Chapter Eight #5
“Of course.” He didn’t even bother to lie.
“I’ve been most interested in you, my precious little student.
” Radu slouched across the armchair, his leg draped over the arm, and his chin resting on his knuckles.
His button-down shirt and black pants were rumpled and loose like he randomly grabbed clothes out of a shared clothes bin, and didn’t bother checking the size—because he already knew he’d look amazing in it.
I swallowed hard. “Why would you be interested in me? I’m as boring as they come.”
Professor Radu’s replying smirk made me want to run and hide. “Not nearly as boring as that. Just your way of speaking is interesting. Nice, considerate, understanding.” His gaze pinned me to the bookshelf. “Friend.
“All of them words that don’t exist in hell, so where did you hear them?”
I reached behind me, grip closing on a book spine. “No, sir, the question is where did you hear them? Have you been following me?”
His smirk went nowhere as he said the same two words that stopped my heart. “Of course.”
“Ssssee?” Sabrina spoke up, making me jump. “I did inform you of this inevitably. The vampire has you in his sights now. He will discover your secret and kill you,” she dropped like she was talking about the weather. “This is how your foolish quest ends.”
“Is your slithery companion talking to you now? Is it telling you the right response to stutter out?”
My head snapped up. “What? What are you—?”
Radu blurred. In the space of a breath, he grabbed hold of my Christmas nightmare of a shirt and ripped it off my body. He couldn’t see my breasts, but he could see the snake coiled around my body clear as day.
“What the hell!” I clapped my hands over my chest. “What do you think you’re doing, perv! You can’t just shove a student in your bedroom and rip their clothes off!”
Radu was draped over his armchair, looking like he was about to drift off to sleep before the full shout left my lips.
“Can’t I? Well, if we’re to talk of things we can’t do, you can’t carry around the means to cheat on your chest. And letting that little creature whisper all manner of answers and directions in your ear is cheating by definition.
“By rights, I should rip your pet off you and kill it.”
My breaths came in shorter gasps. “N-no, please,” I cried. “She’s not helping me cheat, I promise. She’s not even talking to me! I’m the one who talks to her.” I forced a laugh. “I just like having someone to ramble on to throughout the day. She’s like my—my—my emotional support snake.”
I wanted to cry. Even to my ears, my rambling reply sounded like complete nonsense. But Sabrina swore Lucifer juiced up my gaslighting abilities to maximum. She said people will want to believe my lies—no matter how ridiculous.
But if Radu was swallowing any of my crap, I couldn’t tell.
Radu gazed at me through heavy lids, his bored, lazy expression giving nothing away except for boredom and laziness—but I knew a predator’s tricks when I saw one. What better way to lure in your prey... than to look harmless?
“I swear,” I insisted, urgency leaking into my voice. I couldn’t find Dora without Sabrina. I couldn’t even search half the manor without Sabrina! Losing her would be the end of both of us. “She’s exactly what she looks like. A snake. She’s not helping me or talking to me. How could she be?”
“How could a hellhound help you? How could an imp favor you?” He reached into his pocket and tossed something at me. “You are an object of curiosity, student of mine. There very well may be a witch loose in the halls of Abaddon, slaughtering students, but all anyone can talk about... is you.”
Slowly, I bent and picked up his phone. It was open to an app I’d have no reason to know about called Dead Drop.
Honestly, it looked like one of those old-school chat rooms that went out of style when I was in elementary school, but who cared about that when it was doing its job just fine—spreading gossip and rumors about me.
SckMyBlls35: Something’s up with that hairy mole freak. He didn’t use a drop of magic, but somehow he got that imp wet for him. It trashed everyone else and let him walk right to the finish line.
MILFBngr: Who the fuck cares about him cheating at a race? Did you see what he had the imp do to that pigeon-fucker? Watching that full-of-himself shithead covered in the stuff that lives between his ears has to be the funniest thing I’ve seen in eighty years.
CommanderNightwing: You want those eighty years to end today, demon scum? You watch your fucking self and how you speak of Lord Ravenscar.
My brows blew up my head. Tristan said there was nowhere or time where all the students of Abaddon mingled freely, but I should’ve known that didn’t include online.
Haters always found their people online.
Howlr56: There’s something not right with that guy. Does no one else think it’s fucking weird that some mole-faced weirdo with impossible powers shows up at the same time a witch invades the academy?
I stopped breathing, and everyone in the chat stopped texting.
I refreshed the screen, jabbed the more messages button, and even exited out and checked the other open chats in the app, but there was nothing more said after that accusation was left hanging in cyberspace.
Why? My lungs filled with short bursts. Why did they stop? Did they realize I could be reading and suddenly switch to a private group? Was there any chance they thought the idea was so silly, they all collectively decided to drop it?
“For what it’s worth...” Radu’s voice snapped my head up. “I know the rumors aren’t true. You were sitting directly in front of me the entire time when those demons were murdered and splattered all over the courtyard, and I saw for myself how you dealt with that imp.
“While all those fools went straight to brute force, you took the time to understand the imp’s true nature. You’re clever,” he stated with no trace of mocking. “And cleverness always looks like witchcraft to the ignorant.”
I didn’t want it to, but his words eased my panic the slightest bit. “Thank you, Professor. I—”
“But that won’t save you.” Radu rose up—the boredom and sleepiness falling from his face.
“You’ve set yourself apart, young Charlie, at a time when standing out is the worst thing you could possibly do.
These lies, rumors, jealousies, and grudges will continue to nip at your heels until they rip out your ankles and bring you down.
When that happens, you’ll want someone who believes you on your side.
“You’ll want a friend.”
My gaze and voice were steady. “And are you going to be that friend for me, Professor?”
A slow smile stretched his lips, revealing gleaming, fearsome fangs. “I want nothing more than to be that friend for you, little Charlie, but that can’t happen if you lie to me. I don’t like liars.”
“Oh no?”
“No.” Radu closed the distance—those lantern eyes swallowing me whole the closer they came. “So if you want me to help you when the time comes, you’ll have to be honest with me.”
Yeah, be honest with you about being human, and then get immediately killed? No thanks.
My expression gave nothing away. “What would I need to be honest about? I haven’t lied to you about anything.
What you see is what you get with me.” I edged along the shelf, slipping free from his suffocating aura.
“Thank you for getting me away from those fae, sir. Have a good rest of your evening.”
My ugly sweater vest was in tatters on the floor, so I didn’t bother picking it up as I beat a calm, but quick, retreat to the door. Radu didn’t try to stop me from escaping into the hall.
The pitch-black hall with no lights to speak of, except for several dozen floating pairs of eyes.
“You’ve got to be flipping kidding me.”
IT TOOK ME, AND ALL the chills running up my spine, more time than I could track to make my way through the vampire wing.
I clung to the wall in the dark, slowly feeling my way, and trying my best not to stare too hard at the half a dozen pairs of eyes that were straight following me.
Why aren’t they saying anything?! I thought, my nails digging into the wallpaper. I can’t take this, I need a distraction.
“I wonder what’s up with that Ravenscar guy,” I mumbled seemingly into the air. “Is he really a prince? What was with that weird comment Erlik made?”
“I asssssume it is me you’re speaking to.” Sabrina’s dry voice hit my ears. “And not the group of silent, undead assassins currently stalking you through the dark.”
Hearing it put so plainly did nothing to help my anxiety.
“There is not much I can tell you about the fae people,” she continued. “They live in total isolation. Fae are masters of glamour magic—some even say they were the original creators of it—so they are able to hide their homes and people more effectively than even the lords of hell can.
“But still,” she whispered, making me slow, “magic has never been a match for rumors.”
My shoulder hit the end of the hallway. I couldn’t see where a turn left or right would lead to. I couldn’t even see an inch in front of me. Deciding on the spot, I chose left and kept going—leaning on the wall.
“The true origin of the fae folk is unknown. They themselves do not know how they came to be or who created them. But however they came into this world, they did so with incredible power, and with incredible power comes incredible arrogance and entitlement. As such, the fae decided they were gods, and humans were meant to serve and worship them.”
Hence kidnapping human children and enslaving them.
“When they found themselves in hell, they tried to overthrow the lords of hell and establish themselves as rulers of this realm, but the fae derive their power from nature—of which there is very little of in hell.”
I nodded along, listening intently.