’t intend to summon you,’ Rosa said, her fear receding just enough to let her argue. ‘She cast a petty lover spell. She isn’t powerful enough to summon … you.’
The demon nodded slowly, looking back at Arianna. ‘She is an innocent who knew nothing of the grounds she cast her spell upon. A Kal knows this, and a Kal may respond if he desires. Contact was made, and that was sufficient.’
Arianna hugged her naked body and stared up at the tall beast, full of questions. ‘So you chose to respond to me? But you spoke of a cost. What do you mean?’
The beast nodded. ‘A Kal hears many calls. But your energy was strong … It was the sexual energy of mortals. A Kal can serve this purpose like no mortal can. But he performs rituals for mortals at the cost of his choosing. I can provide the pleasure you desire, but the terms of the spoken contract are mine to decide.’
The air was stilled now, as if the demon had stopped time. A moth that had been fluttering around their heads was now suspended in mid-air, its papery wings frozen. Rosa edged forward slightly. ‘Can’t we just rescind the call? It was an accident. Arianna didn’t know what powers she was tampering with.’
The beast held up his hand and silenced her. ‘It is done and cannot be undone. I have broken between realms and now I will claim a price. The witch desires a lover, and she will have one. But my price is high, and a Kal does not leave without setting conditions.’
He set his hard gaze on Arianna, and they both saw the swelling between his legs. His blood-red manhood thickened, its head glistening in the starlight, and rose to his navel. Arianna felt her clitoris throb despite her fear, and she could see the demon’s nostril twitch as if he could smell her arousal. She found herself stepping forward, numb.
‘W-what if we don’t accept? Just hypothetically, of course, but if we had … wasted your time, then what?’
The demon scratched his chin, then slowly moved his hand towards the handle of the great axe on his back. The witchlings flinched, his hard stony gaze sending them cold. ‘Then I will claim both your souls for ever, leaving your mortal remains behind to rot in the soil. You will join me in the Kalahsi lands to serve as we see fit.’
Rosa’s heart thumped like a rabbit, and Arianna couldn’t even bear to meet her friend’s gaze. The lover summon was an innocent ritual, designed to entice a man and nothing more. A one-night affair, a relationship … but never this. This had been far beyond Arianna’s imagination.
‘Tell me the cost,’ she said, swallowing hard. ‘But please promise the sisters of the coven won’t be harmed.’
The demon grinned for the first time, his black lips turning up at the corners. ‘My price concerns you only. I will provide the pleasures you desire, but you will be bound to me. You will bow to me, honour me and answer my every call. You will travel from this plain of reality to the Kalahsi at my will, and answer my every command. This contract will be bound to you for five lunar phases.’
Arianna shuddered, but not just at the demon’s price. Five lunar phases was almost five months! But what choice did she have? It was either that or surrender to the forfeit and condemn both of them to … Kalahsi, whatever hellish land that was.
She stepped forward, knowing that all the bargaining was over with. Those were her options. And if she was still shown these pleasures she had desired for such a long time, since her eighteenth birthday three year
s before … then, technically, her price was also being paid. And was she not a fledgling witch? Would she not be empowered by the experience, and end up being wiser and more powerful than Old Mim could ever be?
She would experience new powers, new rituals, a whole new world … Demonic, yes, but she’d always been curious about the darker powers. Had she really been so ignorant of the dark energy in this meadow? Thinking about it now, she knew that deep down she’d always been aware … drawn to it, in fact, since the day she stumbled upon it.
Arianna looked up at the demon and drank in his image. His size, his power … the muscular physique that bettered all mortal men. And of course, the swollen part between his legs … Was it such a bad thing for a demon and a witch to be bound together by lust? She knew what Rosa, Old Mim and the sisters would think … but, staring at the demon now, Arianna simply couldn’t agree. She wanted him.
‘Then, if we have no choice,’ she said, pulling her arms away from her body to show all of herself to the demon. ‘The contract is set. You will quench my desires and I will be yours for five lunar phases, as you wish.’
Rosa gasped. ‘No! Arianna, what have you done? How could you be so accepting!’ she screamed, but the beast silenced her with his hand again. She daren’t disobey him, not with that axe strapped to his back.
‘Very well,’ said the demon, his mouth spreading into a crooked smile. ‘Let us not waste time. I will taste the witchling here, now, and then I will leave to make the arrangements in Kalahsi.’
Arianna couldn’t take her eyes off the demon’s swollen cock, which bobbed as he came towards her. Her body stiffened; he was so tall that his sex nearly reached her chin. She squealed as the demon shot out a long-nailed hand, grabbed her breasts and pinched them. Heat emanated from his palm, calming her.
She could feel his sorcery penetrating every fibre of her, soothing her. Arianna closed her eyes and thought of the dreams she’d had. His hands, though clutching her much harder, felt better than the man she dreamed of.