I’d been through more than this, and with Hunter and Reed by my side, I felt like I could take on anything.
35
PANDORA
As I sat in Demonic Curses, Dex, Hemlock, and Skel watched me with what I could only call predatory interest. Their stares prickled at my skin, but I sought comfort in my hair again, a silky curtain that shielded me from the dimly lit classroom. I did my best to ignore them and focus on our professor.
Dusk had her hair up in a long gray ponytail today, and she glided across the room as she lectured. “Demons curse for many reasons,” she began, her voice clear and commanding. “Revenge, power, or to bind a soul to their will. The intricacies of such curses are as varied as they are dangerous.”
Most of the students didn’t care, but some hung on her every word. It was a typical mix forthe reform academy. I had thought that more demons would be hungry for well…knowledge. This was a reform academy, a chance to learn more about how to function better in society. I was sorely mistaken.
A student in the front row I had never seen before spoke up. His voice was a dark, disembodied rumble that sent a shiver down my spine. “What about cursing with dark magic?” he chuckled, an unsettling sound that seemed out of place with everything going on in the Demon Capital and the academy itself.
I found my gaze glued to him, trying to place his face among my memories of classmates, but I couldn’t. His arms moved erratically as he spoke, his laugh filled with madness.
“Of course,” Dusk stated, irritation clear as she placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her gaze at him. “It’s possible, just like any magic. But it isn’t recommended. Obviously.”
He stood, the chair falling back behind him and hitting the rock floor with a loud clatter. “Dark magic isn’t recommended? It’s the dawn of a new subspecies of demon and a gift of dark magic.”
“What?” Dusk asked incredulously. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.Now.”
Even in the dim light, I noticed the dark veins webbing his skin. It was a sign of deep dark magicinfection, of a soul compromised and a body only living on the dark magic’s power. He was infected, and it was not a new infection.
“You say that now.” He chuckled. “But dark magic will infect everyone at this academy and all demons in the Demon Capital, no, in all of Kalista!”
Murmurs spread through the class.
The student turned, and his black eyes, no whites of his eyes showing at all, met mine. Fear impaled my chest as my instincts screamed at me to flee.
Dusk's gaze widened, and her magic sparked the air. “Everyone, get out of the classroom. Now!” she yelled, but the student had already launched himself at me, eyes wild with the depravity of dark magic.
I jolted to my feet, but before I could react, Skel was there, yanking me back over a row of desks. “Take her!” His vanilla and smoke scent was a sudden comfort in the chaos.
But then Hemlock's strong arms encircled me, his smell of spicy bourbon strangely reassuring. “I’ve got her!”
Dex stepped out of the shadows in front of us, his tendrils lashing out to slice through the oncoming infected demon, and it did. The shadow tendril cleaved down from the man’s skull towhere his legs separated, and two halves of his body dropped onto the ground.
But that didn’t stop him.
His two halves turned to black goo that reanimated his severed pieces, moving together until his regular form stood back in front of us, and he smiled a sinister smile full of rotten teeth. “Woah. That was great!”
“Dude, what the fuck!” Dex shouted. “If I kill you, fucking stay dead! Is it that hard to just die? I mean, honestly.”
“Dex, stop baiting the infected demon,” Hemlock hissed, his hot breath against my ear.
“Why shouldn’t he?” Skel took a hit on his pipe. “It’s disrespectful not to stay dead when someone kills you.”
“See! He gets it.” Dex turned his back on the demon and pointed toward Skel.
The infected demon laughed maniacally. “You feel familiar.”
“That’s probably not good,” Dex groaned, leaning his head back.
My soul resonated with something dark, and the man’s eyes found mine again.
“No. You feel like a threat,” his disembodied voice accused, echoing around the room.
A familiar tug pulled at my core, and a stream of death smoke poured from mymouth, drawn to the tainted soul before me. He had to go. He was unnatural, and I had the power to put an end to it.
