Chapter Nine #3
She held me with a steady gaze. “Death is a natural part of life, human. It would’ve come for all the members of the coven either way, but at least if they were all bound by blood magic... they’d die after a life wielding limitless power.”
I fell quiet. Despite myself, I could see what she was saying.
Would you rather die rich or in poverty?
Would you rather die alone or surrounded by family and friends?
Would you rather die after a lifetime filled with achievements?
Or be cut down before ever having truly lived at all?
Either way, you would still die, but there was no point pretending that some lives weren’t better lived than others, and there were plenty of people that would happily trade a long lifespan for the power to make deadly supernatural creatures run scared.
“Sabrina... was it the Avos coven that banished all the supernatural creatures to hell and closed the gates?”
“That is what the vampires say, human, yes.”
“But what’s the point?” I cried, brows crumpling.
“The demons who kidnapped Dora were the first to die, and there’s no way that’s a coincidence.
Whoever is behind taking Dora must be behind these murders, but why use the mark of a coven that was an enemy over three hundred years ago?
Why kill those vampires specifically? Did they know something? Were they involved?
“And if they are trying to frame me? Why aren’t they doing it?
” I burst out. “Why aren’t they leaving evidence that points to me at the scene?
Why aren’t they making sure I don’t have an alibi at the times of the murders?
” A thought seized me, bolting me upright.
“Sabrina, what if this isn’t about me at all!
What if this is all—the murders, the victims, the Avos coven—is about Dora?
What if that’s why they took her in the first place? ”
She hung off my neck, twisting her body around to look me in the face. “I don’t deny that their motives could be many, but it is difficult to believe you have no purpose in these events. After all, they did not start until after you arrived.”
“That’s true,” I muttered, tapping my knuckle against my lips. “That’s very true. So... does this mean... they need us both? That’s why they haven’t touched me even though they know I’m here. That’s why they—”
The events of the last few days tumbled through my head. The eyes that have always been on me. The whispers that have always been following. The hands that keep reaching out to me, offering help in a world that knew nothing of kindness, generosity, or cooperation.
“That’s why they’ve been here the whole time,” I rasped. “Right by my side. Watching my every move.”
AN HOUR LATER, A FRAZZLED, nervous mess stumbled into my next class, Haven’t Fucking Decided Yet. A name that was so apt at the moment, because my jumbled brain hadn’t decided a single thing either.
I thought I was being so clever and tough, tricking Lucifer himself into helping me bust into hell, but what if that’s what Dora’s kidnapper wanted all along?
If it was, another voice whispered in my mind, then it would explain a lot.
Professor Radu said that with the gates closed, demons could only return to the mortal world while under a mortal’s control.
That can only mean that it was a MORTAL who summoned the demons that took Dora. And why couldn’t that mortal be—
“A witch.”
Bang!
The door slammed the opposite wall, letting in a fresh tide of students. It jolted me into picking up my feet and finding a seat.
The lecture hall was much the same as all the others, laid out like an auditorium. I claimed a seat near the front and took out my notebook and pencils—just in case.
The last couple classes had consisted of the entire class goofing off, messing on their phones, and picking fights while Professor Somnus lay flat out across the desk, snoring loudly and clutching a near-empty bottle of booze.
Sighing, I shook my head at the drunken lout once again passed out on his desk.
The worst part was that Professor Somnus seemed to be a red panda demon.
So as much as he annoyed me for wasting my time, I couldn’t help but look at his little button nose and red-and-white furry sleeping face and think... he was kind of adorable.
But I’m not spending another hour and a half watching him sleep today.
I just couldn’t. Things were getting weirder and weirder by the day, and I was still no closer to finding Dora. Sabrina heard a lot of angry, vengeful talk about the psycho murderer who most likely had my sister in their clutches, but she didn’t see or hear anything about Dora herself.
She said she tried to do a search of the vampire wing, but every single door except the exit and the murder room were closed to her, and every single eye followed her through the hall.
There was just no such thing as spying on creatures who had ten times better night vision than they did day.
“Which leaves me with very little options,” I muttered, jiggling my legs under the table.
Things were getting too dangerous. Ten people had already been murdered.
I was ninety-nine percent sure I was playing right into the hands of the killer-kidnapper.
I still didn’t have a clue where Dora was, or why she was taken.
And friends and foes were all starting to blur together, making me more paranoid by the minute.
I can’t go on like this. I need more information. I need to talk to the people who know the truth, not the lies and propaganda. I need—
I shuddered as the thought went through my mind.
“I need Professor Radu.”
“That leech?” Tristan made me jump to the moon when he banged his textbook down on the desk and dropped down next to me. “What do you need him for?”
“I— I—”
“How many times do you think your Tristan has shoved her screams back down her throat with his tongue?”
My face hardened. “Don’t worry about it,” I clipped. “It’s my business.”
Tristan’s smile twitched—surprise popping his brow. “Oh... yeah, sure. Of course it is. I’m not trying to pry, but”—he looked around, leaning in close—“you know you have to be careful, right? If he suspects—”
I scraped my chair across the rough stone pushing it back. “I said it’s none of your business. If you don’t mean to pry, stop doing it.” Sliding over my pencil and notebook, I plopped in the next seat over, leaving a very pointed space between me and Tristan.
And it made me feel like sun-baked crap.
My stomach twisted in knots, burning my throat with bile. I stuck my face in my notebook rather than see the expression on Tristan’s.
“Well done, human.” Sabrina stuck her head out of my collar. She had no problem looking at the expression on Tristan’s face. “Finally, you begin to see sense.”
“I—”
“Oooh, what’s this?”
Oh no.
“Trouble in paradise?” Ronin loped over to us, grinning away. All traces of the embarrassed demon mourning the violation of his anus was gone. “Why are you and your mutt sitting apart? You didn’t get into a fight, did you?”
I clenched my jaw tight, nostrils flaring. Just like a little devil to see a weakness and pounce.
“Ahh,” Ronin mourned, putting on a pout. “And here I was all amused over my pet finding a pet of his own, and now you’ve gone and broken up.” He tsked. “Pity.”
Pushing down my irritation, I forced a smile on my lips. “Tristan and I aren’t in a fight, why would we be? I only moved to make space for you.” I patted the seat. “It’s all warm and it’s all yours, Mr. Belphe.”
If anything, he smirked wider. “How suspiciously obedient of you, but I do remember telling you I sit in the back.”
“Oh, gosh, of course, sir.” I quickly gathered my things and popped up, secretly glad to get away from Tristan and the stare boring a hole in the side of my head.
“Charlie, wait—” Tristan called.
But I didn’t bother to look back.
Ronin followed me up the stairs, and even though I couldn’t see him, I knew he was grinning away.
Unease popped goose bumps on my neck and arms. Slowly, I turned and peeked at him over my shoulder... and locked right on to those ruby eyes.
In that second, I knew that Ronin hadn’t avoided me for the last day and a half because he was embarrassed. He did it because he needed just that much time to plan his revenge. And now—
—he was ready.
I swallowed through needles, vividly recalling the gory scene of blood and guts that Ronin caused in that mess hall that day with only a snap of his fingers. “E-everything’s okay between us? Right? Mr. Belphe?”
“Of course, it is, Charlie.” My name on his lips loosened my bowels. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
My lips parted—to say what I didn’t know. But I did know I had to do something to dispel that look in his eyes. “Mr.—”
“Whoa, whoa. Where do you think you’re going?” Over Ronin’s shoulder, Professor Somnus peeled himself up off the desk. His elbow knocked into the liquor bottle and it smashed on the floor. “What a waste,” he muttered.
Bending over behind the desk, he riffled around in the drawer, pulled out another bottle, and popped the cork with his sharp, little panda teeth. “Sit down, sit down,” he slurred at me and Ronin. “It’s time for class.”
Stumbling over to the chalkboard, he wiped Haven’t Fucking Decided Yet off and replaced it with—
“Magic class?” I read.
“Magic class!” he burst out, making me jump.
“With the second attack by this mysterious, skulking witch, and the body count now up to ten, it was suggested to me”—he bowed in the general direction of the left side of the room—“that this period would best be spent teaching you how to defend against witch magic.
“Something you’ve never had to learn, because there’s never been a living witch in hell.”
Once again, I watched my classmates do something they hated doing more than anything—shutting up, sitting up, and paying attention.