Summoner Rising

by Melanie Mcfarlane

  Eventually, I break away and see the person I’ve been looking for all night: Tryan. He’s leaning against a tree, looking away from the party, staring out into the dark woods.

  “See anything interesting?” I ask, leaning against the other side of the tree. Our shoulders rub against one another under the pale moonlight.

  “Now I do,” he says, spinning around until he’s facing me. The warmth of his body nudged up against mine sends something electric to the tips of my limbs. His breath glistens in the cool night air. “You looked like you enjoyed yourself tonight.”

  “You watched me?”

  “I will always be watching you,” he says.

  I loop my fingers around the bottom of his shirt and tug him toward me. “I wish you would join me instead.”

  “I could be persuaded,” he says, leaning in. His lips brush against mine and send a shiver down my back as he kisses me softly at the edges of my mouth.

  “Are you cold?” he asks, pausing for a moment.

  “Don’t stop,” I whisper.

  “Look at you two lovebirds,” Liana’s says as she passes by. “It’s time to wrap this party up. Happy seventeenth, Dacie. Sweet dreams.” She winks as a smirk crosses her lips, then disappears into the woods.

  “I have to go,” Tryan says, leaning his forehead against mine. “Your aunt is waiting for you. It’s almost midnight.”

  “I’m not going to turn into a pumpkin,” I laugh. “Stay.”

  “No,” he says, playing with a lock of my hair, “it’s traditionally for summoners only. It’s going to feel overwhelming tonight. All your shadows are going to finally become real.”

  I linger for a moment in Tryan’s embrace. “Will it be scary?”

  “No,” he whispers. “Just remember, they need you. You’ll be fine.”

  “I’ll be inside when you’re ready,” Katya calls out.

  “That’s my cue,” Tryan smiles, pecking me on the lips. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  As he walks away, our hands stay entwined, stretching apart when he disappears into the shadows of the woods. “Good night, Dacie,” he calls out. I watch until his shadow is gone.

  I turn away and pick up some garbage strewn at the end of the lawn as a reminder of the party. As I clean up, I think about Tryan’s kisses followed by his words. I hadn’t thought about what would happen once I could see demons. Would they be everywhere? At least I have Katya to help me through it.

  Something rustles on the path in the woods. I pause and look into the darkness and see a figure watching me. My heart skips a beat. Is it Tryan?

  “What are you doing back here?” I ask, walking toward him. “I have to get inside soon.”

  The grandfather clock from the foyer chimes the midnight hour through the open patio doors, and I glance back at the house. When I look back to the woods, the figure steps out from the shadows of the trees into the moonlight.

  My breath catches in my throat. It’s not Tryan; it’s the man from my dream. The figure—who has always been cloaked in darkness—is here, watching me.

  “What do you want?” My voice comes out in a harsh whisper.

  He moves toward me, shadows gathering all around him. His broad shoulders cast their shape on the ground in front of him, reaching out toward me.

  “Daciana?” Katya calls from the house. “It’s time!” I quickly glance over my shoulder, then look back. The figure has disappeared into the woods.

  “Stop!” I yell, chasing after him into the darkness.

  Branches whip against my arms as I chase the dark figure off the path and into the trees. With every step I take, he gets closer and closer, and just when I think I can reach him with my fingers, he disappears into the darkness.

  I stumble into a clearing where the moonlight breaks through the trees. Spinning around, I look for the man who haunts my dreams, but darkness surrounds me. The hair on my arms lifts and all my senses sharpen. It must be midnight. I’m officially seventeen.

  “Show your face,” I yell out into the night.

  “Hello, summoner,” a deep voice calls from behind me. I whirl around and see him hidden at the edge of the clearing.

  “Come closer,” I growl. “Show your face.”

  “Be careful what you wish for,” he says, stepping out of the shadows. “You do not have your tovaros or your weapons here to protect you.”

  He’s right. I stare down at my hands, empty of all the tools I require to put this demon back to the other side. My fingers are shaking from the adrenaline of the chase.

  I look back up at the man’s face, hidden under a dark hood, and gasp at what lies beneath. His features are gone, replaced by nothing but a swirl of dark shadows that hold up the hood on his head. I thought I was supposed to be able to see demons now?

  “What do you want from me?” My voice is barely audible.

  He holds up his arm and strikes it down in front of me. An invisible force pushes against my head and chest, the pressure making me stumble backward.

  “You are already protected by the tovaros’s spell,” the dark figure sneers. “He must be near.”

  The clearing fills with a burst of shadows, like the ones that followed the wendigo to Tryan’s house. They spin around the edge of the clearing, swirling faster and faster as they grow in number, closing in the space between me and my freedom.

  “I’m seventeen now,” I say, trying to watch out for the shadows behind me.

  “You are turning fast,” he says. “My little ones can sense it.”

  “You can’t hurt me. I’m a summoner.”

  “I am Diavol,” he says, rising in front of me. “Your mother couldn’t protect you forever, and neither can your tovaros.”

  My heart falls against my chest. “What do you know about my mother?”

  “The sounds of her last screams still echo in my ears like the sweetest sonata.” He laughs. “She was all-consuming—so beautiful, so talented, and so torn apart by her doubt. I waited many years to find her—take her. She put up such a fight, I had no energy left to take you when I was finished. But she’s not here to save you now.”

  “Damn you,” I say, striking out at the dark figure. My arm brushes through him, and I scream out from the icy shards of pain that pierce my skin.

  “Dacie!” Tryan’s voice comes from outside the clearing.

  “Your tovaros won’t be around you forever.” Diavol’s voice rumbles in the air. “If you want answers about your mother, you will have to seek me out—alone.”

  The shadows around us begin to take form, each one more gruesome than the last. Their features slowly start to appear in the shadows: a sharp claw here, a menacing eye there. I can feel myself changing too as I become a summoner. My senses sharpen to the new smells and sounds forming all around me.

  “Dacie!” Tryan is close. Very close. But he’s not going to get here in time to stop Diavol.

  “Wait,” I cry out as I fall to my knees. “Tell me, how will I find you?”

  “You must seek me out the darkest night of the year.” Before I can ask anything more, the shadows flying around Diavol fly up into the night sky. As my powers transform, I catch a glimpse as Diavol’s face just before he disappears with the others.

  “Dacie,” Tryan says, grabbing me just as my knees give out.

  “He killed my mother,” I stammer as I lie in Tryan’s arms, staring after the monster. “It was Diavol.”

  Tryan helps me up and supports me as we find the path home again. I stumble among the brush, where once shadows danced but now small creatures crawl and scuttle away into wisps of shadows.

  “How can you stand it?” I ask Tryan. “How can you see all of these terrible things everywhere and not go crazy?”

  “You’ll learn to control it,” he says. “Don’t worry, it gets better. Soon you’ll be able to select which ones can contact you and which ones can’t. You have the control, Dacie. You are the summoner. Remember they need y
ou.”

  I don’t want to be needed anymore. I don’t want this family curse. It’s what killed my mother, and it’s what’s out there, waiting for me. All hope has fallen. Now that I’m seventeen, I will never be able to feel normal.

  As we round the last turn, a scream pierces the air followed by the smell of smoke. The woods open up into a large display of light and fire.

  “No!” I cry out, letting go of Tryan. It’s Katya.

  The flames of my home light up the backyard. The entire house is engulfed in flames. No! Katya must have lost control of Ifrit. If only I hadn’t run after Diavol, none of this would have happened.

  “Katya!” I cry out, searching for any sign of her in the windows. I run around the yard looking for an entrance so I can save her.

  The old wooden structure that made up my family home, which has stood here since the 1700s, begins to crackle and snap. I watch as my bedroom, where I learned to trap demons, collapses into the sitting room below. I shield my eyes against the burst of embers that flies into the night sky like an explosion of fireworks. Inside that room was my Book of Summoning, along with all the last mementos I had to remind me of my mother.

  “Katya!” I scream as Tryan holds me back.

  “There’s nothing you can do,” he says to me. I hate him for speaking the truth.

  Shadows fill the skies as demons escape their painted prisons. How many did Katya have in her studio?—fifty?—one hundred? I fall to my knees. No one can stop this. Who will help us now?

  Something moves from the side of the house and Tryan’s grip on my shoulders tightens. I strain to see through the glare of the flames and make out Constantine’s shape. He’s dragging something. It’s Katya! Tryan and I run over and help them get to safety.

  “She’s breathing,” Constantine says, “but she’s been badly injured.”

  “Katya,” I cry out. She’s moaning, but I can’t tell whether she’s conscious.

  Sirens fill the air, but I know they won’t make in time to contain the fire. The house is lost, and all that ties me to my past is gone with it.

  “I am not ready to return to Romania quite yet.” Katya’s voice resonates in the hallway of the hospital. “I don’t care what the Senate wants. When I have things ready here, we will return, and not a moment before then.”

  Constantine comes out of the hospital room, throwing his arms up in the air. “Your aunt is back to her old self,” he says. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

  I peer around the corner of the door, into the room where Katya has resided for the last two weeks. Her burns were severe, but luckily, after a number of skin grafts and the help of her tovaros-summoner bond, she has regained her health quickly. What can’t be healed will become scars: both physical and mental.

  “Daciana,” Katya calls out in her thick accent. “Quit skulking in hallways and get in here and help me up.”

  I round the side of her bed and maneuver her into the wheelchair Constantine picked up for her. It houses the oxygen she’s required to use every day for the rest of her life. Though I think that could be something that might heal over time.

  “That foolish man thinks we need to sneak out and get back to Romania. I will not be run out of my home by some demon.”

  “There is no house anymore, remember?”

  “I’m not a moron!” I recoil at Katya’s tone.

  She drops her head into her hand and shakes her head. “I’m sorry; I don’t mean to take this out on you. It’s just all this,” she says, thumping her fist on her wheelchair. “I can’t believe I have to live like this for a while.”

  “That’s why Constantine wants to get you home,” I say. “He thinks family doctors might be able to help you more.”

  “He forgets we’re old.” Katya laughs. “Our bodies aren’t like they used to be. I fear this may be my penance for all the demons I let into this world over the last six decades.”

  “Don’t be silly,” I say. “You kept the balance.”

  “Sometimes I wonder about all we do,” she says, staring out the large windows along the wall of her room. “Is it all worth it? Do any of them care?”

  I stand next to her, watching the people walking along the sidewalk below. Do they know what truly happened in this town? If I told them about the wendigo, would they believe me, or lock me up?

  “Of course they do,” I whisper. “We don’t want to live in a world full of demons running free, do we?”

  She shakes her head.

  “Hello, ladies,” Tryan says from behind us.

  I turn and smile at the large bouquet of flowers in his arms. Katya turns as well, revealing the right side of her face to me. The burns reach up past her hairline, and below the collar of her hospital gown. Her skin still looks raw and translucent; it will be a constant reminder of the fire unless specialists can figure out what to do.

  “Tovaros,” she says, opening her arms wide to Tryan. “You’ve brought the beauty of the outside to me.” Tryan sets the flowers in Katya’s lap after her embrace, and she sits silent, stroking the petals of the flowers.

  “I passed by the house on my way here,” Tryan says. “At least what’s left of it. Did the Fire Marshall have any more information on what caused it?”

  My body tenses at the memory of stumbling out of the forest and finding the house in flames—all those demons escaping into the night. I can’t help but wonder if this was Diavol’s doing.

  “Nothing.” She sighs. “Perhaps Constantine is right. Maybe it is time we leave this place of destruction and rebuild our lives back home.”

  “And never return to America?” I ask. The thought of going was exciting, but never coming back? It didn’t sit well with me. I grew up here. My mother was here.

  “Never say never.” Katya waves a hand in my direction as she wheels herself to the bathroom.

  Tryan joins me at the window. He stands behind me, so close I can feel his chest rise and fall with every breath. Right now, I want to get out of here and find somewhere safe to spend time with Tryan. But right now we don’t have a home. “What are you looking at out there?” he asks.

  “I’m looking at people.” I sigh. “All the normal people who get to walk around and live their normal lives. They’ll never know, will they? They’ll never know what all of us sacrificed for them by going after the wendigo, or what Katya truly lost with that house.”

  “Normal.” Tryan grunts. “Who decides that? Each one of their lives is different. Normal is in the eye of the beholder. When I get you back to Romania, you’ll see what life is for people like us. I promise.”

  “Really?”

  Could my life really be normal in a world of summoners? The same world my mother fled from, so she could raise me in America? If there was a chance, I wanted to see it. Maybe I could have a normal life after all.

  But then I remember, I have a date with Diavol.

  THE END

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I have to thank Month9Books for loving Summoner Rising. They understood my vision, and found the perfect cover. I just adore it. Cheers to Georgia for falling in love with Summoner Rising as much as I did, and helping me to make it the best it can be.

  I also have to send my thanks to Kahla, Bridget, and my mother, Faithe. These three make up my beta team, and I couldn’t do what I love without them.

  Since the day I signed with Month9Books, I have met a world of wonderful writers. Jennifer Bardsley and Elisa Dane, make up my direct circle of friends that I can bounce promo ideas off and get advice from. E.M. Fitch, Shaila Patel, and Jennifer M. Eaton are some new friends I’ve grown to appreciate. I will always love my #WOBooks team, especially Amy McNulty, Jessica Gunn, Pat Esden, Julia Ember, and Dorothy Dreyer. These five have become a part of my inner circle of bookish friends. As for booktubers, bloggers, and readers, I have to give a shout out to Shala (Shaegeeksout), Michelle (Bookaholic Banter), Hannah (aspiring author/avid reader), and bookstagrammer jennegan26. These
four have become good friends, all because of their love for books. And I definitely cannot forget my new Instagram friend sharastar99 (whose insight into tarot cards and tea leaves was greatly needed).

  For a girl who grew up in the middle of the Canadian prairies, this is beyond a dream come true. Thank you to my father and his made-up bedtime stories, and my mother who always pushed me to read.

  All of you have helped to continue to make my dream come true. Summoner Rising is my second series, and a story I love deeply. When Dacie came alive on the page, I knew she was a heroine that needed to be heard.

  MELANIE MCFARLANE

  Whether it’s uncovering the corruption of the future, or traveling to other worlds to save the universe, Melanie McFarlane jumps in with both hands on her keyboard. Though she can be found obsessing over zombies from time to time, Melanie focuses her powers on writing young adult stories to keep the rest of the world up reading all night.

  Connect with Melanie: www.melaniemcfarlane.com

  OTHER MONTH9BOOKS TITLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

  THERE ONCE WERE STARS

  OF THE TREES

  PRAEFATIO

  Find more books like this at http://www.Month9Books.com

  Connect with Month9Books online:

  Facebook: www.Facebook.com/Month9Books

  Twitter: https://twitter.com/Month9Books

  YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/Month9Books

  Tumblr: http://month9books.tumblr.com/

  Instagram: https://instagram.com/month9books

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven