BURN
A short story by C. M. Lockhart
Originally published in THE STYGIAN COLLECTION (2023).
Copyright all rights reserved.
My heart was a match you lit,This was supposed to be nothing more than a joke.
But the beginning of the end is always discreet, and so were they when they’d stolen one of Mistress Perona’s ancient bottles of wine. It had been a dare from Clarissa Mathers, and Tillie, ever their fearless leader, hadn’t been able to let it go.
They were seniors, after all. Only three weeks separated them from the real world and the white halls of Margot Saint-James School for Mundane Girls. After that, they would march beneath the flower-laden arches of the courtyard to be welcomed into proper society as adults. Janelle would turn twenty-one and they’d celebrate before going their separate ways, leaving their childhood at the gilded gates they’d walked through together ten years ago. It was a bittersweet feeling that grew heavier with each day that their graduation inched closer, and Risa did her best to push the suffocating emotions away.
She wasn’t ready to grow up — none of them were. Not yet. So, Tillie accepted Clarissa’s dare. They’d be expelled if they were caught, but that’s what made it exciting. What was the point of doing anything if there was no risk? It had been an elaborate plan that hinged on Chasity distracting the headmistress while she, Tillie, and Janelle swiped the bottle, and it had gone perfectly.
Watching Tillie laugh in Clarissa’s face as they displayed the bottle in the common room of their dorm was a memory that Risa knew she would take to her grave. She’d never forget the grin that split Tillie’s dark brown face, or the way Clarissa had stomped off to her room, all the wind sucked out of her sails. It had been a glorious moment, so she reveled in it rather than give her attention to the little sketch they’d found scribbled over the label on the bottle.
Janelle had been the one to notice it and peel it off, but it was Chasity who suggested they try it out. None of them were capable of magic — it’s what made them Mundane — so they’d laughed at the idea. But as they became silly off of tart wine, the idea haunted them, ensnaring their minds and leading them to take the first steps down a treacherous path.
They would draw the circle.
but I never wanted to set this world aflame.It had been an impulse of innocent curiosity at first, but Risa saw it for the reckless idea it was. Between her, Chasity, Janelle, and Tillie, she was the only one who actually understood what the circle was for. They’d been studying summonings in their last year at Margot Saint-James, and the sketch didn’t resemble anything like the ones in their textbook. The ones they were familiar with were simple — pentagrams in circles with objects placed in the center. They weren’t taught to recognize the circle with interwoven diamonds, ancient runes, and scripts of the divine text. And if Lady Louise, the woman who created the theory of summoning five hundred years ago and made a pact with death itself, hadn’t shown it to them, that meant it was something they had no business knowing about.
Risa knew that, but she also knew better than to try to dissuade Tillie from something once she’d set her mind on it. The second she spoke out against her, Tillie would shut her down, and it wouldn’t even be an argument. Tillie would just declare she was going to do what she wanted anyway and then demand the rest of them pick sides. And there was no way Chasity and Janelle would side with her — she was an orphan at school on a scholarship, and the rest of them came from powerful backgrounds.
I only wanted to be a light in your darkness, a warm touch in a cold place,Janelle had been born to old money — an heir to WilMort’s Emporium, the most successful magical accessory franchise in Aoki — and Tillie was the first daughter of the Sycanelle’s. She wasn’t worth much on her own, but hers was an ancient family of merchants and mercenaries, and Chasity was the mercenary tasked with keeping Tillie safe. She was only at Margot Saint-James as her retainer because Tillie’s hand in marriage was a powerful bargaining chip, and her grandfather had already begun negotiating with it. Her education at Margot Saint-James was an investment, and together, they were three of the most powerful Mundane girls in the region.
Their influence paled in comparison to that of Mancers and Enigmas, but it was enough to motivate Risa to ease her way into their friend group. She’d gone to Margot Saint-James as a requirement — all the girls raised at the adjacent orphanage did. But it was also one of the best boarding schools in Aoki, and since the school didn’t differentiate between those who were forced to attend and those who attended by choice, Risa saw it as her chance to make a few allies.
And it had worked.
They’d been thick as thieves since their first week at Margot Saint-James, and Risa had loved every minute of it. Lady Louise had given her a subtle warning about Tillie on their first day in her class, but Risa hadn’t spared it much attention. The Sycanelle family was dangerous as a whole, but Tillie was just a single girl. And from their late-night study sessions and whispered secrets, to their elaborate pranks and inside jokes, Tillie, Janelle and Chasity had become her entire world. She’d never had much to call her own, but they were her friends. And knowing them made it that much easier to survive life as a Mundane in a world full of Mancers and Enigmas.
She’d thought they felt the same way about her, but when she felt two palms shoving her down the last of the steps and over the threshold into the basement beneath the dorms, she realized how wrong she had been. Her scream was cut short as her body collided with the sharp edges of the concrete stairs, and everything went black as her body rolled to a stop on the cold tile at the bottom.
but a gentle love isn’t what you needed. And I wasn’t what you wanted.“Are you the one who summoned me here?”
The voice echoed in Risa’s ear, rumbling through her mind like a boulder and forcing her back into consciousness before crumbling into a heap of ash at the base of her memory. It was a voice she’d never heard before, but it was familiar to her all the same. It made her heart lunge in her chest with a hope that confused her, and she gasped at the pounding sensation.
“I summoned no one,” she coughed out.
“Someone did,” the voice whispered back, shifting through her mind as if it circled around her. “Are you sure that it was not you?” The question carried amusement with it and her breath escaped her lungs in short bursts, her skin crawling at the raspy sound. “I wouldn’t mind it so much if it was you.”
She shook her head at the suggestion, her brown eyes snapping shut behind her thick glasses as she tried to make sense of the situation.
She remembered agreeing to go with Chasity to retrieve Tillie’s phone from their room. She’d left it in their tipsy scramble out the door. Risa hadn’t wanted to go back for it, but Tillie couldn’t let go of an opportunity to show up Clarissa Mathers and she wanted proof they’d drawn the circle. It took two people to sneak past the watchers after curfew, but they’d done it enough times that it wasn’t even a challenge anymore. She and Chasity had joked about it on their way back down, but then she’d fallen down the stairs.
“Fell?” The voice questioned. It paused as if waiting for a punchline to a joke, and when none came, another chuckle slipped free. “Leaves fall. You,” the voice hummed, “were pushed.”
Risa whipped her head around to search for the voice, ready to deny the accusations — ready to defend the honor of her friends. They would never do something like that.
They’d survived a decade at Margot Saint-James together, and they were graduating in three weeks. She and Janelle even had plans to travel for the summer. For two months, it would be just the two of them traveling to visit her family’s store locations, learning the ins and outs of working within the WilMort Corporation. In between their visits, they’d vowed to see the ocean, hike the mountains, and experience all the things Margot Saint-James had kept from them. Risa would join the WilMort Emporium as Janelle’s secretary after graduation and this summer would be their first time outside the zone of Aoki. They’d been planning the trip for months and Janelle would be devastated if she couldn’t go.
“You are on the brink of insanity,” the voice pointed out, “and your concern is for the ones who brought you to the edge?”
So, I’ll embrace these flames you gave me.A sudden crack resonated through the room and Risa spun towards the sound, immediately regretting the action as a high-pitched scream ripped from her throat. A ring of blue flames erupted around her, forming a wall around the outer edge of the circle. The air around her distorted from the heat as the walls inched closer. She tried to crawl to her feet, but the instant she did, two silver chains sprung up from the circle, trapping her wrists and dragging her back down to the ground until she was forced to kneel on the unforgiving tile. She struggled against them, but her arms were outstretched and tied down to opposite ends of the ritual circle. Tears slipped down her round cheeks and evaporated before they had a chance to drop from her chin as she whimpered on the ground. The salt in them left streaks on her face as she shook her head, trying to use her own will to keep the wall of flames from wrapping around her like a burning blanket of velvet and sulfur.
It was a futile effort and she screamed, thrashing against the flames, but the only sound that filtered through her wild thoughts was the sound of excited laughter. It anchored her chaotic thoughts enough to focus on her friends through the flames. She watched them watch her with wild, bright eyes filled with intrigue and excitement.
They’ll caress my skin as lovers do and mark me as their own.Not one of them moved to help her and Risa’s blood ran cold. Fear gripped her heart in an iron fist as terror drug her under a fresh wave of despair. She tried to scream for them, but they huddled backwards — Janelle and Chasity leaning into Tillie.
“Do you see them for who they are now?” The voice asked.
No.
“Open your eyes then,” the voice demanded, the wall of flames parting in front of her so she could see them without obstruction. “They have planned your demise for months. Years. You are a pitiful fool to not have seen it.”
Risa shook her head against the thought that her friends were not who she’d always known them to be. Chasity had been her first friend at Margot Saint-James, and Tillie had been the first person to make her believe she could do anything. She refused to believe that they would watch her pain and not try to help her — that they would leave her to burn in front of them.
But the truth she witnessed now was undeniable.
A searing heat pushed against her back and she screamed as she lunged forward, the silver chains biting into the blistered flesh on her wrists. Her throat was singed and her voice was hoarse, but the force that caught her burned hotter than the flames searing her scalp and scorching away her tight coils. She jerked away from it, falling deeper into the pit of the flames as the voice drifted over her again.
“You don’t wish to believe me?” The voice asked, its words sounding like gravel as it pressed closer to her ears. “Where then is your water? Why has the summoning circle not been broken?”
It was a valid question that Risa held no answer to, and her mind spun to make sense of things that had none. She was the most proficient in their studies, but they all knew how to break a summoning. It was the first thing that Lady Louise taught them — because the most dangerous thing about performing a summoning was not knowing how to stop one.
It was a danger that came with being born a Mundane — Mancers and Enigmas often used them in summoning rituals for support. It wasn’t inherently dangerous, but those born with power didn’t always know how to wield it, and sometimes Mundanes were viewed as disposable. It was a harsh truth to face for those who never manifested a talent for magic, but in a world where magic determined more than birthrights and money, those without it were at the bottom of the societal ladder — and Risa was at the bottom of the bottom tier. Every girl enrolled as a student at Margot Saint-James was Mundane, but Risa was a Mundane orphan without a single red coin to her name.
But that had never mattered to her friends and it’s why she’d trusted them as much as she had.
She’d made the mistake of seeing them as being the same.
“But you’re not the same, are you?” The question was soft, but the words were sharp and cut deep. “They’re out there, calling for me to abide by their will, and you’re in here. And you know why I am here.”
She did.
Of the four of them, she’d been the only one to achieve genuine academic success without the aid of blackmail, bribes, and extra credit. Lady Louise had taught them about summonings, but Dr. Remnair is the one who taught them about uncommon laws and forbidden techniques.
They wanted a contract with a demon.
It was the only way for a Mundane to gain the power to wield magic — they needed a demon to be the conduit through which magic flowed. Some of the most powerful people in history had been Contractors, but the three divine houses had classified it as forbidden after the first holy war, and for good reason.
Summoning a demon required a living sacrifice.
“If you know this, then why have you helped them draw my circle?”
The voice sounded disapproving, but Risa couldn’t say for sure — her mind was being warped the longer the flames held her. Besides, what answer could she give it? She’d wanted to help her friends. That was it. She didn’t think they would see the summoning through to the end. And there was no way for her to realize they’d planned for her to be the sacrifice they needed. She saw the truth for what it was now, but it was still torture listening to the voice pick apart her reality, unravelling everything she thought she knew about her world. She didn’t want to hear it strip her friends of their love and care — to erase their history together and their trust in each other — to replace them with empty shells of humans who held no regard for her life, body, or soul. She couldn’t discern why the voice was there or why it was telling her these things when all she craved now was a swift end to her suffering.
“Would you like me to help you?”
I’ll dance in my own withered ashes,Risa’s eyes darted up at the thought, but she said nothing. There was no way for her to know what she didn’t know, but she refused to call out to a demon who was only there to feed on her dying soul.
“I feed on flesh,” the voice snickered as it swirled around her, nauseating her with its rumbling voice. “And it does not have to be yours.” Another shift and the words were softer, grazing her ear as a gentle wind would. “My name is Asher,” the voice whispered. “Call me by it and I will aid you.”
But Risa didn’t want to utter the name. She didn’t know it — didn’t trust it. Instead, she called out to Janelle, her truest friend.
They’d lived together since the first day they’d moved into the dorms of Margot Saint-James, and for as long as Risa could remember, Janelle had been there. When she’d overslept for classes and needed someone to wake her — when she’d been sick and needed someone to bring her hot soup and tissues — when she’d been nervous about applying for an advanced course with Dr. Remnair — when she’d finally admitted what the butterflies in her stomach meant after they’d kissed in the courtyard at the homecoming dance — Janelle had always been there. She’d been the constant Risa relied on, but when she didn’t budge from her spot next to Tillie, Risa’s heart crumbled.
In truth, she hadn’t expected much from Chasity or Tillie. She could admit that. But Janelle — she’d expected everything from her. Even after they left Margot Saint-James, she’d known in her heart that she would never leave Janelle. Chasity and Tillie would go their separate ways — playing their parts in lives they never chose for themselves. Risa had expected that of them, but watching Janelle deny her now was a heartbreak she hadn’t known could exist.
“You girls are foolish,” Asher sighed, irritation creeping into its words as she felt a form twisting around her. “Summoning a demon with no knowledge of how to control it. You believe I will serve you simply because you have called me. Why would I serve someone who has not dared to meet me?”
Confusion drifted over Risa’s mind and another chuckle echoed around the room, the flames dancing around her at the sound.
“It is the sacrifice we demons serve,” Asher explained, mirth slipping into its voice. “Ironic that you humans summon us without knowing that it is the dead who decide the fate of the living.”
because my flame is no longer yours to control.Risa wanted to laugh at the words. For all of her studying under the guidance of Lady Louise, she had to admit that she’d been foolish indeed. The Contractors in their books had always been hidden or disfigured — marred by the touch of the demons. Lady Louise had never spoken of it when Risa asked her about it directly, but her lectures had alluded to a fight for control over the demon. She’d never questioned the validity of that explanation, but the truth behind their disfigurement was much simpler than that. It was the proof of their contract — the proof that they’d sacrificed their bodies for power. It made her want to cackle out loud, but only a whisper escaped her scorched lips.
“Knowing this,” the voice hummed, “answer my previous question. Would you like me to help you?” Asher’s voice morphed into something like silk against Risa’s ears. “I can free you,” it whispered. “Or maybe you would like to watch them burn instead?”
It’s bigger than you,Her muscles clenched with desire at the suggestion. That was what she wanted — retribution. It sounded sweeter than the coolest water and, in that moment, as her sight grew dark from the smoke gathering in her eyes, she saw the image of a man standing in front of her — shirtless and scarred. Burns ravaged every inch of his skin, and she winced at the pain he must have endured, despite her own. He smiled down at her, a gentle thing that didn’t fit within the fiery inferno she withered in.
bigger than me,“I told you,” he said, kneeling down in front of her. “Call me by my name.” He reached out a hand to her face and his touch — while white hot and searing — warmed her soul in places the blazing fire could never touch. She leaned into his palm, and he pulled her closer to him.
He’d been handsome once.
It was an odd thing for Risa to notice, but her thoughts were no longer contained by rationality. They were wild. Unfettered. And he grinned as if he understood her. An uneven grin, but wide. Chapped lips that had once been soft. Wiry limbs that had once carried muscle. Brown eyes that had been singed to black. He was terrifying and gorgeous all at once. She saw him for who he was and for who he once was and couldn’t look away.
She didn’t want to.
bigger than the match you lit.“Call me,” he repeated, his lips a whisper away from hers, “by my name.”
Gazing upon him, Risa’s mind raced with new thoughts. What if she did call his name? What would that get her? She’d placed her trust in others before, and the bonds anchoring her to her world were proven to be nothing more than flimsy strings. They were so easily cut by the blade of betrayal, and she had no desire to see history repeat itself. What worth did a name have when every hope she’d ever dared to hold was being ripped away from her and burned from her soul?
“My name is all that I am,” he said, cupping her face and letting his black eyes gaze into hers. “And I give it freely to you. Call me by it, and I become yours. Everything I have — everything your heart desires — will be given to you.”
I will leave you in the darkness you denied me for,“Asher.”
and love this world in the way that you loved me.“Risa.”
Her name dripped like molten lava from his tongue and the flames that had ravished her — the chains that had kept her bound — freed her from their grip. Her soul was no longer held prisoner within her flesh, and Asher took her hand, pulling her into his arms.
“I am yours. You are mine. For eternity,” he whispered, “we are one.”
Risa liked the sound of eternity on his lips — the smell of smoke that clung to his charred skin — so, she held onto him as they sank into the depths of a world filled with demons and undead.
I will give it nothing,It wasn’t until they were deep enough to see the whole world from below that she dared to look up. Her whole world was in sight. The dorm room she’d shared with Janelle and the dining room where Chasity had taught her how to set a proper table. The hallways where she and Tillie had passed notes between classes and the classrooms where she’d studied with Dr. Remnair and Lady Louise.
The basement where her best friends had sacrificed her to gain their own power.
take everything,It was all filled to the brim with smoke and fire and screams as Margot Saint-James became an inescapable inferno and burned to the ground. The sight brought tears to the corner of Risa’s scorched eyes as she squeezed Asher’s hand.
“This was the desire of your heart.”
It wasn’t a question, but she nodded anyway.
and I will find delight in watching it burn.