Several hands shoot up in the air.
Kaia lowers her hand. “The more souls, the more demons.”
“Right. And who can elaborate on that?” More hands shoot up and Dalmatius points to a girl with bright red hair in the front.
“Demons flock to souls whose bodies died suddenly.”
“And what is a common issue with sudden death?” Dalmatius looks our way. “Mr. Bellator?”
“When a soul is suddenly and violently ripped from a body, it has a tendency to linger, making it harder to reap. And the longer souls linger, the more likely they are to attract demons.”
“Exactly.”
I slowly raise my hand in the air.
“Yes, Miss Blake?”
“Why are there ghosts in the human realm then? Some ghosts are famous too, and humans travel all over to stay at particular haunted hotels for a chance to see them.”
The class breaks out in whispers again.
“Excellent question, and it’s something that’s been a bit of a debate. Some of those souls—ghosts, as you call them—have been in the human realm for a very long time. And over time, remnants of the soul start to fade. They don’t offer much appeal for demons, and we’d rather put our efforts into newer, more powerful souls.”
“That can’t always be true,” I say aloud. “A demon went after my friend, who’d been dead for over seventy years.”
Now everyone turns to look at me, realizing I’m talking aboutthat night. The night a human saved one of the most promising reaper students. The night history changed for them.
“I’ve now met that particular soul, as have most of us,” he adds, and a few people laugh. Way to go, Cass. Already making an impression and you’ve been here less than a week. “And she maintained her intelligence and sense of self in the human world, which isn’t common. Undoubtedly, her spirit was strengthened by her connection with you. And that spiritual strength is likely what attracted the demon.”
The lesson goes on, and even though Max told me he’d already taken notes on this discussion, I write it all down, completely fascinated by the subject. It helps that Professor Dalmatius is passionate about the subject—his lecture is more like a discussion group, and he involves the class as much as possible. Far more engaging than any of my professors at Columbia.
“What do you have next?” Kaia asks, jogging to catch up to us as we walk down the wide hallway after class.
“Defensive Spell Casting,” I tell her.
“Oh, me too!”
I unfold the list to show her.
“We have a few classes together,” she tells me. “The first two, obviously, and then Human Studies.”
“What do you do in Human Studies? Just talk about humans?”
“Sort of. The class breaks down and explains human behavior to try to understand why souls form attachments to certain places, objects, or even other living people.”
“It’s hard to reap a soul that has an attachment?”
“Yes. Eventually, we will guide them from the human realm to the afterlife, and they’ll go where they’ve been deemed worthy of going. I haven’t done it yet, but as you can imagine, not all souls are ready to leave the human realm. It’s our job to get them to, because if they don’t, they run the risk of being devoured by a demon.”
“People die like every single hour of every single day from all over the world,” I say.
“Yeah, which is what keeps us in business.” She grins. “It’s how it’s always been, and we’ve always been there to guide the souls to eternal resting. Or eternal torture, depending.”
“What do you do when a soul doesn’t want to let go?”
She looks past me at Max, letting him answer this one.
“There are certain spells we can use to sever the ties and make them come with you,” he says. “Like the spell I used on your, uh, friend.”
