“Yes, Amelia! You knew her?”
“The girl showed talent. I knew of her.”
“And Madame Bardin, she was a teacher then?”
“Veronica.” His eyes seem to cloud over and his chin droops to his chest. “What do you want to know about the demon realm? I suppose you want to know how to defeat the demons.”
“If there were a way to defeat the demons once and for all, we’d already know about it,” I tell him.
“Sure about that, are you?”
“Are you saying there is?” Thorne asks.
“I’m saying no one has truly understood how they come by their powers.”
“They feed on humans, they devour our souls,” I snap.
He shakes his head. “It’s not their true source of power. I’ve always surmised that there must be another source. An idea I shared with your mother. I wonder that she never pursued it.”
“She probably did and found it just that – nothing more than a theory,” I say, jaw tightening.
“Where do you think this power source could be?” Briony says coming to sit, cross-legged, next to the old man. Dray drops down too, but I, like Thorne, remain resolutely on my feet.
“I can’t be certain, but most often they seem to come from further east – in the direction of Crow’s Fault. I assume there’s something out there. Something they need.”
“Have you been out that far?” she asks next.
“It’s hard to remember,” he says, confusion sweeping over his features, “it’s hard to remember where I’ve been.”
Briony shuffles up onto her knees with frustration. She thinks this man is the key to finding Fox and she is determined to extract the information she needs.
“Where didyoucome from?” he asks. “Maybe if you tell me, I’ll remember. You could tell me about your time at the academy. I was so fond of that place. It was my life for so many years – for so many many years.”
Briony tucks a loose strand of her golden hair behind her ear and then begins. She starts her story from the moment shestepped off the train at the academy station. She doesn’t tell him everything. There’s no mention of visions, fated mates, or our discovery of Bardin’s murdering ways. There are parts of the story that are new to me. I learn of other attempts to kill her that she’s failed to tell me about. Other rooms she’s broken into like her sister’s old one. And she talks of all the things she’s learned at the academy that the realm never thought to teach her before.
The Head listens keenly as if her words are like breath blowing life back into him. He chuckles when he hears that Professor Cornelius is still teaching, shakes his head when he learns who the new Physical Education teachers are, and nods when she describes the dragon skeleton that resides under the Great Hall.
The clouded confusion appears to lift and his eyes glint more brightly under Briony’s light, wandering over the girl’s face in fascination, taking in her entire form.
When she comes to the part where together we entered the demon realm, his brows pierce together.
“The Empress has tasked you with capturing Madame Bardin?” he asks.
“Yes,” Briony tells him. “But we’ve come for Fox as well.”
“Fox,” he says, and I almost believe I see a twinkle of recognition in his eyes.
Briony continues, describing what we’ve encountered since we arrived in this realm, ending with us sealing this tower and finding him here.
“They’ll break through eventually,” the old man says. “They always do.”
“What do you think their power source could be?” Dray asks.
“I wish I knew.”
“But it could be destroyed?” my shifter friend says, glancing up at me and Thorne.
“I think it could be.Ifyou could find it.Ifyou could make it that far.”
