Chapter 24
Rain lashed against the arched window in the dorm room, making the early hour all the more caustic, at least to Audra, who had barely slept at all. She’d spent the long night startling awake at every howl of the wind, creak, and footfall in the hall.
The raging storm made the room darker, colder, harder to climb out from beneath the quilt. It took everything in Audra to brave the cold floor and pull on her uniform, her and Wilder’s swapped complaints muffled by cable-knit sweaters and scarves.
She parted ways with Wilder in the bathing chamber and made her way down the stairs to the residence hall.
Her heart tripped in her chest as she slowed, halting on the last step as memories of last night flashed through her mind—she didn’t want to be alone in this room.
But she’d told Wilder she’d wait for her this morning, they’d go to breakfast together …
but, instant relief, because there, leaning over the fireplace, one hand lightly holding the mantel, was another person.
Something, maybe the tenebrous form, so cloaked in shadow, however, made her hesitate there on the edge of the staircase. Audra studied him, as she’d learned from a young age to size up every person she met in the inn.
Casual stance, the type of relaxed aura of a man who felt comfortable anywhere, as though he owned every room he entered.
Long legs, tall—taller than Callum even—with chin-length locs, what she could see of his face all sharp angles and shadows that seemed to kiss and dance along his mahogany skin, despite the firelight, which should have been illuminating his form.
A fitted shirt stretched across an expansive, muscled back.
Audra frowned.
Though his back was to her, she was sure she hadn’t seen him in any of their classes yesterday—she would have remembered an initiate that toned, that tall. So how exactly was he standing in the Arcane residence hall, where only Arcane students were allowed?
“You’re free to enter, you know, this is a common space.” His voice was a low, deep rumble, and yet the amused tone carried to her easily.
She’d been caught staring. Warmth in her cheeks. “I know that.”
He turned, then, just a fraction, so that he could see her.
Audra gasped, clasping the banister. His eyes …
his gaze … As it flitted across her face, her form, so fast, as he drank her in within a fraction of a second, it felt heated, warm, as though …
She couldn’t put it into words. She’d never felt anything like this, such a physical reaction to someone’s gaze.
But it was just a moment, this searing heat scattered across the bridge of her nose, lingering on her lips, her jaw, where her hand clutched the banister, then gone the next.
She felt colder for it, as he turned back toward the fire, taking that warmth with him.
Vibrations as Wilder’s and Lottie’s boots hit the staircase, both calling her name.
She turned to them, whispering, as they reached her, “Have you seen him before?”
“Who?” asked Lottie, too damned loud.
“Shh. That man by the fireplace.”
“What man?” asked Wilder, leaning over the railing, gazing around. “There’s no one here but you.”
Audra swallowed, finally stepping off the last stair, her gaze searching. The fireplace, the long table, shelves of books, an empty teacup some lazy initiate had abandoned the night before for someone else to clean up.
Unease tumbled through her. They were right.
There wasn’t anyone else here.
The storm hadn’t let up, but thankfully, the first three Vault Day classes were inside Central Main.
Scholar Haile gripped the lectern, her knuckles pale against the aged wood.
“Today,” she began, her voice a low growl that resonated through the candlelit room, “we penetrate the veil of the infernal. We dissect the anatomy of darkness itself. We speak of demons.”
A thunderstrike boomed, followed by quick flashes of lightning.
Nervous chuckles scattered throughout the room at the dramatics of the weather, though Audra was not one to laugh. After last night in the residence hall, there wasn’t anything humorous about demons or the arcane.
Scholar Haile, apparently, agreed, as she slammed a fist on the lectern, making several initiates jump.
“These are not fictional monsters lurking beneath your childhood bed. They are a complex hierarchy of cruelty and malice in soggy, rotten flesh. There may be three tiers to the demon hierarchy, but every demon possesses one thing: an insatiable hunger for violence—” She leaned forward. “Hunger for blood.”
You could hear a quill drop.
“How many realms exist on this earth?” Scholar Haile’s voice broke the silence.
Silence reigned before the initiates realized that, for once, she expected one of them to speak.
“Two. The human and fae realm,” answered a quiet voice from the back.
“Um,” broached Lottie. “I believe there to be three: the human realm, the fae realm, and the demon realm.” Lottie ticked them off on her fingers.
Noel snorted. “Everyone knows the demon realm’s a myth—stories told by their governess to scare snot-nosed kids into behaving.”
How many times had Audra’s mother threatened her as a child?
Eat your veggies, or a demon will snatch you and drag you to the demon realm with the other naughty children.
That was until Audra began to suffer severe night terrors; her mother’s threats stopped, of course.
The only people who believed in the demon realm were the most superstitious of sailors.
Never skip a blind beggar’s cup, it was said; they’re demons in disguise waiting to steal your soul and force you to serve them in the demon realm—they even had a song they liked to sing about it, the creepy bastards.
Fee in their cup, you’ll sleep like a pup,
skip their tithe, your soul will writhe.
The first line referring to the blissful rest many people believed you earned after spending a lifetime of toil and suffering.
But Mist, she couldn’t stand Noel—she wouldn’t allow him to be so dismissive of Lottie, who spread only kindness and positivity.
“Are you implying that demons don’t exist, Noel?” Audra asked, her voice, though she tried to rein it in, dry and mocking. “Why, then, are we learning the most efficient ways to kill them in combat class?”
“Obviously, that’s not what I’m saying,” Noel snapped, eyes flashing with irritation. “Clearly, the demons must live somewhere in the Veridian realm.”
Audra raised an eyebrow. “Clearly, you didn’t complete your geography assignment last night, Noel, or you would’ve seen that the Veridian realm has no demon kingdoms.” She couldn’t help the smirk lifting her lips. “And I’ve never heard of a demon kingdom in our realm, so there must be a third.”
Scholar Haile cut in, her voice frigid. “The human realm is no longer your realm, Initiate Evers. Refer to it as such again, and I’ll assign you an additional paper on the righteousness of Zenaida and the virtues of our queen.”
Noel laughed, his smug face lighting up to see Audra chastised.
Audra snapped her mouth closed, embarrassment she hadn’t felt since she was a child making her stomach flip.
She resisted the urge to glare at Noel, turning instead to Scholar Haile and muttering an apology.
She could only imagine what an extra assignment would do to her already unachievable workload.
“As for the answer to the question, Initiate Nafre and Initiate Evers are correct. There are three realms. The human realm and the fae realm both exist on this plane, and then, the third … the Veiled Realm, which exists in a separate dimension and can only be reached by Veilway.”
“What’s a Veilway?” asked an initiate.
“Intricate, ancient magic. In short, they are doors. Portals that can be opened most anywhere in our realm, allowing for demons to come and go as they please.”
Nervous shuffling as initiates glanced around the classroom like they expected a Veilway to appear at any moment, allowing a legion of demons to explode from it, teeth and venomous claws at the ready.
“Anywhere? Even here on Holyvere grounds?” asked Audra. Maybe she hadn’t lost her mind last night. Maybe what happened in the residence hall was because of a Veilway, a demon opening one just to horrify her.
“No, the grounds are warded against them; it would be impossible for even the most powerful of demons to open a door successfully.” The scholar frowned. “Though no incra is strong enough to prevent an Aithne from creating a Veillink, a way to communicate via sound or visions between realms.”
Shit. So it could have been a demon using a Veillink.
But then, that would be ridiculous; why would anyone from the Veiled Realm wish to create a link between the underworld and a residence hall, just to torment a random initiate?
So that meant … Mist take her … she was just losing her godsdamned mind.
“What are the other classes of demons?”
Scholar Haile stalked toward the slate board, snatching up a piece of chalk with a flourish.
She slashed the chalk against the board in three lines, separating the slate into three quadrants.
“Callista: Tier Three”—she wrote the words in swooping letters on the slate board in the first of the three quadrants she’d created—“are the lowest caste and the lesser of the three tiers. These are the ones you will be focusing on in combat class, for they make up their legions of armies. These creatures take many forms but are easy to spot, as they are usually large and hideous. They lack free will and, therefore, lack the determination required to scribe incras successfully. However, just because they cannot do magic does not mean that they should be underestimated; their specialty comes in following commands—they will do absolutely anything and everything to see their orders achieved.”