Chapter 22
Twenty-Two
SLADE
If I’m honest, I really like the guys I’m paired up with.
Kaspar is obviously trying to behave in a way that will make Morgana happy, and the demons are all fairly laid back.
After we finished snooping around the gym and adjacent offices, my dragon family member announced we were heading to the ‘knowledge enclave’, which Salem explained is the building where a lot of classes are held.
It’s fairly big, with six stories and some underground floors; I’m not sure we’re going to get through this all tonight.
At least, not without skimming and making notes on what we should come back to.
Though they’ve all made it clear to me that time is odd here several times, so I’m not sure if my assumptions are correct.
“What’s on your mind, siren?” The big, black and white-haired demon gives me a curious look as we enter the main floor. “Feeling something we should look into?”
I shake my head. “No, but this is a big building. I don’t think we can finish this and the admin building tonight. That seems insurmountable at best.”
The serious, bespectacled demon scratches his chin. “With something this large, we’re going to need to use magic and supernatural abilities to search. Otherwise, you’d be right—it wouldn’t be possible.”
Thinking about his statement, I nod slowly. “If we half-shift—or full, whatever you choose—we can use any available powers to search for something that doesn’t fit. That would make it easier to narrow the field.”
Kaspar snorts, arching a brow. “I’m not shifting even a little. There’s not enough room, and dragons aren’t fond of revealing their strengths unless it’s necessary. However, I can use my sense of smell to follow trails, should we need it.”
“Yeah, I’ll do better with my panda sniffer than anything else unless we find someone sleeping. My demon powers are geared towards the slumberland, and my bear isn’t exactly a slinky predator.”
His admission makes Damon laugh, and soon, we’re all chuckling.
The younger Gemini clears his throat as he looks around.
“I know the building—or I think I do—but if I unleash the demon stuff, everything will go to shit on a shingle. Chaos is difficult to rein in once it’s loose, and I doubt that will be useful. ”
“My powers might be helpful if we encounter people, though enticing them with the Cubi pheromones is a gambit. Luckily for us, I can cast and use magic outside of those powers as well. Some of my species can, especially those with higher power levels, and paired with the siren we might make this happen.”
I nod, glancing around the atrium we’re in with a heavy sigh. “Okay, we need to break this up into manageable pieces. Those of you who know the layout should decide whether we begin on the underground floors, the top floor, or some other configuration.”
Anton, Salem, and Damon look at one another for a moment before they all say, “Underground.”
“How adorable,” Kaspar mutters as he gestures to the elevator. “You can tell us why on the way down—one at a time, or I’ll clang your heads together.”
I said he’s trying, didn’t I?
By the time we reach the bottom level of the underground, I’m glad that State U isn’t built using magical demon whatever.
The amount of demons that probably fill this fucking place when classes are in session is frightening, and I would hate having to navigate that kind of crowd all day every day.
Plus, the demons insist no one uses the stairs for anything other than emergencies, and I’m not the biggest fan of crunching into their elevators as we have been.
All of it feels weirdly claustrophobic, and that’s never been an issue I’ve had.
Maybe it’s because there aren’t any water features or obvious places for me to reconnect with my aquatic side? That could be it.
“What do the aquatic folks down here do?” I ask as Anton fiddles with the sigils he’s drawing on a wall. “I’m used to a bit more… water stuff… than I’ve seen since we arrived.”
Salem blinks and tilts his head. “Slash uses that Hellspring for his needs, and I have no idea where the other water-based assholes go here. We don’t really associate with anyone not in our caliphate for a bunch of reasons—the biggest being that they’re all hoping to de-throne us at every turn.”
I flinch, wrinkling my nose as I look at him. “You guys really only hang out with each other if you’re not in classes? That sounds worse than being home with my folks’ gang.”
Kaspar looks at me shrewdly. “Sure about that, guppy? I’ve met your parents, and I don’t think being limited to people you consider family versus dealing with those assholes is equivalent. Even your siblings are shit.”
“Tracer isn’t so bad… as long as he’s away from the rest of them…” I finish lamely. “Okay, I suppose you’re right. I’d prefer my family to a bunch of bloodthirsty shitheads hoping to kneecap me if they get the chance.”
“Trust me, music man… Demons who go here are rich, stuck-up, and have almost never been told ‘no’ throughout their entire teen and kid years. Some of them are millimeters from being sent to Bamford U instead; hell, if they weren’t rich as sin, they would be.
” Salem shrugs and walks over to look at Anton’s work. “Nice hex work, Annie.”
My gaze shifts to Damon to confirm what the panda said.
He nods at me, shrugging as he grins. “Yeah, he’s right.
Ang and I struggled a lot with not fitting in because we live on the surface; most of the dumbasses we graduated with barely even spoke to us.
That’s why we didn’t mind coming home and dealing with the shit rather than staying here.
Demons that live up there are not considered high in the social caste system at Discordia. ”
Anton turns, looking at me and the hacker.
“The bullshit most of the students here tout as gospel in public isn’t even followed in private.
They like to shout dumb shit in the arena or in class, but you’ll find them doing the exact opposite behind closed doors.
I pay no attention to them at all; why would I? ”
I feel that has to do with him and the pretty demon being together, and it makes me angry. How is it that there are always bigots in every fucking realm?
“What do you need me to do?” I ask, pushing my irritation aside so we can continue moving toward our goal. “I’ll help when you tell me what I should do.”
The avian demon steps back from his work, dusting his hands off.
He looks like he’s going to freak out a bit, but the panda digs in his pocket and hands Anton a wipe.
Once he’s cleaned up, he looks at Damon and me with a much calmer expression.
“I know his magic is chaos-based, but the infusion will help us reach more areas quickly.”
I nod. “Okay. But how do we… infuse that? I’m not familiar with demon rituals.”
The younger Gemini grabs my hand. “We need to join hands, facing the sigils, and allow our magic to project at the marks. That will activate his hex, and it will then spread through the walls of the floors. I doubt we can power more than a few at a time, but we can re-draw every couple of levels.”
“Should I be… chanting or picturing something…?” I say in an uncertain tone.
Siren songs are so much easier than most of this shit, but I’m sure going to try.
“For you, it might be easiest to project the desire to locate hidden secrets or objects as you hum,” Anton replies.
He pushes his glasses up, watching me flinch at the suggestion.
“Your dragon can cover his ears, and Salem will as well. Those of us in the line will be immune to the power of the song.”
“Are you sure?” Damon says skeptically. “I’ve never heard of anyone but mates being immune to siren songs.”
Nodding, the rainbow-haired demon comes closer, taking his hand to complete the chain. “Demons are not affected by many things while working magic. Perhaps your magic professors were not as good as ours, Gemini?”
“Or you’re part of a royal caliphate and they teach you different shit than they do everyone else.”
Clearing my throat, I look at Kaspar and Salem. “Cover your ears as well as you can. We’ll do a practice run with just a small amount of my song. That way, we find out which one of them is correct without forcing them to trail me the entire time I’m in Hell.”
“It would serve them right,” the dragon mutters. “But fine, we’ll give it a go.”
Salem grins as he covers his ears, and I wait until Kaspar pulls a pair of actual earplugs from his pocket in a tiny case. I have no idea why he’s packed like Batman, but I’ll take it, I guess. When they’re done, I turn back to the other demons. “Are you guys ready?”
Anton nods as a swirling, colorful wisp of magic escapes him and wafts toward the wall.
A dark, spiky burst comes from Damon next, and I can almost feel the chaos as it joins with the beautifully colored ‘pride’ power from its heir.
I take a deep breath, centering myself for a moment, and then I hum a soft tune.
Surprisingly, my song is visible in an array of blues and greens before it heads for the other magic to meld together.
“Is anyone feeling like they need to stalk Slade now?” Kaspar says loudly, and I almost stop humming to laugh at his comically loud question.
“I don’t,” Anton replies confidently. “But I see our combined energy funneling into the sigils, which was the point. Slade, you need to turn up the volume, so to speak.”
“Yeah, I’m good, too, so he’s right. You can go whole hog,” Damon adds. “Whatever that means for you.”
I move to actual singing, projecting my voice loud enough to shake the fixtures on the walls.
The drawings glow as the ball of melded power sinks into them one by one.
Spidery cracks of energy climb up the wall they’re marking, and I have to focus on my song so I don’t stumble on the words as they spread.
“Do you see anything? Or feel, or whatever?” Salem yells from behind us. “I’m fine, but you know… I have no fucking idea if this light show is helping.”
“We don’t have enough time to waste any,” Anton replies as he watches the wall. “And that fool can’t hear my reply, but you two can. This is working, I believe, and it’s following the trail of something… see how it’s moving from a wide disbursement to funneling toward the upper right corner?”
Damon nods. “I see that. What’s in that direction?”
“Studios,” the pride demon says with a grimace.
“Whatever we’ve got a bead on, it’s hiding in studios.
That cuts down the need for searching classrooms, but it means we’ll have to use magic to crawl over each one because they are all different and geared to different specialties.
I have one in this building, as does Xerxes, for our artistic degrees. ”
“Shit,” Damon mutters as he looks at me.
“This building has a fuckton of personal studios, and once we find whatever is setting off the magic, we’ll have to figure out who it belongs to and then who else might have had access to it.
Our brief visit here might take longer than expected if we want to track this down. ”
I blink, waiting for them to continue. I don’t want to stop singing until they tell me to, but I also want to respond. Finally, Anton uses his free hand to motion for me to stop, and when I do, I pant softly. “Damn…”
“Catch your breath, Slade. We will need to do this again in other areas. You don’t want to lose your voice.” Damon grins a little, and I give him a thumbs up.
“Not to be a killjoy, but now that I don’t have to cover my ears…” Salem shakes his head a bit as if to clear it and then walks over. “We need to follow that… whatever the hell it is. I want to know what fucker is hiding something from us in these damn rooms.”
“You and me both,” Kaspar rumbles. “Even if the answer is that we have to track down the owner and zap his ass until he spills.”
This might get ugly really fast if we let Kas decide how we get info from people—though, by the look on the panda’s face, he might be okay with that, too.