“Fates be with you,” I said before hanging up and calling my best friend, Joel Craven. He recently took over as the Incubus Representative since the last one decided to step down after many years of service.
Joel and I had been friends since we were just kids, and we had been through a lot together. He’d supported me after Mom was killed, and I helped him through his fear of feeding as a teenager. Joelmade me realize that helping others turn a new leaf was what I wanted to do alongside vengeance.
“Hunter!” he answered cheerfully. “Long time no talk. What’s up?”
“Morning, Joel.” I smiled. “I hate to throw work at you, but…can I ask you something?”
“Go for it.”
“Do you know much about the Shadowhearts?”
He let out a humorless chuckle. “Uh,yeah. Shadowhearts have known ties to dark magic. At the council’s last meeting, the one you didn’t come to because of your counseling obligations, their name was thrown out. We’re investigating them for the dark magic plague happening in the Demon Capital. Their daughter died from dark magic exposure, not just decapitation. The girl was only ten. My gut is telling me that they’re responsible in some shape or form.”
“No wonder,” I muttered. “Their son’s head may have been cut off a couple of times…”
“Shit.” I heard a few papers rustling around. “I’m handling the investigation into the family, so if you find anything out from their son, let me know. I’ll do the same, yeah?”
“Sure. Dad’s opened a vengeance case on them. Maybe you can talk to him and compare notes through this process?”
“That’d be great.” His tone turned cheerful again. “Your dad always knows where to dig for information. I’ll call him now.”
“Great, thanks.”
“Yep. Talk to you later,” he said before hanging up.
Joel seemed really into this investigation. The way he jumped all the way in just by me mentioning their name was odd. Not that Joel wasn’t productive, but he wasn’t usually so passionate.
Maybe it was because dark magic is a real threat to our territory. Maybe Shadowheart would know something about his parents. I’d just have to ask, but there was a strong possibility he wouldn’t tell me anything.
One thing for certain was that I didnotwant Pandora hanging around Dexter Shadowheart.
13
PANDORA
Ialways wanted a girl best friend, but I knew with absolute certainty that Dreadful wasnotbest friend material. Nor was she even friend material. She might have been my roommate, but I found myselfnotenjoying her company. I didn’t want to try to placate Dreadful’s feelings anymore. She was rude and abrasive to everyone, not to mention materialistic.
“This looks so much better on me.” She flattened the wool skirt she’d stolen from my closet over her legs as we walked across the sandy campus to Reform Hall for Ceremonial Magic. “I mean, you can’t even wear it with that nasty thigh wrap. You should really just give it to me.”
“I can still wear it,” I grumbled, flattening my flowing skirt that was just as short as the one shehad on against my legs. “The wrap isn’t nasty, either.”
She’d come into our dorm last night, waking me up by being loud and complaining that everyone had been making fun of her roommate after Dex had sent me into a panic attack. She didn’t ask me if I was okay or seemed to care about me in the slightest. That was telling enough as it was. She told me that I was a soul eater, and I needed to stop pretending to be weak before I became a pariah at the academy. If that happened, she would stop hanging out with me—which, at this point, I actually wanted.
“Maybe if you hadn’t takenforeverto wake up, you could’ve worn the skirt if you like it so much.” She huffed and flipped her blonde hair at me, and her birthday cake scent filled my senses. It was far too sweet. It wasn’t that I didn’t like sweet smells, but I much preferred Hunter’s sweet chocolate scent or Reed’s cotton candy scent.
“Or you could’ve not touched my closet,” I mumbled bitterly.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to share my clothes. It was more that she took clothes Daryl had bought for me without asking. She acted like he’d bought them forher.It was a matter of principle, and it upset me. Maybe it was irrational, but it did.
She gasped as we entered Reform Hall. “Rude. I’m being nice to you, Gravesend. Don’t make me regret it.” She stormed ahead of me, and I didn’t stop her as we made our way to room 219.
The classroom was illuminated by flickering orbs of light that cast dancing shadows upon the sandstone walls. There were noticeably no windows in this room. Runes and sigils adorned every surface, pulsating with magical energy that hummed through the air. At the center stood an embellished altar, the surface etched with arcane symbols.
As I stepped in behind Dreadful, hushed murmurs of the students quelled off. It was replaced by a tense silence broken only by Dreadful’s heels on the floor as she went to the middle row and sat with a few other demons, one I recognized as Nightwind, the demon who had said something about Reed hanging out with me in Demon Basics.
Eyes settled on me, and goosebumps raised the flesh on my arms. Ignoring the scrutiny of my peers, I made my way toward an empty seat near the back of the room before realizing who I had just sat next to.
I should’ve brought Nebula with me today instead of leaving him at home, but he’d insisted that he wanted some time to sleep instead of being jostled in my bag all day.
