Sadie paced around her chambers fuming. She walked over to the door and tried the latch, still locked. Banging her fist against the solid wood, she screamed in frustration. Her father had called her to his chambers earlier that evening to discuss her future matrimonial plans. He was marrying her off to Olaf the Oaf. So what if she was the only one who called him that? He was supposed to be a respected member of their village, the first to put himself into harm's way when the demons or slave hunters attacked. The problem was that he had already been married three times, his previous wives had disappeared under mysterious circumstances once the bruises and broken bones couldn't be hidden anymore.

Her father told her that she should be lucky Olaf would consider marrying a mongrel. In truth, it was because he still needed an heir and none of the other men would marry their daughters off to him after his last wife disappeared. Olaf had denied any wrongdoing in the disappearances of his wives, but the fathers of the other girls didn't want to take any chances. Her father didn't seem to have any such qualms. After he was finished informing her of her future, he had her escorted to her chambers and locked inside so that she wouldn't be able to leave before the ceremony the next evening.

Sadie walked over to her bed and sat down, fingering the soft tattered blue quilt lying on it. The quilt was the last nameday gift she had received from her mother before she passed away. It reminded her of better times before her powers started to form and she became the village pariah. Her mother had tried to protect her the best she could. She had been a powerful hedge witch, able to cast impenetrable illusions and brew concoctions that others came from miles around to purchase. She would cover Sadie's aura with illusion, masking her oddness as the beginnings of witchcraft. Unfortunately, the stronger Sadie's powers grew, the harder it was to hide them. Then her mother fell ill with the sweating sickness and within a few weeks had wasted away, her powers unable to hide Sadie's nature any longer. Her passing had been a dark time in Sadie's life.

Sadie's father was a strong Warlock, able to bind demons and compel them to do his bidding. He had always been more interested in his powers than his children. There were several warlocks in the village but her father was the strongest. It was why her parents had been bound to each other, to unite two great families. Sadie had inherited her father's powers, far stronger than even his were. One would think that her father would be proud of her for her power but female warlocks just weren't done, they didn't exist for the ability to summon demons was supposed to be a man's power. If her power had followed the path of her mother, she would be considered a valuable commodity. Because she was a warlock, the village considered her cursed. The villagers refused to talk to her, they glared at her and crossed themselves when they moved past her, but mostly, they ignored her.

Sadie closed her eyes and let her head drop. She would never change the minds of the villagers, but that didn't mean she had to give up on her life. Besides, she had Gustav to keep her company. Gustav was her familiar and greatest companion, he was also the harbinger of her troubles. He was the first demon she had ever summoned, taking control of him at the beginning of puberty when her powers started to manifest. Her life took a turn for the worst when her father realized she was a warlock, only ever concerned with his own image and the image of his family.

She stood up and started to pace again, crossing her arms over her chest and rubbing them up and down to dispel the cold she felt. She didn't enjoy this walk down memory lane. She needed to think of a plan to escape this situation. She couldn't cast charms to unlock the door, she couldn't influence the servants to release her, and she couldn't fight Olaf for her freedom, her only real strength lay in her ability to summon.

Sadie gasped, "That's it, I'll summon a demon to fight for me. I can bind it and send it back when the fight is over. If it wears a human skin, no one will ever know. I just have to make sure it's strong enough to hide its nature."

She walked through the only other door in her chambers. It led to what had once been her playroom when she was a child. She had kept it the same way it had always been to hide the fact that she honed her powers there as her father had forbidden her from practicing their craft. A table sat against the wall to her left, a tattered chair sitting in front of it. To her right, the wall was taken up by the other side of the massive fireplace that cut through the wall into her bedroom, a fire crackling warmly in the grate. On the opposite side of the room sat a toybox with a few stuffed animals scattered around it. Across from her, the wall contained two windows with heavy crimson drapery hanging from thick metal rods. A circular rug lay in the middle of the floor. It matched the color of the curtains, an odd scribble like pattern decorating the edges in black.

"Gustav, come to me.", she snapped her fingers. In the center of the table, mist started to coalesce, solidifying into a shape that resembled a small macaque monkey with glimmering red eyes. As soon as a mouth formed, it started chittering angrily at her, waving a balled fist in the air.

"Hush. I'm sorry I interrupted whatever you were doing and whatever you were doing it with. I need your help." She walked over to the toybox and knelt down in front of it. She opened the chest and removed the top layer of toys revealing a hidden compartment. The compartment contained a very old grimoire she had discreetly borrowed from her father's study, several candles, silver knives, and assorted other items used for summoning. Sadie picked up the grimoire and walked over to the table. Gustav jumped onto her arm and climbed to her shoulder, holding onto her hair for balance while wrapping his tail around her neck.

Sadie opened the aged, heavy book after gently undoing the clasps holding it closed and flipped through the yellowed pages slowly until she found the one she was looking for, "I can't conjure items and I'm missing ingredients for the summoning I need to cast. You, my little friend, get to go play your favorite game and steal them for me." She turned her head and with a sly smile, she looked Gustav in the eyes, "Don't be seen."

She told him the list of missing herbs and ingredients she required and described to him where they could be found in her father's study, hoping he wasn't using the room at the moment. Once Gustav had scampered out the window to fetch the items for her, and she saw that he was safely in the shadows of the courtyard, she picked up the rickety little chair and placed it in front of one of the windows. She climbed up onto the chair and removed the heavy curtain rod and curtains from their perch. Dumping the curtains off of the rod into a pile next to her, she reached for the end of the rod and screwed off the cap. Inside was a thick piece of white chalk, attached to the rod.

Sadie jumped off of the chair, careful not to tangle her legs in her skirt, and moved it out of the way. She then walked to the center of the room and, looking at the ground, studied the carpet. She had woven it several years ago. The craftmanship wasn't great, an artist she was not; however, it was geometrically perfect with the five points of the pentagram correctly marked. She had gotten tired of measuring out her circles every time she summoned and since she wasn't allowed to practice, she couldn't keep a permanent one.

Sadie used the chalk to follow the outline of the carpet, walking the full circle slowly so the chalk didn't skip over the pitted wooden floor. After the initial circle was complete she marked the major five points of her star with x's and the minor five points between them with circles. She placed the chalk and holder down on the floor and rolled up the carpet, carrying it to a corner and leaning it against the wall. She walked back into her bedroom and over to the fireplace. The mantle over the fireplace was several feet wide and quite deep. Sadie lifted a long, straight piece of wood that was hidden on the back of the mantle, which she had notched with precise measurements for creating the center lines in her circle. She looked around her bedroom and spotted her needlework hoops sitting in a holder next to an armchair. Grabbing the hoops after removing the fabric, she walked back into the other room. She hated doing needlework but the hoops were perfect circles and came in several different sizes. Needlework was a great cover for her true use of the hoops as ladies were expected to practice it for hours during the day. They came in handy for drawing well-formed circles with little guesswork.

She placed the hoops and the straight stick on the ground next to the chalk then removed the chalk from the holder. Using the straight stick, Sadie drew a pentagram using the five major points with a pentagon around the outside. She placed the straight stick aside and picked up the hoops, drawing different sized circles where all the points converged. She connected the inner circles to the minor points she had marked, leaving half circles at the junctions. Inside of these, she drew the esoteric symbols needed for the summoning, getting up to refer to the grimoire occasionally for which symbols to use. She was especially careful to use symbols that would conjure a powerful, male demon. Demons didn't usually have genders, but when they took on human skin they tended to pick the traits of one gender or the other and she wanted to make sure the one she summoned preferred a male skin. Females couldn't make combat challenges and that was the whole point of this summoning.

Generally, the summoning that Sadie was attempting would only be done by masters, however, she didn't feel like she had much to lose. If she conjured the demon and wasn't able to hold it, perhaps it would kill her quickly. Once she was dead, as the conjurer, the summoning would break and the demon would return to where it had come from. Sadie shook her head, she was powerful and it had to work, she didn't have any other options. Sadie sat back on her heels after drawing the last symbol around the edge of the circle.

Gustav jumped silently into the window startling her. She fell back, placing her hand over her chest, glaring at him. "Sometimes, Gus, sometimes. Did you get everything?" He jumped off of the ledge, carrying a velvet bag between his hands and ran over to her on his hind legs, chittering as he moved.

"Yes, I know you went through a lot of trouble, but I also know you enjoyed it, sticky fingers," Gustav grinned widely as she took the bag from him. He moved to her shoulder to examine her handiwork. Sadie pulled several pouches of assorted herbs, a larger pouch of salt, and a vial of oil from the bag, lining them up on the table next to the grimoire. Gustav jumped from her shoulder and perched on the side of the table watching her.

Retrieving a small mortar and pestle and several black tallow candles from the toy chest, Sadie placed them next to the ingredients. After placing the herbs into the mortar, she added the oil and used the pestle to create a thick, oily, paste. She placed the mortar in the center of the circle and then placed the candles at the points of the pentagram.

Sadie grabbed the bag of salt and walked clockwise around the circle, creating an even, unbreaking line around the outside. Leaving a wide gap, she stepped outside of the circle and picked up the matches. She stepped back into the circle and lit the mixture in the mortar on fire, the smell of herbs and oil creating a pleasant aroma. She then walked around the circle clockwise, lighting the candles one at a time, starting with the northernmost. Once all the candles were lit, she stepped outside the circle and completed the salt line, making sure there were no gaps.

Now for the final steps, the incantation, and the main ingredient. She wasn't quite sure what the incantation from the book would do, but magic was mostly about intent.

Sadie picked up one of the sharp silver daggers from the toybox and once again started walking clockwise around the circle. Taking a deep and calming breath, she started the incantation.

"Quia verba mea custodite,

tempus in maxima necessitate,

Qui vocat te."

She pursed her lips together, this was the worst part. She held her left wrist over the candle flame and cut a deep well into it, wincing as blood dripped onto the first candle. The flame flickered for a moment, deciding if it would go out or not, and then started to burn brighter as her magic and blood mixed with the flame, producing a thick smoke. Slowly she moved to the next candle.

"Fortitudinem tuam mea requiro,

Inspire et tuum praesidium,

Qui vocat te."

Sadie opened the wound she had made a little wider and added a few drops of her blood to the candle she now stood over, the smoke growing thicker in the circle as she continued around it.

"Etsi pauca options,

Ego vero et rectus,

Qui vocat te."

The smoke started to move clockwise inside of the circle, forming a cone with the point at the bottom, resting in the middle of the mortar. It was eating the contents of the bowl, disbursing the flaming plant matter evenly through the smoke funnel. She added more blood to her current candle and moved on to the next, biting her lip from the pain.

"Vitae luctus salutem,

Influunt enim sanguis meus gratis,

Qui vocat te."

Sadie took a deep breath and welled more blood from the cut on her arm, she had known this summoning was going to be painful. She needed more than a garden variety demon to help her with her plan. The smoke inside the circle was almost opaque, glinting here and there with flame kept burning by magic. She moved to the last candle, hoping that she wouldn't say the wrong words and nullify the spell. Gustav watched from the top of the table, not making a sound, his crimson eyes glowing softly in the candlelight and his posture expectant. The air in the room around them grew thicker and hotter as she continued the summoning.

"Festina ad me venire,

Adiuro te per sanguis castae,

Adiuro te mihi, Thael"

She added her blood to the last candle. As soon as the drops sizzled in the flame, the funnel of smoke turned into a whirlwind. Her circle held, thankfully, as the smoke tornado was taken over by fire. Sadie's eyes grew wide, a slight shiver of fear causing perspiration to form between her breast, and she took a step away from the circle. She had never seen such a powerful conjuring, not even from her father and the other warlocks when they summoned. Blood dripped down her wrist and into her hand, forgotten due to the tempest in front of her.

As suddenly as it had picked up, the tempest died down. The plant matter and blood from her ritual burned out and ash fell to the floor, leaving the acrid sulfurous smell of burned plant matter and blood behind. The smoke dissipated from the circle, leaving a solid form in its wake.

Standing in the center of the circle was a man with a very quizzical look on his face. He was naked from the waist up, only wearing a pair of tight leather breeches, his feet bare. He had lightly tanned, well-toned skin, his muscles rippling beneath as he turned slightly and looked around.  Shadowy glyphs ran from his wrists and up his arms, circled around his neck, then down the sharply defined muscles of his chest and waist to disappear into the waistband of his pants. He looked back at her with piercing grey eyes, flecks of a deep maroon banked in their depths and frowned.

"Where am I and what have you done?" he asked her, his voice was a deep smoky baritone which matched the very dangerous vibe that was starting to come off of him.

Sadie met his eyes, not being able to help but to admire his strong jawline and the shoulder length black hair that framed his face. He was one of the best-looking men she had seen, apparently, demons knew how to pick their skins. The demon's eyes narrowed as he stalked towards her, leaving her circle with ease. Her eyes widened, he shouldn't have been able to leave the circle without her releasing him, and she started to feel the first stirrings of true fear.

"I bound you." She whispered softly.

He leaned towards her, inches from her face, "I don't feel very bound," he growled.