MARKED BY THE DEMON KING

MIREYA'S POV

I drop the heavy book, and it hits the floor with a bang that echoes through the empty library.

My hands are shaking. Again.

I bend down to pick it up, and that's when I see my reflection in the dark window. A tired girl with messy brown hair stares back at me. I almost don't recognize her anymore.

Six months ago, I was Dr. Mireya Ashcroft. Almost. I had a fancy office at the university. I had a fiancé who said he loved me. I had a family who came to my research presentations.

Now? I'm the night librarian who shelves books nobody reads.

The blood moon hangs in the sky outside, fat and red like a giant eye watching me. Everyone says blood moons are dangerous. That weird things happen when the moon turns that color. I used to think that was just superstition.

I used to think a lot of stupid things.

"You're worthless, Mireya," my mother's voice echoes in my head. Those were her last words to me before she chose my perfect sister Celeste over me. "Your sister is marrying into angel nobility. What have you done? Nothing but embarrass this family."

I slam another book onto the shelf harder than I need to.

Kieran's face flashes in my mind. My ex-fiancé. The man I loved. The man who stole three years of my research—every note, every diagram, every discovery—and published it under his own name. Then he told everyone I tried to summon demons, which is illegal. A crime punishable by death.

The university believed him. My family believed him. The police believed him.

Nobody believed me.

Now Kieran is the youngest dean in university history. He's famous. He's rich. And I'm... here. Alone in a dusty library at midnight, shelving books about the demons everyone says are evil monsters.

My pocket feels heavy.

I reach in and pull out the crumpled paper. The summoning ritual. The one page Kieran didn't steal because I kept it separate. I've read it a thousand times. Memorized every word.

According to my research, this ritual doesn't just summon random demons. It calls the one whose soul matches yours. The one you're meant to find.

Everyone thinks it's fake. Old magic that doesn't work anymore.

But what if they're wrong?

What if I could prove my research was real?

I look at the blood moon again. The ritual only works during a blood moon. Tonight is my chance. Maybe my only chance.

"This is crazy," I whisper to myself.

But crazy is better than invisible. Better than nothing.

I make my decision.

The forbidden summoning chamber is in the basement, behind a door nobody has opened in decades. The university pretends it doesn't exist. But I found it months ago during my research. The lock is old and rusty. It breaks easily when I kick it.

The room beyond smells like dust and old magic. There's a stone floor and walls covered in symbols I studied for years. A perfect circle is already carved into the center of the floor.

My heart pounds as I kneel beside the circle. I pull out white chalk that glows faintly in the dark. The instructions are clear in my mind. Draw the symbols. Speak the words. Offer your blood.

But there's one more thing. The most important thing.

You have to speak your true name. Not the name people call you. The name your soul knows.

I draw the symbols carefully, my hands steadier now. I know what my true name is. I've known for six months, since the day Kieran destroyed my life.

From my bag, I take out the ritual knife. It's old, made of silver, with symbols carved into the handle. My hands don't shake as I hold it.

The blood moon shines through a high window, painting everything red.

I press the blade to my palm and cut.

Blood wells up, hot and dark. I let it drip onto the circle.

"I call to the one who shares my soul," I say, my voice stronger than I expected. "I call across the veil between worlds. I offer my blood freely."

Then I speak the name nobody knows. The name that's been screaming inside me since everyone I loved betrayed me.

"I am Mireya the Betrayed. Mireya the Forgotten. Mireya who will burn them all."

My blood hits the circle.

Everything stops.

The air. My breath. Time itself.

Then the temperature drops so fast I can see my breath fog in front of my face. The candles blow out. Darkness swallows everything.

Something is coming.

The circle explodes with black light. Shadows pour out like living things, twisting and writhing across the walls. The stone floor cracks beneath my feet.

A voice speaks from the darkness. Deep. Ancient. Terrifying.

"Impossible."

The shadows condense, taking shape. A shape that's too tall, too powerful, too real to be my imagination.

Golden eyes open in the darkness, looking straight at me.

And in that moment, I realize three things:

One—the ritual worked.

Two—I just summoned something far more dangerous than I ever imagined.

Three—I can never, ever take

this back.

The darkness takes form, and I see him.