Returning to school just wasn’t quite the same. It didn’t feel right. So much had happened and so much was going to happen that sitting in class and practicing thaumaturgy just felt unimportant. Like being concerned over a mosquito bite while bleeding out from a missing arm.

Eva leaned back in her chair and shut her eyes. She was supposed to be practicing heat manipulation.

None of Isaac Calvin’s directions actually made it to her conscious thoughts. The unending swirl and churn of her worries and imagination all mixed up into one gigantic nightmare. Naturally, such a nightmare occluded most everything unrelated.

Someone or something was trying to pull Void out of whatever plane of existence in which He resided.

Without knowing much about Void or how Powers operated, existed, or worked, most of Eva’s worries stemmed directly from her imagination.

In her imagination, Void was like a planet. Or perhaps an entire solar system. Maybe even a galaxy. A galaxy filled with tens of billions of demons.

It probably wasn’t a very good comparison. Planes of existence were so abstract in every way that a galaxy seemed too normal, too relatable. They were the realms of Powers, inhabited and created by them at the same time.

Despite having been to Hell itself, Eva couldn’t confess any knowledge about how it worked. There were islands and water. And that was it. Travel within Hell was done through the waters, so that must be some connecting factor that linked the place together.

When Eva stepped back from the islands and water to consider just how the layout of the place worked, her mind went blank. A sudden moment of absolutely zero thought going on within her brain. She would always snap back to reality with a surge of fear-fueled adrenaline.

Eva didn’t consider herself frightened of much, but nothing scared her beyond anything else. The idea of an absence of herself, her very being, sent shivers up her spine. It stretched the limits of comprehension and filled Eva’s very soul with an innate sense of wrongness. Void illimitable and so thorough that should her conscious thought vanish, so too might reality itself.

The longer she thought about such things at once, the greater the horror upon snapping back to conscious thought.

Shaking her head, Eva found herself with a layer of uncanny sweat formed on her skin. Again, she was falling prey to her own wandering mind.

That instant blank of her mind when she considered Void was so close to nothing that she couldn’t help but wonder if it wasn’t the reason for Void being named as such.

With regard to all that, thinking of Void as a galaxy solved so many problems.

A galaxy was relatable. Imaginable. Though she had never objectively seen a galaxy with her own eyes–Eva barely glanced up at stars in the night sky–she had seen a number of pictures and drawings. Most of those came from her time in regular public schooling prior to enrolling at Brakket Academy.

Considering the immense size of galaxies and the empty space between might boggle the mind. However, boggle was a far cry from the existential blank of her deeper thoughts regarding Void. She would much prefer a little boggling.

Regardless of how Void would end up manifesting within the mortal plane, Eva held no doubts that it would be anything short of apocalyptic.

Even assuming that Void could enter the mortal plane in a benign manner, the demons that would undoubtedly come along with Him would likely be hostile towards most of humanity.

Those that wouldn’t be hostile to all humans, herself, Ylva, Arachne, and any others, wouldn’t do humanity many favors. Any war between demons fought on Earth would likely destroy it.

And Eva hadn’t the slightest clue as to how she could stop either a war or Void entering the mortal plane. Zagan seemed at a loss. He was back to teaching his combat class, flippant as always.

Far from what she had expected of the Devil. She had expected him to run off and find out who or what was doing the actual Void-to-mortal-plane thing. Then again, maybe he wanted it to happen. Just because Eva couldn’t see any benefits to having Void and all the demons roaming around Earth did not mean that Zagan felt the same.

“Eva.”

Eva snapped her eyes open. Isaac Calvin stood at the front of the room, looking at her. Not a hostile look, nor a look of reprimand for having her eyes closed, nor even an apologetic look. Just a look.

At his side stood the ever-sultry Catherine. Unlike the good professor, Eva could feel the daggers that the succubus glared with.

Why? Who knew? Eva didn’t. Neither did she care. She hadn’t done a single thing to the succubus to warrant such a glare. Not that she could remember, at least. Eva narrowed her eyes at Catherine ever so slightly.

Taking her attention from the succubus, Eva glanced back to Isaac Calvin. “Yes? Professor?”

“Dean Turner wishes to see you in her office.” He gestured to his side, “Catherine will accompany you.”

Eva’s first reaction was to ask what the dean wanted to talk about. She quickly discarded that notion.

Anything Martina Turner had to say would likely not be something everyone in her class should hear.

Looking at the clock behind the professor’s shoulders, Eva decided to pack up her bag. There were only ten minutes left in class. Even if the dean only spoke for a few seconds, coming back to class would be a waste of time.

It wasn’t like she was participating in class anyway.

After shoveling her books into her bag, Eva stood and walked past the two empty chairs at her table.

Neither Shalise nor Juliana had been in class since November. Shalise, being still in Hell, would find it troublesome to show up. Juliana was still at her mother’s side in whatever hospital they had ended up at.

Eva wasn’t certain if the latter was going to or even wanted to return to Brakket.

On her way out, she did give a light wave to Jordan, Shelby, and Irene. Shelby returned the wave and Jordan gave a light smile. Irene, on the other hand, pressed her lips together before giving a curt nod.

Since returning to school, Eva hadn’t had much opportunity to speak with any of them. Most every moment of free time was spent back at the prison with Devon and Ylva. Lunches had been silent and awkward for the most part. No real room for discussion there.

Which wasn’t a good thing. Jordan and Shelby had been the ones to inform everyone about Zagan’s nefarious actions towards Shalise and Juliana. They had known to go talk to Ylva and had known who Zagan was.

That warranted, at the very least, asking how they knew such things.

As she walked behind Catherine, Eva made a note to corner Jordan sometime and ask him a few questions.

Politely, of course. They were friends, not enemies or anything.

Martina Turner’s office was just a quick jaunt down the hallway. During their walk, Catherine never once spoke a word. She didn’t turn around. She barely even sauntered.

If Eva had to guess, the succubus was depressed. And angry. More angry than depressed, in fact. As they walked, Eva’s mind drifted back to that glare. She still hadn’t puzzled out what it had meant, but perhaps Catherine was just angry enough at Eva to withhold her seductive wiles.

More of a punishment for the succubus than for Eva, if she was honest with herself. As expected of a member of the succubi race, Catherine had an almost objectively perfect body. Eva just found herself objectively uninterested.

Catherine paused at her desk. She leaned over–unseductively–and hit a button on her phone.

Half a moment later, Martina’s voice crackled through the speaker. “Yes?”

“Eva’s here.”

“Don’t just stand out there, bring her in!” There was a loud crash on the other end of the line just before the little red light blinked off.

Eva caught a ghost of a smile cross Catherine’s face as she moved over towards the door.

Martina sat behind her desk. Her elbows were resting on her desk while her fingers were steepled beneath her nose. On either side behind her were the two black-coated security personnel.

Lucy smiled and waved. She snapped back to attention after earning a glare from her compatriot. He–Eva couldn’t remember his name–rolled his eyes and faced forward.

Eva might feel comforted at the idea that Lucy found her presence enjoyable. Unfortunately, she had little doubt that the demon was at least partially unstable. She would kill Eva with that same smile on her face at the first request from Martina Turner.

Long ago, there was a time where Eva frequently found herself scared of Arachne. Probably owing to the circumstances surrounding their initial meeting. Even nowadays, Eva occasionally grew nervous in Arachne’s presence. Especially since returning from Hell.

How could Martina Turner, a perfectly normal human, stand having two demons standing at her back? One constantly made low gurgling noises while the other eyed everything in the room as if deciding in which order he would destroy everything.

Then there was Catherine. While less likely to outright murder everyone simply on account of her being a succubus, Eva knew that the secretary did not like her master.

But then, Martina might not be mentally stable either. Not entirely, at least. She did keep constant company with Zagan. If even half of Devon’s complaints about the devil were true, it was almost a miracle that Martina hadn’t already been killed.

Eva stood around as Catherine came into the room, closing the door behind her. For a good minute, no one said anything. Martina merely eyed her from behind her hands, the morail stared off at some ceiling tile, and Lucy bounced on her heels. Catherine pulled out a smartphone and started tapping away.

Remembering the dean’s earlier power plays with Ylva, Eva sighed. She could definitely understand why Catherine disliked the woman. Perhaps it would be possible to poach Catherine off of Martina. Eva would have to look up some information about familiar bonds, though it might all be a moot idea anyway. If Catherine didn’t like her better, there was no reason to alter the status quo.

Besides, she already had Arachne to worry about.

“Unless you’ve summoned me here to deliver reparations for Zagan’s actions towards Shalise and Juliana, I’m leaving.”

After another few seconds of silence, Eva turned on her heel and reached for the door.

“Eva,” Martina said. “You’ve heard why Zagan did what he did.”

Ignoring the woman, Eva tried the door.

Locked, of course.

Eva started building up magic for a teleportation to the prison as she turned to Martina.

“That doesn’t excuse his casual disregard for my friends.”

“And,” she continued, in a tone that suggested she was ignoring Eva’s statement, “Miss Rivas even thanked Zagan for his actions.”

Eva raised an eyebrow.

“You didn’t know that, but it’s true. I was present alongside Catherine and Governor Anderson. Even if you distrust Catherine and myself, Governor Anderson doesn’t particularly like Zagan or myself. Ask him to confirm it.”

“I will,” Eva said.

Governor Anderson had been wandering around since Eva’s return. He never once spoke to her, mostly choosing to spend his time moving from place to place with a sweeping coat. Eva would have assumed him to be a part of Martina’s demon security had Jordan not greeted him between classes one time.

“If there is nothing else you wanted?”

“Actually,” Martina said as she leaned back in her chair, “I have a certain initiative that I would like to start. Among students. Another club, if you will. Potentially a full-blown elective course for the fifth and sixth year students.”

“You’re really dancing around the subject.”

Martina pulled back her lips into a not-so-kind smile. “I would like to enlist Devon Foster and get his assistance and expertise in instructing a select group of students.”

Eva blinked. Her mind crawled through processing exactly what Martina had implied. Devon’s name wasn’t one she expected to hear. As a teacher no less.

That thought sent Eva into a short fit of giggles. She doubled over, hands clutching at her sides.

“Something the matter?”

“Just,” Eva took in a deep breath of air, “just picturing him in a room with a bunch of students.”

“And what is wrong with that?”

“You’ve clearly never met him.” Eva sighed. It had been a long time since she really laughed. The feeling was somewhat euphoric. “Devon in a room with twenty kids? Recipe for disaster. He hates kids. Including me, I’m pretty sure. And what would he be qualified to teach, summoning demons?” Eva let out a short chuckle.

“Exactly.”

Eva’s laughter died off. Martina wasn’t laughing. “You’re serious.”

“Entirely.”

Eva stared.

Martina Turner’s face betrayed no deception.

Finally, Eva shook her head. “I misspoke earlier. He doesn’t hate kids. He thinks they’re annoying and should leave him alone to his research. What he does hate, however, are demons. He loathes the entire population of Hell.”

“He’s a man so steeped in diablery, yet hates demons?”

“Demonologist. And he loathes them. Aside from Arachne, every demon he has ever summoned, to my knowledge, has been subjected to domination.” Catherine and the morail both flinched. Lucy was too busy off in la-la land to notice. “Not to mention,” Eva said, “he would never work in such close proximity to Zagan.

“And that isn’t even getting into the fact that you want a bunch of kids to summon demons. Are you insane? A couple loose will make Sawyer look like a peaceful hippy.”

“You heard Zagan,” Martina said. “Demons may be flooding to Earth in the future. It is important now more than ever to broaden people’s horizons. To interact with demons, to know demons, and, if necessary, to fight demons. Widespread knowledge of shackles alone could save millions.”

“Starting with a few kids is the way to go then?”

“Children are the future,” Martina said, smiling as she leaned back and clasped her hands across her stomach. “What better place to start could there possibly be?”

Eva shook her head with a laugh of disbelief. “Doesn’t matter either way. I can ask him, but I guarantee that he will vehemently decline.”

“In that case, you step up and help teach your fellow students.”

“What? I know hardly anything about–”

“You don’t need to. Catherine will be the primary instructor.”

The succubus grit her teeth together loud enough for Eva to hear.

Ah, Eva thought, she isn’t angry at me, she’s just angry.

“Being a demon, Catherine is quite knowledgeable about the subject. You need to provide a human element. Perspective from a human point of view. Things that a demon wouldn’t think to consider.”

“You want me to babysit Catherine while she teaches–”

The bell signaling the end of class interrupted Eva. She let the annoying chime complete its tones before speaking again.

“Kids are stupid. You know that right? One of these idiots is going to get themselves killed. Others too.”

“The initial test group will all be properly screened for any troublesome individuals. Aside from that, you are a child. You had to have started dipping your fingers in diablery quite some time ago. While I haven’t seen any of her work personally, Zagan informed me that Juliana’s summoning circle was passable and the relative strength of the demons we have attributed to her summoning was not low.”

“And look where that has gotten us!” Eva waved one chitinous hand through the air for emphasis. “I’m barely human anymore. I don’t particularly mind, but others? I can’t speak for them. And Juliana? It was Zagan’s fault in the first place! Her mother might be bedridden for life because of demons.”

“That’s a pessimistic outlook.”

“Now you want to bring other kids into this? How long before one of them gets trapped in Hell, sharing their body with a demon?”

Eva pressed her fingers to her forehead and slowly shook her head. “You know what? I don’t even care. Because of Shalise and Juliana’s recent experiences, I’m getting worked up over a bunch of people I probably haven’t even interacted with.

“So I’ll tell you what. I’ll do it.”

“Excellent. Catherine, start–”

“Not so fast, Martina Turner. You have something I want.”

The dean narrowed her eyes. “What would that be, Eva Spencer?”

Clenching her jaw, Eva folded her arms. “Zagan.”

Catherine whipped her head over and spoke for the first time since entering the room. Her face twisted into a look of disgust. “You want Zagan?”

Eva dismissed the succubus with a wave of her hand. “Not in whatever manner is floating through your mind. Order Zagan to get Shalise out of Hell. Order Zagan to fix Juliana’s mother. Do that and I’ll teach your stupid class.”

A silence settled over the office, broken only by a light gurgling from Lucy’s corner of the room.

The silence gave way to a deep chuckle from behind Eva.

Eva narrowed her eyes. She did not turn around. A circulatory system matching Zagan’s had appeared behind her immediately before the chuckle.

“So demanding, my little embryonic one. What has you all fired up?”

“Can you do it or not?” she demanded. He hadn’t even been here to hear, but Eva had no doubts that he had heard.

“Oh I can. With hardly any effort on my part as well.” A hand clapped down on Eva’s shoulder. “Can is a far cry from will.”

Eva steeled herself. She wasn’t about to let Devon’s rhetoric dictate a fear of Zagan. Like most demons in Eva’s experience, Zagan liked politeness. He hadn’t hurt her, directly at least.

Except that one time when they first met. He had pulled her arms off. But he fixed them right away, so did it still count?

“You see, you must ask yourself one question. Does what I offer meet the worth of what I am asking?” He let out a snort, filling the air with the rancid odor of sulfur. “I don’t know that a little teaching position is worth all that much. You know what I mean, yeah?”

“And what, Zagan, would be worth it?”

“That, little one,” he said in a mocking tone of voice, “is something you will have to find out for yourself. Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time to think it over while you keep dear Catherine out of trouble.”

Catherine let out a sharp scoff, but otherwise remained silent.

Eva ceased speaking as well. Her own teeth were grinding about as hard as Catherine’s had been. Zagan implying that she would accept irked her, but also gave some hope that he might actually help.

The real question was just what Zagan might consider valuable enough to help her friends.

“This is a disaster waiting to happen. I’ll sit in on the stupid class, but don’t come crying to me when the school is set aflame.”

“Excellent,” Zagan said as he clapped her on the back. “I knew we could count on you.”

Eva clenched her fists as Zagan moved up towards Martina’s desk. After a single calming breath, she relaxed. Much better than Catherine was doing, Eva noted out of the corner of her eye. The lesser succubus was actually shaking in rage.

“Zagan,” Eva said, “are you doing anything to stop Hell from being brought into the world?”

He paused his movements, glancing back over his shoulder, he said, “no. Not a thing.”

“You want it to happen.”

“I think,” he said slowly, “that it would be a bad thing–”

“Then why–”

A vice grip clamped down on Eva’s jaw. Zagan’s fingers clenched to the point where Eva could feel the strain in her bones.

“Don’t interrupt me, Eva. I do not appreciate it.”

He held on for another moment until Eva managed a slight nod of her head. When he pulled away, his fingers stuck to the thin layer of perspiration on her skin. It took a conscious force of effort to avoid rubbing her face. There would definitely be a mark there in the morning.

Unless, Eva considered, I can make the marks go away with blood magic. Redness and bruises were both caused by blood beneath the skin. It should be possible to clear it out.

But not at the moment. Eva remained silent as she waited for Zagan to continue speaking.

“It would be a bad thing. Void being in the mortal realm would open Him up to attacks. Make Him vulnerable. Potentially to the point of destruction. The why,” he said, narrowing his golden eyes, “is simply because it is something that has never happened before.

“If it comes down to a battle for survival, I will fight. And I will win. Because that is simply what I do. Anything else will be interesting to watch.”

Eva waited for a moment extra, just to ensure that he had finished speaking. “Because you’re bored?”

“A very good reason to do things,” Zagan snapped. “Finding ways to pass the time without boring myself to death is a much better reason to do something than most mortals have for committing atrocities.”

“If someone were to try to stop it,” Eva said, “would you stop them?”

“You? You mean?” He laughed. Both of the demons behind Martina hedged away from his rumbling bass tones. Martina herself managed to remain steady, though she did glance over at him with narrowed eyes. “Not even I know what is causing it nor how to stop it. Some massive ritual, I presume. Granted, I’m not actively looking. If someone were to try to stop it?” He shrugged. “It wouldn’t be any fun if I intervened too much. In the meantime, Catherine, fetch me a bucket of popcorn!”

The succubus jumped at being addressed. The surprise on her face quickly turned to a scowl. She opened her mouth for just a moment before snapping it shut. She turned and walked out of the room, apparently having decided that Zagan was serious.

Eva turned back to the rest of the room. She decided that she didn’t have much to say to them either. Martina Turner would pull her out of class at some point, presumably, for more details about the nonsense with diablery class.

With a quick thought, her built up magic discharged and swept Eva from the room.

A high-pitched scream filled Eva’s ears. No matter how much she tried to ignore it, it pierced her like a needle to the brain. Burning heat tore her flesh from her bones as she flew through a tunnel of viscera.

The agony induced by her method of teleportation was half as intense as it used to be. This time in the previous year, all flesh was seared off in the heat. Even her bones had turned black and charred.

Now, however, most of her bones were already black. A shiny sheen covered them in a manner similar to her carapace, rather than the charcoal-esque burning and cracking of her bones even a year ago. Even some of her muscles managed to weather the storm–especially those near Arachne’s limbs which were unaffected by the process entirely.

The heat didn’t touch her eyes either. Something Eva was extremely grateful for. She had had enough eye horror in the last few years to last a lifetime.

When her women’s ward gate spat her out, she still stumbled, gasping for breath. It wasn’t as bad, but the pain was still there. She had thought she might build up a tolerance for it, but every time she teleported, it felt exactly the same.

She needed more treatments.

Grasping at the water bottle she had started keeping inside the gate room, Eva uncapped it and took a long drink, moistening her sore throat. She tossed the empty plastic into a small trash bin without a second glance as she made her way into the common room.

Without pomp or circumstance, Eva flopped over on her couch. She needed to get to Devon and tell him about the dean’s plan. At this point, she wasn’t sure whether he would burst out laughing or start swearing up a storm at Martina’s idiocy. Probably some combination of the two.

Arachne could be told as well. But that could probably wait.

No, it could definitely wait.

Using as few muscles as possible, Eva stretched a hand under the couch and pulled out her current research project.

The Arte of Bloode Magicks

“Nothing.”

Eva nodded. It came easily. No big disappointment in Nel’s words. She hadn’t expected much from the ex-nun.

“That’s fine,” Eva said. “I’d appreciate it if you kept trying, but you don’t need to dedicate every moment of your time.”

“Of course I will!” Nel slammed her palms down on her marble altar. “I want that man dead as much as you. No! More than you.” She pulled up the sleeve of her robe.

The augur’s arm was looking much better than it had back when Eva first woke up. A good half of her arm still looked withered and dead. She hadn’t been able to replace a good portion of the eyes she had recovered. Either due to problems reattaching them, the eyes being rotted thanks to being improperly kept, or simply because they hadn’t recovered every eye.

Any time Nel showed it off–something she had been doing with a disturbing regularity–Eva got a sick feeling in her stomach. It brought back memories of her own time under Sawyer’s knife. Eva was beyond grateful that she only had two eyes to take.

“I want to be right there with you when the light in his eyes fades.” The woman spoke with righteous anger. Her hand, still pressed against the altar, trembled in obvious vexation. “He may have learned a lot from me, but he can’t hide forever. I’ll find him with or without your help.”

“It isn’t that,” Eva said, pointing at the withered husk that once was Sawyer’s fingers. “When I pulled every drop of usable blood from those things, I wasn’t just doing it for fun. I’ve started researching blood rituals.

“I know a few, of course. Mostly ones that I’ve used on myself in the past. Blood cleansing, the ritual that granted me the ability to heal small cuts, and one or two others. Unfortunately, I’ve never needed to locate myself using my own blood and the resources are not cheap. It might not work, whatever he did that is hiding himself from you might protect him from any ritual I find. We’ll have to wait and see.”

The resources were the real problem. One ritual she had found that might work to locate Sawyer required a bloodstone to be consumed.

She was currently the proud owner of four bloodstones. One made from the necromancer Weilks during her first year. It was not in the best of conditions. The only reason it was still functional was thanks to her only having used it twice. Once when she first made it and again, for a very limited amount of time, when Sawyer and the inquisitors had attacked.

Using it in the ritual would probably screw something up. It really should be destroyed just to prevent any accidents with it suddenly disintegrating.

The other three were all from the museum. It seemed so long ago now. Yet despite near constant use, the stone within the dagger’s hilt hadn’t decayed in the slightest. Considering its age, that was beyond impressive. She kept intending to research exactly why it had held up so well, but things kept getting in the way. Things like Sawyer.

Maybe it was made out of dragon hearts. Or some other extremely long-lived creature.

Unfortunately, she would likely end up consuming one of the gems embedded within the hilt. Unless she found a donor somewhere.

Things used to be much easier. There were plenty of scumbags lurking in the alleys of Florida. People that society really should be thanking her for getting rid of. Devon never looked down on her nor commented on where she got her bloodstones.

Eva had a feeling that Zoe and her friends might not act the same.

Which just made it all the more important to ensure that the ritual was completed to perfection the first time she tried it. Less wasted resources.

“But,” Eva said, “if you can find him first, I wouldn’t mind one bit.” It would save a bloodstone.

Her words seemed to mollify Nel. For the moment at least. The former nun nodded, letting her sleeve fall back over her arm. “I will. But first,” she said as she looked down at herself. Her nose wrinkled in disgust. “I need a break. And a bath.”

Eva happened to agree with that notion. At one point in time, she had thought that frankincense smelt good. A nice citrus scent mixed with wood.

Since handing over the remains of Sawyer’s hand to Nel, the woman had spent almost all of her time at the altar. She carried the unmistakable musk of frankincense on her clothes and her person wherever she went. The smell quickly became old. The few times Eva had been around Nel outside the altar chamber, she had practically had to hold her breath.

It was worse inside the room, but there wasn’t much Eva could do about that.

“Good idea,” Eva said, turning to leave.

Nel stopped her with a half-mumbled, “um.”

“Was there something else?”

“You haven’t seen Alicia around, have you?”

“Nope. Ylva was out on her throne with no Alicia around the last I saw. I came directly here from the entrance, so I don’t know if she is around.”

Nel’s shoulders slumped. “Oh,” was all she said.

“Miss her?” Eva asked with an eyebrow raised.

“The opposite, really. She always seems to know when I’m bathing. And she always shows up, ruining an otherwise peaceful moment of relaxation.”

“You don’t like her.”

“I–” She cut herself off, glaring at Eva. “I didn’t say that. I would just prefer if she weren’t…”

“Around?”

Nel glanced off to one side, rubbing her elbow with her good hand. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “She scares me. The way she looks at me, it’s like she wants to kill me sometimes.”

“Have you spoken with Ylva?”

Nel shook her head side to side, sending black hair scattering over her shoulders.

“Given that she owns you both, maybe you should bring it up with her? I don’t know what you expect me to do about it.”

Though it was true that Eva wasn’t fond of the other former nun all that much. Nel had annoyed Eva from the moment she showed up on her front porch. A combination of being part of the reasons Sister Cross had attacked her, spying on her, and expecting Eva to just help out from the goodness of her heart.

At least Eva could understand Nel’s motivations.

Alicia wasn’t so straightforward. It didn’t help that she had eyes for no one but Ylva. And apparently Nel, though it didn’t sound quite the same in that case. Ali had been the one to pull Eva out of her little nightmare and yet she had yet to speak more than ten words to the woman.

According to Zoe, Alicia had been tortured into serving Ylva. No matter how she was acting now, Eva couldn’t be sure that torture was an effective method of recruitment.

One of the first things she had done was to fix up the wards around the prison. Alicia was not invited to the women’s ward. True, the other nuns had managed to break her wards. But that had been a group of them and it had still taken several minutes. They had likely been dedicated ward breakers as well.

Eva was quite confident that she would be able to notice any foul play on Alicia’s part and have plenty of time to react should she try anything. Especially thanks to a few tricks she had learned on the subject of blood wards.

“It’s probably just my imagination,” Nel said with a sigh.

“Are you willing to take that chance?”

Nel bit her bottom lip. After gnawing for a moment, she said, “you think she would do something?”

Eva shrugged. “I’m not the one who has been getting death glares. Do you think she would hurt you?” Eva held up her hand before the ex-nun could respond. “I don’t care. But I bet Ylva does.” Go bother her, Eva tacked on in her mind.

Update on Sawyer received and wanting nothing more from the augur, Eva left. Nel stayed still behind her altar with a thoughtful expression on her face.

The cold January air smacked her in the face with a bundle of snow the moment she stepped outside Ylva’s domain. After taking a few deep breaths to flush the frankincense from her system, Eva ignited her hands.

Fire crept up her arms, right to the edge of where her carapace met skin. She held up her hands to her face. Heat washed over her, blocking the cold from reaching her exposed skin.

Snow, Eva had decided, was one of her mortal enemies. Not quite as high on her list as Sawyer, but still somewhere up there. Maybe it was because of her treatments, or maybe it was just having lived in Florida for most of her life. Whatever it was, the cold just did not agree with her.

Running barefoot–the cold of the snow didn’t bother her exoskeleton much–Eva made her way to Devon’s building. She sprinted straight to the top, feeling no fatigue in her legs. She pounded out three short knocks on the door.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Eva was almost confident that he was in. Devon never left if he could help it.

However, there would usually be a sign that he was in. The tell-tale sound of books snapping shut, drawers snapping shut, jars clanking closed, or some other manner of him hiding whatever he was doing.

This time, there was nothing but silence.

“Master?” Eva called out as she knocked again. “Are you home?”

Again, Eva waited. Again, nothing answered but silence.

Trying the handle, Eva blinked in surprise. It wasn’t even locked.

Something was definitely wrong. It didn’t matter if her master was in or out, he almost never forgot to lock the door.

She pushed the door inwards. With cautious steps, Eva moved inside, half expecting a trap.

No flames exploded in her face. No shackles had been set up around the door. There wasn’t even a trip-wire hooked up to a shelf of unpleasant potions.

Devon was missing as well.

His bed was made, his books were neatly set into the shelf, and his desk was clean of any work. The uncanny tidiness of it all served to draw Eva’s eye to the center of the room.

A half-drawn pattern covered the floor. It wasn’t like any summoning circle Eva had ever seen. In fact, it wasn’t even a circle. Part of it was missing, but it would have formed a triangle if it had been finished. The part that was missing looked more like a miniature explosion had gone off. Part of the stone ground was chipped and scattered about the room.

Eva knelt down right at the edge. Even damaged, she wasn’t interested in stepping in the center. In fact, because it was damaged, she should definitely keep out. There could be residual magic hiding in the inscriptions if the ritual had been activated. Who knew what kind of nasty effects that could cause.

Unfortunately, Eva didn’t recognize any of the scribbles on the whole side of the triangle. Some looked a lot closer to the designs within her treatment ritual circle than any other demonic magics. But, from what Eva knew, they were all wrong.

“Just what was he trying to do?” Eva mumbled to herself.

“None of your business.”

Eva jumped, whirling around to find Devon standing in the doorway. She had been so concentrated on the markings on the floor that she hadn’t even checked for any blood systems around her.

He stepped forward, trench coat billowing behind him. “You just barge into my room? I remember when you had some respect for me.”

“I was worried about you,” Eva said with a frown. That frown turned into a good-natured smile. “Besides, all that respect vanished out the window when I met some people who could actually fight with magic. Imagine my surprise when I find out that you’re not as good as you claim to be.” After a faux-sigh, Eva said, “I guess you’ll just have to content yourself with the fact that you’re the number one demonologist I know.”

“Such cheek,” he said with a sneer.

Eva just laughed.

“I suppose you being here does save me the effort of writing a letter. I got a job in Colorado.”

“A ‘job’ job?” Eva said as she stood up. “Or a real job?”

“There are rumors of a nihasa running around. Some kid probably summoned it and got killed, freeing it to roam.”

“A ‘job’ then. I’m not familiar with a nihasa.”

“Minor demon. Like if a succubus and an imp had a kid that took mostly from the imp side of the family.”

Eva frowned slightly. Imps were sort of disgusting little things. Almost like goblins, except worse. Barely sentient at that. And a succubus? Some people were into some pretty strange things.

After shaking her head, Eva asked, “need any help?”

“Not from you. I’m going to be giving out a few trial runs to some demons.”

Eva blinked. “Undominated?”

He just gave a grunt of acknowledgment, brushing around past her to his desk. He opened the bottom drawer and started rummaging through.

“Well,” Eva said, “if you’re going to be running around with undominated demons, maybe you would be interested in a real job.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” he asked without glancing up.

“Martina Turner wanted me to let you know that there was a job offer at Brakket for you. Teaching kids.”

“I’d rather throw myself down that giant hole in Ylva’s domain.”

Eva nodded, curling a strand of hair around her finger. “I thought as much. When are you going to be back?”

“In time for your February treatment.” He continued rummaging for a few seconds before freezing solid. His neck craned his head over his shoulder. “Don’t you dare send a haunter after me again.”

“It worked, didn’t it?”

Devon pulled a small black rectangle from the desk. A tiny book. He shook it in Eva’s direction. “Don’t send any damn demons after me. I can take care of myself. Now get out. I’ve got to collect a few things and then I’m gone.”

Eva shrugged and started towards the door.

“And Eva,” Devon called as she reached the threshold. “Don’t get yourself killed while I’m gone.”

“I could say the same about you.”

—

Eva stepped into the spare room in her women’s ward. Even with the door opened, the light failed to penetrate far enough to reach the opposite wall. There was nothing but shadows.

And eight red eyes glowing in the darkness.

“Hello Eva.”

“You know, I didn’t ever say that you had to lock yourself up in the dark like this.”

There was a slight pause as the eight red eyes tilted to one side. “I prefer it this way.”

“Fair enough.” Eva slid the door open as wide as it could possibly go. Just enough light entered to reveal a thin fold of cloth held in Arachne’s hands. “Another one?”

Arachne held it up to the light, letting the long tapestry unfold in its full glory.

A life-sized portrait of Eva stared back at the real girl.

It looked like her, but the pose and expression just didn’t fit with reality. Arachne fashioned her as some sort of empress. Really, it was like looking at Ylva with black hair and red eyes. Though it wasn’t quite finished. Arachne was working upwards. The top half of her head was missing entirely.

“Me again? Why not you?”

“Weaving is something I do to pass the time. I have more than enough of myself back in Hell. There is no shortage of time there.”

“How about us then? Both of us, together. Defeating foes or just sitting around resting.”

“Maybe.” With a swift movement of several legs poking out of her back, Arachne pulled the tapestry back up into her lap. “After I finish this one.”

At the rate Arachne worked, she could probably start a new one tonight.

As if to demonstrate said speed, Arachne set to work. One leg held the vertical tapestry base taut and another maneuvered in and out of the vertical threads while the rest started weaving threads horizontally. Her hands focused on knot making and finer details of the colorful portions of the thread.

Without glancing away from her work, Arachne said, “what brings you here? Surely not to comment on my work.”

“I…” Eva trailed off.

If she told Arachne about the job that the dean wanted her to do, Arachne would insist on coming to school again. For Eva’s protection, of course. She’d been around the spider-demon enough to know how she would react to something like that.

But Arachne had chosen this self-imposed exile on her own. Forcing the demon out by putting herself in danger, perceived or real, wouldn’t solve anything. Arachne had to come out on her own.

So, instead of telling her about the lessons, Eva sighed. “I don’t like this. Our current situation, that is. I enjoyed spending time together. Just relaxing in the dorm room with Juliana and Shalise. No necromancers to worry about, no Hell encroaching on the mortal realm.”

The movements of Arachne’s hands slowed to a standstill.

Though she didn’t know what she expected, Eva waited patiently for a response.

“How is school?”

Eva blinked. She couldn’t remember a single time where Arachne had asked such a mundane question. Shaking her head, Eva put on a solemn smile. “Subdued. For me at least. Everyone else carries on like nothing happened.”

“No troubles from Zagan?”

“He teaches his class without acknowledging me any more than any other student.”

“Good,” Arachne said, fingers moving again. After another awkward moment of silence, she started speaking. “I am fond of you, Eva. It gnaws at me that I am not with you. But after recent events, I think I need time to consider what you said regarding trust. Weaving allows me to occupy my hands as much as my mind. Perhaps after my next work, I’ll rejoin you.”

Eva pressed her lips together. That was better than staying inside a dark room forever.

“Alright. I’ll leave you to your weaving then.”

“Farewell, Eva.”

With one last look at the melancholic spider-demon, Eva stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her.

One last thing before she could turn in for the night.

Eva once again dug out her book, The Arte of Bloode Magicks, and carried it into her bedroom.

Setting it open to a page roughly half-way through, Eva put the book on a small stand.

The top of her dresser was where Eva stored all of the nicknacks she had acquired in recent months. Years, even.

The original beacon and necklace that Arachne had fashioned for her hung from a nail sticking out of the wall. Just under was the void metal skull created by Ylva from a lich’s phylactery. An embossed copper engraving was propped up to one side showing a smiling Eva with a spider-mode Arachne sitting atop her head. Her old crystal dagger sat to one side along with Weilks’ partially decomposed bloodstone.

There were a few other odds and ends, mostly the non-perishable Christmas presents she had been given over the course of two years by Jordan and company. The moon pendant he had given a year ago was draped over the copper plate.

Eva’s attention was focused on one specific Christmas present.

“You thought I forgot about you, didn’t you,” Eva said as she nudged the miniature form of a sleeping Basilisk.

Its wide mouth opened in a long yawn as it always did when disturbed from its sleep mode–almost sending Eva into a yawn of her own.

“Alright,” Eva held out her hand. “Hop on.”

The nuisance took one look at her hand before settling its head back onto its coils.

Eva bopped it on the snout.

Basila snapped at her fingers. Whatever mental limitations the Rivases had installed kept it from actually biting, but it wasn’t afraid to show its displeasure.

“Hand. Now.”

With no small amount of lethargy, it slithered over. All the while, it maintained eye contact, trying its hardest to turn Eva to stone.

“So impotent,” Eva said with a chuckle. “But we’ll fix that.”

She carried it over to a pre-cleared section of the floor and dropped it on the ground.

It promptly curled up, glaring at her as if to complain about being woken up in the first place. It was a sculpture, but maybe getting it some exercise every now and again would do it some good.

Shaking her head, Eva reached around her back. Her fingers curled around the smooth hilt of her void dagger. She glanced over the blade once, reaffirming that it was still as sharp as ever, before plunging it deep into the crook of her arm.

Just above where her flesh and carapace mixed.

Pitch-black blood exploded forth.

Eva drew it out, forming a circle around the basilisk. Following the directions in the open book, she drew out lines and diagrams within the circle. A squiggle here, a symbol of venom there.

It didn’t take long and it wasn’t backbreaking work in the slightest. Eva was almost certain that rituals had been phased out of use simply because of how undignified a mage must look hunched over scribbling out intricate patterns with a stick of chalk. Earth mages could alleviate the hard work if they were good enough, but controlling powder to such a fine degree wasn’t easy.

With blood, Eva could control the entire formation with her mind. It was fast, quick, and she could do it relaxed in a chair or standing with her back straight.

Circle finished, Eva withdrew a vial of Arachne’s blood.

She almost wished she had done this before visiting Arachne. Eva had never felt quite so awkward around the spider-demon as she had in the last few weeks. Just walking in and asking for blood was far more awkward than merely visiting for a chat.

Pushing the thought out of her mind, Eva used her magic to manipulate the demon’s blood into a hovering sphere just above the coiled snake. She added a few drops of her own blood to the sphere. It would dilute it, but she really needed a part of herself to ensure some control and loyalty.

She quickly scanned the book. Eva took a deep breath. She could see her own heart beating faster and faster. If something went wrong, who knew what might happen.

But nothing appeared amiss in her preparations, so she pressed forward.

Her magic channeled down into the ritual circle. Dark red light leaked out of the lines of blood. Eva kept up her channeling of magic. The book said they should glow white, so Eva would make sure they glowed white.

Of course, the book was written with human blood in mind. When the color turned a light brown and didn’t appear to change after that, Eva cut off her magic.

That didn’t make the glow disappear. Her magic was still trapped within the circle. It needed somewhere to go.

In retrospect, performing the ritual in one of the burnt out ruins would have been a much better plan. At least if it exploded, it wouldn’t destroy her home.

Eva extended a thin tendril of her and Arachne’s blood down onto the snake. The moment it touched, she could feel it working. More and more of the blood siphoned itself off of the blood ball and into the snake, fusing with its sculpted skin.

That was the most nerve-wracking part of the ritual. It was designed to work on an actual living creature. A cat, a dog, an owl… Whatever the mage had for a companion.

She hadn’t been sure it would work on the basilisk. It wasn’t real, after all. But everything proceeded as the book said it would. The tips of its dark green scales gained a deep black luster. Through its partially opened mouth, Eva spotted its white fangs turning as black as her carapace.

The book said the teeth would turn red, but again, it was written for someone using human blood.

Eva gave a sigh of relief as the last of Arachne’s blood disappeared into the snake’s skin. The ritual circle had lost its glow. After wiping away most of the circle with her hand, Eva picked up her basilisk.

It immediately curled around her fingers, winding between each before facing Eva and giving her a long hiss. Like the scales, the tip of its forked tongue had turned a deep black. Basila’s steely eyes remained as silver as before, though now it had black veins that started at its slit-pupils and spread out like jagged legs of a starfish.

In addition, Eva could actually sense blood within the thing. It wasn’t like any living creature she had ever heard of. The blood was in a thin tube that started at its nose and reached the tip of its tail.

Eva brought her finger close to its mouth.

Without hesitation, the basilisk lunged forward.

And was held back by the mental limitations of the sculpture.

Eva sighed. That had to go. Normally, she would just ask Genoa or Carlos. Unfortunately, she wasn’t certain that either wanted to see her at the moment.

“Maybe Zoe has some ideas,” Eva mused.

Basila just hissed again.

Behavioral problems could be corrected later. If this ritual worked properly, she should be able to keep it from attacking anything she didn’t want attacked.

“And maybe I can steal some growth potions from Wayne.”

After all, who wouldn’t want a giant battle basilisk.

“How exactly are these students being screened?”

Without so much as glancing up from tapping away at her cellphone, Catherine shrugged. “That’s up to your governor.”

“Anderson?”

“That’s the one.”

Eva leaned back in her chair, balancing it on two legs as she rested her feet on a neighboring seat. For a few moments, she just stared at the ceiling tiles.

They weren’t very interesting.

It had never stood out much to Eva, but Brakket was dull. Aside from the Infinite Courtyard, there was very little magic to be had in the school itself. The building itself wasn’t all that different from her old middle school building. Larger, sure, but otherwise as mundane as any other building.

There were other magical schools around America. Even more across the seas. Nobody, students or teachers, ever talked about them. Were they fancy ancient castles with moving staircases or were they just regular school buildings? Maybe they taught things in radically different manners. Or had completely different schools of magic.

Thanks to her magical history class, Eva knew that thaumaturgy was the most widely used form of magic. Part of that had to do with how neutral it was. Thaumaturgy didn’t require any reagents from humans; potions sometimes needed human parts, but not often. There were no morally questionable sacrifices needed to access the magic–Eva doubted blood magic would ever be taught at any regular academy for that reason alone.

Were there ‘underground’ academies that taught less reputable types of magic?

That might be worth looking into. Eva didn’t think she would arrange for a transfer; Brakket Academy was doing a perfectly adequate job of teaching what she wanted to know. Between Devon and her collection of books, including those she had stolen from the necromancers, Eva had plenty of material to go over on her own.

However, it might be interesting to visit a school that taught about demons.

Assuming such ‘underground’ schools existed, how was she supposed to find them? It was doubtful that they would be listed in some public directory. Actually, how did they get students in the first place? Kids probably had to know a person who went to one and get a recommendation from them. Or were children of people who went to one.

Of course, the idea that these rogue schools existed was purely hypothetical. These schools needed to exist in order to be visited.

Then again, she might be witnessing the birth of an ‘underground’ academy in Brakket. Demons were certainly not a reputable species. While Eva was of the opinion that they received a lot of unwarranted bad press, she would be the first to admit that demons tended to be a little out of touch with values that humans generally held in high regard.

Eva dropped her chair back to resting fully on the ground. The clock in the room so-helpfully reminded her that there were still ten minutes before their little class would start. She really should have brought along a book to read.

Catherine was still tapping away at her phone, doing her best to ignore Eva’s presence.

“So,” Eva said, engaging the succubus in conversation anyway, “I admit, I didn’t grow up in a proper magical household where I might have learned these things. What is Alexander Anderson a governor of? The school board? The state?”

“Don’t know,” she said without looking up. “I can’t say I know many demons interested in mortal politics.”

“Makes sense.”

Catherine’s phone chose that moment to emit a shrill noise. The succubus cut it off with another tap of her thumb. With a sigh, she dropped her phone into the back pocket of her all-too-tight jeans.

“He is backing Martina on all this teaching diablery nonsense,” Catherine said, eyes narrowing at the clock on the wall. “You know that they’re using you, right? ‘Acclimatizing’ demons or humans because of the impending Void situation was an excuse. This farce has been planned long before they knew about Void being pulled to this plane.”

Eva looked over the succubus with a frown. She hadn’t actually known that last bit. “Why do they want kids learning how to summon demons?”

“Maybe they think demons are poor misunderstood creatures not deserving of their fate in Hell.” As she spoke, Catherine rolled her eyes. “Ultimately, I, again, don’t know and don’t care. I have a nice job at the moment. No real fighting and lots of spare time to occupy myself with all the oddities of the mortal realm. I’d rather not question those above me too much and risk losing it all.”

“Then why warn me off by saying that they’re using me?”

“You quitting would annoy Martina. Annoying Martina is a far cry from digging my nose deep into their business and something that I try to do at every opportunity.”

Eva had the distinct impression that not many people, or demons for that matter, were all that fond of Martina Turner. Wayne and Zoe hated her for the simple reason that she brought Zagan into the school. Catherine hated her for whatever reason. Martina had managed to offend Ylva at their first meeting and, judging by that same meeting, Zagan wasn’t all that fond of her himself.

Really, it was amazing that she was even alive with how many powerful people disliked her.

“Most of all,” Catherine continued, “you quitting might delay this annoyance. It is going to eat up a great deal of my spare time as it is.

“Frankly, I don’t know what they expect us to do in the first place. I can’t summon demons without potentially being tossed into the Keeper’s hands and I’m betting you can’t either.”

Eva opened her mouth to protest, but her voice died in her throat. She tried to think back to the last demons she had summoned. It took some effort. First she thought it was Ivonis, the haunter she had used to retrieve Devon from wherever he had holed up. Then she remembered Ylva.

It felt strange. Like Ylva had always been around in some form or another. The truth was that Eva had summoned her back when she had a book in need of destruction. That was before she had even lost her eyes. A year and a couple of months at this point.

Devon had performed five treatments on her since then. Her blood had grown blacker. While she was in Hell, Ylva had refused to allow Eva back into her domain simply to prevent any accidental crossings into the mortal plane from Hell. Eva had to use her beacon to return to Earth.

My beacon, Eva realized, needs to be replaced. Zoe would probably accept one. And it would be a good idea to visit Shalise sometime soon.

But the point about the Keeper stood. For all Eva knew, she was too far over the line to summon a demon herself.

“So what are we teaching this class for?” Eva asked, aghast. She had far better things to do with her time than waste it all on sitting around twiddling her thumbs.

Catherine pressed her lush lips together in a sneer. “I believe our job was more supervision than actual teaching. That’s why we have books with all the diagrams needed.”

“That’s slightly more reasonable,” Eva said. “I can’t believe they’re making a student supervise this class. Couldn’t they spare one regular human?”

“I believe that was the point in asking for Devon Foster. Though after Zagan–” she said his name with undisguised venom “–foisted his responsibility off on me, he actually suggested you by name.”

“This was supposed to be his job then?”

Catherine’s eyes briefly lost their glamor, reverting to their natural red.

That answered Eva’s question adequately enough for her. “Still,” Eva said after a short pause, “I’m more of a haemomancer than any sort of diabolist.”

“Unfortunately, the only two summoners that I know of, aside from you and your mentor, are Martina and the governor. Both consider themselves far too busy for such a menial task.”

Eva shook her head. Again, she was having bad feelings about this whole thing. She had told Martina that it was a disaster waiting to happen. That was only enhanced by the realization that she couldn’t actually do much herself. Not to mention that the students would be drawing shackles. Shackles would definitely be dangerous for Catherine to accidentally step over and probably for Eva as well. She actually hadn’t tested in a long while.

“So we just stand around and wait for something to go wrong?”

“Between the two of us, we should be able to clean up any of the mortals’ accidents.”

Under her breath, Eva muttered, “now I’m reconsidering whether or not I should have told Arachne.”

The moment she finished speaking, the door to the classroom creaked open. Eva got her first look at one of the students she was expected to supervise.

And immediately groaned.

Eva didn’t recognize his face, but his circulatory system stood out to her. Currently walking through the door was that kid that tried to trip her at Zoe’s lecture after Eva lost her eyes. The kid that refused to fight her properly in Isaac Calvin’s fight club.

Something Burnside. For the life of her, Eva couldn’t remember his first name. Thinking harder, Eva wasn’t certain she had ever heard it. Zoe had always called him ‘Mr. Burnside’ and nothing else.

Mr. Burnside paused in the doorway as his eyes met Eva. There was a brief pause in both their actions.

Part of Eva wanted to send him away immediately. He didn’t respect her and she didn’t respect him back. Trusting him to listen to directions and to summon demons was going to make this project even more of a disaster than it already was.

On the other hand, if he stayed then he would start summoning demons. Eva might accidentally be slightly too slow to save him from being eaten by some nasty demon.

It probably wouldn’t come to that… probably. In the end, Eva decided to ignore him. Catherine could be in charge of that little nuisance.

Burnside came to his own decision. Averting his eyes from Eva, he went and took a seat in the farthest corner of the room.

A broad-shouldered man arrived next. He immediately moved up to the closest seat in the room, giving Eva and Catherine both an appraising look as he moved.

There was a large empty space between the first row of desks and the desk at which Catherine and Eva sat. Plenty of space for these budding diabolists to draw out whatever markings they needed to.

One red-headed girl, Eva noticed, was covered in scars not dissimilar to a more pronounced version Wayne’s own disfigurement from the fire in Zoe’s apartment. It took Eva a minute to realize who that was.

It was the girl who had been injured by the nuns’ white flames almost a full year ago. The one who Eva had been just slightly too slow to erect a shield around.

The scarred girl glanced around the room, eyes dipping down to Eva’s claws, but otherwise completely passing over her. She moved up and sat near a mousey, brown-haired girl who entered as she was looking. Both immediately entered into a hushed conversation.

A handful more students filed in over the course of the next few minutes. Eva barely paid attention to them. Most were older students that she had limited interactions with, if anything at all. As such, none of them particularly interested Eva.

At least not until a timid girl walked into the room, biting her lip.

Eva balked at the sight. No matter how she looked at it, this girl was far younger than any of the others in the room.

“Irene,” Eva said as she stood.

Her voice got Catherine’s attention. The succubus took her sneer off one of the students and turned to the doorway. Her sneer morphed into an almost-smile as she waved Irene over.

“What are you doing here?” Eva said to the approaching girl.

“Catherine said–”

“I invited her here.”

“What?” Eva glanced between a nodding Irene and a very smug Catherine. “Why?”

“All the others get their little pets, why not me?”

Irene blinked. “Pet?”

Ignoring that tangent, Eva asked, “do you even know why you’re here?”

The brown-haired girl shook her head side to side.

“No one has been informed. Not until they sign the contract.”

Eva looked out over the students. Only one person had shown up after Irene. Counting quickly, Eva found that their class had reached thirteen people, including Irene. That should have been everyone. “None of you know why you’re here?” Eva said, raising her voice slightly.

Everyone shook their heads in silence.

“No guesses?”

“We were told to keep quiet about this meeting on the penalty of expulsion,” the mousey girl said. Several of the other students nodded in agreement. “I recognize a few students who have parents of… less than scrupulous backgrounds. So,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone, “we are here for something less than scrupulous.”

Dropping her voice’s volume once again, Eva turned over to Catherine. “Governor Anderson screened these people based on their parents?”

That fit with how Eva suspected most students got into the ‘underground’ schools. Still, she expected at least one person to have an idea about what the class was for.

“And where is he, anyway? Shouldn’t he and Martina Turner show up for the first class at the very least.”

“I believe the phrase is ‘plausible deniability.'”

“So when–and that is a when and not an if–something goes wrong, they’re going to blame us.”

“Like I said, they’re using you. Us.”

Eva shook her head with a sigh. “Look, Irene, you probably want to leave. Being–”

“And how do you know what I want?”

“You’ve complained about me before. Something about how it is ‘always me’ and I believe the word ‘freak’ was thrown in at some point.” Irene winced, but Eva continued talking. “This is going to be one of those ‘freak’ things.”

Irene took a deep breath and straightened out her back. “Will running and hiding make those things disappear?”

Eva gave a curt shake of her head. “No.”

“Then why shield me from it.” She stuck a finger in Eva’s chest. “You’re not the only one with ‘freak’ things anyway. If this is one of those things, then I want to stay and learn.” Though her eyes were wavering, Irene’s voice came out firm. That firmness washed away as uncertainty surfaced in her expression. “This is a class, right? You’re going to keep us safe, right?”

“Fine,” Eva said, ignoring the last few questions while knocking the girl’s hand away. “Stay. Go take a seat with the others.”

“You know,” Catherine said as Irene walked towards the desks, “I’m not sure if I should take some offense at that conversation. Then again, I am something of a freak.”

Eva rolled her eyes, snatching a stack of papers off the front desk.

“Alright,” she said as she walked up to the students’ desks and started placing the sheets out, “we still cannot tell you what this is about. Not until you’ve signed your name on this paper.

“This is a fae contract. For those who don’t know what that means, consider this a binding magical contract where breaking it results in enslavement to the particular fairy that wrote them up. I suggest you read through it carefully.”

Catherine groaned. “If you’re too lazy for that, it boils down this: You are not allowed to discuss anything that occurs within this classroom with anyone not currently in the classroom. Not unless you want to be a fairy slave for eternity.”

“The contract lasts until you turn eighteen, so it isn’t forever, but if you can’t handle that or think you might accidentally slip to one of your friends or parents, get out now.”

Two students immediately got to their feet.

Before they could start moving towards the door, Eva said, “be aware that just because you didn’t sign this contract does not mean that you won’t be expelled if you talk about this meeting.”

The two nodded and left the classroom without a word.

A silence descended on the assembled students as they read through the papers, much to Catherine’s chagrin. Two more students decided to drop out early after reading the contracts.

The nine students remaining all penned their name on the papers. As soon as they lifted their pens from the paper, the papers vanished with a puff of smoke. The first student let out an alarmed cry, drawing a few chuckles from the rest of the students once they realized what had happened.

Once the final paper vanished, Eva maneuvered around the desks towards the door. With a flick of her long fingers, the deadbolt slid into place. A quick channeling of her magic activated a secondary lock and some basic privacy functions.

For their little lessons, they had commandeered one of the less-used staff rooms. The door had no windows and the actual windows had heavy blinds that blocked all light.

Eva had even taken the time to set up a few of her anti-scrying runes around the room. Though Martina had provided a separate thaumaturgy-based ward system to keep any would-be eavesdroppers from eavesdropping, Eva wasn’t about to take chances.

“Alright,” Eva said as she arrived back at the front of the room. “You want to tell them or show them?”

“Show, of course,” Catherine said with a wistful sigh. She gripped the front of her barely-there shirt and tore it clean off, eliciting the expected response from the gathered students. After removing her cellphone and setting it carefully on the desk, Catherine then tore off her pants in much the same manner.

The students’ frankly deplorable behavior turned to gasps of shock as Catherine’s skin shimmered. Her skin turned pale violet and her eyes glowed in demonic red. Two leathery wings sprouted from her back along with a single spaded tail.

Running a hand from her chest to her hip, Catherine sighed in absolute contentment. Her wings stretched out, giving her a good eight foot wingspan.

“You know,” Eva said, “you could have just taken off your clothes like a normal person.”

“I have no idea how the entirety of the human race has stayed sane while wearing those portable prisons.”

“Yeah, but now I’m going to have to get you a change of clothes after class. Unless you’re planning on living out the rest of your days in this room?”

Catherine glanced down at the scraps of cloth littering the floor. She met Eva’s eyes and gave an unapologetic shrug.

Eva sighed. “Anyway,” she said to the utterly silent classroom, “Catherine, as you may have guessed, is a demon. A lesser succubus to be specific. Not as powerful or strong as regular succubi, but decidedly more human-looking and able to completely disguise herself as a human.

“Incidentally,” Eva pointed at her eyes. “My eyes were stolen from a carnivean. My hands and legs,” she lifted her skirt slightly, “were gifted to me by my dear friend Arachne.”

“Any questions?” Catherine said, sounding fully committed to playing up her seductive succubus voice. Then again, maybe that was just how she sounded while back in her normal body.

The broad-shouldered man who Eva had noted earlier raised his hand as high as it could go. Without even waiting to be called upon, he blurted out, “can we–”

“Before you ask questions,” Eva interrupted as fast as she could, “this is not sex education.” In the corner of her eye, Catherine’s lusty look twisted into one of disgust. “We are here to discuss demons and, eventually, instruct you on summoning. With that in mind, are there any questions pertaining to us or demons in general?”

Broad-shoulders slowly put his arm down.

Mousey-girl once again set herself apart by speaking up. “Your eyes and limbs come from demons? How does that work?”

“Demons typically have incredible regeneration abilities. A demon arm could regenerate fully in a week or two. Even when severed, that regeneration ability still persists, though a severed arm won’t try to grow back into a full demon.”

“Mostly,” Catherine butted in. “There are a few species that can multiply that way.”

“Mostly,” Eva repeated. “But if you place that arm next to something, say the stub of your arm…” Eva motioned to the swirls of carapace connecting her hand to her skin. “It will try its hardest to regenerate and fulfill its function. In this case the function of being a hand.”

A student with gray hair raised his arm. After Eva nodded in his direction, he said in an incredulous tone, “you chopped off your arms, legs, and eyes to get demon parts?”

Eva narrowed her red eyes in that kid’s direction. He looked far too young to have the hair of an old man. “The necromancer who has been plaguing this city since two Halloweens ago kindly removed my fingers and toes, and gouged out my eyes.” She clicked her fingers against the desk. “My hands were something of an emergency treatment while my legs and eyes were far more voluntary.”

Again, broad-shoulder kid raised his arm in the air and spoke without waiting for acknowledgment. “So you can just chop off any body part and slap on a demon one instead?” he asked with a wry grin.

Eva suppressed a roll of her eyes. “I personally wouldn’t try chopping my head off, but essentially, yes. Internal organs would work as well so long as you could survive without them for about ten minutes to a half hour. But,” Eva forestalled any further questions on the topic with a raised hand, “that is getting far ahead of ourselves.

“Any questions not related to body part exchanges?”

One student with a multitude of lip and face piercings raised their hand. “You’re going to teach us to summon demons?”

“That is the current plan–”

“Heh, wicked.”

“But,” Eva said with a slight glance towards Catherine.

“Shackles,” the succubus said, picking up on the hint admirably in Eva’s opinion. “Demons can be bound to select locations within the mortal realm. By drawing out specific patterns on the ground, you can contain most demons and their powers. These are vitally important as most demons will attempt to kill their summoner before anything else.”

“Why?” someone asked.

Eva pulled a stack of thick books out from under the teacher’s desk as Catherine answered.

“Freedom. Kill the summoner and any witnesses and the demon will be able to do as they please without any nasty contracts or restrictions. In the event that a demon does end up serving a mortal, they like to know that they’re not serving a weakling.”

“As you all read your contracts, you should already know this. It still bears repeating just so there are no accidents. These books,” Eva said as she started handing them out, “are not to leave this room. It is considered a violation of your contract and the penalty will be paid.”

The books were far thicker than any one that she owned. Probably thicker than most Devon owned. From her cursory glance through them when she first arrived in the classroom, Eva was surprised to find them set up like any regular textbook. She fully intended to borrow one and read through it.

It wasn’t like she had signed any contracts.

“If you’ll all turn to chapter one, we’ll start discussing shackles in-depth.”

Far more in-depth than any lessons Devon had given, that was for sure. While she could read far faster on her own, at least something good would come of wasting her time with this disaster.

Catherine pulled out a thick piece of chalk and swiped it around the board, leaving an almost perfect circle in its wake. “Like most drawn magic, shackles all begin with a circle…”

And thus, the lesson was underway.

Eva threw herself to the ground. A near invisible blade of wind skimmed over the tips of her hair.

That’s fine, Eva lied to herself as the ends of her hair drifted to the ground around her, my hair was getting too long anyway.

A second gust of wind curled between the ground and her body. Eva’s eyes grew wide as she felt the air draw in on itself. She felt a moment of panic before being launched up into the air.

The world spun. Sky turned to trees which turned to ground before snapping back to the sky. Bile churned in her stomach as she flipped end over end. A small, very unterrorized sounding scream escaped from Eva’s lips as she reached the peak of her flight.

Eva pushed herself as hard as she could, clamping down on her fear and focusing her concentration on the thing she had been trying to do since the start of the fight. She pushed her mind and her magic, trying to gain a slight advantage in the speed her perception.

For a brief moment, Eva felt something. A sudden moment of clarity made it through the blur of motion.

On the ground below her, Zoe Baxter stretched her arm out. The tip of her dagger glowed with crackling electricity.

In that continuing moment of clarity, Eva switched tactics. Her current strategy of uncontrollably flinging through the air was just not working out for her. Being wildly opposed to lightning bolts coming anywhere near her, Eva stepped.

All of her concentration switched to the act of stepping. Her body warped through space, moving from several feet in the air straight to the ground. She aimed for a cluster of trees that would hopefully obscure her from Zoe long enough to get back on the offensive.

To Eva’s surprise, she managed to land on her feet.

Phantom momentum sent her stumbling backwards. Eva landed flat on her butt with a thorned bush prickling at her back.

Eva stepped to her feet again, this time managing to stay standing.

Before anything else, Eva stepped directly to another crop of trees. Zoe would have heard her stumbling around. Her enhanced hearing wasn’t something to be dismissed easily.

To further combat the professor’s enhanced senses, Eva did something she hadn’t done in a long time. With a burst of pure chaos magic, Eva flooded her surroundings in darkness. Zoe still had her ears and nose, but sight made up such a drastic portion of human senses that it would definitely be worth it.

Even more so for Eva. A little darkness wasn’t about to get in the way of her sense of blood.

Unfortunately, it did interfere with her teleportation. Eva did not have enough blood to coat every surface of the forest. Even if she split the blood into fine particles and scattered it around, it would be too easy to miss a thin tree. She did not want to wind up with her leg destroyed by stepping into a tree.

As expected, Zoe compressed air around the area Eva had initially stepped to. She released it in an uncontrolled explosion of bark and wood just as the inky black darkness enveloped the area.

Eva’s first instinct was to unsheathe her dagger, jam it into her arm, form up a wire ball of blood, and launch a car-sized fist made of blood at her professor.

But Eva had something new to try.

She was supposed to have been searching through her books for a way to strike at Sawyer from afar. It didn’t quite hit her just how much she missed learning blood magic until she had started reading.

After starting at Brakket, Eva had weaned off the blood books in favor of proper thaumaturgy. Then she had lost her eyes and had to get Arachne to read to her. Because of the demon despising that particular activity, Eva barely managed to keep up in her classes.

Once she recovered her sight, Eva started off on the necromancy books she had stolen from Sawyer. What a bore. One would think that dead bodies, skeletons, blood and gore, and all that would be exciting. Even aside from the loathsome aspects of murdering everyone, the magic involved was simply uninspiring. All of it revolved around life, and how to instill that life into just about everything.

Not quite what she had been expecting. It made a certain sort of sense. However, Eva felt it would be far more practical to just acquire the help of regular living people rather than mess around with brain-dead zombies.

Blood magic, on the other hand, was something that just spoke to Eva. Every little tangent wound up all the more interesting simply due to how long it had been since she last read a blood magic book. Everything she came across had been just too tempting to skim or skip over.

As such, Eva had a number of things to practice.

Eva pulled out a large metal flask. Unlike most blood Eva used, it wasn’t her blood or Arachne’s blood. It was filled to the brim with the blood of an animal.

Normally, an animal’s blood would be useless. Even more so than her own semi-demonic blood. Animals simply lacked the worth that humans, demons, elves, and other magical creatures possessed.

This particular spell required animal blood from a large work animal. Cows, oxen, and donkeys would all work. Probably camels too, but they weren’t exactly on hand. Eva had selected a horse from a nearby farm. She hadn’t taken enough to kill the thing–it didn’t need to suffer for her experiments–but it might be lethargic for the next day or few.

As if animal blood wasn’t enough, it needed some of her own blood mixed in. Mixing blood tended towards diluting effects or otherwise making the blood worthless.

And yet here she was, making a cut on her wrist and adding to the pool.

Shaping the blood in the air, Eva formed a humanoid shape that wouldn’t look out of place as an ancient cave-drawing. Convinced that her amazing work of art wasn’t getting any better, she started channeling magic into the blob.

As she channeled, the flask-worth of blood started multiplying. It churned in on itself, exploding outwards with twice the amount of blood before collapsing in on itself again to start the process over. Eventually it reached her size.

And then Eva started feeling a little queasy.

Eva considered herself as far from squeamish as one could get. She blamed the turning of her stomach on the massive amounts of magic she was pouring into the human-sized column of blood.

Vague shapes formed on the surface of the blood. It started out as depressions in the blob. Before long, it morphed into more recognizable human features. A mirror image of Eva formed along the surface of the blood. Eva couldn’t see the colors due to the darkness, but she had no doubt it would look proper. If her blood sight only extended a centimeter beneath the skin, she wouldn’t be able to tell her clone apart from herself.

Eva gave her clone-self a poke. She could see that it was made up of nothing but blood. No bones or musculature at all. Despite that, it felt relatively solid. She wasn’t even holding it together with her magic anymore. It was entirely on its own.

Poking it did give Eva a slight turn of the stomach.

The real queasiness didn’t come from looking at her blood-mirror. She could feel what it felt. After about sixty seconds of construction, Eva realized she was seeing double. Double of nothing, again because of the darkness, but the odd sensation was still there. It would take some getting used to.

There was a problem with the darkness. Though she could see through her clone’s eyes and she could sense blood, her clone didn’t operate on her mind. It gave a one-way flow of information. She couldn’t tell it where to go or what to attack without real words.

A full minute of construction time left much to be desired as well. Against any opponent like herself, Eva wouldn’t be able to use anything similar to this technique. It simply took too long. As it was, she felt relatively safe from Zoe. The professor was still tossing razor wind aimlessly.

Canceling the darkness spell, Eva almost threw up as she looked on herself. It was like looking into two mirrors with both facing one another. An endless recursion of herself.

It would definitely take some getting used to.

She pinched her eyes shut and leaned in to whisper to her other self. “Attack Zoe,” she said, pointing for good measure.

A razor wind immediately slammed into the tree they were hidden behind. The clone didn’t notice or care. It had received its orders and moved to carry them out.

Eva stayed behind the tree with her eyes shut.

Through her clone’s eyes, she watched Zoe’s eyes widen as fake-Eva charged. They widened even more as a wind blade passed harmlessly through fake-Eva’s midsection. The blood parted to allow the wind to pass before reforming seamlessly.

The clone threw an open-clawed punch at Zoe. The blood mimicked carapace in every way that mattered.

For a moment, Eva felt a jolt of fear. She hadn’t directed her clone to do anything but attack. No qualifiers like ‘non lethal’ or ‘spar’ to dampen any blows.

It swung with all of its might, putting every ounce of strength it had behind the sharp tips of its claw.

Eva’s real body winced as Zoe lifted an arm to block the strike. Her empathetic pain turned to confusion. Zoe hadn’t raised any thaumaturgic shield, yet the claws stopped before touching her arm with space to spare.

Before Eva could begin to consider what had happened, an explosion of air knocked the clone’s arm clean off. It was just blood molded together by magic, after all. The loosed liquid splattered against the ground.

Feedback from the clone jolted Eva’s own arm. Or her phantom mental image of her clone’s sensation. It hurt no worse than the tingling from a limb that had fallen asleep. Something, Eva suddenly realized, that she hadn’t felt in her legs or hands since the transplant.

Zoe faltered. Her expression turned to one of shock as she stared at the missing limb.

The clone was under no such distress. It lashed out with its still intact arm even as the blood within its body bubbled out into a new arm.

Zoe’s distraction almost cost her a rather unflattering scar across her face. As it was, she had to stumble backwards to avoid the claws. Not enough to fall down, but enough to send her off-balance.

And then she noticed the new limb on the clone. Zoe tried to say something, but was immediately cut off by the clone not caring to hear her words in the slightest.

The clone pressed its advantage, moving in harder and faster.

For a few minutes, Eva watched Zoe, surprised at how much of a back foot the professor had found herself on. The clone was nothing if not relentless.

As she watched, Eva opened her own eyes. She sat behind a tree, just focusing on taking in the two differing inputs. It was disorienting and nauseating, but got better as time passed. Definitely not something she should be testing in a combat situation.

And then, while watching her clone’s no-holds-barred beat down of Zoe, Eva had another idea. Another idea that shouldn’t be tested in a combat situation.

Too bad, Eva thought at absolutely nothing, I’m doing it anyway.

Zoe lifted her dagger. Lightning crackled on the end. She pointed the sharp tip of the dagger directly at the clone’s chest.

The clone knocked her arm to one side, sending the charged lightning off into the sky.

Eva used that moment of thunder to enact her plan.

She stepped.

Not to anywhere she could see. Rather, Eva tried to step in her clone’s field of view, directly behind Zoe.

The world moved. Eva’s view through her clone remained relatively steady but her own vision twisted and spun. Dirt and twigs smacked into her face as she flopped over on the ground.

For a moment, Eva just lay there.

Her clone was still fighting Zoe and the professor was far too concerned with fighting back the onslaught to look behind her.

Zoe had started pushing back. Her initial timid attacks had given way to far more vicious strikes. The clone was slowly shrinking as it lost more and more blood. Reddish-black blood had splayed absolutely everywhere; a good portion of the blood was coating Zoe herself and had soaked into her exercise clothes.

Like the giant blood hands Eva could produce, none of the created blood was actually useful. A huge element of blood magic was the shedding of blood. Stolen or otherwise unwillingly taken blood had different properties compared to willingly given blood and both were different from unknowingly given blood. Blood stolen from a third party or taken while the donor was unconscious would both count as unknowingly given.

For a good number of spells, such a thing didn’t matter all that much. It was mostly the more ritualized aspects that required keeping it in mind. Taken blood worked best for damaging effects while given blood strengthened positive rituals.

Magically created blood was neither given nor taken. It wasn’t even shed. It never flowed in the veins of any living creature. As such, it was worthless for haemomancy. Even more so than the blood of an animal.

Still, Eva had been hoping that the clone’s lost blood would rejoin with the whole–it was made out of the stuff–but that didn’t appear to be the case. Her clone was a full head shorter than it should have been.

And it was only shrinking more. Zoe stepped forward, burying her dagger in the clone’s chest. A lightning bolt exploded out its back. Blood splattered around the woods and an acrid scent filled the air.

Through her clone’s eyes, Eva saw herself lying face down on the ground. There was a small twig sticking through her foot, but that wasn’t such a big deal. Her teleport had been successful, if painful.

Eva’s nose wrinkled as she pushed herself up, clamping down on a groan that wanted to escape from the effort. Lying unmoving felt nicer, but she had to end this before she threw up.

Clambering to her feet made enough noise to finally alert Zoe to Eva’s presence a few feet behind the woman.

A breeze brushed a few hairs back behind Eva’s head. That breeze picked up into a gale.

Eva’s feet left the ground. Both of her perspectives flew apart from one another and away from Zoe. One vanished as the clone splattered against a tree.

Lacking the luck of being made out of blood, Eva’s back slammed into a tree. Harsh bark cut into her back–straight through her brand new tee-shirt–and left small wounds. She slid down the tree, further scraping her back, until her feet caught the ground.

Zoe was sprinting towards her. Eva tried lifting an arm to toss out a wreath of flames. Suddenly missing the senses of a second person was just as disorienting as suddenly gaining them. Unable to think clearly, her flamethrower ended up more of a flame-spittle, drooling on the ground in front of her.

A gust of wind knocked her hand to the side before she could try again.

She felt a sharp tap on the top of her head.

“Dead.”

Eva reached up and rubbed the top of her head.

“I was confused at first,” Zoe said, breathing in deep pants. She reached her arm up and wiped off a slew of sweat onto her sleeve. “You charged out at me. Naturally, I didn’t want to kill you. ‘You’ didn’t seem to have the same reservations.”

Eva shook her head, fuming at herself for failing again at defeating Zoe. Sure, it might have been a bad idea to have tested something new in the middle of battle, but it wasn’t like things were going swimmingly before that point.

“Then your arm came off and everything. It was quite the shock, I almost stopped then and there.”

“Good thing you didn’t,” Eva said with a sigh, “it wasn’t told to stop fighting.”

“What was it?”

“A new spell I found. It’s going to take a lot of getting used to before I try again in a fight. There’s a one-way sensory feedback from it to me, so I saw double of everything. Extremely disorienting.”

Zoe tapped her chin. “Sounds useful if you can overcome that issue.”

“Maybe I’ll practice by sending it to history class.”

“I think that someone bumping into it too hard might raise a few uncomfortable questions. Can you make one of someone else?”

“Not sure. The book didn’t mention anything about that, but I’d need a sample of someone else’s blood at the very least. I’m not sure if they’d get the feedback effect or if I would… or if it would even work at all because they weren’t the ones to cast the spell.”

A musing hum from Zoe filled a few minutes of silence.

“You never said why the sudden interest in sparring,” Eva said. “Not that I don’t appreciate the opportunity to test out my new stuff…”

“Frankly, you’re too much trouble.”

Eva immediately tried to protest. Zoe held up a hand.

“Since you came to Brakket, there’s been zombies, nuns, and demons–so many demons–all running about causing problems.”

Eva pressed her lips together in a frown. “I’ll have you know, very few of those are my fault. Especially the necromancer and the nuns.”

“Be that as it may, the relaxing life of a teacher just isn’t what it used to be. And then there is the thing.” She shook her head from side to side. “I can’t afford to sit around unpracticed while the world turns to chaos around us.”

“So why not Wayne?”

“Oh, we have been sparring. You think this is my first day? He just had a meeting to attend with a parent. I thought you might be interested. And it made for a nice change of pace.”

That made sense. She seemed a lot better than she had during her summer lectures. Until just now, Eva had assumed she had been simply holding back for the students’ sake.

Which just made all those losses all the worse. If Eva couldn’t even beat ‘relaxing teacher life’ Zoe, how was she supposed to compete against a gung-ho version of the woman.

Maybe it was time to go for some hardcore combat lessons herself.

“That reminds me,” Eva said, “I have a little project that I’m working on that I could use some help with. Nothing vital or urgent, just something I’d like to talk to you about in the near future.”

“I have time tonight,” Zoe said. “All my papers are graded and lessons are planned. For the most part. I still have a good amount of work to catch up on from when Catherine took over my post. Taking a break from that for today, however.” She leaned into her shoulder, removing more sweat. Pulling away with a face, she said, “I could use a shower first. We’ve been out here far longer than I wanted.”

“Ugh,” Eva muttered to herself as she peeled away from the tree, healing the small cuts on her back as she moved. She tugged at her shirt. There were more holes than back on it. “I think this shirt has outlived its usefulness. How about in an hour at the women’s ward?”

“You need a ride out?”

Eva shuddered. “No thank you.”

With a shrug of her shoulders, Zoe vanished. A chilling blast of wind, colder even than the ambient February air, gave Eva the shivers.

Building up magic for her own teleport, Eva activated it, fully expecting and preparing for the unpleasant trip through Hell.

She was not prepared for the head-on collision with a brick wall.

Eva collapsed straight to her knees, clutching at her brain. It wasn’t a literal brick wall, but a metaphysical one. Wards.

A female figure appeared in her blood sight, standing just in front of her.

“No one ever thinks to ward against banishment. Who would want to keep demons from being sent back to Hell?” There was a sharp laugh from the woman. “You should have left with the other.”

Eva didn’t have the energy to snip out a witty response. She recognized the blood veins and the object inserted into the woman’s chest. Putting on her most confident expression, Eva glanced up.

“Hello, Sister Cross.”

“You’re looking… well,” Eva said.

Sister Cross looked anything but. The last time Eva saw the nun, she was in casual clothes. But the time before that, she had been fighting Zagan. During that fight, she had got somewhat beat up. Torn clothes, broken arm, cuts and scrapes.

Whatever had happened to her was apparently worse than fighting a legitimate devil.

As she was now, Sister Cross looked worse than that fight. Her face had bruises aplenty and her clothes were little more than burlap rags. Worse, several of her injuries looked fresh. Her left arm had a definite fracture in it, but she didn’t appear to notice. One particularly gruesome boil on her cheek had a slather of pus running from it.

Even if she had escaped from some horrific battle, she should have taken care of herself before seeking out more trouble. At the very least, did she have no clothes to change into? She could have stolen some. Charity shops would probably have given her a set of clothes for free just for showing up looking like she did.

Eva’s head snapped back, interrupting her observation, as a fist connected with her right eye.

The hand moved back behind Eva’s head. Gripping a fistful of hair, Sister Cross yanked Eva’s head up to look at each other face-to-face.

“Where is she?”

Pinching her eyes shut, Eva bit down on the pain. “Now, now, no need to get violent–”

The hand holding her hair pulled down, ramming Eva’s forehead against a kneecap. Her vision split in two as Sister Cross pulled her head back up.

“I told you before. One chance. And you blew it.” Sister Cross spoke with her teeth grit together. A vein on her forehead bulged slightly. “Tell me where she is and I’ll kill you fast enough that you won’t feel a thing.”

Eva took a deep breath before responding, buying herself a few extra moments to focus past the hammering in her head. “Don’t you mean or?”

The grip on Eva’s hair tightened and started pulling her back towards Sister Cross’ knee.

This time, Eva was ready.

Eva stepped straight past Sister Cross, reappearing at the nun’s back. Without a moment’s hesitation, Eva clasped her fists together and threw all of her weight into knocking some sense upside Cross’ head.

Sister Cross’ rolled with the blow, tumbling to one side before facing towards Eva.

White light burned out of the nun’s eyes.

Eva stepped again, avoiding the path of a blindingly white bolt of lightning by a split second.

Electricity crackled up and down Sister Cross’ skin. Arcs peeled off of her hands, lancing into the ground around her in jagged patterns.

“Get back here!” Cross shouted as she swung an arm towards Eva. Four prongs of lightning trailed after her hand, moving more like a multiple-tailed whip than any sort of bolt.

Given how much it had hurt to be struck by a single and likely low-powered bolt, Eva wanted to keep her distance from the lashes.

But what to do? Eva could step around all day, especially because Cross was clearly injured and not thinking straight. Running away wouldn’t be an issue either. She could step straight back to the school, or even just far enough to get out from under whatever wards Sister Cross had erected.

But that left an angry nun running around. More than angry. One that wanted to kill her.

Having used up most of her stores of blood in the spar with Zoe, Eva was doubting her ability to effectively fight back. Her fireballs wouldn’t do much good. Not when Wayne had troubles with this same nun while the nun wasn’t fighting at full strength. Her claws wouldn’t be much use either. The shields employed by the Elysium Order were almost as strong as shields formed out of demonic blood.

Her hands had connected with Sister Cross’ head just a moment ago, but that had been before her eyes were lit with the white fire.

Had she memorized the pattern for a transference circle, it might have been possible to lure Sister Cross over the top of one and drop her into Eva’s domain. She would probably calm down, at least a little, with Shalise in front of her. And if not, she would at least be contained.

But she hadn’t memorized it.

That left only one good option.

Negotiation.

“Sister Cross,” Eva shouted, twisting around a spew of white flames, “calm down!”

The nun snarled. Using both hands, she brought two sets of electricity whips around to where Eva had been standing only seconds before.

“You need help and–”

Sister Cross whirled rapidly, orienting every bit of electricity and flames that she had in Eva’s direction.

A good portion of the forest was actually on fire now, limiting the available safe places to teleport to. And not nice red flames, but the Order’s white magic. Eva wasn’t able to manipulate the flames with thaumaturgy.

Eva spun on her heel, spotting and stepping to a far fresher section of the forest.

Cupping her hands, she called back towards Sister Cross as loud as she could. “And Shalise is safe!”

Either the nun failed to hear or she didn’t care. Sister Cross charged full speed through the woods. She kept her arms fully extended as she ran, down and slightly behind her hips. Electricity trailed behind her, licking at the ground and trees she passed. More flames cropped up in her wake.

If Eva didn’t end this soon, there wouldn’t be a forest left. As it was, she needed to find Zoe and have her teleport a water mage in.

Did water even put out white flames?

Zoe would probably have some idea if not.

But this had to end soon.

“I can take you to your daughter, but not while you’re trying to kill me.”

Eva teleported away just as Sister Cross reached her. Not quite fast enough. One tendril of electricity coiled around her wrist.

Pain coursed through her body when she reappeared on the opposite side of the forest.

Letting out a cry of pain, Eva teleported away again. Three rapid steps put her far enough away to give her a moment of time.

Black liquid oozed out of the cracks in her carapace. Right around her wrist were several lightning-shaped marks burned into the chitin. A small segment of the armored plate had come off entirely, revealing the meat underneath.

Eva clamped her good hand over her wrist, putting pressure on it. It didn’t help the pain; it was much like biting down on a bit, the pain was there but something else drew attention from it.

In the distance, Sister Cross continued her maddened charge.

Forget the forest, I’m going to be the one in trouble if this doesn’t end soon.

Eva uncorked her solitary vial of Arachne’s blood. She had to be careful with it. It was all she had.

The blood bobbed in the air around Eva as she weighed her options. There was only so much she could do with so little.

Before Sister Cross reached Eva, she wrapped the blood around her fist and teleported. Leaving her blood behind would be detrimental.

Or would it?

Eva split the blood off into two small globs before teleporting again. She made no move to attack with the blood. Not even the slightest intention crossed her mind. Based on all of her previous experiences in seeing the Elysium Order’s shields in action, she had a theory that they worked off of actual attacks. That was only compounded by the fact that Sister Cross had to push past stray branches as she pressed on in her pursuit.

Sister Cross, unseeing or uncaring, charged right into the blood.

Her shield did not so much as flicker.

It was possible that it was because she had moved into them, rather than Eva attacking her with the blood. Still no real proof of how the shield worked. However it happened, the two balls of blood landed on her tattered shirt.

Some of the blood was immediately rendered unusable because of the frankly disgusting amount of dirt on the woman. Eva redirected the rest of the blood. One glob went straight up her nose while the other wrapped around her mouth.

The electricity hanging off of Sister Cross’ fingers vanished as she brought her hands up to her mouth. Her fingers pried at the liquid clinging to her face.

As Sister Cross’ ungainly fingernails started to dig their way into the seams between her lips and the blood, Eva dug the blood into her skin. Tiny little barbs pierced and latched on.

Finding her efforts stifled, she tried a similar tactic at the blood blocking her nose.

This time, Eva unblocked a single nostril.

Sister Cross drew in a deep breath as fast as she could with only half a nose.

The moment she finished inhaling, Eva blocked it again.

“Now,” Eva said, “you–”

A lightning bolt hit Eva in the hip, spinning her around and knocking her to the ground.

Eva’s efforts to get up were interrupted by a weight landing on her back. A punch against the back of her head had her eating dirt.

“Killing me won’t make it stop,” Eva groaned out as she spat out a mouthful of grass. “Even if you cut an air-hole in your throat, you won’t see Shalise again without me.”

The pressure on her back increased, but there was no actual attack. Through her blood sight, Eva could see the woman’s heart beating faster as she attempted to heave in more air.

“If you get off of me right now, maybe I will let you have a small air hole.” Eva kicked back, trying to knock the nun off of her back.

That only sent a jolt of pain through Eva’s body. Taking a look at her own body through her blood sight revealed quite the disaster around her midsection. About an inch of meat was missing entirely from the edge of her hip inwards. Based on how the blood was flowing, part of the bone was missing as well as some of the carapace from her legs.

Not a good sight to see. Too big of an injury to heal away as she often did with smaller cuts. Warm blood was pooling on the forest floor, soaking into her clothes, and smearing over Sister Cross’ thighs.

It took almost a full five minutes before Sister Cross finally got off of Eva. It was less ‘got off’ and more like she slumped off to one side, but the end effect was the same.

Gritting her teeth in preparation for the pain, Eva withdrew her dagger and jammed it into her side. She carefully kept herself from bleeding out using her control over her own blood. A small portion flew over to reinforce the blood around Sister Cross’ mouth.

Though the nun didn’t need it. Her eyes were closed and her heart rate, while still elevated, had dropped.

Eva moved the blood from her nose. It hung off of her face like a mustache, but cleared her nose entirely.

After a heart-wrenching moment of fear that she would have to perform mouth-to-mouth on the woman just to get her breathing again, Sister Cross’ body took over with a sudden lurch of fresh air.

With a small sigh of relief, Eva kept a careful eye on the woman. No sign of her being conscious surfaced. If she was awake, she was doing a very good job of playing possum.

Unfortunately, if she was unconscious, that left an injured Eva with a full-grown woman to lug around.

And she was injured in both her hand and her waist.

For the moment, Eva tended to herself. She couldn’t do much about the missing bone, but she could at least complete her veins and arteries with hardened blood so as to keep her from bleeding out if she let her concentration slip.

It took more than a few minutes of strengthening the passageways to her satisfaction. They needed to be able to survive a moderate jostle while still being flexible enough to move in. As it was, she would have to keep her hip straightened out for the most part.

Fixing her blood vessels did nothing for the pain.

Still, with as much self-maintenance as she could do completed, Eva turned to the probably unconscious nun.

“Now,” Eva said to herself through grit teeth, “what do we do with you?”

After a few minutes of deliberation, Eva made her decision. She propped up the nun, slung an arm around her shoulder, and started dragging.

Every so often, Eva suffered through the debilitating headache and lurch of the world as her teleport failed. It wasn’t quite so bad on repeated attempts as it had been the first time. Either the wards were weakening with distance or with the brute force of her teleport attempts.

Ten minutes into dragging Sister Cross through the woods and Eva was starting to get nervous. The nun’s heart rate and breathing showed signs of her waking up. She still hadn’t moved significantly on her own, but she could wake up at any moment.

Eva’s next teleport attempt nearly got through the barrier. She could feel it; both in that it caused very little mental pain and that it tainted the air around her with the pungent scent of brimstone.

She lugged Sister Cross’ unconscious carcass another ten feet, built up her magic, and teleported.

Eva’s method of teleportation wasn’t pleasant at the best of times. The sound of meat tearing and slopping against hard floors combined with the screams–Eva wanted to say ‘of the damned’ but that didn’t seem likely; the teleport took them through Hell, not through Death’s realm–burned on her very being. Then there was the more literal burning of her flesh. Skin seared off down to her bones.

Over time, Eva had either grown accustomed to the pain of having her skin flayed off or her increasingly demonic nature was protecting her from the ill effects. She could keep a level head through the pain and come out only slightly shaky when she arrived at the gate.

Sister Cross had neither her demonic nature nor her pain tolerance.

The nun’s eyes snapped open the moment the real world had been replaced with a tunnel of flesh. She tried to scream. Eva’s blood kept her mouth sealed for the moment, but it wouldn’t hold under the nun’s fright. Only moments after the teleport had begun and her skin and lips were already tearing from the strain.

Where Eva felt her skin incinerated during the teleport, Sister Cross experienced the pain differently. Her skin started peeling off in long strips. Like someone took a potato peeler to the woman and went crazy.

As her skin vanished into the walls of flesh, the unseen entity exchanged its potato peeler for a cheese grater. Thin strands of her muscles and organs separated themselves from her body.

All at once, the pain ended. Eva’s teleport spat both of them out in the gate of the women’s ward.

The screams, however, did not end.

Sister Cross lay on the floor in a bloodied mess. Unlike Eva, who was whole and hearty, the nun was still missing huge chunks of skin. What little scraps of clothes she had worn had been almost completely torn away and her flesh had gone with them.

Her shield bubbled up around her, but she continued to scream like she was still being mutilated.

It took Eva only a second to figure out why.

Slamming her dagger down into the pooling blood around the nun, Eva gathered up a small marble as fast as she could.

She sent it whizzing off through the air to join with her blood wards with as much haste as possible.

Eva felt the blood join with the ward just as Sister Cross’ shield shattered into shards of solid magic. They disappeared into tiny motes, leaving an extremely injured Sister Cross on the floor.

It was a good thing that Sister Cross had that shield. Eva’s wards were not designed to cause mere discomfort.

That crisis over for the moment, Eva turned her attentions to the downed woman and how to save her from her injuries.

Luckily enough for Sister Cross, the effects of the teleport seemed to have reverted to before the cheese grating had started. She was only missing surface skin.

Which would probably still have her bleeding out in a record time. The human body wasn’t meant to survive without skin.

“Arachne!” Eva shouted out, even though she could already hear the stomping footsteps coming her way over the screaming noise coming from the hole Sister Cross had torn in her mouth.

The spider-demon burst into the room a second later.

“Eva–” Arachne stopped as she spotted Sister Cross on the ground. Her eyes drifted over to the injury on Eva’s side. Her hands clenched together, squeezing tightly for just a moment. “I’ll fetch the potions,” she said, turning on her heel.

Eva stayed where she was, blinking in confusion.

She had fully expected to have to order Arachne not to slaughter Sister Cross. Instead, she runs off an gets potions?

Strange.

But gathering potions was what Eva was going to ask her to do, so she refrained from protesting.

Instead, Eva pulled out her dagger and pressed it against Sister Cross’ arm. With her shield shattered, there was nothing to get in the way.

With her dagger, she could keep the woman alive for the moment. Circulating the blood over such a huge surface area took a huge amount of concentration, but it should work long enough for the potions to make their way through her system.

Arachne reentered with a whole case of potions. Eva broke her concentration just long enough to rummage through and pick out anything that could help repair tissue or replenish blood.

Especially blood replenishment.

Selection made, Eva tossed the rest of the case back to Arachne before turning to Sister Cross.

It took both Eva and Arachne working together to pry open the nun’s mouth despite the hole at her lips. Even then, she tried to spit out the potions. At least, she tried until Eva covered her mouth. Eva didn’t even have to use her hand, she just replugged Sister Cross up with the plentiful amounts of blood coating the woman.

Potions administered, Eva kept her concentration on containing Sister Cross’ blood. They would need time to work, after all.

“We need a safe place to store her where she can’t teleport out of,” Eva said. “You think Ylva would mind us using one of her prison cells?”

“What about your injuries?”

Eva glanced down at her side. The hole was still there, blood tubes still holding. It didn’t even hurt so much. Nothing like a trip through a Hell-based teleport to put pain into perspective.

“I’m fine for now. She’s the more pressing matter at the moment.”

Arachne grit her teeth together hard enough to make noise. Otherwise, she remained silent.

“Come on,” Eva said, “help me get her to Ylva. I doubt that she will mind. She has a thing about collecting nuns anyway.”

As Arachne moved in to pick up Sister Cross, the nun started to thrash about. Her eyes blazed bright white with the Order’s unique brand of magic.

Before she could manifest a so much as a spark, Eva hovered her sharp fingers over the twitching eyeball set into the woman’s chest.

“Try anything and I will tear out your eye,” Eva said, voice stone cold.

Sister Cross glared, but the white died down to her natural brown.

“The only reason you are alive is because I still consider myself friends with Shalise. I’ve turned people’s hearts into bloodstones for less than what you’ve done to me. You’re lucky to be as you are now.”

True, Sister Cross’ current state was a complete accident thanks to Eva’s teleportation and wards. She hadn’t ever teleported anyone but Arachne before. It wasn’t a thing she had known would happen. Martina Turner used the same method of teleportation, based on the pungent sulfur left in her wake, but there was almost no chance she was anything but human.

She had to have some sort of protection. The familiar bond with Catherine, perhaps. That was something that Sister Cross lacked.

It looked like she wanted to say something. Vague, word-like noises came out of the back of her throat. Anger was all that came out with her mouth still sealed shut.

“Come quietly,” Eva said, inwardly smiling at her own little joke, “and maybe I’ll keep you alive long enough to see your daughter again.”

When Sister Cross ceased her thrashing, Eva gave a light nod towards Arachne.

It wasn’t a long walk to Ylva’s domain. The entire time, Eva kept one hand on Sister Cross’ chest while they walked. Arachne carried Cross entirely, leaving Eva free to concentrate on the blood.

While not overtly thrashing about, Sister Cross radiated rebellion, anger, and pain all at once. Two of those all but vanished once Eva swung open the doors to Ylva’s domain.

Faced with the ever-present storm clouds, massive throne, pit, and archways lining the room, Sister Cross actually managed to take her glare off of Eva to drink in the sight despite her injured form.

Eva couldn’t help but think that it would be more impressive for her had Ylva actually been in her throne.

Sister Cross’ glare returned full-force as a certain augur wandered over from the throne platform.

It took a moment for Eva to remember how Nel arrived at the prison in the first place. She had been convinced that Sister Cross was trying to kill her for some reason. It probably would have been better had the two not met, but it was too late for that. Judging by her glare, Sister Cross already recognized Nel, though the same was not true in reverse.

Eva tapped her sharp fingers against Sister Cross’ chest as a reminder before glancing to Nel. “Where’s Ylva.”

“She took Alicia and–” Nel cut herself off, squinting at Sister Cross. That squint turned wide-eyed as she stepped a few feet backwards. “S-S-Sister Cross? What did you do to her?”

“Nothing. But we’re going to be using a cell. When Ylva gets back, let her know that she has a new guest in her prison. If she gets back soon, I might still be there.”

Zoe came out of between.

Taking a step forward, Zoe heard the light slap of her shoes in a shallow puddle. Her eyes widened in horror and shock as she noticed the pool of red coating the surface of the floor.

The Gate Room, as Eva called it, was the designated entryway for all arriving teleports. There weren’t all that many people cleared to just show up inside the women’s ward. At least none that would find the experience pleasant–Eva’s wards weren’t the kind one wanted to stumble across. It basically amounted to just herself, Eva, and Wayne.

Because of the limited amount of people who used the room, Zoe immediately thought of Eva. Something had happened to the girl, again, and she just barely scraped out of it alive, again.

A more rational section of Zoe’s mind reminded her that Eva’s blood was black, or close enough that this pool of blood couldn’t be hers.

Wayne then? His meeting should have finished during the previous hour. But had he been injured, he wouldn’t have come here. He would have gone to one of the school nurses or a real hospital. Judging by the amount of blood, he had better have gone to a real hospital. That was not a trivial amount.

A small shudder ran through Zoe’s back. Wayne might have come here first if it was something related to demons.

Zoe slammed open the door and strode out of the room, not even bothering to wipe her feet on the mat–it was already soaked to the core with blood. As she moved, she fished her cellphone out of her pocket and took a moment to shoot off a quick message to Wayne.

Blood in the women’s ward teleport gate. Yours? Know anything?

Two sets of bloody footprints led through the common room and out the exit. Both were of the distinctive, almost skeletal imprints left by Arachne’s feet. One set was slightly smaller than the other, matching Eva’s size.

Zoe followed them in a run. They tapered off a few feet outside of the women’s ward, but that didn’t matter. There were only two real destinations outside of the women’s ward and Zoe couldn’t see a reason to head towards Devon’s building.

Unless all the blood was from him.

A faint buzz in her hand pulled her out of her thoughts and back towards her cellphone.

Not mine. Emergency?

Zoe’s thumb hesitated on the touch pad. Was it an emergency? Possibly. That amount of blood would certainly mean that there was an emergency for someone.

Maybe. Looking for source. Will be inside Ylva’s domain/no cell shortly.

Shaking her head, Zoe decided to press on towards Ylva’s domain. If nothing else, Nel could point her in the right direction.

She didn’t get another reply before her signal dropped to zero. Inside Ylva’s domain, Zoe was surprised to find the main room entirely empty. The throne lay bare and neither Alicia nor Nel hung off its sides.

Zoe almost started off towards the augur room, the location where Nel would most likely have been. She stopped as some movement caught her eye.

The augur in question paced back and forth outside one of the archways. Her pallor was sickly and her hands rubbed one another constantly as she mumbled something to herself.

“What happened?” Zoe called out as she ran over to the archway.

Nel froze in her pacing, back towards Zoe. She turned slowly. Opening her mouth, Nel started to speak.

“It’s already been an hour?”

Nel’s mouth snapped shut as both women turned to the new voice.

Eva stood in the doorway, slightly hunched over with all of her weight on one foot. Arachne stood at her side, offering support with one arm around Eva’s shoulders.

Both were coated in a decent amount of red blood.

Ignoring the demon for the moment, Zoe focused on her student.

A portion of Eva’s shirt had burned away. Zoe immediately recognized the marks on her skin. The tree branch-like pattern marring her thigh and waist was all too familiar to anyone who used lightning. The gaping hole filled with what appeared to be black rods at the center of the lightning mark was slightly less familiar.

Eva moved her hand up, slightly covering the hole. That only served to draw Zoe’s attention to the girl’s arm. A bracelet of lightning marks wrapped around her chitin plates. The marks went up towards her elbow, turning bright red as they crossed over from carapace to skin.

“What happened?” Zoe repeated, this time to Eva.

“Met an old friend. You remember Sister Cross.”

Zoe blinked. Of course she remembered. But… “She did this to you?” Zoe gestured towards where Eva had covered her hip.

“Tried to do more. I’m mostly certain that she was going to kill me until I threatened her with Shalise.”

“Threatened–”

“She did attack me first,” Eva said, indignant. “Viciously and maniacally, I should add. She’s lucky I didn’t kill her. Twice. Though the second time would have been accidentally.”

“Accidentally? The blood?”

“All hers. I kind of forgot about my wards when teleporting her here. And the teleport wasn’t pleasant on its own,” Eva said, glancing down at herself with a sigh. “Yet another shirt I’ve ruined.”

Zoe winced. She hadn’t forgotten Genoa’s screams when she had first arrived at the prison. “Is she alright?”

“Alright enough. She’s been stuffed full of potions. Apparently she has a method of healing herself as well, though I don’t know if it will work in Ylva’s prison. I couldn’t get more than two words out of her mouth before she started shouting at me.”

Enhancing her hearing, Zoe shut her eyes to listen to the room beyond. Apart from slightly laborious breathing, there wasn’t a peep. “Seems quiet now.”

“She’s gagged.”

“Ah.”

Zoe stood there as she considered how to react. She couldn’t be sure without meeting the nun in person, but the woman known as Sister Cross had always struck Zoe as being a level-headed person during her brief tenure as self-proclaimed protector of Brakket City. Even during the fight with Zagan, she had radiated a certain calm aura up until the last few minutes when her powers failed her.

‘Viciously and maniacally’ attacking Eva didn’t sound like her style.

Eva reacted first. “Postponing our meeting might be for the best,” she said with a wince on her face. “I’m going to miss my other appointments for the day as well. Need to get some medical attention for myself, though I’m not sure what.”

Zoe shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Right, of course. I–”

“You’re just going to leave her here? Alone?” Nel said in a high-pitched shriek.

“She’s in Ylva’s prison,” Eva said, already limping by with the aid of Arachne. “It’s probably the safest place for her to be for you. And if you’re that scared, I’m sure one of these rooms has a good hiding place you can cower in until Ylva gets back. Besides, I’ll be back after I see to myself. Have to make sure she doesn’t bleed out or anything stupid.”

Nel’s sputtering response went ignored by Zoe. Torn between making sure herself that Sister Cross was okay and ensuring that her student was okay, Zoe decided on keeping near her student.

“Are you going to see a nurse?”

“Not really considering it. As much as half of everyone knows already, I’d still like to keep my exact physiology a secret from the rest.”

“Laura Post knows what you are, so you wouldn’t have to worry about that.”

“I don’t know what she would do for me,” Eva said.

“She could examine you, tell you exactly what is wrong, administer potions.”

“Potions are having less and less effect on me as time goes by. Maybe Wayne can invent some demon-compliant potions that do work–maybe there would even be a market for such a thing in the near future.”

“Don’t joke about that.”

Sighing at Eva’s callous shrug, Zoe pursed her lips together. Her pressed lips twisted into a frown as Eva’s words reminded her of the despicable experiments carried out by Devon Foster.

“We’ve never talked about your… condition,” Zoe hedged. While the topic might be interesting, from a purely theoretical point of view, Zoe couldn’t be sure she wanted to discuss the subject of what amounted to child exploitation.

Eva paused. The arm Arachne had around her shoulder squeezed tighter for a bare moment.

“I don’t know what there is to talk about. I agreed to it and I have no intention of stopping now. In fact, it might be more dangerous to stop.”

“That’s…” Zoe bit her lip. “I just want to make sure you weren’t being coerced into something. That you’re alright.”

“I,” Arachne said, voice hard, “will ensure Eva’s well-being. Nothing will bring her harm. This topic is outside your expertise, professor.” The last word came out with venom.

Not literal venom–Zoe wasn’t entirely sure whether or not Arachne was venomous–but metaphorical, verbal venom.

She contained far more ire in that single word than any Zoe had heard her speak in the past. Granted, Arachne didn’t often address Zoe. Especially in the recent months. In fact, this could be the first she had heard Arachne speak at all since the incident involving Genoa.

“Do you get this involved in the personal lives of all of your students?”

Zoe blinked at Arachne’s question, slightly taken aback. “Excuse me?”

“Or is it just that she makes for a fascinating research subject? You and Devon might have a lot in common if you looked past your foolish sense of self-righteousness.”

“Arachne,” Eva said, silencing the demon.

“Excuse me,” Zoe said. “No student I have ever had has found themselves in as much trouble as Eva so frequently attracts. Nor am I likely to instruct such a troublemaker–trouble finder,” Zoe corrected at a glare from Eva, “again. Very few children find themselves at the unpleasant end of necromancers and the Elysium Order.”

Eva snorted and mumbled under her breath. “You’re going to have a whole lot more troublemakers if Martina is still the dean in a year’s time.”

Zoe narrowed her eyes in Eva’s direction. The only reason she caught that little tidbit was because of mildly enhanced hearing. “What do you mean by that?”

“You know of her little specialty class, right?”

Shaking her head, Zoe answered, “I do not.”

“Ah, maybe I’ll invite you one of these days.”

Before Zoe could question what she was talking about, Eva continued speaking.

“To answer your original question, no. I’m not going to go find a nurse or a hospital. I’ll fix myself up myself, even if I have to remake my entire side out of molded blood. Though it would be nice if I could regenerate on Arachne’s level… The whole demon transforming thing could at least have that as a payoff.”

Zoe frowned but said nothing. Despite it being her suggestion, she didn’t know what a medical professional could do for Eva. Especially with how uncooperative she would likely be. Slathering on bone regenerating potions might actually do more harm than good, given her hip injury was right where skin met carapace.

“Actually,” Eva said, looking up at Zoe, “could you go back to where we fought? Sister Cross hit me pretty hard,” Eva said, once again gesturing towards her hip. “Between Nel, Sawyer, and my own blood ritual experiments, I’ve been somewhat conscious of leaving pieces of myself around. If you could grab Wayne and have him burn down a section–”

Eva froze, voice catching in her throat. Her eyes grew wide.

For a moment, Zoe was worried that something happened. Heart failure or some other sudden illness. She reached forwards, placing a hand on the young girl’s shoulder.

“Um, if there is even a forest left. Sister Cross might have set a good chunk of it on fire and I might have forgotten until just now.”

Zoe blinked. “She attacked right after the spar?”

“Put up anti-banishment wards, probably while we fought, which have the unfortunate side-effect of breaking my teleportation.”

There hadn’t been a hint of that anywhere. Even with all her enhanced senses on, Zoe hadn’t so much as suspected that someone else had been in the area. And she knew that Eva had a method of sensing any living person within quite a range around her.

“How did we miss her?” Zoe asked, dumbfounded.

Eva shrugged. “I was focused on fighting you. You were as well. Don’t forget that Sister Cross can teleport; it wouldn’t be difficult to stay on the edge of our senses with that. But maybe worry about the fire first?”

“Right,” Zoe said. She swung open the heavy entrance to Ylva’s domain and let Eva head off towards the women’s ward.

As soon as her phone found a signal, it started vibrating like crazy. Six missed messages from Wayne. All despite having told him she was entering Ylva’s domain. After skimming through them, she sent out her responses.

No immediate emergency.

Sister Cross attacked Eva, wound up injured instead.

May need help w/fire. Investigating. Will send location if assistance needed.

Messages on their way, Zoe pulled out her dagger and allowed the world to fall to between.

— — —

Irene lay back in her bed, staring at the ceiling. She traced out a wide circle in the air with her finger.

As far as she understood, shackles were the single most important aspect of dealing with demons. Some might say that summoning circles were the most important, but Irene had already disregarded those ideas–and half of her classmates–as idiots. Sure, there might not be a demon without a summoning circle, but without the shackles, there was no protection. Shackles were the things that kept a summoner alive.

Really, it was some fascinating magic from a purely analytical point of view. Very similar to some of the stuff she had already decided she wanted to do for a profession. Irene had already signed up for enchanting and warding for next year’s electives. Shackles were very much a sort of written ward.

As the book explained, it was technically possible to wave a wand and erect shackles purely through magic. Unfortunately, all but the weakest of demons would break through a magic-based ward almost instantly. Being highly magical creatures, demons required their shackles to be set in stone–so to speak.

Drawing the patterns out in the air didn’t do much for practice however. She really needed to draw it out on a paper to see how it all came together. The boundary, sigils to strengthen the boundary, demonic magic suppressants, thaumaturgical magic wards, and so on and so forth, they all were far too complex to wave about in the air.

But that wasn’t something Irene could do. While drawing on a piece of paper wouldn’t violate any terms of her contract, Shelby would be sure to have questions about what she was doing. Shackles and summoning circles looked like rituals–and they were in a certain sense–but rituals weren’t something Irene had ever expressed much interest in.

Jordan would probably recognize demonic shackles right out.

Irene was already struggling to explain her two-hour twice-a-week absences without violating any of the contract. The terminology was uncomfortably strict about describing any aspect of the class. A good portion of the others didn’t look like the types of people who had many friends, so it probably wasn’t such a big deal for them.

Just her.

So far, ‘reconnecting with Eva’ had worked out well enough. And Eva was actually present, if as a teacher, so it was mostly true.

Irene let her arm flop to her side. The pointless exercise was little more than a time sink until it was time to go. She had already finished her homework for all of her regular classes, but they could always use more studying. Especially the practical side of things, given end of the year exams were a scant few months away.

But there wasn’t time for that now. The classroom doors locked on the hour. Though it wasn’t something she had really decided she wanted to pursue, if she wasn’t there on time, she would fall behind. Irene worked her hardest to keep up in everything no matter what it was.

Halfway out of bed, Irene paused. A jolt of panic sent her almost flying out of bed.

Are there going to be end of the year exams in demon summoning?

There was no room in her schedule for studying for yet another final. If it had an exam, she’d have to reorganize everything. She needed to ask Catherine or Eva as soon as she could.

Irene swung open her dormitory. In her haste, she almost ran face-first into Jordan’s raised fist.

He took a step back, blinking in surprise. “I didn’t even get to knock,” he said, moving his raised hand to brush back a lock of hair.

“Sorry,” Irene mumbled, averting her eyes to one side to avoid looking him in the eye. If there was one thing diablery class was good at, it was making her feel guilty. “I was just on my way to find Eva. Did you need something?”

“Thought you were afraid of Eva,” Jordan said, leaning against the door frame with a joking smile. “Or Arachne, at least. You’ve sure been spending a lot of time with them lately despite that.”

“I’m not afraid of them.” Irene stamped her foot down. “I just… didn’t understand.”

“What changed?”

“Well, she did at least help to save me during that thing,” Irene shuddered slightly at the memory. “I figured I should give her the time of day once in a while. Turns out, we actually have a lot in common.”

That was lying through her teeth.

Crossing her arms, Irene glared at Jordan. “What’s it to you, anyway?”

“Nothing,” he said, holding up a hand. “But speaking of changes, have you seen Shelby around?”

“Not in the last hour or two. I think she has been getting extra tutoring from Professor Carr. Why?”

“It used to be that I could speak at all kinds of odd hours during the day, and she, being always at my side, would hear. That’s not the case so much anymore.”

“Aww,” Irene mock cooed. “You miss my sister?”

This time it was Jordan’s turn to avert his eyes as a light blush surfaced on his cheeks. “I wouldn’t put it in those exact words.”

“I’m sure she would be delighted to hear it.” Irene shuffled past Jordan, shutting the door to her dorm room behind her. “But you’ll have to tell her in person when you next see her. As I said, I’ve a meeting with Eva to get to.”

“Ah, of course,” he said, suddenly looking downtrodden as he stepped aside.

To Irene’s great chagrin, Jordan did not decide to wander off. He ran up alongside Irene and kept pace.

Irene chose to ignore him as much as possible in hopes that he might head off and find something else to do. Something that wasn’t following her all the way to a classroom he couldn’t enter without causing a lot of trouble.

Her efforts were all for naught. Jordan stuck by her side.

Irene was going over excuses to leave him in her head, but wasn’t coming up with anything halfway decent. By the time they hit the ground floor, he was still at her side.

“So, going to be doing anything fun?”

Irene jolted at the sudden attention. Entirely misplaced guilt was making her nervous. There was absolutely no reason to feel like she was doing anything wrong. If anything, he should be the one feeling awkward because of his own dalliances in less than savory magic.

It didn’t help that she was absolutely forbidden from mentioning anything real, despite the fact that Jordan was probably the one person she should be talking with. Or at least, the one person who wouldn’t judge her.

“Nothing,” Irene said, feeling as lame as her one word response.

“Nothing huh?” Jordan allowed a coy smile to slip onto his lips. “No visits to the hot springs in the nude?”

Fire burned in Irene’s cheeks as she whipped her head around to her insolent friend. “Of course not. Nothing means nothing.”

“Hmm? Well,” he cocked his head from one side to the other, “I just worry that you might be being forced into doing things you don’t want to. You’ve had fairly vocal ahh… arguments against her in the past.”

Irene fell silent. He wasn’t exactly wrong.

Though it had been Catherine who dragged her into this, rather than Eva.

In the end, Irene had been the one to read and sign the contract. Nothing had forced her into that.

“No,” Irene eventually answered. “I’m doing this because I want to do this.”

Jordan hummed again, capping it with a small sigh. “And this thing that you want to do is nothing?”

“It is,” Irene said, keeping her voice firm. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Jordan waved her off, stopping just inside the dormitory entryway. “Just don’t become a stranger.”

“I’ll try not to.” With a small smile, Irene waved a farewell.

It was a quick trip to the main school building and, from there, a quicker trip to the class room.

Irene slipped inside and took her usual seat. A good half of the class was already in the room thanks to her dawdling with Jordan. Questioning Catherine about end of year exams would have to wait.

The rest of the class filed in shortly after Irene arrived.Only when the door’s lock clicked did Irene notice that Eva was nowhere in sight.

“Leaving me alone with a bunch of degenerate mortals?” Catherine said, loud and clear despite clearly speaking about Irene and the rest of the students. “I’ll feed Eva to hellhounds.”

The irritation on the professor’s face vanished as soon as she finished speaking. It was replaced by thoughtfulness.

A scary look on the succubus.

“Or perhaps,” Catherine said, flashing her teeth in a wide smile, “today’s lesson can be a bit more fun than usual.”

Eva kicked back in her chair, flipping a page in her blood magic book. It wasn’t an extremely comfortable seat, being a simple wooden seat she had dragged over. There wasn’t any padding on it and its back was far too low.

Padding didn’t matter much. Her legs were stiff carapace and her butt had been reinforced–for lack of a better word–around where her legs met her skin. It was far from the worst chair she had ever sat in. The most uncomfortable aspect was the hole that was still in her side.

Eva had filled it completely full of blood and hardened parts to give some structure, but it didn’t come close to proper skin. Reading, at least, took her mind off the pain.

And pain had been a big deal. It hadn’t hurt quite so much in the hour following her fight. Something that Eva chalked up to adrenaline. And then there was the pain in her wrist and legs and everywhere else. She was sore. Everywhere.

Considering all of that, a more comfortable chair might have done some good. But she could push all of that away. Blood mages were no strangers to pain.

Really, the worst thing was the lighting. Ylva’s prison wasn’t a dank dungeon filled with moss and dripping water. It was, however, a far cry from a proper reading room.

Arachne forewent a chair entirely. She simply sat on the stone floor and rested against the back wall. Never once in their hour of sitting had she taken a single one of her eight red eyes off of their prisoner. In fact, she had hardly moved at all. Her stillness was almost uncanny.

Still, she was out of her room and at Eva’s side. A nice change from how it had been the last few months.

That was something she could thank Sister Cross for.

In a very silent sort of way.

Pausing in her book, Eva took a moment to look over the sleeping prisoner.

During the brief hour that Eva had taken to focus on herself and her own injuries, Sister Cross had done something prior to passing out.

Her flesh was still torn off in long strips, but the remaining skin was slowly crawling over the spots where it had been torn. Somewhat reminiscent of how Eva healed herself with blood magic, though on a much larger scale.

But it was slow. Molasses slow. It had been almost another hour since she got back from tending to herself and Sister Cross’ newly created skin was only a few hairs up her arm. At the rate she was going, it probably wouldn’t be fixed for a few weeks at best.

When Shalise had half her hand eaten by a zombie, it had taken a healer from the Elysium Order to mend it. So Eva wasn’t too surprised to find Sister Cross healing herself. The speed did surprise her.

Shalise had never gone into much detail about her own experience having her body mended. Eva had always imagined it had been some nun waving her hands with some white light for a few minutes.

Now she was starting to reconsider that. Shalise had a lot less to mend, true, but this was agonizingly slow.

It was for that reason that Eva had put a hold on her Locate And Slash Or Murder Sawyer With Blood Magic plan and pulled out a book on beneficial blood rituals. She still intended to drop Sister Cross into her domain at her earliest convenience, but dropping her on Shalise looking like she had just been through a meat grinder seemed in poor taste.

Aside from that, Eva still had a hole in her side. A painful, anti-magic hole. Neither she nor Arachne quite knew what to do about it. She had already found a few flesh mending rituals–Sister Cross could wait in pain a little longer, just as punishment for attacking Eva–but even if they could power through the lightning’s magic eating aftereffects, the rituals did not mend or regrow bone.

Frankly, Eva was quite certain that blood magic wasn’t exactly designed for bones.

Still, no harm in double checking. Well, no harm aside from what Sister Cross was feeling.

So no harm at all.

“Nel mentioned a guest.”

Eva refrained from jumping only because she had kept a mild awareness on her blood sight. Ylva had approached from behind in absolute silence and only spoke once she closed the distance to a few feet.

Closing her book, Eva stood and gave her full attention to Ylva. Eva doubted the hel would call her a friend, but she did believe that they were on thoroughly cordial terms. Still, Eva had dragged in a prisoner and used a cell without permission; no sense in taking the chance at causing further offense.

That said guest riled Ylva’s pet up just made it more important not to be brazen or offensive.

“Ylva,” Eva said with a slight nod. Gesturing towards the occupied cell, she said, “Sister Cross. Shalise’s mother.”

Stepping in front of the cell, Ylva peered inside. “The one sharing her body with a cambion,” she stated, more to herself than anything. “We see the resemblance.”

“I apologize for bringing her into your domain without asking. You were gone and I lacked the facilities to store a hostile teleporter.”

“See that it does not happen again,” Ylva said without taking her eyes off the contents of the cell.

Eva merely nodded. The words weren’t said in a harsh tone or with anger and it was a perfectly understandable request. She wouldn’t want to come home only to find an enemy sitting around her room.

“You inflicted these injuries?”

“In a manner of speaking. It was more of a teleport oversight followed by her being within my wards and not keyed in.”

Looking away from Sister Cross, Ylva asked, “We were under the impression that your blood wards were deadly.”

“She’s an Elysium Order nun. They’ve got really strong shields. It lasted long enough for me to shut off my wards.”

“Elysium Order?” Ylva turned back to the cell. “Her attire is lacking for such a station.”

A set of robes appeared within the cell, looking very similar to the red and black attire that both Nel and Alicia wore. They draped themselves over the edge of the bed.

“You have quite a collection of nuns,” Eva said, not entirely sure of Ylva’s intentions. “While I don’t exactly care if you collect this one, I don’t think she would be very happy to join up.”

“Ali did not believe she would serve Us in the beginning, yet serves Us she does.”

Eva bit her lip. “Are you… certain about that?”

Ylva glanced over with one eyebrow raised. “Your meaning?”

“I mean she appears to serve you now, but…” Eva trailed off, not entirely sure how to broach the subject. After Nel had mentioned her concerns, Eva had spent a while thinking on the subject. This wasn’t how she had planned to bring it up, but it was a convenient segue.

She gave a quick glance to Arachne only to receive a shrug in return. A lot of good you are, Eva mentally sighed.

After casting her blood sight and regular sight around to check for any hint of the former nun in question and finding no trace of her, Eva took a deep breath. “She seems unstable, to a degree. I just want to make sure she isn’t going to betray you–” or me, “–in the future.”

“We will not tolerate betrayal.”

“No,” Eva said. “Of course not.”

Eva let the topic drop. Even if Alicia tried to kill Ylva, it was doubtful that she would succeed in doing any harm. In fact, it really wasn’t any of her business. Alicia was Ylva’s servant and therefore, Ylva’s problem. She could handle it herself.

“Anyway,” Eva said, “I was planning on dropping her into my domain with Shalise after she had healed a bit. Unless you had a better idea?”

Ylva shook her head side to side. Slightly. The movement was subtle enough that Eva almost missed it. Taking her eyes off of the cell, she turned to fully face Eva. “No. We find no issue with that plan.”

“Good,” Eva said, half-surprised that Ylva hadn’t objected on the grounds of adding another servant to her collection. “I’ll keep an eye on her as much as possible until then. You don’t think there will be any issues keeping her here, do you?”

“So long as she isn’t removed from the cell, she will not be able to affect anything outside of the cell. We suggest you keep her contained.”

Eva frowned slightly, but nodded. That might put a damper on her plan to heal Sister Cross with a blood ritual. Oh well, Eva thought, not feeling vindictive in the slightest, she’ll just be in pain for a little longer.

Zoe walked into the prison before Eva could verbally respond to Ylva’s suggestion. Her normally impeccable hair had been tossed up in disarray, like it had been an extraordinarily windy day.

She walked up to them, footsteps about as heavy as her breathing. She leaned up against the wall with a small sigh. “Great,” she said to her captive audience, “I need another shower.”

“You smell pleasant.”

Zoe’s eyes flicked over to Ylva with a questioning glance. “I… um…”

“Like a campfire,” Eva offered after taking a deep breath for herself. “A very pine-woody campfire.”

“Ah,” Zoe said, confusion disappearing with a nod. “We got your little accident under control.”

“Mine? I didn’t even use fire magic.” Eva thumbed at the cell. “And I didn’t ask to be attacked either.”

“Be that as it may, you could have at least sent off a message to us earlier.” With an exasperation-filled sigh, Zoe glanced over into the cell. Immediately, she winced. “She looks… Is she going to be alright?”

“Fine enough,” Eva said. “She’s actually mending her skin on her own. Maybe I’ll toss in a few potions if she is on her best behavior.”

“Really?” Zoe said, pressing closer to the cell for a better look. After a moment of inspection and apparently not finding what she was looking for, Zoe frowned. “Are you sure?”

“It is excruciatingly slow, but yes.”

Zoe hummed for a moment before pulling away. “Alright,” she said slowly as she turned to face Eva. “Now, what exactly happened and what are we going to do about her?”

Sighing, Eva wondered if she shouldn’t just call in everyone for a quick meeting. It would save a lot on the repetition.

Unfortunately for Eva, Ylva turned her attention towards Eva as well. Resigned, she started explaining everything from the start.

It was all Eva could do to keep in her irritation when Wayne wandered in fifteen minutes later asking what had happened.

— — —

Irene’s arm trembled as she sketched out a wide circle on the floor. The chalk in her hands left a trail of excess dust from the unsteady pressure, much of which smeared under her sweaty palms. Droplets of sweat fell from her brow, landing on her chalk and further marring her circle.

“You call that a circle? Looks more like an egg.”

Pausing for a moment, Irene looked at her drawing. It looked great. She had used string attached to her chalk and the center point. Unless the school had some computerized circle drawing laser machine, it was as perfect of a circle as anyone would be getting.

In fact, glancing over some of the other groups’ summoning circles, Irene was sure that hers was by far the best even taking into account the sweat droplets and other minor errors.

Gritting her teeth, Irene shot a glare at her partner, Randal Hemwick.

He sat on top of one of the tables that had been shoved aside, lightly swinging his dangling feet as he frowned at her drawing. Apart from constant criticisms, he hadn’t offered the slightest bit of help. And his criticisms were more complaints than anything useful.

Though him not helping was mostly her fault.

“I don’t want to summon a demon with something that shoddy,” he said, brushing a hand through his light gray hair. “Couldn’t you add some flourish to some of the designs? If your circle works at all, any demons we summon would be offended at your poor craftsmanship. And you’re so slow. Look,” he pointed, “those two groups are already done.”

Following his finger, Irene frowned. Had they looked at the book more than once? Despite her not having the actual summoning part of the circle memorized, she could see plentiful errors in the shackles. And those, as she firmly believed, were by far the most important part if people wanted to stay alive.

“Go draw your own if you hate it so much,” Irene said, grumbling more to herself than for her ‘partner’ to hear.

He heard anyway. “Aww, Irene. I would, but then who would summon your demon for you?”

Irene winced before falling silent. That had been their agreement. She would draw the entire summoning array and he would do the summoning.

But when he put it like that, it made it sound like she was frightened.

She was. Still, he didn’t need to say it so loud.

Choosing to ignore him, Irene returned to drawing out the lines, curves, circles, and so on. Almost every mark she made on the floor got double-checked in the book.

“No!”

The sudden shout caused Irene to jump. Her chalk went sliding across a small portion of her circle, ruining the last five minutes of work.

Sighing, she looked over to what caused the disturbance.

“If I can walk through your shackles without even trying, an imp will overpower them without breaking a sweat.” Catherine swiped her high-heeled foot through the circle on the ground, ruining perhaps the entire hour’s worth of work. “Do it again or watch another group.”

With that said, the succubus wandered off to evaluate another circle.

That was a relief at least. When Catherine had announced that today they would change the fact that this diablery class contained no diabolists, Irene had worried a lot that she was going to take up her usual routine of not supervising the students. She would feel much better had Eva shown up–Eva seemed to be far more responsible of the two, a scary thought on its own–but an active Catherine was good enough so far.

Picking up a fresh corner of her cleaning cloth, Irene set to work removing all traces of her mistake. It didn’t take long, and redrawing the affected lines as she erased sped up the process by skipping over the need to double-check in the book.

She still did, of course. But not until everything had been redrawn.

Setting down her book, Irene jumped.

Randal had slid off of the desk and was leaning uncomfortably close.

“So,” he hissed in her ear, “what would happen if we drew out a set of shackles and hid it under a mat in front of the door?”

Irene blinked. Shooting him an incredulous look, she said, “how could you not have read the book?”

It was Randal’s turn to blink. He opened his mouth to respond.

Irene talked over him. “Shackles can’t have anything but air between them and the demon. Even covering the circle with a thin sheet of tissue paper will break the shackles.”

“It was–”

“Are you an idiot?”

“What?”

“This isn’t some normal class where the worst you’ll do is burn down a desk before the professor intervenes. These are demons. Deadly dangerous creatures that don’t care about humans except in how much they can exploit us. They’ll kill us without blinking an eye. And you haven’t even read the book?

“In addition you, what, want to play a prank on Catherine? Are you insane?” Closing her eyes, Irene sighed. I wish Eva were here.

Of course, if Eva had shown up, they probably wouldn’t be in this situation. Summoning a demon wasn’t supposed to happen for another month at the earliest.

“I–”

Irene snapped open her eyes, cutting him off with just a glare. She narrowed her eyes at the idiot in front of her. “You know what? Do go make your own circle. Then you can add all the flourishes you want. When you get kicked out for your disrespect and general idiocy, don’t come crying to me.”

For a moment, Irene thought he was going to object. And loudly at that. Maintaining her glare for a few moments put a stop to that.

Randal got to his feet. Hands in his pockets, he marched over to another group. One of the groups that had finished already, but that hadn’t been looked over by Catherine just yet.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Irene turned back to the task of finishing her circle.

She froze as a thought occurred to her. Now alone in her group, there was no one but her to perform the actual summoning.

With a look at the clock, Irene decided that no, they would not be summoning anything today. At least not her. She had a good quarter of the circle remaining still. If she timed it perfectly, she would only just be finishing as the doors unlocked.

Then next time, Eva could put an end to this madness.

Filled with relief and a great deal of pressure removed, Irene set to work. She still wanted to do a good job. Catherine had trusted her enough to offer her a slot in the class, despite her being the youngest person in the room. She could pay that back with a proper set of shackles and the summoning circle.

Even if one of the other groups finished their circle to Catherine’s standards and started summoning, the circles they had been directed to draw were specifically designed to call imps. A hierarchy of common demons found within the text had imps at essentially the lowest place. Non-sentient blobs of slime were apparently more dangerous than imps.

Irene was beyond relieved that Catherine hadn’t directed them to summon up cerberuses or anything.

With the circles being specifically for imps, no verbal request or tricky magic channeling was required. Only the imps’ enticement.

Honestly, what would an imp ever want with a rusted copper coin? Did they collect them? Hoard them off in some vault?

And it apparently did not matter what kind of coin it was. Anything from some ancient Greek coin to a penny. So long as it was a currency, predominantly copper, and tarnished–not necessarily rusted as copper didn’t truly rust, though that was the term the book used. The jar on Catherine’s desk was full of green pennies, so presumably they would work.

“Class,” Catherine spoke just as Irene was making the last few marks on her circle, “I am disappointed.”

She moved up to her desk, taking up a reclining pose against it. “Two hours, you’ve had to work on your summoning circles. Two hours of failure. Your shackles are lacking. Your circles couldn’t summon a demonic gnat.”

Irene quirked an eyebrow. She didn’t know there was such a thing as a demonic gnat.

“You’re here to learn proper diablery practices. You may not have known that initially, but nothing is keeping you here. Children, your contract ensures your silence, not your presence. If diablery does not appeal to you, you’re welcome to never return.

“Of the nine of you, split into four groups, only one managed to complete their circle to my standards.”

Glancing around the other circles, Irene started to get a sinking feeling in her stomach. Irene distinctly recalled Catherine moving between each circle, making disparaging comments at each. The only circle that had been left alone was hers.

Whipping her head to the clock on the wall, Irene almost groaned. She had misjudged her speed. There were still ten minutes left of class. Plenty of time to summon something.

That sinking feeling only grew as Irene turned back to find Catherine staring right at her.

One of the rusted coins spun at the tip of Catherine’s sharp fingernail. With a light flick of her finger, the coin went sailing across the room.

It rolled along the floor before losing momentum and falling flat on its side.

Right in the center of Irene’s summoning circle.

“Go on,” Catherine said. “Channel your magic into the circle. Become the first true diabolist of the class.”

“I, um…” Irene took a step back from her circle.

Oh great, she thought, looking around the room. Everyone was staring at her. Some with curiosity but most had a look of envy. Randal was less staring and more glaring.

Alright, Irene thought, Catherine is right there. It’s just an imp. Zoe killed an imp all by herself last summer without problems. The whole class working together could stop it if it goes out of control.

Taking a deep breath, Irene moved back up to the summoning circle. She knelt down at the edge and shut her eyes–more to block out the sight of the watching students than any part of the ritual. With another deep breath, Irene started pushing her magic into the circle.

She had never used a ritual circle before. Summoning circles operated much the same way, from what she understood from books. There was a strange tingling sensation that was completely absent when she used a regular wand.

When she opened her eyes, Irene almost jumped back away from the circle again. The runes and markings she had drawn on the tiled floor were moving, rotating around the center point she had used to mark her initial circle. None of the symbols in the circle seemed to move at the same pace as the rest of it. Outside runes moved slower while the geometric shapes towards the inside spun around like the blades of a fan.

Irene did note that the shackles weren’t rotating. The shackle lines glowed faintly even in the light of the classroom. Otherwise, they were the same as when she had drawn them.

She actually did jump back when a gaping black maw erupted from the rotating circle. Shark-like teeth chomped around the coin.

A snake-like appendage erupted from beneath the circle. Despite coming through the floor as if through water, the appendage clamped down on the tiles like the hard floor it was.

More tentacles pulled the rest of the body through the floor until the entire thing was above ground.

With all the snake-like tentacles hanging off of its body, it looked something like a cross between Medusa and a large dog. Definitely not what an imp was supposed to look like.

Four red eyes glared around the room, moving from one silent student to the next. Settling on Irene, the dog slammed into the barrier formed by the shackles.

Irene jumped back again, letting out a startled shriek.

Her shackles lost some of their glow, flickering lightly as the demon reared its head into the barrier again.

Irene only vaguely heard the startled shouts coming from the other students. All of her attention was focused on a desperate feeding of more of her magic into the shackles.

Though the glow strengthened for a moment, the shackles flickered again as the demon rhythmically pounded into the wall.

“Help,” Irene said, glancing towards Catherine.

The succubus was wide-eyed with her mouth slightly agape, almost pressing herself away from the circle and into her desk.

Irene didn’t have time to consider the implications.

A resounding sound of glass shattering preceded her shackles going dark.

The demon’s gaping maw snapped shut mere inches in front of Irene’s face. Inches only because something gripped her arm and pulled.

Irene didn’t stop inches from the demon. The force on her arm kept her going. She flew backward, rolling into a table that had been pushed to the edge of the room.

Pain in her shoulder and upper arm forced her to cry out as she came to a stop. Even through her shirt, Irene could see an unpleasant lump. Her arm wasn’t where it was supposed to be.

Gripping her dislocated shoulder with her other arm, Irene grit her teeth and turned her attention to the scene unfolding before her.

Chaos.

The other students were scrambling around. Some of the older students had their wands out, firing off bolts of electricity or balls of fire at the demon. Others moved to the door, clawing at it in an attempt to escape.

There were still five minutes before the official end of class. Catherine had not unlocked the door yet.

A cynical part of Irene’s mind commented on how much of a fire hazard that was. Catherine could probably unlock it quickly. Unfortunately, she was a little tied up at the moment.

Standing in her fully transformed demonic form, Catherine fought against the demon. She didn’t seem to be doing all that well.

Irene would have thought that an oversized rottweiler would have been easy prey for the succubus.

Catherine had one arm caught in a bundle of tentacles. Her other arm was placed firmly on the demon’s head, trying to keep the tentacles from pulling her arm into its mouth. Her face was twisted into a grimace of frustration.

Behind the demon, the students attacking were not having much effect. Fire washed over the demon’s dark fur without so much as singing. Lightning fared better. Oozing scorch marks appeared around the single spot where lightning had struck.

Since that first bolt connected, the demon had taken to intercepting lightning with some of its spare tentacles. It was somewhat odd to watch it bat away streaks of electricity as if they were physical objects. One tentacle slapped away a bolt, sending it crashing into a desk.

It violated everything Irene knew about electricity–which wasn’t all that much, admittedly.

At least one of the water mages had the good sense to focus on extinguishing the flames that sprung up from the redirected lightning.

With a groan, Irene moved to a sitting position. Even little movements of her arm sent waves of pain flooding through her body.

Still, this was her mistake. She had to at least help fix it.

Pulling her wand from the holster at her side, Irene pointed it towards the summoning circle.

Starting just in front of Catherine’s feet, the ground of the summoning circle started to churn.

It was difficult, concentrating as she was. The pain in her shoulder wasn’t helping matters. Between that, the relatively long distance, and the fact that she was acting on tiled floor–some kind of stone, she wasn’t exactly sure what type–Irene was barely having an effect at all.

She was trying to make pits to latch onto the thing’s legs. It shouldn’t be that difficult. Sure, her final exam the previous year had been manipulating dirt–fairly loose dirt at that, but it was the same basic principle.

Her pits were less hole and more some kind of stone slurry. It was, however, doing something.

Despite Catherine having one arm stuck in place by the tentacles, she was putting up quite the fight.

Anytime the tentacles let up for a moment, to deflect lightning for instance, Catherine capitalized on the moment of weakness. She turned the hand keeping the demon from eating her other hand into a vicious claw aimed straight at the eyes.

Two of the demon’s four eyes were already lying on the floor in small puddles of violet blood.

Her tail wasn’t idle either.

Irene had initially thought that Catherine’s spaded tail was for balance or even decoration. The leathery spade at the tip certainly did not look sharp enough to rend limbs.

Yet that was exactly what it was doing.

The tail darted around almost faster than Irene could follow as if it had a mind of its own. A single cut couldn’t take out an entire tentacle. Each swipe amounted to little more than a shallow cut. The speed is what gave her tail its lethality. A flurry of cuts easily dismembered a snake-like tentacle.

The demon’s tentacles continually tried to interfere. They darted hither and thither, attempting to wrap around and contain Catherine’s tail.

For a brief moment, the demon tried to turn its head back towards the students that were slinging spells.

Catherine reared her own head back before plunging it down into the demon’s head. Her platinum hair went flying around her in a wild mane.

Both of her slightly curved horns came back dripping with violet blood.

With Catherine keeping the demon in one place, it started sinking into the softened ground.

Though nothing changed in her concentration, all four of the demon’s legs disappeared beneath the ground with a loud slurping noise. Its fat belly rested against the tiles, sinking only slightly.

Blinking at the sudden change in the tiles, Irene noted Randal standing nearby. He kept his wand trained on the demon.

No, trained on the ground beneath the demon.

At least someone caught on to what Irene was doing.

Fed up with putting out the small fires around the room, the water mage with burn marks covering her skin started conjuring a large body of water. She managed to rope one of the more panicky students into the task as well.

Before long, a bathtub-sized pool of water hovered over Catherine and the dog-like demon.

Kicking the dog in the face, Catherine swiped her sharp claws and tail straight through the last few tentacles holding on to her arm. She jumped out of the way just as the bathtub of water enveloped the demon.

While the two water mages worked to freeze their water solid, the air mage that had been throwing the largest lightning bolts set to charging up a truly frightening amount of lightning at the tip of his wand.

Steam burst from the watery orb as the most lightning Irene had ever seen outside of a natural storm pierced straight through the demon.

All of the floundering snake-like tentacles seized up. Bubbles of air came from the demon’s mouth as violet blood stained the water.

A moment later and the water froze over. The demon sat within, stilling as the ice froze on the inside as well.

With the demon looking much like an oversized curio jar, the rest of the students started to calm down.

For a moment, there was pure silence.

Well, except for the two remaining students still trying to break down the door.

“You two,” Catherine called out to the students by the door, “do not need to return next class.”

Neither of the two acknowledged her. The locks on the door clicked open as soon as Catherine finished speaking. They both fled from the room without a glance back, shouts and cries fading as they ran down the hall. The noises were cut off as the door swung shut again.

When they were stopped by someone else and asked what was wrong, Irene very much hoped that they would remember the contract that they signed. The consequences of forgetting wouldn’t be pleasant.

Irene had already learned from her actions. Losing her head and fleeing aimlessly was how she ended up nearly dead at the hands of a partial demon just a few months ago. She certainly wouldn’t be making that mistake again.

Brushing back her currently white-blond hair between her horns, Catherine turned in an instant from battle maiden to sultry charmer. The violet blood dripping from her horns and fingers left streaks in her hair. Irene wasn’t quite in the right state of mind to decide whether the blood added to the charm or upped her intimidation factor.

“The rest of you performed adequately. Though Irene,” Catherine said, turning, “should something go obviously wrong again, next time don’t get closer to the circle. I believe that ordeal would have been ended much sooner had my arm not been caught while getting you away.”

Irene grit her teeth. Less because of the admonishment–which she probably deserved–and more because of the increasingly painful ache in her arm. Still, she nodded an acknowledgment at the succubus.

Lightly tapping on the large ball of ice, Catherine frowned. “Now what do we do about–”

“That isn’t an imp,” someone blurted out.

“How very observant of you,” Catherine said as she rolled her eyes. “Yes, this is not an imp.”

Randal took a step forward. “I told her that the circle was inadequate,” he said with a self-righteous tone in his voice.

Catherine shot him a glare. He wilted, taking a step backwards.

“The circle,” Catherine said, “was flawless. Or at least no flaws that would have mattered.”

Irene tried to straighten up at the slight praise and at Randal being shot down, but the pain in her arm ruined that little action. Instead, she looked on as she kept her arm as still as possible.

“I could feel the shackles,” Catherine said. “They might not have kept me in, but they would have given me more pause than they gave our ugly friend here.” She patted the giant ice cube. “And the circle was keyed properly for imps. Nothing else should have been able to come through.”

“Then what is that?” said one of the older students with an exceptionally unnecessary gesture towards the ice.

“I haven’t the slightest idea.”

The entire classroom was struck dumb by that single proclamation. A few looked at one another with incredulity.

Irene frowned at the ice ball. Demons had such a variety in appearances and there were so many different ones that she had no clue where to start in identifying the creature.

Humans, for the most part, all had two arms, two legs, a head, and a body connecting it all together. Most humans had hair on their head, two eyes, a nose, a mouth. There were variances in coloring, hair style, muscle mass, and gender dimorphism, but overall, one could look at a photograph and pick out the humans with ease.

Demons weren’t so homogeneous. Arachne had eight eyes, eight legs, and the body of a spider. Catherine had horns, a tail, and wings like a bat. Lucy the security guard had shown up at the previous class and demonstrated her natural form which looked more like a plate of soggy spaghetti than a living thing.

And they all changed. They could turn into something more human-like. Though in Lucy’s case, Irene was having a hard time seeing her as anything but shaped spaghetti noodles since their last class; Lucy’s uncanny appearance just felt so much more pronounced.

There were a few shared traits according to the book. For instance, demons often had red eyes. Not in one hundred percent of cases. If she had a thousand demons in a hat and picked one at random, Irene would put all of her money on it having red eyes.

Irene blinked as she realized another shared trait. One that the book said had no known deviance.

“That thing isn’t a demon.”

“Very astute,” Catherine said as she turned to Irene. “Much more so than whoever said that it wasn’t an imp. What gave it away?”

“Its blood. The book said that demons all had black blood without exception. Purple is not black.”

“Yes, the first and most obvious thing. Well, while it is injured at least. For me, it was that it has no presence. Demons can sense each other to a degree, you see. This thing doesn’t ping my radar in the slightest. Though it does make me somewhat queasy.”

“So what is it?” someone asked.

For a moment, Irene wondered if she shouldn’t be trying to learn her classmates’ names. On one hand, this class felt like the sort of thing anonymity might be good for. On the other, it was kind of rude not to.

“Something that a few experts will have to come look at. For now, we need to ensure it doesn’t get loose. The shackles stopped it for a moment, something I find fairly interesting. I’ll find and drag Eva over here to have her set up some real shackles.”

“You can’t do it yourself?”

“I could.” She glanced up to the clock. “But class is over,” she said with a shrug. “Not really my responsibility now. Though I guess I should do something.” She hummed lightly for a moment before sighing. “Before I find Eva, I’ll pull our illustrious security guards over to keep an eye on it. In the meantime, if whatever water mages we have here could keep the ice from melting, that might be a good idea.”

Catherine stepped away from the ball of ice as one girl stepped up to it with her wand drawn.

The succubus started towards the door.

For a moment, Irene was sure that she had been forgotten. Catherine tossed on a bathrobe before she walked straight up to the door. As she placed her hand on the handle, she started turning back to her human form, ridding herself of her horns and tail as part of the process.

She stopped just short of turning the handle with a glance over her shoulder.

“I suppose you need to be taken to a nurse?”

Irene nodded eagerly. She tried to get to her feet on her own and wound up bumping her shoulder against the leg of a desk. Clamping down on the cry of pain that wanted to escape, Irene grit her teeth.

She didn’t want to give the rest of the class any more reason to think less of her.

A gentle hand gripped Irene’s shoulder–the one that wasn’t dislocated–and helped her to her feet.

Keeping her hand in place, Catherine looked out over the six remaining students in their class. “Anyone else need an escort to the nurse?”

She didn’t even wait for a response before directing Irene to the door.

“In that case, water mages stick around until someone from security shows up. Everyone else do whatever.”

Getting to the infirmary wasn’t much trouble. After stumbling once and bumping her arm against that desk, Irene was extremely grateful that Catherine had come back for her. Having some support helped a lot.

Along the way, they passed by one of the security guards–the elf.

For having been injured enough to require critical attention, he wasn’t looking too bad. Two full months had passed, plenty of time to recover.

Still, his lustrous hair hadn’t quite grown back all the way.

“Daenir,” Catherine snapped.

The elf started at her harsh voice. He blinked once before realizing who was addressing him. “Yes, ma’am?”

“I’ve told you before not to call me that.” Catherine didn’t even attempt to disguise her irritation.

“Of course. Sorry ma’am.”

“Call up one of the specialists and get them to room A-43. If they haven’t dropped everything and arrived in five minutes, Zagan will have words. And get out of my sight,” she added almost as an afterthought.

He complied with her first request immediately, pulling out a small cellphone and making the call.

Catherine started walking again before he could leave. She kept Irene in a firm grip as they moved away.

“Excellent,” Catherine said with a grin. “I was worried I would have to hunt one of them down. That’s one task complete. Now to finish up with you and then find Eva.” Mumbling under her breath, she said, “stupid girl needs a cellphone.”

Irene kept silent, though she agreed on that. Jordan and Catherine both had one, so it wasn’t like demons were allergic to the things.

The infirmary was only a quick walk from where they left the security guard. Some students, Irene knew, visited the place every month or so with various injuries. Irene was quite glad that she had avoided childish hallway fights. She didn’t find the idea of catching a lightning bolt in the back very pleasing, even one that tickled no more than a nine-volt battery.

She had only been to the infirmary twice. Once with an injured wrist, thanks to that idiot Drew, and again thanks to her own idiocy in running aimlessly while the Academy was swarming with fake demons.

The second time she had been brought in unconscious.

So when she walked in and the nurse on duty, Nurse Post, turned to her with a knowing smile, Irene was slightly surprised.

“Irene Coggins,” Nurse Post said, “what seems to be the trouble?”

“Her arm,” Catherine said before Irene could open her mouth. “She slipped down a set of stairs.”

“And you brought her in yourself? Why Catherine, you had better watch yourself. It sends the wrong impression. One might think you cared about someone other than yourself.”

“You could say that I’ve taken a special interest in this one.”

Nurse Post blinked. A somewhat odd look with one of her eyes hidden behind a cross-taped gauze patch. Her face blanked for a moment as her single red eye wandered to Irene, looking her up and down.

“But,” Catherine said, “I’ve got things to do. Fix her up.”

She let go of Irene, pushing her into the seat as she moved away. She took one step away.

And paused.

Catherine’s hand reached out, gripping Irene’s good shoulder like a vice. She bent down and leaned in close to Irene.

Too close.

Her lips brushed against Irene’s ear as she spoke.

“Don’t let what happened scare you away. I’ll see you next class.”

Irene blinked and Catherine was gone. The door clicked shut leaving only two occupants in the room.

“Well, that was interesting.”

Irene turned to the nurse with an eyebrow raised.

“But never mind for now. Your arm is dislocated,” she said, eye wandering to the disturbing bulge in Irene’s shoulder. “A simple dislocation. I would say that most of your tissues and nerves are still in place, just shifted. We can pop it back into place without much trouble. It will hurt for a moment with some lingering ache, but should be fine otherwise. Would you like some painkillers?”

Irene didn’t hesitate in her answer. “If it isn’t too much trouble.”

Nurse Post chuckled to herself as she turned to a potion cabinet. “Drink it down quick,” she said as she handed a vial to Irene. “You’ll have general numbness for about an hour. Overkill? Maybe. But we need to move fast before you swell up too much. That creates all kinds of complications.”

The potion tasted a lot like rubber. Flavorless chewing gum in a liquid form. Not very pleasant. Luckily, the numbing dampened Irene’s sense of taste almost immediately. The rest of her body soon followed.

As the potion took effect, Nurse Post laid out a large mat on the floor. She guided Irene over to it and had her lay down on top.

“That potion had a slight muscle relaxant, but I’d still like you to keep as relaxed as possible. I’m going to turn your arm nice and slowly,” she said, taking Irene’s hand into her own.

Placing her other hand at Irene’s elbow to keep it from moving, she started moving Irene’s hand away from her chest.

Every now and again, the muscles in Irene’s shoulder would have a small spasm.

“Sorry,” Irene said after the third time. “I’m trying not to.”

Nurse Post just smiled. “Oh don’t worry, it is expected. Now, we are getting to the point where your shoulder will slide back into position. There might be a light snapping–”

Irene winced, more out of shock than pain, as her arm snapped back to where it was supposed to be. She tried to move it almost immediately.

Nurse Post gripped her arm and held it steady. “Let’s get you a sling before you start moving around. You should keep it on until the inflammation dies down.”

While the nurse moved to find a sling, Irene propped herself up.

“What was all that about Catherine caring?”

“Oh, not much. Dean Turner hired her on last year. She’s attended all the staff meetings and maintains the reception desk. Yet she’s never really interacted with any other staff. It has become something of a running joke among us that the public face of Brakket is so against socializing.

“Of course, that was before I learned a few things that shed some light on the situation,” she said as she pulled a pale blue sling from a drawer. “But that’s neither here nor there. Arm out, carefully if you would.”

She attached the sling around Irene’s arm and neck. “I’d like to keep you here for about the hour it will take for your potion to expire. Your deadened senses could be problematic. You might leave you hand on a burner and not notice. Apart from that, we should make sure your swelling starts subsiding. I can offer you a bed or a desk for homework.”

“No, that’s fine. I have an essay to finish for Professor Carr anyway. Though I need my bag.” Irene pulled out her cellphone intending to call Shelby and have her grab it.

But that would mean explaining how she had become injured in the first place. That was impossible. Catherine had used the excuse about stairs, but even that was embarrassing enough on its own.

“On second thought, I am fairly tired. Perhaps I’ll just take a nap.”

Eva hadn’t seen all that many movies, but those she had seen were of the horror genre. And the scene in front of her looked like something straight out of a horror movie.

Blood stained the walls, the floors, and even the ceiling. The blood wasn’t smeared on, nor did it spell out macabre messages. It formed large circles of an arcane nature.

None of it dripped–Eva had made sure of that.

So thorough were her shackles that she actually had to finish up from outside the room. She didn’t want to risk trapping herself in her own shackles and have to call out for help. That would be beyond embarrassing.

Using her own blood, Eva was able to stay outside the room while she worked. The container of her blood came from her last treatment–completely unusable for most haemomancy yet still controllable after dipping her dagger inside. That made it the perfect medium for long-range shackle drawing.

And they were some impressive shackles. Eva had pulled out one of Devon’s tomes dedicated to advanced shackles. Every possible bell and whistle had been covered. No magic at all within the circles. No items could be passed from the inside to the outside. Sound and sight was obscured from the inside to the outside. Touching the edge from the inside would cause more than a little pain.

About twenty other effects as well, all designed to keep a demon contained and unable to interact with anything.

Zoe had offered input and supervision. While not an expert in diablery, she had decided that it would be prudent to learn how to create shackles given all the demonic incidents that she had found herself involved in over the past two years. She had set up air barriers around the place on the off-chance that the demon had already released some toxic gas or anything similar.

Eva was fairly certain that one of the shackles did something along those lines, but she hadn’t said anything. As Eva often felt the need to mention, she did not consider herself a diabolist and neither did she know all that much about shackles. It was all from the book.

Still, the drawings were fine handiwork, if Eva said so herself. So much so that Eva was absolutely certain that no demon she had ever heard of would be able to extract themselves from the room without outside assistance.

She thought that before Zagan walked in, walked around the giant ice cube once, and walked back out without a pause in his steps.

Eva shook her head. He was a devil class demon and therefore he did not count.

“So,” Eva said as Zagan approached her, “what is it?”

Zagan’s twin golden eyes glanced down at her. A thoughtful expression crossed his features for a moment before twitching into one of annoyance.

“That, my little embryonic one, is a curiosity.”

Eva frowned. “To be clear, you aren’t talking about a creature with the name of ‘curiosity’ are you?”

“An enigma, a mystery. Do make an effort to not be so daft.”

“What you are saying,” Eva said, brushing off the insult, “is that you don’t know.”

“It came from Hell, that much is clear. The summoning circle connected properly–I can smell the lingering aura of a domain in the air.”

Eva had been working within the room to set up the shackles and hadn’t smelled a thing. Even taking a deep breath now left her with a fairly neutral scent. There was the slight tinge of her own blood in the air, but nothing more.

Maybe giant bulls had an enhanced sense of smell.

Zagan ignored her actions, bringing up a thumb to stroke the tip of his chin. “Perhaps the imp brought a creature to its domain whereby the creature was summoned in its place. It could have been invading the imp’s domain much as you and your little friends did to that poor demon I slaughtered.”

Zoe stepped forward, looking Zagan in the eyes. “Does it have anything to do with the situation regarding Hell itself?”

“I suppose we won’t know until we figure out exactly what that creature is. However, I would say that we should eliminate more mundane theories before jumping to something quite so fantastical.”

“Let’s try summoning up an imp,” Eva said. “If it works like normal, then we can probably write this off as some oddity. If we get more of those things,” she thumbed over her shoulder towards the large block of ice, “then we’ll at least know not to summon more imps for our class.”

Zoe turned to face Eva with a sharp glare. “Ah, yes. We still haven’t talked about your ‘class.'”

Eva winced and held up her hands. While she had thought to invite Zoe one of these days, she had intended to broach the subject with far more tact than Catherine showing up and blurting out that something went wrong.

“Martina Turner thought it was a brilliant idea,” she said, trying to force as much sarcasm in her voice as possible. “Take up its inception with her, not me.”

“You’re still teaching it.”

“I’m here to keep the stupid children out of trouble.” And maybe get some help for Shalise and Juliana, she thought with a subtle glance towards Zagan.

The devil was pointedly ignoring the conversation, looking above-it-all as he so often did.

“And a great job you’ve been doing of that,” Zoe said, pointing at the room.

Hands on her hips, Eva frowned. “Well sorry. Being attacked by rogue nuns has a way of making one late to other appointments.”

“Nuns?” Zagan said, attention suddenly on Eva. “The Death nuns, yeah? After the hel’s little temper tantrum, I half expected them to vacate their presence on the North American continent.”

“Hence my usage of the word ‘rogue.'” Eva did not feel it wise to mention exactly who said nun was to Zagan. There was always the chance that he wanted to finish their fight.

Though he brought up an interesting topic. Eva had heard from Ylva about how the inquisitorial division of the Elysium Order had been taken apart–somewhat literally–but she had never heard what happened to the Elysium Order in general. Maybe she would question Sister Cross on the topic provided the nun could contain her vitriol.

That was a laughable idea.

Having Nel spy on her former companions seemed far more likely to get the information.

Unfortunately, Eva didn’t care enough about the Elysium Order to ask Nel to spy. Mostly because Nel was already searching for Sawyer. While Eva planned to solve that issue on her own, if Nel could find him first then all the better for her.

“In any case,” Eva said to Zoe, “if I weren’t around supervising, Catherine would be left to teach the class on her own. And look where that got them today.”

There, Eva thought triumphantly, turn it around and make Catherine and Martina Turner the bad guys.

“Neither of you are responsible adults,” Zoe said, crossing her arms. “You aren’t an adult and Catherine is far from responsible.”

“Martina originally wanted Devon for the project,” Zagan said, oh so helpfully.

Zoe let out a long sigh as she rubbed her forehead. “I’ll be attending classes from now on. And if I can’t make it, Wayne will be there. If neither of us can make it, cancel class for the day.”

Eva blinked in surprise. “You’re… not going to try to stop it completely?”

“As much as I hate to admit it, the idea may not be wholly flawed. Especially given the Hell Convergence issue. Having more humans who are knowledgeable about such things couldn’t hurt.”

“Even though they’re kids?”

Zoe’s lips formed into a thin line. “Are you deliberately trying to get me to have second thoughts about it?”

Eva just shrugged. Honestly, she still wasn’t too pleased with the project herself. She couldn’t exactly say as such in front of Zagan. Not if she wanted his help.

“Perhaps,” Zoe said, “I’ll feel out some of the other staff. We’ll see who might be more ambivalent to the idea of demons.”

“I’ll leave that to you.” Eva almost thought about suggesting a second class for the adults. Unfortunately, that would just take up more time than she was already expending on the class.

Turning to Zagan, Eva said, “is there anything else we need to do while here? If not, I’ve got a prisoner to take care of.”

Zagan brushed his hand off to one side. “Do what you want. I have a few… appointments of my own to keep.” That said, he started walking off down the hall, no longer paying any attention to Zoe or Eva.

Closing and locking the door to the room, Eva glanced around. “Wasn’t there supposed to be a security guard here?”

“Daru left partway through your warding,” Zoe said, pulling out her cellphone. After a few quick taps on the screen, her phone buzzed a response. “Alright, Lucy is on her way. She will keep watch on it over the night. But are we really going to leave it here, in the school with all the children running around?”

“It would be nice if it could stay on ice until Devon got back.” Ignoring Zoe’s eye-roll, Eva continued. “I’m not about to trust that Zagan spoke all of his thoughts about the creature. Even if he did and truly doesn’t know, I’m sure Devon would have something intelligent to say about it. Probably something more useful than ‘it is an enigma’ in any case. Or…” Eva trailed off, biting her lip.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh nothing,” she said with a shake of her head. Both of them started walking down the hallway towards Brakket Academy’s main entrance.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Eva responded. “I just thought of another magizoologist that might find that creature interesting. I doubt Carlos will be all that enthused to receive a letter from me.”

“You haven’t heard from them?”

“Not since Genoa was moved from the school infirmary. Juliana didn’t even tell me what hospital they were going to. She probably hates me,” Eva said with a sigh. “And Arachne too.”

“I can’t exactly fault her for the latter. You, on the other hand, most definitely saved Genoa’s life.”

“If I had better control over Arachne, none of it would have happened. Though, she has made a few interesting decisions as of late.”

Zoe quirked an eyebrow as she glanced down at her side. “Oh?”

“For instance, Sister Cross is still alive. I didn’t even have to warn her off.”

Shaking her head, Zoe let out a disapproving hum. “To be perfectly honest, I would much rather have her stay locked up in her room.”

“I…” Eva sighed. “I just want things to go back to the way they used to be. There is a disgusting, awkward feeling between the two of us at the moment. Hopefully, hunting Sawyer will cheer her up. The thought of it is enough to make me giddy, so it should do wonders for her.”

Walking a step in front of Zoe, Eva smiled slightly as she caught the professor’s lips pressing together in a frown through her blood sight.

“Not going to try to stop me?” Eva said when Zoe failed to respond.

“It is in my opinion that Sawyer needs to be put down. Permanently. I would rather take out a bounty with the Guild or direct the Elysium Order in his direction.”

“But you’re not going to stop me.”

“Just take Arachne with you. Ylva too.”

“I don’t know about Ylva, but Nel wanted to fight. Get herself a little revenge, I think.”

“Would she be any use?”

“She could keep an eye on him. Or exits, I suppose. He’s doing something to block her sight. Likely with the eyes that were not recovered.”

Both women fell into silence as they turned a corner. Despite it being late in the evening on a Saturday, another professor was walking down the hallway. Not one of Eva’s teachers. Probably someone who taught electives or just other years’ regular classes.

With her second year drawing towards its conclusion, perhaps it was time to give some thought towards electives. Warding might be interesting. She already had something of a background in the topic given her blood wards, but those were a far cry from thaumaturgical wards. Still, one could never have enough protection for their stuff.

She hadn’t ever come up with a good way of activating a shield using runes. Maybe a warding class would have the answer.

Golemancy would be interesting too. The blood clone she created earlier had some bases in the subject, though again it was created using haemomancy rather than thaumaturgy.

The basilisk Juliana’s parents had gifted her was probably a golem of some type. If her little enhancement worked the way she hoped it would, a golemancy background could be very useful indeed.

“Ah,” Eva said aloud, remembering the whole reason she wanted to talk with Zoe after their spar. “Are you busy for the rest of the night?”

“I still have your essays to grade. This,” she waved her hand in a vague manner, “occupied far more time than I expected to spend.”

“You can’t put it off until tomorrow?”

“I took a break today for our spar and this, which might have put me behind schedule. I’m afraid I’ll be spending much of tomorrow grading as well.”

“That busy, huh?”

“Let’s just say that leaving Catherine in charge tends to create unnecessary work. If she could ruin your class as much as she did in two hours, imagine what she did to my class over the course of two weeks. I’m still sorting through half of that mess.”

“At least she wasn’t summoning demons in your class,” Eva said with a chuckle.

“Small mercies.” Zoe stopped just outside the Brakket main entryway.

Eva shivered as the February evening air seeped through her clothes. It was crisp and dry, that much Eva was thankful for. Snow had been sparse this winter. That didn’t mean it wasn’t cold.

Clasping her hands around her upper arms didn’t do much to help. In fact, it might have worsened the sensation. The outside of her carapace was not warm.

At least not until she ignited her hands. She kept her clothes from burning. The heat flowed through her.

“Dropping any pretense of needing a wand?”

“I still use it in class. There’s no one out here to see, so why not?”

“A good thing too,” she said, taking a step away. “I can’t say I know any pyrokinetics that set themselves on fire. Especially not without toning down the heat.”

Still shivering slightly, Eva glanced up at Zoe with an eyebrow raised. “Is it really that hot?”

“Not all of us are half demon.”

Zoe’s tone of voice was somewhat jovial, but her smile turned sad.

As she did every time the subject came up.

Really, it was getting to be annoying.

“Do we need to talk about that? Again?”

“No,” Zoe said softly. “I just wish things had been different for you. You’re a good girl, Eva.”

Eva disagreed–haemomancers should be excluded from the ‘good’ category by definition, but she wasn’t about to say that to her face. However, she felt she was far from ‘bad’ as well. It wasn’t like she was Sawyer.

“But,” Zoe said, “I do need to get back home.”

“Ylva still keeping a watch over your apartment?”

“I’m not planning on asking her to stop until the Sawyer situation is dealt with.”

“That can’t come soon enough.”

“Agreed.”

A short moment of companionable silence passed before Zoe gave Eva a light tap on the shoulder.

“I’ll see you in class,” she said. With a puff of chilled air, Zoe vanished.

Eva started to build up her own magic for a teleport back to the prison. A nostalgic thought stayed her hand.

She started walking forwards. The flames on her hands receded to nothing more than warm embers so as to not draw attention from anyone looking out their dorm window. It was late, but who knew with teenagers.

Moving into the Rickenbacker dormitory, Eva headed up the staircase to the third floor. Soon enough, room three-thirteen sat before her.

Eva reached out to the handle before realizing her folly.

Her key was all the way back at the prison. She hadn’t used it in months, having stayed exclusively within her women’s ward or spending the occasional night in Ylva’s domain.

And really, there wasn’t much inside. Maybe a few books of hers that shouldn’t be lying around, but nothing too damning. Anything important was in the prison.

Though she wondered if the same could be said of Shalise and Juliana’s belongings. Had Juliana cleared out her stuff before leaving? Shalise still had things in there for sure.

Taking a step back from her door, Eva had a brief thought to go visit Shalise. Being alone in Hell with no one but Prax for company had to be a nightmare. Besides, it was about time to deliver more homework and collect what she had done.

Shalise had been overjoyed to find she could still do her homework in absentia. Zoe had even passed through Ylva’s domain every other week so far to give her private tutoring lessons.

In light of that, Zoe’s busyness was even more understandable.

Just as Eva was about to leave, she stopped again. Turning to the door adjacent to room three-thirteen, Eva knocked.

A moment of muffled shuffling later and the door opened.

“Shelby,” Eva said as the black-haired girl opened the door, glad that the twins weren’t of the identical kind. Though she hadn’t signed any contracts, accidentally talking about what she wanted to talk about with Irene might lead to some awkward silence and deflections. “Is your sister in?”

The girl before her scrunched up her eyes, brought her hand to her mouth and released a truly magnificent yawn before responding. “Haven’t seen her all night,” she said. “Thought she was with you.”

“I haven’t seen her all night either,” Eva said.

“Maybe try asking Jordan? I know that he met with her earlier today.”

“It wasn’t that important. I mostly stopped by on a whim. I’ll talk to her on Monday.”

“Say,” Shelby said, stepping out of the room. She left the door open a crack behind her. “What have you been up to with my sister? She’s been all secretive and evasive whenever we ask her. She tries not to act like it, but,” she crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame with a smug smile on, “I’ve been her sister my whole life. It’s pretty obvious.”

Eva opened her mouth

and froze.

What excuses had Irene used?

“You aren’t dating her, are you?” Shelby asked, saving her from responding. “I mean, not that I have any problems with that. She’s my sister and I’d support her even if she wanted to marry a troll.”

Eva winced as Shelby’s face turned to a grimace of disgust.

“Well, maybe not a troll,” she said. “But I don’t think you’re very troll-like at all.”

“That’s… thanks? But no, we’re not dating. I can’t say I’ve had a single thought of romance towards anyone. Kind of not my thing?”

Shelby reached out, resting her hand on Eva’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll awaken to a more interesting side of life when you’re older.”

“I see…” Politely smiling, Eva backed up a few steps. “I’ll talk to her later. Don’t want to keep you up all night.”

Letting out another tremendous yawn, Shelby waved her off. “Good idea.” Slinking back into her room, Shelby started to shut the door. “Oh,” she said, “in case I don’t see you tomorrow, happy birthday!”

Eva froze in her walk away, blinking in surprise. After telling everyone when her birthday was over the summer, she hadn’t actually expected any of them to remember.

She only remembered because it meant that it was almost time for her spring treatment.

After giving Shelby a belated “thanks,” Eva wandered off to the nearest stairwell. Arachne would probably want to spend the day with her.

Probably. It was becoming harder and harder to tell exactly what she was thinking.

Sighing, Eva built up the magic for a teleport to the women’s ward.

She still had Sister Cross to deal with.

Or perhaps not. It was her birthday. Sister Cross was not the sort of company she cared for any day of the week, let alone her birthday.

She’d live for one day.

There were others whose company she’d rather be in.

Eva glided to a stop just outside of what she had taken to calling the alternate women’s ward.

The women’s ward of her domain.

And something was wrong. She could feel it. Some uncanny sense of sickness in her stomach that told her something was wrong.

It had nothing to do with her gliding. Whenever Eva entered her domain, she never had to fear. Everyone else who came in fell from some height. After tiring of having to stop her fall every time, Zoe had created a sort of air cushion to land on.

Eva felt that she should be able do the same or better, but she was still far too new at controlling her domain properly. Replicating real-world things she had seen and experienced was easy enough. Accidental conjuring of things she thought of was annoying enough. Purposeful creation of new concepts wasn’t that easy.

Since she had seen Zoe create the slow-fall area, she thought it would be easy to copy. It was something she had been meaning to attempt for a while now.

Unfortunately, that would have to wait.

The alternate women’s ward had its heavy steel doors closed.

That was unusual. Every other time she had been here, the doors were open. Seeing them shut only reinforced that feeling of wrongness.

Within Eva’s domain, there wasn’t much temperature difference between indoors and outdoors. There was a comfortable warmth spread throughout the entire area. With no insects or other pests to keep out, there really was no reason to shut the doors.

“Shalise?” Eva called out as she walked up to the doors.

She paused as she spotted a possible reason why the doors were closed.

Deep gouges marred the steel. One corner had been peeled back. Claw marks dug into the stone surrounding the door.

“Shalise!”

The handle had been torn off, as had the lock. Given that the lock was on the outside–the place was originally a prison–it probably didn’t help much against whatever was trying to break in.

Sticking her fingers into the holes where the handle used to be, Eva tried to pry it open. It started to give, only to catch on something. Her fingers slipped.

The door snapped back into place with a crash of thunder.

Gritting her teeth, Eva dug both of her hands into the door.

This is my domain and I will not be denied.

Eva braced herself with one foot against the wall. And then she pulled.

There was the telltale creak of metal straining against metal. The creak climbed to its crescendo before something snapped.

The door swung open, Eva swinging with it. Balance lost, she fell back onto the ground.

Shards of metal rained down around her. Brushing it off, she got to her feet feeling glad that she was alone at the moment.

It took her a moment to realize what the metal was.

A bed frame had been torn up and the long metal bars had been slid through the handle on the inside of the door, preventing it from opening. Her dresser and what looked to be the couch had been propped up in front of the door as well.

Though, since the door opened outwards, the furniture didn’t provide much in the way of an obstacle. Eva easily slid them off to one side.

She stepped inside, half expecting a scene of carnage to greet her.

Why, she wasn’t quite sure. The door had been intact.

Instead, it appeared mostly normal. The only real exception was the furniture that had been rearranged into a barricade.

Looking closer gave cause for Eva to frown. Purple liquid had splattered around one of the walls near a cell. The door–this time a sliding door–had been pinched shut around something oddly familiar.

The same thing that had been frozen in a block of ice back at Brakket.

Was it dead? It was difficult to tell. Its blood still moved, but it didn’t. Not very fast. Its heart only beat once in the time Eva spent looking at it.

The iced creature at Brakket had a far more regularly beating heart.

“Shalise!” Eva shouted, running up to the room.

The window had been broken open. Bars the size of her wrist had been bent inwards, most dripping with purple blood. But apart from the creature in the doorway, nothing was inside.

In the real world, the room would have been her teleport gate room. Here, it was just empty.

Eva started to put together a picture of what had happened. These things attacked. Shalise managed to make it inside and barricade the door. One or more broke through the window. Alerted to that fact, probably by the noise, Shalise ran over and tried to shut the door.

But instead caught the creature.

Judging by the hand-shaped indentation in the door, Shalise was using Prax’s muscles as well. That would help explain why the creature was nearly bisected.

Eva hesitated continuing her search for Shalise. If the creatures were still here, she would need a weapon.

Not having expected an enemy to be within her own domain, Eva was ill equipped to deal with them. All she had on her was her dagger.

Really, all she needed.

Eva buried the dagger into the back of the monster on her floor. Its violet blood welled up, leaping to be controlled by her haemomancy.

A good sign. She had been worried that it might be a construct of some sort and unable to be controlled.

Unfortunately, it felt runny. Swishing it around in the air before her gave Eva the impression of water more than blood. Like it had been diluted. Regular human blood was probably better, though she wasn’t entirely certain how her own blood stood up in comparison without actual testing.

Gathering up a decent amount of the blood–almost all of the blood still in the corpse–Eva looked around with her blood sight, seeing beyond the walls of the rooms. Something she should have done beforehand.

None of them had much out of place that she could see without entering. No traces of blood, more creatures, or Shalise.

Except for the potions room.

Eva threw open the door and charged inside only to stop dead in her tracks. Gasping a quick breath of fresh air, Eva covered her mouth.

Visible fumes hung in the air like thick smog. The ceiling dripped all colors of potions from condensation. In the back of the room, the window was torn open much the same way as the gate room.

Eva’s largest potions cabinet had been tipped over. A pool of potions spread out on the floor. Some mixing into foul colors, others staying separate like oil on water.

The cabinet wasn’t lying flat. Something was under one corner of it. It didn’t take a lot of guesswork to figure out what; the snake-like tentacles were a dead giveaway. It was one of the enigma creatures.

Shalise was draped over the top of the cabinet. It looked like she had been pressing down on top of the enigma. The fumes had likely overpowered her.

She was still alive, passed out, but alive. Her heart had a steady beat to it.

Taking another breath of fresh air, Eva pinched her eyes shut and entered the room. She scooped up Shalise, extremely grateful that the girl wasn’t currently a muscle-bound hulk, and beat a hasty retreat.

Slamming the potions room door shut behind her, Eva quickly moved and set Shalise down on the couch. Her white tee-shirt had splatters of blood covering it. Luckily, it was just the purple blood. She looked whole and hearty aside from being unconscious.

Eva decided to secure the alternate women’s ward before attending further to Shalise. She finished checking all the rooms with her own eyes to make sure there wouldn’t be any sudden surprises and then secured all the doors. That done, Eva made her way back to Shalise.

With her potions room in shambles, Eva had nothing magical to help wake Shalise up. She settled for lightly smacking the girl’s cheeks. Her light slaps turned harder and harder as Shalise refused to return to consciousness, though she took care not to injure her.

Just as Eva was about to leave to find a glass of water to dump on Shalise’s head, her eyes snapped open.

For just a moment, she stayed on the couch and pressed herself farther back into the cushions.

Recognition surfaced as she blinked. Shalise flew off the couch to wrap her trembling arms around Eva.

For her part, Eva went stiff as a board. “It’s alright,” Eva said once the shock of suddenly being grabbed wore off. She placed a few hesitant pats on Shalise’s back. “Can you tell me what happened?”

A long moment of silence passed before Shalise pulled back from Eva. “I-I was out walking along the beach as I do every morning,” she said.

Eva nodded along when she failed to continue.

“I saw t-them out there, on the beach. I thought they were dogs at first. Then I saw the tentacles and thought they were demon dogs. They were walking along the beach as well, occasionally nipping at each other.

“When they n-noticed me, they glanced at one another before letting out a terrible howl.” She shuddered. “It was like a high-pitched whine, a sudden silence, and then a cannon going off right next to my head. Around that time, Prax started shouting at me to run.”

Eva frowned. If the enigma creatures looked at each other before attacking, did that speak of some intelligence? She didn’t know enough about pack animals to say one way or the other, but it almost sounded like something humans might do to reaffirm their position with each other and ability to attack.

“Does Prax know what they are?” Eva asked.

Shalise shook her head. “Just that he got an intense feeling of fear from them.” She glanced off to one side, eyes narrowing. “Not that he is admitting it.”

“I’m glad you’re okay.” Eva patted her on the back another two times. It was a stiff action, but Shalise was one of those people who would be comforted by it. “I think I’ve decided to call them enigmas since no one else knows what they are either.”

“Is someone else here?” she asked, looking over the back of the couch to the rest of the room.

“No, just me. But Zoe and I saw one back in the mortal realm. A few others too.” Eva waved the tangent off. “Anyway, you made it back here and barricaded yourself in then killed the two of them? You were passed out in the potions room on top of the cabinet.”

Shalise nodded. “I’m glad the other one didn’t get me. I didn’t even notice I was feeling lightheaded until Prax pointed it out. Another second or two of heavy breathing had the world swirling around me.”

“Other one?” Breaking off eye contact with Shalise, Eva started scanning the room. Every corner, floor to ceiling. “How many did you see on the beach?”

“Three.”

Eva tensed. The blood started orbiting her at a high speed. “I only saw two corpses.”

Once again, Eva ran a quick search through every room in the women’s ward. She took the extra time to check beneath her bed, in cupboards, and anywhere else a dog sized creature might hide. Her blood sense was turning up nothing, but these things were strange enough. If they could hide from her while alive, she wouldn’t be surprised.

Shalise trailed behind her, looking every which way. Her muscles were slowly bulging out with Prax’s magic. She didn’t help much in the actual searching, but that was fine with Eva. If Shalise could provide a lookout while Eva was hunched over under a bed, she was being more than useful.

They found nothing. No sign of another forced entry. Nothing in Eva’s blood sight except herself, Shalise, and one corpse–the other having been drained of blood.

“Alright,” Eva said, “we’re going on a quick run around the island. I’ll not suffer an enemy running free in my domain.”

She wasn’t expecting them to be difficult to kill either. Shalise managed two on her own. Catherine hadn’t killed hers, but Eva didn’t think she had much trouble containing it based on her story.

Besides, she was in her domain. While she might lack the absolute control that Willie had, Eva was confident in its desire to protect her.

Shalise gave a shaky nod of her head. Her eyes were still darting all around the common room as if one of the enigmas would jump out at her at any moment.

“Stick close,” Eva said as she threw open the main door.

There wasn’t all that much land to cover. The alternate women’s ward, its small courtyard and walls, and then the beach surrounding it. There was nothing else within Eva’s domain. Even the beach didn’t extend too far. Perhaps just far enough that Eva had to move to keep the entirety of the island within her blood vision.

The lack of anything on her island had been the cause for some concern. When Eva first built up the alternate women’s ward, she had been worried that the showers and sink would flood. Water was created from her runic arrays, but the drainage pipes didn’t lead anywhere.

After leaving the water on for a long while under her watch, Eva came to the conclusion that the drains simply disappeared the water because that was the apparent effect of the real life version. She never thought about or cared about where the water was going so her domain didn’t either.

She actually hadn’t checked to see if the water drained off into the ocean, though she doubted it did. If Eva were to take a shovel all the way around the building, she doubted she would ever find a pipeline leading out.

But unless the enigma had crawled down the pipes, the point was moot anyway.

Eva and Shalise stuck to the surface. They walked around both the building and the exterior of the walls around the beach. Eva even jumped up to the roof just in case the enigmas could hide from her blood sight while they were alive.

The only two living things they could find on the island were Eva and Shalise.

There weren’t even prints in the sand. Not even from the two that Eva had seen with her own eyes.

“Could you have been mistaken about the number?”

Shalise shook her head. “There were definitely three. Prax saw them too. Maybe one wandered back into the waters?”

“Maybe,” Eva said, not really meaning it. That feeling of wrongness she had when she first stepped into her domain, the feeling of something uncanny that did not belong, whatever it was, she was still feeling it.

She walked out onto the largest portion of the beach, directly in front of the gateway of the alternate women’s ward wall. As she walked, she closed her eyes and focused on that feeling. The moment she felt it weakening, she stopped and took a step backwards. Moving side to side, Eva came to a stop on the point where the feeling felt the strongest.

Opening her eyes, Eva looked around.

There was nothing special about the location. It was a spot on the beach. No markings, no discolored sand. The spot wasn’t lined up with the gateway, but slightly off to one side. There was nothing above her but the pitch black void that encompassed the entirety of her sky.

With a frown, Eva turned back to Shalise. “I–”

Eva jumped, leaping with all the might that her version of Arachne’s legs could provide.

It wasn’t far enough. She felt something clamp down on her ankle. Something with sharp teeth.

The enigma had burrowed so far beneath her that it had been out of her blood sight. Eva hadn’t known that her domain existed that deep. Even once it came into her sight, it had moved so fast she hadn’t had the time to properly react.

Eva fell from her leap, dragged and hindered by the thing that was gnawing her foot off. She hit the ground. Sand scraped against her face.

Sending the purple blood to coat the enigma, Eva rolled over to her back and clapped her hands together.

Rather than the utter obliteration she had been expecting, the blood just fizzled. The top layer of skin on the enigma actually came off. That was about it.

Either the enigma was incredibly durable–unlikely based on how Shalise killed the two–or their blood was so weak that even Eva’s mixed blood was leagues ahead in terms of strength.

Dismissing blood magic for the moment, Eva ignited her entire leg. She started building up her flames, much as she had against Willie-Arachne’s giant beetle. Explosions from within a creature tended to work out in the most excellent of manners. If the enigma did have an armored exterior, its insides wouldn’t.

While her flames built, she kicked out with her other foot. Her sharp toes caught the enigma right in the eye.

Eva let out a scream as she felt the enigma’s teeth crunch down on her leg. The flames building at the end of her foot snuffed out with her foot no longer attached to her leg.

She kicked and kicked and kicked and kicked. Its face turned to ground beef under her rage-filled fervor.

Out of nowhere, Shalise landed on the enigma. Her muscled form ground it into the sand.

The thing dead–even had Eva’s kicks not finished it off, its heart had clearly been crushed by Shalise–Eva clenched her jaw. Her fist slammed down into the sand again and again in a mad effort to distract herself from the pain of her severed foot.

It wasn’t quite as bad as having her fingers, toes, and eyes cut out. Here the pain was all focused on one point. Had she been allowed free range of motion back under Sawyer’s knife, she probably would have done a lot more than punch the ground a few times.

Eva pulled herself back under control with long meditative breaths.

“Y-you’re bleeding!”

“I know,” Eva snapped through grit teeth.

She shut her eyes and took another deep breath. It wasn’t Shalise’s fault. She should have realized that the thing was under the sand.

“I’m fine,” Eva said.

“Your whole foot is off!”

Eva grit her teeth, remaining silent until she had taken another breath. She really didn’t want to snap at Shalise, but the excitable girl was making it so hard not to.

“It’s just a flesh wound,” Eva said. “I’ve had worse.”

Leaning forward and concentrating on anything but the feeling in her leg, Eva wrenched open the jaw of the enigma. She stuck her arm in and pulled out her foot.

It didn’t look too bad. Not a clean break by any stretch of the word, but the majority of the foot was whole. Being a demon limb, and herself at least somewhat a demon, Eva couldn’t see any reason why she couldn’t reattach it the same way she had originally when she got it from Arachne.

Lining up the foot with her leg, Eva started channeling magic. She wasn’t entirely sure if there was a specific way to go about reattaching it, but she tried replicating the feeling she had when Arachne had done it. Not the easiest task given she had been under several doses worth of numbing potions, but magic did not feel quite the same as mundane stimuli.

Eva smiled even as she bit down on a sharp pain. The two parts reconnected. It was working. She continued channeling her magic, watching as the meat weaved itself back together.

The carapace worked much slower. After a point, nothing happened. Eva continued to channel magic, but the carapace ceased to mend. There were still cracks, chips, and even a whole chunk missing.

Better than missing the whole foot, Eva mused. It helped that the pain had died down to much more manageable levels.

“That’s really disgusting,” Shalise said with a shudder. Still, she was good-natured enough to hold out a helping hand.

Eva, with the help of Shalise, got back on her feet.

And almost immediately fell back down. Putting weight on her damaged foot caused it to wobble and give way. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much pain.

Shalise caught Eva and turned herself into something of a crutch. “Are you alright?”

“Fine enough,” Eva said. Realizing what happened, she explained for Shalise’s sake. “My legs don’t have bones in them. It’s all exoskeleton. With it damaged as it is, it can’t support my weight properly.”

“You’ll heal though, right?”

“Probably,” Eva said with a shrug. Her blood magic didn’t work on the chitin as well as it did on her skin, so that method was out. But Arachne could heal from entire limbs being taken off. Surely she could manage mending an inch or so of chitin.

Taking her dagger in hand, Eva drained off a small amount of her own blood and filled in the cracks in her carapace, hardening the blood as it filled in. It wouldn’t be half as strong as the natural carapace, and Eva wasn’t about to try putting weight on it, but it would keep the meat inside.

Her arm and side were still damaged from Sister Cross’ lightning whip as well. All holes stuffed full of blood to keep them from being open to the air. She either needed to heal fast or find a good ritual that would work, though a ritual might have to wait until the Elysium magic dissipated on its own.

That reminded Eva of half the reason she had even come down to visit Shalise.

After using her friend as a crutch all the way back to the women’s ward couch, Eva opened her mouth to speak.

Shalise beat her to the punch.

“You’re going to leave again, aren’t you.”

“Yes,” Eva said without hesitation. Before Shalise could protest, she continued. “But someone came by today wondering where you were. Someone who might want to live here.”

“Who would want to live here?” Shalise’s eyes went wide as soon as the words came out of her mouth. Off to the side, she hissed, “shut up. I didn’t mean it like that.”

Eva just smiled. Sister Cross wasn’t going to be given much choice in the matter. “I have to leave to go get her, but Sister Cross should be more than capable of handling these little creatures. Though you might want to avoid walks on the beach.”

Shalise’s bright eyes lost some of their luster. “Sister Cross?” Slumping slightly, she asked, “does she have to come?”

Blinking–that wasn’t quite the response that Eva had expected–Eva tilted her head to one side. “Unless you want to be alone if more of those things show up.”

After biting her lip, Shalise shook her head. “No. I don’t.”

“Alright,” Eva said. “Good. I’m going to stay here for a day or so, I think. Mostly to heal.” And to give time for Sister Cross to heal. Hopefully Arachne would be able to handle any complications back in the real world without overreacting. Potion distribution for instance. “While I’m here, we’ll fix this place up and reinforce some things. Can’t have you being unsafe while I’m out fetching Sister Cross.”

“That sounds great,” Shalise said with a long sigh of relief. “But are there going to be more of them?”

“No idea. Hopefully not.”

Eva frowned. If they showed up in her domain, would they show up in Ylva’s domain? Hers was attached to the real world–something Eva desperately wanted to learn how to do–and could let a bunch loose if she wasn’t careful. And then there was Zoe living in a sliver of Ylva’s domain.

Biting her lip, Eva decided. She needed to get a message back as soon as possible. If Zoe fell asleep and these things showed up, she might be missing more than an easily reattachable leg.

“Eva.”

The girl in question froze solid. Almost literally. The ambient temperature dropped faster than a lead weight in water. It reached the point where Eva could see her own breath.

With a stiff back and tense muscles, she turned around. Her hastily fashioned crutch clanked on the marble tiles during her maneuver. Putting on a polite smile, she performed a cautious bow.

“Ylva.”

“You came through Hell.”

“I did,” Eva said, suppressing a wince. “And I swear, it is not my intention to proceed back into the mortal realm though your domain. I’ll use the beacon that Zoe activated for me.”

Zoe had been activating beacons for Eva every time she went to visit Shalise. She even activated one for Arachne, though that had taken a good deal more pleading. Arachne had yet to use hers even once.

“You tread dangerous ground,” Ylva said, ice-cold eyes boring into her. “Our domain rests on the precipice of planes. We would find it displeasing should your presence offend the sensibilities of Keeper.”

“I know. I just had a warning for you. I’ll return the moment it is delivered.”

Ylva’s eyes narrowed. As the silence dragged on, Eva realized she had chosen poor wording. Calling it a warning made it sound almost like a threat. Just as she was about to rephrase her sentence, Ylva opened her mouth.

“Speak.”

Eva took a deep breath.

She knew that coming here would be risky. Ylva had been quite adamant against using her domain to pass through realms, specifically from Hell to Earth. While she could have used the beacon she had asked Zoe to activate for her, Eva would have to track her down–or possibly Irene–to activate another immediately after. That and the fact that simply entering Ylva’s domain through the waters of Hell was the fastest method of getting a message to Ylva and the others.

Ylva appearing behind her the moment she had stepped out of the beach room was a testament to just how much she did not envy the attention of Keeper. Eva was just glad she was being afforded this chance to explain herself.

And explain herself she did. She went over a brief summary of the day’s events. From the creatures that not even Zagan knew what to make of all the way to her own encounter just an hour past within her own domain.

Throughout it all, Ylva remained silent. Her gaze never wavered. Not once did she express surprise, worry, or anger. She was blank to the point where Eva thought she might have already known, if not for what she said as soon as Eva finished speaking.

“This… is most concerning.”

“I’m glad you agree,” Eva said, some relief filling her. Mostly at the fact that her trespass hadn’t been for nothing. “I presume you are able to handle yourself. My worries were mostly for Nel and Zoe, as both reside within your domain. Zoe might be able to handle herself so long as she doesn’t find herself ambushed. Were Nel to come across them… well, let’s just say that I don’t know how good she is at self-defense.”

Eva tapped her crutch against her recently attached foot. “If they can bite through Arachne’s chitin, I doubt they would find human flesh much of an impediment.”

“Your missive has been received and considered. We must now insist that you return to Hell.”

“Of course,” Eva said without hesitation.

Under Ylva’s watchful eye, she marched straight back into the water room. Eva hadn’t even made it to the throne room proper, just the short hallway that separated the antechamber, so the walk wasn’t long by any stretch of the word.

So short was the trip to the edge of the water that Eva barely had the time to ask a quick favor of Ylva.

“Could you pass the word on to Arachne as well?” Eva asked. “And when she inevitably rushes off towards this room, could you tell her that I said not to come. That ensuring Sister Cross has all the potions she needs to heal up as soon as possible is more important.”

Ylva did not cease her vigil over Eva as the girl begun wading into the water. Still, she had curiosity in her voice as she asked, “have your plans for the nun been altered by these ‘enigmas?'”

Eva shook her head. “Nope, just increased the urgency of my plans. I cannot be constantly in my domain to protect Shalise. Sister Cross should suffice in my absence.”

After giving a slight nod of understanding, the hel’s voice turned as cold as the temperature around Eva. “Never attempt to enter my domain from Hell. We will not be so forgiving should it happen again.”

“I know. Thank you for your leniency,” Eva said. “I just thought it was an emergency.” My mistake, she thought with a hint of sarcasm.

Eva plunged into the water without waiting for a response from Ylva. Rude? Maybe. But not excessively so. She had been ushered out at top speed. She was merely expediting her exit without a proper farewell.

A mildly uncomfortable few seconds later–nothing so unpleasant as her method of teleporting in the mortal plane–Eva found herself standing in front of the women’s ward. She performed a quick check of the area, spending time both on a visual check and feeling for the uncanny oddity that she had felt the last time she arrived.

As far as she could tell, everything was normal.

Inside the women’s ward, Shalise sat on the couch. Her worried expression lessened as soon as she saw Eva enter.

“Anything happen?”

“It’s been quiet. Really, too quiet. Though not in the ominous sense. Without wind, people, insects, or animals, there’s an almost nerve wracking silence outside of my breathing and the beating of my own heart. You should get a music player of some sort.”

Eva smiled, glad Shalise was making jokes. They were a great way to relax after a stressful event.

Unless it wasn’t a joke.

Eva focused on the silence. It was comforting in some way she could barely describe. A warm and enveloping silence. But then, this was her own domain. If Eva felt uncomfortable within then something was wrong. Probably. Shalise was probably not afforded the same courtesy.

Maybe if she had better control over her domain, Shalise could pass the silence off as comforting as well. Unfortunately, such a minute thing would take a great deal of time to learn how to do.

Assuming she didn’t do it on accident one of these days.

“I’ll think about it,” was all Eva said for her eventual answer.

Shalise just nodded with a small smile.

“Now,” Eva said after a moment of silence, “what do you say to us getting this place really well defended?”

—

Eva stalked through the great throne room within Ylva’s domain. This time, she had returned to the mortal realm properly through the use of her beacon.

Immediately after returning, Eva had sought Zoe out to have her charge another beacon. Eva didn’t know what she would do if she found herself in Hell without one. Finding out how to summon herself had become quite the priority. Unfortunately for her, Devon would likely need to help her out the most. Perhaps one of the other demons as well, though Eva was less than keen to go to them for help.

She hadn’t forgotten Ylva’s offer of teaching Arachne how to create void metal in exchange for a few centuries of servitude.

Arachne didn’t even know precisely how to summon herself, which led to the question of how she got summoned in the first place. It could have been that one of the ancient Greek gods took pity on her and seeded the world with instructions. Her enticement, of course, was a single black widow spider. Any markings or sigil that specifically pointed to her was unknown. Eva had to wonder if Devon even knew, or if he didn’t bother caring as there was only one Arachne to summon.

It wasn’t like she had siblings or parents to accidentally summon instead.

Definitely something she needed to look into, but so long as Zoe kept accepting her beacons, figuring out how to be summoned wasn’t the absolute highest of priorities.

While she had accepted a new beacon, Zoe had not been happy to hear about Shalise’s predicament. She wanted to go jump into Eva’s domain straight away. It took a great deal of convincing her that Shalise should be perfectly fine until Sister Cross was ready to jump in.

That and mentioning the fact that Catherine would have to take over her class again.

But Eva was confident in her domain’s ability to fend off any new intruders. Through an intense bout of trial and error attempts over the course of three days, Shalise wound up with a multitude of traps and weapons.

Weapons were easy. She had seen swords before. Spears, maces, and other medieval equipment as well. Bows and arrows were easy to create. Crossbows, not so much.

Her attempt at a gun had failed right out. Eva still wasn’t sure why. She could create potions out of nothing, but a gun failed?

Traps weren’t half as easy as straight up weapons.

There were plenty of trap doors in the ground and floor around the alternate women’s ward. All lever activated, based off the real prison’s execution chamber. It was fairly easy to get rid of the noose and fill the pit of the trap door with swords.

Automating the trap doors or even swapping out the rather large levers with smaller buttons had all failed. Probably because of how it was set up in the real world. Luckily, Eva had been able to move the levers separately from the trap doors.

She was fairly certain that the levers didn’t actually connect to the doors in a similar manner to the drainage pipes in the showers.

But the rows of levers allowed Shalise to operate trap doors set up in the small outside courtyard from behind the women’s ward windows–all of which had been reinforced.

Then there was the safe room. Basically, it was a recreation of the solitary confinement building in the real prison. There was a small hallway that had been filled with trap doors before the final prison cell. Eva had dragged a cupboard from the kitchen over to it and confirmed that it was always full of food before leaving.

Even with all that, Eva still wanted to get Sister Cross into her domain as soon as possible.

Eva passed from the throne room into the prison. It didn’t take long to come across Arachne seated outside one of the cells. As she had been doing almost constantly for the last few months, she was once again weaving a tapestry.

Or… Eva blinked as she got closer. Maybe not. She certainly had some cloth in her hands. But it wasn’t the square of a tapestry. She also lacked all of her spare arms holding up the vertical mesh.

It almost looked like a dress.

Shaking her head, Eva decided to ask later. For the time being, she gave Arachne a nod of her head before stepping right up to the bars.

Sister Cross looked about as bad as she had just the other day. Bad enough that Eva wondered if Arachne got her message about potions, or if she had decided to ignore that message.

Or if Sister Cross had refused any treatment. Eva couldn’t fault Arachne for that.

And with the glare she leveled at Eva, there was a good chance she had refused treatment.

At least she was awake this time.

Sister Cross’ mouth twisted into a snarl.

Eva preempted whatever vile insults she was about to spew.

“Shalise needs your help.”

The nun’s partially opened mouth snapped shut. She fixed a piercing glare for several minutes before opening it again. “What do you mean?” Her first words of the day. Potentially several days, if the slight rasp was any indication.

“Shalise has been attacked. Only once so far, but the possibility exists for more. I’ve kept her safe, but will not be able to constantly be around her. You can.”

Sister Cross’ glower was only growing. Eva once again interjected before she could start any outbursts.

“In fact, you will. You’re not being given a choice in the matter.”

Eva reached for the locking mechanism of the cell. Despite being barred, Ylva’s domain prevented any occupant from affecting the outside. That included reaching through the bars and unlatching the cell themselves.

“One wrong move and either I or Arachne will kill you,” Eva said with a nod back to her companion. Arachne had already stood up and draped her weaving project over the back of the chair. “And, in the absurdly tiny chance that we should fail, Ylva won’t. If you’re dead then no one can protect Shalise.

“So attack us if you must, but know that it would spell doom for your daughter.”

Speech delivered, Eva clicked the lock and slid open the door. “Arachne,” she said, nodding towards Sister Cross.

Arachne immediately moved to carry the nun, only to be shoved back.

“I can handle myself,” Sister Cross bit out.

Responding to Arachne’s questioning glance with a shrug had the spider-demon performing a shrug of her own. She stepped out of the cell and waited.

And was it ever a wait.

Sister Cross, while still missing large portions of her skin, used a bar along the back wall to help her to her feet.

The action made Eva wince in a short moment of misplaced empathy. She had skinned her knee before–back before she had Arachne’s knees. The experience was hardly pleasant. Even after learning blood magic and dampening her sensation of pain in order to use her magic unaffected, scraping large portions of skin off hurt like something else.

And the nun before her was missing far more than a skinned knee brought to the table. She had no gloves and no shoes. While the rest of Ylva’s domain was constructed out of smooth marble, the prison floor was rough. The material resembled something along the lines of cement or asphalt. In a word: unpleasant.

Despite the glacial pace at which she moved, Sister Cross allowed no emotion to cross her face. Not the slightest flicker of pain.

By the time she had finally taken her first few steps out of the room, Eva had managed to school any hint of emotion from her face. She knew Arachne wouldn’t have any emotion showing either.

At least, the old Arachne wouldn’t have any. Maybe a grin, if anything.

Eva shot a quick glance to her side just to confirm that yes, Arachne was as impassive as ever.

“Where is Shalise?”

“Follow me,” Eva said as she turned and started moving towards the exit of the prison.

She realized her mistake almost immediately. By the time she reached the threshold, Sister Cross had only taken five steps.

This was going to take time. It would have been so much simpler had Sister Cross just let Arachne carry her.

As it was, Arachne stuck to Sister Cross’ side. Apart from the occasional maniacal twitch of her fingers, the spider-demon never once appeared hostile.

When they finally reached the chamber directly adjacent to the prison, Eva took note of the definite shock plastered over Sister Cross’ face. That had been expected for the most part. She would expect nothing else from a prisoner being led to the torture chamber.

But it was the only room that Ylva had allowed her to use.

Sister Cross’ eyes started to glow with white power. That glow subsided and died off as Arachne snapped her hand over the eyeball inset into Sister Cross’ chest.

“You’re not in danger,” Eva said. She would have explained what room they had been heading towards had she thought it might have helped. Sadly, she doubted that cheerily stating their destination to be the torture chamber would have endeared her to Sister Cross.

Sister Cross, predictably, sneered and scoffed.

With a sigh and a slight rolling of her eyes, Eva said, “I’m not going to hurt you. Just the opposite. You’re not in any shape to protect Shalise. It took half an hour for you to move one room. A walker-wielding great-grandmother would be able to get the best of you.”

Eva pointed towards a circle drawn out on the floor. “Sit,” she said. “Seiza style.” Harsh? Maybe. Required? Not in the slightest. Vindictive? Eva’s middle name.

With Arachne just barely not having to force her, Sister Cross knelt down in the center of the circle. She leaned in, staring at the floor. “Is this blood?”

“It is,” Eva said with a smile. “So much easier to draw out ritual circles when you can just magic the lines around. Much less back pain.”

Eva reached into the pocket of her skirt and pulled out a flawless bloodstone. One of three from her void metal dagger. “Frankly, I’m unhappy about using this on you. Unfortunately, my other bloodstones are too badly degraded and I, almost surprisingly, have no one to kill for a new one at the moment.

“Well,” Eva said, “that isn’t entirely true. Sawyer is unfortunately outside my ability to reach. For the moment.”

Aside from a glare, Sister Cross didn’t respond. Part of that might have been Arachne and her claws being uncomfortably close to her.

Circling around the circle, Eva double checked everything. Especially the part where Sister Cross had stepped over to the center. All the lines and sigils had to be cleanly drawn. This was her first time ever using a bloodstone-powered ritual and she wanted to see it succeed. Academically, if not for Sister Cross’ sake.

Thankfully, Sister Cross had not attempted to ruin the circle by purposefully smudging any part of it. Probably a good choice, damaged circles had unintended effects. Assuming they didn’t just do nothing or explode.

“What is this?” Sister Cross asked just as Eva was setting the bloodstone down within a triangle at the tip of the circle.

“A bloodstone,” Eva said, purposefully ignoring Sister Cross’ real question, “as a matter of fact. Used in blood magic. They’re created from people I don’t like. Well, not this one. I have no idea where this one came from.”

Or how it could have lasted two years plus however many hundreds of years it existed before Eva found it in that museum.

“I’m surprised you don’t know this.”

“What is the ritual’s intention?” Sister Cross ground out. “I recognize some of it, but then it twists into the unknown.”

“As I said, you’re worthless as you are now. This ritual should mend all your flesh. Near instantaneously. Not bones, unfortunately, but everything else should be good as new.”

Sister Cross’ eyes widened in surprise. The expression twisted back into her regular glower a short moment later. “I don’t want any part of this,” she said as she tried to stand.

Arachne kept her down.

“That,” she glared at the bloodstone, “is someone else’s life.”

“Yep. One huge reason why I’ve been loathe to perform one of these kind of rituals.”

“Save it,” Sister Cross spat. “I can heal myself. Especially with a proper connection to the source.”

“Instantly? Because for all I know, Shalise could be being attacked right now,” Eva said, letting the implications linger in the air for a moment.

She pulled her bloodstone back into her hand, moving to pocket it. “But good to know I can keep this.”

Eva stood, moving towards the torture chamber exit. “Come Arachne. Since Sister Cross can stand up to demons as she is now, no sense wasting our time or my bloodstone. Let’s drop her off with Shal–”

“Wait.”

Eva paused and tossed a glance over her shoulder. All the while keeping a slight smile from showing on her lips.

Sister Cross still knelt. She leaned forward slightly, her fists pressed into the ground in front of her. Both arms trembled slightly. Through grit teeth, she said, “Shalise… is she actually in danger?”

“The day that you attacked me–completely unprovoked, I might add–Shalise was attacked by three things. She managed to kill two on her own by the time I found her, but had passed out before she could kill the third. I managed to slaughter the thing, but not before losing my foot to it.”

Arachne’s head whipped over fast enough that her hair tendrils snapped through the air, creating the telltale crack of a whip.

Eva rolled her eyes. She held out her foot for both of the others’ sakes. It had healed a great deal in the three days since she first got the injury. Not perfect, there were still obvious lines and cracks, but it had mended enough that she could put weight on it.

“I got better,” she said. “Though I can’t say the same would hold true for Shalise should she fall prey to them.”

Sister Cross shut her eyes. After taking in a deep, shuddering breath, she glared up at Eva. “If this is a lie–”

“Why would I lie to you? If I wanted to kill you, you would be dead. If I wanted to keep you from Shalise, you’d still be in your cell.”

Closing her eyes once again, Sister Cross fell silent. Eva stood to the side while trying to ignore the worried glances Arachne kept sending her way.

Enough time passed that Eva was about to call it quits anyway. She could find some other way to keep Shalise safe until Sister Cross managed to heal on her own.

Sister Cross spoke up just as Eva turned to leave. “Fine. Perform your ritual. But if you’re–”

Eva didn’t have the time nor patience to hear out whatever threat Sister Cross had to say. The moment the first word came out of her mouth, it didn’t matter. She had the willing agreement of the ritual subject.

Technically it could be performed without the subject’s consent, but Eva didn’t want any resistance. Wasting a bloodstone on a failed ritual was not an option.

Plucking the bloodstone from her pocket, Eva tossed it out. A small amount of her own blood clung to the surface, helping to direct it through the air.

It landed right in its designated spot.

By the time Sister Cross started to speak her threat, Eva was ready.

She forced her magic into the circle, flooding the diagrams and sigils.

Sister Cross let out a scream. Visible tendrils of blood-red magic erupted from the bloodstone. They curled through the air, reaching towards her before settling in on her flesh.

The nun’s scream only increased in intensity as her body was visibly and forcibly mended. Her back arched and she clawed out at the air.

Chunks of flesh weaved in the air out of nothing–nothing except magic–before slapping down on her exposed skin. It stretched to her existing skin, almost hooking into place.

Some parts that Eva could have sworn were not actually injured received a similar treatment. Large spindles of muscle pulled through holes in her skin and disintegrated in mid-air. More magic-formed muscle then burrowed into her flesh before the ritual sealed the holes.

While the ritual was working, Eva had a sinking moment of disappointment. Because the bloodstones from the museum hadn’t decomposed or been otherwise consumed, she had actually held out a slight hope that this one would survive the ritual.

She could see now that it would not. As the tendrils of magic continued to work on Sister Cross, the bloodstone from which they stemmed was clearly shrinking. Dust blew off of it, disappearing before it reached the edge of the circle.

The last of the bloodstone vanished. Tendrils shrank to nothing as the final pieces of flesh made their way into or onto Sister Cross’ body. The glow of the circle fading was the final step.

Whatever tension had held up Sister Cross’ arched body gave way the moment the glow died. She collapsed to the ground, blood from the ritual circle smearing across her skin. Her chest heaved as if she just ran a ten-mile marathon in record time.

But her body was whole again. There wasn’t even the slightest hint of scars where her new flesh met old. Not even a sign that there was new flesh.

“Arachne,” Eva said, “get her on her feet and cleaned off.”

“Back to her cell?”

Shaking her head, Eva said, “no. Take her to the waters. I’ll fetch some proper clothes for her and join you shortly. She’ll be with Shalise within the hour. After that, we should meet with Zoe, Catherine, and Ylva.” Sighing, Eva turned to leave.

“Maybe Zagan as well. We need to figure out what is going on.”

Irene stretched out in her bed, ready to enjoy yet another day off.

The diablery class hadn’t met for a whole week. Not since the incident. That wasn’t to say it was canceled. Just suspended. Supposedly they would be having regular meetings again on the first of March.

While actively attending the class, Irene hadn’t been aware of just how stressful it actually was. Between the intensity of Catherine and Eva, slipping away or making up excuses to her sister and Jordan, and the ever-present feeling of guilt just for attending, the diablery class was more worry than it was worth.

And really, what was it worth? There were so many aspects of magic to study that she could spend her entire life ignoring demons completely and still never run out of things. The shackles were the most interesting part–they fit well within the realm of warding–something Irene could see herself doing as a profession–but if the class was going to move on to the actual demon parts of diablery, Irene was contemplating dropping the class.

She’d be bound by her contract to remain silent, but that was a good thing. Doing so would just be less stress between her and her sister. A little slice of her past that she never had to bring up.

Irene only jumped a little as her alarm went off. Unfortunately, the day was not a day off for the rest of school.

Slapping the off button, Irene tossed off her covers and started the morning. A small breakfast followed after a brief shower. Once dressed, Irene began the long and grueling task of waking her dear sister.

Despite Irene purposefully making a great deal of noise between her alarm, the shower, and breakfast preparation, Shelby hadn’t budged from her bed. Black hair splayed out in a halo around her head as she lay face-down on her pillow.

“Five minutes…” Shelby mumbled as Irene flipped her onto her back.

“Remember what happened last time? Professor Zagan will kill you if you’re late again.”

“…shouldn’t have made his class first.”

Irene sighed and tore the covers off of Shelby. Her sister immediately curled in on herself, trying her best to fend off the relatively cold air.

And failing of course.

At least, she was failing. One hand scrambled around beneath her pillow from where she drew her wand. After a quick wave, the air around her warmed. Her shivers stopped immediately with a sigh of contentment.

As Shelby uncurled from the tiny ball she had contorted herself into, Irene just shook her head.

“Fine. Suit yourself. Don’t come crying to me when Professor Zagan assigns detentions for the rest of the school year.”

Irene slung her book bag over her arm and headed out of their dorm room. Shelby would probably show up just as the bell rang having skipped both breakfast and a shower. A quick freshening of the air around her and no one would be the wiser.

Air mages could cheat like that. Really, earth mages had hardly any everyday utility. Irene wasn’t complaining. Earth magic could be powerful under many circumstances. But sometimes, she wished she could spend a moment waving her wand at herself and vanish a few of the day’s problems away.

Maybe she could apply makeup with a wand? Minerals and other earthy ingredients made up a good portion of most makeups. With enough practice and control…

Irene shook her head as she headed outside. No. Makeup was a silly, trivial thing to spend time figuring out how to apply with magic. Not when there were so many other things to focus on. Enchanting and warding for one.

She didn’t even wear that much makeup in the first place.

Sighing, Irene pushed open the doors to Brakket Academy and started off towards Zagan’s class. Putting on makeup on days where his class was first was an exercise in futility. He always pushed everyone hard enough to cause at least mild sweating. Showers after class had a tendency to ruin the makeup of even the most careful of her classmates.

Though if she could figure out how to magically apply makeup, her classmates might actually treat her with some respect. Especially if she could put it on quick enough to get to the next class on time and have it look decent.

There were already some magical makeup kits. Things that changed colors throughout the day or entirely vanished acne and other blemishes. Nothing that applied it automatically, however. Not that she knew of.

Enchanting a kit to apply makeup automatically shouldn’t be hard at all. It would take a good deal of order magic to properly align everything. Order magic wasn’t something she had practiced at all. Only dabbled in for a few select classes. They would be getting proper introductions to order and chaos magic next year.

Irene veered off course. She had a couple of minutes of spare time before she needed to worry about making it to class on time. A short trip to the library could get her a decent head start on next year’s lessons.

Her sudden and unannounced course correction resulted in several problems, each worse than the last.

The first and most obvious was the student she bumped into.

Max.

They had been avoiding each other ever since Eva’s revelation of her hands and eyes. Frightened off like a coward. All despite–as Shelby was ever so fond of reminding Irene–the fact that Eva never did anything to them aside from being their friend.

Irene hadn’t thought she bumped into him very hard, but he still stumbled backwards, flailing his arms in an attempt to keep his balance.

Which led to the second problem.

Kristina.

One half of Irene’s one-time table-mates in most of their classes. Max had hung off Jordan almost as much as Shelby used to and Irene just hadn’t fit at the tables with her sister and Jordan. Until Max had started avoiding them, that is.

Since then, Irene had been extraordinarily pleased to move alongside her sister and Jordan. While Kristina never actively hurt her, she always turned a blind eye to Drew’s doings.

Max’s flailing elbow caught Kristina square in the nose. She let out a shriek, clasping at her nose even as blood spilled between her fingers.

And that led to the final problem.

Drew Wilcox.

Kristina’s ever-present shadow stepped around Max’s larger and somewhat muscular body. Before Irene could even react to what was going on, Drew’s clenched fist found its way straight into Irene’s chest.

She tumbled down to the ground, gasping for breath as books from her bag scattered over the tiles.

“I knew you were the psycho type, Coggins,” Drew said. He swung back his foot, preparing for a kick.

Irene had the presence of mind to bury her head in her arms for protection. She squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself.

The wind from the kick brushed by her legs with a scraping noise.

Irene opened her eyes, surprised to find herself unscathed. Unfortunately, one of her books wasn’t. It slid across the ground until it hit a wall. Another student had to jump out of the way.

“Touch my girlfriend again and I’ll–”

Drew’s chin snapped to his chest as a baseball sized clump of dirt bounced off the back of his skull.

To Drew’s credit–or a good example of just how utterly thickheaded he was–he didn’t collapse to the ground as Irene was certain she would have. Instead, he spun on his heel.

The dirt covering his head did nothing to detract from his rage-filled grimace.

“Who threw that?!” he bellowed at the gaggle of onlookers.

No one chose to respond. Everyone was either watching the show to find out what would happen next or looking between one another in confusion.

Between Drew and Kristina’s shoulders, Irene managed to catch a glimpse of a head of white hair disappearing farther into the crowd.

With no answers forthcoming, he spun back around, raising his fist again.

Irene gripped her own wand, not quite certain what to do but not willing to sit back and take a beating.

The choice was taken out of her hands when Kristina gripped his shoulder. “I need the nurse,” she said with her nose firmly pinched shut.

For just a moment, he looked torn between Kristina and continuing his beating on Irene.

With one last death glare, he wrapped his raised arm around Kristina’s shoulders.

“Keep away from us you freak.”

He led her away without a second glance back, maneuvering unimpeded through the slowly dispersing crowd.

Max trailed after him, not quite managing to sway the crowd out of his way as flawlessly as Drew had managed. The last look he gave Irene was something of a cross between an apology and ire.

For a moment, Irene just sat there, going over what had just happened in her mind. The pain in her chest was quickly fading to nothing. Probably because his punch had been less of a punch and more of a shove. Pure shock at the sudden contact was what sent her to the ground.

Or was it?

Irene looked down at the wand clenched in her fist. An earth mage could increase their personal strength and toughness, but Irene had never managed to actually perform the spell before.

Then again, she hadn’t ever managed to manipulate polished tiles before either, and she had managed that at least partially after summoning that creature.

Shaking her head and sighing at the relief of not having to deal with them for the handful of minutes before class started, Irene started to shovel her books back into her bag under the watchful eyes of the remaining crowd.

None of them bothered to help. Irene was well aware that the bystander effect was in full… well, effect. And sure, her situation might have been her fault for not watching her surroundings, but the least someone could do was ask if she was alright.

They didn’t even have to mean it.

Picking herself off the ground, Irene walked over to the one book that had been kicked against the wall.

A darker hand clasped her book before she could get to it.

Irene suppressed a groan at the thought of more bullying before following the arm up to the face. Or, more specifically, the crop of white hair.

“Hello Randal,” Irene said, trying to keep any sign of exasperation out of her voice.

Though she was certain that some had leaked into her tone, Randal merely smiled. He held out the book for her after brushing some dust off. “Should watch out. People can be dicks.”

Irene took it, eying him for any sign of insincerity. “Yeah,” she eventually said. “Kinda noticed.”

“You got hurt at all?”

“Bruised, I’m sure,” she said as she rubbed her chest. There wasn’t any pain at all, any longer, but she wasn’t about to take off her shirt to actually check for bruises. “Other than that, no.”

They stood around awkwardly–Irene used the silence to smooth out a few wrinkled pages while Randal rubbed his elbow.

“Listen–” “I–”

Both stopped talking, half glaring at each other. Randal gestured for her to speak first.

“I should be getting to class. Wouldn’t want to be late.”

“Oh. Right.” He rubbed the back of his head. “I’ll see you in,” he paused to glance around, “our class. Right?”

“Um, sure?” Irene said as she stepped away. Considering how he acted back in that class, Irene wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to see him in it. But he was being strangely nice.

Especially if that was him who tossed the dirt at Drew.

Boys, Irene thought, it would be nice if there were a book explaining them.

Between Randal, Drew, Jordan, and Max, Irene just had no idea how to handle them. She had hoped that Eva’s class would give some insight on Jordan at the very least, but thus far, that wasn’t the case.

Deciding to not visit the library at the moment, Irene made a beeline straight for Professor Zagan’s classroom. There was still time, but Irene had enough excitement for the day. And, though Drew would soon be in that classroom as well, he wouldn’t dare do anything to her under the professor’s watch.

Irene stopped in surprise as she opened the door.

Usually, Professor Zagan would show up the second the bell rung. Never before and rarely later. Today, he actually sat at the desk in the back of the large room, fiddling with something on top.

The situation quickly turned awkward as Irene stood at the door, not sure what to do.

Unlike most of her classrooms, this one was set up for training for a fight. That meant large empty spaces and no desks to speak of. There were no desks to sit and read at before class started. No other students had arrived quite so early, not that Irene would really mingle with anyone but her sister, Jordan, and Eva.

She could sit on the floor or lean against the wall.

But Zagan had looked up. His somewhat yellow eyes met hers and locked on. Even after a moment of fidgeting, he didn’t turn away.

Irene quickly went over her options. Fleeing would only mean that she would have to return later in embarrassment. Ignoring him would be rude and Professor Zagan did not take rudeness lightly. With those choices out of the way, Irene pressed into the room.

“Hello Professor,” she said while walking closer. Hoping–praying that she wasn’t prying, she asked, “working on something interesting?”

Rather than answer her, Professor Zagan held up the object in his hands. A brass sphere covered in engravings with two freely orbiting rings. No bars held up the rings, so it must have been magic. Or magnetism, but given the environment, Irene was putting her money on magic.

Unfortunately, him showing her the object didn’t answer her question.

Well, it did. Partially. The brass ball was visually interesting. But Irene had been more interested in knowing what it was.

Unless they were purely decorative, the markings must have some significance. Yet Irene recognized no part of them. Even taking into account the handful of runes Eva had shown everyone as part of her Christmas gift a year ago, not a mark on the surface looked familiar.

Before Irene could ask what it was, Zagan lazily waved a hand over the now floating ball.

Thin needles extended from the spinning rings, puncturing the sphere. The brass shell peeled away in thin, blooming onion-like strips. Inside–

Irene pulled back, pinching her nose shut as hard as she could. It didn’t help. She could still smell the stench through her mouth. Or worse, taste it.

A thick violet ooze rested in the bowl of the opened sphere. Visible clouds of gas bubbled out of it, staining the very air.

“W-what is it?”

Professor Zagan, looking completely undisturbed by the smell or the ooze, just chuckled. “You can tell a lot about a creature by its soul.”

“That’s a soul?” Irene half-shrieked. She took another step back as a plethora of questions ran through her head.

Why does the professor have a soul? Whose soul? Why are souls so… gross?

He fixed her with a smile, a fairly disturbing, teeth-filled smile. “Not a human soul. Human souls are bright, ethereal, and brimming with an intoxicating amount of magic. Well, human mages’ souls are, at least. Mundane humans lack that last aspect. But they’re still bright and ethereal. You can’t physically touch them.”

In a move that churned Irene’s stomach, Zagan reached out a bare finger and dipped it right in the goop.

It reached up, latching onto his finger. Purple tendrils burrowed into his finger. Irene watched as they pulsed beneath his skin, creating vein-like patterns.

Still looking as calm as if he were relaxing on a sunny afternoon with a novel in hand, Professor Zagan pulled a small butter knife off of his desk. It must have been enchanted because the moment the blade touched his finger, it severed it completely, bone and all.

The ooze pulled the severed digit into itself, releasing more of the noxious gas as the finger turned to more of the purple goop.

Irene only managed to tear her eyes from the ‘soul’ when Professor Zagan waved his hand over the brass ball, sealing it up again.

Something in the atmosphere vanished, some feeling of oppression. It was noticeable enough that Irene almost slumped over as the tension left her muscles.

Professor Zagan just let out another dark chuckle.

“Your finger! The nurse–”

Irene stopped, gaping open-mouthed as the professor held up his hands. She counted to ten. Neither of Professor Zagan’s hands looked like a sixth finger had just been severed either.

“An illusion?”

“Oh no,” Professor Zagan said. “Not in the slightest. Had you dipped your finger in, you would be missing it or worse. But,” he said before Irene could protest, “I’m surprised you don’t recognize the contents.” He tapped again on the brass ball.

Irene blinked, gears churning in her head. She couldn’t think of any reason that should be familiar. “Why would I recognize it?”

“This soul-analogue came from the creature you summoned, yeah? You should keep track of the things you summon.”

It took a moment to fully process what he said. Irene stiffened and clamped her mouth shut.

He knew about the class. Did all the teachers know? Was it okay to talk about it without breaking the contract?

Irene kept her jaw firmly clenched shut. She wasn’t going to take any chances.

Thankfully, two students in her class walked into the room.

The professor’s gold eyes flicked over towards them. A slight frown crossed his face before he placed the brass sphere into a drawer in his desk.

Irene retreated from his desk, moving to stand and wait by her usual training dummy as the rest of the class slowly trickled into the room.

Shelby managed to make it–dragged in by Jordan–just a handful of seconds before the bell rang. She looked about as Irene had expected her to look. With her hair standing on end in abject defiance of gravity, eyes half-shut, and clothes looking like she had pulled them from the floor.

Between her sister’s appearance and everything else that had happened to her on her way to class, Irene decided that next time, she would stay behind and demand her sister wake up on time for school.

Professor Zagan started class the moment the bell rang, as usual. He paired everyone off at random and started them off on continuing the tactics lesson from the last class.

Only to be interrupted as three students walked into the classroom almost a full five minutes after the bell rang. Max, Drew, and Kristina all wandered in. Max ran up to the professor with a note in his hand.

A look of unmitigated annoyance crossed Professor Zagan’s face as he glared first at the note then at the three students. The note burst into bright green flames. The all-too-familiar scent of sulfur stung Irene’s nose.

Irene narrowed her eyes. Neither of the professor’s hands held a wand, rings, or any other type of foci.

“Ah, too good to show up to my class on time? Then I’m sure you wouldn’t mind serving detention tomorrow.”

“What?” Drew shouted. “He just gave you a note from the nurse excusing us.”

“A note? From the nurse?” Professor Zagan drew in a mocking gasp. “Oh no! I guess I had best pack my bags. My efforts to slay you will have to go on hold while you take the time to heal.” He narrowed his eyes as he looked over the suddenly still students. “That is exactly what someone making an attempt at your life would never have said.

“You,” he pointed at Kristina, “had a broken nose? An assailant wouldn’t wait for you to run to the nurse.”

A snapping sound echoed through the room, followed quickly by a scream. Blood started dribbling from Kristina’s nose.

“They’d use your pain and distraction to abuse your openings in any way possible.”

She started running for the door.

And slammed straight into a brick wall. The door had simply vanished. The room’s normal wall just continued past where the door had once existed, seamlessly meshing to the point where Irene couldn’t pick out exactly where it used to be.

“You’ll be allowed to flee to the nurse after class ends,” the professor said with a blasé tone of voice. “For now, fight through your pain. Push past it and learn to deal with it. You’ll be paired off with…” he glanced around the room. For just a moment, his eyes settled on Irene.

She shook her head back and forth as subtly as she could. Irene did not want any extra attention sent her way. As… conflicted as she was feeling watching some of the worst people she knew getting a beat down by a teacher, she didn’t think she would survive any retaliation.

Eventually, Zagan passed her by. “Anderson,” he snapped. “Hold back and you’ll be in detention every weekend for the rest of the year.”

Jordan frowned, but nodded.

“For your detention…” He turned back to the crying Kristina, Drew–who obviously was wanting to look tough in front of his girlfriend but not quite willing to attack the professor–and the bewildered Max. “I’m sure the dean’s secretary would be perfectly willing to supervise tomorrow at noon.”

The slight smile on Professor Zagan’s face slipped.

It didn’t take Irene long to realize what he was unhappy with.

While both Kristina and Drew looked aghast–at the professor’s actions or detention, or both–Max had a wide smile on his face.

“On second thought, I will be supervising your detention.”

Irene let out a small shudder. Professor Zagan could be scary when he wanted. He had assigned a number of detentions over the course of the year. Not once had he supervised them himself, choosing instead to delegate to Catherine.

And then the nose breaking. Callously harming the students like that had to be against the rules. Yet as Irene watched him pick up where he left off before the interruption, she couldn’t detect the slightest hint that he cared about either Kristina or the consequences.

And vanishing the door.

Irene hadn’t the slightest idea how he had managed that beyond preparing ahead of time with some enchanted instant-wall item. Or a complicated bit of order and earth magic to conjure an entire wall.

Either way, scary.

Thankfully, she was paired off with Shelby. She had managed to avoid drawing any extra attention to herself.

So long as she kept her head down until the weekend started, she might just escape unscathed.

A heated glare from Drew partway through class told her otherwise.

Eva tossed a book over her shoulder.

Worthless.

It didn’t matter how many tomes she went though, none of them described anything remotely similar to the enigmas. A number of creatures had violet blood. Humans could have blood that appeared purple under the right lighting and oxygen levels. A very select few mundane creatures even had natural purple blood.

As such, blood wasn’t much to go off of. Not for her at least. Wayne had taken a sample from the iced enigma to use in alchemy and regular science in an attempt to identify it. Thus far, Eva hadn’t heard back from him.

That left its appearance. Dog-shaped with snake-like tentacles growing from its spine, a round head that opened to the point that Eva’s entire leg could fit within, and a thin tail tipped with a triangle.

Though the color of its blood discounted demons, the shape of its tail and the fact that the creatures were associated with Hell both times Eva had seen them led to her pouring though every demonology book in her library. She even scoured all the books Devon left behind.

No results.

After exhausting that library, Eva moved on to books pilfered from the school library. Several at the recommendation of Bradley Twillie. Though he hadn’t been brought to the creature, Eva had described it to him just to see if he knew anything. He didn’t.

The books he suggested were dead ends as well. Surprisingly, a good number of them–the ones written in the last thirty or so years–were authored by Juliana’s father. That, in and of itself, had pushed Eva’s idea to contact him back to the front of her mind.

She was growing increasingly nervous as the days passed by with no response to her letter.

Eva pulled a fresh book from the pile to replace her tossed book. Before she had the chance to crack it open, Zoe stepped into the room.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Zoe said as she lifted up a thin piece of paper. “Hunting you down in Ylva’s domain is tedious.”

Eva’s breath hitched in her throat. Her eyes homed in on the paper and did not wander.

It wasn’t any regular paper. It was an envelope.

Since arriving at Brakket, the total number of letters she had received could be counted on one hand. All of which were missives from the school itself for book lists, schedules, or other announcements.

Using her extraordinarily sharp fingers in place of a letter opener, Eva broke the seal and pulled out the contents. A handwritten letter. The words were something of a cross between chicken-scratch and the loopy cursive of a calligrapher. In short, somewhat unreadable.

Still, Eva narrowed her eyes and concentrated.

Dear Miss Spencer,

Eva winced at both the formal greeting and the use of her last name. She had certainly never mentioned it to anyone. It was something of a shock to see it here.

Your letter has been received. My wife and daughter are well for the most part. Genoa is still bedridden, though conscious for a majority of every day’s hours. She has become somewhat stir crazy as of late.

Juli has been… closed off. She meets with Ylva far too much for my desires. Worse still, she hasn’t told me what they meet about. I know that the ring she still wears ties Juliana to Ylva, but it still weighs on a father’s mind.

Not once has she returned with the slightest scratch. Ylva has assured me that no harm will come to Juliana in her presence. Given my experiences with Ylva in her domain, I’ve no real reason to distrust her.

Eva blinked. She hadn’t been aware of any meetings between Juliana and Ylva. Though Ylva had been missing from her domain on occasion, taking Alicia and leaving only Nel behind. And she mentioned being taken away from something important after Eva returned to her domain from Hell.

An inkling of curiosity welled within her. What could they be doing together?

Along with the feeling of curiosity, a surge of elation flooded through her. If Juliana was associating with Ylva still, maybe she wouldn’t keep her distance from Eva.

Eva had been exceedingly concerned that Juliana blamed both Eva and Arachne for her mother’s current state. Between Arachne’s self-imposed solitude, Juliana being away, and Shalise’s inability to leave Hell, Eva was missing the early days of her schooling.

With what was in the letter, she was wondering if it was a mistake to have not written to Juliana after all. She stayed her hand under the assumption that Juliana would want a little space. Juliana was still quite far ahead of the current curriculum in school, so it wouldn’t be a troublesome thing for her to return even as late as the start of next year.

By then, Eva planned to have Sawyer dealt with. She didn’t know what to do about the Hell thing, but that would affect Juliana whether or not she was at Brakket.

Eva’s elation crashed down around her as she thought more about the implications. Juliana was meeting with Ylva, but neither had mentioned a thing to Eva.

Maybe she didn’t want to meet at all.

Shaking her head, Eva turned back to the rest of the letter.

As for me, I suppose I am well enough. I am merely grateful that none of my family was taken from me. Thank you for asking.

The rest of your letter, I will not lie, has caught my interest. However, I will mention that I find myself conflicted in my interactions with you. Between the scare of losing my daughter and my wife’s injury, and your associates’ proximity to those events, you somewhat frighten me. Though I know, intellectually, that you had little to do with causing those incidents.

On the other hand, you have allowed me to witness a great many things I never imagined the possibility of interacting with. Gargoyles, for instance. A species thought to be all but extinct. And I witnessed the birth of a new member of their species. Truly a magical event if ever there was one.

Regarding your trapped creature, because of the ice, I was unable to get a clear idea of what it looks like through the photographs you sent. However, I can’t say that your description matches anything that comes to mind. I would need to do an inspection in person.

Again, I come to a conflicting moment. The opportunity to be among the first to examine what could possibly be an entirely new creature is not one I feel I can pass up. Genoa has practically insisted I go. She must see me as being as stir crazy as she is.

Per your invitation, I will be arriving this weekend. Saturday at noon.

Though I hope you will forgive me for declining your offer of staying at the prison. I believe the hotels of Brakket City will suffice.

Sincerely,

Carlos T. Rivas

Eva smiled as she folded the letter back up. That, at least, was some good news. An actual expert coming to look at the enigma could lead to a breakthrough.

“Good news?”

Eva suppressed a start as she glanced up. She had completely forgotten that Zoe was still in the common room. After having taken a seat in one of the chairs, Zoe had pulled out a stack of papers and started going through them in silence.

Essays, most likely. She assigned far too many for her own good.

“You could say that,” Eva said as she replaced the letter in its envelope. “Carlos is going to stop by the day after tomorrow to look at our icy little friend.”

Putting on a small frown, Zoe set down her current essay. “Is that a… wise idea?”

“Have him come here? Why not? He’s a magizoologist with several published books under his belt.” Eva thumbed over her shoulder at the pile of discarded books. “If he can’t help even a little bit, I don’t know who can.”

“I mean…” she trailed off, rubbing her forehead just above her eyebrow. “What I mean to say–”

“I know what you mean,” Eva said. “His wife and daughter had quite the hardships recently. Arguably because of me. And if not because of me, probably because of Arachne and Zagan, one of whom will be at the school. We’ll try to avoid him, I think.

“But I still want to be friends with Juliana. She is pretty much the first person that I’ve met who I have become friends with. Not counting Arachne. Sure, it started out mostly because I didn’t want to be seen as an extreme anti-social, and then because we were roommates, but we still became friends.”

Eva paused, thinking. They were friends, right? Eva had thought so, but she had to admit to herself that her experience in such matters was lacking.

Shaking her head, Eva moved on. “And I still want to be friends with Juliana. So consider this testing the waters. If Carlos absolutely hates me, then I suppose there won’t be much I could do. He and Genoa will probably cart Juliana off to some other school, if they don’t just home school her. Otherwise, maybe I can arrange to meet with Juliana. Perhaps just an afternoon at the coffee shop to start with.”

Such an encounter felt like it would be very awkward. Eva could imagine it now, both of them sitting across from each other and not doing more than nibbling at whatever food they ordered in absolute silence.

But baby steps. That could wait until after Carlos.

“In any case,” Eva said, lifting the envelope, “what is written here gives me some hope that he doesn’t loathe or fear me.”

Dropping the letter on the table, Eva reached over and pulled up the next book. Not one written by Carlos, but some other zoologist. She hesitated in opening it up.

All this creature research was getting in the way of her revenge against Sawyer. She really needed to be searching through blood magic books.

Eva frowned as she glanced over to Zoe, specifically her hands. The professor had returned to grading her papers. On the middle finger of her right hand rested a dark ring. It had been rotated so that the skull engraving was on the inside of her hand, but it was unmistakably Ylva’s ring. The void metal made it quite obvious.

Juliana had a ring like that. Presumably, she was still wearing it. Did Sawyer still want it? Was she in danger from Sawyer just by being off on her own?

Ylva meeting with her probably acted as a decent deterrent, but Sawyer was opportunistic. He proved that much when he kidnapped Nel. Unless Ylva had Juliana under constant surveillance, it wouldn’t be hard to slip in between visits and kidnap her.

Replacing the zoology book on the table, Eva got off the couch and headed for her library. She didn’t have all that many books on blood magic. What she did have had been all borrowed from Devon–notably not a haemomancer. That combined with the fact that blood magic books weren’t exactly the sort of thing you could find in a regular bookstore had led to Eva having only a couple.

One was the basics. It held everything from bloodstone creation and attunement to the exact thought patterns needed to properly manipulate free blood. It also contained fairly in-depth descriptions of uses for blood and a few tables on blood potency by creature.

Another was about positive rituals. The healing spell she had used on Sister Cross came from that book. Cleaning the zombie infection from Shalise did as well. It also contained the ritual that gave Eva the ability to heal from minor cuts–an amazing ritual for any self-sacrificing blood mage–and the ritual she had performed on Basila.

Eva paused, blinking. In all the excitement with the enigmas, she had almost forgotten about Basila.

Plucking the negative blood ritual book from the shelf, Eva slipped into her room and plucked Basila from her end table. She brought both out to the common room.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you about this,” Eva said as she set Basila down on the table. She slipped the blood tome just under the couch. It wasn’t something Zoe needed to know about just yet.

Zoe leaned forward to inspect the miniature basilisk. “This is one of Genoa’s statues, is it not?”

“It is,” Eva said with a nod. “She gave it to me for Christmas a year ago. I’ve since made a tiny modification to it. Basila on.”

The little snake let out a huge yawn. Both black fangs had the tiniest droplet of blood hanging off the tips. Its jaw unhinged enough to make its mouth open almost a full half circle. As it glanced around the room, Eva watched as it stopped on Zoe and opened its eyes wide.

Probably trying to turn her to stone.

After a moment of abject failure, Basila turned and slithered up Eva’s outstretched arm.

Eva smiled as its coils tightened around her wrist. She had been worried when, immediately after the ritual, Basila tried to attack her. The ritual was supposed to instill some loyalty among other things. That failing wouldn’t have been good, but it seemed like it took some time to take hold. Not once since had Basila attempted to attack Eva.

Basila hadn’t even tried to petrify her.

Of course, the downside was that it still couldn’t attack anything. It wanted to–placing it in a cage with a rat showed that much–but it just couldn’t.

“You might notice that the scales, teeth, tongue, and the eyes aren’t quite the normal color for a basilisk.” At least, she was pretty sure they were the wrong color, given her little blood infusion. Its eyes were still silver, but the black veins definitely stood out.

“It was a ritual normally intended for actual living creatures. Blood enhances the durability of the scales in a manner similar to my shields. Strength and loyalty should also increase. And in this case, the venom glands have been replaced with blood glands. Blood that I should have some control over once injected.”

Truthfully, she hadn’t actually tested that part just yet. Mostly because she couldn’t.

“The problem,” Eva said, “is that it is hard to inject blood when it refuses to bite. Some kind of mental conditioning that Genoa put on. Probably to avoid lawsuits and such.”

“You’ve turned Genoa’s gift into a weapon?”

Eva winced at the incredulity in Zoe’s voice. “Not a weapon per say. A pet. A super cool pet that can defend its owner from threats. It could be a whole new marketing line for them!”

Assuming people were willing to resort to blood magic.

“At least for me,” Eva amended.

With a sigh, Zoe rubbed the exact same spot on her forehead that she had brushed over while they were discussing Carlos.

Pretending she hadn’t noticed, Eva continued. “I was wondering if you might have any ideas on how to circumvent that limitation.”

“I’ve asked her about them in the past. Fascinating bit of magic. Unfortunately, neither Genoa nor Carlos ever mentioned how they work. Family secret is all they said.”

“And you’ve never taken one apart yourself?”

Zoe blinked and shook her head. “You said this was a gift. Have you seen how much she normally sells these for?”

Eva shook her head.

“Let’s just say that I would be somewhat upset if I damaged mine in experimenting on it. There are jokes about teachers’ salaries being poor, but even with the hazard pay I get from Brakket, I wouldn’t be able to buy more than one or two of the cheaper ones.”

Falling silent at that, Eva glanced down at the coiled basilisk. Juliana had mentioned that they had only created a handful of basilisk replicas. And each replica needed an imprint from the origin species.

Eva was no magizoologist, but she had a feeling that basilisks were not the most common of snakes nor the easiest to work with. They probably needed all kinds of special equipment just to ensure safety against a stray glance at their eyes. And then there was venom and the pure crushing power of the rest of their body.

“You got one,” Eva asked, “as a gift? What kind of creature is it?”

“A winged manticore. Something similar to a sphinx though far more ferocious. Manticores are not one of their cheaper products. It came as quite the surprise, really.”

“Oh?”

“Shortly after I dropped out of the guild’s training program, Genoa stopped by. She had it all wrapped up and basically thrust it in my face saying, ‘here, sorry.'”

Eva frowned. “Sorry?”

“She may have been partially responsible for a handful of the trainees leaving the guild. Though in retrospect, she couldn’t have known what would happen. It is, however, something of a long story. Regardless, to this day, I still don’t know if she was feeling guilty or if she merely wanted to remain on friendly terms. Either way, we met up several times for lunch or, in the earlier days, an impromptu spar. Became friends through that.”

Zoe, after finishing speaking, got a distant look in her eyes. As if the world around her just disappeared and left nothing to stare into but space.

Eva was mostly certain that Zoe was far too young to have that look on her face. “I had been wondering how you two knew each other,” she said after a moment of silence. “You are like thirty or forty years younger, aren’t you?”

Zoe’s faraway look turned to a low-effort glare. “I doubt she would appreciate being called so old.”

With another sigh, Zoe picked up an essay. “Anyway, I don’t know the answer to your problem. Maybe you could ask Carlos when he comes by.”

“Maybe.” Telling him that she had modified their gift might not go over so well, especially if they actually had risked their life to imprint the basilisk.

Before Eva could think to pull out her book, the door to the women’s ward slammed open.

Devon, old trench coat and all, walked inside with heavy footsteps.

Without waiting to be acknowledged, he tossed a vial in Eva’s direction.

She plucked it out of the air, careful to avoid crushing it on accident, and looked over the contents.

Blood, but she had known that from the moment it entered her sixth sense. It was light red. Likely human. Freshly drawn, she would guess.

Eva glanced up at Devon with an eyebrow raised.

“Add it to your wards,” he said as he turned his back to her. “Got an emergency case coming in.”

She wanted to ask more, but he was already gone. For a moment, she considered not adding it. What if he was bringing something dangerous into her home?

With an internal chuckle, Eva dismissed that possibility. If there was one thing she could count on no matter what, it was that Devon wouldn’t do a thing to harm his precious test subject.

Obliging him, Eva got out of her seat and went to her room. Adding the blood to the wards took mere seconds. As soon as she had finished, she returned to the common room and waited.

Zoe had leaned forward in her seat. Her papers had been set to the side as she fiddled with her dagger. Worry lines riddled her forehead.

Eva gave her a sympathetic shrug. ‘Emergency case’ wasn’t very descriptive.

They didn’t have to wait long. Devon was back through the door less than a minute later. Perhaps not in quite as dramatic of an entrance, but Eva couldn’t help but stare at him.

Not him.

What really drew the eye was what he carried in his arms.

Bundled up in a patchwork coat was a child, maybe half as old as Eva, fast asleep. A half-full intravenous fluid bag hung from Devon’s shoulder, pinned up with a few bobby pins. The most striking thing about the child was his utter lack of hair and gaunt, pale skin.

After taking one look around the room and not finding what he was looking for, Devon barked out, “Eva. Fetch Arachne and get everything set up. As soon we finish your treatment, we’re starting on this kid.”

Zoe was on her feet in a flash, dagger drawn and pointed at Devon. “Kid? What is he doing here? Whose kid?”

Devon just shrugged. His tentacle arm moved in a very inhuman manner beneath his trench coat. During his shrug, the kid’s arm flopped up in front of Devon. Using his tentacle, he maneuvered the wrist out of the ragged coat. A light blue wristband just about fell off the kid’s bony wrist.

“Jones, Simon D. Blood type A positive, entrusted to Doctor Paul Johnson. No allergies. No parents listed.”

Sparks started growing on the end of Zoe’s dagger. A few managed to escape her control and bolted straight for the ground–burning through a handful of scattered essays on their way to oblivion.

“You kidnapped someone’s child from a hospital?”

“Frankly, who cares? The kid’s parents are the ones who signed the do not resuscitate order. At least with my help, he’ll reach nine years old. Probably. Maybe.”

Though her arm stayed steady, the uncontrolled electricity actually faltered as Devon spoke.

“Kid’s terminal,” Devon said as blunt as a wall. “But since you care so much, I can tell you exactly where I got him. Take him back to his death-bed. Maybe stick around and watch him die if you’re not as cowardly as you look.”

Eva could hear the grinding of Zoe’s teeth. Half a dozen incomprehensible expressions crossed her face before she settled in an angry grimace.

“Or leave me alone. The kid has a chance at living. I’ll take care of him after Eva’s treatment. She’s almost late as it is.”

“Damn you,” Zoe hissed. With almost palpable resignation, she let her dagger drop to her side.

Eva waited just a moment to ensure there wouldn’t be any outbursts from Zoe. She spoke with some hesitance after letting the silence linger for an extra minute. “There is still a week before the end of February. We have time. Shouldn’t you get him, ah, stable?”

“He’ll live a couple of hours, at least. Maybe even a day or two.” He turned a glare on Eva. “Of course,” he half growled, “if you hustled, we’d have all the more time.”

Eva didn’t pause to nod an acknowledgment. She headed straight for Arachne’s door.

Time to clear out the common room and set up the chairs.

Nel paced in front of the door that led out of Ylva’s domain. The last time she left the domain, a series of bad things happened. Mostly to her.

But this time was different. Right? Lady Ylva had threatened the Elysium Order, so they shouldn’t come after her. Eva had her blood wards up around the entire prison, so no one should be able to teleport in and kidnap her.

And if someone started unraveling the wards, Nel was going to sprint at full speed for Ylva’s domain, sky cracking or not.

Nel stopped pacing and let out a long sigh.

What was the Elysium Order’s reaction to Nel and Ylva? Would they actually leave well enough alone, or would they redouble their efforts?

Not for the first time, Nel wished she hadn’t spent so much effort in avoiding Sister Cross while she was a prisoner. The nun had to have at least a few answers.

Nel would have asked Lady Ylva to accompany her had she been around. Unfortunately, she was once again missing. Along with Alicia.

That was another point of concern for Nel. The idea that she could be replaced was absolutely terrifying. She didn’t think it would come to that–Alicia lacked the augur abilities and the potential to become an augur–but the fact remained that Nel was being left behind from whatever activities they were up to.

Maybe she had offended Ylva by being captured. A servant of the regal Lady Ylva should be better than that. Her lady had been forced to act for the first time–at least since Nel took refuge within her domain.

Though that wasn’t actually true. It was Sawyer who made her move to the professor’s house and Sawyer again who sent monsters to attack the school that Ylva had decided to defend. But all of that was reactionary–they came to her. Ylva hadn’t taken an active hand in seeking out enemies until…

Nel frowned.

Until she went to rescue Alicia.

Though it was part of the same operation, and the Elysium Order’s inquisitors running around inside the hotel would have complicated matters, Ylva hadn’t rescued Nel. That had been Arachne along with the school professors.

Nel clutched her forehead, gritting her teeth. Maybe I really am being replaced.

“No, I’m not,” Nel said as she shook the paranoia away. Even if she was going to be replaced, she hadn’t been yet. That meant she still had a chance.

She could still prove to Lady Ylva that she was worth something. That she shouldn’t be thrown out on the streets.

Or worse.

Nel threw open the door to Ylva’s domain and marched out. She tried to keep her head held high in a confident pose.

Within ten steps her head was on a swivel as she searched and glimpsed for any sign of an attack. She didn’t glimpse very far, very often, or for very long. Being exhausted and full of all the headaches had led to her capture more than anything else, in all likelihood. But it was enough that she might have some early warning if anything happened.

Just before opening the door to the women’s ward, Nel glimpsed inside.

Her hand froze on the handle.

The professor stood off to one side, well away from a ritual circle on the floor. Her face looked like she had just finished sucking on an extremely angry lemon. One of her feet tapped against the floor with fervor rivaling a nervous rabbit.

Most of her anger appeared to be directed at Devon. The man stood in a state of undress within the circle.

In front of him sat both Eva and Arachne. Both were hooked up to one another with small tubes.

It wasn’t the first time Nel had seen such an event. The first time she had seen it was while she still worked under Sister Cross. Since then, it occurred on a fairly regular basis. Every three months or so.

Though an audience was rare. Eva, Devon, and Arachne were normally the only ones attending. Ylva occasionally stopped by to watch, but never did anything but stand in a corner.

Nel ceased her glimpse and merely stood outside the door. Intruding on a nude Devon, angry professor, and the unconscious Eva and Arachne wouldn’t get much done except embarrass herself. She had more than half a mind to run back to Ylva’s domain and call it a day.

A tiny sliver of her mind argued that if she returned, she probably wouldn’t leave again for a long time.

But she still wasn’t keen on walking in on them. Especially Devon. She got enough of an eyeful to last a lifetime with just her near-instantaneous glimpse.

Turning from the women’s ward, Nel started wandering. It was aimless for the most part. She wasn’t about to leave the prison walls–even if she wasn’t worried about being hunted, there wasn’t much outside save for a small ghost town that originally housed whoever worked at the prison. At the same time, she didn’t return to Ylva’s domain.

As she walked around the prison yard, Nel slowed and eventually ceased her glimpsing. Her headache was slowly growing and there was still no sign of any Elysium Order inquisitors. If they were going to do something…

Well, they were probably in the middle of doing it.

Nel wanted to believe that they couldn’t do anything. Ylva had decimated the inquisitorial chapter. Unlike other, undead hunting chapters, there was only the single chapter of internal inquisition.

Not many left the order. A good portion of the Elysium Order’s recruits came from places that undead had overrun. Few of those were actually capable of casting magic naturally. Once they had a taste of being able to use magic, few ever chose to return.

Even then, many who left the order did not warrant being hunted down. Most who did leave had their eye surgically removed, ready to be implanted within another recruit.

Because of that, there wasn’t need for more than a single chapter of inquisitors. And because of that, they hadn’t had time to train up a whole new chapter.

Probably.

Nel really should be spending some of her time spying on them.

But for now, she was taking a brief break.

February’s air was cold enough that Nel could see her breath. Oddly enough, none of that cold penetrated her robe. Lady Ylva must have placed some enchantments on the thin garment.

She walked on through the cold air, musing about her station in life and wondering just what, if anything, lay in her future. Lady Ylva, obviously. But would there be anything more?

Nel never had many aspirations. None she could remember, in any case. Since becoming an augur, she had spent most of her time being used for her abilities. The rest of her time had been focused on not being killed.

Eva had once called her paranoid.

Maybe. Maybe not. As the saying went, it isn’t paranoia if they’re actually after you.

And, as an augur, a number of people could and would be after her at any given moment in time.

Not having anything for herself, and given Lady Ylva’s presence in her future, Nel asked herself one question aloud, “what does Lady Ylva need?”

With just how much the domain provided, Nel was having trouble coming up with anything useful.

“What, indeed, does any demon need?”

Nel connected to the source without the slightest hesitation. Lightning arced off her fingertips, flying into whatever was behind her.

The last time an unfamiliar voice sneaked up behind her, it was Sawyer just before he kidnapped her. She was not going to make that mistake again.

In the brief instant it took for the lightning to leave her fingertips and reach their destination, Nel glimpsed that which lay behind her.

Hoofed feet, bare chest, thick arms, wings, and horns. Flames and smoke lit the area where his feet connected with the ground. Two bright gold eyes didn’t so much as glance at the lightning as he casually swatted it away with the back of his hand.

Nel gasped, throwing herself to the ground. She wasn’t quite fast enough.

Lightning sparked against her backside, burning a hole straight through the seat of her robe. Luckily, it wasn’t that painful. Not only did her connection to the source take much of the pain off of her mind, but she hadn’t put much power into her attack. Just in case whoever it was had a reason to be at the prison.

She was relatively certain that the devil that had very nearly killed her was not one of those people.

Nel’s heart was halfway out her throat before she shunted a good portion of her emotions away to the source. A moment of clarity overcame her utter panic.

Before, she had managed to escape. Sure, she might have been nearly dead for three days, but she still lived in the end. And she would again escape. This time, she just needed to make it to Ylva’s domain and pray that the devil wouldn’t enter.

Nel started crawling on the ground, trying to clamber to her feet somewhere along the way. She let out a strangled cry–the women’s ward was on the opposite end of the prison, but maybe someone would come and help–before a heavy hoof impacted the small of her back, sending her flat against the ground.

Her cry turned to a scream as the flames accompanying his hooves seared into her backside. The eyes implanted within her body squirmed, pressing up against each other in their mad attempts to flee from the heat.

“Such a strange greeting you nuns have. I can’t recall a single one I’ve met that hasn’t tried to kill me the second they saw me. And you didn’t turn to look!”

The hoof keeping her down disappeared from her back. Nel tried to move again.

It came back, hitting her in the side of her chest. She flopped over onto her back with the force.

Again the hoof came down on top of her. This time, she could see it coming with her regular eyes.

Despite the brief warning, bracing her stomach did nothing. Her cry of pain cut off as the air was forcibly evacuated from her lungs.

“It’s almost as if you lot are completely suicidal.” He let out an exasperated sigh before drawing in a deep breath through his nose. At that, he blinked and quirked his head to one side. “I know you, yeah? You smell,” he paused to take another breath, “familiar.”

Nel was in far too much pain to even consider responding. That pain also prevented a proper reaction to him gripping the neck of her robes and pulling her up.

They stared at one another eye to eye. Nel’s vision of his golden eyes was marred by a combination of a heavy squint and her own tears. Eventually, he stuck out his tongue, swiping it from her chin to her temple.

“Taste familiar too.” He blinked, recognition lighting up in his eyes. “Oh. You’re that nun. Did I threaten your life the next time we met, or anything similar?

“I would hate to be found out as a demon that did not keep his promises.”

Nel grit her teeth, pulling away from his hot breath without saying a thing. He probably had threatened her–Nel couldn’t remember. She had been trying to repress those memories.

“Ah well, a matter for another time.” He shoved her back.

Flailing her arms to keep her balance, Nel tried to turn and run. A hand clasped down on her shoulder to keep her from fleeing.

“I didn’t plan to meet you, but this is most fortuitous. I’m wondering,” he said, completely ignoring her efforts at escape. Rather, he pulled her in close with a glance from side to side. As if they were conspiring together. After satisfying whatever he was looking for, he pulled a small brass sphere from somewhere. “I’m wondering just what you can make of this.”

Despite her best efforts at escaping his grasp, Nel found her eyes drawn to the object as it cracked open with a small hiss.

Her slight curiosity vanished as she recoiled back from the slime contained within. Unbidden retching almost forced her to her knees. Had the devil not tightened his grip, she would have gone back down to the ground.

He just laughed and pushed her aside.

The pain in her back and stomach vanished as she stumbled. Nel glanced down at herself. Where there should have been charred skin, everything was fresh and new. Not the slightest hint of a burn.

Unfortunately, she could see her unblemished skin. The robes Lady Ylva had made for her were burned straight through.

“I imagine your owner wouldn’t be pleased with our little roughhousing session. Besides,” he tossed the now-sealed brass sphere towards Nel, “you need to be able to concentrate. Go perform your far-seeing upon the contents. I need to go visit with the little embryonic girl.”

Nel fumbled with the sphere. It took her three tries of accidentally knocking it higher into the air before she finally caught it. Her fear at the devil momentarily fled and was replaced by a fear of smelling that stench.

Blinking in confusion, Nel watched as the devil completely disregarded her. He turned and wandered off in the vague direction of the women’s ward.

He isn’t going to kill me?

The moment the thought crossed her mind, the devil froze.

Nel didn’t wait to see what he was going to do. She turned and ran.

“Take care not to touch it,” he called out after her.

The words barely registered. All of Nel’s concentration was centered around placing one foot in front of the other as fast as possible.

By the time she had crossed the relatively short distance to reach Ylva’s domain, Nel was panting and sweating. Only part of it was born out of fear.

The rest was simply because of the unexpected exertion.

Unlike the Elysium Order, Lady Ylva hadn’t imposed any stress filled exercise programs. No waking up in the morning to run several miles, no weight room, no sparring. Living in relative peace for a full year had done wonders for her sense of laziness.

As Nel leaned against the wall back in the safety of the domain, she considered restarting her old training. Surely she would be of more use to Lady Ylva if she had the physical capabilities to, at the very least, flee effectively from immediate threats.

Of course, none of that would matter if that demon decided to burst through the doors and finish her off.

Nel took several minutes to calm her pounding heart. In all that time, the devil never broke through the door.

He let her go. Again.

Sighing, Nel pressed her forehead against a cool marble column. She glanced down at the brass sphere in her hands. He would be back. While he didn’t come with her to watch her scry on the gunk inside and he hadn’t set a later date for her to deliver whatever information she gleaned from it, he would definitely be back.

Fondling the black skull attached to the band around her neck, Nel mumbled to herself, “where has Lady Ylva gone?” Nel would be feeling much better if she were around.

With a start, Nel glanced down at herself. Maybe it was a good thing that Lady Ylva was gone. She was in no way presentable as she was now. Her clothes were a mess, her hair was matted with sweat, and, though the devil had done something to remove her burns, he hadn’t done anything to remove the dirt that had stuck to her clothes and skin.

With renewed vigor, Nel headed straight for the bath.

After soaking away her harrowing experience outside the domain–a process that took a good hour, at least–Nel found a set of fresh clothing and retired to the throne room to await Lady Ylva’s return. As she waited, she went over exactly what she would say in her report.

Elysium habits died hard, when they weren’t about exercise that is. As an augur, Nel had given her fair share of reports to superiors. Mostly about things she had seen from afar. This time it was about something in person, and that changed things. There were so many personal things that she wasn’t sure she was going to share. Her worries about the future, for instance.

A clock struck somewhere within the domain–added for Eva’s friends, who had needed to know when to wake up and when to eat in the otherwise time-averse domain.

Eight chimes.

Nearly three hours since Nel had left the domain. A good two and a half since she had met the devil. An hour and a half since she moved to kneel at her place on the throne’s right side.

And almost a full day since she last saw Lady Ylva.

Biting her lip, Nel changed locations. She moved through the domain, passing over the bottomless pit and through one of the alcoves on the side.

The heavy scent of frankincense stung Nel’s nose as she maneuvered through the augur room to her altar.

Nel found herself at a loss.

She lacked any sort of fetter for Ylva. Something within the domain would probably work. An item that Ylva found to be tied to her in some intrinsic manner, or perhaps a stray hair. Nel couldn’t quite imagine Lady Ylva leaving hairs lying around, but there might be something similar.

Neither did she have a fetter for Alicia. She would be the easier of the two to search out a stray hair, but Nel wasn’t fond of the idea of being caught snooping about the other servant’s things should they return.

With a groan of frustration, Nel decided to cycle through her existing fetters. She dismissed Shalise’s hair right out–seeing anything from that would require standing in the waters–and started with Eva.

Something she should have done as soon as she escaped from the devil.

Eva looked none the worse for wear. Tired by the looks of things, but otherwise unharmed by any devils that may have attacked. Arachne held her in her arms as they both slept on the couch.

Zoe was nowhere in sight, so Nel moved on to her fetter next. Like Eva, she was asleep. Unlike Eva, she slept in an actual bed.

After spending a moment looking around and making certain that there was nothing worth raising the alarm over, Nel moved on.

A handful of others cycled through with nothing of particular happening to note. Sawyer’s was blank as always, as was the boy known as Hugo.

She found Juliana searching through the shelves of a musky library. Unusual, but Nel couldn’t find anything worth watching after a minute. The girl was just reading. Diablery books, by the looks of things.

Really, Nel thought with a frown, you’d think she would have stayed clear of anything resembling demons.

Eventually, Nel was left with only a single fetter left.

A brass sphere she had clipped to her belt by way of the rotating rings.

Nel held it out in front of her. She didn’t want to expose herself to the vile stench, so she didn’t even try to open it–not that the devil had told her how it opened. Concentrating on the contents, Nel sought out its past and present.

A deep drain had her sagging in her seat almost immediately. It felt like she was looking farther into Hell, like when she had found the two children.

Except worse.

Wherever she was looking, it was far away.

Through the haze of her sudden headache, a picture started to form.

Something akin to a planet. From far away, it actually looked beautiful. The air was crisp and clear. Greenery everywhere. And everything on the planet’s surface was in a state of constant motion. There was a slight tinge of purple to everything, but that hardly stood out with everything else going on.

But when Nel zoomed in, she found her stomach churning.

There were plants, animals, monstrosities, and things she couldn’t begin to categorize. Every inch of the planet’s surface was covered in these things. For all Nel knew, there wasn’t even a surface to cover. It could have been just a massive ball of creatures.

Ones on the surface pranced around, treading on those beneath. More creatures exploded out of nowhere, landing on and crushing those too slow to get out of the way.

One particularly nasty set of animated teeth descended on a cat-like creature.

The cat didn’t stand a chance. It was torn to shreds.

Yet it didn’t die.

Despite not having a head or an upper back, the cat’s body sprinted away from the predator. As it ran, it started regrowing the missing parts.

A second cat, identical to the first, clawed its way out of the maw of the animated teeth after a few moments.

Nel’s sight went dark as she slumped over the altar. Maintaining that connection exhausted her. Yet despite her exhaustion, Nel had been unable to look away. It was a disgusting sight and horrifically enticing at the same time.

With shaky hands, Nel plucked the brass sphere out of the air. Taking great care not to jolt or otherwise disturb any part of it, she placed it within the safe that she used to store some of the more valuable fetters–Sawyer’s blood was among the residents. Once the sphere was in place, she shut the door, sealed it shut, and pulled out her gem focus.

Using every bit of her admittedly limited magical knowhow, Nel erected as many wards and defenses around the safe as she could fit. The air around it hummed with volatile magic from the somewhat conflicting wards she had laid around the safe. Anyone trying to unravel the wards would probably set off a chain-reaction detonating the leftover magic. That included herself.

Warding had never been Nel’s strong point.

But it would work. She couldn’t imagine anyone that both had access to Ylva’s domain and would want to steal her fetters, but she felt it all the more prudent to keep that sphere safe.

Lady Ylva would be able to undo it all with a thought should it ever need to be looked at again.

Nel desperately hoped that need never came about.

It took a moment to steady herself on her feet. Once she did, Nel headed straight for the kitchen. She moved past the main area and all its food and drink without a second glance.

After seeing the things she had seen, Nel felt she needed something a little stronger than water or juices of various types.

Nel removed the cork from a bottle of who-knew-what and proceeded to down a full half of the liquid. Her throat burned and some mild hiccups started, but Nel ignored it all.

“When are you coming back, Lady Ylva?”

The moment the words left her mouth, the ground started to quake.

“They thought I had lied to them. Led them into a trap.”

Shalise started at the anger in Sister Cross’ words. “So they threw you into prison?”

Lynn shook her head. “After the public relations disaster with the riot involving my chapter, my augur disappearing, and the failure of the inquisitorial squad after being briefed by me, they stripped me of command.

“Leading them into a trap was just an excuse to dispose of me. I warned them about the devil-class demon and his involvement in Sister Stirling–in the augur’s disappearance. When this ‘Lady Ylva’ stepped in–whom I knew nothing about, I might add–they used my lack of briefing them about her to toss me into the cathedral’s dungeon.”

“But you escaped.”

“I wouldn’t be here otherwise,” Lynn said with a sad smile. Her smile vanished as she threw a glance around the alternate women’s ward common room.

It didn’t matter how much Shalise insisted that Eva hadn’t hurt her. Even mentioning that Eva had saved her from that enigma didn’t help. Sister Cross was dead set on suspecting Eva of everything from mind-control to torture.

“The six inquisitors that returned from their assignment were treated with hostile suspicion. Especially after word of their report got out. The mission had failed when one of the inquisitors that didn’t return went crazy and started attacking the others. One that had spent time, by her own admission, with the demons. No one wanted to be around the six that might go crazy themselves.

“After that, three of the six disappeared. Mind you, I was in a cell with few methods of finding out information on the outside. I learned all this afterwards.”

Lynn took a hesitant sip of a bottle of water–one of those endlessly provided by the kitchen.

For the first few days, Shalise had actually been worried for Sister Cross’ health. She had been refusing to eat or drink anything, even going so far as to make attempts at keeping Shalise from consuming the food as well. The words ‘tainted’ and ‘vile’ had been thrown around more than once.

It got bad enough that Shalise had leaned on Prax’s support and abilities to force feed Sister Cross lest she starve herself completely.

Even now, she wasn’t eating as much as Shalise thought she probably should.

Baby steps, Prax reminded her.

Yeah, yeah. Shalise suppressed rolling her eyes. Doing anything to give away the fact that Prax was speaking with her again would only lead to another lecture. Sister Cross had not been amused upon finding out about him.

She felt Prax’s presence recede to a small corner of her mind. Luckily for her, he had agreed with Eva regarding Sister Cross’ presence. Having someone around who could fight, should the need arise again, was a plus in his book.

“Suspicion immediately centered on the three remaining inquisitors. The thought going around was that one of them had betrayed their comrades. The three were worried that the higher-ups were targeting them.”

Lynn shook her head. “A foolish notion. Had they been marked for termination by the higher-ups, all six of them would have been taken care of at the same time precisely to avoid what did happen. Namely, the three flew the coop.

“They sneaked out during the night through the old church catacombs. I managed to threaten them into letting me out as well.”

“You threatened them?”

“Well, asked politely for them to let me out. I might have implied that I would make all kinds of noise for the guards if they didn’t–they didn’t want to be found missing until everyone woke up for the morning, you see. Anyway, they–”

Sister Cross was cut off as the entire women’s ward started trembling. She was on her feet in an instant. Her eyes, aglow with power, darted in every direction, looking for any kind of threat.

Shalise stayed in her seat, casually catching the bottle of water before it fell off the table. This quake wasn’t even that bad. Nothing to get up in arms about.

Seeing the worry, fear, and alarm on Lynn’s face, Shalise decided to explain that fact.

“Just a hellquake. They come and go–in fact, they’ve been somewhat infrequent as of late. I wonder if that means anything for the whole Hell situation,” Shalise mused to herself.

“Hell situation?”

“We found out–”

Shalise paused and sighed as another quake rumbled over her words. Her sigh froze in her throat as the rumble was accompanied by an all-too-familiar noise.

A high-pitched whine.

Muscles already growing, she leapt to her feet.

It hurt that Sister Cross jumped away, putting up her guard against Shalise. Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to complain.

The whine ended with a cannon blast inside her ears. Both Shalise and Sister Cross stumbled in disorientation.

“T-that,” Shalise said as she steadied herself, “was not a usual part of earthquakes.”

“Those enigmas that Eva mentioned?”

Shalise nodded. Not wasting any time, she ran for the window with the trap door levers. “I don’t know how many t-there are, but they burrow under the sand. Don’t assume they’re all gone just b-because we can’t see any.”

A heavy hand came to rest on Shalise’s shoulder.

Shalise jumped a good foot in the air.

“Don’t worry,” Lynn said. “Nothing will hurt you so long as I’m here. They won’t know what hit them.”

And then she did something entirely unexpected.

She reached out her arms and wrapped them around Shalise.

In all of Sister Cross’ visits to the home, never once had she shown any kind of physical affection towards any one of the children. She brought gifts and kind words. Advice and support.

But a hug?

Shalise stood still, not quite sure how to respond. Eventually, she allowed her instincts to take over. She reached out and patted Lynn on the back.

Carefully of course. Prax’s muscle strength was not to be underestimated.

“Thanks,” Shalise said, voice barely above a whisper.

As Lynn released Shalise, her eyes started to glow. White light flooded through the room. Lightning crackled off of her fingertips.

“Let them come,” she said.

— — —

Ylva, Eva could tell, was not amused.

The corners of her lips were drawn back into a snarl. It wasn’t an expression that Eva had ever seen on the normally regal woman.

Though the time after Zoe had been attacked came close.

Eva just shrugged her shoulders as she kicked another of the enigmas down the giant pit. She felt as if she should be shouting some taunt with every kick, but after the fifth one, it lost its novelty. That they probably couldn’t understand her added to her reluctance.

“Is that all of them?”

Ylva gave a slow nod without glancing in Eva’s direction. Her eyes were focused off towards one archway where Alicia had just emerged. Nel trailed after her, touching the tips of her fingers together as her eyes darted around.

Alicia dragged the smoking carcass of another enigma behind her. With a grunt, she flung it over the edge of the pit.

“We no longer feel the taint left behind by those creatures.”

“Right,” Eva said. “So any clue? Any insights from the Death side of things?”

At this, Ylva finally turned to face Eva. Her eyes narrowed into thin slits.

Eva took an involuntary step back, wondering if she hadn’t overstepped some bounds. The only thing that kept her from fleeing and returning while Ylva was in a better mood was the fact that the gaze wasn’t hostile. She could feel herself being weighed and measured, but not being considered for extermination.

Ylva cricked her neck to one side while her expression returned to its usual regal impassiveness. The pressure on Eva lifted as she broke eye contact.

Whatever Ylva had been measuring her for, Eva breathed a sigh of relief that she had not been found wanting.

“These creatures do not die. Neither do they return from whence they came, as demons do. Their souls remain trapped and tethered within their unmoving flesh, tainting and corroding. No part of them touches Death’s domain.”

“Does that mean they can heal themselves and come back?” The corpses back in her domain had been dumped without ceremony within a small pit on the island. If they could indeed return, they would probably need incineration to ash at the very least. Removed and then stored someplace where they wouldn’t be able to escape would be a good second.

At the very least, she needed to warn Shalise and Sister Cross.

But Ylva shook her head. “They displayed a mild regeneration during their time in Our domain. Further study upon the one you captured may be required.”

“The source doesn’t know anything about them, Lady Ylva. Holy fire burns their bodies well enough.”

Eva turned to Alicia as the latter got to her knees before Ylva. Though she found the behavior to be disturbing to the highest degree, Ylva merely nodded an acknowledgment.

At least Nel didn’t feel the need to be so sycophantic.

“Then,” Eva said, “the tainting and corroding. There are a couple of these things dead in my domain. Will bad things happen if they aren’t removed?”

“That is how We feel. Surely you noticed the unpleasant aura surrounding these creatures.”

“I have,” Eva said with a slight shudder. Unpleasant was a light word for the feeling. “But it went away after the enigmas died–or stopped moving.”

“Went away?” Ylva asked with a raised eyebrow. “Or perhaps became too subtle to notice.”

Add getting rid of those corpses to my to-do list, Eva thought with a frown. Maybe I can find a good way of dumping the corpses in Willie’s domain. If he wasn’t already back, his domain might be all nice and ruined by the time he got back.

“I know what they are,” Nel blurted out.

She wilted as everyone turned their gaze in her direction.

“I-I mean… not what they are. But I’ve seen them before. That devil,” she spat, “he brought me an object to use my augur abilities upon. That happened earlier today.” Nel’s eyes grew to the size of saucers as she looked at Ylva in horror. “I-I meant to tell you immediately. But you were gone and then the earthquake and the creatures…”

“Calm yourself.” Ylva placed a hand on Nel’s head. “You have done nothing wrong.”

Being such a giant, Ylva’s hand encompassed almost the entirety of Nel’s hair. Slowly, she rubbed her hand back and forth as if she were petting a dog.

It struck Eva as an odd display of affection. Probably something she picked up while going to school with Zoe.

“Continue your tale.”

Nodding under Ylva’s hand, Nel did so. “I don’t know how to describe what I saw. Like a planet, except it was made up of things. Those things,” she gestured towards the pit, “and other creatures. There was so much to take in, I feel I only got a sliver. And that’s just what I could see.

“The most important thing was what I felt. The stretching and pulling of my consciousness. It felt just like when I was searching for Eva’s friends while standing in the waters.”

Eva blinked. “Another plane of existence?”

“That’s just what I felt. I can’t see into Hell without standing in the waters. And I can’t see into Ylva’s domain from outside. So I don’t know why I would be able to see some other plane.”

“These things have been popping up all around Hell related things. The imp summoning proves that it isn’t just me and Ylva. There is something with Hell,” Eva waved her hands vaguely around the air, “that connects with these things, and their home plane.”

“We concur.” Ylva brought a finger to her chin as her brows furrowed in thought. “Question instead what Power lies behind these creatures’ creation and actions.”

Eva waited, expecting her to continue on and reveal the Power’s name.

But she didn’t. Her thoughtful look continued long enough for the silence to become somewhat awkward.

“Perhaps we should speak with Devon, he might know,” Eva eventually said. “He has had a number of associations with the minions of various Powers.”

A look devoid of amusement appeared on Ylva’s face. “It is difficult to believe that a mortal would have knowledge on powers that We lack. That is aside from his distasteful personality.”

Eva just shrugged, heading off towards the exit of Ylva’s domain. “A second opinion then.”

Besides, she thought, if I’m to get rid of those corpses in my domain, I’ll need to get Zoe to accept another beacon.

— — —

“You are a despicable man.”

“Funny,” Devon said. He stood up from the circle drawn on the floor, cracking his back as he moved. “I imagined you to be the type to want to save kids’ lives.”

Zoe bristled. Her brief anger dissipated with a few soft words. “Not like this…” Louder, she said, “you’re going to turn him into the same thing that Eva is.”

“Maybe.”

Gritting her teeth, Zoe pinched her eyes shut. The only thing that kept her from physically assaulting Devon was her current task.

Tending to the child called Simon. Close up and despite her relative lack of medical skills, Zoe could tell that he was beyond feverish. If something wasn’t done soon, he could suffer brain damage just from the heat of his own body. She was doing her best to keep him cool, but that was superficial at most.

For some reason, she got the impression that Devon didn’t care either way. So long as he could perform his experiments.

Pausing for a moment to take a lackadaisical drink of his water, Devon meandered over to a circle drawn on the other side of his cell block.

Zoe had become at least somewhat familiar with summoning circles and shackles. Yet the patterns and designs formed around the standard summoning circle still boggled her mind.

He pulled a knife from his pocket and proceeded to shave a thin layer of skin from his tentacle arm. Not deep enough for him to really bleed. He placed it right in the center before stepping clear of the circle.

“What are you doing?”

“Wondering if I shouldn’t find a way to erase your memory,” he grumbled. “You were far more manageable a few months ago.”

“Try it and–” Zoe cut herself off as the circle started to glow and rotate. “You’re summoning a demon?”

“Course I am. Takes two to tango. Luckily for you, I haven’t worked out an agreement with a demon ahead of time. Saw the kid as an opportunity and took it. You might just get your wish of that kid dying a slow and painful death from whatever cancer he has if this demon declines.”

Before Zoe could think to interrupt, two thick tentacles erupted from the rotating circle. They slapped down on the ground before lifting out a body.

A small, childlike body.

With slit-pupil eyes as red as Eva’s new eyes.

No. They were Eva’s eyes.

A brief tremor ran though Zoe’s body as she remembered her home burning down around her.

The carnivean screamed out once she spotted Devon. She launched herself, slamming her whole body into the shackles.

The glowing inscriptions flickered, but otherwise remained intact.

Devon just smiled behind his goatee.

An awful look on the man.

“Yep,” he said. “Me. I was worried you would still be off in the depths of Hell. Glad to see you’ve climbed out since our last encounter.”

His words sent the carnivean into another rage. She slammed her fists and tentacles against the barrier, each causing the shackles to flicker lightly, but causing no sign of them being in danger of collapse.

Devon didn’t look alarmed in the slightest at the demon’s antics. His smile had slipped, but had been replaced with a narrow-eyed look of annoyance.

“I’m not afraid to dominate you. And I will if you refuse to settle down. But I would rather have you willing.”

“Here to take more of what isn’t yours?” the carnivean snarled, punctuating her question with another fist against the shackles.

“In a sense. I’ve had time to consider your proposition regarding the fae. Dangerous business, but I might be convinced to summon the queen. That is, if you’re still interested in your,” he scoffed, “wish.”

Zoe might have found his overly haughty attitude amusing. A small bit of schadenfreude against the demon. Unfortunately for Devon and her petty revenge, she distinctly recalled how his last encounter with this carnivean ended. Namely, unconscious and needing to be carried out by Zoe.

Despite his attitude, the carnivean calmed down. She actually appeared to be considering his offer.

“You want something for it.”

“Course I do. It isn’t much. Just a sample of your blood every few months and your cooperation. Two years of that and I’ll perform your little ritual.”

“My blood,” the carnivean said, voice flat.

“Not for anything nefarious. I’ll destroy any excess under your supervision if you insist.”

“Two years?” She shook her head. “Too long.”

“And you think you’ll find someone else to summon the fae for you?”

The carnivean shrugged. She paced around the summoning circle twice before stopping at the far side. Leaning against the invisible barrier provided by the shackles, she said, “perhaps I will. There’s always the necromancer. Or the little girl who follows him around.”

Devon’s smile grew to be downright predatory. “After failing him twice, you think he will summon you back? To torture you, I could believe that. Or to turn you into one of his creations. To give you what you want?” He shook his head. “Not a chance.”

“Someone else then,” she shouted, swinging her fist into the shackles at her back.

“I offer a two-year guarantee. Fulfill my tasks and I’ll summon your fae. It will be a full contract. Forged with blood rather than mere words, if you need the extra reassurance. But if you continue to be difficult, I’ve other demons to make the offer with. You have one minute to decide.”

With that said, Devon moved away from the carnivean. He went back to the circle he had been drawing and started checking it over against a little notebook.

Though she hadn’t stopped during their conversation, Zoe renewed her efforts at making the child as comfortable as possible. There really wasn’t much more she could do. Even if she brought him to a proper healer, they wouldn’t be able to help him. Some types of cancer could be cured by cutting off parts of the offending organ and regrowing it entirely.

Unfortunately, Simon was very obviously in the final stages of whatever his specific illness was. Cancer would have spread all over his body. And if it was in his brain…

Zoe wondered just how Devon’s miracle cure could possibly pull him back from this late stage. Her mind started wandering, considering the possibility of reworking his ritual for a cure without whatever side-effects his experiment was sure to have.

After what was probably just over a minute, Devon snapped his book shut. He wandered back to the summoning circle.

“Time is up and time to send you back.”

“Wait.”

Devon crocked his head to one side. “Waiting.”

“Two years? No loopholes? No wordplay?”

“If you want it all in writing–”

“I do.” The carnivean nodded, a shallow smile appearing on her face. “Writing. Blood contract. And I get to go over the entire thing before either of us seal the deal.”

“Excellent,” Devon said as he rubbed his hands together. “Assistant,” he called out, “drop the kid off on the left side circle–the one closest to the door.”

Zoe blinked. It took a moment to realize just who he was addressing.

“The contract details won’t take long. I just hope that kid doesn’t kick it in the middle of the ritual.”

Eva watched as Zoe left with the body of Simon. Somehow, Eva was hoping that she wasn’t about to return the body to the hospital. Its condition was far from pristine. Seeing it would probably cause a lot of grief if he had anyone that cared about him.

Perhaps returning his ashes would be the best course of action.

Brushing his hands together to get rid of chalk dust, Devon stood from the circle. “Everything is drawn correctly,” he said. “Seems a sick kid won’t do. At least, not one that sick.” With a casual shrug, he went to collect his little notebook and promptly started writing something down. “Still, might be able to improve the efficiency despite that failure.”

“What about me?”

Devon paused his writing to look up over the edge of his notebook.

A fairly lethargic-looking carnivean leaned against a chair, eyes half-lidded. Whatever this new process was, it sure took its toll on the demon. Arachne never looked half as bad after Eva’s treatments. The carnivean–Qrycx, she had called herself–looked more like Eva tended to feel.

Though Eva’s analogue in this ritual had died, so at least nothing quite that bad had happened to her.

“Ah, you,” Devon said. He waved his hand off towards the summoning circle. “Begone with you. I’ll call upon you after I find a new subject.”

“And our contract?”

From the chair that Eva was sitting in, she could see a shadow of a smile cross Devon’s features.

“Still on, of course.” That shadow darkened ever so slightly. “Of course, the terms dictate two years donation towards a single subject, so we’ll have to start the timer back at zero when next I summon you.”

In spite of her obvious fatigue, the carnivean’s eyes narrowed to thin slits. “That wasn’t in our contract.”

“Oh, but it was.” Devon pulled out a sheet of paper from the back of his notebook. “Reviewed and signed by you, it clearly states that you will donate yourself to the subject for a period lasting no less and no longer than two years.”

He turned the paper around, holding it out for her to see. “Now, that subject is dead and can no longer be donated to. Either our contract is null and void as the subject is deceased, or I find a new subject to take his place and your two years start over.

“By all means, you are free to walk away. Back to square one. Good luck finding someone willing to summon the unseelie queen.”

Eva quirked an eyebrow at that. This was the first she had heard of such a plan.

“Or accept a delay of a few weeks. I have no intention of letting this project linger. Not with the current and future state of Hell, demons, and Void in such flux.”

Brokering no room for argument, Devon pointed at the summoning circle. “Now out. Or I will banish you myself.”

When she hesitated, looking much like she was going to argue, Devon started chanting.

Originally, Eva hadn’t thought that Devon had much special about him. Well, that wasn’t true.

Originally, Eva had thought the world of Devon. He was a great magic caster. A brewer of potions that could cure all sorts of maladies. A fighter capable of ending all of his foes. One that bent demons at their knees to do his bidding.

She had begged and pleaded with him to teach her magic. He had finally relented, teaching her enough to keep her from blowing herself up and graciously allowing access to his library of tomes.

That was the mage that a young and impressionable girl had called master.

Now, however, she had more influences in her life. Teachers and fighters. Zoe, Genoa, Wayne, and a good portion of the professors at Brakket Academy. Compared to them, Devon was… lackluster. Eva was fairly certain that most of his ‘skills’ in fighting actually amounted to luck. Luck and hiding behind whatever demons were available.

While he had to have at least a little skill to back up that luck, his teaching skills were nonexistent. Looking back, Eva could clearly see that he hadn’t taught her much of anything unless it was directly related to her not killing herself. More likely was that she had annoyed him to the point where he had just tossed his books at her until she went away.

It worked. Eva had been more than happy to study a good portion of his tomes. And she couldn’t complain that the first book he had tossed at her was a blood magic book–she liked the art, after all. But a small part of her couldn’t help but wonder just how much more she could be, had she had an actual teacher.

Since arriving at Brakket, Eva had been dropping the title of master when addressing him. He was merely Devon.

But if there was one thing that he was a master at, it was diablery. Or demonology, as he would insist.

The words to his chant came out fast. The nun that had tried to banish Arachne just before starting school sounded like a child in comparison. Devon slurred and used contractions so much that the chant was only intelligible because Eva had heard most of it before.

Yet it worked.

The carnivean strode across the room. She didn’t move slow despite the lethargy. And yet she only made it about six steps. Her seventh step fell through a portal on the floor. Without solid ground beneath her, she tipped forward and fell face first into the void.

As the portal sealed up behind the carnivean, Eva frowned at her master. “I heard the story from Zoe and Arachne. Why didn’t you banish her back when you guys were rescuing Nel?”

He let out an irritated snort. “At first it was just talking. Implied it wasn’t going to attack us. Might have let my guard down, but just goes to show that you can’t trust demons. By the time it started attacking, it was far too close. Had its tentacles on me quick.”

“Won’t dismissing her make dealing with her next time all the more troublesome?”

Shrugging, he said, “I still don’t know that it is the best choice. Plenty of other demons in Hell. It was just one that I thought I could get to agree without much fuss.”

“But your contract–”

“Has plenty of loopholes. It caught a handful while going over the contract, but it didn’t catch all of them.” He paused, glancing at the mess on the floor left over from the ritual. “Hand me that broom.”

Eva blinked, momentarily stunned. She quickly complied before he decided to make her do it.

After a moment of watching the enchanted broom vanish the mess on the floor, Eva decided to press her luck by speaking up again.

“So Qrycx just happened to miss several loopholes? Doesn’t seem very demon-like.”

Sighing, Devon scratched at his beard. “Look, you want to avoid such a fate? Take a few law classes. Most demon contracts go something like this: Kill the things I want you to kill, don’t kill the things I don’t want you to kill, don’t kill me, go to Hell when you’re done. They don’t have a lot of experience in more wordy contracts.

“Now the fae,” he said, “I wouldn’t want to even hear a fae contract without a good dozen lawyers at my back.”

Eva frowned, wondering just how many lawyers went over the contracts for the diablery class. Knowing what little she did about Martina Turner, probably none.

“But,” Eva said, “you’re still going to summon the queen for Qrycx.”

“Loopholes. Assuming I even summon it again.”

With that, they fell silent. Eva let him finish cleaning the floor in peace while she considered what he had said.

Just as he was finishing up, Eva went and opened her mouth again. “What about me?”

He blinked, glancing back over his shoulder. “You? What about you?”

“‘Demons are not trustworthy,'” she said, complete with air quotes. “What about me?”

Another blink.

He burst out in a short guffaw. “You’re just a kid. And not a real demon, at least not yet. Even after your treatment is complete, its doubtful that anyone who knows you would consider you a threat. Now, after a century or two of time to distance yourself from the woes of us short-lived mere mortals, it will be another story. I don’t plan on sticking around quite that long.”

Nodding with a slight frown, Eva tried to decide whether or not to be offended. Trustworthy wasn’t bad, not from her perspective at least. Undemonlike might be bad. Her treatment wasn’t complete, so she supposed she could let that one slide for now. Not a threat?

Yes, that was definitely offensive.

And he had called her a kid. Compared to him, maybe, but fifteen years old was hardly a child.

Then, Eva’s mind caught up with his final sentence.

“You aren’t going to perform the treatment on yourself?”

A long moment of silence reigned supreme as Devon stilled.

“Arachne,” he eventually said, “was once human. As you well know. Some mages masquerading as gods didn’t like her and turned Arachne into what it is now. Myths say that Hel, mother of our very own Ylva, was cast down to Hell by Odin after being touched by Death. More mages masquerading as gods.

“There are other, similar tales through history and mythology. Humans turned to demons, or other monsters, by ones more powerful than themselves. Know one thing they all have in common?”

Eva considered for a moment. Not having a wide background in various myths and legends, she really only had the two examples. Not enough to come up with a commonality.

So Eva just shook her head.

Devon put on a rueful smile. “Perhaps I’ll tell you one day. I’ll give you a hint. It has to do with the endings of the stories.”

The smile behind his goatee twisted back into his usual expression of impassiveness and grumbling. “Now get out. I still have work to do.”

Eva nodded. Hopping to her feet, she started off towards the exit of his cell block. She stopped almost as soon as she started as two things came to mind.

The first was that she had forgotten to ask about the Powers. Probably a dead-end, as Ylva said, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

The second…

Eva stared down at the half erased ritual circle where the remains of Simon had lain not so long ago.

She bit her lip and asked a question she had never considered before.

“Was I the first?”

“First what? Demon-that-was-originally-human? Weren’t you listening, girl? Arachne and Hel are two–”

“The first of your experiments. I’m obviously your only current success. But was I the first you attempted the treatment on?”

He regarded her with a suspicion-filled raised eyebrow. “What? Growing a conscience now?” He gave a cold laugh. “More than that kid have died in the course of my research–if he wasn’t dead before the ritual even began, that is. Anyone with zero failures on a project as big and as unique as mine must be a literal god. ‘Course you’re not the first.”

Eva nodded. That was roughly what she had expected. Though, at no point when he had originally explained the process to her had he ever mentioned any dangers. “Perhaps in the future,” she said slowly, “you might warn your potential subjects that they might not make it.”

Looking at her like she was crazy, Devon just shook his head. “Most subjects weren’t exactly in the state to give consent. Not to the point of that kid,” he gestured towards the door, “but a lot less well off than yourself.”

Frowning, he pulled out his notebook again and started writing. “Ill individuals may not make for the best subjects,” he mumbled to himself. “Subject should display moderate drive and willpower, the will to live, and generally be in a healthy state.” Shutting his notebook, he glanced up and met Eva’s eyes.

A moment passed before he pulled out his notebook again. “Correction: willpower not needed. Subject should be slightly more self-aware than a pineapple.”

“Hey!”

—

Eva lifted her teacup, taking in a deep breath of the fragrant fumes.

Devon hadn’t had any useful information on Powers. At least not the one that they were looking for. Just as Ylva expected. The closest he had come was correctly identifying the residue that Nel had received as belonging to another plane of existence, a foreigner to the mortal realm. Finding out what specific plane was beyond his abilities.

So nothing they hadn’t already known.

With that in mind, Eva wasn’t entirely certain what Carlos was going to be able to discover. Did he know anything about the Powers? Doubtful.

But Eva had sent the letter before finding out the origins of the creature. By the time she had found out, he would have already been on his way. Unless he had someone like Zoe teleporting him in.

In fact, he was due to arrive any minute.

Hence Eva’s cup of tea. A nice cup of tea for calming the nerves.

Carlos probably wouldn’t be upset at being called out to something he didn’t already know what it was. Given his reaction to the gargoyles within Ylva’s domain, he would probably be ecstatic at the chance to research something new.

No. Her initial reason for calling him here did not worry Eva.

It was just that the last time she had seen him, Genoa had a hole the size of her arm in her chest. And Genoa had fairly muscular arms.

Would he hate her? Blame her? Regard her with cold eyes behind those coke-bottle glasses of his?

She had read his letter. What he said about his concerns regarding his wife, Eva, and Arachne. But letters could be pondered over. Words could be erased and rewritten. What he actually felt might never have made it to Eva.

There was a reason she had written him a letter in the first place instead of just calling him, and it wasn’t that she still didn’t own a cellphone. Though that may have been a contributing factor.

After all, she wanted the time to consider her words. To avoid any questions or words that he might say to her that she would have to respond to at that moment.

Eva replaced her teacup in its saucer, shaky hands barely able to keep the tea from spilling over before the ceramic clacked together.

The tea was definitely not doing its job at calming her nerves.

She didn’t have tea often. Hardly ever. Eva was willing to believe that she could count the times she had had tea on a single hand. Perhaps it only worked on those who consumed the stuff regularly.

This batch was more like a syringe of adrenaline straight to the heart.

“What are you so worked up about?”

Eva glanced up with a slight start.

“You’re jumpy enough to make me nervous,” Catherine said. “Stop it.”

“He’s the father of my very first non-Arachne friend. I’d rather not have him hate me.” Eva started towards her tea, but stopped.

She’d had enough.

“Besides,” Eva said, “you don’t need to be here anyway. I’m perfectly capable of taking him to see the enigma on my own.”

“I wish I didn’t need to be here. Martina insists that absolutely every visitor to the Academy must be escorted at all times. Especially around the ‘enigma.'” Catherine used a single hand for her air-quotes. Her other hand held a cellphone.

One she had been tapping on incessantly for the last fifteen minutes.

The constant beeps and vibrations made by the thing didn’t help with Eva’s nerves.

“How long is he going to take?” Catherine moaned while she flopped over onto the table after a series of depressing tones. “I have better things to do than to waste away my time in the mortal realm babysitting you. And why isn’t this the job of the security team? What did Martina even hire them for?”

“His letter said noon,” Eva said, glancing up to the clock. She didn’t bother to respond to the rest of Catherine’s complaints. “And it’s high noon.”

As soon as she spoke, there was a soft knock at the door. A moment after, the door cracked open and Carlos walked in.

He looked… well, not as gaunt as he had while Juliana was stuck in Hell. He had been eating better, that much was clear.

However, Eva’s heart sank as he failed to smile in the slightest. No twinkling appeared in his eyes at the sight of her.

At least he isn’t scowling, Eva thought.

Eva kept her disappointment bottled up. Her face remained as neutral as his own.

At least until a second person entered the room. Someone unfamiliar. Taller than Carlos with sun-baked skin and darker hair. There might have been a passing resemblance to Genoa if she looked close enough; he had the same strong bone structure in his cheekbones and jaw line.

His eyes managed to wander half the room before snapping to Eva.

Particularly her hands as they rested on the table around her teacup.

Eva watched his eyes grow wide. They traveled up to her elbows before shooting upwards to meet her gaze.

The entire school knew what Eva looked like. She actually did not have to deal with much in the way of reactions. Not anymore. Half the school had been there to see her directly on the first night, an incident she fled from before anyone had a chance to do anything. The rest of the school had heard rumors–most probably exaggerated to the point where her actual appearance was boring in comparison–and were therefore prepared.

There was bullying after. Not much other than a thrown ball of dirt or water in the hallways. Most people tended to avoid her. And all that had pretty much stopped once the security force started patrolling the hallways.

Genoa had taken her appearance in stride, for the most part. Eva guessed that she had seen far stranger as part of her mage-knight guild. Carlos had been more interested in examining her than anything else.

As such, it was something of a daunting experience, watching as this presumably normal mortal took in her appearance. His eyes, though they started wide, had narrowed into thin slits full of suspicion and wariness.

Eva kept eye contact, her face remaining as impassive as she could make it, daring him to say something. She fully intended to make him blink first.

A third person walking in the door threw that plan to the winds.

Eva jumped to her feet, knocking over her teacup. Ignoring Catherine’s yelp as the hot tea ran down the table towards her, Eva strode across the room.

Only for the unfamiliar man to move in front of her path. He held a green baseball-sized gemstone focus in his hand, outstretched towards Eva.

She didn’t waste any time in readying for combat. Her dagger came out of her sheath at her back while her off-hand ignited in thaumaturgical flames.

“Erich! Stand down.” There was a slight pause. “She’s my friend.”

Those last three words made Eva forget everything that had been worrying her. It didn’t matter if Carlos hated her. It didn’t matter if the man–this Erich–attacked her. She could take him. Probably.

The flames coating her hand expired and her dagger disappeared into its sheath.

“Erich.”

After giving her a wary look, Erich’s focus disappeared into a pocket. He took an excruciatingly long time with moving out of the way, but he eventually did.

“Hello, Eva.”

There was a smile there. Maybe not a careless, gleeful smile, but a smile nonetheless.

Putting on a smile of her own, Eva stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her friend.

“Hello Juliana.”

“Excuse my brother. He isn’t so high-strung normally.”

Eva pulled back from Juliana and turned her eyes to the man she had called Erich. That explained the vague likeness to Genoa that she had noticed. Yet he lacked all of the relative frailty that embodied Carlos.

Which didn’t actually mean anything. Juliana wasn’t frail in the slightest. She had inherited her father’s height impairment while taking after her mother in every way that mattered.

Probably a good thing. She might not have survived her ordeals had she her father’s constitution.

Looking closer at him, and looking past the resemblance to Genoa, Eva found that he had rather sharp features. High eyebrows, a pointed nose, a chin that stretched down to a single point–at least, that’s how it appeared through his goatee. Unlike Devon’s unkempt scraggly beard, Erich had styled his to a point.

His short hair even came to a well-defined widow’s peak.

Especially with that beard, he looked more like he could have been a younger version of Devon than any descendant of Carlos.

Eva suppressed a shudder at the thought of Devon having children.

“Ah,” Eva said, hoping that the lengthy pause had gone unnoticed, “so this is the mysterious Erich that Juliana has so sparsely mentioned.”

She had already decided not to hold his almost-assault against him. He was just protecting Juliana from a possible threat. That was an admirable trait.

Erich crossed his arms, not lessening his glare in the slightest.

Glancing slightly towards Carlos, Eva said, “I didn’t think you would be bringing along your–”

She cut herself off. ‘Bringing along your whole family,’ was what she nearly said, but without Genoa, the whole family wasn’t here. And she didn’t exactly want to call attention to that fact.

“–children,” Eva finished, feeling awkward. She was the same age as Juliana and wouldn’t appreciate being called ‘children’ in any sense of the word. Erich was worse. Eva wasn’t sure how old he was, but he had already graduated from Brakket Academy before she had started. That put him at twenty at the very least, though Eva was willing to bet closer to twenty-five.

Carlos didn’t respond. He used one hand to grip either side of his glasses, hiding his eyes as he readjusted them.

To Eva’s side, Juliana just let out a small cough.

Erich didn’t react in the slightest.

“Perhaps,” Catherine said, her chair grinding back against the tiles as she stood, “you should move on to the ‘enigma.’ Your greetings can be exchanged later; at some point in time when I am not required to be here observing this disgusting display of social diarrhea.”

Eva could have done without that last line, but apart from that, all she was thinking was thank you Catherine.

“Right.” Eva clapped her hands together. “Um, just follow us?”

Heading out of the office lobby and into Brakket Academy proper, Eva kept just a few steps ahead of Juliana and Erich while Carlos trailed behind them. Catherine took up the rear, absolutely failing at her job of keeping an eye on the guests if all the noises coming from her cellphone were any indication.

The short walk passed in silence. And not the good, comfortable type of silence. Eva had a number of questions that she wanted to ask of Juliana, but with Erich sticking at her side and Juliana not at Eva’s side, it felt like an insurmountable task.

So instead, Eva used the walk to reflect. Partially on Juliana and the distance she was keeping, but mostly on herself.

Why was it so hard to talk to her? Eva had never had a problem like this. Mostly because she cared very little for what other people thought of her. Awkward situations were a snap to avoid when your only friends were a potentially insane old man and a spider demon.

But even after coming to Brakket and meeting Juliana, Shalise, Jordan, Irene, Shelby, and even Max, Eva had not had trouble interacting with them. And that included immediately after her gloves came off–so to speak–about demons and Arachne.

Really, all of them, save for Max and Irene to an extent, cared far less about the whole diablery thing than Eva had been expecting.

This, here and now, was a completely different feeling. Arachne had almost killed her friend’s mother. Under the influence of another demon or not, that was more than enough to cause a rift. Especially since they knew that Eva still associated with Arachne.

But still, she should be able to talk without tripping over herself, shouldn’t she?

Maybe it was something else then. Carlos and Erich? That was a whole lot more likely. Eva did care what Carlos thought to an extent. Not quite the levels of what she cared about Juliana’s thoughts. And Erich, Eva had only just met him. With no real opinions set in stone, she only cared about what he thought as an extension of what Juliana might think if he ended up hating her.

“Alright,” Eva said as she pushed open the door. “Inside that large ice block is the creature. I do have some information about it from other sources, but I think that I would rather hear your uninfluenced opinion to start with.”

“Is there a reason,” Carlos said as he readjusted his glasses again, “that you two are here instead of the dean or the school’s magizoology professor?”

Eva blinked. She had been expecting him to rush up to the enigma and start examining it, or whatever a magizoologist did when they came across a potentially undiscovered species.

“I’m not sure about the dean,” Eva said with a glance towards Catherine.

The succubus just shrugged and went back to her cellphone.

“Professor Twillie is on the outside of the loop because of the nature of the creature and how it arrived. Zoe should be here before long, she was just taking care of overseeing a makeup test that will be ending soonish.”

“That’s a summoning circle,” Juliana said, quirking an eyebrow at Eva. “It is a demon then? You think my dad has a better chance of identifying it than Devon?”

Eva nodded. “It is a summoning circle. Every other line in the room is a shackle. The creature is not a demon, however. The intended target of the circle was an imp. Catherine, myself, and Zagan have all confirmed that the circle should have summoned an imp. This arrived instead.”

The creature’s method of arriving had been included in her letter, so confirming that didn’t reveal anything new, unless Juliana hadn’t read the letter.

“Very well,” Carlos said, stepping towards the ice block. “Is it possible to melt the ice?”

“Yeah. It’s just regular ice. A fresh layer gets frozen on once a day by a water mage. Heat would take it down.”

“I mean, is it dangerous to melt the ice?”

Eva frowned. “Probably not. Its blood has stopped circulating. I would say that it is dead…”

“But?”

“One of the quirks of these things, according to Ylva, is that they don’t die properly. None of the ones that I have killed have gotten back up, but I was a whole lot more violent than freezing water over one. But if it did wake up, with both myself and Catherine here, we should be able to handle a single one without much issue.”

Probably.

Nodding, Carlos said, “I think we should leave it as is until Zoe arrives. Not that I don’t trust that you can take care of it, I’d rather have the extra focus on hand if something does go wrong.”

With that said, he started walking around the ice, looking it up and down through the glassy surface. After his third revolution, he pulled a chair from the side of the room and sat down. Taking off a large backpack and setting it to the side, he retrieved a sketch pad and got to work with a set of pencils.

Eva spent a moment watching his deft hands trace out minute details. He could have taken his profession as an artist and done rather well for himself, in Eva’s uneducated opinion.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t commenting during his drawing process. At least not out loud. His sketch had a slowly growing list of annotations off to one side detailing colors, estimated size of teeth and appendages, and other such characteristics.

That meant that, once again, no one was talking.

Gritting her teeth, Eva shook off her nerves. She walked right up to Juliana–the side opposite from Erich.

“Can we go talk outside for a minute or two?”

“Sure. Not like I have much to add. And I had something to talk with you about too.”

All three of them started off towards the door at the same time.

Juliana stopped and whirled on her brother. “I’m fine, Erich. Stay with my dad and make sure he stays fine.”

“But–”

“No buts! You’ve been hanging off of me since I called you. It’s driving me insane!”

She turned and marched out of the room, barely managing to not slam the door in Eva’s face.

Eva gave Erich a half-hearted shrug before she chased after her friend.

Juliana had taken up a crossed-arms slouch against a wall out in the hallway. When Eva approached, the armor coating her arms clanked as she shifted.

“You alright?”

“Fine,” Juliana snapped. Pressing a hand to her forehead, she sighed. “I’m sorry. My entire family has just been unbelievable since the–” She paused with a glance around the hallways.

It was a Saturday afternoon; they were empty. Few students would be in the school on the weekend and fewer still down the corridor where they had set up the diablery classroom. The room had been specifically chosen for being in a lesser used portion of the school proper.

“The thing,” she finished.

“Oh?”

“Since telling my brother about it, he hasn’t let me out of his sight. And that is on top of the high tensions between him and my parents…” She shook her head. “Dad wants me to cut ties with you and Ylva, and for me to finish my education off at some ancient castle in Scotland–probably don’t even have working toilets.

“Mom’s the most reasonable, but she’s bedridden for the moment. The other two ignore everything she says the moment they’re out of the room.” She looked up and met Eva’s eyes. “You have no idea how irritating it is for everyone to ‘know what is best’ for you.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that. Zoe has been somewhat attentive of me as of late. You’d think she was my mother.”

Juliana laughed. A nice real laugh. “So things here been as hectic as usual?”

“Not really. Quiet, actually.” Eva thumbed over her shoulder. “Except for that thing, that is. Those enigmas have been showing up all over Hell, including both my and Ylva’s domains.”

Juliana’s eyes widened and her brow creased with worry lines. “Shalise?”

“She’s fine. Still in my domain. She had a brief run-in with them, but managed to dispatch two before I arrived. They’re not actually that tough. Sister Cross is keeping her company at the moment.”

“The same Sister Cross that told you to purify yourself through death or something?” Juliana asked with a flat stare.

“That was one of her minions. But yes, that Sister Cross. She showed up and tried to kill me. Naturally, I objected. We eventually came to the agreement that she should protect Shalise.”

“Just like that?”

“More or less,” Eva said with a shrug.

Again, a silence fell over the two. A silence that felt more comfortable than the earlier lack of conversations, but not quite how Eva remembered.

Eager to keep the silence from dragging on, Eva said, “I heard you were up to something with Ylva?”

“Ah, yeah,” she said, shifting forward and making direct eye contact. “Ylva hadn’t told you about it?”

Eva shook her head. “She tends to be the sort of person you have to directly ask to get an answer out of, and I only learned when your father returned my letter. Around the same time everything became hectic with Sister Cross and all the enigmas.”

“Well, that’s what I wanted to talk with you about.”

She glanced around the hallway again, looking out for any passersby. There were none, of course, but she still took an extra glance to either side.

“I want access to all of your diablery books.”

“Alright.”

Juliana blinked. “Just like that?”

“Why not just like that?”

“I-I stole your other book.” Juliana took her eyes off of Eva, glancing down towards the ground. “I kept it secret and I caused all sorts of problems for everyone.” Her eyes snapped up into a shallow glare. “And you’re just going to let me into your library?”

Eva sighed with a small smile touching her lips. “You’re the one who suffered the most from all that. Arguably. So it is somewhat surprising to me that you still have an interest in diablery. The real question is what you intend to do with my books. Either you haven’t learned and you’re just going to get yourself killed, or you have learned and you want to learn more to better protect yourself from what the future may hold.”

“Well,” Juliana said as she rubbed the back of her head, “it isn’t that.” She blinked just before her eyes widened. “I mean, I have learned. I’m not intending to get myself killed. And I want to protect myself. But maybe not quite the way you’re thinking.

“Ylva and I have been going around destroying references to talkina. Especially any that mention Willie. So far, we have gone to a few larger repositories. However, diablery isn’t a popular topic. Demon hunters tend to destroy any public collections of diablery books. Almost all books are either hidden in some tomb or ruins waiting to be discovered, or they’re all in the hands of practicing diabolists. Like Devon.”

“Make sure you call him ‘demonologist’ to his face,” Eva said. Moving to lean against the wall alongside Juliana, Eva rubbed her forehead. “I don’t have a problem with that. Devon, on the other hand, will object to you burning his books.”

“We’re not burning books. Just the page. And if there is something written on the other side of the paper, I’ll transcribe it all.”

“I can ask, but I don’t think that will make him any more reasonable.” Eva shook her head. No, Devon will not be enthused with that idea in the slightest. “But I have a question for you: Why?”

“Why?” she repeated with far more anger in her tone than Eva had used. “Why do you think? After what he did–”

“I know why you think, or I can guess. But in spite of your experiences, Juliana, I highly doubt that Willie is the worst demon around. Far from it, I’d wager. For all you know, a demon mentioned on the same piece of paper as a talkina could be a literal walking apocalypse.”

Juliana went quiet, leveling a glare at Eva.

“Spite,” she eventually said, dropping her glare to stare at the ground. Her hands, shaking at her sides, curled into fists. “I just want him to… to suffer.”

“Can’t argue with that. And I don’t have a problem with it either. We’ll have to talk with Devon, but after we’re done here, why not stop by the prison?”

“Maybe. If I can convince my dad and brother.” She slapped her face and shook her head. “Maybe I’ll just sneak out with Ylva the next time she comes by.”

“That’s–” Eva paused as someone entered the range of her blood sight, making their way towards the two of them. “They already almost lost it while you were in Hell. I’d at least leave a note so they don’t worry.”

Juliana didn’t have time to respond before their guest turned the corner.

“Professor Baxter!” A genuine smile appeared on Juliana’s face as she ran up to their teacher.

“Hello Juliana, good to see you again.” Zoe pressed a lock of brown hair back over her ear, trying to sort out the slight mess as much as possible. “I’m sorry that I’m late, I was… held up. How are you? How is Genoa?”

Eva wanted to slap herself in the face. She should have asked that the second she saw Juliana. Just because she had received a response from Carlos stating that he was fine–something that was probably a lie anyway–didn’t mean that she couldn’t be polite at the very least.

“I’m doing okay. Mother is,” her face took a slightly somber expression, “recovering. I guess she’ll be starting physical therapy sometime within the next six to twelve months, depending on the state of her heart and lungs.”

“Good to know that she is stable, but I’m sorry to hear that it will be so long.”

“She’ll pull through,” Juliana said, her voice full of conviction to the point where it brokered no argument. “And be back getting into danger in no time.”

“Your mother is a strong woman. I wouldn’t expect any less of her,” Zoe said with a smile.

Eva closed her eyes as she leaned against the wall. Zoe and Juliana had started to catch up, the former asking the latter much the same questions that Eva had already asked. There were a few new ones that Eva paid attention to.

“When are you coming back to school?”

“Barring any rash decisions on my father’s part,” she started with a roll of her eyes, “I should be back at the start of next year. I want to come back now, but at the same time, I don’t want to leave my mother alone.”

“Family should support one another in times like these,” Zoe said with a sage nod–it didn’t quite fit her. “I’ll see if I can’t get you homework packets delivered from all of your professors.”

Juliana groaned while Zoe let out a light chuckle.

“So, your father is in the room then?”

“And my brother is with him.” Juliana pushed off the wall with a slight scowl. “We should probably make sure they haven’t started fighting.”

“Now that you’re here,” Eva said to Zoe, “he’ll want to melt the ice to get a closer look.”

“Is that wise?”

“As far as I can tell, its blood isn’t circulating. Ergo, it’s dead. But between you, me, Catherine, Juliana, and maybe Carlos and Erich, we should be able to kill it again if needed. With the shackles, I doubt it will be able to escape anyway.”

Zoe placed her hand on the hilt of her dagger and nodded.

“Don’t worry,” Eva said, “Shalise took out two on her own, and I took out one with only having my foot bit off.”

“That isn’t reassuring.”

Eva flashed a grin as she pushed open the classroom door.

It was mostly as she had left it. Catherine sat at her desk, growling at the computer set up on top. Carlos was mid-stride around the back of the ice. Erich sat in the seat nearest the door.

Eva did not miss Zoe and Erich sharing a moment of narrowed eyes with one another.

The professor turned away without a word of greeting, focusing on Carlos. Again, she started out with a few simple greetings and polite questions that Eva only paid tangential attention to.

Her thoughts lingered on the interaction between Erich and Zoe. They clearly knew each other. Not surprising as Zoe had known Genoa before Juliana started school. But apparently no one liked him. The tensions between him and Carlos, Juliana finding his presence to be overbearing, and Zoe’s glare. It made Eva wonder just what Genoa thought of him.

Though, Eva supposed, it doesn’t much matter. Not unless he hurts me or mine.

“Alright,” Eva said as the greetings died off. She clapped her hands together, igniting them at the same time. “Shall we melt this enigma down?”

Zoe stepped between Eva and the block of ice, drawing her dagger as she moved. “Why don’t we not use fire. It will make a mess and potentially damage the subject further. I may not be the greatest at hydroturgy, but even I can get rid of the ice.”

Eva huffed. “Fine.” Extinguishing her hands, she folded her arms and watched.

It was interesting. And somewhat alarming.

Not the disappearing of the ice and water. Eva’s classmates had done similar things often enough that it wasn’t interesting in the slightest.

As the enigma’s temperature increased, its blood started moving again. Slowly at first. But enough to put Eva on guard.

She reignited her hands.

That caused half the room to jump to attention.

“Blood is circulating,” Eva said. “I think.”

“You think? How could you think? Isn’t that your whole shtick? Seeing blood?”

Eva blinked at the odd word from Catherine, but shook her head. “I mean, the blood is moving through its veins, but its heart isn’t beating? Oh, wait. There it goes.”

“I’ll stop,” Zoe said.

Eva waved her off before she could start repairing the ice. She walked up to the front desk and found a yard ruler. Using it, she reached across the shackles and lifted one of the enigma’s freed tentacles.

It flopped back down without a hint of resistance.

Eva took a moment to prod it in various spots, including right in its mouth and eyes. It failed to react in any way.

“Brain dead?”

“Could be,” Carlos said as he rubbed his chin. “If it was in an improper state of suspended animation. Could be something else unique to the creature.”

“Maybe its brain just hasn’t restarted yet?”

“Leave it half in the ice and keep an eye on it.”

And so they did. By the time a full hour had passed, the enigma had restarted almost fully. It was breathing and circulating blood. And showed no sign of slowing down.

Through some equipment in his backpack, Carlos confirmed that its cells were alive in every sense of the word.

The real oddity was that he couldn’t find a single dead cell on the creature. Even if the creature as a whole could cling to life, individual cells should die. Especially when removed from the body.

Eva rolled a bloodstone between her fingers. Aside from the bloodstone embedded in the hilt of her dagger, this was her last bloodstone. And it was one of the good ones, too. The ones from the museum that had a drastically longer shelf life than they should.

As such, despite having the ritual circle set out and all the reagents collected, Eva was loath to actually put it to use.

According to the ritual tome, what she currently had set out should give her a one-way connection to the target, allowing her to perceive the target from any distance. It was a little vague on the exact definition of ‘perceive,’ but Eva was hoping that it would function in a manner similar to her blood sight.

Using the blood reclaimed from Sawyer’s fingers, Eva would be able to see and hunt him down.

But was it really worth one of her unique bloodstones?

No one had heard a peep from the necromancer since Nel had been recovered. Zoe and Wayne had been keeping an ear to the ground about any sign of necromantic activity. That included sleepy little towns with a population barely out of the single digits suddenly disappearing overnight.

Maybe, hopefully, he had gone into hiding after his last encounter with Brakket. And, maybe even more hopefully, perhaps he had decided that operating around Brakket was simply too difficult. Too troublesome to continue.

As far as Eva knew, he hadn’t succeeded in much. She couldn’t say for certain without knowing his plans, but several things had failed without a doubt. He had made off with Nel, temporarily, stole a handful–or armful–of her eyes, and learned how to hide himself from Nel, but that had resulted in his hybrid army being all but destroyed for a second time. Whatever he had been planing with Weilks had failed, as had killing Eva with the dagger.

Eva shuddered at the memory, feeling a phantom pain in the small of her back. She glanced over at the dagger. It sat atop her dresser along with a handful of other items she had acquired since arriving at Brakket. Christmas presents, Ylva’s void-metal skull, and Arachne’s beacon among them.

Thankfully, she had managed to procure a glass case to keep any accidents from happening. The case had originally been designed for a football, but the dagger fit inside. And a good thing too. The edge of the blade barely needed to skim the surface of something to curse it.

Shaking her head, Eva went back to her musings.

Because of Sawyer’s few failures around Brakket, it wasn’t too out of the question to imagine him leaving for greener pastures. And yet, Eva had a gut feeling against the idea of him fleeing.

Rather, every passing day felt more and more like something big was going to happen. Every day gave him more time to build up larger armies of demon-human hybrids.

All while she was too preoccupied with larger issues, such as whatever was going on with Void and the enigmas.

Though confirming that Sawyer had indeed run off would be a weight off of Eva’s shoulders, that might actually be the worst situation. Eva had vowed vengeance and she fully intended to extract said vengeance in the most painful ways that she could imagine. Possibly by finishing him off with his own dagger.

Not that she needed to. She hadn’t signed any contracts or made any magical vows. But she wanted to. She held a yearning desire to rid the world of that man for purely selfish reasons.

Eva thumbed the bloodstone, turning it over in her hand once again.

That all brought her back to her current dilemma.

Back in Florida, this wouldn’t have been a problem in the slightest. All she would have had to do was to take a short walk down the shadier sides of the city. Someone would eventually follow her down an alley with less than pure intentions.

Much like Sawyer, the world didn’t need such people.

Unfortunately, bloodstone creation was much more difficult in Brakket City.

The city was tiny. So tiny, it really shouldn’t qualify as a city. A town at most. A commune?

There was almost no population to speak of save for the students and staff, and everybody pretty much knew each other. There was no police department–Brakket Academy acted more as police than anything else, especially with their new security force–and, as far as Eva could tell, there were actually little to no crimes committed by the general population. Occasionally there would be a story about petty theft performed by students, but nothing more.

It was doubtful that she would find anyone outside at night period, let alone those with ill intent.

Eva bit her lip. Maybe a short vacation was in order. She did have the gate set up back at her abandoned hospital.

Gripping the bloodstone in her hand, Eva reseated it in the slot of her dagger’s sheath.

Yes, vacation was a great idea. And maybe she could use it as an excuse to pry Arachne out of her room.

It would have to wait a while. Perhaps after Juliana left again.

Standing from her desk, Eva headed back out to the women’s ward common room to check on her wayward friend.

And promptly frowned.

Books everywhere. Piles of books surrounded the little coffee table. More were strewn about on top of the table, half-open and half closed. Juliana poured herself over a good three at once while her brother sat in a chair, idly thumbing through one of the more innocuous tomes on the subject of shackles.

“I hope you put every single one of those back where you found them.”

Juliana looked up with fury in her eyes.

“Have you never heard of organization? Or labels? You don’t even have that many books. I should be done by now.”

Eva shrugged. “I’ve adopted Devon’s organization system.”

“Randomization?”

“Don’t be silly. I’d never find anything like that.” Eva allowed Juliana’s glare to slide off without effect. “Of course, the method is to always know where your books are. It makes you look mysterious when you pull the exact right book off the shelf while everyone else fumbles around looking foolish.”

“Who is it you have to appear mysterious to?” she half-shouted. “And this one,” she said as she slapped down on one of the open books, “it isn’t even a real book. More like you took the pages of ten different books and shoved them into one binding.”

Eva swept around the room until she could see the book in question. “Oh,” she said, “I don’t know how that one got there. It’s one from Devon’s library. I must admit shame at the fact that his sorting system is just that much more mysterious than mine.”

It was hard–much harder than Eva had imagined it would be–to hold in her laughter while Juliana looked about ready to scream in frustration.

A look of horror replaced the frustration on Juliana’s face. “You mean to tell me that when we go through Devon’s library, it’s going to be worse?”

That set Eva off. She started laughing.

It was good to have Juliana around again.

Really. Eva felt bad about what happened to Genoa. She didn’t want to keep Juliana tied up here. Not if her mother needed her.

At the same time, Eva wanted to keep Juliana all to herself. Things had just been so glum over the past while that Juliana was like a breath of fresh air.

“Don’t worry. After moving my stuff from Florida, I haven’t had a chance to sort through it all. It got a bit jumbled in transit. And that book,” she pointed at the mish-mash tome open on the table, “shouldn’t have too many like it. Devon likely found damaged tomes and slapped what was salvageable inside a spare book cover.”

Still chuckling, Eva took a seat in the chair opposite from Erich and pulled out her tome of blood rituals.

She had offered to go through her library with Juliana, but the mad woman wanted to do everything on her own. Or rather, she insisted on double checking every book Eva tried to go through. Instead of feeling useless by having her work overwritten, Eva had decided on going back to her own projects. Namely, the project involving Sawyer.

But, with that project on hold until she had a chance to acquire more bloodstones, Eva was left with idle time. There were the enigmas, but Eva was at a loss what to do with that. Carlos could have used some help, probably–he had taken samples of the enigma back to his hotel for testing with larger equipment that he had brought with him–but Eva found being in the company of Juliana far more preferable.

Luckily, in her search for both the ritual for Sawyer and the ritual she had wasted a bloodstone on healing Sister Cross, Eva had come across some rather interesting rituals.

One in particular looked all too enticing. Sawyer, of all people, had hinted at it the very first time he had captured Eva. Back when he had first snipped off her toes.

She really hoped that he hadn’t kept any of those. Eva made a mental note to see if Nel couldn’t track her missing limbs down. They were human limbs and had been taken a good year and a half-worth of treatments ago. For all Eva knew, she was too different now for them to be used against her in any meaningful way.

But Sawyer had found it humorous that Eva couldn’t reattach her own toes with a mere thought.

One ritual contained within the tome sounded a lot like it would accomplish just that. It offered such a great control of her own blood that an arm coming off would be a literal flesh wound. A wound as easy to fix as minor cuts were at the moment. It didn’t actually state how it would repair bone, but Eva assumed that she would be able to hold her arm together using blood until it could heal on its own.

That was, of course, assuming she could be damaged at all. Eva could already harden blood under her control to the point where it could be used as weapons. If, during combat, she could harden her flesh into armor, or perhaps pull a thin layer of blood outside her body to coat her skin, her durability would be through the roof.

As far as she understood the ritual’s effects, that is.

Unfortunately, Eva doubted she would be able to perform the ritual for some time. It required five bloodstones to be consumed in the ritual itself, plus an extra one embedded within her heart. That last one had to be replaced with startling frequency.

All the more reason to save her good bloodstones. If she could get away with not replacing that one by using a good one, she would take it.

Though most of her research had been centered on rituals, as those would be the most likely candidates for ways of finding Sawyer, she had looked through her tomes for any hint of bloodstone creation. If she could find a way to create everlasting bloodstones, it could be one of the most important discoveries in her haemomancy career.

Yet none of the books had any hint towards solving that mystery. She reread through the book that originally taught her how to make them to no avail.

By merely sitting back and theorizing, Eva felt that she had achieved more than she could have by reading the same old tomes on that topic.

Evidence showed that the more detailed and ‘proper’ the symbol used to create bloodstones was, the higher quality bloodstone was produced. During her first stint in Hell, she had created a bloodstone using her elbow. That had only lasted about an hour before crumbling to dust.

The symbol had just been the very basics. Really, it probably shouldn’t have worked at all. An elbow was far from a precision drawing instrument.

Drawing it out with Arachne’s precise claws produced a better result. She had been able to form more of the intricacies. Forming the symbol using blood magic itself produced the best result.

By that logic, an even more perfect symbol would create an even more perfect stone.

But how to create a more perfect symbol? Sure, she had been in a rush while creating the bloodstone from Weilks. But she had created ones before under less strenuous circumstances using that same method that hadn’t turned out significantly different.

So, was something missing?

Some knowledge of the symbol itself was perhaps lost to the ages? A small but key part?

Or else, the quality of the heart affected the quality of the bloodstone. Eva had no evidence for that idea, but it made sense.

Maybe, just maybe, humans just produced short-lived bloodstones being the short-lived creatures that they are. The book strictly specified humans and humans only as being able to be turned into bloodstones, but Eva had to wonder just how accurate that statement was.

Had the author tried on demons?

It was a thought she would have to table for now. Eva wasn’t about to go summoning up demons for experimentation. Definitely not while summoning demons might cause more enigmas to show up.

But if she ever came across Willie in a compromised and vulnerable position…

A throat clearing broke Eva out of her musings. She glanced up to find Erich glaring at her from across the table.

“Something you needed?” Eva asked with a polite smile.

“This, right here,” he flipped his book around to reveal the pages open to a diagram of a particularly complex set of shackles. “Would something like it work on you?”

Something must have changed in her expression. Though Eva couldn’t be sure what–she had tried to keep her face as neutral as possible–something definitely changed.

Erich’s free hand shot straight to the pocket that held his focus. He didn’t quite manage to pull it out before Juliana shouted at him.

“Erich! You just… I don’t…” She cupped her face in her hand, shaking her head side to side. “Could you just not.”

“No,” Eva said with a strained smile, “it’s fine.” Turning her whole body to face Erich dead on, Eva said, “do my limbs and eyes bother you?”

Erich frowned, but didn’t respond one way or the other.

“What about the thought of a little girl being strapped to a chair and having her limbs and eyes removed through repeated applications of rust and offal covered blades?”

Again, he didn’t respond. He did, however, shift in his seat. Uncomfortable? Perhaps?

Eva smiled, flashing her teeth. For a bare instant, she wished they were as sharp as Arachne’s teeth, if for no other reason than to set him further on edge.

On the other hand, Juliana was off to the side rolling her eyes. Eva was almost regretting having told her the real story.

Embellishments always made everything better.

“No? Feeling nothing about that?” Eva shook her head. “Quite the heartless brother you have, Juliana.”

Before Juliana could open her mouth and ruin the atmosphere, Eva got to her feet and leered over Erich.

It was a good thing that he was sitting. The effect would have been lost had he been standing. Erich was a few inches taller than her.

“How dare you judge me without having an inkling of an idea of what I have been through.”

Eva watched him shift and squirm in his seat, idly noting that Juliana was shifting around in much the same manner.

Probably trying to decide whether or not to interfere on her brother’s behalf.

That was not something Eva could allow. If he was so much as entertaining the idea of using shackles on her, Eva wanted to nip that thought in the bud. She was hoping that a little intimidation thrown around would dissuade other such attacks.

After letting him writhe for a good minute, Eva plastered a blatantly false smile on her face and retook her seat.

“To answer your question: no. Though I overcame torture and disability through demonic prosthetics, I remain human.”

A lie. And one that Juliana would know was false. But so long as Juliana, Shalise, Zoe, and Wayne all kept from spreading around the nature of her treatments, Erich wouldn’t know. Eva wanted to keep it as much a secret as possible.

With her quick speech delivered, Eva pulled up her book and pretended to read.

Instead of actually reading, she sat and watched the two of them through her blood sight.

She hoped that Juliana wouldn’t take offense at her theatrics towards her brother. As soon as that thought crossed her mind, Eva quickly resolved to never refer to anything she did as ‘theatrics’ in front of Juliana. She didn’t want any possible link or connotation between herself and Willie, the theater demon.

It didn’t take long for something to happen.

Juliana gasped. She sucked in air like she had been held underwater for far too long.

Erich had much the same reaction with the added effect of him jumping to his feet.

After taking a few breaths of air, Juliana whipped her head towards Eva. “What was that?”

“What was–”

“Juliana,” Erich snapped, “we are leaving.”

“Wait!” She turned to Eva. “What did you do?”

Blinking in confusion, Eva glanced between the two. “What are you talking about?”

“I-I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t move.” Juliana shivered. “The walls all darkened for a moment.”

Eva glanced up at the ceiling with a frown. Throughout the women’s ward, and the rest of the civilized portions of the prison, lighting was done purely through runes–the everburn candles she used to have for lighting the place had long since proven the falsehood of their name. It was a pain to go around recharging them every few months, but that wasn’t too different from mundane lighting.

The lighting was holding steady. It had been a few months, but usually they would start flickering before outright failing.

Not to mention the fact that Eva hadn’t noticed anything herself.

Juliana gripped her arm, rubbing it up and down. The metal armor coating her body had shifted from its solid suit of armor form to a more liquid form. She was ready to shape it into whatever she needed at a moment’s notice.

“And then they started leaking blood.”

Eva sat and stared. She wasn’t entirely certain how to react to that.

There was nothing on the walls or floors. She didn’t even need to look. All she could see through her blood sight was well-contained blood. Either within bodies or vials.

And Eva was fairly certain that she hadn’t learned any magic that could create illusions. That left just two possibilities.

Juliana could be lying. Not an extremely likely possibility. Eva couldn’t see a reason why she would lie. And then there was her and Erich’s reactions. Both had taken in a large breath at almost the same time and both had squirmed while Eva was speaking.

Standing once again, Eva ignored Erich as he flinched back in his chair and went straight to the window.

She breathed a small sigh of relief as she watched the red and yellow hues of sunset color the clouds and sky.

“What is it?” Juliana asked from a few steps away. She was staring out the window, but kept a good couple of strides away.

Erich had a firm hand on her shoulder, but she made no effort to shrug it off and come closer.

Great, Eva thought with another sigh. Now she’s keeping her distance from me.

And after how well their reunion had been going too.

“Nothing,” Eva said with a shake of her head. “I don’t know what happened. Nothing I intended. However, Erich may be correct. When strange things are afoot, sticking around is not a good idea.”

“You’re going to stay.”

“Naturally. I’ve got to figure out what happened.”

“But you didn’t even notice. You need someone–”

“Juliana,” Erich cut in, “take your friend’s advice. Your father will be expecting you back before nightfall anyway. And when he hears about this–”

“Don’t you say a word.” She whirled around, sticking her finger in his chest. “You threatened her first.”

Erich merely shrugged.

“Don’t worry about me,” Eva said. She would have to leave it to Juliana to handle her family. “I’m sure Devon will have an idea of what happened.”

Eva doubted that, but he would probably be interested nonetheless. Hopefully, interested enough to help her.

“Go. Keep your dad from worrying. And keep me posted on anything he figures out about the enigmas.”

Eva turned away, ignoring the mounting argument between Erich and Juliana, and started prodding the wall. Just double checking. As expected, it didn’t feel the slightest bit different from normal.

“Juliana,” Eva said, interrupting whatever Erich was saying, “I’ll walk you out.”

“But–”

“No buts.” Gripping her arm, Eva pulled Juliana close. “If you notice anything strange, call Zoe or Ylva as soon as you can.”

Eva didn’t resist as Erich wrenched Juliana out of her claws.

Keeping a firm grip on his sister’s wrist, Erich dragged Juliana out of the women’s ward. He made a beeline towards the car they had driven in, not stopping for any last words.

Eva followed behind, leaving a good distance between them.

The space kept them from conversing. That was fine with Eva. She was too busy lost in her own thoughts to entertain either of them. It had the added benefit of not antagonizing Erich further.

What just happened?

Irene sat in her seat, shifting back and forth.

Her first day back in diablery class had her feeling intensely nervous. She had been the one to cause the brief intermission in their lessons.

Surprisingly enough, the rest of the class wasn’t staring at her in one way or another. She had expected a glare or two at least. She did almost cause them injury–from their perspective. Or worse.

Perhaps those that were the type to glare had already been kicked out of class.

Those that were left tended to all sit on their own. Few spoke with one-another. In fact, only two were whispering amongst themselves. Susie Bobo and Rachael Davis. Everyone else was either writing in notebooks, reading, or staring towards the front of the classroom.

It wasn’t hard to guess what they were staring at. Catherine was back to her demonic form–sans clothes and all.

Irene was trying to ignore her as much as possible. Catherine, Irene had decided, was pure trouble.

At least Eva was present this time. She was far more sensible than Catherine.

“Mind if I sit here?”

Irene glanced up. She only managed to suppress a groan through biting her tongue.

Randal.

She wasn’t sure how to feel about the white-haired boy. On one hand, he was obviously an idiot. What with wanting to ‘spruce up’ a summoning circle. On the other hand, he had saved her from Drew.

Anyone who didn’t like Drew had to be a good person, right?

The question was a matter of whether or not he could overcome his idiocy and learn from his mistakes.

“Sure,” Irene said. Might as well give him a chance.

At the first sign of him causing unnecessary danger with his antics, Irene would be speaking with Eva.

“Cutting it a little close, aren’t you?”

Randal took his seat and pulled out a book. “Still have a good three minutes,” he said, flashing a smile. “Plenty of time to get some emergency studying in before tomorrow’s test.”

Irene shook her head. How irresponsible. Leaning forward, she tried to catch a glimpse of what subject he had a test in by the cover of the book. None of her professors had mentioned any tests, but Randal was a full two years ahead of her. What subjects would an older diablery student be taking?

Printed in a floral manuscript on the cover of the tome were the words Enchanting and Warding, the Entwined Arts.

“You’re taking enchanting and warding?”

“Just warding, though I took enchanting intro last year. Interested?”

Irene shifted. “I was interested in them. Now I’m reconsidering just how respectable they are if someone like you is taking them.”

He raised an eyebrow. “And just what is that supposed to mean?”

“You strike me as the sort of person who is lazy to the extreme and who insists on doing things their own way. Someone who would succeed in more free-form artistic subjects.”

Harrumphing, he said, “I’ll have you know, warding requires plenty of artistry and imagination. If you just follow the book, any two-bit ward breaker can unravel your wards in seconds. Out in the real world, nothing is more respectable than a good warder. Except, perhaps, a ward breaker.”

“Ward breakers are respected?” That didn’t sound right. Criminals breaking into places they shouldn’t had to be on the opposite end of the respect spectrum. But then, anyone in diablery class had to have their perspectives skewed.

Irene had a brief thought about whether or not that applied to herself as well.

“Of course,” Randal said, oblivious to her thoughts. “Someone dies and their family can’t get into their home, or room, or safe. Who gets called? Ward breakers. Can’t sell a house with half the property warded off, can you? Or think about the villainous hideouts, ancient crypts, and other such areas that regular mage-knights can’t break into easily. They’ll hire on a breaker to get them in.

“But don’t take my word for it. Sign up for warding next year. It’s a blast. And the professor is completely insane.”

“That doesn’t sound like a good quality for a professor to have,” Irene said with a frown.

Randal shrugged. “Oh, she’s good at her job. Don’t doubt that. Just don’t be surprised when you walk into class and find her standing on the ceiling. Or wind up going through class backwards.”

Irene blinked. “How does–”

“Alright,” Eva said, interrupting their conversation. “I heard you all had an interesting class last time.”

You could say that again.

“Unfortunately, I was off being attacked by an insane nun of the Elysium Order. But don’t worry, I, and a few experts, had a chance to examine the thing. I thought I’d give you a little update on the creature that we’re calling an enigma.”

Irene blinked. Again. Elysium Order? What?

“You can’t just say that and expect us to ignore it,” someone said, echoing Irene’s thoughts.

Eva had the audacity to look confused. Clarity lit up in her eyes after a moment of thought. “Oh, sorry. It was a tautology, I know. What member of the Elysium Order isn’t insane?

“Anyway, that creature is something that has been infesting Hell as of late. They are not demons and, in fact, share more in common with zombies than actual living creature. They don’t have a virus that will infect you upon contact with their blood, but they’re almost impossible to kill permanently. Their organs will keep working even after their apparent death and they’ll slowly regenerate. Freezing it solid was probably the best choice, so good job to whoever thought of that.”

Irene had to agree there. While she was sure that Catherine could have done something more than get held up by its tentacles, locking it in a block of ice tidied everything up without much mess.

A dislocated shoulder was comparatively easy to explain away to the nurse and anyone she could have passed by in the halls. Being covered in blood was not.

Catherine set her phone down for the first time since she walked into the room. Looking out over the classroom, her eyes narrowed.

Until her gaze crossed Irene. Then, she smiled.

Irene shuddered.

“From now on,” the succubus said, “anytime we do any summoning in class, you must use what your books call tier three shackles. Those should hold the ‘enigmas’ without issue. At least long enough for us to deal with it.”

Eva clapped her hands together. “Now, since your summoning was interrupted last time, I’d feel bad if the rest of you didn’t get to at least make an attempt.”

Irene groaned. Eva was supposed to be the sensible one. The one who says that they still need more studying before any more attempts.

The class really needed proper supervision.

— — —

Martina Turner sat at her desk. The reports coming in were all positive. Not a one had her feeling down.

Average student attendance was up. Either the professors were being more interesting than normal or there was less reason to skip class.

Some of it might be related to the fact that zero teachers were on leave for any reason. No illnesses or worse. Less substitutes meant the students were less likely to skip. The regular teachers held more authority in that they could easily see who was absent and give them penalties.

No one wanted to flunk out of what was commonly seen as one of the worst magic academies on the continent. If they couldn’t succeed here, they couldn’t succeed anywhere.

The only substitute who managed to retain her students was Catherine. That was something of an interesting data point, though not wholly unexpected. Succubi simply had that certain allure that drew people to them.

Perhaps it would be a wise idea to order Catherine to sit in on classes randomly. Students would attend more in hopes of being in her presence.

Had to keep the numbers up, after all.

Especially with all the troubles plaguing the academy in the last two years.

There hadn’t been an incident in almost four months.

A record, Martina thought with a sarcastic tone.

Despite that long stretch of relative peace, word had definitely spread. Especially regarding the zombie incident under Dean Halsey’s tenure and the more recent demon-hybrid attack.

Established families, even those that couldn’t afford it, were looking at other academies to send their children to. Safer academies.

Pathetic.

The magical side of the world was a dangerous side of the world. Maybe that wasn’t true, and it was just that mages were more aware of the dangers that existed, but there was no reason to coddle children. Best expose them to it while in a relatively safe environment. Smash any preconceived notions about their safety as a mage early on.

Based on her security team’s handling of the hybrid incident, Martina felt confident in saying that Brakket Magical Academy was safe.

Relatively.

There were a handful of families that were not afraid. At least, not more afraid than they were interested. Her strategically leaked information about the diablery class was drawing in a few new student applications for next year, even a few prospective transfers for the later years.

Martina set her reports down on her desk and leaned back in her chair. She took out a bottle from the bottom drawer of her desk. Pouring herself a small glass of Hellfire, she pondered just what to do about school attendance.

They didn’t need money. The school governors had ensured that much. As such, families with a good amount of disposable money were not required.

But they did need fresh young bodies.

The parties interested because of the diablery were not enough to outweigh those leaving. Just enough to mitigate the damage, somewhat.

They still needed more.

Those extra bodies would have to come from first generation mages inducted as freshmen.

Martina scrawled a note down to ensure that the professors were well aware of their targets before the next round of student-hunting.

Not a hard task. Many first generation mages slipped through the cracks every year, condemned to go through their lives ignorant of the fact that they could be one of those rumored magic users.

Of course, having first generation mages wasn’t a bad thing. They would come into the magical world with open minds.

And would be far less prejudiced than their more magical-lineage-inclined counterparts.

No parents to tell them what magics were good and what were bad. No stories passed down to ‘warn’ them of certain types of magical creatures.

In other words, first generation mages would be far easier to induct into diabolical methods of magic.

Of course, it was dangerous. Not so much because of the demons, but because of fellow humans. Too noisy, and they would attract the attentions of demon hunters.

Eventually, such a thing wouldn’t be a concern. They would become powerful enough to defend themselves. A handful of students, all able to order multiple demons into battle, would wipe the floor with most assailing forces.

Unfortunately, that would be far off, relatively speaking. There were–Martina glanced down at one of the reports–a mere eight students remaining in the current class. None of them had formed any kind of proper contract yet.

For the time being, Martina would have to rely on herself, Catherine, the security force, and Zagan. And Zagan was far from reliable.

After his antics involving the missing students, Martina was almost doubling the priority of finding a way to dismiss him without winding up killed herself.

Aside from them, Eva had a small contingent of demons following her. A force that she might be inclined to use to help out the academy in the face of danger. But, like Zagan, Martina did not find the young diabolist reliable in the slightest.

Martina started as her door opened with a click.

Catherine hadn’t said a word.

Slacking again?

Martina shook her head, shaking off both the unexpected arrival and the missing Catherine.

Obviously she was off tending to her class, thereby allowing Anderson to walk in unannounced.

There goes my good mood for the day.

Anderson never brought good news.

“Something I can do for you, Mr. Anderson?”

He took a moment to dally about the entrance of her room. Removing his coat and hat, placing them on the rack, and then straightening out his suit gave him plenty of time to change up what he wanted to say based on who was in the room. He had a markedly different personality whenever Zagan was present.

It also meant that he was planning on staying for some time.

With a barely concealed groan, Martina reached down into her desk and withdrew a second glass. She tipped it in his direction, a silent question.

He, thankfully, shook his head. “No thank you, Martina. I’m here on business. Afterwards, I must depart for a meeting with the other governors.”

“Suit yourself,” she said as she replaced the glass. The less Hellfire liquor she had to waste on others, the better. “This business?”

He didn’t appear outwardly angry with her. That was good at least. Ever since he had shown up talking about two missing students, they hadn’t been on the best of terms.

Or rather, Martina was fairly certain that she only managed to keep her job through being the one holding Zagan’s contract.

“Unpleasant,” he said.

Of course it is, Martina thought.

“The Elysium Order has suspended operations in North America.”

Martina winced. “The entire continent? I was unaware that we had such a large impact on them.”

“One of our other ‘test runs’ down south may have had a brief run in with them as well. But this has two direct implications, neither pleasant and both affecting Brakket.

“First and most obvious, the pressure on everything they hunt will be off.”

“And that includes necromancers. Including the one that attacked the academy twice.” Martina reached out to her glass and took a long drink. “Why did they have to announce it? This is only going to make their job harder when they restart their crusade. Vampires will be out of control. Liches too. Even ones that aren’t here already will be looking to move to where the Elysium Order is not.”

“As of this time, the Elysium Order has submitted several bounties to the Royal Guild of Mage-Knights. Time will tell how effective the guild is in keeping undead under control.

“More importantly, they explicitly cited demonic interference as their reason for suspending operations.”

Martina froze mid drink.

That was… bad.

Downing the rest of her Hellfire in a single gulp, Martina slammed the glass on the desk, shattering it. She swept the shards off of her desk, ignoring the small cuts she got on her hand.

“Any two-bit hunter will easily be able to glance at recent Elysium deployments and make guesses at what they are talking about.”

“Indeed,” he said. “Keep your head down. Act like everything is normal. Gather students as usual and continue with the program. The others have agreed, given Zagan’s revelation, the program must continue. A handful of hunters aren’t going to save us from an apocalypse.”

Martina grit her teeth.

Anderson had stood up, but she was only scarcely paying attention.

The stooges of the board of governors now thought diablery lessons were a good idea? Just a few months ago, they were considering terminating the project.

Saving the world? Is that what they expect of me? Even ten thousand diabolists wouldn’t be capable of stopping an uncountable number of demons. And she had eight? Assuming no more dropped out, that is.

Well, it will certainly get me in the history books, Martina thought. If there’s anyone left to write them, that is.

Martina shook her head. Problems for later. For now, she had more immediate problems.

Hunters.

As if sensing her thoughts, Anderson glanced back over his shoulder. “I’ve put in motion a handful of projects that should keep the hunters off your back for a time. Hunters will find pockets of demons suddenly popping up all around the country. But don’t count on it occupying them for long. Sooner or later, someone will look into Brakket.” He plucked his bowler from the rack and placed it on his head, adjusting it side to side, slightly. “Be prepared.”

Martina scoffed as he walked out the door. “Be prepared,” she mocked.

Easy to say.

But what to do?

Pulling her spare glass from her desk, Martina started to pour herself a new glass. Halfway through, she stopped.

She drank straight from the bottle until it was half empty.

“I think I need more security personnel.”

— — —

Laughter.

Maniacal laughter.

It was about all she had heard in the recent weeks. Enough to drive her insane.

“It’s a gift,” her father shouted. Fingers stained purple, her father held up what she would guess was a heart. She had seen plenty of hearts in her life. Most came from humans, but she had dissected animals under the strict guidance of her father numerous times before moving on to humans.

The blob of meat held in her father’s hand was far too smooth and spherical to be a proper heart. The only imperfections that she could see from the neighboring table were the arteries and veins that jutted from the orb.

“A genuine boon from a Power,” her father continued, grin stretching from ear to ear.

Des wanted to ask just what he was talking about, but her father had yet to see fit to remove the stitchings binding her mouth closed. Left only to watch and speculate, Des spent most of her time waiting for the next outburst of a discovery to help fill in what exactly he was so excited about.

She didn’t have to wait for long. If there was one thing her father loved, it was talking while working.

“Look,” he shoved the heart straight over her face.

Up close, Des could see the pulsating flesh as the heart beat in his hand. As experienced as she was, she didn’t feel the need to count the heartbeats. It should have already stilled based on how long her father had held it in his hands.

Yet it wasn’t even slowing.

“The magic does not merely animate the whole, as is the case with zombies, skeletons, and such. It animates everything. And I can not stop it.”

He spun back around to face the body lying on the other table, laughing as he turned.

“Watch the panel, honey.”

Des strained her neck. A panel of lights sat at the head of the table. Her father had designed it to connect to a subject’s brain through wires and monitor activity. In this case, however, the creature’s brain was no longer attached to the creature’s body. It sat on a small shelf, wires running into it.

The rows of blinking lights weren’t too surprising. The human body maintained some level of activity for a handful of minutes after death. There were more lights blinking than normal for a human brain five minutes postmortem, but that didn’t mean anything. This wasn’t a human brain. They had no benchmark for creatures like this.

As she was watching the blinking lights, her father grabbed a scalpel, spun it between his fingers a few times, and jammed it straight into the severed heart.

Des’ eyes widened of their own accord. A spike of red lights lit up the entire panel.

“Not only is the creature still alive–even demons die upon removing their hearts and brains–but it still feels pain. It is still connected.” He waved his hands around the heart, as if double checking that there weren’t any strands of flesh connecting the organ to the brain.

Satisfied with whatever he found, he turned again to face Des.

“And then it starts healing itself. Slowly, perhaps not as fast as the healing ability most demons possess, but steadily.”

Her father’s eyes caught a glint of the operating theater’s lights, giving them a sinister look. Her father’s too-wide grin widened further as he looked down at her bare, stitch-covered chest.

Des’ heart sank as she watched him lift up his scalpel.

“Time for another installation, honey.”

She had the strangest feeling that her heart wouldn’t be hers for much longer.

Eva’s first thoughts upon landing on the sandy beach could be summed up in three simple words: What a mess.

She glanced around her domain with a sinking feeling in her stomach. That unpleasant feeling that she had felt while enigmas were still ‘alive’ permeated the place.

It didn’t take long to figure out why. As Eva moved up the beach to the entrance to the alternate women’s ward, she stopped and froze with a gaping mouth.

Mess was putting it lightly. Just about every one of the trap doors had been opened. Enigmas filled the holes to the brim. Many not injured enough by the spikes to have ceased moving. They would be the primary source of the feeling.

Assuming there weren’t living enigmas inside the building.

Eva took her steps gingerly.

Unfortunately for her, there weren’t all that many safe areas to walk. The courtyard between the walls and the building had been designed to be intentionally treacherous to cross while the trap doors were open. Spikes alone wouldn’t have been a problem. The carapace coating her legs was plenty strong to avoid injury from spikes.

The problem was the enigmas. Before, an enigma had taken off her foot without all that much effort. She was in no rush to repeat the experience.

Eva kicked at the few that dared to snap at her feet. Not many were in the shape to try. All the enigmas looked intimidating, but Eva made it to the doors without any real resistance.

A good number of enigmas had actually piled up in mounds within the trapdoors just outside the entrance. The good news was that these ones appeared more dead than the ones farther out. Singed as well. Eva could clearly see spots on some of them where lightning had hit.

She recognized the scorch pattern well enough.

Eva spent a good five minutes just clearing the corpses away from the door.

Then came the next issue. The door was deformed beyond her ability to push open. Eva shoved her shoulder against the heavy iron to no avail.

Really, Eva thought, can’t my domain just allow me through? She had seen open doors before, on occasion. But willing the door before her open did nothing.

Eva tried slamming her shoulder into the door again, only to have to leap back, almost falling into one of the pits of enigmas.

White lightning crackled across the surface of the rusted iron.

Well, that’s a good sign. At least they’re still alive.

“It’s just me,” Eva shouted. No need keeping them wondering if another attack had come.

All she heard in response was something of a cross between a groan and a sigh, muffled by the door.

Eva had to admit, she wasn’t expecting an attack of this magnitude. Ylva hadn’t had a problem with enigmas aside from that one time after Nel used her augur abilities on the other Power. But Eva wouldn’t put it past the hel to figure out a way of warding away the enigmas.

Something to ask when she got back. Regardless of whether or not Ylva could block the enigmas, extra defenses and wards would be absolutely vital.

For now, Eva had to find a way into her own home.

A more complex task than it felt like it should be. Had Juliana been with her, ferrokinesis could have easily solved the problem just by melting the door. Her own strides in earth magic were barely at the level of being able to brush some dirt around the ground.

Something that she should be working on more. Tests were coming up in March and Eva was scarcely prepared. Almost all of her studying time had gone towards research, typically into blood magic.

But Juliana was not with her. That was another mess and she still wasn’t sure what had happened. Devon had a theory that it was due to the weakening walls between Earth and Hell. She had imposed her will on reality though her domain’s magics.

Unfortunately, it appeared as if Eva had become a persona non grata to the Rivas family. When she had arrived at their hotel room to ask if Juliana wanted to accompany her to visit Shalise, Erich hadn’t hesitated for a moment in slamming the door in her face.

That sparked off an argument on the other side of the door. Eva hadn’t caught all of it, but Juliana did not sound like she was winning.

She would try visiting again later.

While thinking about Juliana, Eva had decided to try melting the door anyway. Not through ferrokinesis, but through pure pyrokinesis. Despite focusing all of her effort on it, she couldn’t get her flames hot enough to even cause a moderate glow from the metal.

Spotting a small bend in the metal that created a space between the outward-opening door and the frame, Eva had an idea.

“You might want to move to one of the side rooms,” Eva shouted.

She didn’t wait for a response before starting. This would take a little time. Plenty of time to move.

She brought forth fire from nothing, continuously fueling a small marble forming at the tip of one of her fingers. More and more flames belched forth from her opposite hand, twisting and compressing into the small space.

Keeping the ball of fire contained was a chore. Sweat dripped from her brow. One wrong move and she might be missing her entire top half.

It was the same technique she had used when her foot got caught in the enigma’s mouth, just ramped up to eleven. Flesh tended to be weaker than metal and stone, after all.

The flames bubbled on the marble. Eva almost lost it. She decided that its current compression would have to be enough. Any more would be too dangerous.

Shoving her flame-tipped finger into the gap in the door frame, Eva gave one last warning. “Stand clear of the door.”

She ran. Leaving the flame ball in the gap, Eva hopped over the enigma pits as fast as she could manage without falling in.

Eva dived around the corner just as the thin shell of stable flames gave way to the chaos underneath.

A veritable earthquake shook powdered rock from the walls of the alternate women’s ward. Eva waited for just a moment to ensure that everything was stable before peeking back around the corner.

Eva couldn’t help but to let a small whistle escape her lips.

The entire front of the common room was missing. The door was in two separate pieces out in the trap-filled courtyard, both absolutely covered in purple viscera from where they skimmed across the tops of the pits.

Maybe a little too much power, Eva thought. She stepped straight to the front of the building, hoping that Shalise at least had made it out of the common room. An idle strand of thought wondered why she didn’t simply step away instead of running.

“Everyone alright?” Eva asked to the debris-strewn room.

A haggard-looking Sister Cross stepped out of one of the side rooms–Eva’s bedroom in the real world. She was not so roughed up as when she had attacked Eva the other week ago, but she was clearly running on less than full steam. Her eyes were aglow with white light while lightning crackled at her fingertips. Dark bags hung under her eyes, only increasing her tired look by standing out more under the harsh white light.

Eva kept herself tense, ready to react to anything the woman might try. Not that she thought that Sister Cross would attack her, but… well, she thought Sister Cross wouldn’t hesitate much to attack her.

They weren’t exactly on the best of terms.

To Eva’s surprise, Sister Cross just groaned, let the light die from her eyes, and turned back to the room and walked inside.

Frowning, Eva followed her. At no point did she let her guard down, just in case it was a trap.

Turns out, she needn’t have bothered. Sister Cross was lying face down on the bed by the time Eva made it across the short distance to the room.

Shalise sat in a chair in the corner. A school book lay open on the table to her side. Rather than looking like Eva’s fairly loud explosion had interrupted her studying, the brunette looked more like she had just collapsed into her chair.

She didn’t look quite so tired as Sister Cross, but the hints of fatigue were present in her face. Neither, Eva noted, looked like they had showered in several days.

“I’m glad you’re here, but did you have to do that? I thought I was going to have a heart attack,” she said, clutching her chest. She missed her heart, but that was a fairly common mistake. Not everyone had the ability to see blood.

“The door was stuck,” Eva said with a shrug.

“Now we lack a door,” Sister Cross said, moving her face the bare amount possible to clear her mouth of the pillow. “And a wall. If they attack again, we’re all dead. I’d kill you myself, but…” She groaned, angling her head back into the pillow.

Some muffled mumbles came out that sounded distinctly like she had said, “I’m too tired,” but Eva couldn’t tell for certain.

“I’ll fix it,” Eva said, already concentrating.

It shouldn’t be too hard to restore everything to pristine condition. Creating everything the way it was hadn’t been extremely difficult in the first place, just modifying it all from how she knew it in the real world. Repairing everything shouldn’t be too difficult. They would probably need to get rid of the enigmas though.

That was the plan, anyway. Modifying her domain was always fickle.

Turning to Shalise, Eva said, “I am glad that you’re safe. I was a bit worried when I saw the carnage outside.”

“Non-stop attacks. Never too many at once. Three to five would show up, charge the building, get killed, and then there would be an hour or two before the next one. We’ve been sleeping in shifts, but I can’t do much on my own.” She shot Sister Cross a pitiful glance.

“You could have warned me that I’d be fighting off an invasion force,” Sister Cross grumbled.

“Invasion force?” Eva cocked her head to one side, not that Sister Cross was looking at her to see. “You know something about these creatures?”

“Just what it seems like,” she said, lifting a hand in what might have been a dismissive wave, but was far too incoherent to discern for sure. “Why?”

“Might be accurate to a degree,” Eva said. “We’ve learned that they originate from another plane of existence. What Power calls it their domain, we still don’t know, but invading Hell doesn’t seem too far-fetched.”

Weakening Void to help pull it to the mortal realm? Hard to say without knowing exactly how Void was being brought there.

More of a problem for Zoe, Ylva, and Zagan–if he cared enough to investigate. For now, Eva had more immediate worries.

“Have any made it inside?”

Shalise shook her head. “None. What you did to the windows holds up long enough for Lynn to lightning them up.”

Eva nodded an acknowledgment. That was good, but it didn’t appear sustainable. Given how Sister Cross looked, it was doubtful that she would be able to maintain her defense much longer without help.

“How–” “Have–”

Both Eva and Shalise stopped talking at the same time. Eva gestured for Shalise to go first.

“Have you made any progress in finding a way out for me?”

“Actually,” Eva said, “that’s one of the reasons I’m here, other than to check up on you. I have a couple of questions that may seem strange, but they could be extremely important.

“Have either of you noticed any odd happenings? Nothing related to the enigmas. More like lights flickering and going dark, maybe the walls seeming especially oppressive and dripping blood. Inability to move or speak, difficulty breathing. Anything like that?”

The two glanced at one another. Sister Cross actually managed to peel her head off the pillow. That effort was quickly used to shoot a glare in Eva’s direction.

“Am I going to have to deal with freezing up in the middle of a fight?”

“No! I mean, I hope not.” Eva waved her hands in front of her, attempting to placate the angry woman. “But neither of you experienced any of those things?”

“I think I would have noticed the walls dripping with blood.”

Shalise shook her head. “Haven’t seen anything either.”

Eva sighed with a frown. “Oh.”

“What’s with that reaction? Is the walls dripping with blood supposed to be a good thing?”

“Well, it would be a thing. Maybe a thing that would help with something else, but no matter.” Eva shook her head. “How long has it been since the last attack?”

Shalise tilted her head to one side as if listening. She tapped her finger against her head a few times before shooting a frowning glance at the face-down Sister Cross. “I don’t think it will be long before the next one. They aren’t entirely regular, but it has been a while.”

“Alright,” Eva said. “Sister Cross, get some sleep. I’ll handle this next attack. Before and after that,” Eva turned to Shalise, “we should probably build up some better defense and dispose of the bodies. They don’t die entirely, so as long as they’re here, they might join in a fight.”

“I can–” Sister Cross started. She was pushing herself up off the bed.

Shalise snapped to her feet and pulled Sister Cross’ arms out from under her, sending her crashing back to the soft embrace of the bed.

“You can get rest for when Eva can’t be here. I’m not helpless and she less so.”

Smiling at the great Sister Cross getting a talking down by her daughter, Eva stepped out of the room before any arguments could start.

She had work to do.

And something of an idea of what to do.

The enigmas that had been struck by the white lightning were a whole lot more dead than the ones that had merely been spiked to ‘death.’ If she could somehow incorporate that into any traps she created, and maybe the doors and windows, the burden on Sister Cross should decrease by a fairly dramatic amount.

Eva wasn’t sure that she could replicate what was undoubtedly Death magic. For all Eva knew, it was completely untouchable without a boon of one kind or another from Death Himself. The eyes served as that for the nuns, Eva was fairly certain of that. But Zoe had failed while trying to cure Eva and magical theory was her specialty.

Zoe lacked one thing that Eva had.

A domain. A domain that could do all kinds of impossible things.

Eva had seen the lighting in action. She had even felt its effects on multiple occasions. While it was true that she hadn’t ever casted it, she had never built a prison either. Her domain was perfectly capable of recreating that.

A light cough behind her pulled Eva out of her musings. She turned to find Shalise shutting the door to the bedroom.

After taking one look around the debris-filled common room, Shalise shook her head. “Went overboard much?”

Eva could see herself dawn a light blush. “I just don’t know my own strength.”

“Clearly,” Shalise said, voice flat. “Did your domain help you out? Or could you do the same thing in the real world?”

“That’s…” Eva frowned, “a good question. I can’t say I’ve tried creating an explosion of this magnitude on the mortal plane. However, if my domain was helping me, it’s a jerk. It should have just opened the door like I had originally wanted.”

Shalise fell silent, her gaze drifting towards her feet. “I was wondering… I mean, not that this place hasn’t protected us, but shouldn’t we move?”

“Move? Out of the women’s ward?”

Prisons were, by definition, made to resist unwanted entrances and exits. The only places more protected would be military fortresses and maybe bank vaults. Though bank vaults lacked most amenities that made living possible. Not really a problem here, Eva could probably create the whole women’s ward within a bank vault if she tried hard enough.

Probably.

“I suppose I could change things around a little bit. What did you have in mind?”

But Shalise shook her head. “I-I mean, move out of your domain.”

Eva narrowed her eyes. She had the feeling that she knew where this conversation was headed. Asking anyway, Eva said, “to where?”

“P-Prax’s domain. I could control things there like you do here. So I thought it would be better if we didn’t… you know, have to hope that you come by to fix things up if they go wrong. And I could make more active defenses, right? Traps in his castle. And he has a castle, which is as good a defense as the women’s ward right?”

Closing her eyes, Eva crossed her arms. Yep, she thought, as I guessed.

“Sounds like a decent idea.” Snapping her eyes open, Eva bored her eyes into Shalise. “I have just one question. Was this Prax’s idea?”

Shalise flinched like she had known the question was coming. “He… may have brought it up once. Or twice. A handful of times.”

“I thought so. Last time you were there, your positions were reversed. You were in the back of your mind with him in control. Yet you had power over his domain. What if it is different this time? What if you don’t have control over his domain?”

Tilting her head off to one side as she often did when listening to Prax, Shalise nodded a few times before speaking. “In his words: I have more reason to protect this–” Shalise winced. Shaking her head, she said, “I think I’ll paraphrase instead. He’s scared of Zagan and of going back to the prison.”

“So you think that he will protect you.” It was a fairly selfish reason. That made it much more believable than him protecting Shalise out of the goodness of his heart. “With that in mind, I have one more question. Do you trust Prax?”

“No,” she said without hesitation. That brought a small smirk to Shalise’s face. Probably for Prax’s sake, though Eva wasn’t certain that Prax could even tell if she was smiling or not.

“But in this case, I do,” she said as her smile slid off. “I can feel what he feels, and I feel sincerity and fear.” Her head tilted to one side again. “Yes you are. Don’t deny it.”

“Alright,” Eva said before Shalise could get further in her one-sided conversation. “If you think it is best, I won’t stop you. Of course, I’m not about to explain the situation to Sister Cross. That can be your job.”

Shalise gave a nervous chuckle. “Maybe we should stay here.”

Catherine’s heels clicked in a steady rhythm as she walked down the empty hallway of Brakket Academy.

She considered running. The quicker she made it home, the sooner she could join in on her clan’s planned raid against those pathetic humans and elves. Well, they were all humans–probably–including her own team. But her team had chosen the demonic race, so their hearts were in the right place.

As it was, she was already a full half hour late because of ‘secretarial duties’ that she had been purposefully neglecting.

Thanks, Martina, she thought. Because of course Martina would choose today of all days to check up on my work.

Filing paperwork in its proper place had cost her dearly.

She wanted to teleport. It would have been so much simpler. Not to mention faster.

Again, Martina was standing in her way. The paranoid woman had banned everything that could potentially hint towards demonic activity around Brakket Academy. That, naturally, included the method of teleportation that both Martina and Catherine employed.

The one consolation Catherine had was that Martina had condemned herself to walking about like a common plebeian.

What she was afraid of, Catherine couldn’t even begin to fathom. Demon hunters were ruthless, no arguing that. However, Martina had Zagan on call. If he wasn’t around to swat annoying flies away with the back of his hand, what good was he?

Surely he wasn’t being kept around for his teaching skills.

Catherine shook her head. The idea was laughable.

Mid-head shake, Catherine stopped. Just in time to avoid three people coming around the corner.

“Ca–Professor Catherine,” Irene’s twin said as she jumped back. “What are you doing here?”

Ignoring the improper title–Catherine was not a professor, the diablery class did not count–Catherine eyed her student. Irene’s sister looked… worried. Perhaps just shocked at meeting someone in the hallway, but probably not. Moving on to the spawn of Governor Anderson, Catherine’s frown deepened. He was calm, but still had jitters.

Something must have happened that rattled them.

And then they ran off to get a professor. Wayne Lurcher didn’t look worried so much as he looked annoyed. So either he hadn’t seen whatever had startled the children, or he didn’t care.

Possibly both, it was hard to tell with him.

“I,” Catherine said, turning her gaze back to the sister, “happen to work here. I am allowed to be within the school after hours. You two lack that excuse.”

“We–”

“Something is wrong with their dorm,” Wayne said, interrupting the girl. He continued with a sneer. “In fact, probably something more suited to a secretary than a professor. You would know how to contact the proper custodial or maintenance personnel.”

Catherine’s heel clicked as she stepped forwards. “You’re not foisting more garbage off on me. I’ve got to get home and–and do important things.”

That got a scoff from the professor.

“As I was saying,” the Anderson spawn cut in, “I don’t think it is that kind of issue.” He glanced up to Catherine. “We’re heading to Eva’s room. Irene is keeping an eye on it.”

“An enigma?” Catherine frowned as no recognition lit up in the kids’ eyes.

Though that made sense after a moment of thinking about it. Irene wouldn’t be able to say anything about them without violating her contract.

“Where is Eva?”

“She doesn’t stay in her dorm much these days. Less than once a week, I’d say.”

Wayne pulled out his phone and started tapping away. A moment later, he dropped it back into his pocket. “Zoe will check her other residence,” he grunted. “In the meantime, let’s take a look at whatever mess the menace has caused this time.”

Catherine stood still as they all started to move. For a moment, she considered just ignoring the problem. Most problems had a tendency to resolve themselves or just go away if they were ignored long enough.

Unfortunately, she doubted that she would hear the end of it if Martina found out. And besides, it was a good opportunity to see her student and how she handled herself. Considering Irene’s performance against the other enigma, it would be something of a wonder if the girl hadn’t killed herself.

It didn’t take long to get to the dorms. They were, after all, just a stone’s throw from the school building itself.

All the while, the kids and the professor were talking quite animatedly amongst themselves. Arguing over some mortal problems, Catherine assumed. She really didn’t care enough to listen in.

The moment they reached the third floor of the Rickenbacker dormitory, a wave of nausea hit Catherine. She doubled over, one hand braced against the wall to keep her up. She couldn’t recall ever even imagining the sensation that caused mortals to vomit, but this had to have come close.

Brushing off a suddenly concerned group of mortals, Catherine pulled out her cellphone.

Rickenbacker. Third floor. You’ll know it when you feel it.

She sent the message off to Zagan as she shoved the Anderson boy off of her.

“I’m fine,” Catherine snarled.

The feeling had been growing since entering the stairwell, but she was caught entirely unawares by just how pungent the very air felt on the top floor. It was similar to the feeling she had felt upon first seeing the enigma that Irene had summoned, so she hadn’t paid it much mind while it was a minor effect. She had already assumed that there would be an enigma around anyway.

Catherine’s heels clicked against the floor, unsteady as she half-stumbled her way to the source of the feeling.

One of the dormitory rooms had its door wide open. At least, she thought it was one of the rooms. The number outside listed the door as three-thirteen, though part of the lettering had worn off.

Moving to check the adjacent doorways, Catherine found that they were regular dorm rooms. Logic held that three-thirteen was supposed to be a room as well.

Or at least a broom closet of some sort.

She stepped into the room, heels mushing against the sand covered flooring. The sharp spikes making up the heels of her stilettoed boots barely encountered any resistance for the first few inches from the surface. Even with sand over the floor, they shouldn’t have sunk in so far. The solid floor beneath should have held firm.

But, other than a light stumble, Catherine barely noted her feet. Her attentions were drawn straight up. There was no roof. No ceiling. No lights, wiring, or structural support for the building.

There was nothing. A pitch black lot of familiar nothingness.

Forcing her gaze off of the emptiness, Catherine glanced around. There were no waters. In fact, there was nothing but a slice of the beach. It cut off sharply where the walls of the room were–for they were in their normal spot.

Irene stood a few steps forward, enraptured by the void overhead.

“You shouldn’t stare.” Catherine placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Or even be inside. There are enigmas somewhere in here.”

Blinking three times, Irene shook her head. The glazed look over her eyes subsided. “Wha–what happened?”

“I guess that you came inside, a stupid move, and proceeded to look up for far too long. Another stupid move. Get out of the room and draw the highest tier shackles you can remember how to draw correctly just in front of the doorway.”

“What about you?”

What about her? There were enigmas somewhere around. Perhaps on the other side of the walls, or underground. Sticking around didn’t seem like the best of ideas.

Catherine shrugged. She had already sent a text to Zagan, this seemed more like his job anyway.

“Probably go home. I have other things to do.”

— — —

“For the last time, she didn’t attack me, dad.”

Juliana wanted to slam her head against the window of their tiny car. Every clank of her father’s cellphone as it knocked back and forth in the cup holder only increased her irritation. A cloudless starry sky hung cheerily overhead in stark contrast to her current mood.

Brakket City was slowly shrinking into the background. Along with it went her school and her friends.

She didn’t even get a chance to visit Shalise before her father ushered her off into the car.

“And she didn’t attack you either,” Juliana said, sticking a finger in Erich’s arm.

Calling him up had been a mistake. She had thought that he would be worried about their mother. Turns out that was wrong.

Basically, it was the opposite. Erich had barely said two words to their mother. Even taking into account her few periods of wakefulness during the first few months, that was far too few in Juliana’s opinion.

Instead, he had spent all of his time babysitting her, complaining about her parents when they weren’t in the room, and making things awkward when they were in the room. Juliana knew that he had poor relations with their mother, but there was a point where it got ridiculous.

He could at least pretend for her sake.

“It doesn’t matter what Eva did or did not do, Juli. I finalized my initial report and sent it off to her. I sent a copy to Zoe and the Dean as well. My job was done, it was time to leave.”

“You mailed them. You could have at least given them in person.”

Juliana crossed her arms in a huff. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to get back to her mother. She did. Even though her mother had doctors to keep her healthy, they didn’t exactly keep her company.

But she also wanted to say goodbye at the very least.

“You know,” Erich said as he moved to rest a hand on her shoulder, “when I went to school here… it was a calming center of learning and research. No zombies or monsters attacked the school.”

“Sounds boring.”

“The point,” he said, “is that you should be learning in a safe environment.

“You’re a powerful mage and Genoa has taught you well. But you are still a child. You’re inexperienced and still learning. There will be plenty of time for danger and adventure later. When you are better equipped to handle it.”

Juliana shrugged off his hand and went back to leaning her forehead against the cool window. Yeah, right, she thought. Not if the world ends soon.

That was the one thing that she hadn’t told anyone. Her mother might know, depending on how conscious she had been while Zagan was talking to Eva in Willie’s domain. If she did know, she hadn’t said a word.

Juliana was leaning towards her not knowing. She hadn’t started up an extensive training regimen. Neither had she insisted on bulking up their already massive food storage. Bedridden or not, Juliana knew her mother and her mother would not just lie down and not prepare.

Getting her own training in had become a daily routine for Juliana. She tried to think up what her mother would have her do and then double it. It probably wasn’t close to what her mother actually would do, but it kept her from becoming rusty. Unfortunately, Juliana doubted that thaumaturgy would be enough.

Her excursions with Ylva served a dual purpose. It was true that she was searching for references to Willie and talkina in general, but if Hell merged, it probably wouldn’t matter much. A good portion of her time went into seeking out weapons. Anything that could be used effectively against demons.

Her findings weren’t the most heartening of things. Shackles were easily the most prevalent defenses against demons. But there must be more. Demon hunters had to have proper tools for actually hunting them.

Juliana thought that they would be more publicized.

And then there was the ‘domination’ that Devon apparently used. Juliana had never seen it in person, but Eva had mentioned it on occasion. How to do so was not listed in a single book.

“The classes and professors that have come on since I graduated are less than reassuring as well,” Erich said, bringing Juliana’s attentions off of the fast-moving scenery. She turned just in time to watch his face darken considerably. “That’s to say nothing of your… friend.”

“Don’t you dare. I would be dead several times over if not for her.”

“And that,” Carlos said from the front seat, “is exactly why we’re looking into alternate schools. I’m thankful to Eva, I really am, but you should never have almost been dead even once. If Scotland is too far, why not Charmbridge? The dean there is a strict woman and would never allow all of this,” he paused to wave one hand in the vague direction of Brakket Academy.

Rolling her eyes, Juliana kept silent. Protesting would lead to another argument. Agreeing was exactly the opposite of what she wanted to do.

Though, Erich and dad are in agreement. The world really is ending.

As she was staring out the window, Juliana gave a start. The normal sky wasn’t quite so normal any longer.

Streaks of purple cut through the sky like jagged clouds. The purple pulsed lightly to some unheard beat. Every pulse spread the streaks out like lightning made of molasses.

“Um, dad?”

“I see it.”

Though her eyes were glued on the heavens, Juliana’s peripheral vision caught the ground moving much faster beneath their car.

“We’re not stopping?”

“The sky is clear up ahead.”

“But what about–”

“Juliana,” her father said, voice firmer than she had ever heard it. “This city has come so close to taking away everything I hold dear. I’m not giving it another chance.”

“But my friends… Zoe…” Juliana bit her lip. The way Zagan and Eva had talked about Hell being brought to the mortal realm sounded much farther off than now. It hadn’t even been half a year. But if that was what was happening, driving away likely wouldn’t save them.

Her lip-biting turned to grinding her teeth as anger welled up within her. She was running away.

“Mom would go back.”

“Genoa isn’t here,” Carlos said softly, his speed only increasing.

Gripping the door handle with white knuckles, Juliana watched the speedometer pass one hundred. It won’t matter what’s going on behind us if we crash into a mountain.

Shaking her head, Juliana reached forward and pulled her father’s cellphone from the holder.

At the very least, she could warn Zoe and Wayne, both of whom were in his contacts list. To her surprise, the dean and Catherine were entered in as well. One of them had probably seen the sky and already alerted the others, but Juliana sent off a group text anyway. If they were asleep, maybe, just maybe her text could save someone’s life.

Turning in her seat, Juliana watched helplessly as the purple lightning-streaked sky shrank behind her in the rear window.

“This city is cursed,” Erich mumbled under his breath.

— — —

Staring at the inky blackness of nothing became tedious after a while.

Actually, it got tedious after a matter of seconds. There was no one to speak with, nothing to look at, nothing to do save for wander her own mind. Unfortunately, Nel felt that she was reaching the limits of even her own thoughts.

There were only so many things she could think about. After weeks and months of nothing but blackness for most of every day, Nel was starting to worry for her own sanity. She had already thought about everything she could think of.

Other augurs didn’t have to deal with an empty target under normal circumstances. There weren’t many things that could block out the scrying of an augur. In fact, apart from Ylva’s domain and a few higher-ups in the Elysium Order like Sister Cross, whatever Sawyer had done with her eyes was the only thing that she had ever encountered that could block her sight.

There were probably more things. Nel had only been an augur for a year prior to entering into Ylva’s service. The more experienced sisters had probably encountered at least a handful of things that could block out their sight.

For a moment, Nel wondered what the nuns did to occupy their time.

Shaking her head, she realized that she knew the probable answer.

Any long-term observation would have multiple augurs assigned to the task. They didn’t have to deal with such things.

Unfortunately for Nel, she lacked any companions to foist the responsibility off to. Any breaks she took to sleep, eat, or just stretch her legs would gnaw at the back of her mind until she returned to the altar.

What Sawyer did might have been permanent. In which case, she was entirely wasting her time. But there was a chance that he had to consume the remaining eyes that he had stolen to power whatever he had done. Or that it couldn’t be moved easily.

All she needed was a sliver. A slight glimmer of where he was. Even if he occluded himself immediately after, it would give Nel a starting point. A point where she could look around, find street signs or other landmarks. Maybe, just maybe, she’d be able to follow the disturbance around. If she got a good enough sense for what the disturbance was, Nel was hoping that she might be able to lock onto that. Even if she couldn’t see what he was doing, seeing where he was could have infinite value.

Of course, none of those thoughts were things that Nel hadn’t already thought before, furthering her own opinion that she was slowly going crazy. Her thoughts were just cycling around themselves, never going far in one direction or the other.

“Eva really needs to finish her project with his blood,” Nel mumbled to herself for what had to be the hundredth time.

Originally, Nel had wanted to be the one to locate Sawyer. Partially out of pure revenge, but also because she had a feeling that it would be her only real contribution to bringing him down.

She wasn’t much of a fighter and she knew it.

Nel nearly fell from her seat as a sudden image filled her vision. A quick burst of fear-filled adrenaline was all that gave her the reflexes to catch herself on the altar.

She did not want to miss out on what could possibly be the sliver she had been waiting for by falling and losing concentration.

Her vision came into focus. Blurry at first, but it slowly sharpened as time dragged on.

As it cleared up, Nel tried to glean as many details as was possible. There was a lot of red. Blood, Nel decided. It would fit with the more fleshy tones surrounding the red. Violet was another predominant color, though Nel couldn’t tell what that was. Perhaps a cloth draped over a table–she was fairly certain there were tables.

While everything cleared up, Nel moved her vision outside of the building. It was a large warehouse built out of rusted metal. Or rather, it had probably been built out of regular metal that had rusted through time and disuse. Either way, there were no large signs indicating what the structure had been originally intended for.

Everything outside was clear instantly, so she wasted no time in maneuvering her view to the nearest crossroads. Nel scrambled for a pad of paper and proceeded to write down the road names.

She would be able to come back to those later to find the state or country, if he had left the states. The signs looked like they were from the United States, but Nel hadn’t been to every country.

For the moment, Nel moved back inside. On her way back to the original point, she scoped out some of the rest of the warehouse. A good number of those creatures he was so fond of creating stood locked up in a makeshift cage. Skeletons patrolled the catwalks overhead, most armed with bows and arrows. One appeared to have a revolver bolted onto its hand.

Nel shook her head. Wouldn’t the kick of firing just send the whole arm flying off the body?

Then again, those skeletons could draw the string of a bow, and that wasn’t supposed to be easy.

A sick feeling welled up in Nel’s stomach as she spotted piles of bones. The piles formed four distinct pillars, each capped with a human skull, all positioned around a circular table. A sacrificial dagger lay between two basins. An assortment of rings rested on one side of the table.

It was something that all augurs had been trained to recognize. Bones dug from a graveyard built up to form the soul binding altar. One of the easiest signs to recognize budding necromancers with. They would use the altar to call and bind ghosts to anchors.

And, since moving in with Ylva, Nel had discovered that soul binding was the greatest affront to Death. Even moreso than sealing ones own soul away into an immortal object made of gold. The souls to create ghosts were stolen directly from his plane of existence.

Yet it was one of the easiest branches of necromancy to start off with. All it really required was digging up a graveyard. Even the more squeamish of necromancers could do it. No killing required.

Back at the origin point of the scrying, Nel couldn’t help but frown at what she saw.

Sawyer was lying flat on his back between two operating tables. His wide smile was missing from his face.

While covered in blood, he didn’t actually appear injured. Nel couldn’t spot a single injury. There was, however, a pulsing lump of violet fused with his hand.

That probably had something to do with his condition.

Nel almost wanted to cry out in frustration. He couldn’t just die. Not without being killed first. And made to suffer.

A slight movement of the collar on his button-up shirt quashed Nel’s rage. Moving her view closer, she could see that he was breathing.

Satisfied for the moment, Nel looked around the rest of the operating theater. One of those enigma creatures was dismembered on top of one table, mostly unmoving.

The other table held a far more gruesome sight.

The little girl who Sawyer referred to as ‘honey’ or ‘Des’ had her chest carved open. Eyes wide with panic, she was in the middle of swinging her ribcage shut. The bones appeared to be attached to the rest of her with hinges of some sort. As soon as she snapped it into place, the girl pulled a needle and thread off the side of the table and started stitching herself together with skilled fingers.

She had obviously done it more than once.

Before she managed to seal up her skin, Nel spotted something. She did not, in any manner of the word, profess to being an expert in anatomy. However, she was relatively certain that eyes did not belong on the inside of the chest. Whatever rapidly pulsating organ that they were connected to was probably not supposed to be there either.

It looked like a miniature brain.

Even for an augur, that would be strange.

Nel grit her teeth. Those are my eyes.

She must be the one preventing augurs from finding them. Her panic must have caused a lapse of concentration. Or perhaps Sawyer severed something he shouldn’t have when he fell–there was a bloodied scalpel on the floor near his hand.

Once Des finished sewing herself up, she jumped off the operating table and started fretting over Sawyer. An action that boggled Nel’s mind. Des had been as much a victim of Sawyer as she had been during her brief stay in his care.

After watching a bit longer–Des had apparently decided that amputating Sawyer’s hand was the best course of action–Nel pulled herself out of her scrying and got up from her seat.

It didn’t look like whatever was preventing her augur abilities would get itself fixed soon. If Sawyer regained consciousness, he would also have to realize that Des’ brain-eye thing was broken. That should buy time on its own. Even if he did notice, Nel had a good idea of the location. A sign welcoming visitors to Nevada had been a short way along one of the roads.

For now, Nel needed to find Eva.

Swapping fetters to the long strand of black hair, Nel frowned. More of the inky nothingness. A different inky nothingness, though no less familiar than that of Sawyer’s scrying protection.

Eva was somewhere in Hell.

Eva wasn’t jealous.

Not the slightest little bit.

Prax’s domain was something special.

Willie’s domain had been… less than entrancing. His theater was fancy enough, on the inside at least. But at no point could Eva recall just stopping and staring with a gaping mouth. The only thing of any real note was his golden bee statues. Those just didn’t appeal to Eva.

The first time she had entered Ylva’s domain, she was struck dumb with a sense of awe. The bottomless pit and the storm clouds overhead framed her throne, combined with the massive open space of her main room and it all added to her larger-than-life presence.

It was impressive, as was the rest of her domain, but it didn’t resonate with Eva.

Ylva’s domain fit her. It fit Eva’s regal image of Ylva. Yet, it wasn’t something that Eva thought she could spend an eternity within.

But Prax… he had a castle.

A big castle.

No. Not just big. Immense. Eva had to crane her neck to see the top of the tallest tower. It stretched so high into the sky–if sky was the proper word for it in Hell–that it took her stomach out from under her. The vertigo from staring had her stumbling a few steps as she fought to regain her balance.

That stumbling almost sent her over the edge of the bridge that connected the landing point to the main gate. The bridge was large enough that she should never have been within twenty feet of the edge, but Eva had wanted to see what they were bridging over.

A bottomless pit. Because of course it was a bottomless pit.

Jealous though she was of the castle itself, Eva could do without bottomless pits in her domain. Even if her domain ‘caught’ her should she fall, it really just seemed like an unnecessary hazard.

Moving away from the edge, Eva decided to focus on a portion of the castle a little lower. The main building.

Obsidian bricks that were probably larger than Eva standing on Arachne’s shoulders made up the entire structure. While the walls themselves were smooth and glossy, the shape was blocky and angled for the most part. No spikes adorned the walls, as she might have expected given how Shalise described Prax. The only thing similar were the four spires reaching above the tallest tower.

Now far from the edge, Eva felt safe glancing up once again. Dark clouds hung overhead, threatening rain. It probably wouldn’t start raining unless Prax or Shalise wanted it to, but the atmosphere was set.

As they approached the colossal wooden gate that separated the bridge from the castle proper, Eva’s initial shock wore off.

And she frowned.

Ylva’s domain fit her regal bearings. Willie’s domain had fit his theater-demon nature.

Eva hadn’t seen any other domains. She had visited Arachne’s domain, but had lacked eyes at the time. Same with the abattoir, if that was even an actual domain. As such, she didn’t have much to compare it to. But…

Prax’s domain did not fit him.

Not that she had ever seen or even spoken with the demon directly. But Shalise had described him and his mannerisms. A red-skinned muscle-bound hulk of a cambion did not quite mesh with the elegant structure before her.

Rather, this domain looked more like what she imagined Zagan lived in. He was titled the Great King, one of the seventy-two pillars of Hell, after all.

Eva wasn’t certain what did fit her image of Prax, but this… just wasn’t it.

Shaking her head, Eva glanced towards her companions.

Nothing bad had happened to Shalise upon dropping in. So that was.. good. But she also hadn’t said a word.

If Prax had done something to switch places with her again, Eva wasn’t certain what she would do. Zagan likely wouldn’t help out a second time. Eva still hadn’t made any progress on puzzling out what he might want that would be worth potentially drawing the Keeper’s attention by helping Shalise out of Hell.

But, Eva didn’t think that anything had happened. Shalise still walked with the gait Eva had grown used to over the past two years. Eva hadn’t seen much of her while Prax had been in charge–she had been far too concentrated on Genoa–but Prax had definitely carried himself differently. Stiffer and with a far wider stance.

Sister Cross–who, according to Shalise, was not a sister anymore–carried herself like a warrior. Her eyes were aglow with her brand of power, scanning each and every little detail for any kind of threat. She spent no time taking in the sights as Eva had.

After her fairly long nap, she was looking much better. The bags under her eyes were still there, but not half as dark. Eva had ended up fighting off two separate attacks of the enigmas while the former nun slept.

And yet, despite helping Shalise fend off the enigmas and keeping everyone safe, she still sent Eva a glare every couple of steps. And every single time, Eva tensed, just waiting for a bolt of lightning to fly in her direction.

Eva would not be missing the stress when it came time for her to return to the mortal realm.

“So,” Eva said, breaking the silence between glares, “who has control?”

“Don’t know yet.”

“Don’t know? How can you not know?”

“Neither of us have tried,” Shalise said. “Too afraid.”

Eva almost asked what she was afraid of, but Shalise continued without needing a prompt.

“Prax is afraid that I have control still. I’m afraid to mess up his domain beyond repair. Or, beyond my abilities to repair.” She took her eyes off of the massive gate to glance at Eva. “He’s not all that bad, so I’d rather not be needlessly cruel. It is his home.”

“Shalise,” Lynn Cross said, warning tone in her voice. “I would rather you not fraternize with the enemy.”

“It’s a bit hard when he’s stuck inside my head.”

Lynn’s lips pinched down to a single point. Eva watched as the flare in her eyes jumped up a few notches in intensity.

Eva quickly looked away before that glare could be leveled at her.

“As nice as it is that you’re so considerate of each other,” Eva said with her focus on Shalise and Shalise alone, “it would probably be a good idea to find out before anything happens. I’m already surprised that this place isn’t crawling with enigmas.”

Shalise tilted her head to the side, listening to whatever Prax was saying. “Depending on the exact nature of their origins, these creatures have likely gravitated towards domains of demons currently on the mortal plane. Given your frequent travels between here and there, the ‘walls’ may have weakened further in your case.”

“That,” Eva said, trying to keep her voice as neutral as possible for Shalise’s sake, “could have been useful information to have been told earlier.”

“He says that you never asked,” Shalise said.

Eva sighed. Well that’s just great. Her sigh cut off partway as a thought occurred to her. “Are you sure you want me in this domain then? Am I not knocking down walls with my very presence?”

“Could be,” Shalise said with a shrug. “Prax doesn’t think it will matter much. All of Void will be weakened to that point sooner or later.”

Turning away from Eva, Shalise looked up to the gate. She rested her hand on the dark wood. “But enough of that. Let’s try this. Do you want to, or shall I?”

Ignoring the look on Lynn’s face that said she wanted to interrupt, Eva fell silent as she watched and waited. Shalise continued to stare at the door with her head tilted to one side and her hand on the wood.

“But that won’t solve anything.” Shalise shook her head. After another moment of silence, she shrugged. “Alright, if you say so.”

With a ring of thunder, the door cracked open. Apart from the initial noise, the doors parted in a smooth and silent manner. The hinges, each as tall as Eva herself, didn’t even squeak.

It stopped only a sliver of the way open. A sliver relative to the size of the doors themselves. Eva, Shalise, and Lynn were all able to walk in shoulder-to-shoulder with space to spare.

“So?” Eva said as they walked through the courtyard up to the main entrance.

“Still don’t know. We tried at the same time. Count of three and everything.”

Eva rolled her eyes. “Well, at least one of you has it. Better than neither–”

“Wait.” Shalise glanced around, scanning the exterior of the castle. “Someone is here.”

Eva ignited her hands without hesitation while her dagger found its way to her hand. The three vials of Arachne’s blood at her hip quivered in anticipation, though she did not uncork them just yet.

Already combat-ready, Lynn only increased her vigil. Eva did shy away from a handful of sparks that started dancing across the backs of her hands.

“Who would be here? Not any humans, right? More enigmas?”

Shalise shook her head. “No. It is a demon. But who– O-oh.” She backed up a few steps. “Should we l-leave?”

Whatever Prax was saying, Shalise wasn’t liking a word of it. Her face drew back into a tight frown.

“What?” Shalise jumped. Muscles started growing beneath her skin.

Prax’s muscles.

Shalise hated Prax’s muscles. If she was growing them out, it was probably something serious.

Ignoring the disgusted look that Lynn was giving her own daughter, Eva brought Arachne’s blood up before her. Some went into a shield, ready to activate at a moment’s notice, while the rest started orbiting her shoulders.

“And what if she isn’t friendly?” Shalise shouted. “You do remember that you crushed her skull the last time you met her. I might hold a bit of a grudge if you did the same to me.”

“Who are you talking about?”

Shalise glanced to her side with wide eyes. “Prax’s mother.”

“Oh.” Eva frowned. Shalise had told her the story of her prison adventures, but couldn’t remember more than a simple mention of Prax’s mother. Something about Prax murdering her with Shalise’s hands. There was probably more, but that had been several months ago.

One thing was certain, this demon’s presence was doing a good job of frightening Shalise.

But between herself and Lynn Cross, they should be able to hold their own, right? Besides, this was Prax’s domain, not his mother’s.

Eva shook her head. She had made poor decisions in the past, especially regarding demons and their domains. If Prax ended up convinced to act against them, they could wind up in the same situation as when they had gone on their ill-advised assault against Willie. Depending on how much control he actually had and how much he could actually interfere with Shalise.

Backing up a few steps, Eva said, “we should leave before we get too far from the way out.”

“I agree with the abomination,” Lynn Cross said. Ignoring Eva’s glare, she continued speaking. “The enigmas were known quantities. Annoying, but easily dealt with. If we are forced to remain within this nightmare, it is best we avoid demonic enemies.”

“Prax agrees,” Shalise said with a nod. “The reason he believes that she won’t attack us is because this is his domain. He possesses the power here. Theoretically, anyway. For her to willingly show up and wander about means that she likely came here seeking an alliance of some sort.”

“An alliance?” Eva frowned. “Against wha–Enigmas?”

“Possibly, Prax says. She was imprisoned for helping other demons join her on Earth in some sort of freedom fighting thing–” Shalise paused for just a moment. “Oh, that’s wrong. More of a conquering kind of thing.”

“Great for her. Doesn’t mean we should go talk to her.”

Lynn laid a hand on the younger girl’s shoulder.

“Shal, you’ve been repeating the words of this… demon,” she spat the word with clear distaste. “Even as he intrudes on your mind, you defend his opinion. One that may wind up with us all dead. You don’t feel this way. You’ve seen this demon before and she scares you; you want to leave.

“So trust your instincts, Shalise. Listen to yourself, rather than him, and let us be gone from this place before it is too late.”

Shalise’s eyes flared. Not quite a demonic flash of red, but there was unmistakable anger behind her eyes. The muscles in her arm tensed.

Eva tensed up, waiting for Shalise to strike first. She could imagine the words Prax must be whispering in her ear.

She thinks you’re weak. But you don’t need to listen to her, Shalise. We have the power here. She hates you and fears you for having me in your head.

Or something along those lines, in any case.

Whatever his whisperings were, they weren’t enough. Tension drained from Shalise along with her muscles. She slumped into Lynn, nodding into her chest.

“You’re right. Let’s go.”

Eva watched as Shalise’s face winced. Probably at whatever Prax was saying now–insults, Eva was willing to bet.

Keeping herself tense, Eva stayed ready for any sign of trouble.

But nothing happened. No pits opening beneath them. No hot tar pouring off the battlements. No sign of any domain manipulation acting against them.

Either Prax was more subtle than Eva was giving him credit for or Shalise still had power. Or Prax had decided that insulting Shalise was enough, probably deciding that speaking with a mother that had recently had her skull crushed by him was a poor idea.

Eva was somewhat hoping for the latter option as it would prove that Prax was at least somewhat reasonable.

With Eva watching their backs and Lynn watching just about everywhere else, they made their way back across the bridge and to the waters of Hell.

“Remember,” Eva said, “you don’t want to get lost and wind up in some other demon’s domain. Think of me, repeating my name can’t hurt either.”

Eva stood back and watched as they, hand in hand, jumped into the water.

Unlike hers and Ylva’s domains, Prax had his waters looking almost more like a swimming pool than a beach. Obsidian bricks surrounded a pit of water. It wasn’t actually a swimming pool–it lacked walls and a floor within the basin, as it was all part of the ‘ocean’–but it gave off the appearance from above.

There were no ladders or steps to get in and out. The water level was a good body-length beneath the top of the bricks. Arachne could probably get out without much trouble, but a lot of demons would have problems climbing out.

That tied into his defenses for the area. The landing into his domain was immediately overhead. A cushioned platform that looked as if it could be opened into a trapdoor, dropping any unwanted guests straight back into the rest of Hell.

Eva wasn’t certain that it was possible to re-enter the same domain that she was leaving from–she had never tried–but if it was possible, they would just land back in the waters a second time.

Willie’s domain had been almost the exact opposite of Prax’s domain. His started out with a boat ride designed to disorient and confuse, ultimately making it incredibly difficult to actually leave. His guests would be trapped in with whatever amusements he concocted until he decided to release them.

Prax seemed intent on keeping unwanted demons out of his domain. The castle, the walls, the gate, the easily defensible bridge, and this. They all deterred invaders.

Probably something Eva should set up in her own domain. Even if someone just landed in a solitary confinement cell until Eva set them free, it would at least be a start.

And it might contain the enigmas for easier disposal. A much better plan than the current ‘allow them to run free on the beach’ method.

Stepping up to the edge of the pool, Eva stopped with both of her feet half over the edge.

She glanced around the room. There was some kind of uniform light throughout Prax’s domain. No light sources, but Eva could see.

And something was casting a shadow. Probably nothing. She couldn’t see anyone through her sense of blood. Eva guessed that it was a trick of the light and nothing more, but…

“How long are you going to skulk about? If you wish to speak, speak.”

If it was nothing, it might have been embarrassing. But no one else would be around to know, so the point was moot.

If it was something, then calling out was just one step on the path cultivating her own appearance as a mysterious and omniscient demon.

Waiting, Eva stared around the room. Her gaze slowly swept from one side to the other, sweating this possibly non-existent person out.

Eva sighed. Guess it was nothing after all, she thought.

A flash of movement had Eva’s head whipping around before she could step forward.

It was nowhere near the shadow on the wall.

Keeping her blood ready for a shield at a moment’s notice, Eva watched as a silver-haired woman stepped around a pillar on the opposite side of the room.

Eva only absently noted her long-coat and boots, choosing instead to focus on the sword attached to the woman’s hip.

It was, thankfully, sheathed.

And yet, somewhat concerning. Eva could not think of a single demon that used tools. Every one of them chose to fight with bare hands. That included Ylva, possibly the most civilized demon that Eva knew of.

“You knew I was here,” she said, voice coming out cold and hard, though still in a whisper.

Too busy fighting the surprise off of her face, Eva couldn’t even celebrate the success of her seeming-omniscient plan. The woman’s voice itself was almost as bad as the voice Ylva used while speaking from her throne.

Worse, if not for trusting her own sight, Eva wouldn’t be able to tell that this person was in the room at all. She had no blood. At least not that Eva could see. She had no presence or bearing.

She wasn’t even breathing.

Had she stood still on a pedestal, Eva was certain that she would pass her off as a particularly detailed statue.

Eva slid her feet slightly closer to the edge, ready to drop off. If the woman suddenly attacked, her own domain would be far more defensible.

“You were following us,” Eva said. Again, she was bluffing and possibly pushing her omniscience too far. For all Eva knew, the woman had just shown up. But it had worked well enough the first time around.

Besides, this didn’t look like someone she should show weakness to.

“Why?”

“The Keeper is displeased. Cells that were once full must be filled again.”

Eva almost leapt off into the pool at that. Her first thoughts were that this woman was here for Shalise. If so, Shalise needed to be warned.

They really needed to get her out of Hell.

But Eva stayed where she was. There was another, more likely reason why this woman was inside Prax’s domain.

“You’re here for the demon hiding here. That demon is hiding from you?”

The woman nodded, sending her ponytail up and down in a light bob.

“Hiding here? Why? This isn’t her domain. She has no advantage or power over this place. Her own–” Eva cut herself off. That was a stupid question. Obviously, she was hiding here because they would look for her in her domain.

But if she left a place she had total control over for a place inhabited by a possible enemy… “You did something to her domain, you broke it or somehow made it inhospitable, didn’t you?”

“Not I.”

“The Keeper then.”

The woman remained silent, neither affirming nor denying Eva’s suggestion.

Neither spoke for a time. Eva watched the woman like a hawk while she thought.

Really, it was a pretty stupid decision in Eva’s opinion, showing up at Prax’s domain even though he had also escaped from that prison. At least, that was Eva’s first thought. Given how Willie had treated her, perhaps going with a known quantity was always better than going to some random demon’s domain. Together, they might have been able to fend off assaults. That was what Prax’s domain had been designed for.

Except Prax wasn’t here.

And now Eva might have given Prax’s jailers the key to finding him.

Eva gave a quick mental curse. “Well, don’t let me stop you. I’ve no love for the demon here.”

With that said, she stepped forward–actually blinking just above the surface of the water.

It engulfed her before the woman could respond. Eva felt the familiar yank as she was pulled off to her domain.

Shalise needed to be hidden better or cured of her Prax affliction. Immediately.

Eva came down into her domain hard.

It was supposed to catch her, and probably would have had she not considered her current situation so urgent. Her domain compensated for her urgency by not slowing her down.

That was fine. Her legs could take the abuse.

Eva rolled out of the way and glued her eyes up to where she had come from. She didn’t want to take any chances that the woman had followed her.

This nagging feeling in the corner of her mind told her that the moment she turned, she’d be stabbed in the back.

When nothing appeared for several moments, Eva stood up and started backing away. Her slow movements turned to a full-on backwards sprint across the beach. Eventually, she turned around despite the feeling and began running full-tilt towards the alternate women’s ward.

Eva opened the door and slammed it behind her, startling both of the occupants. Shalise let out a small screech.

Lynn Cross, on the other hand, jumped to her feet and sent a bolt of lightning at Eva before she had even turned around.

A blackish-red shield appeared between the two, catching the lightning. Eva didn’t bother questioning it. She hadn’t intended to form any kind of shield. Obviously, it was some oddity of her domain working to protect her.

“You sure took your sweet time–”

“Later,” Eva interrupted. “We have a problem. Or, to be more specific, Shalise has a problem.”

The girl blinked twice. “Wh-what do you mean?”

Eva stepped up to Shalise, or tried to. Lynn moved between the two. Ignoring the woman, Eva looked around her shoulder at the brunette. “If you’ve got any far-out ideas of how to get out of Shalise, you had best voice them now, Prax.”

“What,” Lynn said with at flat tone of voice as she crossed her arms, “is going on?”

“I found out why Prax’s mother was hanging around in his domain.”

“You hung around to speak with an enemy after deciding it was for the best if we left immediately?”

“No. I hung around to speak with the one hunting Prax’s mother.”

Gently pushing her mother aside, Shalise stepped around to face Eva. “Prax wants to know who would be hunting anyone in his domain.”

“Didn’t catch a name,” Eva said with a shrug. “Didn’t feel like a demon though. Couldn’t see her with my blood sense. She had silver hair, a well-fitting leather duster, and a sword of some sort at her hip.”

That got a gasp from Shalise.

“Someone you recognize.”

“The doll. But-but that doesn’t make sense. The dolls let us escape. They wouldn’t come after us… would they?” She tilted her head to the side. “Would they?”

“Her specific words were ‘cells that were once full must be filled again.’ She didn’t specifically mention Prax, and since she didn’t follow me immediately, I assume she’s not after him right this second. Probably dealing with his mother first and foremost.”

An earthquake punctuated her statement. While in Hell, there had been small tremors every now and again.

Nothing quite like the one that had struck now.

All three of them went rocking back and forth. Shalise and Lynn Cross tumbled forwards and backwards, collapsing in a heap of limbs on the floor. Eva managed to stay upright only through the virtue of her toes acting as claws and digging themselves into the ground, providing an anchor of sorts.

The tremors subsided as quick as they came. Eva ran up to the windows and started watching. She didn’t want any enigmas sneaking around while they were talking. If some showed up, they needed to be dealt with as soon as possible.

Purple lightning crackled across the otherwise empty sky. Where the lightning touched, it stayed purple.

For a time.

The empty void fought back, Eva could see the purple slowly recede as the dark sky overpowered the streaks of purple.

Eva stared and gaped. She hadn’t wanted lightning in any way, shape, or form. She was fairly certain that she hadn’t had any subconscious desires for lightning either.

“Well,” Eva said as she found her voice, “even if this ‘doll’ isn’t going to attack you–something that I would not count on–” Eva gestured at the black and purple sky outside. “That looks like a perfectly good reason to accelerate our efforts to get you out of here.”

Both of the other two had managed to untangle themselves from each other, but by the time they made it to the window, there were only faint traces of purple left over.

It was enough for Shalise to give a light gasp. “That never happened before,” she said.

“The color is the same as enigma blood. Could be a coincidence…”

Lynn gave a light snort. “If only the world were that simple.” Turning away from the window, she put one hand on either of Shalise’s shoulders. She bent her knees slightly to level out their heads, though it didn’t take much bending. Lynn Cross was a tall woman, but Shalise wasn’t far behind.

Staring into her daughter’s eyes, they stood stock still.

Well, Lynn Cross stood still. Shalise fidgeted under her mother’s unwavering gaze.

Eva wondered just how it was that Shalise hadn’t noticed that Lynn was her mother. The resemblance was uncanny. Their hair was about the only thing different between the two. Shalise had shoulder-blade length wavy hair while her mother had her hair cut short–to better fit in her habit, most likely.

Then again, perhaps Shalise had noticed. That almost made more sense. Shalise had noticed and hadn’t mentioned anything because Lynn Cross had not mentioned anything. If her mother kept silent on the matter, then there must be a reason.

And that reason certainly wasn’t that Lynn Cross did not care for her daughter. She had come to Hell itself to be with and protect Shalise.

Though Eva may have forced that in part.

Eva’s speculation came to an abrupt end as white flames erupted from Lynn’s eyes.

Shalise jumped a good foot in the air, letting out a startled squeak as she flew.

Eva jumped forward with far more purpose than simple shock. She was seriously considering the notion that she had been grossly inaccurate in her assessment of Lynn Cross’ care for her daughter.

Before she could lay a hand on the older woman, Lynn released Shalise.

“I think,” she said slowly, “that it could work. A chance, at least.” She turned, her face drawing a disgusted countenance as her eyes settled on Eva. “But I will need assistance.”

“You’re going to have to be more vague. I almost guessed at what you are planning.”

“There may be a way to exorcise the demon inhabiting Shalise’s body.”

Eva gave her a flat glare. “Why didn’t you say so sooner? I’m not keeping her here because I find it fun, you know. If Prax gets out of her, she can go back to the mortal realm through Ylva’s domain, or even me carrying her while traveling back using my beacon. Arachne did the same–”

Hold on, Eva thought, cutting herself off as she remembered something. While Shalise was looking hopeful, Lynn Cross was anything but. The white flames pouring out of her eyes obscured a good deal of her emotions, but she did not have anything resembling a smile on her face.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” After a glance over Lynn Cross’ shoulder at Shalise, Eva looked the former nun in the eyes and added, “privately?”

Her frown twisted into a scowl. She hesitated for a moment, but eventually nodded.

Leaving a somewhat confused Shalise behind, Eva dragged Lynn off to her room. The moment the door shut behind her, Eva said, “I have just one question, with a small story before it.

“Back when you and your minions were strutting around the academy like you owned the place, one of your nuns came up to me one day. She started harassing me and ended up telling me that I should be… I believe the word was ‘cleansed.’ Immediately after, she said that I would die during the process, but should undergo it anyway despite that fact because it would be for the ‘betterment of the world’ or some such nonsense.”

Eva paused, watching for any reaction. Lynn kept her face as expressionless as she could.

With a sigh, Eva shook her head before continuing. “Are you planning on putting Shalise through a process that is likely to wind up with her dead?”

“Of course not,” she snapped. “There is always danger, but that danger can be mitigated. I would not put her through something that I thought would kill her.

“The two of you are fundamentally different in the nature of your corruptions. Shalise and her leech are two distinct entities. They merely need to be separated. You are…” Though her eyes hadn’t once lost their fire, the intensity flared. “You are an abomination.”

Eva shrugged. “Heard that before,” she said with a wave of her hand. “Don’t care. But, why haven’t you mentioned this exorcism before if you’re so sure it will succeed?”

“I said there were dangers. Risks that I would rather not expose her to. Trouble getting the items needed as well. But if she is to be hunted down and killed or tossed in some hellish prison… or worse,” she gestured towards the window. “Then the possible consequences of not separating the two outweigh that of the exorcism itself.”

Eva nodded. That made sense enough. Though she had to ask, “what are the dangers? The consequences?”

“Death, obviously, though I intend to minimize that as much as possible. More likely things include coma, disfigurement, pain…” Lynn shook her head. “Basically, the sort of consequences one would expect from such a ritual.

“In addition, there is a further complication. We are in Hell. The very air here–if it even is real air–is so steeped in the demonic magics that it may interfere with the ritual. I plan to properly ward our ritual circle, so this is only a slight chance. One I am willing to take if Shalise can return to the mortal realm.”

Pressing her lips together, Eva nodded. “As long as you’re sure.”

“Have you any other options?”

“Possibly. None that I know of at this precise moment.”

“Then exorcism it is.”

“Two things first,” Eva said. “First, what assistance were you talking about?”

Sighing, Lynn leaned back against the wall. “This ritual will not be a simple affair. The circle alone could take hours to draw out.”

“And hours would mean multiple incursions of the enigmas. Unless this latest earthquake put an end to that.” Eva shook her head. “Doesn’t matter, I can handle defending you. Or, I could try helping you.”

Drawing her dagger–and trying to keep her movements as nonthreatening as possible–Eva made a shallow cut on her arm. She proceeded to form a simple ritual circle in the air between the two of them.

“I can manipulate it to your instructions,” Eva said, demonstrating altering the symbols in the air. “It should save time and effort.”

Lynn did not look pleased in the slightest. “This is a purification ritual. I would rather it not be tainted with blood and haemomancy.”

“Fair enough,” Eva said. She put the blood right back where it came from and let the matter drop. She wasn’t interested in a long argument, especially if they would be limited on time in the near future. “I can handle watching your back so you can work undisturbed.”

“In addition to the work,” Lynn said, “it will require reagents that your cupboards simply lack. And…” Her calm expression turned to a glower. “I believe I spotted Sis–Nel Stirling. I’ll need her help with the actual ritual.”

“Because she is an augur? Or because she is a former nun and has your eye things implanted?” Seeing the confusion on her face, Eva held up her hand before Lynn could respond. “Let me put it this way: Would a regular nun work for this ritual?”

“So long as they are knowledgeable about certain Elysium Order secrets. Why?”

“I suppose it doesn’t matter, but I’d rather have my bases covered. Ylva has a second former nun in her retinue. I figured I would ask, just in case Nel is uncooperative. Though I would much prefer Nel. I’d rather avoid the other as much as possible.”

Moving to the bedside table, Eva pulled out a notebook and a pen. She hadn’t been entirely sure that they would be there, but the writing implements were there in the real world, so it made sense. Probably.

“I’d offer to see if my domain couldn’t just make your reagents, but I have a feeling that you’ll reject them for the same reason you rejected my haemomantic ritual circle.” Eva tossed the writing implements to Lynn–the former nun caught them without issue.

“Write down a list of your reagents,” Eva said. “I’ll get what I can from around town. Zoe should be able to teleport to larger cities for anything more esoteric. I’ll bring them back when I grab Nel.”

“I do not require her presence. Her assistance will be for acquiring a certain artifact as part of the reagents. Speak to her after I give you the list. She will be able to answer your questions better than I, most likely.”

“Fair enough. The second thing,” Eva paused for a moment, double checking everything through her blood sight. Shalise was back in the common room, seated on a couch. Her heart was beating at a fairly high rate, but otherwise appeared calm.

“The second thing is just a curiosity. What do we tell Shalise? The dangers? Why you didn’t bring this option forward before?”

Lynn took a deep breath through her nostrils, flaring them as she inhaled. “Leave that to me. I will inform her myself. Should she decide not to undertake the risks, I will stay here as long as it takes for you to find another solution.”

“I imagine that she will agree.”

“As do I. She is my daughter, after all. I would not stand for such an infestation within me longer than necessary. Go clear out the other room, I’ll have your list ready momentarily.”

Eva rolled her eyes before leaving Lynn to her task of writing down the reagents. She threw open the door to her room and walked back out.

A nervous looking Shalise jumped to her feet at the noise. Wide eyes glanced over, calming slightly once she spotted Eva. Her hands fiddled with each other as she held them in front of her chest.

“Well?”

“Congratulations,” Eva said, clapping her hands together. “You might just be rid of Prax sooner than you thought.”

Shalise’s expression broke into a hesitant smile. “R-really?”

“Yep. Some nun ritual. Remember when you had half your arm eaten by zombies?”

“I-I try not to.”

“Well, it will be like that.” Probably. “Except without the half eaten arm. Your–Lynn Cross will explain more when she finishes writing down a handful of things that she needs. In the meantime,” Eva walked up to the couch and gripped one end of it, “help me move these out of the way.”

Eva watched, keeping her face impassive, as Shalise’s arms bulged out with an extra bulk of muscles before she took her own end of the couch in hand. She barely exerted any effort in lifting the couch.

She could probably have moved the entire thing on her own.

“Oh, and Prax,” Eva said as they dropped the couch in the back of the room, “you’ll be free to do whatever. You can even stay here, so long as you don’t cause trouble. Sending you right back to your domain would be cruel while that doll might still be there.”

Tilting her head to one side, Shalise winced. “He says thanks.”

“I’m sure he does.”

Moving back to the center of the room, Eva picked up one of the remaining chairs.

Shalise, on the other hand, decided that moving furniture one at a time was too slow. She picked up the table with one arm and leaned the last chair against her other shoulder, moving both at once.

Eva doubted that she would be able to do the same. The chairs weren’t the heaviest things in the world, but they were fairly bulky and awkward to carry. Lifting one one-handedly might be a bit much, especially with a table in the other hand. Her legs were strong, as was her grip strength, both thanks to Arachne. The rest of her upper body could use some work.

“You know,” Eva said once they finished clearing out the room, “you’re not going to have those muscles, assuming all goes well.”

Shalise started. She glanced down at her body as if she hadn’t quite realized what she had done.

Eventually, she spoke. “I know. He tricked me into it–sort of–but they have come in handy.”

“Well,” Eva held up her own hand, examining her shiny carapace in the light, “if you’re going to miss it that much–”

Hands on her hips, Shalise glared. “I’m not amputating my arms.”

Rather than respond, Eva stiffened. Lynn Cross stood just behind her, her pose radiating irritation.

Slowly, Eva turned. She wasn’t surprised in the slightest to see lighting crackling between the ex-nun’s fingers.

“I’ll thank you not to put foolish ideas into others’ heads,” Lynn said, shoving a leaf of paper into Eva’s chest. “The last two items are those that may prove troublesome. The augur should be able to assist.”

Eva nodded. Without so much as a glance at the list, she folded it up. Slinking away as fast as she could, Eva made her way to the gate room.

Empty though it was, it was still the gate room. It was the room that Eva had taken to using in traveling from Hell back to her beacon. As she stood in the center, a pattern colored in and brightened on the floor.

It was almost identical to the summoning circles used in the mortal realm. Soon enough, the symbols upon the floor began a clock-like rotation. Ripples formed on the surface.

A gaping, void filled maw opened up at her feet. Eva dropped straight down, not concerned in the slightest.

She had long since become used to the sudden weightlessness.

Eva wasn’t certain how long she spent drifting aimlessly through the emptiness. She had tried timing it once. She brought along a mechanical pocket watch. That had actually exploded on her wrist, though not until she had tried a small light spell to see it in the darkness.

If she didn’t try to look, time appeared to pass by at a regular pace. She could leave for her domain at four in the afternoon, spend an hour in her domain, and return at five. That all led Eva to believe that this limbo between Hell and the mortal realm didn’t actually exist on a proper time line.

It felt like it took forever, but no time had actually passed once she got out.

Her musing came to a sudden stop as she found herself spat out of the nothingness into her gate room. The one in the regular women’s ward.

At least, it should have been the regular gate room. There was a thin layer of sand on the floor.

Everything else appeared normal, however, so she ignored it for the moment. Shalise was a far more pressing concern than a bit of loose sand.

Eva plucked a black marble with a streak of red–her now inactive beacon–from a shelf in the gate room. It would need to be given to Zoe to reactivate it before she returned to Hell.

Deciding to pull out the list of reagents before doing so, Eva found that most of the items were familiar. Simple things that she could get around Brakket City. Given the late hour, she would probably be breaking into the apothecary and any other shops she needed, but Brakket Academy paid for everything anyway as far as Eva could tell.

Zoe had probably at least heard of the things she did not recognize.

The last two, the ones that Nel should be able to help with, didn’t look any more or less difficult to acquire than the items she didn’t recognize. Purgato salis and obelisci lunam pura.

Eva started to move to her bedroom. The state of her common room had her pause.

All of the furniture had been shoved off to the back of the room. Just like it had been in the alternate version of the room.

“Shalise?” Eva called out, suddenly unsure as to whether or not she actually made it back to the regular women’s ward. “Lynn Cross?”

There was no response. And no sign of either of the two in her blood sight. She shook her head. It was probably just Devon wanting to do something to the treatment ritual circle.

Continuing on to her bedroom, Eva pulled out some paper and made two copies of the list. One for Nel and one for Zoe.

“Now to find the two.”

She decided to start with Nel. The augur was closer and the least likely of the two to have gone someplace outside of her usual haunt. Nel could also help find Zoe without a whole lot of guesswork.

Eva took one step outside of her room and stopped.

The sky… didn’t look much like how she had left it.

Zoe was running up towards her. She was plainly visible to Eva’s blood sight.

But Eva was far too enraptured with the purple streaks running through the night sky.

“Nel said you were back,” Zoe said as she got closer. “We have problems.”

“Yeah,” Eva said, voice as flat as possible. “I can see that.”

Eva tore open the doors to Ylva’s domain and sprinted inside.

Ylva was on her throne, her skeletal form looking impassive as always under the light shining from the storm clouds overhead. Her pose was as relaxed as it always was. With her fist curled beneath her chin, she slouched back in her throne.

Four others sat around a small table set down at the base of her throne. Alicia and Nel sat at opposite ends of the table from one another with Wayne Lurcher in between the two. Wayne had a scowl on his face as he eyed his neighbors.

Surprisingly enough, Devon had been allowed back inside Ylva’s domain.

Desperate times, I suppose, Eva thought as she ran up to the table.

“It isn’t the entity known as Void,” Devon said. “I’m willing to put a lot of money on the sky being the doing of the Power that is attacking the Void.”

“The point still stands,” grumbled Wayne. “Whatever it is, it probably doesn’t have our best interests at heart.”

Ignoring the others and not caring at all that she was interrupting what was probably an important conversation, Eva placed both palms on the table and gazed straight into Nel’s eyes. “You found Sawyer?”

Zoe had already said as much. Eva trusted her not to lie, but she had to be sure. She had to hear the words from Nel’s own mouth.

Wilting under Eva’s gaze, Nel nodded her head. “He passed out somewhere in Nevada just as… well, you’ve been outside. Just as all that started.”

Eva grit her teeth and balled her fist. A thin layer of marble dust coated her fingers from where they scraped against the table surface. Of course, it would be now. He couldn’t just show up while nothing was happening like a good little necromancer. He had to show up while a potential apocalypse was going on.

If that was what was actually going on. Devon and Wayne’s conversation might have implied otherwise. Eva was too focused on Nel to pay all that much attention to their words.

With a heartfelt sigh, Eva slumped into one of the extra chairs set up around the table.

Even if nothing was going on except for Shalise and the doll, Eva couldn’t put Sawyer in front of her friend.

Well, she could. Lynn would probably kill her if she did. Though Eva couldn’t discount the possibility that Lynn wasn’t going to try to kill her the moment they made it out of Hell anyway.

Eva rested her forehead against the cool surface of the table, idly scratching a claw mark to the side of her head just a little deeper.

“Spencer,” Wayne grumbled with a slight tension in his voice, “what did you do with Zoe?”

She didn’t even have the motivation to protest his usage of her last name.

“Don’t worry so much. She’s just doing a little shopping for me.” Eva pulled out one of the copies of the list and slid it over to Nel. “Can you do anything about the bottom two?”

Nel didn’t even glance at the list. “What about Sawyer?”

“What about him?” When Nel didn’t move, Eva let out another sigh. “I’d love to go gallivanting across the country, but for some reason, I don’t think this is the time. It might have to do with the sky, and Shalise, and,” Eva glanced up at Wayne, “something about my dorm room?”

He opened his mouth to respond, but Nel slammed her fist down on the table.

“So he just gets to walk away. Is that it?”

Eva lifted her head. “Of course not. There’s just…” Narrowing her eyes at the augur, Eva said, “have you even looked outside?”

Nel glanced down. Not at the paper, more at her feet through the table. After a moment of silence, she mumbled something.

“What was that?”

“I said that something bad happens every time I leave. I get inquisitions sent after me. I get kidnapped. Or the sky turns purple! Next time I leave, it just might be the end of the world.”

“So you did go outside.”

Nel shifted. “Not really. I opened the door, saw the sky, and slammed it shut.”

Eva smiled. She wanted to laugh, but the thought of missing out on hunting down Sawyer did put a damper on her mood.

“As much as he is a personal priority of ours,” Eva said, emphasizing the word, “I think you’ll agree that other matters require our attention first. Like that list in front of you.” Eva tapped a sharp finger down on the piece of paper, all but forcing Nel’s eyes to it.

Those eyes widened a moment later.

“The salt is easy,” she said after a moment of rereading the list. “The obelisk, not so much.”

“Let’s start with the salt–”

Wayne, leaning over to read the list, cleared his throat. “What is this for?”

“A cleansing ritual,” Nel answered before Eva could. “The deep, soul level type of cleansing.”

“For Shalise,” Eva added. “Former Sister Cross thinks that she can get Prax out of Shalise and, therefore, Shalise out of Hell. Considering that things down there are possibly scarier than things up here, she’s willing to accept a small amount of danger on Shalise’s part to perform the ritual.”

“Scarier?” Devon said, genuine curiosity in his voice. “What is happening in Hell?”

“Same things, for the most part. The sky had purple streaks through it, much like here. They’ve since faded, I think. The difference between here and there is that Hell has Void actively fighting back. At least, as far as I can tell from a cursory glance.” Eva glanced up at Ylva, but the hel failed to move. Without skin on her face, she couldn’t even see any facial expressions.

“Sounds like her situation wouldn’t improve much,” Wayne said with a slight grunt as he centered himself back in his seat.

“Oh yeah, Shalise might also have some prison warden hunting her down.”

That actually did get a response out of Ylva. Just a slight stirring in her posture that, had she been anyone else, might have been mistaken as movement to get more comfortable. Eva would have missed it entirely had she not already been watching the demon.

Eva raised an eyebrow in her direction, wondering if she had anything to add.

Ylva just gave a slight, almost imperceptible shake of her head.

“Anyway,” Eva said, letting it drop for the moment. She turned back to face Nel. “Where do we get the salt?”

“Anywhere, I think. It needs to be natural sea salt–no iodine. Larger grain size. About fifteen pounds should work for this ritual.” Nel shook her head. “Wait, better make it thirty. I’m… well, out of practice. I’d rather have some to spare if I mess something up.”

“That’s it?” she asked just to be sure. Thirty pounds of salt sounded like a lot, but it wasn’t anything outrageous. It certainly didn’t sound like something that would cause much trouble. Quite the opposite, really.

“Well, I’ll have to prepare it. Shouldn’t take more than two or three hours.”

Still not too bad. Maybe Lynn Cross was simply worried about the time it would take to acquire and prepare it. “So the other thing? Where can I find an obelisk? I assume it is a specific kind of obelisk.”

“Of the pure moon,” Nel said, shaking her head. “It isn’t something you can go to a shopping center and purchase.”

“Then where do I find one,” Eva asked, speaking slightly slower as if she were speaking to a child.

“It’s an idol. Similar to the idol used to crack the sky.” She sent a mild glare at Devon. “The priceless artifact that he destroyed.” There wasn’t much accusation in her voice. Probably because she knew that she would have been far less angry about its destruction had one of those beams of light hit her.

Eva could guess that she would have preferred capturing it over destroying it, but that was in the past.

Devon, for his part, did not appear to be paying attention. He had his thumb on his goatee and his brow furrowed in thought.

“That’s all well and good,” Eva said, slowing down her speech further. “Where, Nel, do I get one?”

Nel bit her lip. She glanced over to Alicia–whose face had remained entirely impassive throughout the entire discussion–before turning to face Eva. “You’ll have to steal one. There are only six that I know about.” Again, she glanced over at Alicia. “The closest would probably be in the Salem Cathedral and Training Center.”

Eva snorted. “A bunch of vampire hunters made a home base out of the home of the witch hunts? Wonder if they worked together with the puritans back in the day. It would make sense, both have far too much zealotry for their own good.”

For the first time since Eva had shown up, Alicia laughed.

Actually, for the first time ever, as far as Eva knew.

It wasn’t a happy laugh. Rather, it set Eva’s nerves on end. Both Wayne and Devon–who had come out of his thoughts at the noise–looked a bit unsettled as well.

Nel shot a glare in the ex-nun’s direction, but turned a pained look on Eva.

“Um… Salem Oregon,” she said, voice barely above a whisper. “Not Massachusetts.”

Her voice wasn’t quiet enough to avoid Devon’s ears, evidenced by him turning a smirk in Eva’s direction.

“Point still stands,” Eva said, ignoring everyone at the table. She cleared her throat when Devon opened his mouth. Whatever snide comment he had could be kept to himself. “Anyway, can you spy on where you expect it to be? I’d rather not waste my time running all the way to Oregon if it isn’t there.”

“I can try,” Nel said with a nod. “But how are you getting there?”

“Well,” Eva shifted her glance towards Wayne, “there are two people I know of that can teleport without needing something at the destination. Although, Zagan could probably do it.”

Nel flinched while Devon glowered.

Eva shook her head before either could say a word. “I’m not going to ask him though. Even if he agreed, it would probably be at some exorbitant price that I am not interested in paying.”

Besides, Eva thought, if I help Shalise myself, I don’t have to answer his riddle about what would be worth having Shalise back home.

With an extra heap of gravel in his voice, Wayne said, “you feel you must drag myself and Zoe into this?”

“It is for Shalise. When I told Zoe before heading here, she essentially gave a blanket offer of assistance.”

He mumbled something under his breath that sounded roughly like a curse, but Eva let it pass.

“If you are scared,” she said, “you could just wait outside. Stealing it won’t be that hard, right? Just have to get around a couple of nuns.” Eva glanced at Devon.

While she was fairly certain that he hadn’t had to use her before, if he could summon up that waxy, headache inducing demon again, they could probably just walk right in. The demon would incapacitate everyone while they browsed the Elysium Order’s wares.

Eva tried not to consider raiding the place straight away, but she couldn’t help but think that perhaps there would be more of value than just the obelisk. The Elysium Order had to collect a number of artifacts and tomes that they could not or simply did not destroy.

Under her stare, Devon’s eyes grew wide. “Oh no. Nope. Don’t look at me. We’ve tangled with the nuns enough for one decade. Call me again in ten years when they’ve had a chance to cool off.”

“But just a few demons with the right abilities will make it our easiest job in years. Probably.”

“Probably.” He let out a slight snort. “I wouldn’t count on them just laying down and allowing you to walk away with priceless artifacts because Arachne showed up.”

Eva gave a slight start. She glanced around the table to confirm her fears.

No Arachne.

“Has anyone talked to Arachne since all the sky and things have happened?” Eva was staring mostly at Devon, but was open to a response from anyone.

No one said a word.

With a sigh, Eva said, “I’ll have to go see if she has even noticed the sky after this.”

“If you’re done with that drivel,” Devon said, “I would like to hear more about the happenings of Hell.”

Eva shrugged. “I don’t know what more there is to say. There was an earthquake. Sky turned colors. That’s pretty much it.” Eva glanced up towards Ylva before asking, “were there tremors here?”

“Enough for only Ourself to notice, not enough to shake the walls of Our domain.”

“And your sky?” Eva asked, glancing upwards. She still wasn’t certain that sky was the proper term, but said it anyway for lack of a better word. The storm clouds overhead obscured any view of the dark void, but Ylva probably had enough awareness of her own domain to know what was happening regardless of whether or not she could see it.

Unless something had changed in the last several hours, there weren’t any storm clouds over the beach portion of her domain. She would be able to observe from there in any case.

Ylva’s head gave a slight incline. “It has since returned to normal.”

“That fits with what I saw.” Eva gave a sorry shrug towards Devon. “Can you make anything out with that little information?”

He hummed for a moment, again stroking his beard. “I imagine that the Void fought back. And succeeded, for now at least. Here, however, we have no Power to fight for us.”

Wayne leaned forward on the table. “So we fight back ourselves. Is that what you’re saying?”

Devon snorted, slowly shaking his head from side to side. “If you think you can match power with a Power, be my guest. If you can, you’re a far scarier person than I gave you credit for.”

Dismissing Wayne with a wave of his hand, Devon put a finger down on the table. “Here is my theory. The events of tonight are not caused by any mortal or demon. Rather, a Power is the cause. I do concede that a mortal, demon, or other non-Power entity may be assisting the Power, but they are not the primary cause.

“The effect observable in the sky does not extend far beyond Brakket City, ending within a few miles in any direction around the town with the exception of the direction of this prison in which it extends and encompasses this area as well.” He drew his finger around in a large circle around the initial point he had touched.

“The reason for this is the concentration of demons around Brakket City. I mean, there’s what, ten to fifteen demons in and around the city at any given time? One of which is a pillar.” He glanced down towards Eva as if asking for confirmation.

Eva just shrugged. “Sounds about right. That we know of, at least. Who knows what Martina has in reserve.”

“As someone who has dealt with demons in one manner or another throughout my entire life, I have never once heard of such a thing. Diabolists are rare. Typically, they won’t have more than one or two demons out at once and then, not often for any length of time.”

He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms before him. “I posit that this concentration of demons has given the attacking Power a medium through which to target Void.”

“So we send them all back to Hell,” Wayne said, rising to his feet.

Eva watched him, trying to keep the amusement off of her face, as he slowly realized just where he was. She could spot the very moment when he knew that he had done something wrong.

His shoulders jumped slightly. Slowly, he turned to face Ylva. He cleared his throat before speaking. “Ah, no offense,” he mumbled.

Ylva raised one skeletal hand and brushed his worries off to the side. “Nothing occurs to Us that might contradict the presented theory, given our collective knowledge is so limited.”

“Doesn’t matter anyway,” Devon said as he scratched at his chin with his tentacle. “Probably too late. Even if you sent back every demon currently roaming the Earth, I doubt the sky would turn back to normal. The connection has already been made.”

“But the sky in my domain is back to normal,” Eva said. She gave a short nod in Ylva’s direction. “Presumably everywhere in Hell.”

“That just means that the Power must try again on the Void side of things. In fact, I recommend the opposite. Limit the connections going between the Earth and Hell. No more teleporting. No more summoning. No more banishing. It might just slow things down while we learn more.”

He turned his eyes to bore straight into Ylva. “And I will put money on the notion that your domain will become more dangerous. The enigmas that have been attacking are just the vanguard. Placed there to weaken Void. More dangerous things will be appearing in preparation for another attempt.”

Devon narrowed his eyes in Eva’s direction. “Keep out of it. I have no intention of stopping my work just because of a little apocalypse. And that will be hard to do if you’re dead or trapped in Hell.”

Eva harrumphed, but didn’t disagree. All the more reason to get Shalise out sooner rather than later.

“Of course,” Devon said louder, angling his head back just so Ylva was in the corner of his eye, “that means severing this domain’s connection to the mortal realm. I’d say I’m sorry to see you go, but that would be the biggest lie I’ve ever told, and I have told a few.”

He turned away, mumbling under his breath just loud enough for Eva to pick up. “Stupid girl shouldn’t have allowed it in the first place.”

Eva glowered at the man. Instead of giving him a response, she watched Ylva. She half expected Ylva to come down from her throne and toss Devon around for a minute for the insult, but her actual actions surprised her.

After taking a moment to consider, Ylva’s skinless skull dipped into a grave nod. “We concur.”

Devon blinked, apparently surprised as well. The confusion on his face shifted into horror as he jumped to his feet, heart suddenly beating faster and faster.

“You’re not doing it now, are you?” He glanced towards the door and looked ready to start running.

Eva’s own heart jumped in pace. She did have an active beacon, having handed hers off to Zoe, so returning wouldn’t be that big of an issue. But it would still be an inconvenience as she still needed to go collect an obelisk.

Ylva shook her head as she stood from her throne. Her dress draped around the floor as she walked down the steps. “We have Our own business to attend before severing Our domain. We shall start with haste. Finish your business here and vacate at once.”

As she stepped down from her throne, she left the column of light. Her flesh returned just in time for her cold eyes to shift to Alicia. “Come,” she spoke.

Alicia snapped to her side fast enough that Eva wondered if she hadn’t teleported there.

Ylva’s eyes turned to Nel. The augur’s eyes ceased their glare at Alicia to meet with Ylva.

“Assist Eva in her task. Find Ourself upon finishing.”

“Yes, Lady Ylva,” Nel said, head ducking in a sitting bow.

As Ylva and Alicia headed off towards one of the back archways–not one Eva could remember entering before–Devon all but ran from the throne room. He paused for just a moment at the edge of the throne platform, hesitating. After tapping his foot against the thin air to reassure himself that he wouldn’t fall through, Devon walked across and out of the domain.

It seemed silly to Eva. She had walked across without even thinking about it, as she had on occasion in the past. Then again, she had also helped throw an enigma or two down the pit, and was fairly certain that she had dangled her legs over the edge one time. A brief bout of curiosity tickled the back of her mind as she considered just how it worked.

She dismissed the thought as quickly as it came. It probably wasn’t the most pressing of matters at the moment.

Turning back to those remaining at the table, Eva stopped her gaze on Nel. “Let’s check that the obelisk is where you think it is, then we’ll get you some salt. After that…” Eva gave an involuntary shudder as she realized that she would have to be teleported through that cold ‘between’.

But that was a momentary discomfort. Shalise being stuck in Hell would be worse.

Shaking her head to clear her mind, Eva looked at Wayne. “After, if you’d teleport us to wherever this chapel is, Dev–”

Eva whipped her head towards the door leading out of Ylva’s domain.

That coward just ran away.

“Actually,” Eva said after a short sigh, “I might need a few minutes to consult with Arachne.”

Zoe stopped before a well-worn wooden door with a familiar brass handle. She pushed the door open, fully expecting to be welcomed into the bar and parlor by Tom’s smiling face.

A bright light had her wincing away the second she stepped inside.

It took her mind a moment to catch on to the fact that something was wrong. The bar was never brightly lit. Lights were kept perpetually dim. Tom was not a mage, but she had often wondered if he didn’t have some sixth sense for incoming customers. The lights were low even when she had walked in during the off hours on occasion, when he was in the middle of cleaning–a task that Zoe would never consider attempting without decent lighting.

Blinking away the spots in her eyes, Zoe peered beyond into the rest of the room. Or tried to. With a frown on her face, she realized that the rest of the bar was pitch black. Even her enhanced eyes were having trouble seeing past the few spotlights that had been moved directly in front of the door.

Her enhanced ears, on the other hand, picked up the sound of heavy metal being lifted from a wooden surface.

Zoe slipped off her backpack full of ritual supplies in the same swift motion she used to draw her dagger.

“Keep your hands where I can see them!”

“Tom?” It sounded like his voice. For the most part. It lacked the ever friendly tones that it normally carried.

Zoe kept her hand firmly on her dagger, ready to erect a shield at any moment. “Tom? It’s me, Zoe Baxter. I’m not here to hurt you.”

There was definite hesitation in the darkness. She could almost feel the uncertainty.

“What did you order when you last came here?”

Zoe blinked, trying first to think when the last time was here. It had been at least a month. Two? A long time to remember something as insignificant as a drink.

“I didn’t,” Zoe eventually said. “I asked for a drink, you decided what.”

That was what she most often did, anyway. His question made her second guess herself, but she was fairly certain that she hadn’t actually ordered anything.

Her suspicion was confirmed a moment later as Tom sighed. Whatever he had landed on a table with a clunk. A half empty glass bottle scraped against the wood as the lights in the rest of the establishment slowly brightened to their normal levels.

After once again closing her eyes to help adjust to the light, Zoe surveyed the war zone–for a lack of a better word.

Tables had been flipped on end. Several propped up against the rear exit while the rest served as barricades and obstacles between the front door and the bar’s counter. Most of the chairs had been set up in the same manner.

Sitting behind the counter was a fairly disheveled Tom, currently in the middle of sampling his own wares.

“You gave me a right fright,” he said between drinks.

“I’m sorry about that,” Zoe said as she slowly stepped into the parlor, picking up her backpack before she moved. She kept a wary eye on the pistol lying on the counter. While not knowing much about mundane weaponry, the pistol made her somewhat nervous. “It wasn’t my intention. Has something happened?”

Despite being set up for war, Zoe couldn’t spot a single bullet hole around the room. She was fairly certain that she would notice anything made by that gun. It looked large enough to take out an elephant and still have enough punch to kill a horse on the opposite side.

“‘Has something happened,’ she says as she walks into my bar at such a strange hour. The lights in the sky weren’t enough for you, Zoe? Or did you miss them completely?”

“Well, yes. I had noticed that. But I hadn’t realized they warranted all of this.” She waved her hand around the tables, ending at the pistol laying on the counter.

“Apparently you missed out on the zombies and other monsters wandering the streets over the last few years.”

Can’t argue with that.

“New shop policy,” he said with a smile, “anything strange happens and I’m closed.” After taking another swig of his drink, he held out the bottle towards Zoe.

“No thank you,” she said, waving a hand in front of her. Realizing that hand still held her dagger, she quickly sheathed it.

“Suit yourself. So, what is going on out there?”

“Not a clue. Wayne is talking with some people to try to find out the answer to that. However, I’ve been wandering around and haven’t noticed anything immediately dangerous. No creatures running the streets, at least.”

“Well, that’s a small relief.” He started to take another drink, but paused with the bottle halfway to his mouth. After a moment of deliberating with himself, Tom capped the bottle and placed it somewhere behind the counter. “So, what brings you to my humble bar at such a late hour? I take it you didn’t come for just a social call.”

Zoe shook her head. “Nothing dangerous, but it might cause your business some problems. I need salt. Non-iodized sea salt. Everything you have, probably. I already cleaned out the local food mart–they didn’t have quite enough on their shelves. The woes of living in a small town, I suppose. Without a clerk present, I didn’t want to search around their back room.”

“Must be desperate times,” Tom said, lifting an eyebrow, “if you’re stealing from the local shops.”

“I left my name and number, along with a list of everything that I fully intend to pay for once someone contacts me.” Zoe let out a small sigh. She had had to teleport straight into the building. There had been a momentary concern over alarms before deciding that Shalise came first. “And I intend to reimburse you as well. But yes, something of an emergency with a student. One unrelated to the changes in the sky.”

Probably.

Eva had mentioned Hell’s changes and its likeness to the sky over Brakket City, but someone chasing after Shalise didn’t seem to line up with that particular problem.

“Welp, let’s take a look-see at what I’ve got in the back room.”

Tom pulled up the part of the bar that allowed access behind the counter. He gestured for her to follow as he slipped into the door labeled ‘Employees Only’.

The room itself wasn’t all that large. Larger than your average pantry–Zoe couldn’t touch the shelves on both sides at the same time–but not by much. It did, however, have a large trap door in the center of the floor. A wine cellar of some sort, Zoe assumed.

But they weren’t headed there.

Tom stopped at a section of the shelves labeled ‘Dry goods’ and bent over to pull out a large bag.

Zoe almost sighed in relief as she spotted the label. Twenty-five pounds of sea salt would work perfectly. She had eleven, single pound containers from the grocers.

“I think this is all I’ve got,” he said, hefting the bag over his shoulder. “Unless I start draining the table shakers.”

“That should be plenty. Thank you, Tom. You might have just saved a student.”

“Can’t say I’ve ever done that before. Strange day.”

“Indeed.”

“What do you want done with the salt?”

In response, Zoe pulled out her focus–her wand, not her dagger. No need to make Tom more nervous. With her wand, she dropped the sack straight to between.

Tom stumbled slightly at the sudden lack of weight on his shoulder. He looked around as if expecting it to be levitating above him. “Handy trick,” he said when he failed to find it.

“It is,” Zoe agreed. Especially for lugging around more than thirty pounds of salt and other reagents. She would have been making several trips without that little trick. “But I try to use it as little as possible. Items that I put away for long term storage have a tendency to become unrecoverable. Shouldn’t be a problem here as I intend to withdraw it in a minute or two. Speaking of, I should be leaving.”

“Don’t let me hold you up. I can handle myself.”

Zoe let a small smile touch her lips. “I’m sure that our illustrious dean will be releasing a statement sometime soon, but I’ll keep you appraised of the situation as I can. I don’t think you’ll need your barricade tonight, though.”

Tom gave a short shrug. “Can’t hurt.”

“Might scare off any customers that wander in.”

“Anyone who walks in this late, I don’t care if they return. Present company excluded. I run a classy bar, not a hostel.”

“Have you tried locking your doors?”

Giving the scoffing Tom a slight wave, Zoe used her wand to drop herself into the blinding white of between. The walls of his bar tumbled off into the light, only to be replaced by the women’s ward gate room.

She made her way from the ward to Ylva’s domain, stopping just outside to pull everything out of between that she had stored there. Most of it went into her backpack. Everything else, she simply levitated.

Wayne and Nel sat at the table that had been set up on Ylva’s throne platform. Both seemed deep in a fairly heated discussion. Most of the heat was coming from Wayne if the scowl on his face was anything to judge by.

After crossing the gap with only the slightest modicum of hesitation, Zoe dropped her supplies on the table. “This should be everything on the list,” she said. “Where’s Eva?”

“Off talking with her spider,” Wayne snapped. He let out a strained sigh through grit teeth as he ran a hand down his face.

Frowning at his entirely unwarranted hostility, Zoe narrowed her eyes. “Did something happen?”

“Not much… Oh, except for the Elysium chapel I need to figure out how to break into and out of without getting myself killed.”

Zoe blinked, going over what he said a second and third time in her mind. Just to make sure she had heard him correctly.

“The obelisk that you need is inside the Salem Cathedral,” Nel said, answering the question that Zoe had been about to ask.

“Alright,” Zoe said slowly. That explained Wayne’s mood.

“Spencer only wants a teleport nearby. She thinks she can do it alone.”

Again, Zoe had to go over what he said a second time. “She what?”

“That is roughly what my response was. Even with her pet’s help, maybe other demons, I doubt she has what it takes.”

“Alright. I’ll talk some sense into her. But,” Zoe bit her lip, wondering if she should say anything at all. With a side glance at Nel, she decided that it couldn’t possibly hurt. Nel had no love for the Elysium Order. “But can’t you do it the same way that you did it last time?”

Ignoring the expected stiffening and gasp from Nel, Zoe focused on Wayne.

He just looked confused more than anything. “Last time? Last time I…” His confusion vanished into a mounting look of horror. “You’re not seriously suggesting–”

“If it helps, why not?”

“I could think up a thousand reasons,” he grumbled. Pressing his hands into the table, Wayne stood. “I have a phone call to make.” Without a backwards glance, he walked out of Ylva’s domain, phone in hand.

“Last time?”

With a smile on her face, Zoe turned to Nel. “Well, he wasn’t stealing an obelisk, but he got in and out. Otherwise, long story.”

— — —

Irene sat in the hallway with her back to the wall, staring at the door to Eva’s room and wondering just when Professor Lurcher was going to return.

Or if he would return.

Irene would like to think that the condition of Eva’s room was worth at least an urgent rating. Unfortunately, she had a sinking suspicion in the back of her mind that it barely made it on the ’emergency’ scale at all.

Especially not after Shelby had dragged her off to their room’s window. After seeing the real sky, Irene doubted that Eva’s room was even worth remembering. Compared with purple veins stuck in the sky, a little sand was nothing.

Nothing for the people who weren’t sitting outside, constantly reminded of it, anyway.

Irene had had the sick sensation of butterflies in her stomach ever since Catherine left, something that should have provided some peace of mind. If Catherine didn’t think that it was that big of a deal, it probably wasn’t. But she had said to draw out the highest tier of shackles that Irene knew. That did not provide any comforting feelings.

Shelby had gone to bed. Right next door to Eva’s room no less! She hadn’t been worried about it. She just assumed that both things would be solved by the professors and security staff by morning. Shelby hadn’t been aware of the implications behind the markings that Irene had drawn.

And Irene, quite literally, could not tell her. Not without violating her contract. All of Shelby’s inquiries had been responded to with simple ‘nothings’ and ‘Catherine asked me to.’

Jordan could have. Irene didn’t pretend for a moment that he was unaware as to what she was drawing. But he had run off to find his father before the sky had changed. He had probably forgotten too, in light of the veins in the sky.

Irene sighed as she bit her lip. I suppose I should be grateful, she thought. Taking into consideration what had happened with the hot springs, watching an empty room was a vacation. Perhaps she had the easiest job of the people who must be awake this night.

So long as morning comes without anything coming through the room.

Irene jumped a good foot in the air as a wet slopping noise echoed down the hall. Heart beating a million beats a second, she gripped her wand and got off of her chair. Just what the wand was meant to do against anything, she wasn’t entirely certain. But it was a small comfort as she ran to the edge of the shackles and peered into the room.

Nothing. Not a single thing. The sand still held her own footprints, and those of both Professor Lurcher and Catherine, but was otherwise smooth and undisturbed. She couldn’t see into the corners of the room without stepping onto or over the shackles, but Irene felt fairly confident that the room was empty.

Unless it isn’t.

A shiver ran up Irene’s spine as she recalled the first sentence in their diablery textbooks: ‘Never make assumptions when demons are involved.’

Scenarios ran through her mind. What if there was something in there.

She couldn’t see it, so it had to be using a spell of some sort. Either it was invisible or capable of altering her perception.

Irene took a step back from the shackles. It could even be right in front of her, hoping she would step over the line.

But it couldn’t be invisible. It would still leave footprints.

Unless it could float over the sand.

The only other possibility was that it had burrowed beneath the sand. Mundane logic said that the sands would be disturbed at least somewhat. But mundane logic generally went out the window when dealing with magic. Any half-baked earth mage would be able to smooth over sands enough to avoid notice from the distance she was standing.

Well, that’s not the only other possibility, Irene thought as she pressed a finger to her temple. My imagination could be playing tricks on—

“What are you doing?”

Irene screamed. She would never admit to it, but a high-pitched shriek sprung from her mouth as she felt a hand come down on her shoulder.

Her mind took an extra minute to process Jordan’s voice.

Clutching her chest, Irene tried to calm down. Her efforts weren’t helped any by Jordan’s snickering.

“It isn’t funny,” Irene said, giving him a punch in the shoulder.

Jordan rubbed his shoulder, but didn’t stop his snickering. If anything, it only made him laugh harder. “You were concentrating so hard,” he said between chuckles.

“I heard something like a barrel of spaghetti being dumped on the ground. It scared me, alright? You don’t have to make fun of me for it.”

His laughter died down with a single, “ah.”

“What? Did you find something out?”

He shook his head. “Dad is meeting with Dean Turner and Professor Zagan. They wouldn’t let me in. I ran into someone who I thought might help watch Eva’s room, but…” Jordan trailed off with a glance over his shoulder. “See for yourself.”

Following his gaze, Irene spotted… something. Something had spilled? With a rag on top of it. Maybe. It was at the far end of the hallway, just at the top of the staircase.

“What is it?”

“Well, it used to be a security guard. Now however, well, your barrel of spaghetti example might not be so inaccurate.”

“Oh, it’s Lucy.”

Irene started towards the demon, moving around Jordan. Seeing Lucy was actually something of a relief. The day she had come into class, they got a brief introduction to contracts. Lucy’s contract was essentially to act as security for Brakket Academy and to protect the students at all costs.

If there was something inside of Eva’s room, having Lucy around would be a great reassurance.

Or not, Irene thought as she got closer.

Lucy was well and thoroughly disassociated with herself. She had flattened herself out on the floor, her spindly tentacles making no effort to maintain her human form. Or do much of anything at all. Only her security uniform kept her in any kind of recognizable shape.

In other words, she was something that would be incredibly difficult to explain if anyone emerged from their rooms.

Irene glanced up and down the hallway, but apart from Jordan, there was no one around. And that was in spite of her earlier scream. The rooms had some protection against noise, but the scream should have gone through.

Then again, it was the dead of night. Most people were probably in deep sleep.

Irene stooped down to be a little closer to the mass of tentacles. “Lucy? Can you hear me?”

Something that might have been a response in tentacle-people language emerged from the mass. An effort was made, but whatever it was, Irene found it entirely unintelligible.

“You’re going to have to form a mouth if you want to talk to me. And everything else you use for speech.”

Irene immediately regretted saying anything at all.

Watching as the pile of wet spaghetti noodles twisted around to form a set of disembodied lips was one of the more disturbing things that Irene had witnessed in her recent memory. Possibly ever.

“This place feels gross.”

“I don’t feel anything,” Irene said. Though, now that it was mentioned, Catherine had been complaining about something similar before she had left.

But she wasn’t, Irene glanced down at the mass, like this.

“Do you think you can pull yourself together?”

Rather than give any verbal response, Lucy’s tentacles trembled. She was trying, that much was clear. Slowly, ever so slowly, her body started to gain some definition.

“Huh.”

Irene jumped again. She shouldn’t have, she knew that Jordan was right at her side. He was just so quiet and easy to forget about.

At least he was a distraction from Lucy. When she had demonstrated her true form in class, she had only done an arm. Even that had been quickly and easily decentralized into the strands of tentacles and put back together. As Lucy was now, it looked almost painful.

Irene was thankful that her uniform was covering up most of her body.

“You don’t seem very surprised. I expected more shock.”

Putting on a frown, the only thing that Irene could think of in response was that the contract was incredibly inconvenient. Jordan knew about demons anyway. There should be an exception for people like him, if nothing else.

“Neither do you,” Irene said with a shake of her head.

“Oh, I was plenty surprised when she fell face first into the ground and exploded into ribbons.”

“I’m sure.”

To avoid any continuation of the topic, Irene reached down and helped the mostly solid Lucy to her feet. She made sure to only touch Lucy on her clothes; the demon was covered in some slimy mucus.

She wobbled a fair amount, but managed to keep from falling on her face again. There was a bit of wet gurgling noises coming from–Irene wanted to say from Lucy’s throat, but that wasn’t entirely accurate. It was just coming from Lucy in general.

“Why is this place so gross?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Irene said. “I don’t feel anything.” Except a constant butterflies-in-stomach feeling, she thought. She was fairly certain that the feeling wasn’t related. Glancing over at Jordan, Irene asked, “do you feel anything?”

He shrugged. “Not particularly. Maybe a little unsettling sensation, but that could have just been from watching Lucy put herself together.”

“Something is here. But not? It’s,” Lucy paused, scrunching up her face in concentration.

Given her lack of bone structure or human muscles, the look sent chills up Irene’s spine. She was clearly mimicking what she had seen other people do in similar situations, but wasn’t quite succeeding. There was just something uncanny about it. If asked, Irene wouldn’t be able to point out any one thing in particular that was wrong with it. It just looked off.

“I don’t know the words,” Lucy eventually said, sagging in defeat.

On instinct, Irene reached forward to help steady the demon. When Lucy sagged, she sagged.

A stray thought couldn’t help but slip in. She’d be great at limbo.

“Maybe if you saw the room?” Jordan asked with a shrug. “Couldn’t hurt, could it?”

Irene wasn’t so sure about that. They might have to go get a mop if Lucy fell again, or worse, passed out. Just to sweep her down the staircase.

But Lucy had already taken one wobbly step forward. That was followed by a second and a third, each more steady than the last. Irene wanted to say that her eyes were unfocused as she moved, but that wasn’t all that different from the other times she had seen the security guard around school.

Considering for a moment that her eyes were strands of tentacles too… Irene shook her head before she could think about it too hard. Demon physiology was not covered in their course work and probably for good reason.

Moving up next to her, Irene stopped Lucy from stepping over the barrier of the shackles. If there was an invisible creature trapped inside, she didn’t really want Lucy to be trapped inside as well. Even if nothing attacked her, Irene would have to break the shackles to let her out, potentially letting out whatever had gotten trapped.

Irene gasped as she looked into the room from Lucy’s side.

There were definitely new footprints in the sand. She had spent long enough staring at it that she was sure of it.

Something was in there. Judging by the footprints, it had moved around to the blind spot to the side of the door.

A sharp noise from Lucy sent Irene’s heart into overdrive.

“Mushy mortals should stand away,” she said as her hands unfurled into their natural form. “Something in here is–”

Her comment was cut off by a high-pitched whine.

That whine terminated in thunder resonating between Irene’s ears.

“Wayne isn’t coming with us?” Eva asked as she shook off the icy cold of Zoe’s method of teleportation. Digging her claws into the brick wall of the building they had appeared next to, she pulled herself into a proper standing position. “I thought you said he would be here.”

“He will be. He just had to make a brief stop somewhere else first.”

Rubbing her claws up and down her arms, Eva watched an equally shaky Arachne as she unfolded herself from her smaller spider form.

Without a gate nearby, they didn’t have much choice but to go with Zoe despite the downsides to her teleportation. Zoe didn’t have a problem with her teleportation. She stood on watch for the few minutes that it took Eva and Arachne to recover, completely unaffected by the shivers and shakes.

No one else had a problem with it either. Eva had personally watched both Shalise and Juliana teleport alongside Zoe, and both had always walked away without the slightest shakes immediately after arriving at their destination. Yet both Eva and Arachne suffered after every teleport.

Maybe her method just wasn’t meant for nonhumans. At least it didn’t flay them alive as Eva’s teleportation had done to Lynn Cross.

“Well, I hope he gets here soon.” Eva slung off her backpack of supplies. “I need those potions.”

With Devon having fled into the night, Eva wasn’t about to try summoning demons. She was fairly certain that the wax demon had just about killed the both of them last time he summoned it. They had only been saved by Devon dominating it at the last minute.

Eva possessed neither the desire nor the ability to dominate demons. Devon had never taught her how. The textbooks that Martina Turner had assembled for the diablery class didn’t so much as mention the discipline, let alone devote a chapter to how to perform it.

So, Eva had decided to forgo any demonic support.

Aside from Arachne.

That was a whole other can of worms. Arachne had agreed to come along without hesitation. There wasn’t a problem with that.

Eva watched the unnaturally still demon through her blood sight as she pulled a large jar of fresh blood from her pack. She couldn’t help but let her mind wander to the demon.

Despite regular visits over the past few months, Eva felt as if she hadn’t spoken with Arachne in forever. What was she thinking? What was she feeling? Arachne’s thoughts were impenetrable at the best of times.

Now, it was like looking at a blank wall.

Eva shook off the thoughts. They could have a sit-down discussion after the current crisis was over.

For now, she had work to do.

Pulling out her dagger, Eva dug the tip into the crook of her elbow. After drawing out a decent sized globule, she healed the cut and dug into her backpack.

It didn’t take much rummaging to find what she was looking for. It already had a large core of blood that was shining brightly in her vision.

As soon as she moved her hand nearby, Basila coiled around her fingers, squeezing tightly. Eva pulled her out and started looking over the stone basilisk.

Everything appeared in order. Her scales had the same dark sheen and luster that they had had immediately after Eva performed her little experiment. The teeth and silver eyes still maintained their changes as well. None of the blood in the center of the basilisk replica had degraded–odd, given Eva had altered Basila back in January, a good two and a half months ago. Almost three.

Eva shrugged off that oddity. Probably intentional. Given that the spell was supposed to have been performed on an actual living creature, it made sense that the blood that actually imbued the effects would have to be preserved and not overwritten by the creature’s natural blood production.

Even still, she streamed the fresh globule of her own blood down the basilisk’s throat.

Had it always had a throat? It was just a sculpture, wasn’t it? Surely the Rivases wouldn’t have carved out the insides as well.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking an extra security measure.”

Eva didn’t glance up to Zoe as she responded. She had to ensure that Basila both swallowed all the blood and that her addition didn’t disturb the changes to Basila. Given that Basila was just an enchanted sculpture, she doubted that she could kill it. Still, she would rather not mess everything up.

The book she had acquired the spell from didn’t have any sections on fixing an altered sculpture.

“Security for what, exact–”

Two new people popped into the alley.

Eva jumped to her feet, the jar of Arachne’s blood bubbling and boiling at the ready. At her side, Arachne sprouted her spare limbs and dropped into a combat stance.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Zoe going for her dagger only to stop halfway there.

It didn’t take much to figure out why. Wayne was one of the two people.

Still, Eva and Arachne kept up their guard as the girl at his side started towards them.

Or… not, Eva thought as she watched the girl fall forward. She didn’t even try to catch herself as her skull cracked against the asphalt. Another demon?

It sure looked to be suffering from the same problem that she did when teleported by Zoe and Wayne. Eva rubbed her own chin, feeling some semblance of empathy. While she had managed to catch herself on her knees this time, Eva distinctly recalled landing flat on her face the first time Wayne had teleported her.

Did Wayne know any other demons? Eva couldn’t think of any possibilities. The girl wasn’t Ylva, Catherine, or either of the Brakket security guards. While the girl could be Zagan, Eva couldn’t think of a reason why he would appear as a teenage girl.

Wayne stepped over the girl without so much as a downward glance. He quickly found himself at Zoe’s side where the two engaged in a hushed conversation.

Eva thought about listening in, but found herself more interested in the demon. As the minutes dragged on, the girl didn’t push herself up. She didn’t move at all. The thought of her being a demon vanished as Eva noted the oddity in the fallen girl through her blood sight.

Her blood did not move through her veins. Her heart wasn’t beating. Her chest didn’t expand and contract with each breath. There wasn’t the slightest sign of minute movements in the body’s blood that was so tell-tale of other living beings.

“She’s dead,” Eva said, feeling somewhat foolish at pointing out what was now plainly obvious. It was somewhat shocking. Had the girl died from the teleport? Wayne was one thing, but Eva couldn’t imagine Zoe just ignoring Wayne killing some teenager.

Wayne turned from his conversation. He regarded Eva for a good minute before shrugging his shoulders. “Yeah.”

With that, he went back to his conversation.

Or tried to.

“That’s it? ‘Yeah,’ and nothing else? You can’t just–” Eva paused.

With a shake of her head, she shunted the thought from her mind. Zoe wasn’t freaking out. Given how she had reacted to Devon and his potential new subject, a hushed conversation was out of character for her. Therefore, she expected this to happen.

She had known that Wayne would be dragging along a corpse.

So, Eva thought, what use is a corpse in sneaking through an Elysium Order owned church? Spare blood for me?

There wasn’t any sign of life in the blood and it felt old. Eva doubted it would be usable. If Wayne had intended that for her, it wasn’t a very good gift. He should have just raided a blood bank, not a morgue. Even then, Eva had a decent amount of Arachne’s blood to use. Stale blood just couldn’t hold up a candle to that.

“Whatever,” Eva said. She had already intended to steal the obelisk with only herself and Arachne. If Wayne could help, great. Otherwise… “Did you get my potions?”

“You’re lucky I keep examples on hand.” Wayne Lurcher reached into his suit and pulled out two vials. One was dark orange while the other could have been mistaken for blood. Regular blood.

“Thanks,” Eva said as she reached for them.

Wayne snapped his wrist back, pulling the vials just out of reach. “Not for use on huma–” He cut himself off with narrowed eyes. Those eyes flicked over towards Arachne before he continued. “Not for use on living flesh. You’re not going to be able to shrink yourself to get in.”

Eva shot out her hand and snatched the vials. “I know that,” she said. “Just because I don’t go to your class doesn’t mean that I haven’t read the books.” Technically, Arachne had read her the books. Wayne didn’t need to know that.

Rolling the vials around with her fingers, Eva double checked that the color and consistency was what the book described. She didn’t believe that Wayne would make a mistake–no matter how annoying he was, Eva believed that he knew his alchemy–but it couldn’t hurt to double-check.

“Actually,” Eva said as she finished. Satisfied with the results of her inspection, she set the vials within a potion satchel inside her backpack. “I don’t wear those gloves anymore. That was your main complaint with me, right?”

“You want to come to my class again?” He shook his head. “Wrong question. Are you going to be disrespectful and disruptive again?”

Balling her hands into fists, Eva glared at him. “You were rude to me–”

Wayne held up a hand. “Doesn’t matter. We’ll talk about this later.” Under his breath, he grumbled, “I might not have a job if the school shuts down.”

Eva’s mild anger dissipated into a slight sensation of melancholy. “That’s a possibility, is it?”

“Can’t tell what the dean will do. I’ve long since stopped trying to figure out how Turner thinks. But she won’t matter much if the sky spooks off all you kids. Can’t have a school without students.”

Although there were plenty of problems surrounding Brakket Academy, including the one going on at the moment, Eva had taken a liking to school. Without it, she would probably still be doing the odd job with Devon. Few and as far between as those jobs were, she would be going to mundane school. Her most recent experience with a mundane school had left her bored out of her mind.

Eva turned away from Wayne, not bothering to question him further. As he had said, it was something to think about later. For now, she was wasting time. With the potions delivered, she was fairly certain that they were ready.

Arachne didn’t have many preparations to make as she was made up of everything that she used to fight with. She was no longer shaking from the effects of the teleport either. When Eva gave her a glance, she nodded.

“Let’s get this show on the road.”

“Wait. We’re not going to let you do this on your own.”

Eva turned back to Zoe with a frown on her face. She tried to keep her voice polite as she said, “Wait? For how long? You do realize that Shalise could be in danger?” Eva bit down on a harsher response.

While she respected Zoe and understood that she wanted to help, Eva was somewhat anxious about finding the obelisk and getting back to Shalise. When Sister Cross had said there might be problems acquiring the obelisk, Eva had not expected that an assault on an Elysium Order controlled church to be in the cards.

“But don’t worry, this is just like a job with Devon. I’ve done tons of them. In fact, this is better than a job with Devon. This time, thanks to Nel, we actually have a map with the destination marked and a good idea of how many nuns are around. That’s ten times the preparation that ever went into any of Devon’s jobs.”

Zoe had her lips pressed into a thin line. Probably at the thought of Devon dragging her off on jobs.

“Eva, you–”

“Smell good…”

Eva jumped, whirling around to face the corpse on the ground. The sound had come from below and behind her. Right where that corpse had been lying.

The body was still dead. Still unmoving face down on the asphalt. No blood flowed through its veins. It was even in the same position that Eva had last seen it in.

No, Eva thought as a glob of Arachne’s blood started hovering around her, not quite the same position.

The jaw had slackened from the hardened rictus that it had arrived with.

Eva jumped back as the body lifted a hand. She did a quick double-check of herself, the professors, and Arachne just to ensure that her blood sight was working properly.

Everyone’s blood was flowing just fine.

Everyone except for the currently animated corpse.

Her first thoughts were of necromancy. None of the skeletons or zombies that she had encountered had ever spoken, but the ghost that had assisted in her initial capture had responded to queries. Could ghosts possess corpses?

Then there was the blended girl and her friend. Both were strange to her blood sight and both had a connection to Sawyer. Their status of being alive was in question solely because of that. But even the friend had a pulse. A slow, lethargic pulse, but a pulse nonetheless.

It did, however, answer the question of why Wayne had brought along a corpse. If the Elysium Order thought that there might be undead in the general area of their church, they would probably send at least a portion of their forces to investigate.

Unfortunately, it would probably set the rest on high alert.

Maybe the undead should be contained and set to be released if they needed a distraction. A much better plan than alerting everyone right away.

Eva kept a careful watch on the girl as she pushed herself up to her knees and then to her feet. All the while, Eva had a portion of Arachne’s blood ready to strike or shield at a moment’s notice.

Arachne had moved back in the shadows and climbed partway up the building, looking about ready to pounce on the animated corpse.

“I told you to warn me before teleporting,” the girl whined as she tried to brush dirt and grime from her clothes.

Given that she was wearing a white dress, she failed miserably. If anything, she only worsened the problem by smearing the dirt around herself.

The girl seemed to realize the problem only after it was too late.

As she looked up to glare at Wayne, Eva caught a dead-on view of her eyes.

Or rather, the endless abyss behind them. They were like little snow globes with storms in place of the snow that would be right at home inside of Ylva’s domain.

“You would have ended up on your face no matter what,” Wayne said.

His voice broke Eva out of her trance. She shook her head and averted her eyes, determined not to get stuck in that trap again.

“I also told you to catch me. You’re so meaan to me,” she said, drawing out the word. “And after all the favors I’ve done for you over the years.”

Eva heard the distinct sound of Wayne scoffing behind her back.

“Now I’m all embarrassed and dirty in front of,” she took a deep breath through her nose, “someone who smells soo fantastic.”

The girl appeared in front of Eva. It wasn’t teleportation; Eva managed to track her movements just enough to tell that much. She was, however, fast enough to startle Eva.

Barely thinking, Eva activated her shield as she stumbled back from the other teenager.

She passed through the side of the shield and left the animated corpse behind, trapped within the bubble.

“What strange eyes,” the corpse muttered to herself.

“Look who’s talking.”

The corpse took another deep breath. “Ah, blood magic,” she said. A wide smile formed on her face as she poked the orb of blood powering the shield. “But you should have taken this with you.”

It doesn’t work like that, Eva almost said. The orb had to stay in the direct center of the shield or it collapsed. She had tried otherwise in the past, but nothing had never worked.

But Eva kept her mouth shut as her mind raced to toss out all of her previous assumptions about the girl. The twin fangs hanging out of her smile introduced a new theory.

The girl was a vampire.

Eva had never before encountered a vampire. In fact, she had assumed that the entire species was a myth up until Genoa had told the story of why she disliked the Elysium Order.

As if to prove Eva’s new theory, the vampire leaned down and slurped up the core of the shield. The actual shell collapsed immediately, freeing the trapped vampire.

For just a moment, Eva considered clapping her hands together and exploding the blood inside the vampire’s stomach. The only thing staying her hands was the fact that the vampire had arrived with Wayne and Zoe had clearly been expecting her arrival. She was probably not an enemy.

A blur of movement in the upper corners of Eva’s eyes had her shouting as fast as possible. “Arachne!”

The spider-demon twisted in midair, moving just enough to land behind the vampire rather than on top of her. All of her spare legs were spread out, hovering dangerously close to the vampire’s throat.

The vampire turned around to face Arachne, calm and languid as she could be.

Or the vampire’s calm exterior could be a facade. Perhaps she was nervous out of her mind.

Eva was finding it incredibly difficult to tell one way or the other. It made her realize just how much she had come to rely on her blood sight to tell when people were nervous. Anyone with even a modicum of self-control could keep their face straight in stressful situations, but keeping their hearts steady was another matter entirely.

“That was your blood?” The vampire wrinkled her nose. “I’m not sure it agreed with me. Too tangy. Too sweet.”

Arachne stood motionless over the far smaller vampire, radiating a menacing aura.

“Do you talk? You clearly listen,” she said with a glance at Eva. “Yet I cannot say I’ve ever encountered a creature like you.”

“Serena,” Zoe said, “we have time constraints. You can socialize later.”

The vampire spun on her heel and skipped straight to Zoe. Wrapping her into a hug around the waist, Serena said, “Zoe! I haven’t seen you in forever. You’re so big now. Have you thought more on joining?”

“Not in the slightest,” Zoe said. Her voice was flat, but she returned the hug.

Eva just blinked. Zoe knew the vampire too? And was hugging her?

“Wayne told you what we’re going to do?”

Serena shook her head. Her voice dropped into a mocking growl as she spoke. “‘Remember Boston? We need to do that again,’ was all he said. But since we’re in an alley and not a sushi bar, there are no circuses around, and Wayne doesn’t have makeup on, I’m not sure how we’re going to–”

“Not that part of Boston,” Zoe said as fast as she could.

Unlike the vampire, Eva could actually see Zoe’s heart pick up the pace a few notches.

“Oh,” her eyes narrowed. “I thought we agreed not to bother the Elysium Order again. I’ve enjoyed relative peace for the last few years and would really rather not antagonize them any further. Can’t you just ask them for whatever you need?”

“While I respect the Elysium Order for most of their work,” Wayne said as he took a half step forward, “I’d rather not walk up to them openly and announce myself. I doubt they will be so forgiving if they tie us to Boston.”

Zoe nodded along with that. “And they probably wouldn’t be willing to give a relic of theirs away. This is an emergency. Necessary, even. If you want to back out, I’ll understand.”

“Do we even have masks this time?”

Zoe gave a short shake of her head.

Releasing Zoe from the hug, Serena huffed as she turned around. Her eyes found Eva and for a moment, she just stared. “What’s your role in all this?”

“My friend is the one in danger. And we,” Eva gestured towards Arachne, “will be proceeding with or without anyone’s help.”

“You think you can fight the Elysium Order on your own? I don’t know what the two of you are, but you can’t seriously believe that running head on into one of their strongholds will turn out well.”

“Run in? Fight?” Eva shook her head. “Not in the slightest. I doubt I could fight a single nun. So long as they’re healthy, at least. No, my plan involves a great deal more subtlety and stealth. We have a map. We know roughly how many nuns are around. It is late at night; many nuns will be asleep.” Eva glanced at Arachne. “Shapeshifting into smaller forms won’t hurt our chances.”

“Sneaking in?” The vampire hummed. After a moment of thought, she turned a glare on Wayne. “That’s a far better plan than what we did last time. And, it is something that my talents will be useful for.”

“Great. Splendid. Can we please get a move on?”

Three things made getting into the Elysium Cathedral much easier than it had any right to be.

The first was the map. Drawn by Nel both from memory and from scrying, it had possible routes to the relic chamber along with some annotations about which directions would have them encounter how much resistance. Most of it was guesswork and estimations. Nel had to remain behind to prepare the salt, so she couldn’t give real-time updates. The nuns could and would move around and invalidate most of her efforts.

But that was the second thing. For whatever reason, there were hardly any nuns about. A handful of guards was about all that they had to sneak by. They hadn’t passed the sleeping quarters, so it was entirely possible that the majority were asleep. Nel had mentioned that there should have been more guards, so Eva wasn’t about to question their luck.

Eva wanted to say that the third thing was her own blood sight. The ability to effectively see through walls, see which direction guards were facing, and to tell whether or not a guard was asleep at their post was an amazing asset on a job like this. Something that Eva wished she had figured out back when doing odd jobs with Devon.

However, while it helped, Eva had to begrudgingly give a nod to Serena and her unique abilities.

Two guards stood alert outside of the doorway leading to the basement of the cathedral.

There was another way inside, but they would have had to backtrack through a good portion of the building, negating much of their work so far. And, if this one was guarded, that door was likely guarded as well.

Turning to the others, Eva said, “Arachne can handle this.”

At hearing her name, the spider demon poked her head out from under Eva’s shirt.

They didn’t actually need to be silent. Something that Eva was beyond grateful for. Part of her reason for wanting to go in alone was that it was far easier to be stealthy with fewer people. Arachne had shrunk and latched onto Eva’s chest just to help reduce their total footprint. More people meant more noise, no exceptions.

Except when Zoe was part of the group. She just twisted her dagger and the air itself didn’t allow sound to pass beyond a small radius around their group. The vibrations froze in mid-air.

That hadn’t made Arachne unshrink. A group of people was already a larger visual target than a single person, and Arachne was larger than any one person in their group. Zoe’s air magic couldn’t hide them from sight.

“How?” Serena asked with a wide smile.

The tone of her voice wasn’t hostile and it was a fair question. It still sent Eva’s eye twitching. Not only was it a question that Eva had been about to answer on her own, but it was Serena asking.

She wasn’t certain that she liked the vampire. Every time she glanced in Serena’s direction, she found the vampire staring at her. Every single time.

To Eva, it didn’t feel much like a friendly stare or even one of the curious stares that her classmates often gave her hands and eyes. It was of the hungry variety of stares. Like the vampire was just waiting for her to let her guard down so she could have a quick snack.

“Arachne climbs on the ceiling–no one ever looks up,” Eva said, glancing up herself.

If asked, she would say that she had glanced up as emphasis on her words. It was definitely not because she too never bothered to look up. While her blood sight worked in a sphere around her, there could be nonliving concerns on the ceiling.

Looking up only to find a trapped ceiling slowly descending to crush them would be terrible. She did not want to become an Eva sandwich.

Bringing her eyes back down to Serena after finding nothing, Eva said, “Arachne then drops on their heads, bites them, injects venom, and then we walk past two recently deceased nuns.”

Zoe shifted, probably about to say something about killing people.

Serena beat her to the punch. “Buut, that will leave two dead nuns.”

“You care?”

She shrugged. “I’ve no love for the Elysium Order. However,” she held up a finger, “what if the changing of the guards happens or someone walks by? Even if we hide the bodies, the lack of guards will alert the others. If there is an augur here, and there probably is, the entirety of the cathedral will be on alert near instantly. That makes our job far more difficult.”

“Fair points,” Eva said with a frown. “But you can’t just complain without putting forward a suggestion of your own. What’s your plan?”

“Hmm,” she tilted her head back and forth a few times. “Something like this.”

Before Eva could so much as react, Serena had jumped around the corner, extending her arm out like she was holding a pistol.

Through her blood sight, Eva could see the guards’ eyes widen a fraction of an inch.

Neither of their hearts had the chance to spike in pace before Serena’s invisible pistol sent a recoil up her arm.

As her wrist flicked back, a dark beam erupted from her eyes.

Both guards slackened slightly, but not enough to topple over.

“Hurry,” Serena said, already taking off running towards the door. “Not much time.”

Wayne and Zoe were already in motion, apparently having experienced such antics from the vampire in the past. Eva scrambled after them a moment later.

Both guards had a dazed look on their faces. Neither was quite focusing on any one thing in particular.

“Locked,” Wayne grumbled from ahead of the pack.

Serena whipped her head to one of the guards, staring at the nun for a moment.

For a bare instant, the nun’s eyes refocused. Eva tensed, ready for a fight.

But the nun just turned without actually seeing any of them. She pulled a key from her pocket and unlocked the door, tapping the lock with a wand before returning to her position at the side of the door. As she retook her position, her eyes lost their focus once again.

Wayne and Zoe charged through the door. Serena gave a little pat on the shoulder of the nun. “Thanks,” she said before following the other two.

With one last look at the glossy-eyed nuns, Eva ran through the door.

“A little warning next time,” Zoe said as she shut the door and flicked the deadbolt back into place.

“Ohh, but there’d be no fun in that.”

Zoe ignored her, clicking the locks on the door shut. “The nun touched the door with her wand. There was probably a magical lock in place. I hope it wasn’t tied to any alarms.”

As they spoke, Eva watched the other side of the door through her blood sight. Both nuns shook their heads slightly as they lost the sag in their pose.

Eva waited at the door, preparing to charge through and stop the nuns from running to get help. Serena was right in that killing them would be troublesome. They could at least restrain them. That would give them plenty more time than having them run off right away.

Neither made a move for or away from the door. Each simply resumed her guard without so much as a word to the other.

“Eva,” Zoe called up from the bottom of the staircase, “we’re not there yet. Best to keep moving before they notice the spells on the door are gone.”

“What was that?” Eva asked anyone as she reached the others. She paused for just a moment, looking around. “People inside the large room on our right. Only three. A meeting of some sort?”

Eva wished that her blood sight could provide more details. Or maybe she needed to get good at reading lips through blood veins. As it was, all she could tell was that three people were seated around a table, discussing something. Two of them were augurs, judging by the copious amount of eye-shaped organs dotted around their bodies.

They were fairly far away. Just at the edge of her range.

The end of the stairs opened up into a long hallway that, after a curve, followed back along the hallway they had just been in one floor up. The main chapel room sat directly adjacent above, though if there were a replica down here, they hadn’t gone down enough steps for it to copy the vaulted ceiling.

Unless the room had been partitioned off, the nuns would be sitting in the far corner from where Eva was.

Perhaps much of it had been made into a storage area? There were doors on either side all along the hallway. Offices? What did the Elysium Order need with such a large space?

And they still had to go down one more floor before reaching the room that contained the obelisk.

“That,” Serena said from the head of the group, “was just a figment of their imaginations. Staring at a wall for hours on end has a habit of playing tricks on the mind. Whatever they thought they saw was probably nothing.”

“‘Probably nothing’ unlocked the doors?”

Serena shrugged. “Not my fault that she had a sudden pressing need to open the door and forget about it afterwards.”

Frowning, Eva glared at the vampire’s back. “If you can do that, why are we bothering with all this sneaking around? We could just walk up to a nun and have her go get the obelisk.”

“Ah, but it doesn’t last that long, does it now? And if their eyes are glowing, forget about it working entirely.” She glanced over her shoulder as she walked. Her stormy eyes made contact with Eva’s as she flashed a grin. “Learned that the hard way.”

Eva was about to ask a few other questions about her ability. It seemed a neat trick to have and definitely warranted learning, if she could.

The three nuns moving in the far end of the room gave her pause. She waited just long enough to be certain that they were headed towards the hallway before alerting the group.

“Heads up,” she said. “Three nuns incoming from the far door. Serena?”

The vampire shook her head. “If they come out one at a time, I might get the first one but the other two will notice. If I try to wait, I might not get any of the three.”

“Hide then,” Wayne said from behind. He and Zoe had fallen a fair distance behind Eva and Serena during the short walk through the hallway.

As one, they turned and moved towards one of the rooms that Eva had presumed to be offices. Eva expected it to be locked for a moment, but Wayne turned the knob and walked right in.

Eva and Serena started towards a closer room to where they were. Serena stopped partway and vanished from Eva’s sight. She was still there in her blood sight, unbeating heart and all.

At least she can’t sneak up on me, Eva thought, taking the disappearance in stride. It wasn’t until Serena backed away from the door to position herself at the wall directly opposite that Eva hesitated.

Through her blood sight, Eva glanced through the walls towards Zoe and Wayne’s hiding spot. They had positioned themselves behind where the door would open, ready to ambush anyone who entered. There must not be any good hiding spots in the room itself. For a moment, just a single moment, Eva thought to go and join them in their room.

Shaking the notion from her mind, Eva entered the door before her.

Running down to their room would be cutting it too close. The nuns were almost to the hallway.

“Arachne,” Eva said to her one companion as the door shut behind her with a soft click, “ceiling. Keep quiet and don’t attack unless the situation looks dire.”

If Zoe and Wayne were setting up an ambush, she would take their lead.

The spider-demon gave her a quick tap on her right shoulder before climbing out the top of her shirt. Leaping from her shoulder to the wall, Arachne skittered up to a corner of the ceiling where her dark carapace blended in with the shadows.

Arachne in place, Eva looked around the room in an attempt to find her own place to hide.

There weren’t many options. The room was not an office as she had initially suspected. There was a single altar in the center of the room along with a small closet to one side. The room looked an awful lot like the room Nel had set up for herself within Ylva’s domain, if a far less gaudy version of it.

The thick wooden citrus of frankincense hung in the air like smog, reinforcing Eva’s growing fears.

These rooms were not safe places to hide with two augurs walking down the hall.

With nowhere better to hide, Eva moved to the opposite side of the altar. It was thick, heavy, and solid stone of some sort. Marble, probably. Sitting was all that was required to hide behind it, and she was left with plenty of space to spare overhead and to the sides. With a large pillow between the altar and the door, it was fairly obvious that the augur would sit with her back to the door. She wouldn’t come around the side.

Eva withdrew a vial of Arachne’s blood as she watched the two augurs walk down the hallway alongside the regular nun. No sense in not preparing for the worst.

The group stopped outside of a room a few doors down, opposite of the direction that Zoe and Wayne were hidden. They spoke a few words to one another before one of the augurs split off and entered the room. The other two continued on down the hallway.

Continued towards her.

Closing her eyes, she hoped that they would just pass by. Surely only one augur needed to be on duty at such a late hour. The other should go to bed.

Serena did nothing but lean against the wall, head turning to follow and watch the two nuns.

Couldn’t she just use her magic trick right now?

No. They were both looking at each other. One would see her before the other saw leading to the second turning on their power.

Eva stifled a groan as they stopped outside of her door.

Of course, she thought as the door cracked open.

“–allowed to roam free, Sister Abbey,” the non-augur said. “We must–”

“If you wish to pursue demon hunting,” the augur spat, “I will look the other way. But I will not accompany you. A few rogue sisters will be overlooked in this time of crisis. A second rogue augur will be hunted down by the few remaining inquisitors without question.”

Chagrin filling her voice, the non-augur all but whined at the augur. “Sister Abbey–”

“And, Sister Cole, I trust I do not need to remind you of the last time your chapter encountered demons. What was the casualty rate for that mission, forty percent?”

The augur shook her head as she turned to the altar.

Eva stilled her breathing as much as possible. Please leave, please leave. She wished she had possessed the foresight to stab her own chest with her dagger. Oxygenating her blood through exposure to the air was far quieter than breathing.

The other nun stayed in the doorway. Her hands, balled into fists, trembled. “Thirty seven percent. And we are far more prepared. We’ve had time to analyze and employ better countermeasures. And this time, we won’t have Cross and–”

“The former prioress’ faults are well-known,” Sister Abbey said with a glance over her shoulder. “It is amusing to me that you wish to repeat her mistakes so soon after gaining her title, Prioress.”

Sister Cole grit her teeth. Even had she not been able to see her muscles clenching, Eva would have heard the grinding.

“You are just an augur. You’ll be–”

“Looking the other way. If you continue pressing the matter, I may find myself in a more active role of alerting the inquisitors before they find cause to go after me.” Turning fully from Sister Cole, Sister Abbey knelt down at the altar. “This conversation has been most enlightening. If you would remove yourself from my presence, I have work that must be done.”

Clenching her fists again, Sister Cole turned from the door, slamming it shut in the process. She stormed towards the staircase.

At least they would know if the nun noticed those missing spells. If she came running back down the stairs, she would probably have spotted them and alerted the two guards. Hopefully her anger would cloud her perception.

Unfortunately, Eva had a more pressing problem.

The augur sighed. A long, drawn our, exasperation-filled sigh. She reached up and pulled her habit’s cap off, setting it on the altar with reverence. With a sudden clenching of her fists, she stood up, walked to the door, flicked the deadbolt into place, and sat down.

“And stay out,” she murmured.

Outside of the room, Serena walked up to the door and pressed her ear against it.

Unless the vampire had unlocking doors as an ability, Eva doubted that she would be getting any help from there.

Down the hall, Zoe and Wayne had emerged from their room. Zoe had likely enhanced her ears beyond the point of safety to determine if the hallway was empty. They ran up to Serena–who must be visible again–and started speaking to one another.

No sound penetrated the door. Whether due to the door’s construction or Zoe dampening sound, Eva couldn’t say. Them speaking without her being able to listen did reaffirm her decision to figure out how to read lips through blood. They were probably plotting ways to get her out. It would help a lot to know what they were talking about.

Inside of her room, the augur didn’t actually appear to be doing any auguring. A lot of sighing and breathing exercises, but no scrying. Something of a shame. Nel tended to block out most of the surroundings when she dipped into her abilities. Maybe not enough for Eva to sneak out, but it couldn’t hurt.

Eva expected the closet to be filled with all the objects the augur would use to scry with, so it was a good thing that the augur wasn’t doing her job. If she went up to the closet, Eva would come into view.

It would be so easy to signal Arachne from where she was. Arachne had moved to directly over the augur. An angle from where she would definitely be able to see Eva.

But Serena was right. If the augur died, everyone in the area would know and be after them immediately.

Best to find a non-lethal solution.

Eva mentally cursed at her stupidity in not packing her poison satchel. Even a mild paralytic would keep her down long enough for them to get in and out. Probably.

Zoe and company were probably looking for a solution, but they didn’t know what the inside of the room looked like or really anything that would give them a concrete plan.

With a mental sigh, Eva started forming precise directions for Arachne out of blood.

As she finished, Arachne dropped. She dangled from the ceiling on a single thread. Her eight legs touched the ground behind Sister Abbey without the slightest noise.

Arachne sprung from the ground. Six of her legs latched around the woman’s chest–arms included–breaking at least one of her bones based on the noise. Arachne’s front two legs snapped up and positioned themselves at either side of the woman’s neck. They pinched her skin inwards, but managed not to pierce her throat.

Yet.

“If your eyes glow, you die,” Eva said before anything else, even before the nun had a chance to cry out in pain from her broken bones.

While she wouldn’t put it past a member of the Elysium Order to go out in some suicidal attack, the augur had been worried about inquisitors; it was reasonable to assume that she feared for her life.

Eva managed to hold in a sigh of relief as the nun stilled. Her heart had jumped to a couple thousand beats per minute, but she clamped her mouth shut and did not ignite her eyes. Eva couldn’t actually see her eyes, but Arachne hadn’t killed her. Therefore, her eyes were normal.

“Congratulations,” Eva said without standing from her hiding position. “Through an inestimable amount of bad luck, mostly on my part, you get a choice tonight. One choice, obviously, is death. I do not think I need to explain that one.”

On the other side of the door, Serena was shushing the two conversing professors while trying to press her ear even further into the door.

Eva ignored them for the moment. It was a bit too late for anything they might do.

“The other choice: you can help save a little girl whose life is in danger.” Shalise probably wouldn’t appreciate being referred to as a little girl–Eva wouldn’t–but the facts were that she was not here and little girls were far more sympathetic than teenagers. “That could use some explanation, but I am pressed for time and really, what choice do you actually have?

“Rest assured, I am not here to hurt anyone. As I said, you’re only in this position because of bad luck. I’m just here to steal something. Hell, I don’t even need to keep it.” Unless an obelisk is somehow consumed during the ritual. “You can have it back in an hour.” Or however long the ritual lasted plus time to get back. “Maybe a day? Definitely less than a week. I’ll drop it off on the front lawn.”

Eva hummed for a moment, giving the augur time to process what she had said. “Saving the life of a little girl or having your own life extinguished. I intend to get what I came for either way, so I suppose those aren’t mutually exclusive. You only need to worry about your own life.”

The augur remained silent. Arachne pressed one leg ever so slightly deeper into her neck, causing her to jump.

“Go ahead, make your choice. I’m a very busy woman and I haven’t got all day. If time runs out, the default choice is death, in case you were unsure.”

While the nun mulled it over, Eva took the orb of blood in her hands and formed it into a sort of mask and a pair of gloves to lessen the pointedness of her fingers. Serena had mentioned having masks on whatever previous experience she had with the Elysium Order, so it couldn’t be a terrible idea.

If she did end up agreeing, as Eva expected she would, Eva didn’t want to give any clue as to who she was. Given the distinction of her eyes and hands, it wouldn’t be difficult to find out who she was.

Probably wouldn’t be difficult anyway, Eva grumbled to herself as she finished shaping the blood. The moment anyone noticed anything demonic going on, they would immediately turn to Brakket.

Perhaps shoving Serena in front of a nun would distract them for a few months while they hunted down some nonexistent vampire coven.

Unless she had an actual coven that they could locate. That might be something of a jerk move in that case.

Encountering augurs made Eva feel woefully unprepared. She would have to make sure that no significant part of herself was left behind. Nel used vials of blood and strands of hair to locate her targets.

They should have all worn hair nets. And bindings on their bodies to keep arm hairs and such things from falling out.

How small could augurs go? Flakes of dead skin? Individual skin cells? If so, it was far too late from the moment they walked inside without a hard suit and recirculated air.

With a sudden sinking in her stomach, Eva resigned herself to being hunted by the Elysium Order for the foreseeable future. Even if Ylva’s presence kept them at bay, that would probably not last through the week if she was serious about removing herself from the mortal plane.

Still, no need to make it easy on them. Eva attached the mask to her face, allowing the semi-solid blood to flow over her exposed skin. It was difficult to tell without a mirror, but she was fairly certain that she looked a lot like Arachne minus a few pairs of eyes.

Plunging her dagger into her arm, she quickly made three other masks out of her own blood. They would be thin and wouldn’t cover all skin, but it would be better than nothing.

“Alright.” The nun slumped slightly and her voice came out strained. Arachne might be holding on a bit too tight.

But whatever. She’d live.

“I’m glad you can see reason. Surprising in a way, but I suppose that all the augurs I’ve met have been far less trigger happy than the rest of your lot.”

Standing from behind the altar, Eva ignored the gasp as she stared the augur in the eye.

“If at any point your eyes glow, you will die. If you shout or try to escape, you will die. If the other members of the Elysium Order are alerted to our presence before we leave, you will die.” Eva paused as she thought of other circumstances, but there were far too many to list. “If you think something you do might possibly in some minor probability wind up with you dead, it will.”

Eva smiled behind her mask. A pointless exercise as the nun couldn’t see. Unless… Eva quickly manipulated the surface of her mask into a wide smile. Far wider than her normal smile. Much closer to Arachne’s smile.

In fact, Eva thought as she etched in sharpened teeth. She wasn’t sure that it would be visible as the light in the augur’s room was fairly dim, but it was the thought that counted.

“Aside from that,” Eva said, “Sister Abbey, welcome aboard. Now stay right here and don’t move.”

Stepping around the suddenly statue-like nun, Eva walked up to the door and flicked the lock.

Zoe and Wayne ceased their conversation, both jumping to high alert. Serena just casually walked away from the door with a grin on her face. She had probably heard everything.

Neither of the professors let their guard down. Rather the opposite. A dagger was thrust in her face while Wayne readied his tome.

Rolling her eyes, Eva allowed part of her mask to roll off of her face for a few seconds. “It’s just me. Put these on,” she said, handing her masks off to the three.

Zoe accepted one first, frowning at it. “Are these–”

“Made out of your blood?” Serena snapped between Eva and Zoe, wrenching one of the masks out of Eva’s hands. She pressed it up to her face, drawing in a deep breath.

Eva took the moment it was pressed to her face to remodel it slightly to better fit her face. The large bushy eyebrows and tongue sticking out that appeared on the front were completely unintended consequences of reshaping it.

“This is the best present anyone has ever given me,” Serena said with a mild glare towards Wayne. “I’ll cherish it forever. Not to mention, much better than the ski masks we wore last time.”

Or until I make it explode when we’re done, Eva didn’t say. She hoped that she remembered to tell the vampire to take it off first.

Wayne was the only one hesitating, so Eva tossed the last mask at him. “Put it on unless you don’t care if an augur sees you.”

“What did you do?” he hissed. Wayne hesitated three times, bringing the mask near to his face and pulling it away again before he finally placed it against his face.

Eva fit the masks to both Wayne and Zoe without any unnecessary additions.

“Sister Abbey,” Eva said with a turn of her head, “come introduce yourself.”

The augur, who had been sitting as still as she could manage with her heart beating as it was, jumped slightly at being addressed. After a slight prod from Arachne, she finally made it to the doorway.

Upon seeing the augur, the other three all took a step away. At least until their eyes dipped down to where Arachne’s legs were wrapped around her like some kind of ominous rib cage.

“What did you do?” Wayne grunted through grit teeth.

“I got us a door unlocker!”

Sister Abbey had turned out useful after all.

The door to the next staircase had been not only locked, but warded as well. Said wards went far over Eva’s head. She knew her blood wards and some runic equivalents to certain wards, and that was about it.

She was fairly certain that the wards were beyond Zoe’s expertise as well. At least the ones specific to the Elysium Order. Regular thaumaturgical wards, Zoe could probably have taken down herself. With study, Eva had no doubt that Zoe would have been able to do something about the Elysium Order wards, but they didn’t exactly have the time at the moment.

Regardless, both Eva and Zoe watched the sister like a hawk as she worked. Both had been in agreement that she had done nothing aside from unlocking the door.

So take that, Wayne Lurcher.

Sister Abbey walked at the head of the group. Everyone was able to keep their eyes on her. All the better to watch her and ensure that she didn’t drop any notes for other nuns to find. When she would have had a chance to scrawl out some message, Eva couldn’t say. No sense in not taking precautions.

Arachne still clung to her. Because of Arachne’s legs, Sister Abbey could barely move her arms to write a note in the first place. With the two needle-like legs pressing up against her throat, Sister Abbey had a constant reminder of what would happen should she attempt a betrayal.

So it wasn’t like they weren’t being careful.

It might not be the ideal situation, Eva would freely admit that. However, Sister Abbey was helping them get through their task faster. The quicker they were gone, the less chances they had to be discovered.

More discovered, anyway.

Though Eva wasn’t so sure that being discovered was much of a concern now that they had gone down a floor.

The ground floor was the most crowded with a good ten or so nuns–at least that came into Eva’s range. Only three of which they had had to pass nearby. The two at the doors and one wandering the hallways. For that one, they had all ducked into a janitorial closet while she passed by.

It had not had the most elbow room with all four of them inside.

The next floor had had the two augurs and the one regular nun.

But this floor… They had been walking for a good ten minutes since descending the last staircase. Eva hadn’t detected a single person.

“Where is everybody?” Eva asked, breaking the silence of their group. “And shouldn’t there have been guards at the stairs?”

Eva wasn’t asking someone in particular. She would have been happy to have an answer from anyone. Arachne apparently thought that the question was directed at the augur, judging by the sharp poke in the side that the nun received after a short silence.

“The Elysium Order has refocused their efforts overseas. Primarily Eastern Europe and North Africa. Most Cathedrals on North America are running,” she paused as a hint of a smile appeared on her face, “skeleton crews.”

Eva had to hand it to the augur. Had Sister Abbey and Nel swapped places, she was fairly certain that Nel would be bawling her eyes out between shaking herself to death out of fear. Sister Abbey was cracking jokes.

Maybe I need to do a little more threatening. Can’t have the captive getting uppity.

“Oh puns? I loove puns. Have you heard the one about the nun that married the zombie?”

Serena beat her to the punch.

“Perhaps it would be best if we limit our conversation with the sister, S,” Wayne said with a grunt.

Eva had lucked out on not being referred to as ‘S’ by the fact that Serena’s name and her last name shared initials. Wayne had almost decided that Serena should be ‘P’ for some reason, but a glare from the vampire had ended that discussion.

“Well at least someone is talking. Breaking in last time wasn’t half as boring.”

“Something you should be thankful for.”

The smile on Sister Abbey vanished and her back stiffened. “You people do this often?”

“Once every year or so,” Eva said before anyone else could preempt her. Unless Wayne and Serena actually robbed the Elysium Order on some kind of regular schedule, claiming to do it often might help throw them off the track. “Whenever we find a child in need of saving.”

“How altruistic. You threaten my life ten times over and–” Sister Abbey bit her tongue as Arachne poked her in the side hard enough to draw blood through her habit. After a quick grimace, her countenance turned to anger. “And yet you claim to work for another’s sake? If you’re so concerned about others, stand with the Order and work to better the world.”

Eva tried to hold in a bout of laughter. She really did.

It didn’t work so well.

Absently, she noted that Serena was laughing as well. A light bubbly giggle compared to her more scornful laugh.

“Ah yes, because the Elysium Order is all about bettering the world.” Eva rolled her eyes, though with Sister Abbey at the lead and facing forwards, the nun wouldn’t be able to see.

Serena, however, saw and started off on another round of giggles. “Every member I’ve ever met has tried to kill me within five minutes. If that.”

“I can’t say the same,” Eva said. “I’ve met and talked with plenty of nuns without fighting them. They usually resorted to poorly disguised death threats with me.”

“E, S,” Zoe said, voice terse. “Please desist.”

“Doesn’t matter anyway,” Wayne grunted. “We’re here.”

Eva blinked. Glancing down at the map and quickly counting the doors in her head, she found that he was right.

Though perhaps she needn’t have counted. The large door before them wasn’t like most of the other wooden doors. It had clearly been made from two slabs of stone and had a deep relief carved into its surface. In the relief, a series of figures wearing garb fairly similar to the nuns’ habits were depicted laying skeletons to rest in mass graves.

There were words inscribed on the front, running around the images on a sort of carved ribbon. They looked like words anyway. Whatever language it was written in was not one that Eva could understand.

Looking at the door did give Eva a slight sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t explain why, it was just there.

Not ominous at all.

Several other, far more regular wooden doors continued on into the distance.

Really, how large is this place?

Unlike the floor above, this second basement had far lower ceilings and a certain dampness that reminded Eva of the crypt that Sawyer had used a few years prior. They could stand to have a cleaning crew go through and freshen up the place a bit.

But this floor wasn’t the last.

Eva knew for a fact that there was at least one more floor below them. She could see something down there. A lone zombie perhaps. It was dead or undead. That much was certain. The blood within its veins might be moving slightly more than Serena’s, but its heart didn’t seem to be beating. It had several golf ball sized holes dotted around its corpse. Anything further was difficult to discern through her blood sight.

“This door?” Sister Abbey whispered. “We can’t go in this door.”

“Oh? Well, I guess we’ve come all this way for nothing,” Eva said, putting as much sarcasm into her voice as possible. “Let’s pack up and go home then.”

“You don’t understand.” Sister Abbey’s voice rose in pitch, becoming more strained. She tried to turn her neck, but Arachne’s needle-like legs put an end to that. Instead, she turned her full body around. “This door can only be opened by a prioress. Or someone given specific access through the source.”

“And you don’t have that access.”

The nun scoffed. “I’m an augur. They’d tear out our eyes if they weren’t necessary to our duties. We aren’t allowed in such secure areas.”

Eva pressed her lips together. It always seemed like it came back to the eyes. Though in this case, she was probably referring to the ones implanted around her body, rather than the eyes on her face.

“Even if you could find a way to enter the room, you wouldn’t make it out. The alarms will go off without fail. Everyone in the cathedral will be waiting for you to exit.”

“We know,” Wayne said as he brushed past Sister Abbey.

That was news to Eva. She didn’t know. Not wanting to show disunity in front of a prisoner, she just nodded in agreement and watched Wayne work.

He knelt before the door, pulling out a small satchel of tools. He started fiddling with the lock on the door after selecting three thin rods. As he started jiggling the rods around, he glanced back over his shoulder. “You sure are helpful for an enemy. Something you’re not telling us, E?”

Eva blinked, surprised that she was the one being addressed. “Ah, I can see why she might be concerned.” Eva said after a moment of thought. “The other nuns being alerted to our presence was one of the conditions for her demise.”

“Ev–” Zoe cut herself off at almost using Eva’s full name. “Might I speak with you for a moment?”

“Don’t worry,” Serena said with a bright smile behind her mask, “I’ll keep the dear sister from committing any nefarious deeds while you’re away.”

Eva eyed the vampire, but just shook her head.

Arachne would be plenty of pairs of eyes on the nun.

She turned and followed Zoe a short distance down the hallway. They were not quite to the next door when Eva felt the air around them change. Zoe had erected another sound barrier between the two groups.

“Eva, I know this is a stressful situation. But… just…” Zoe pinched her eyes shut as she rubbed her temple. “How many ‘conditions for her demise’ were there?”

“A lot, I’d say. There were a few specific ones. After that, I just said that if she did pretty much anything then Arachne would kill her.”

“Eva…”

“I know what you want to say,” Eva said. Probably something about how killing was bad or death threats on helpless prisoners were bad. “But if these nuns catch wind of us, they’re not going to come and ask us to quietly surrender. You’ve done this before, you should know that.”

“First, I do know that. But there is no reason for us to descend to the level of psychopaths. Second, I have not done this before.”

“But Wayne said–”

“He and Serena did it. I was twelve. They didn’t bring me along with them. And,” she glanced over Eva’s shoulder to where Wayne had pulled out his tome at the door, “we weren’t stealing things.” She frowned. “It was more of a rescue than a theft. They were headed towards a dungeon, rather than a storage room.”

The zombie below them might have been in a dungeon. It wasn’t moving around much.

“But if that was the case, he probably hasn’t opened a door like that before. Can he do it?”

“I think,” Zoe started, putting on a smile, “that he is about to show us.”

Turning back to the door, Eva watched as Wayne stood up. He looked over the door once. With his tome held open in front of him, he began flipping through the pages. It took a minute, but he eventually stopped on one in particular. He took a deep breath. As he exhaled, the page started to glow with a white light. It was eerily reminiscent of the same glow that came from the nuns’ eyes as they channeled their peculiar brand of magic. With a flick of his wrist, the light siphoned off to the metal rods that protruded from the door. Both rods turned white for a brief instant before all the light discharged into the door itself.

There was a loud crack that echoed down the empty hallways.

Satisfied with whatever he had done, Wayne snapped his tome shut and moved up to the door. He pulled the rods from the door, taking great care as he replaced them within his satchel.

Even if her conversation with Zoe wasn’t finished, Eva headed back to the rest of the group. No time to delay if the door really was unlocked.

“Finished so soon?” Eva asked.

She only received a grunt in response.

“It took for-ev-er,” Serena said, pronouncing each syllable distinctly on their own. “Seriously, you used to be so much better. Getting old? You know that there is a cure for that, right?”

“I’m rusty,” Wayne said, voice firm, “not old.”

“Uh huh.”

“Anyway,” Eva said before their charades could continue any longer, “the door is unlocked now?” She took a step towards it only to be interrupted by a cough from Zoe. “Oh, whatever.”

Sister Abbey looked almost sickly green. Whether that was thanks to her impending doom or the proximity with which Serena had decided to keep an eye on her, Eva couldn’t say. But she could say something to remove one of those two options.

“In the event that alarms go off through our own actions, I suppose you don’t have to be killed. But siding with any nuns that show up will be inexcusable.”

Sister Abbey swallowed once. “How gracious of you.”

“Too gracious, if you ask me,” Serena said. Her voice lacked the frivolous tone that she had spoken every other word in.

It surprised Eva for just a moment, but deciding that the vampire probably had more reasons to hate the Elysium Order than most, she let it go with a light shrug of her shoulders. She turned back to the door, but caught sight of a thin-lipped Zoe in the corner of her eye. Zoe stared for a second or two before giving a reluctant nod.

“Well,” Eva said to Wayne, “that’s done. Going to open the door? Or shall I?”

“I was waiting for us to be ready. Everything on the door is disabled, but if there is anything beyond that I couldn’t reach then we may not have much time.”

“Alright. S and Z keep an eye on the hallway. Sister Abbey will accompany W and I to help spot and disarm any traps that may be lying about. Sound good? Anyone not ready?”

“Oh good,” Serena said, eying the doors, “I was going to stay here anyway.”

Shrugging at the quip, Eva glanced around the group. From the ill-looking Sister Abbey and Arachne hanging off of her back, Serena prodding at Arachne’s limbs, to the professors–one of whom looked far more confident than the other–no one objected.

“Let’s do this,” Eva said as she pulled open the door.

The heavy stone slabs making up the doors slammed into the walls with a resounding thunder. Parts of them chipped and fell away while cracks formed in the brick walls.

Eva kept very still as she watched for any sign that the doors would fall off. It was a good thing that no one had been standing near the walls. They would have been crushed.

She might have used just a little too much force. In her defense, they were stone slabs; she figured that they would need a little force to get moving. Clearly, something had been done to them.

Ignoring the snort of a giggle from Serena, Eva pulled out her map. “It’s not far.”

Inside was a much shorter hallway containing three far more mundane doors. From Nel’s brief description from scrying inside, she knew that they were essentially storage rooms. Shelves full of dangerous objects or equipment that the rank and file weren’t supposed to handle. The idol-like devices that the Elysium Order used were in the third room.

And in there should be the obelisk.

Eva took a single step forward, only to be bathed in blinding white light.

The walls, the floor, the ceiling, it all turned white. For a moment, she thought that she was being teleported by Wayne or Zoe. The cold chill settling in didn’t help dissuade her thoughts.

The doors still standing before her were her first clue that she was not being teleported. As was the fact that, while chilly, the cold was more like a winter’s day than the debilitating freeze of their teleport.

“You’re not undead?” Sister Abbey said, genuine surprise in her voice.

“Oh? You knew this would happen? Thought you’d lead us–”

“I didn’t know!” She jumped in place as Arachne’s legs pressed inwards. Her voice raised pitch a few notches as she spoke with haste. “It is a common trap used to immobilize undead. I didn’t know that it would be here.”

“An alarm too, I’d bet,” Wayne said as he brushed past the two. He reached the correct door only to find it locked. Rather than pull out his toolkit, he opened his tome.

One page burst into flames. The flames went out and nothing but ash remained. It dusted off into the air, dispersing and disappearing as it went.

Just as the page burst into flames, the wooden door was quick to follow suit.

He stepped over the threshold before the flames had even died down.

Eva charged in after him. Arachne could handle the augur on her own.

“Back left shelf?” he asked.

“That’s what Nel said,” rushing to the place herself.

There were so many things in the room. It was hard not to stop and stare. Most were in the form of stone or wood sculptures. Some, more organic.

One that Eva did stop to look at–for only a second–was a beating heart inside a glass case suspended by four silver prongs. An eyeball dangled off the bottom. Probably the same kind as the nuns’ implanted eyes. Despite its obvious beating, Eva couldn’t see the thing itself through her sense of blood.

That didn’t stop the eye from glowing bright white as she watched.

Eva jumped back and ran to the shelf that Wayne had stopped in front of.

“We should hurry,” she said. “I don’t like this place.”

“No arguments.”

He closed his hand around an arm-sized replica of the Washington Monument. This version was covered in all kinds of markings and scribbles. The top was not a square pyramid. Rather, it had a cone with engravings on it. The first engraving had a circle. That circle was repeated just to either side, except with a sliver taken off. The pattern went around, waxing and waning until it returned to the circle at the front.

Just as Nel had described it.

He hefted it up a few inches before setting it right back down. “Heavy,” he grunted.

“Zoe can levitate it, right?”

Frowning, he tucked his tome under his arm and tried again with two hands. “Maybe,” he said, holding it in the air for a few seconds before setting it down. “Won’t be easy.”

Rather than try again, Wayne pulled up his tome. He tapped the obelisk on the front.

There was a clipped rush of cold air. Nothing else changed save for Wayne’s frown deepening further. Whatever he had intended to do had failed.

“Between is warded off here,” he grumbled to himself. “It wasn’t on the main floor…”

Again, he tapped the obelisk. Aside from another burst of cold air, nothing happened.

Eva shook her head. They didn’t have time for this. If Wayne could lift it with two hands, surely she could as well. As long as she lifted with her legs and not her back, it probably wouldn’t be all that difficult.

Putting one hand around the base and the other halfway up, Eva hefted it up.

Heavy was an accurate word. Wayne had chosen well. However, it didn’t feel quite as heavy as carrying Irene’s limp body around after their little hot springs incident. She would be useless in combat, but she had plans to help with that. With the blood in her backpack already attuned to her dagger, she would be able to control it without much physical effort.

Taking a few steps away from the shelf, Eva found the load much easier to carry as she readjusted her center of balance. It left her leaning back, but… I can do this.

“Got it?”

“I do. Let’s go.” Before she moved more than two steps, Eva paused and took another look around the room. A golden necklace with an hourglass set in the middle particularly caught her eye. “Not going to take anything else?”

“I’d rather not give them more reason to hunt us down,” he said as he moved back through the room. He didn’t so much as glance at the objects on the shelves. “This obelisk is damning enough on its own.”

“Fair point,” Eva mumbled before following after him.

Sister Abbey stood at the room’s threshold, just behind the pile of ashes that once was a door. Her mouth was agape as she looked into the room.

“Lot of good your ‘door unlocker’ was, Spe–E.”

“She unlocked one door,” Eva said as she hefted the obelisk, shifting its position ever so slightly. “That was useful.”

“Could have done it myself. You’d have done better to let S knock on the door and give you a few seconds to escape.”

“Maybe if she did that sooner. As it was, had to act quickly. I didn’t want our dear augur friend to notice me while I was unprepared.”

“Too much talk. Not enough running.”

Eva just frowned as Wayne ran into the white room. “You started it,” she mumbled to herself.

With a nod of her head to Arachne and Sister Abbey, she walked back into the icy cold room, carrying the obelisk all the way.

They got through the pure white room just in time to see a lightning bolt travel down the hall from Zoe’s dagger.

“Company,” she said through grit teeth as blindingly white lightning crackled down the hall.

Zoe dove to the side, ducking into the white room while narrowly avoiding the returned lightning from the stairwell.

While her own lightning might not have been the most powerful thing she could have thrown, she had serious misgivings about killing people who were just doing their jobs. Especially when she was the one breaking and entering with the intent to steal priceless artifacts.

The Elysium Order was under no such hesitations. White lightning that only narrowly missed colliding with Zoe hit the ground a short distance behind her.

A resounding thunder sent Zoe’s head ringing. Enhancing her ears to hear the approaching guards worked against her. She couldn’t hear a thing aside from a high-pitched whine. Zoe wasted no time in retuning her hearing to normal levels. It would take a minute or two, but she needed a clear head and the ability to hear.

For the moment, she could still see. It would have to do.

Lightning crackled against the stone bricks making up the floor. There was a brief instant where nothing happened.

Dust filled the hallway as the stones exploded. Chunks of stone that had not been obliterated or pulverized into dust flew through the air. A few pieces impacted the outside wall of the room, sending cracks through the pure white of the inside. The ward keeping the walls white flickered twice before failing.

One brick struck Serena in the stomach, forcing the air out of her lungs as it carried her back into the growing cloud of dust.

Probably for the best. The vampire wouldn’t die from a rock to the stomach, and the dust would help keep her hidden from the nuns.

Her invisibility trick wouldn’t work while their eyes were aglow.

Of course, Zoe thought as two less powerful bolts careened down the hallway, they don’t really need to see if they flood the hallway with lightning.

The lightning sparked a hint of fear in Zoe. Before anything else, she sent a breeze through the air to clear a good portion of the dust. Enough was left for some cover, mostly for Serena, but they shouldn’t have to worry about a spark setting off a dust explosion.

Air partially cleared, Zoe immediately set to returning fire–or lightning, as the case was. They couldn’t be allowed to advance down the hallway. She barely angled her arm around one of the stone doors to attack.

A lightning bolt struck the door frame just as she pulled her hand back. Unlike the floor, the door took the lightning without complaint. In fact, it was more like the door absorbed the lightning.

The hallway wasn’t that large. Randomly firing bolts downrange would end up hitting one of them sooner or later once they stepped out of the room.

A far more effective tactic would be to simply flood the hallway with fire. Perhaps they were simply attempting less destructive tactics to start with.

Or Wayne is keeping the fire down, Zoe thought with a glance towards her colleague. He was right at the door frame of the stone doors, tome out and eyes shut in concentration. Since there were none of his flames cropping up, he must be keeping their flames dampened.

“–need you off of the nun. I’ll keep her from doing anything.”

Eva’s voice was muted. Muffled slightly by some lingering damage to Zoe’s hearing. It would have to work well enough for the moment.

By the time Zoe turned to her student, Arachne was back to her human size. Eva knelt on the ground with a short stone obelisk standing next to her. She was in the process of smearing something black across the captive augur’s face.

“Lie down,” Eva said, “face down. So much as move and you won’t have much of a face. Probably not much of a head in general. And rest assured, I’ll know if you move. Even while on the second floor, I’ll know.”

Zoe might have had something to say about Eva’s callous threat to the obviously terrified augur had she not been engaged in slinging more bolts of lightning blindly down the hall.

“We can’t teleport out,” Wayne said with a slight grunt. His eyes were still closed, but he had moved up closer to Zoe. “We’ll need to get to the main floor at the very least, if not entirely out of the cathedral itself.”

“Any plans?” Zoe called out between bolts.

“Working on it,” Eva said as she slung her backpack off. “Just keep them busy for a moment.”

Zoe’s question had been directed more towards Wayne. Or, she had expected a response from Wayne more than Eva. The girl had been insistent that she could do this on her own. Failing at the first sign of resistance would definitely hurt her pride.

If she did fail, Wayne would have to step up. Escaping situations like this was basically his job–his old job. Though he hadn’t ever done such a thing with so many people to her knowledge.

So Zoe focused on doing what she could to help out. Namely, redoubling her efforts in holding back the Elysium Order.

She slipped in a few slashes of razor wind between the lightning. The dust in the air curled around them, making them partially visible. Still, the first few came as a surprise if the startled shouts were any indication.

Zoe wasn’t sure how to feel about that and she didn’t really have the time to put into thinking about it.

The brief worry did remind Zoe that the Elysium Order had powerful shields. Better than anything Zoe had created through thaumaturgy over the course of her career. They were probably unharmed.

With that in mind, she ramped up the power of all of her attacks.

“You know what you’re doing?”

Zoe turned to Wayne as he spoke. He was no longer concentrating, but rather moving as far away from Eva as he could get without pressing up against the wall.

“Guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

Zoe fired off another two bolts into the dust before turning to find out just what Eva was doing.

One look and Zoe promptly took three steps away from the girl, pressing herself against the heavy stone door.

Eva had Genoa’s snake golem on the floor in front of her and was in the process of pouring a dark orange potion over the top of it. She was being careful not to let a single drop fall to the floor, something that was becoming easier and easier as she continued.

Once she finished upending the vial, she knelt down and picked up the obelisk before taking a few steps back herself. There was a short strain in lifting the stone structure, but Arachne caught and steadied her until Eva managed to get herself under control.

The stone carving swelled. It stretched out, quickly becoming large enough to fill out the entire width of the hallway. The tail thrashed, sending the wooden center door flying back into the room it once guarded. With the added room for its tail, the snake appeared to relax.

For a moment, at least. Once the snake’s width grew enough for its scales to reach both ends of the door frame, it started squirming again.

The walls were giving way more than the blackish scales.

“E,” Zoe said, warning in her voice. At least, as much warning as she could cram into a single letter.

The snake whipped its head to Zoe at the sound. Its silver and black eyes bored into her.

Zoe took another three steps back, extremely grateful that the creature was stone and not turning her to stone. A fact that the basilisk seemed to realize as well.

“Stop!” Eva commanded as the sculpture started slithering towards Zoe. It continued forwards for a second–growing all the while–before an unnatural stillness overcame it. “Holding it with the blood inside,” Eva said without a hint of concern in her voice, though there was a bit of strain as she shifted the obelisk in her arms. “Too much growth potion?”

“Get it out of here before it crushes us,” Wayne shouted.

“Right. Down the hall,” Eva said, pointing her arm. “Don’t try to bite or stare. Just crush everything.”

The head of the snake was forcibly dragged away from Zoe. Eva set it to looking out the stone doors.

“Is it going to follow your orders?” Zoe asked.

Eva tried to shrug. The effort was there, but her shoulders barely moved. “Doubt it. She hasn’t followed anything else I’ve said. I don’t think it was designed for that. Maybe I will take golemancy next year,” she mused under her breath.

“Will it attack us?”

“No. She is full of blood that I can manipulate. Just stay behind her as she charges out of here. I think she should take at least a few bolts of lightning before anything bad happens to her.”

“Maybe more than that,” Zoe murmured. She wouldn’t be able to say for certain without seeing it in action, but it was doubtful that they would be able to ‘kill’ it unless they hit the golem animation core. The main body was carved from stone which should be somewhat hardy.

Of course, if they hit it a few times with blasts as powerful as the initial lightning that created the dust cloud, it might not matter all that much in the long run. Half of the thing could turn to dust before the actual core was exposed.

“Get it moving,” Wayne ordered, still backing away as the snake grew larger.

Eva didn’t argue. The snake’s unnatural stillness ended after a slight nudge out into the hallway. It slithered out, body winding back and forth as it pushed its scales against the ground.

Arachne moved up to Eva’s side, using her body to help cover Eva from any enemy fire while helped to hold the obelisk. The two of them charged out in a slight crouch so as to keep behind the snake’s bulk. Eva paused for just one moment to vaguely gesture with a nod of her head into the still settling cover of dust.

“Serena is lying there, if anyone cares. Can’t tell if she’s alive or not.”

Keeping herself low to the ground, Zoe sent out another dust clearing gust of wind. She was careful to keep a wall of the dust between them and the stairwell. No need to make it easy on the nuns.

Serena had a brick-sized hole in her stomach. One bloodied brick was stuck half in her side along with several smaller shards of stone.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” the vampire said with ragged breath.

“No time to argue,” Zoe said. She flicked her dagger towards Serena, levitating her just above the ground.

Wayne appeared at her side. Without a word, he incinerated the ground that Serena had been lying and bleeding on.

As one, they turned and ran to catch up to Eva, Arachne, and the snake.

They emerged from the cover of the lingering dust between the room and the stairwell. There was a sharp cry of “Basilisk,” from one of the nuns. The lightning cut off almost instantly. The few bolts that hit the snake did only marginal damage to the stone scales.

Tuning her ears’ sensitivity ever so slightly, Zoe heard the rustling of clothes moving farther away. They were retreating up the stairwell. Probably to set up an ambush that could take out a basilisk without exposing themselves to its gaze.

The nuns were obviously not yet aware that its gaze was entirely impotent.

“Don’t dawdle,” Wayne grunted. “There aren’t many here, but if they call for backup, escaping will be problematic.”

Zoe had no intention of slowing down. Neither did the snake. It crashed its bulk into the closed stairwell door, turning it to wood pulp as it started its scramble up the stairs.

The second floor wouldn’t be so bad. While there were plenty of augur rooms to set up ambushes in, Eva should be able to spot anyone inside with her blood sight. Wayne would be able to seal the doors by melting the handles. Zoe could toss up a few barriers of solid air around the doors for good measure. It wouldn’t stop anyone permanently, but it would delay them.

And delaying them was all they really needed. Once they arrived at the top floor, they should be home free according to Wayne.

At the staircase’s landing, the stairs looped back. The basilisk turned with the stairs, offering Zoe her first good look at the front of it.

She did not like what she saw.

What she had originally thought to be only marginal damage–judged by the lack of debris coming off the basilisk when it got hit–looked far worse now that she got a better view.

The scales that had been hit looked like a slab of meat being pulled apart. Each spot was roughly the size of her head. Not what she would have expected from a stone carving.

Both spots that had been hit looked like they were trying to repair themselves. As Zoe watched, one thin strand of meat latched on to the opposite side of the wound and started growing. It didn’t make it very far before disintegrating into dust.

The anti-magic qualities of the Elysium Order’s lightning at work, no doubt.

Whatever Eva had done to the snake was too far out of Zoe’s expectations to accurately predict anything.

Though, Zoe thought as they came up to the first basement level’s landing, Eva’s plan appears to be working well so far.

Just before exiting the door–or making a new exit as the case may be–the basilisk was overcome by the same unnatural stillness that it had when Eva stopped it earlier.

“Four hiding in the room immediately on our right. Another three in the room after that. They’ll probably wait for us to pass before pinching us against whatever lies at the end of the hallway.”

“Wayne and I will take care of that.”

“You concentrate on keeping your monstrosities from murdering us,” Wayne added with a disgruntled grunt.

Eva didn’t rise to his comment. She might not have had the energy to. There were small beads of sweat forming on her forehead.

Zoe almost asked why she hadn’t just handed the obelisk off to Arachne when the answer became obvious. Arachne was a front line fighter. If and when the basilisk fell, Arachne would need to rush in to take its place. Doing so with an obviously weighty obelisk wouldn’t be easy. Probably. That would have been Zoe’s plan, anyway.

With a short nod towards Wayne, Eva released her hold over her basilisk.

It didn’t hesitate to charge straight through the door, taking part of the wall with it.

Lightning rained down the hallway. The majority of it sunk into the semi-organic scales of the sculpture. A few bolts did get past, but they were ones that had been angled upwards. Though she kept low anyway, Zoe doubted she needed to duck to avoid anything. The snake’s bulk was simply that massive.

Purposeful or not, the few bolts that missed the snake did impact the ceiling. Most only left scorch marks.

Zoe and Wayne had to pause their blocking of the side rooms to erect quick thaumaturgical shields around themselves. Almost as an afterthought, Zoe tossed a quick shield around Serena as well.

The vampire was visibly looking better than she had only a minute ago, but it didn’t look like she was quite ready to walk just yet.

After shielding Serena, Zoe thought to put up a shield around Eva as well. Her spell stopped mid-cast.

Arachne, ducking low at Eva’s side just behind the basilisk, plucked a stray brick right out of the air without so much as glancing in its direction. It would have struck Eva in the shoulder otherwise.

Pulling herself up to her full height, Arachne reared back and pitched the brick like it was a baseball.

It zipped through the air before coming to a stop with a meaty thud. Zoe’s enhanced ears picked up a masculine groan.

A monk perhaps?

The lightning stopped a moment later–nuns rushing to his aid?–but not before a stray bolt struck the still standing Arachne square in her chest.

Shards of carapace exploded off her front and back.

Wayne was on point in incinerating every piece that detached from the demon. They didn’t have time to land before an orb of intense heat enveloped each individual shard. Several of them were flying towards the two of them, but they wouldn’t be anything a shield couldn’t handle. It was more likely that he was incinerating them to keep them out of the hands of the Elysium Order’s augurs.

Zoe couldn’t begin to calculate how hot the flames had to be to disintegrate Arachne’s carapace, but it obviously was not inconsiderable. She caught sight of more than a few pages of his tome going up in flames as his eyes twitched back and forth between each piece. Judging by the twitches of his eyes, he had altered his mental perceptions as fast as he could go.

“Arachne!”

Eva set the obelisk down on the floor, making sure not to damage the structure. The second it was down, she had her dagger out and aimed at Arachne’s chest. The demon caught her hand just before she could plunge it in.

“I’m fine,” Arachne growled. She was clutching at her chest, black ichor dripping from between her fingers.

Wayne was incinerating the drops that touched fell through the air as well, though it was taking far less effort than the chitin.

“Focus on your snake. I can heal.”

Eva shook her head. “Have to stop your bleeding.” With a flick of her wrist, Eva’s dagger crossed the short distance between where her hand was caught and Arachne’s chest. Her other hand caught the dagger and pressed the flat of the blade against the wound.

In seconds, Eva had formed a plate wrapping around Arachne’s torso. It was the same type of blood hardening that went into making their masks. While it meshed surprisingly well with Arachne’s natural carapace, Zoe doubted it would provide even half as much armor.

“Keep your head down,” Eva said as she finished. “That’s why we have Basila.”

“I can take a hit from those pathetic creatures.”

“Obviously not,” Eva tapped the plate. “Were you not paying attention when we picked up Sister Abbey? At least that one nun has prepared for demons. Probably her whole chapter. Maybe the whole of the Elysium Order.”

Eva turned from Arachne to pick up the obelisk again. “Just be careful.” That said, Eva hefted up the obelisk and started walking the short distance between where Arachne had been hit and where her basilisk had charged off during the brief lightning intermission.

By the time they made it a good three-quarters of the way down the hall, the lightning had started up again. This time, however, they seemed to be much more careful in not missing the basilisk.

The basilisk was obviously slowing down. Zoe had a feeling that Eva was doing a lot to help push it forward and keep it going through her blood magics. Its slithering side to side had all but stopped. At this rate, they’d be stuck behind it before getting to the top of the stairs.

Zoe was tossing the occasional lightning and razor wind of her own while Wayne was doing the same with fireballs. But after seeing Arachne nearly finished off by a single bolt, she was far more hesitant about sticking her arm around the basilisk’s bulk.

She had taken a hit from the Elysium Order’s lightning before and it had not been pleasant then. If Eva was correct in that they had been adapting their magic to combat demons, then it was entirely possible that the lightning wouldn’t do anything unusual to her, as she wasn’t a demon.

Taking the chance did not seem wise.

With her attacks not doing much, Zoe kicked her mind into motion.

If their eyes are closed, how are they aiming?

It was entirely possible that they had realized the deception of the basilisk. Or perhaps thought that the nun that had originally called that out had simply been mistaken. Alternatively, all the nuns could have blindfolds on while following the directions of an augur. The augur wouldn’t need to see it directly and thus, would have no danger of looking in the basilisk’s eyes.

Neither of the two options were easily interruptible.

“Serena, any cover or distractions you can provide would be most welcome.”

“Are their eyes glowing?”

“Most likely,” Zoe said.

“Then I can’t–”

“Serena,” Wayne interrupted. “We are taking over.”

The vampire stilled as she met Wayne’s eyes. He gave her a brief nod.

“Fiine,” she said with a sigh. “If I die, I’m haunting you forever.”

“Sounds annoying. Try not to die.”

“Aww, you do care!” Serena cooed. “Set me down.” When Zoe hesitated, Serena pointed at her stomach. “This is just a flesh wound. I’ll heal it up as soon as I get some blood in me.”

Zoe put an arm on the shorter vampire’s shoulder to help steady her as she regained her balance. “What are you going to do?”

“I hate getting my hands dirty, but I am a vampire. And a hungry one at that. Smelling this mask,” she took a deep breath, “I just want to bite into it. Gobble it all up. Like a potato chip!”

Her voice took on a slightly more dangerous tone than her normal frivolous cadence. “I’ll just have to sate my appetites on something else for now.”

“Grab Spencer and get ready to run,” Wayne said, looking towards Zoe.

Wayne and Serena took off in a sprint. Serena vaulted onto the basilisk’s back while Wayne just went around its side. The moment they cleared its head, a wall of flame erupted in front of Wayne. It stretched from wall to wall, floor to ceiling.

It took off. With the sound of a jet engine, it moved from the tips of Wayne’s shoes down the hallway, growing faster and louder the more it moved.

Once enough space had cleared between the fire wall and Wayne, Serena vaulted off the back of the snake over Wayne’s head. She took off in a sprint fast enough that she was hard to track with Zoe’s enhanced eyes.

Leaving them to their own devices, Zoe ran up to a slightly shocked Eva.

“What are they doing?”

“Clearing the area, I assume. We’re following.” Taking Eva’s arm in hand, Zoe started to move after the other two.

But Eva did not budge.

“I can’t leave Basila,” she said, handing the obelisk off to Arachne.

The demon took it easily, not even shifting her stance despite the added weight.

Reaching into her backpack, Eva started digging around. She pulled out vial after vial, checking each one.

If they had the time, Zoe would have loved to have let her finish. They didn’t have any time. Wayne was getting farther away with every passing moment and they couldn’t afford to fall too far behind. If the nuns back in the sealed off rooms managed to escape, the situation would turn quite sticky.

“It was an admirable attempt and worked surprisingly well. I’m sure Genoa would be happy to know that her toy played such a significant role in saving Shalise. But we must go.”

“I can’t leave Basila. She’s full of my blood. I could try pulling it out, but a good deal would be left behind because it is too ruined from contact with the basilisk and the lightning,” Eva said as she dumped a vial of red liquid over the sculpted basilisk. “I’d rather not have it fall into the hands of the augurs.”

Zoe mistook the vial for more blood for a moment before noticing that the basilisk was slowly losing inches off its length. A shrinking potion to counteract the growth.

But it was taking too long.

“Can you use your blood to push it forward?”

“Holding it still is one thing, helping it move is another, moving it on my own is another entirely.” Eva frowned at it. “I don’t know that it will move on its own again. Once it is small enough, I can handle it.”

Zoe could understand that. From the front, it looked less like a snake and more of pulped meat. She found it mildly disturbing just how organic appearing something that she knew had been carved from stone was.

“We’ll move it,” Arachne said. She started growing a bulbous behind and several extra legs. “The professor’s air magic, Eva’s blood, and my strength.”

As she grew, Arachne handed the obelisk back to Eva. The younger girl stumbled for just a moment before Arachne stabilized her with something resembling a hug. The two stayed together, neither moving save for Arachne’s continued growth.

After reaching her full height, the full-bodied Arachne positioned herself directly over the front of the snake. She hefted the front in the air, using her arms and two of her legs to hold it against her body.

Zoe hoped that the potion had already been fully absorbed into the basilisk. As Wayne had said, it wasn’t designed for living creatures.

Still, if anyone could handle parts of themselves shrinking, it would be Arachne. Zoe concentrated on levitating the tail of the sculpture. They could worry about side effects for Arachne later.

With Eva taking care of most of the mid-section through her blood magic, they started off towards the staircase, Wayne, and Serena.

It was somewhat of an awkward situation, moving as they were. Though Arachne had the worst of it by far. The basilisk was constantly shrinking. Though it wasn’t fast, Arachne occasionally had to stop to get a better grip on the front of the snake. Combined with her walking on only six of eight legs, using the other two to help lift the basilisk, their group wasn’t moving all that fast.

But they were moving.

Zoe just hoped that Wayne and Serena could hold out up ahead for a few more minutes.

The very stone itself was on fire in some places. The occasional tapestries that Zoe had taken note of on the way down were gone entirely. No corpses, though one nun had fallen into a torpor with blood dribbling down her neck.

Zoe doubted that she had been left alive out of the goodness of Serena’s heart. More likely that someone had interrupted her feeding, or she simply decided that moving on to her next target was needed more than killing the nun.

By the time they reached the base of the staircase, the snake had shrunk by half. Still too large to carry on any one of their owns, but it was becoming far more manageable for Eva and Zoe.

They started climbing the stairs with Arachne still readjusting her grip every few steps.

“When we get to the top, we shouldn’t have much farther to go. Once Wayne gives the signal, we’re going to teleport.”

“If they haven’t set up more wards,” Eva grumbled.

“Hopefully they have been too busy dealing with us to set up wards. There aren’t many of them and several are still locked up in the rooms below us.”

“They won’t have warded against banishment. Probably. If your teleport is broken, I can get us out. It won’t be pleasant. At all. Though, judging by how the vampire reacted to your teleport, she might find it more agreeable than your teleports.”

Zoe had a picture of the mostly mutilated Sister Cross suddenly surface in her mind. She shook it out of her head as Eva continued talking.

“It is how I intended to escape before you all insisted on coming,” Eva continued. “Even downstairs, I don’t think they would have warded for banishment.”

“Can’t take Serena to your prison without adding her to your wards,” Zoe commented as she considered what Eva had said.

With how well her basilisk had performed, she might have actually been able to do this entirely on her own. She supposed it depended on the stone door and how well it held up to a basilisk ramming into it a few times. Arachne would have been able to help.

It certainly would have skipped over this portion of their theft. But, had Eva followed through with her plan to remove the two guards outside the first staircase, she would have alerted everyone much sooner. It was entirely possible that she would have been forced to retreat before even making it to the second basement.

As they reached the top of the staircase, Wayne and Serena once again came into view.

And fire. Lots of fire.

Unlike the basement levels, the cathedral had been constructed with plenty of wood in addition to stone.

And all of it was on fire.

Serena bounced around the hallway like some hyperactive child while Wayne stood his ground, unleashing powerful bursts of flame to keep the Elysium Order from moving from where they had taken cover. He only made minute movements when an attack came his way. Just enough to dodge.

Zoe used her magic to clear the smoke from the air. The snake was small enough now that Eva could handle it on her own, though Arachne continued to help out.

Catching sight of them at the top of the stairs, Wayne called out, “final push then be ready to get out.”

“Okaay,” Serena replied as she landed on top of a screaming monk. No shield appeared around him. There was nothing to keep her off or to prevent her fangs from tearing a hole in his neck.

“I can handle Basila. Arachne, latch on to me.”

Arachne stayed where she was, interposing herself between Eva and the Elysium Order. “You won’t have anything to block lightning without the snake or me.”

“You’re going to get left behind,” Eva said, exasperation clear in her voice. “Maybe if you’d learn to teleport yourself.” She glanced over to Zoe, “If Arachne continues to be stubborn, I can teleport us out as soon as you guys leave.”

Though she didn’t take her eyes off the combat ahead of her, Zoe shook her head. “I’m not leaving before you.”

Eva just sighed.

The basilisk, which had been as long as a van when they got to the top floor, was shrinking ever more rapidly as it grew smaller. It was down to the size of her arm. Before long, it would be back to its original length, able to easily wind itself around a set of fingers. Probably. Would it stop at the original size? Smaller? How would the potion know? She would have to double-check with Wayne.

Her own potion theory was lacking.

Shaking her head, Zoe decided that now was probably not the best place to worry about such things.

Instead, Zoe pressed forward with Eva and Arachne–still in her largest form. They were so close to getting away. The end of the hallway would be the end of the wards.

Should be the end.

Wayne and Serena were doing a perfect job of pushing back the Elysium Order despite their increased desperation. It helped that there were not many of them. Zoe only counted six nuns and the sole monk. A few of which were no longer able to fight back.

Zoe added her own attacks to the mix now that she was close enough to the fight. A number of Eva’s orbs of blood fired off, splattering against the nuns’ shields before exploding violently.

Now that she could clearly see her enemy, Zoe felt a pang of regret. Only one of the six here was in the proper Elysium Order attire. Her habit was rumpled and coated in blood–probably the monk’s blood. Everyone else looked to be dressed in sleepware of various sorts. One even had pink bunny slippers.

Zoe shook her head and pressed forward.

They were almost out. Only a few feet more to go.

Without a word of communication between them, Wayne and Serena found themselves with their backs against each other. He wrapped an arm around her waist. After a brief nod towards Zoe, they both disappeared. All that was left behind was a blast of cold air followed by a heat wave as a wall of fire sprung up between Zoe and the nuns.

That answers that question, Zoe thought.

“Arachne,” Eva shouted as she wrapped the basilisk around her arm, “shrink down!”

The spider-demon was already shrinking back into her human form when Eva shouted.

At Eva’s shout, Arachne dove over just in time to catch a bolt of lightning that had been aimed at Eva.

She caught it against the side of her face.

Shards of carapace exploded outwards, some cutting into Eva.

The girl didn’t move in the slightest. She stared onwards as the bright glow in Arachne’s four remaining eyes dimmed slightly.

The demon slumped over, crashing into the ground just as a dark portal opened up beneath her.

“No!” Eva dove to the ground, dropping the obelisk at her feet and narrowly avoiding a second bolt of lighting. The obelisk landed on its side with a heavy thud.

Thankfully, the stone hadn’t cracked.

Eva gripped Arachne’s limp arm and pulled. “You can heal damn it.”

In spite of Eva’s grip on Arachne’s arm, the spider demon was still sinking into the portal. Eva’s hands were inching closer and closer to it.

“Eva, let go!”

Zoe dove and tackled Eva, pulling her away from the portal. She didn’t know if Eva could get sucked into it, but she wasn’t willing to take the chance. Recovering Shalise and Juliana had been trying enough. She did not want a repeat of that incident.

“Arachne,” Eva cried out. Her outstretched claw dug into Zoe’s back.

Biting down on her own cry of pain, Zoe rolled twice with Eva before coming to a stop. They were dodging enough lightning as it was. Wayne’s flame wall wouldn’t last forever.

Gripping her dagger in hand, Zoe reached out and touched the obelisk. Wayne had undoubtedly already tried to place the heavy object in storage. The wards would have prevented his action. Here, she had already seen Wayne and Serena disappear. There were obviously no wards in place at the moment.

As soon as it was safe and sound, Zoe started to turn the teleportation on herself and Eva.

The sound of glass shattering stopped her cold as much as the color of Eva’s luminescent eyes. The slits of her eyes were drawn so tight that it was almost as if there wasn’t a pupil at all. The normally blood-red iris was glowing as if someone had shoved two dying suns into her face.

A fountain of black blood erupted from Eva’s backpack. The jar must have broken.

Except, this was far too much blood.

It just kept spewing forth like a bad cartoon. The liquid flowed up and down Eva and Zoe’s arms. A good portion of it started forming a wire frame ball around the two of them.

Zoe didn’t stand by to see what would happen. Her teleport would incapacitate Eva for a minute or two, hopefully giving the girl a chance to calm down.

She gripped her dagger in one hand and hugged Eva with the other before allowing the world to fall away as the cold white of Between replaced it.

The tension in Irene’s muscles had to be reaching their peak. She felt like she had been exercising nonstop for the past two hours. Her body couldn’t possibly tense up any further.

Every impact against the shackles she had set up only caused her grip on her wand to tighten, proving that notion wrong. Every high-pitched whine had her arms shaking just a tiny bit more than they were before. Every cannon blast that followed the whine had her ears ringing and her vision blurring for a second or two afterwards.

Shelby, woken by one of the first cannon blast noises, had her own wand in her hand. Her free hand held Irene’s in a tight grip.

Jordan stood off to one side. His shadow curled around him on the ground and walls, ready to act at the first sign of trouble.

While the noises left Irene with a momentary headache, each seemed to do far worse to Jordan and Lucy. Jordan actually swayed in place for a few seconds. Lucy had given up any pretense of maintaining her human form. She was just a puddle of spaghetti on the ground between Irene and Eva’s room.

Early on, it hadn’t been so bad. The creatures in Eva’s room would make the occasional noise. They were loud enough that most of the Rickenbacker dormitory had woken up, but infrequent enough that the students felt they could wander past and gawk like Eva’s room was some sort of zoo.

That had ended rather quickly once the creatures started their attempts to escape.

Irene wanted to run with the other students. This wasn’t her mess. Lucy was here–though she didn’t look so reliable at the moment. Catherine had asked her to write out the shackles. She hadn’t spoken a word about sticking around and ensuring that nothing escaped.

The safety of everyone would probably be better assured if she just ran and found more of the security guards. Preferably ones that wouldn’t turn to spaghetti upon hearing the noises the creatures made.

But something kept Irene’s eyes glued to the shackles. Some otherworldly feeling that the moment she turned her back, the shackles would break and she would be caught, trampled, and possibly eaten.

Thus far, her shackles were holding admirably. They were a lot stronger than the ones she had set up to contain her first summon. Even the three beasts working together couldn’t break out. Irene might have taken a notion of pride in her work if she wasn’t so concerned about what might happen if they did fail.

One of those three beasts was actually on its side, face bloodied and raw from charging head on into the shackles repeatedly. The other two were more prodding at them than ramming themselves into them.

It was almost disturbing how intelligent they appeared.

“What’s taking so long?”

Irene jumped. Her sister’s voice came just as one of the creatures scraped a few tendrils around the barrier. For a moment, she had thought it shattered. It took her mind a second to process that she was hearing words for the first time in a long time.

“Taking so long?”

“Shouldn’t more security guards have shown up by now?” Shelby asked with a nervous glance at Lucy. “Or a professor? One of the others had to have told someone.”

“You saw the sky.” Irene bit back the tremble in her voice. She wanted to keep strong for her sister’s sake, if nothing else. A moot effort, in all likelihood. Shelby wasn’t so oblivious that she would miss how tense Irene was or the slight shakes in her arms.

Then again, Shelby wasn’t the epitome of steady at the moment either.

“Who knows what all is going on outside. They probably decided that Lucy could handle such a small thing on her own while they deal with other matters.”

“Well, I disagree. I can’t believe you knew about that,” she nodded towards the doorway. She might have been gesturing towards Lucy, but it was difficult to tell with just a nod.

Irene clamped her mouth shut. Shelby could make all the inferences she wanted, but Irene couldn’t offer up any response.

“We’ll be fine,” Jordan said, stepping up next to Shelby. “If anything happens, I can have the three of us at the stairwell in seconds. It won’t be hard to run.”

“Should we run?” Irene asked, grateful for the change in topic and not willing to let it slip away with just what he had said. “If these things escape, they could go on a rampage. Maybe some students haven’t got out of the dorms.”

She hated being contrary. Especially because the contrary position was to stay. But, as she had thought about earlier, she just couldn’t leave. It would be nice to be any other ignorant student, able to run off and bury their head under a pile of sand.

Her eyes had been opened to a larger world.

Could she run knowing that a single one of these creatures had held a being like Catherine for as long as it had, all while fighting off a number of older students?

Actually, Irene considered as she thought back, yes I can.

Even if they stayed, what could they do? The older students hadn’t done any good until they worked together to freeze the creature. She might have slowed it down by manipulating the tiles at its feet, but that had been with the assistance of Randal.

Irene had no idea what room or even which dormitory building Randal was housed in.

“Wait,” Irene said before either of the others could call her crazy. “We can’t fight them. But maybe we can trap them? More permanently than they are now, at least.”

The ice had been fairly permanent. Long lasting enough to get everyone away safely and Eva in to set up her shackles.

“You have a plan?”

No. “Maybe.”

None of them were water mages. Though none of them would be able to conjure up the water necessary anyway. Maybe they could have run the water in one of the dorm rooms.

A moot point without any of them being a water mage.

Irene’s mind immediately latched onto what she had done to the creature back in the diablery class. Turning the tiled floor into a sort of mud-like quicksand to hold them in place. It wouldn’t be easy. Tiles were just rock, but rock was far more difficult to manipulate than dirt and loose earth.

True, she had needed Randal’s help during class. This wasn’t class and the creatures were not already loose. She had the time to concentrate.

Her arm being properly set into her shoulder couldn’t hurt either.

She didn’t know how an air mage would help contribute, but Jordan could help. He was an earth mage.

Moving a few steps down the hall, Irene pointed her wand at the floor. “Step back, near me please. Jordan, help me out. I’m making quicksand.”

Once they complied, Irene set to pushing her magic into the floor. Lucy was left on the other side, still between the shackles and them, but Irene wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the demon. She didn’t exactly have a shovel to scrape her off the floor.

She’d probably be alright. She was a demon.

To protect them properly, the quicksand would need to stretch the entire width of the hallway as well as be a few feet long. She couldn’t risk them jumping over it. “Shelby, if you have any ideas on how to help, feel free to jump in.”

“Into the quicksand?”

Irene shot a glare at her sister. “You know what I meant.”

The quicksand wouldn’t be deep. Maybe an inch or two at most. That was the problem with working on a building. But, unlike regular quicksand, hers could be hardened as the monsters trampled over it. She should be able to stretch it up and trap them. At least for a short amount of time.

“Perhaps you could set up more shackles on this side,” Jordan said. He had his own wand out, pointing at the floor. “They’d get caught in the quicksand and then have a whole other set of shackles to break through. With all the trouble they’re having with the first one, it should buy plenty of time to find other solutions. Like grabbing a few teachers or security guards.”

With a slight groan, Irene slapped her forehead. She should have been doing that anyway. The entire hallway, lined with nonstop shackles. It would take these things days to escape had she done that instead of sitting around watching them.

But she kept her mouth clamped shut. After rubbing her forehead slightly, she went back to liquefying the tiles without so much as a nod.

In retrospect, she should have sent everyone away while drawing the initial shackles. It was somewhat surprising that she could. The contract specified spoken or written words, so sigils and circles must not have counted. Maybe she could use sign language to tell her friends what she had been up to.

Of course, that plan required learning sign language. Worse, it involved Shelby learning sign language. That was never going to happen.

Shelby gripped her arm. “Did you hear that?”

No, I was concentrating. Rather than listen further, Irene hastened her efforts with the floor. If it was nothing, then great, oh well. If it was something, then she didn’t want to pause to listen.

Manipulating the floor was going better than she had expected. Jordan was helping, but she could feel her own magic flowing much easier than it had when she had first failed at summoning the imp. Maybe because she had done this before? Or she was just getting noticeably better at magic in the two months since the previous incident.

“I’m serious,” Shelby said, tightening her grip. “Like glass cracking.”

The all too familiar sound of her shackles failing echoed through the hallway. Maybe it was because she had turned her back or because she had walked out of sight of the creatures. She couldn’t say for sure.

“They’re coming,” Irene whispered as the first creature rounded the corner of Eva’s room.

It had the unfortunate fate to tread on top of Lucy.

Her limp tentacles jumped like they had been electrocuted. As one, they lifted up and encircled the creature, mimicking the bulb of a tulip.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Shelby groaned.

Irene might have been as well, had she not noticed the second creature charging around the side of Lucy. It completely ignored the pig-like screams and pieces of violet-tinted flesh flying out of the mass of tentacles.

It reached the edge of her quicksand and jumped.

Gripping Shelby’s arm, Irene pulled her sister back. Her moat was nowhere near long enough to stop it.

Time seemed to slow down as its round face filled with sharp teeth flew towards them, its tentacles flailing around in the air.

Irene’s vision went black.

This is the end, she thought in a moment of tranquil despair. I’ve failed. And I’ve dragged Shelby down with me.

Shelby’s scream only compounded her despair tenfold.

Until, underneath Shelby’s scream, she heard a sound not unlike a hunk of meat being dropped on the floor.

The darkness passed over her and she could see again. Shelby at her side, eyes wide in horror. The walls and the floor.

And Jordan. He stood just in front of them. A wall of darkness stretching from one side of the hallway to the other.

The darkness collapsed after a moment with a gasp from Jordan, perspiration dripping from his face.

There was the creature, lying on its side in her moat of quicksand.

Suppressing the desire to let loose a hysterical laugh, Irene caught her wits in an instant. Gripping her wand, she hardened the tile as fast as she could. It was much easier than liquefying it in the first place.

Not all of the creature was stuck. At least half of the snake-like tendrils coming off its back were free. And they were not pleased.

The tiles cracked. Even with Irene repairing them as fast and as best as she was able to, it wouldn’t hold for long.

“Lucy!” Irene shouted. “Listen to the sound of my voice and come here. Crawl towards me please!”

Another crack in the tile. Irene tried to repair it as well, but a third crack.

Lucy spat out something from her bulb of tentacles. A violet-stained slab of meat.

“Hurry!”

The mass of tentacles stretched and inchwormed along the ground. Slowly. Too slowly.

A chunk of tile came off the creature. It clambered to its feet and glared at Irene.

That was the last thing it did.

Lucy’s tentacles came down on top of it. Unlike last time, there was no curtain of tentacles shielding them from the sight.

Thin strands of tentacles binded themselves together into thicker tendrils. They started with the creature’s own tentacles, to keep them from fighting back. Even after pulling a tentacle from its back–releasing a spray of blood as they did so–the tentacles tried to fight. Lucy was having none of it. She squeezed and crushed, pulled and rent until no single piece was larger than her thumb.

At a sudden gagging sound from Shelby, Irene slapped her hand over her sister’s eyes.

There was still one more creature, but it hadn’t shown up yet. Still incapacitated from ramming into the shackles over and over again, most likely. Irene needed to go and fix those before anything more came through.

But for now, she would stick by Shelby’s side and keep her comforted. At least until Lucy had finished with the creature.

As Lucy started on the creature’s legs, Irene held her sister tighter. She wished she had extra arms to cover Shelby’s ears. Yet, she never averted her own eyes.

For some reason, she just couldn’t bring herself to look away.

— — —

“Eva!”

Zoe caught the girl before she could collapse to the ground. As expected, she was shivering and seizing up, unable to put strength in her arms. Taking care not to bump her head, Zoe gently placed Eva against the floor of the women’s ward gate room.

With Eva on the floor, Zoe took a good look at her eyes behind her mask. While her pupils were still thin slits, her irises were no longer bright and burning, having returned to their usual red.

The blood coating Zoe’s arms and most of Eva had also stopped moving. It was still there, just inert.

Small mercies, Zoe thought. At least neither of them were in danger from… whatever Eva had been about to do.

“Wayne?” she called out before realizing her mistake.

Wayne wasn’t here. He wouldn’t be here and neither should she be here. In her panic to get them out of the cathedral, she had skipped past the meeting place entirely and went straight back to the women’s ward.

Cursing under her breath, Zoe pulled out her cellphone. Some of the black blood on her hands smeared over the screen. Zoe did not stop typing even for a second to wipe it away.

Out. @ women’s ward.

She sent the text away before anything else. If Wayne went back in thinking that she hadn’t escaped and something happened to him… Zoe doubted she would forgive herself.

Arachne dead?

She wasn’t entirely sure if dead was the right word to use.

Eva panicked, had to escape.

Setting the phone to the side, Zoe turned her attention back to the girl on the ground.

Even taking into account the effect that her teleportation had on Eva, she had been still for far too long.

“Are you alright, Eva? Can you–”

Zoe’s voice was cut off by her cellphone buzzing against the stone floor of the women’s ward.

Injuries?

Short and to the point.

Zoe considered the question for just a moment. She had a raking pain in her lower back from where Eva’s claws sunk into her skin. She didn’t think that the girl had intended to hurt her, but had simply done so as a reaction to Zoe unexpectedly tackling her.

Eva, on the other hand, was injured. Given that she was covered in Arachne’s blood and that her own blood looked almost exactly the same, it was a bit difficult to tell exactly where she was injured. The few shards of carapace sticking out of her chest were definite signs of injury, however.

Bits of Arachne’s head.

None looked too deep or too large, however. With how well she could heal minor cuts using blood magic, Zoe doubted that she was in any real danger.

Zoe shuddered at the thought as she sent a reply.

Minor wounds on both of us. Nothing life threatening. Bring a few potions anyway. Serena not keyed in, Eva in no shape to do so at the moment. Leave her behind.

“Eva,” Zoe said as she set her phone back down, “can you hear me?”

“I can.”

The answer was cold. No real emotion in it.

“Are you injured? Do you need anything.”

“Arachne,” she said in the same tone of voice.

“Is a demon,” Zoe said softly. She reached up and tried to remove her mask, wanting to look down and offer a reassuring smile to Eva. Only, she found it difficult to remove. Prying her fingers under the seam was almost impossible due to how closely it had been molded to fit her face.

Instead, she reached out and gave Eva’s shoulder a squeeze. “She’ll be fine. Right? Demons don’t die permanently.”

Eva shook her head side to side. Her long hair splayed out behind her own mask bunched up as it rubbed against the ground. “It will be years. At least. Maybe longer. I’ve never,” she choked over her words. “I’ve never seen her die. She hasn’t died for as long as I’ve known her.”

Before Zoe could offer any comforting words about how death was a natural part of life–though that might not be entirely applicable in this exact situation–Eva grit her teeth. She balled up a fist and sent up a scattering of dust as she rammed it into the floor.

“I’m not a stranger to death. I’ve seen people die. I’ve killed people. Ones who weren’t coming back. It’s just a shock. Seeing my friend’s head explode in front of me.” She shook her head again, further mussing up her hair. “Not something you prepare for.

“And now she’s gone. Floating in a void–in Void until she manages to put her head back together.” Eva shuddered. “I can’t–I don’t want to imagine what it is like. Will she even come back? Demons without purpose and drive lose their minds when they die, stuck in the abyss of their own heads.” Eva gave a dark chuckle. “At least, that’s what Arachne said once.”

Zoe pressed her lips together. She wasn’t enthusiastic about Arachne, but she had to say something.

“She has you,” she said, lightly flicking the forehead of Eva’s mask while idly wondering if the girl was ever going to get rid of them. “If she cares for you half as much as she says she does, she’ll pull through. You just need to be ready to receive her when she gets back.”

Eva was smiling. Zoe couldn’t see it through her mask, but the mask did have holes for her eyes. Her eyes crinkled the slightest bit. It wasn’t a bright, tooth filled smile. But maybe just enough to make her feel better.

At least, that is what Zoe thought until the crinkles around Eva’s eyes vanished.

“Void is being attacked. We’re ceasing all summoning. Even Ylva is cutting off ties between the mortal realm and Hell. Even if Arachne does pull herself back together in record time, she may be stranded on the other side.”

“I accepted a beacon from her,” Zoe said slowly. “Did she use it without renewing it with me?”

Zoe could hear Eva’s mouth opening, but it was a moment before she said anything. When she did speak, her voice had the smallest hints of hope. “I don’t think so. As far as I know, she has been in her room for months barring tonight and when Lynn Cross attacked.”

“See?” Zoe said with a small smile. “She’ll be back. And I highly doubt that she’ll bother with staying in Hell even if everyone told her not to come back.”

Eva opened her mouth, only to jump slightly as Wayne appeared in the gate room. He held his emergency sack of potions in one arm and a smaller vial of dark liquid.

Probably far too many potions. Zoe’s text had asked for a few potions. Not all of them.

For a moment, he just looked between the two. Eva, lying flat on her back and Zoe sitting over her.

Zoe did not miss his eyes darting to the wound on her back. She couldn’t actually read his expression as he still had his mask on as well, but what she could see of his eyes did not look pleasant.

She hadn’t actually seen her wound for herself, choosing instead to focus on Eva. Following his eyes, she found four thin lines of red along with her clothing torn around the area.

The actual part where Eva’s claws had first hit her back would have required a mirror or far too much twisting. As it was, just moving to look sent a sharp pain through her side.

Nothing near as bad as when she had been hit by lightning from the inquisitors, and even further from the agony she endured at the hands of the jezebeth and carnivean.

Shaking the pain off, Zoe met Wayne’s eyes. “Just a scratch,” she said, voice firm and leaving no room for argument.

Eva didn’t need to be shouted at by Wayne at the moment.

Without a word, he reached into the sack and withdrew two vials. He tossed both to Zoe. He dropped the dark vial right on Eva’s chest.

“Serena’s blood,” he said. “Add it to your wards. I’d rather have her here than back at home. If they do find a way to follow us, proximity to Ylva should discourage any ideas they might get. So long as she is around, that is.”

Eva held up the vial, her first real movement since arriving, and turned it over in front of her eyes. “Will it work? This blood is… dead. I think.”

“You’re the blood mage.”

“Yeah, but I’ve never met a vampire before. I mean, I can try. I’ve no real objections to her being here. Just, maybe start her outside the prison and walk her in slowly. Any tingling or pain and she should stop immediately. Do vampires even feel pain?”

Wayne just shrugged.

“Maybe have her walk with her arm out. If her arm explodes, don’t go in any further.”

“That works.”

Wayne took a moment to glance around the room. “You did get that thing we went for, right?”

Eva started, jumping a hair into the air.

Placing a hand on her chest, Zoe shook her head. “It’s alright. I got it before we left.”

Taking out her dagger and pointing at the ground, Zoe pulled the obelisk out of its storage. It appeared an inch above the ground. The loud thud that it made as it hit the cement floor was enough to send a few cracks through the ground.

Thankfully, the obelisk itself was undamaged.

“Hope this was worth it,” he said. “Time to lay low for the next ten years again.”

Eva pushed herself up into a sitting position. “Yeah,” she said. “I hope it works.”

For a moment, a silence fell over the three. Until a grunt from Wayne shattered the peace.

“Now quit moping around, Spencer. Get these damn masks off us and go get Ward out of Hell.”

Eva jumped at his voice. She shot him a glare, but nodded. Both of their masks melted off their faces after Eva fingered her dagger.

“I’ll add Serena’s blood to the wards before,” she trailed off as she glanced at the obelisk. Her eyes flicked up to meet with Zoe’s. “It’s heavy. Even for me. I might need help.”

“I can levitate it, at least partially.” Zoe didn’t hesitate in her response. She could almost imagine the thoughts going through Eva’s mind. Arachne could have lifted it without breaking a sweat. “Landing in your domain might be awkward, but we can manage.”

“Great,” Wayne said. His tone was almost sarcastic and he spoke with a frown, but he didn’t say anything more about her going to Hell again.

Maybe this time, I’ll have a chance to look around and inspect some things, Zoe thought. Her tutoring sessions with Shalise were just that, tutoring. All of Shalise’s classes compressed into the span of an hour or two every other week left no time to really get a thorough understanding of how Hell worked. I’ll need to grab a notebook.

“I’ll bring Serena in five minutes. Be finished by then.” Without waiting for an acknowledgment, Wayne vanished with a burst of cold air.

“Better get started,” Eva said with a sigh as she climbed to her feet. “I hope Nel finished with that salt.”

Shalise jumped to her feet, ready for another attack. Lynn was at her side in an instant.

It was somewhat off-putting. Lynn’s lightning and fire was far more effective at dealing with the enigmas than anything Shalise could put out. Sure, her muscles were strong and afforded her a certain level of toughness that she would otherwise lack, but not a single one of the creatures had actually made it within grappling range since Eva had brought along Lynn.

She shouldn’t be complaining, but Lynn just looked so exhausted. Dealing with the constant attacks kept her from having a proper sleep schedule.

This time, however, both women sagged in relief as they spotted just who it was approaching the alternate women’s ward.

Zoe and Eva were walking slowly, carrying something heavy between the two of them.

“She actually got it,” Lynn mused under her breath. “I half expected to never see her again.”

Shalise gave Lynn a frown, but didn’t respond. She threw open the door to the women’s ward and ran out across the closed trap doors to see if she could help out in any way. They were carrying her salvation, supposedly.

Salvation? You were not complaining while using me to escape from the prison.

Shaking her head with a frown, Shalise shot a mental glare at Prax. She was fairly certain that she had been complaining. Even before he had taken over her body.

That was entirely unintentional. I did not intend for us to become stuck this way.

“Sounds like you’re complaining about what might get us unstuck.”

There was an uncomfortable shift in the back of her mind. Between Zagan and the dolls, he started. Whatever he was going to say vanished with a spike of annoyance.

“Well, I can’t stay here. Even with Lynn here, those things will eventually kill me. Then you’ll be stuck dealing with Zagan and the dolls anyway.”

Brushing off the resignation from Prax, Shalise raised her voice to more conversational levels. “Is that the obelisk? Do you need help?”

“Just hold the door and show us where to put it.”

Eva’s words came out quick and strained, so Shalise wasn’t about to argue. She ran up to the door and kept it from swinging shut on them while Lynn directed them to the circle she had drawn.

“Set it down here,” Lynn said. “The corner needs to point towards the center of the circle.”

Zoe and Eva complied without complaint. Once the obelisk was in place, they both heaved out great sighs of relief. Eva collapsed into the couch that had been shoved against the far wall while Zoe just leaned against its armrests, sheathing her dagger as she panted.

Pathetic. Prax’s amusement was almost palpable. We could have lifted that with one hand.

“Shalise,” Lynn said, “strip down while I get everything set up.”

Feeling the heat in her face, Shalise almost protested. Zoe and Eva were still at the couch, now talking softly to one another while Zoe pointed at the ritual circle. Lynn had already moved on to the backpack that Eva had slung on the floor. She pulled a white feather out of the bag and placed it carefully within a small circle at the side of the larger circle.

No one was paying attention to her.

I am paying attention.

“Don’t be a creep,” Shalise hissed as she pulled off her shirt.

Despite his words, Shalise couldn’t feel a hint of interest towards herself from Prax. It was just him being annoying again. A way of protesting his imprisonment within her body without angering her too much.

Maybe he wanted her to summon him once they got out.

That wouldn’t happen, though Juliana had offered to summon him back at the prison. If Shalise never interacted with him again, she wouldn’t be too upset.

But he hadn’t been that bad. He did get both herself and Juliana out of the prison safely and with their souls intact.

And the conflicting combination of anxiety and eagerness towards the ritual had Shalise feeling just a little pity for him.

He would be back in his own body, but had Zagan and the dolls to worry about, as he had just mentioned a short while ago.

Setting her folded clothes neatly to the side of the room, Shalise sat at the edge of the circle, trying and failing to cover herself as much as possible.

Why bother? Everyone in this room has seen you in various states of undress.

“Not this undressed.”

Mortal sensibilities, he scoffed.

Shalise kept her mouth shut. She didn’t want to encourage his antics. He was just as nervous as she was, but his way of relieving that tension did not agree with her.

“Center of the circle, Shal. Remain standing and face me.”

After jumping slightly at being addressed, Shalise stepped into the circle. She moved to her spot, making certain that she didn’t scuff any of the markings on the floor.

Facing Lynn meant facing the door. Her back was to the obelisk.

An assortment of items lay out in an array around her. Sigils and markings were covering the floor, all designed to direct the magic in certain patterns, to make them flow through the objects, and all sorts of things that Shalise didn’t pretend to understand.

Both Eva and Zoe moved to stand near Lynn at the front of the circle, though Lynn moved back as soon as they came near.

Taking a bag of white powder in her hands, Lynn moved around to the obelisk behind Shalise.

Craning her neck to see, Shalise watched as Lynn opened the top of the obelisk and started pouring the powder inside.

As she did, the markings and sigils on the obelisk started to glow. It was a pale, white light that sent a shiver of disgust through her body.

Once full, Lynn replaced the cap of the obelisk and returned to the head of the circle.

“We’re going to start now,” she said. “Try to remain standing. Everything will be alright.”

Shalise took a deep breath, nodding.

As she nodded, she caught sight of her shadow. The light of the obelisk filled most of the room, so it wasn’t unusual that she would have a shadow.

But the shadow looked like Prax. She could see his hooves, his horns, and his muscles. Concerning, as Shalise’s arms were currently her own. No Prax’s muscles bulging through her skin. It was also far taller than it should have been, given the angle of the light.

Glancing up, Shalise frowned.

Neither Sister Cross nor Zoe had any shadow to speak of, as if the light was passing straight through them.

“Huh,” Eva said, back turned to Shalise to look at her own shadow.

Things sprouted off the back of Eva’s shadow. Like oddly angled wings made of bones. Except they couldn’t be bones. They were far too fluid. Liquid dripped off the tips of the bones to rejoin the mass of shadow making up the rest of Eva’s body.

There was more to the shadow. Shalise couldn’t see it very well. Eva’s body stood in the way to obscure most of it.

Without a word or glance at the others, Eva walked out the door and disappeared around the side of the women’s ward. Shalise didn’t see her pass by the window, so either she was walking straight out or she had chosen to rest against the wall.

Zoe started to follow, but appeared to change her mind as she set her eyes on Shalise.

Lynn took a step back. She looked over the circle, double checking everything for the hundredth time. Once satisfied, her eyes lit up like they did anytime she used her powers. She started chanting.

Shalise didn’t recognize the words. They weren’t English. Probably–

Latin, Prax confirmed. She could feel an air of dread coming from the back of her mind. I do not think that either of us are going to enjoy this.

“What do–”

Shalise couldn’t get her question out before the pain started.

A tearing, ripping sensation pulled at her back. Prax’s dormant muscles spasmed. They grew under her skin, then shrank, then grew again. Every time, they seemed to be just a little less attached. Her natural muscles strained as they pulled against each other.

All the while, Shalise screamed. Like the rest of her body, her brain felt like it was being torn apart.

Prax’s screams faded in and out of the back of her mind. Unlike her, he needed no air to continue his screams. His vocal chords weren’t wearing and tearing from the stress. His screams came in a constant tone.

Shalise couldn’t say how long it lasted. She was fairly certain that her consciousness lapsed more than once, only to be brought back by the crescendo of pain.

It ended with a sudden thud and a hot, wet, and sticky sensation against her chest.

Shalise slumped forward. The ground was quickly approaching.

She stopped inches away as a pair of arms caught her and pulled her into a tight embrace.

“It’s alright,” Lynn’s voice came faint and distant. “Shal, you’re okay. It worked.”

Shalise blinked twice, trying to clear her mind of the lingering pain. She was pressed tight against Lynn’s body, her head resting on the older woman’s shoulder.

Behind her back, Prax–red skin, horns, bulking body and all–lay face down on the ground.

Eva stood over him, nudging him slightly with her foot while Zoe stood to the side with her dagger out. When Eva had reentered the room, Shalise couldn’t say. She had no idea how long that ritual had lasted. Her muscles screamed at her as if she had been running three marathons in a row, but it had only felt like a moment or two.

A splattering of red and black blood lay about between Shalise and Prax.

Seeing Prax, Shalise’s eyes felt heavy. She tried to keep them open. She wanted to stay awake.

After two more blinks, she found it too difficult to lift them again.

“We’ll let her rest for a few hours,” Lynn’s voice came, distant and quiet. “Then we can return.”

“Fine with me,” Eva said from even farther away. “Keep watching her and don’t worry. If any of the enigmas attack, I’ll deal with them.” A certain violence entered Eva’s voice, one that Shalise couldn’t recall hearing before. “I hope more of the enigmas attack.”

There was a sound not dissimilar to the cracking of knuckles.

“I could use a little cathartic release at the moment.”

Her voice trailed off into a deep silence as Shalise lost consciousness.

— — —

“It’s time.”

Nel jumped at Ylva’s words. She had been concentrating.

Sawyer was on the move. At least, she assumed that Sawyer was on the move.

It was just her luck that he would have noticed that his augur shield wasn’t working. After preparing the salt for Eva, she had immediately returned to watching him.

He had been in the middle of surgery on the little girl when Nel got to her altar. While the girl had torn off the violet-colored organ attached to his hand, there were still traces of it left. Veins, purpler than they should be on a person, bulged from his skin.

He didn’t seem to pay it much mind, choosing to focus on the surgery. In just a single half hour, he had done something that caused everything to go dark.

Likely by repairing whatever he had done with Nel’s eyes.

But all was not lost. After a few minutes of experimentation, Nel found them again. She couldn’t actually see them–anything within a few mile radius just vanished from her sight. But she could monitor that blotch of darkness. The edges of it moved around. Not much, it presumably moved as the little girl moved.

Still, it allowed Nel to track their general movements, if not their exact position.

Five days after Sawyer had repaired the girl, they had started moving north. Not quickly. They made frequent stops in areas that held tiny towns. Perhaps ones that were just large enough to have a motel or some other hostel.

After three days of travel, they had crossed the Nevada border into southern Idaho.

Nel had a feeling that she knew their final destination, even if they weren’t heading towards Brakket Academy in a straight line.

She had been hoping that Eva would be up to enact their revenge on Sawyer sometime before Ylva closed off her domain, but that didn’t seem to be all that likely anymore.

Nel glanced up at Lady Ylva and gave her a resigned nod.

“Shall I stay here? Or do you need me somewhere specific?”

Ylva stared. She didn’t blink or tilt her head to either side, she just stared in silence.

Anyone else might have missed it, but Nel knew her mannerisms well enough after a year and a half of being constantly in her presence.

Lady Ylva was confused.

“You wish to stay?”

Ice cold fear gripped Nel’s heart. This was it. She had allowed herself to grow complacent–comfortable even–as Lady Ylva’s aide.

Now she was being thrown away. Dismissed.

Killed?

Nel could feel her breath quickening.

No. Not killed. Sister Cross had tried to kill her. Discretely, true, but the evidence was plain to see from her position.

If Lady Ylva wanted her dead, she would be dead. There were no superiors to hold Lady Ylva accountable for the death of an augur. No one to complain about all the effort it took to replace an augur.

But Ylva was sending her back to Earth?

Nel wouldn’t miss it. She hadn’t stepped outside of Ylva’s domain more than three times in the past year and not a single one of those times had anything good happened. Generally, it was the exact opposite.

No. Nel wanted to stay.

Nel’s eyes flicked from Lady Ylva’s face to just over her shoulder.

Alicia stood a step behind Ylva, still wearing the dark robes that Nel wore. Her eyes were narrowed in Nel’s direction, but her face was otherwise impassive.

Had she been asked to stay in place of Nel? Or had she chosen to stay?

Was it a choice?

“I want to stay with you,” Nel blurted out.

Lady Ylva nodded. A faint smile touched just the very edges of her lips.

That had been the expected response? Or it was a test?

Nel sagged in her seat at the altar as the tension drained from her body. She spent a moment trying to get her hyperventilating under control.

“Very well,” Lady Ylva said, taking no apparent notice of Nel’s distress. “Gather everything that cannot be left behind. Join Us in the throne room after.”

Nel’s breath hitched in her throat. She glanced up with confusion in her eyes.

Lady Ylva had already turned. Her long platinum hair and low-cut dress swung in the air, trailing after her as she left the room.

Alicia shot a look before turning to follow. Nel wasn’t quite certain what to make of it. Amusement? Ire?

With every passing day, Nel found herself liking the other former nun less and less.

Maybe I misunderstood the question. She was suddenly extremely relieved that she hadn’t said that yes, she wanted to stay.

But she had been left with an order.

Nel did not have much. She came to Ylva with nothing but the tattered remains of her Elysium Order habit. Everything she had, everything she wore, everything she ate, all of it was provided by Lady Ylva.

Aside from a few spare changes of clothes, there was only one thing that she could think to take.

Her fetters.

Most had containers already. Only the one she had most recently been using, Sawyer’s hand, was out of its jar. Nel wasted no time in sealing it up and dropping it into a bag.

She glanced around, ensuring she had everything. Several strands of hair, Sawyer’s hand, the little girl’s friend’s blood. She hesitated in taking the brass sphere that the devil had given her, but decided that throwing away a fetter wouldn’t do anyone any good, even one as disturbing as that.

And that was everything Nel could think to bring. She headed out to the main throne room.

Lady Ylva stood near the exit doors alongside Alicia and one of the professors.

It took a moment to understand the reason for the professor’s presence. Her apartment had been connected to Ylva’s domain as well.

“Ready,” Nel said as she ran up to the group.

“Let Us proceed,” Ylva said, moving to leave her domain.

The two former nuns and the professor all followed her out, with the professor watching Ylva like a hawk.

Once everyone was outside, Ylva gripped the handle of the door and swung it shut. She held on for just a moment longer than necessary.

“It is done.”

“That’s it?” Zoe asked, her voice carrying a hint of disbelief.

Ylva gestured one arm towards the door.

Accepting the wordless invitation, Zoe stepped up and opened the door once again.

Gone was the gigantic room, the pit, the throne, and the storm clouds overhead. What lay behind the door was indistinguishable from any other cell block in the compound.

“What do you intend to do now?” Zoe asked without taking her eyes off the interior of the building.

“The necromancer is still at large. We would stay near your presence until his termination.”

“Because of the ring,” Zoe said, thumbing the black band on her finger. With a slight jump in her stance, she tore her eyes from the cell block and stared at Ylva. “Juliana still has hers. She’s been gone all this time.”

“Juliana has had Our personal attention for a time,” Ylva said, holding up one placating hand. “For the time, We may send Ali to watch over her. It would be preferable were she to return.”

Alicia opened her mouth just a hair. She snapped it shut in an instant.

Nel didn’t much care. She was too busy staring into what used to be Ylva’s domain.

There was something that she had forgotten.

She could almost feel the tears welling up at the corners of her eyes.

With a heavy heart, Nel wondered if she would ever see Lady Ylva’s bath again.

— — —

Embarrassed.

That was the only word that Riley Cole could think of to describe her situation.

Perhaps not her situation, but the situation of the Elysium Order.

They were an upstanding organization that hunted down the evils that lurked in the night. Anything that threatened human life or livelihood. Vampires, undead, zombies, liches, ghosts, ghouls, revenants, wights, wraiths, and even mummies. All fell in the name of protecting the living.

And yet, they had wound up a laughing stock. The inquisitors had been decimated. The few survivors claiming that a literal god of Death had stripped them of their powers. Scattered incidents around the country involving demons had further hampered their efforts to keep the living alive.

They had tried to keep the theft of the Obelisk of the Pure Moon quiet. The thieves had the gall to return it. When they did, they ensured that everyone in the area knew it was there.

Luckily, a stone obelisk with a handful of fireworks going off around it down the road from the cathedral had been passed off as a simple curiosity. No one who saw understood the significance of the obelisk.

Riley recognized the demon that had perished in the cathedral. As had a number of the Charon Chapter nuns. It had been standing on the roof overlooking their warehouse the night of the riot.

It all stemmed from here. Prioress Cross–Former Prioress Cross had antagonized the wrong people at Brakket City. They had spent far too much time around the city itself when they should have been hunting the necromancer. Their augur had been tied up spying on students rather than searching through caves, warehouses, and other necromancer haunts.

Given the demon infestation in the area, Riley could see the logic behind it.

But they were not demon hunters. They were undead hunters. Former Prioress Cross had failed to follow regulations. If she had truly been concerned about the demons, she should have put out the word for hunters to find. Otherwise, they should have stuck to hunting the necromancer and left the demons well enough alone.

Riley had lost more than one good friend to Cross’ madness.

The demons were the ones embarrassing the Elysium Order as a whole, now.

That could no longer stand.

“The tip was right. I would call this a ‘cursed city.'”

One of her companions–Riley restrained a sneer at thinking the word–had his head tilted towards the sky.

She couldn’t actually see his face. His entire body was encased in an armor that was, frankly, medieval. There was nothing to see of his face, the thin slit for his eyes was not wide enough to let any usable amounts of light inside. Faint clouds of mist curled off his armored back in the light breeze.

“We could have found this place on our own,” the woman at his side commented in a sing-song voice. She arched her back in a long stretch, jutting out an indecent chest as she moved. “This sky will be the talk of the nation if it isn’t already. I doubt that even the mundane news will leave it alone.”

Riley frowned. The woman had hardly glanced at the sky. Her sole eye had focused on the town below them and nothing else.

“Shall I cancel the payment?”

“Clement!” She slapped his armored side with her bare hand, not even wincing despite the loud noise it made. “If we don’t pay those who tip us, word gets out and we don’t get more tips. It’s bad for business!”

“I require no payment,” Riley said.

“Not you,” the woman snapped. Her head turned to face a single green eye in Riley’s direction.

Riley was somewhat glad that a simple black eye patch was covering the other side of her face. The sole eye had more than enough ridicule aimed in her direction.

“We only pay the first one to tip us.” Her sing-song voice took on a mocking tone. “Shouldn’t have sat on the information for a year.”

Riley started. That last word had come out harsh and throaty.

“You should leave,” the armored man said. “Gertrude and I can handle this. You’ll only get in the way.”

Narrowing her eye at the man, Riley said, “I’m not about to–”

“Let her stay,” she said, back in her sing-song voice. “She can watch.” Gertrude shoved one hand through her light red hair. Her green eye leveled back at Riley, cold and hard. “Someone has to show them how it’s done.”

Clement’s armor failed to make a single noise as he shifted where he stood. “Plan?”

“Investigate, poke, and prod. Find weaknesses, find domains, poke harder. Disconnect domains. Draw them out. And exterminate every last one of the bastards.” She looked up at the armored helmet with a disgusting smile on her face–it came to a sharp point in the center of her face with the corners drawing up far too high on her cheeks. “The usual.”

“Usually there are far less demons around.”

That already disgusting smile twisted into a too-wide grin.

“I know.”

Riley shivered as the two went back to staring over the edge of the cliff. The woman’s eye held a dangerous glint that forced her to take a step back. The two were absolutely insane. She had warned them about the devil and the death god.

And these two were excited. At least the woman was.

Taking up the armored man’s offer of leaving wasn’t looking like such a bad idea any longer.

Eva smiled as she leaned back, enjoying the warm rays of the sun.

It was a nice day out. A nice blue sky with a few clouds, just enough to provide the occasional spot of shade. There wasn’t much wind, not even a light breeze. Eva wasn’t complaining. It wasn’t hot enough in early April to need a breeze and the lack of wind kept her long hair from flailing about.

The only things truly off about the day were the violet streaks that hung overhead. They were almost invisible against the blue hues of the sky, so much so that some people around Brakket Academy might not have noticed if no one pointed it out.

Despite being aware of them, Shalise didn’t appear to care in the slightest. She basked in the sun with a dopey smile on her face.

She had dragged out a set of chairs for the two of them. Shalise did not want to spend more time inside the women’s ward, even if this one was in a completely different plane of existence. It was too much like a real prison, rather than the home that Eva had intended it to be.

While she could see where Shalise was coming from, Eva quite liked the prison. It wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing thing around, but it felt secure.

At least, it was supposed to feel secure.

Eva tensed as she noticed a human circulatory system approaching, her hand slowly reached for her dagger at her back. She only had a scant few vials of Arachne’s blood left to fight with and would have to make do with her own should that be consumed.

But Eva did not make any overtly offensive moves. Everything was ready to strike, but only out of sight. She was desperately hoping that she wouldn’t have to fight anyone at the moment.

“Hello, Lynn Cross,” Eva said to the approaching person. She kept her smile on her face and her tone of voice as polite as possible.

Not having Arachne around had her feeling far from secure.

So many people that Eva trusted were just gone. First Juliana–Genoa by extension–and Arachne. Even Ylva was no longer at the prison. Serena wasn’t around, she had been far too afraid to get close to Ylva. Now that Ylva was gone, maybe she could be convinced to stop by. But for the moment, no one was around.

Counting it up like that, it did not sound like all that many people. But felt like half of everyone she knew.

Upon hearing her name, Lynn shot a death glare at Eva. Her eyes narrowed to slits as her lips curled back in an expression of pure disgust. As she had done every time they accidentally found themselves in one another’s presence over the past four days.

Eva was fairly certain that she had Shalise to thank for Lynn not trying to murder her the moment they had got out of Hell. So at least she could count on Shalise being a good person and having her back.

Though her friend had definitely gained an increased respect for Lynn. Perhaps even adoration.

Shalise perked up upon hearing Eva’s voice. A wide smile spread across her face.

“Lynn?” came Shalise’s hoarse voice. Ever since the ritual, she had a slight rasp in every word. It probably hurt to talk as well; she hadn’t been talking all that much. When she did talk, she kept her responses short and to the point.

Eva kept her polite smile even as Shalise jumped up from her chair. She watched as her friend bounced on her feet as to cross the distance to the former nun.

Lynn’s harsh expression melted off as Shalise wrapped her arms around her.

Since Eva had dumped her in Hell, there would have been plenty of opportunities for Lynn to tell Shalise just who her mother was. Eva could not tell if she had done so or not. Shalise still called her by her name instead of ‘mother’ or anything similar. But they were a whole lot closer than before.

Given that Lynn had made up a majority of Shalise’s human interaction in the past months as well as removed Prax, perhaps that wasn’t so surprising.

“What are you going to do now?” Shalise asked.

“We are going to leave.”

Shalise made to object, but Lynn held up a hand.

“You’ve had a few days to relax while I made preparations. Say your farewells and let us be gone.”

“But–”

Eva cut in. “Is it wise to take her with you? It could be dangerous, especially for Shalise.”

“Are you threatening us?” Lynn Cross’ eyes once again narrowed to thin slits.

“Not at all. I’m just saying that I might have overheard a certain Sister Cole talking about you getting what you deserve. How well can you, on your own, stand up to the Elysium Order hunting you down while protecting Shalise at the same time?”

Lynn’s face twisted into a sneer. More of a sneer than she already had on, anyway. For some reason, Eva got the impression that it wasn’t actually directed at her for once.

“They won’t hunt me down. They lack the resources at the moment. Your pet ensured that.”

It was a good thing that Ylva wasn’t around to hear that insinuation.

“And someone just broke into a cathedral to steal a priceless artifact. I’m sure they’ll have their hands busy dealing with that little pest for the foreseeable future.”

“There was nothing left behind for their augurs to track.” Technically, large chunks of Arachne were probably all over the floor of their main chapel. Eva somehow doubted that they would get anything useful from that until Arachne returned to the mortal realm. “I ensured that.”

“You’re underestimating them.”

Eva shrugged, not letting her smile slip from her face. “Perhaps. With said priceless artifact having been dropped off on their front porch, I doubt that they will be too interested in chasing me down. No harm, no foul, as the saying goes.”

Lynn opened her mouth to argue.

Eva cut her off. “Even if they do manage to track me and decide to attack me, they won’t be interested once they realize where they’re looking at. You did just mention that Ylva decimated the Elysium Order inquisitors. Will they really risk another confrontation?”

“Your pet isn’t here.”

“Not here here. But she’s around.”

Come to think of it, Eva considered, the prison is going to be empty these days.

No Arachne. No Ylva. Devon had run off and Eva had not seen him since visiting the Elysium cathedral.

He’d probably turn up just in time for her treatment, only to literally explode in rage at finding Arachne gone.

But, with no one else here, Eva wondered if she shouldn’t move back to the Brakket Academy dormitories. She would have to find a new room. Her old one was currently uninhabitable. It had a round-the-clock guard and several shackles set up by her around the entrance, though there had been no incidents apart from the first time.

Ylva was going to take a look at it sometime soon and see if she couldn’t sever the connection.

If Shalise left too…

Eva’s smile almost slipped from her face.

“So what will it be, Lynn Cross? Take your chances on your own, putting Shalise in danger with the Elysium Order on your tail? Or stay here, safe and sound knowing that there is an entity about that the Elysium Order dares not mess with.”

Lynn’s narrowed eyes hardened more. Eva found it hard to believe that was possible, but she watched it happen with her own eyes.

The hardening melted. For just a moment, Lynn Cross almost looked sad.

“Would that the Elysium Order be the only threat revolving around you, and I might consider. You, Eva, are a death trap.”

“Only Arach–”

“This city is a death trap,” she continued, talking right over Eva. “Between the necromancers and the demons, how many people have died here? How many students? Everyone with a hint of intelligence has already left the city. More will follow. I pity the fools who remain behind.

“Shalise has scraped the tip of Death’s scythe at least three times. Far too often for anyone, let alone a fifteen year old girl. We will not be staying.”

“Wait! You can’t–”

Lynn Cross’ eyes flared white. Shalise’s words were cut off as the two vanished with a sudden breeze of icy air.

The smile on Eva’s lips stayed where it was for a few moments longer. She didn’t feel like smiling. She hadn’t felt like smiling even before they had disappeared. The muscles in her lips just wouldn’t quite cooperate.

She had been smiling far too much in the last few days.

Her entire mouth felt numb and sore.

Ever so slowly, her muscles remembered a far more neutral and natural position. Now that Shalise had gone, she no longer felt the need to put on a happy face. No one was around to ask if she was alright again.

She was alone, well and truly, in the once again abandoned prison.

Taking a deep breath of the April air, Eva slumped in her seat.

This isn’t like me.

She needed to get up. She needed to be doing something. Reading a book on blood magic or hunting down Sawyer. Even working on school work. Finals were this week. Or they were supposed to be. Though she still wasn’t sure whether or not the school was staying open, she could be studying at the very least.

Eva drew in another deep breath through her nose, releasing it through her mouth after holding it for a few moments.

It took a good hour before Eva finally felt like dragging herself out of her seat.

Getting up took far more effort than it should have taken.

By the time she had finished dragging the seats back into the women’s ward, she was already feeling ready to just lie down and sleep for the night.

Clenching her fists, Eva shouted out. No particular words, just a frustration-releasing shout. Her rage at Lynn Cross, Sawyer, Arachne, Carlos, Juliana’s brother, annoying schoolmates, the Elysium Order, and everyone else she could think of all came out in a single continuous stream of noise.

Eva kept it up for a good minute before her lungs gave out.

Shouting, as it turned out, was mildly therapeutic. Eva really did feel at least three notches better than before. Childish? Perhaps. Some might call it a temper tantrum.

But no one was around at the moment, so screw them.

It probably would have been even more cathartic had she a certain necromancer or a few nuns to tear apart with her bare hands, but she would have to make do without for the moment.

For the moment.

A real smile grew across Eva’s lips. The first she had felt in several days.

Nel had found Sawyer before they invaded the cathedral. She had found him, and Eva wasn’t going to let the opportunity slide.

With a renewed drive, Eva started running through the women’s ward. She selected a handful of books that might come in handy and dropped them in a large bag. From her potions room, she grabbed a medium-sized potions satchel.

Most of the beneficial potions got tossed out–they barely worked on her anyway. She filled the empty slots with poisons of varying types.

While she really, really wanted to use her claws and nothing more, Eva did not want to charge into anything ill prepared. She had gotten herself captured by Sawyer once before and that was more than enough for her tastes.

Her spare blood situation was dire, however. She had a mere three vials of Arachne’s blood.

Unless she had filled some that Eva had left before they went off to the cathedral.

With a hesitant frown, Eva turned towards Arachne’s room.

She hadn’t been inside since.

Shaking her head, Eva shoved away any unnecessary feelings and pushed open the door.

The room inside wasn’t drastically different from any other room. It was just a normal cell.

In their most recent contract, Eva had offered Arachne the same thing she had offered Ylva that had allowed the hel to link her domain to Earth. However, Arachne had never actually acted on it. Eva had a sneaking suspicion that Arachne did not know how to do it. Like how she didn’t know how to make void metal, or teleport, or even use magic in general.

Arachne relied solely on her strength and natural resilience. She found books to be a chore and had turned down Ylva’s offer of tutelage.

Eva couldn’t actually blame her for that last one. Five hundred years of servitude sounded intensely unappealing, even if Ylva would probably be a kind and fair, if stern, master.

One thing that Eva could say about Arachne’s room was that it was decorated.

Tapestries of varying types hung from the walls. Some were larger, some were smaller. Not a single square inch of brick had been left unadorned. Some were of pure scenery–a forest-filled recreation of the landscape outside of the prison was done up on one of the larger ones. A number of them were portraits of people as well.

Well, not so much people.

One whole wall held nothing but images of Eva.

Red eyes with slit pupils stared back at her. For a moment, she thought she was looking at a mirror. It took a second or two to realize that her reflection wasn’t moving. Her eyes just looked so real, her hair had individual strands matching her real-life self.

But it was just a portrait. The largest of many.

One had her sitting, as if posed for a camera. Others looked like they had been created in the middle of fights. Eva couldn’t recall actually fighting any of the demons or people in most of the pictures, but they looked lifelike enough that she almost considered the idea that her memories had been modified.

One tapestry was an image of her sleeping, with Arachne asleep in her small spider form on Eva’s bare stomach.

Eva wasn’t entirely sure if she should be flattered or disturbed by the shrine of herself, but seeing that last tapestry brought a sick sensation to her stomach.

She should have been more firm. Ordered Arachne back into her spider form earlier in the cathedral.

Their most recent contract had been more verbose than the first one as it had been made in far less haste. After Arachne had exchanged her hands, Eva had decided to include a clause about following orders.

Arachne wouldn’t have been able to go against it. They could have all escaped so easily. Their task had already been finished, after all.

But Eva had never once exercised that clause. It felt gross, to manipulate someone she considered a friend. She had ignored it and forgotten about it on purpose.

Until just now. Seeing the two of them, peacefully sleeping.

It hurt.

Eva grit her teeth and tore her eyes from the portrait wall. She had come in here for any spare vials of blood that she could find.

Instead, she found something else.

Arachne had a bed in her room. Eva doubted that it had ever seen even five minutes of use.

The moment her eyes drifted from the walls, Eva spotted a dress draped over the bed.

It was a simple garment. Long and black with thick straps that would stretch from the top of the shoulder to the edge of the neck. No cleavage to speak of, though it did have an embroidered ‘V’ shape running from the shoulders to a point at the center of the waist.

With careful movements, she lifted the dress up. She had gotten much better at keeping her fingers from cutting things that she didn’t intend to cut, but they were still sharp. Accidentally ruining the dress…

Eva shook her head. Looking at the dress closer, Eva doubted she would be able to so much as snap a single thread. After giving it a small tug, she decided that it was definitely made out of Arachne’s silk.

And it was small.

Holding it up in front of her, Eva found that it would barely reach her mid-thigh.

Arachne was a large woman. Taller than Eva even after swapping her legs out–though Eva was quite certain that she had shrunk back to her normal height since then. The bust would be too tight on the demon, and the waist as well in all likelihood.

In fact, holding it up against herself, Eva had the distinct impression that it was not made for Arachne. That feeling was only compounded by the fact that Arachne had never worn clothes as far as Eva could remember.

Almost in a trance, Eva shed her own skirt and shirt to don the dress in their place.

It fit.

Perfectly.

Eva couldn’t recall ever once giving Arachne her measurements, but the dress hugged her body all the way down to her waist. There, it spread out into a short skirt down her thighs.

She spun in a circle, almost wishing that she had a mirror.

Except, she didn’t need one.

The largest portrait of her, the one whose eyes gazed in such a lifelike manner, was wearing the dress.

Unlike the dress she had on, the portrait Eva’s dress had sleeves. Short things that covered up the human skin but left all of her carapace visible. The portrait version of herself only showed off skin from her neck up.

Arachne must have decided to alter the design at some point.

Either way, this dress was meant for her.

Eva slumped down onto Arachne’s bed. She gripped the dress in her hands–it wouldn’t puncture; Arachne’s silk was far stronger than any pressure Eva could exert.

Slowly, she leaned back until her head came to a rest on the pillow.

She stared at the ceiling. Another portrait hung overhead, one that she had missed before. Arachne sat in a chair, a kind smile on her face as Eva sat opposite with her nose in a book.

Arachne wasn’t gone for good. She would be back. But when? Eva couldn’t say.

For all she knew, it could be years.

With a dry taste in her mouth, Eva decided to put off the hunt for Sawyer, school work, and whatever other responsibilities she had.

One day of rest wouldn’t hurt.

— — —

Nothing.

Absolute nothingness. An absence of everything.

An impossible sensation to describe. The moment any words were added to the idea of nothing, a relatable concept would be introduced. Something relatable that could be explained to a sentient mind would invalidate the idea.

And yet, it was a concept that Arachne was intensely familiar with.

Void had to get his name from somewhere, after all.

Eva, was the first word through her mind upon regaining consciousness. That thought vanished as she took stock of her surroundings.

Or lack thereof.

Arachne had once tried to explain a demon’s death to Eva. Not easy, given Void’s absolute nothingness. She listened intently, but didn’t understand the absolute void of everything.

Well, how could she?

Arachne had eventually decided on likening it to a disembodied brain attempting to claw its way back to its home domain.

And yet, Arachne distinctly recalled her head exploding, so that idea was obviously incorrect. She doubted that she even had a brain at the moment.

That professor had better have teleported my Eva away.

There would be hell to pay otherwise.

Arachne would hunt down the professor, her family, everyone she cared about, and even anyone she had so much as shared a pleasant word with as she passed by them in the street. Once she had them all gathered up, she would start with the youngest first. No! The oldest. The little ones might not fully comprehend their predicament. Watching her flay the older ones alive might drive home the point.

But then the older ones might die before knowing the despair that they were unable to save their children.

Quite the conundrum.

Randomly selecting might be the best course of action.

Of course, the professor would be exempt. Arachne would take her eyelids and nothing more. She would be forced to watch as Arachne slowly worked through every acquaintance–

No. Arachne clamped down on the thought. Eva didn’t want her thinking such thoughts.

Then again, if Eva was dead.

Arachne tried to avoid considering that line of thought any further. It did not stir pleasant feelings.

She had been getting so much better lately, in her own, honest opinion. Weaving was therapeutic that way.

Not to mention, thoughts of revenge were not conducive to getting herself out of the belly of Void.

What thoughts were conductive to her escape, Arachne didn’t know. Over the course of more centuries than Arachne could count, she had only died around ten times. She wasn’t quite sure how that stacked up to other demons. Arachne tended not to socialize with many others. Yet, for some reason, she felt like the number was relatively low.

Granted, that low number might have been because she hadn’t been summoned for a majority of her existence. Her domain wasn’t about to kill her and Arachne never visited other demons’ domains.

Her first death, she hadn’t had a clue what was happening. She only vaguely recalled being decapitated before finding herself out in the endless abyss.

In all honesty, it was lucky that she hadn’t gone insane.

Spending more than fifty years with nothing but her own thoughts for company was a hell worse than any she had ever imagined.

Fifty years was little more than a ballpark figure–to use a recent mortal term. There was no possible way of telling time within the void. Even once she returned to her domain, it wasn’t like she had a timer keeping track of how long she had been gone for. It was an estimate based off of subsequent deaths, ones that she had been more prepared for.

As mortal history advanced, they became far better timekeepers than they had been while she was mortal. That, combined with more frequent summons in the recent centuries, led to her estimated number.

But, I don’t have fifty years. Even if her more recent deaths had been less than fifty years, they were still far too long.

That carnivean had escaped in a mere three months. If that. For all Arachne knew, it had only been dead for a day before making it back to its domain.

Three months would have her missing one of Eva’s treatments, but it was still a far cry faster than fifty years.

But how had it managed that?

As far as Arachne was aware, she couldn’t do anything in this state. She couldn’t transform–or even feel her body. For all she knew, she literally was a brain in a jar on Void’s cupboard shelf. Or even just her soul in a jar. No brain needed.

Arachne did know that how soon one returned was somewhat related to how damaged they had been when they died. It took longer the more mutilated one was. Was it based off of their natural regeneration rate? Was the carnivean simply a faster regenerator than she was?

The carnivean had been quite thoroughly mutilated at her hands. Most of its tentacles had been severed along with having its eyes gouged out. And then there was the fact that Arachne had crushed the carnivean’s skull.

But, when she had seen it in Sawyer’s hotel, it hadn’t regenerated fully. It was still missing its eyes and several tentacles, especially the larger ones.

Arachne had never returned even partially damaged. She had always been whole and hearty no matter how damaged her body had been when she died.

There had to be a way to return early.

She had mocked the carnivean at the time, wondering if it died so often that clawing its way out of this void had become second nature. But at the moment, Arachne was willing to give anything to know how it had managed that.

_Anything?

Hello, thanks for reading.

Book seven will continue as scheduled. No intermissions or interludes. Tune in next time for 007.001.

Before anything else, I’d just like to say thanks. Thanks to all my supporters on Patreon and PayPal.

Phew, that was a long one. Book six was the longest book yet in terms of chapter count. Word count was actually about on par with the other twenty-eight chapter books. That stems mostly from a few of the chapters winding up longer than I had intended. Like more than 7k words.  I wound up splitting a few of those chapters partially because of the time it took to write. The other part would be my personal belief that 3k-5k word chapters are ideal both for reading and writing.

Not a whole lot that I want or need to talk about regarding this book. I felt pretty good about writing it the entire way through. There were some vague allusions and comments with Wayne, Zoe, and Serena about their history with the Elysium Order. That will probably be how any of their pasts is revealed in the future, rather than a follow up to Wayne’s interlude in book five.

I have removed that note at the top of chapter 28. I figure that most of the people who saw the original version of chapter 27 will have already read 28 by now and I’d rather not confuse future readers. The comment on chapter 27 will still remain.

And that is one thing that I’d like to mention. It slipped my mind while writing that the teleport and the storage would be affected by the same wards. So thanks, hattrick21. Pointing things out like that helps quite a bit. I hope to not have any other issues, but I am merely human.

Now for some side notes:

Thank you to everyone who has donated through either Patreon or PayPal. I actually feel somewhat bad for saying thanks half way through the page. This message has been in the ‘side notes’ section since I started a Patreon and PayPal when it really should be up at the top. In fact, I’m going to go change it right now. This will stay here AND I’ll put a thank you up above. Of course, you probably already know unless you’ve been reading this bottom to top.

There. Fixed.

While I’m in a thankful mood, I’d also like to say thanks to everyone who comments on the chapters. I don’t always reply to every single comment. Sometimes I don’t know what to say or anything I had to say would just be spoilers. I do read them all. Even if I didn’t check the back end of WordPress several times a day, I get emails for them all. So really, I read the comments twice. At least.

And hey, you know what? All the people who don’t comment, thank you all as well!

Anyway, back to side notes:

I’d like again to point out that a good amount of referrals to this story come from Top Web Fiction. As such, I would appreciate any extra votes in my direction. It is a quick click once a week and helps a lot.

Halfway through this book, I started posting links to TWF in the comments on some chapters. I wound up doing it once a week for a few weeks. I’ll probably still do that, but more randomly. When I remember or something.

And, like I said in the previous notes, if you like another story more than mine, go vote for them. If their referrer list is anything similar to mine, they’ll appreciate it.

A few chapters ago, I mentioned in the comments that I was starting up a fanfic over on SpaceBattles. It’s a Star Wars: The Clone Wars and SW: The Old Republic crossover. Chapters are short, somewhere around only a thousand words. I’ve been working on it extremely casually, like one chapter a week, for a few months now and just decided to post it on a whim. Don’t know how long it is going to continue for, but thought I’d mention it anyway.

I should be working on extras or that other original fiction that I mentioned almost a year ago. But I’ve somewhat lost interest in that original fiction and extras… I’m just not entirely sure what to write about that would fit within a thousand words every so often.

Anyway, enough babbling. On to the trivia section! With actual bullet points this time instead of the little dashes.

• Jordan was actually supposed to have become something of a more prominent character with this book. That mostly fell through due to focusing on Eva. Irene also had a minor focus, but barely saw Jordan during her parts.

• Speaking of Irene, all that hard work and now the diablery club is likely going to be shut down thanks to instability with Hell. Maybe it will be something of a relief for her.

• In the Author’s Notes for book 004, Eva complained a little about being sidelined in favor of Juliana and Shalise. Well, poor poor Juliana. She only had a third of a chapter where she was the point of view character. Shalise was stuck in Hell and the story took place outside of Hell for the most part. I’d say her revenge has been served.

-More reading recommendation:

This is actually going to be slightly different this time. I had another thing in mind, but decided to go with this because of something happening.

First, if you’re reading my story, I pretty much assume that you have read Worm. If you haven’t, the following might be less meaningful.

I don’t read a whole lot of fanfics. And that’s in spite of the fact that I’m writing one. But I have read a handful of wormfics. They’re easy to get into because I know the world and the characters; it doesn’t take much effort to start reading. They’re great for spare time. Some are good. Some are terrible.

Just about two weeks before writing this, an author, becuzitswrong, passed away. It was something of a gut punch to log into SpaceBattles and see his name up at the top with the word RIP right next to it as his stories were ones that I actually followed.

Anyway, I’m not much of a eugooglizer. So if people are interested, here you go. Obviously, they will never be finished. At least not by the original author.

Memories of Iron — Worm and Iron Man crossover. Taylor gets the complete memories of Tony Stark. Power armor ensues.

A Propensity for Wrath — Taylor imbues items with emotions. Feelings of love and protection can shield her from harm. Feelings of anger, on the other hand…

Railgun — Worm and RailDex crossover. Taylor is able to generate massive amounts of electricity to do all kinds of fun things.

A Touch of the Divine — Taylor becomes the avatar of some kind of god. With her semi-godhood, she gets all kinds of broken powers.

There are much better synopsis on each of the pages, but that should be enough to get started.

—

Book Six Stats:

Chapters: 32

Wordcount: 123,433 (according to WordPress’ built in word counter)

POV counts (max of one count per chapter):

Eva: 22

Irene: 7

Zoe: 5

Nel: 3

Shalise: 2

Arachne: 1

Des: 1

Martina: 1

Catherine: 1

Juliana: 1

Sister Cole: 1

That’s all, thanks for reading book six. I hope you enjoy book seven.