Chapter Four #4
She tried to punch me? She was really going to hit me just like that for no reason? I knew it shouldn’t have shocked me, but how could it not? I wasn’t used to living in a world where grievous bodily harm was option one, and reasonable communication was option never-gonna-happen.
“You heard her!” Raven barked, jumping up and coming at us as fast as her nine-inch high heels would carry her. “Let go of the fucking box, mortal bitch, or I’ll make you one of us right now!”
And by that, I knew she meant she was going to kill me. And I knew because the rage and hate etched in her beautiful face was screaming she was desperate to do just that.
“Get off!” Nik fell on the box, grasping it tight and fighting with me to hold on to it as Raven joined the fray, and then Ursula. “We caught it fair and square,” he bellowed. “Leave us alone!”
Raven scoffed. “What the fuck you talking about fair, Others Spawn.” She swung, and that hit connected.
She smashed her fist in his nose, dropping Nik like a stone. “There’s no such thing as fair.”
With three against one—and Dora standing there, blinking at the scene as if she couldn’t understand what was going on—the box yanked out of my grip.
My fingernails caught on the lid, and tore it free as we flew apart—unleashing the shade just as the door swung open.
A dark, wispy, there-and-not-there figure burst from the box and blew past Erlik, escaping into the paradise of darkness and shadows that was a hell’s dungeon.
A face like thunder turned on us. “Is this what you call winning?” Erlik seethed. “Setting a shade loose on the whole of the academy? Even for the carrion crows, it’ll take months to find that fucking thing!”
“It was her!” Five voices rang out, and turning around, I found five fingers pointing back at me.
Raven, Kama, and all the princesses of sin pointed at me with not a lick of shame on their faces.
“She did it,” Ursula, the gluttony princess, announced. “I caught the shade all by myself, but when I brought it out to show you, these freaks jumped me and set it loose.”
“It’s true,” Raven said.
“I saw it,” Sauda chimed in.
Kama smirked at me as she dropped kisses on Ronin’s horns. “It was those three, Sir Erlik. You’ll punish them for me...” Blowing Erlik a kiss, the lust princess licked her lips as she said, “Won’t you, sir?”
To his credit, Erlik was openly disgusted at her flirting. He flicked to Ursula. “Caught it all by yourself, did you?”
“Yep. No one helped me. No one could,” she boasted. “I’m just that good—”
“How?”
She blinked. “What?”
“How?” Erlik repeated. “How did you trap the shade alone?” He kicked the box aside. “And why did you trap it in a box? Why didn’t you kill it?”
“I— I—uh—” She rolled her eyes. “I used magic, of course. And I didn’t kill it because I didn’t feel like it. Kill your rats yourself.”
Erlik hummed, his bushy brows high on his forehead. “Your turn.” Dark, piercing eyes turned on me. “How’d the shade end up in that box?”
“We caught it,” I said clearly, completely ignoring the taunts and abuse the princesses heaped on me. “Me, Dora, and Nik. I used myself as bait, and then Dora and Nik ran in with the torches. They used the heat and light to force the shade into the only dark space we left it.”
“That’s a lie!” Ursula shrieked. “That’s what I did! She’s just spitting out what she saw me do.”
Erlik wasn’t even paying attention to her. “And as for why it’s still alive?”
I frowned at him. “Why would I kill some poor creature you abducted and dragged here by force? Violence should be the last resort. Not the first one.”
Snorting, he barked a laugh. “I figured it was something like that, stupid girl.”
Douchenozzle!
“Stupid, but”—Erlik snatched my wrist—“not a liar. Seeing as you’re the only one with the mark of the shade, I’m more inclined to believe your version of events.”
Erlik held my hand up before my face and my eyes bugged. My fingertips! They... They were—
“Black?” I bleated. My fingers looked like they’d been dipped in black wax— No. They looked like they’d been dipped in shadows. “What is this? Is it going to go away!”
He tossed my hand back at me—not in the least bit interested.
“As for you five,” he gritted, turning on the princesses.
“I like a liar as much as the next demon, but I don’t have time for empty-headed cunts.
First, you lose to a worthless human and a limp cripple, and then you can’t even cheat convincingly. Pathetic.”
“You’re pathetic!” Raven shouted. “Watch your fucking mouth, bitch, or I’ll shove those shit-covered hooves up your ass!”
Erlik laughed out loud. “Save the sweet talk for after your run, princess. You lose.” He turned that beaming smile on me. “You all lose.”
“All of us?” I cried. “But we caught the shade! You said you believed us.”
“I do,” he drawled. “But I also believe I told you to bring me a kill, not a fucking headache.” Erlik looked back to where the shade escaped. “No one killed the shade. No one won, so stop your arguing and get outside!”
Swallowing my arguments, I helped Nik to his feet and we went outside.
Nik, Dora, and I were quiet on the way, but the others were not. They were raising holy hell, berating a bored Erlik who wasn’t even pretending to listen to them. And as if that didn’t upset them enough, Ursula tried stomping off in the opposite direction, and Erlik snapped her right back.
“Anyone who leaves without completing the run will be marked absent,” he drawled, smirking away. “And your expulsion will be carried out by me personally.”
Ursula straight snarled in his face. Between the preppy skirt, kitten heels, and blazer, she looked like a classic teacher’s pet, but the look in her eyes said all this pet wanted to do was bite a chunk out of the teacher’s face.
Even so, she spun around and joined the loud, marching stomp outside.
“Wow,” I muttered. “It’s wild how effective a threat that is.”
Nik rubbed his sore nose. Straightening, he slipped his arm off my shoulder and continued on his own support. “Isn’t a violent death an effective threat up there too?”
“Oh yes,” I dropped with hesitation. “But what’s wild is that it takes the threat of a violent death to get anyone to do anything around here. Stop talking or die. Come to class or die. Run or die. I mean, has anyone ever heard of detention?”
“Nope.” Nik cocked his furry head. “What’s that?”
“It’s when teachers punish you with mind-numbing silence and boredom. Also effective where I’m from.”
“Wow,” Nik gushed, ripping out his pen and notebook again.
The guy was just knocked out cold and was on his way to run laps around a school that was half a mile wide, and his eyes were shining like Christmas morning.
“Can you tell me more about the mortal world? My mothers lived in the wild forests, so there was only so much they could tell me.”
“I’m happy to answer any questions you have.
” I shook my head. “Honestly, it’d be nice to talk about home again.
Right now, I’m appreciating my home and the humdrum of my normal human life a thousand times more.
” I looked around. “I’m appreciating that it really does pay to be kind.
No offense, but when I cross over for real, I hope I go up. Not down.”
Nik cracked a mirthless smile. “How can that be offensive? Hell is terrible. My mothers weep for their trees, their forests, and the sun on their leaves every day. And every day I...” His smile melted away. “...wonder what I did in my past life that was so terrible, it landed me here.”
I squeezed his shoulder. “Hey, I don’t know what happened then either, but it’s like you said, that was another life and another person,” I said softly.
“A very wise, and very mean, snake said that as long as you can repent and change, you can ascend.” I smiled at him.
“Maybe there was a reason fate brought you to your dryad mothers. They raised you to be good, curious, and kind so that, maybe, this place won’t be the last stop in your story. ”
A flush came over his furry cheeks. “You’re... really good and kind... too,” he mumbled so low I almost didn’t hear him. “If it’s okay...” Nik ducked his head and was practically speaking into his armpit. “Can I have your... DeadDrop link?”
“Of course!” Whipping out my phone, I held it out to—
A hard body forced between us, knocking my hand off his shoulder and sending my phone flying across the corridor.
“Hey!” I shouted at Ronin’s back. “Have you ever heard the phrase excuse me?!”
“Nope,” he tossed over his shoulder, striding off without a backward glance.
Another shoulder shove knocked me sideways, and then another.
I bit off a curse as Kama, Sauda, Raven, and Eris violently pushed past me and Nik—laughing their butts off as they glided after Ronin. If that wasn’t enough, their girl gang lackeys did the same—leaving me bruised and battered by a parade of beautiful people.
“Jerks!”
I was steaming by the time we made it out into the scorching hot and barren landscape that passed for outside in hell.
Seriously?! I thought I left mean girls and bullies back in high school!
Erlik snapped his fingers and his favorite lawn chair appeared. He got comfortable as he flapped a hand at us. “Run. Any stragglers will run another two hundred laps more.”
Sighing, I made to fall in line with the rest of the class. I tugged Dora along with me.
“Wait,” Nik called, stopping me with a hand on the wrist. “You haven’t asked, but aren’t you wondering how I passed the entrance test? The lava pit walk? The climb?”
“Uhh... I guess, but...” I flicked to the demons in the class, who were tearing off and leaving us in the dust. “Do you have to tell me now?”
His smile widened. Stepping back, Nik turned his face to the sky and let out a series of clicks, rattles, caws, and coos that broke my brain.
I had no idea what was happening... until a shadow fell over us.
Nik grinned at me. “My mothers couldn’t teach me dark magic, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t teach me anything. How’s this for two hundred laps around the school?”
“Wha—? Ahh!”