I’d never been so happy to see someone—or in this case, four cheating someones—so angry.
We entered our world again right where we’d left it, in the courtyard of the Fae Academy of Elemental and Arcane Arts. The sound of trickling water filled my ears, and warm,blessedlywarm air washed over me, erasing the persistent chill of the Snowcap Court.
I was a little sad to be leaving Faerie so quickly. It was unlikely that I’d ever go back. But if I did, I’d prefer to stay at a much warmer court next time.
“Ah! It is splendid to be in our realm again, is it not?” Headmistress Cristala twirled, making her silk dress shimmer and sway around her.
“Faerie is nice to visit, but I could not see myself living there,” Alpha Conon commented, and the other heads of schools agreed.
“And now that we are back, we can finalize the ratings for the second event,” Headmistress Wake noted practically.
“Indeed,” Headmistress Cristala’s eyes glinted.
I wasn’t sure how the points had played out, because we hadn’t had a moment to catch up with the other champions before returning home. Although I did know that something unexpected had occurred.
The fae headmistress twirled her hands, and a stone bench that weighed more than she did shot from the side of the courtyard to halt in front of her. Delicately, the fae stepped up onto the bench.
I blinked. I’d expected there to be an audience present like at Nightdwellers, but it appeared that we were doing the points ceremony right here and now.
“The undisputed winners of the fae challenge,” Headmistress Cristala waved a regal hand in our direction. “The witches of Spellcasters Spy Academy.”
A smile bloomed on my face, and elation swept through me as the shifters, fae, and heads of the academies clapped. Only the vampire champions refrained from celebrating, but that was expected of those assholes, so I didn’t let it bug me.
“Coming in second place . . . the Fae Academy of Elemental and Arcane Arts, for their capture of an accomplice to murder!”
I whipped around to face the fae, my eyes wide. They had captured a baddie too?! I caught Sana’s eye and knitted my eyebrows together in question.
Tell you later,she mouthed, and I gave her the okay signal.
“The rankings of third and fourth place had to be decided upon by an impartial party, as none of the heads of houses could come to a fair decision,” Headmistress Cristala said, her tone dramatic as she pulled a small envelope out of nowhere, opened it, and pulled out a slip of paper.
“A tie! We have a tie! By order of Queen Tially Frost of the Snowcap Court, both Nightdwellers Academy and the Shifter Academy of Spies will receive six points!”
“We deserve nothing,” I heard Dasha say.
“I’ll agree to that,” one of the vampires—Francis, I was pretty sure—sniped.
“Now, now, champions,” Headmistress Cristala admonished them. “Just because neither school discovered a traitor does not mean that you weren’t helpful. The queen has eyes everywhere. She took all that you did and your methods of espionage into account. It may not be where you wanted to land in the rankings, but claim the points with pride.”
“And if you dislike it, perform better next time.” Headmaster Ezra glared at his students.
Yikes. I wouldn’t want to be a Nightdwellers champion right now.
Thankfully, Headmistress Cristala broke the tension by sweeping off the bench and bidding us all to say goodbye.
I turned to the shifters and fae, competitors who I also considered friends, and did just that.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
“For a human, Dante was extremely astute. He recognized that Hell consisted of circles. Unfortunately, nine is a woefully small number.” Professor de Spina swooped around the Advanced Demonology classroom, his dark eyes narrowed in concentration. His hands flew through the air as he moved, releasing gray magic that transformed into a three-dimensional visual that hung in the center of the room for us to study.
And study it, we did. The hundreds of concentric circles of Hell were simply too horrible and intriguing to take our eyes off of.
“To be fair, not even magicals know the exact number of levels that Hell possesses.” The young professor shrugged as he added a bit of flair to the middle circle and placed the royals on thrones made of bones. The Furies, a three-in-one aspect of a royal demon, barely fit, as they all had to share one throne. “Few wish to venture there to find out. And we rarely chat with demons about their home when they find their way to our realm.”
My stomach twisted, as it so often did when I thought of demons surging into our world.
“But there aresomemagicals who speak to them,” someone said from behind me.
