Summoner (Ash and Magic 1) by Sophie Park Read Free Book Online Page A

area devoted to spell practice, and almost none of them could practice at home.  While Cass had the advantage of magical parents, most people didn't and so they couldn't very well go around blowing things up and starting fires at home.
    Here, though, here you got a study room all to yourself.  It was blank so that you could do whatever you wanted with it.  Most people who weren't into summoning like Ash would put a nice desk in there, some work benches, and they could still practice their magic against the wall.
    Ash, on the other hand, had the room completely clear on the inside.  Summoning spells often included very large circles as one of their components, and the summoning for Melketh needed a huge one.
    Ashley was wearing a comfortable set of underwear and nothing else.  Clothes got in the way and they could accidentally brush complicated spell components aside, so this was the most practical outfit for doing precise magic in.  She had her hair pulled up into a top knot with a scrunchy and her face was smeared with a yellowish, stinking substance.
    Someone knocked on the door to her room but she wasn't paying attention.  She was biting her lip, scrunching her eyes in concentration and trying not to screw up.
    The third circle, the third most important component of the spell, was almost complete.
    Knock knock knock.
    Ash didn't say anything, she barely even heard the door.  All of her focus was on the ground.
    "Knock!"  The voice from outside the room was Brad's, and his tone was clearly one of spell completion.  The pressure in the room changed as the door banged open and Brad strode inside, looking worried.  "Hey, Ash, you okay?  I... whoa."
    Ashley didn't look up.  She was two centimeters away from finishing the circle.
    "Listen, Ash, I... ahem.  Look, I was just... I didn't mean... it was..."  Brad's face was burning a bright red and he was deliberately looking away from Ashley's manse.
    Ash was holding what was, essentially, a brimstone crayon.  The formula was actually surprisingly easy and mostly involved binding agents that would make the sulphur into a kind of natural paste that you could then write with.  Ashley had done similar things before, and actually got the recipe out of the textbook with the imp summoning spell in it.  Sometimes, the simple things were the most powerful.
    "Cass said that I... you know... and you... we're, uhhh... just..."
    Ash finished the circle and then looked up.  It took all of her willpower not to jump and scream at the sight of someone else in her room.
    "Ah!  Brad!  Where did you come from!?"
    "I was just... wait, you didn't notice me?"
    "Umm."  Ashley frowned and rubbed a hand over her temple, smearing brimstone paste on it.  "I was concentrating."
    "I'll say.  I... eugh, what's that smell?"  Brad suddenly frowned and put his sleeve over his nose.  "Ashley, what are you holding?"
    "Brimstone.  Sulfur.  It's the component in raw eggs that makes them smell, you know?"
    "Yeah I do... I thought the imp summoning thing wasn't due until next week?"
    Ashley looked down at her design.  Any idiot could tell that this was more complicated than an imp summoning, but Brad was clearly not paying attention to the markings on the stone floor of her manse.
    "Listen, what do you want?"
    "Cass said that I should try one more time to get you to come out with us."
    "Cass... didn't I just talk to her?"
    "Like, an hour ago.  She just finished getting ready."
    "That was nice of her..."
    "What?"
    "Well, what if I said yes?  Then you'd have to wait another hour while I get ready."
    "Umm.  Ha ha.  Two if you wanted to get that smell out."
    "Very funny, Brad.  Listen, did you know that the third circle in Monty's spell yesterday was actually a completely different spell?"  Ash knelt down and admired her circles.  She had not yet started on the actual magic that would be activated, but the circles by themselves were powerful.  If she lidded her eyes and looked with her