Chapter Eleven
“...do we do...”
“...stupid fairy boy... running his mouth...”
“...can’t contain this...”
Voices reached me in my dark, pain-filled space and dragged me back.
I came to on a dark, musty, old carpet—blinking to make sense of the figures and lights spinning in my vision.
“The fool has only gone and told the whole fucking school that Lord Lucifer let the witch into the school to slaughter us all,” Erlik gruffed.
“Says it was obvious from the first day when the little cheat rode a hellhound through the trials. He’s even saying that we demons likely suspected the truth all along, but didn’t care because the witch was only slaying wolves, vampires, faeries, and weak demons. ”
“His slander has already spread through the whole school—no doubt with the help of his winged messengers,” said a voice I didn’t recognize. “It’s too late to shut the winged brat up, but hell knows we can’t bring an accusation to a hell lord without proof.”
I craned my head to see, and immediately winced. I reached up to rub my temples, and found I couldn’t move my arms.
I was shackled and dumped on the floor of a small and oddly bare room.
Truly, this space had nothing to say for itself except for four walls and a door.
For some reason, three pairs of legs huddled together—facing one of the walls as if they were talking to it.
But the shackles were so heavy, they kept me pinned facedown, stopping me from getting a proper look at who else was in the room with me.
“What are your orders, Headmistress?”
Wait, what? Did he just say Headmistress?
“You’re quite right that there’s nothing we can do to silence Ravenscar now,” replied a feminine voice.
Was she the third pair of legs? “Nor would killing him solve anything. Lord Lucifer and King Ravenscar share the most favorable trade negotiations. Killing the king’s heir because he slandered Lord Lucifer, would only set off a war that Lucifer would bring down on our heads. ”
Murmurs of agreement filled the room.
“Are we certain this boy isn’t a witch in disguise?”
“We’re certain,” Erlik said. “I was there for the hellhound and the imp. He did not cast a single spell, incantation, or compulsion over the creatures. Also, his whereabouts can be vouched for during the first, second, and third batch of murders. As for this morning’s, the kid’s got a battered head and no shoes on.
Seems likely he was attacked, dragged out of bed, and dumped at the scene to be framed.
The whole school knows he made an enemy of the fae.
That’s likely why the killer thought we’d believe the bullshit lie that he’s involved. ”
I could’ve cried. More than that, I could’ve jumped up and kissed Erlik. I thought he was nothing more the Supreme Douchenozzle, but here he was, the sole voice of reason—saving my life.
“I see,” the feminine voice replied. “That makes things simple. We’ll kill this ugly little wart thing that calls itself Charlie.”
What?!
“Exactly, yes,” Erlik added. “I agreed.”
I lay there stunned—disbelief rocking me to my core. I wanted to yell and scream. To curse them out for even suggesting such a horrible thing.
But I was quiet. Now wasn’t the time to clam them up. I wanted to know exactly what they were planning to do, so I’d know when and how to stop them.
“We’ll interrogate him first,” the woman went on, “but no matter what he says, we’ll tell everyone that not even under torture did he accuse Lord Lucifer in having a hand in these murders. More than that, he died swearing Lucifer wasn’t involved.
“With him dead and no proof, the faerie’s slander will live only as rumor before it eventually dies, and all of hell moves on. As for the real killer, with someone else dying painfully and brutally for their crimes—”
I felt my bladder leak a little.
“—they’ll stop the killings, believing they got away easy. We’ll finally be able to put this distasteful distraction behind us.”
“Yes, Headmistress,” Erlik said.
“Very good, Headmistress,” the stranger agreed. “But if I may, since this demon boy can’t point the finger at Lord Lucifer, who should we say helped him? Because even if he didn’t have alibis, no one will believe he did it alone.”
“Hmm, yes, quite.”
There was a pause while she pondered.
“Say it was Somnus,” she dropped. “That drunken fool has slept through his last class.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the two voices agreed, taking up the direction to frame their colleague as a mass murderer without the slightest complaint.
“Shall I carry out the torture, ma’am?” Erlik asked with way too much eagerness.
“If I may,” interjected the fourth and final voice, “I’d like to handle the interrogation, Headmistress.”
No. I shook—suddenly so terrified and cold, a bucket of ice water to the face would’ve warmed me up. Please, no, no, no!
Cool fingers grasped my chin and forced me to meet those lantern eyes.
“I’m more than certain, ma’am,” Professor Radu said, “that I can get him to talk.”
ERLIK AND THE OTHER professor I didn’t know carried me kicking and screaming into the classroom.
Except, less of the screaming because they spelled my mouth shut.
They couldn’t have me shouting through the halls about their plan to execute and frame two innocent people for the murders—just to make their lives easier.
Erlik plopped me—shackles and all—into the chair placed in front of Radu.
“Are you sure you don’t need some help?” Erlik offered.
Revulsion climbed my spine when he gripped my shoulder.
“The headmistress said I’m to interrogate him alone.” Radu didn’t even bother looking up from his phone. He slumped in his chair, looking more like an annoyed, perpetually bored teenager, than he did my soon-to-be torturer. “Do you intend to disobey the headmistress?”
Erlik snatched his hand off my shoulder. Turning on his hooves, he clomped out as fast as they would carry him—taking his companion with him.
It was just me and Radu.
And the millions of torture tools dominating the classroom. Everything from weapons, to the rack, to spiked chains, to buckets for the blood. But then, of course, the Intro to Torture classroom wasn’t going to be filled with anything else.
“Speak,” Professor Santino drawled. From the pew, pew, pew coming from his phone, I was pretty sure the jerk was playing a game.
“They’ll have removed the silencing magic.
” Radu smiled at his screen. “And if it makes you feel any better, the cost of taking someone’s voice is losing your hearing for the same length of time the victim is silenced. ”
“Where’s Sabrina?” I demanded, skipping the chitchat.
“The snake?” Radu looked up long enough to frown at me. “I know you woke up and heard everything the headmistress said. You’re about to be tortured and killed all for the sake of covering for one of the hell lords, and the first thing you ask is where is your pet?”
“That’s right,” I snapped. “And you’ve got nothing to lose by telling me, so spill it. Where’s Sabrina? What have you done with her?”
“Wow,” he muttered, once again returning to his game. “You are a strange one indeed. But to answer your question, the snake is fine. She was released—unharmed—outside the gates. No doubt she’s slithered off to where she belongs.”
My eyes narrowed. “Why should I believe you?”
“Why shouldn’t you believe me? Aren’t you the one who said I lose nothing by telling you?
” He heaved a sigh. “But if that’s not good enough for you, I’ll confess that the demons-in-charge aren’t quite as certain that Lucifer isn’t involved in this as they want to be.
They’re also very aware that most of the snakes in hell are pledged to serve his House.
The last thing they’re going to do is harm a potential servant of his. ”
Now that, I believed. It was very clear to me as I lay on that moldy carpet that the staff didn’t care about the dead students, they didn’t care about killing another one, and they didn’t care about why all of these terrible things were happening...
but they very much cared about invoking Lucifer’s wrath.
“Okay. Fine.” I paused, waiting for Radu to say something. But nothing came. “What happens now?”
“Hmm? Oh,” he said, flicking to me like he forgot I was there. “What happens now is I torture you. First, I start with the fingernails—tear those off one by one. After that, your toenails are naturally the next to go. That done, I’ll pry your mouth open and remove all of your teeth.”
A band latched around my chest, squeezing the air from my lungs with every nonchalant word that fell from his lips.
“If you’re still not talking by then, I’ll—”
“Not talking? Not talking about what!” I shrieked. “You assholes just stood in that room and agreed I had nothing to do with the murders! You already know I was framed!”
“The murders?” Radu dropped his phone in his cardigan chest pocket just to scowl at me.
“What the fuck do those murders have to do with anything? No, I’m saying that I’ll take you apart piece by fucking piece,” he hissed, his predator eyes darkening, “until you admit that you’re human... and alive.”
I blew back, lips trembling. “This is why you wanted to interrogate me alone? So that you could pull this shit?”
A slow, terrible grin spread across his face. “That’s right.”
I twisted around to the door.
“Judging how fast you can hobble to the door while shackled?” he sang. “Well, I can promise it’s not faster than I can run.”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I sucked in a slow, deep breath. It did nothing to settle me. “Professor, please—”
“Don’t waste my time with pleading. That would be embarrassing for both of us,” he sliced off.
“Everything about you screams that you’re not from this world, but there are more than enough creatures in this wretched place who excel at illusions.
It wouldn’t be the first time a demon tricked one of my kind into drinking their poisoned blood.
“So, what you’re going to do is admit it,” he whispered as tears collected on my lids.
“You’re going to tell the truth. You’re going to break whatever stupid fucking glamour is keeping you from me, and I”—I screamed when he suddenly appeared in front of me, shoving his face in mine—“am going to feast.”
I sobbed—loud, wretched, heartbreaking sobs. “You don’t understand!” I screeched. “You don’t know what you’re doing! This is bigger than your hunger, you stupid... stupid... vampire!”
“Bigger than my hunger?” Santino laughed out loud—the first time I’d ever heard him make such a loud sound. “Little one, nothing’s bigger than my hunger. I’m dead,” he blared. “All of your petty politics and boring murders have nothing to do with me—”
“Do witches have anything to do with you?” I hissed, snapping forward.
“Does the power it takes to send five weak, low-level demons past the closed gates of hell have anything to do with you? Does the person who brought me here not to be your lunch have anything to do with you?” My grin widened as his faded.
“I think all of that does have something to do with you, Professor, or you wouldn’t have shat your pants when you saw the mark of the Avos coven hanging above the bodies of your kin! ”
His eyes narrowed to slits, lips peeling back from his fangs.
“See?” I pushed, getting bolder. “You don’t have things as figured out as you’re pretending you do, so the last thing you—the last thing any of you—should do is kill me. You need me if you want to figure out what the hell is going on around here and—”
“I don’t care.”
I stumbled over my sentence. “Y-you— What?”
“I don’t care,” he repeated, shrugging. “How or who got you past the gates. I don’t care if every single member of the Avos coven is right outside that door. I don’t care who brought you here, little one, or for what purpose.
“All I care about is you telling me the truth in the next ten seconds, because if you don’t, I’m taking that axe and skipping the fingernails—I’ll just go straight to chopping your arm off.”
“What?!”
“—eight, seven, six—”
“Are you insane?!” I thrashed in the chains, flinging myself about. “Let me out of here, you lunatic! I’m not human!”
“—three, two—”
I blinked and Radu was looming over me, wielding an axe.
He swung on my arm. “One.”
“I’m here for my sister!”
The blade halted millimeters from my wrist.
“My sister,” I bleated. “She was taken by demons a little over a month ago. The same five demons who were the first to be murdered. I still don’t know who had her taken or what they want, but I know that I’m no threat to anyone!
“I came here to save my sister and bring her home, and nothing’s going to stop me. Not even you.” Furious eyes flayed him where he stood. “Because if you try to kill me, he will kill you.”
“Who”—Radu squeezed the axe handle so tightly, he snapped it in half—“is he?”
I bit my lip hard, penning in the truth.
But it was no use.
“Lucifer,” I whispered. “I made a deal with him to get into this academy, so that I could search for my sister.”
A scream leaked through my teeth when he pressed his face against mine, inhaling me into his lungs. “And is that all he did for you, little one?”
“N-no...” I couldn’t stop crying. I couldn’t stop apologizing to Dora deep in my heart. “He sent me Sabrina to be my guide—”
“And?!”
I jerked out of my skin, crying harder. “And he gave me a disguise—”
“Why?” Radu hissed. Grabbing my face, he rubbed and kissed all over my cheeks, eyes, and lips—making my tears his own. “Why? Why? Why?”
He was insane. Completely and absolutely gone, and now... I would be too.
“Because... I’m a human mortal woman,” I whispered, “and as alive as they come.”
“Ah— Ahh!” he cried out—jubilance heavy in his voice even as he fell to the floor, clutching his head.
It was much the same pain and head-clutching that Tristan felt when the glamour broke, and the wool fell from his eyes. And as Radu gazed at me like I was the crown jewels, Mona Lisa, and the sunset over Lake Brienz all in one, I knew that wool was gone.
My flush cheeks, my fluttering heart, my very much not-red eyes. He could see it all.
“Professor, please—”
A loud, hair-raising hiss ripped from his throat. Eyes darkening to pitch black, Radu crouched—his muscles coiling.
“Don’t!”
He pounced. Tearing my head half off my shoulders, he snapped it to the side, exposed my neck, and buried his fangs in my vein.