The Summons: A Goblin King Prequel (2 page)

He had given it freely tonight. His lips twitched in a cruel semblance of a smile. Maybe he wasn’t as far gone as he’d thought if he was still capable of helping someone without payment or an order.

But the hunger that clawed at his soul had been woken and wouldn’t be silenced. He wanted her golden gaze on him. He wanted to add her to his collection of things he’d stolen from the Fixed Realm. Antiques and valuables, treasures lost forever from the Fixed Realm of man. But he was still human enough to know what he wanted was beyond his reach. Trapped there, she would tarnish. Owning her would make him more goblin and less human. He didn’t want to lose the fragile gift she’d given him to greed.

She belonged in the Fixed Realm where she could live and grow up and hopefully be smarter about the kind of parties she attended. Yet the need to be seen by another human being as something other than a monster smothered rational thought. She’d asked to be taken away, and he would grant her wish. She would know who had helped her, and for a moment he would be able to stand in her gaze.

Shadows slid from him to the young woman. When they touched her, her sobs stopped and her head lolled as sleep took over. A sleep he controlled. But instead of taking her to the empty gray wasteland of the Shadowlands, he took her to its brighter sister, the Summerland. Where the Shadowlands was death and darkness the Summerland was light and life.

Coming here was a reprieve that wouldn’t last. He wouldn’t be able to remain in the lush fields under the crisp blue sky for long. He’d tried. After learning to enter the Fixed Realm at will by using people’s nightmares, he’d learned to move through their dreams to the Summerland, hoping to get away from the despair of the Shadowlands. But everything he touched he poisoned. The Shadowlands had tainted him. Now only gold survived his touch.

The young woman appeared in front of him. She glanced around, taking in her surroundings, and then her golden gaze landed on him. She took a step back, the long grass sweeping her bare legs. The skirt was shorter than he’d thought. The straps on her skimpy pink top were ripped on one side.

“Who are you and where am I?” Uncertainty tightened her words.

“I am the Goblin King, and I did as you asked. I took you away.” Roan inclined his head.

Beneath his feet the grass was starting to wilt and die. If he looked at the horizon, clouds would be forming as dreams turned to nightmares. At least here he was as he had once looked—more or less. More scars, longer hair, less soul.

In the Fixed Realm his appearance would have made her scream. It made most people scream. Twisted and gray with the knotted joints, yellow eyes, and hooked nose of a goblin.

Her lips moved without sound as if she were thinking of a reply. “You’re the Goblin King?”

“I am.” Usually people dropped to their knees and begged for their life, but then people usually only saw him as a goblin. Very few had seen him as he’d once been before he’d lost his heart to a curse he didn’t deserve and which had destroyed his tribe.

Her gaze flickered over his weapons, but she held her ground. “Where are we?”

“The Summerland. Where dreams begin.” Unless he ended them by dragging the Shadowlands with him. The cold death was creeping closer, strangling the summer beauty.

“Why here?” she said with a frown that didn’t belong on her pretty face.

She hadn’t asked to be taken back. Roan kept the surprise from his features.

“Why not?” The Summerland was as good as it got. Eternal sweet summer days, all denied to him. But that was no reason she had to share his curse and join him. These were a few moments to remind himself he was once a human with a heart that beat. Helping her had reminded him of that even if it hadn’t brought life to the golden muscle. It was more than anyone had done for him in far too long. Serving her had been a reward he’d never expected a summoner to grant.

“I just wanted to leave the party.” She spun around then back to face him. Her long honey-blond hair swirled around her like the finest gold thread.

Roan fisted his hand. She wasn’t an object to possess, that was the goblin in him heeding the empty call of the curse. Take more, always more to feed a hunger that could never be sated. It was a question of when, not if, he faded to gray and became one of the true goblins that roamed the Shadowlands looking for battle and gold. When he succumbed, the men who shared his curse would fall with him. It was for them he fought.

Now he had a new weapon to fight with. This girl, with her simple wish, had given him back what he’d thought lost. The simple ability to be kind, a trait no goblin could lay claim to.“Then be more careful what you wish for.” He worked an amber bead, one of many in his hair, off a dreadlock. Each one was placed after he’d resisted the orders of a summoner. Tonight he’d failed. But he would fail many times to feel this human. To have her gaze at him as if he were once again a man. A savior, not a thief.

The doubt in her eyes lessened, but she still watched him as if unsure what he would do next. “I thought goblins were meant to be ugly and scary.”

Roan blinked, then laughed. She had more courage than many men he’d faced—she just didn’t know how to use it. “Would you prefer I looked like a monster?”

She shook her head and cast her gaze down, her cheeks turning pink. “I like the way you look now.”

Her head turned as she took in the damage he was doing to the dream. The death of the Summerland was spreading. But where she stood the grass remained green as if she were made of the same pure magic of the Summerland. Would she keep him human if he had her or would it last only as long she remained untainted by the Shadowlands?

“What’s happening?”

“Where I go the Shadowlands follows. I bring darkness, death, and despair. I rule land made of dust and famine. My subjects are goblins who’d eat you alive. Do not summon me again for next time I may not return you.” It wasn’t a casual threat. The temptation to see if she’d save him was one he could only ignore for so long. If she were to call him again…

Her eyes widened and she nodded. “I won’t. I didn’t even think you were real.”

“I am real.” He took her hand and placed the amber bead in her palm. Then closed her fingers over it. “A token to remember me by.”

By morning this dream would fragment and it would be all she had left. Maybe he shouldn’t give it to her, but he wanted her to know she hadn’t imagined him. He wanted to exist for someone, if only as a half-forgotten dream. Better a fading dream than a nightmare.

“Thank you.” She smiled, her eyes bright in the sunlight. She didn’t open her hand to study the gem, just him. “I won’t forget you.”

Roan pressed his lips together. He wished that were true.

“It’s time for you to wake up.” He touched her shoulder and she vanished.

His fingers burned from the contact and the cold in his chest ached at the loss…almost as painfully as if he’d been forced to part with gold. In a way he had, but in keeping her, he would’ve lost the very thing he wanted.

Roan watched as the patch of grass she’d been standing on wilted and turned to dust as the Shadowlands caught up with him. The sun went out and the sky became as empty as the land. Nothing glimmered. No stars, no moon, no sun. The trees at the edge of the field shed their leaves, their bark blackened and their limbs twisted, reaching for the heavy gray twilight. The only things that grew in the Shadowlands were the things people feared. The river was black and slick, the dust barren, and the few animals wandering around were little more than hide and bones.

Nothing survived here. Not even hope.

The girl’s smile stayed with him, warming him where everything else had failed. It wouldn’t win back his soul, but it would help him hold on to it for a little longer…Maybe his brother would find a cure to the curse and they would once again be free.

***

Eliza’s head jerked up as she woke, and her stomach rolled at the sudden motion. She closed her eyes again and took a slow, deep breath. Even with her eyes closed the room seemed to tilt and sway. How had she managed to nod off while sitting on the cold bathroom floor? With unsteady legs she eased herself up. Something fell out of her hand and bounced across the floor. Her heart gave a solid thump as if trying to leap out of her rib cage.

Her hand slid over the wall to the light switch, but she already knew what it was. A bead. An amber bead given to her by the Goblin King…who’d looked very human—and incredibly hot. He wasn’t like Matt’s friends…or any of the boys her age. Everything about him was sharp and hard, and yet the tenderness in his eyes spoke of a deep sadness and longing. The weapons he wore left no doubt he was a fearsome warrior. After all, he’d saved her. But who would save him?

The florescent light flickered and came on. She shielded her eyes from the glare as she cast her gaze across the floor looking for the bead. It glinted like a drop of sunshine on the white tiles next to the bath. She picked it up and held it to the light.

One amber bead delicately engraved with a Celtic knot. His hair had been full of them. But even as she tried to remember the details of his face they slid away. Until all she was left with was an impression of blue eyes like the sky above a desert, hungry and deadly, and dark hair full of gold and amber beads.

He wasn’t really a goblin. He was a cursed man with a heart of gold, just like her mother’s stories. She smiled and closed her hand. Her warrior.

“Eliza?” her brother called out. “Eliza, are you okay?” She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand, removing the worst of the tearstains. Her hand went to the broken strap, but beneath her fingers it was whole. She turned and glanced in the mirror. Both straps were perfect. She frowned and touched her shoulder. He’d touched her shoulder, his fingers cool and firm. Had he fixed her top at the same time? Or had she imagined it was broken?

“Eliza!” Her brother began opening doors and slamming them closed.

She opened the bathroom door. “I’m here. I’m fine.”

“What the hell happened?”

Eliza shrugged.

“Are you okay?” Amanda, Matt’s girlfriend, leaned into his arm.

“Fine, I, um…didn’t feel very well so I came to the bathroom.”

“You’ll feel worse tomorrow,” Amanda said.

“Did you hear anything strange?” Matt pressed.

“I heard the music stop.” She raised her eyebrows and tried to look innocent.

Her brother and his girlfriend studied her.

“Really, I’m fine. I shouldn’t have had the second beer.” She shouldn’t have any. She wouldn’t get drunk ever again. And she would never let another guy talk her into anything she didn’t want. One kiss had rapidly become demands for more.

“Where is everyone?” Were they the only people in the house?

“Gone.”

“Oh.” The Goblin King had chased everyone away. Not that she could tell them that, and if she did, they wouldn’t believe her. They’d just think she’d drunk too much—which she had. If it weren’t for the bead fisted in her hand, she’d be tempted to agree he was a dream brought on by beer. But he wasn’t. She’d been saved by the Goblin King. She tried not to smile and lost.

“I’m going to lock up the house.” Matt gave Amanda a kiss on the cheek.

She turned with him. “I’ll take out the garbage so we don’t have to do it all in the morning.”

Eliza sighed. She should help them. Because she was here, she was part of the crime, and if they didn’t get it cleaned up before their Dad returned he’d ground them for life. But there was something she needed to do first.

She put the bead on her bedside table so it wouldn’t get lost, then took off the strappy sandals that were making it hard for her to keep her balance with a belly full of beer and shoved on her sneakers. The Goblin King had saved her and although he hadn’t asked for gold, she knew that would be what he’d want in payment. She knew the stories and had a book full of goblin lore. While she had no real gold to thank him with, there was plenty of liquid gold in the laundry—beer. She hoped that would be enough.

Amanda was picking up empty bottles off the lounge room floor as Eliza went past her, half expecting someone to jump out of the shadows, but the house was empty. In the laundry she pulled the plug on the trough so as the ice melted it could drain away. There were still nearly two cartons of beer and a couple cans of pre-mix spirits on ice. Her stomach somersaulted at the thought of alcohol.

With quick moves she put the beer into an empty box, then scribbled thank you on the flap. It rattled and clanked as she carried it out into the dark yard. She shivered in the cool night air. Maybe she was being silly, and maybe it would be there in the morning. But maybe not. And that was enough of a reason to leave payment for the man who’d saved her…and shown her the Summerland.

He was the first person to listen to something she said. Since her mother’s death three years ago her father had focused on his work. No matter how well she did at school, she could never do enough to shift his focus from the law firm. Her brother was just as bad. All he ever thought about was Amanda and his studies. If her father and brother spoke, it was always with raised voices. They probably wouldn’t have noticed if the Goblin King hadn’t returned her. For half a second she entertained the idea of living in the Summerland with the Goblin King in some kind of fairy-tale existence. Couldn’t all curses be broken? But at the back of her mind his warning remained clear and cold.

Do not summon me again.

Yet for those moments with him she’d felt safe, like he would protect her from anything and everyone. Though she didn’t dare tempt her luck and call him again. He might’ve looked human, but she had to remember he was goblin inside. She’d seen the Summerland wither in his presence.

She swallowed hard. He was dangerous. And she couldn’t afford to forget it. The trees trembled, their limbs creaking in the breeze. Eliza rubbed her hands up her arms to smooth out the sudden goose bumps. She took a step back toward the house, away from the dark shadows in the yard. They crept forward after her.

“Are you there?” Her voice didn’t shake, but it was quieter and higher than it should have been. Another step back.