“I don’t want to hear it,” I sliced off. “Every day for the last month everyone’s been telling me how hopeless it is, how crazy I am, and that there’s nothing I can do to get her back. But I’m here, aren’t I? All I could do for a month was look at this stupid patch, but now it’s on my chest and I’m about to walk right inside Abaddon Academy, so don’t bet against me, snake,” I barked. “Nothing is going to stop me from rescuing my sister. Nothing!”
She tasted the air, my reflection held in her cool, reptilian eye. “I never had a sister worth rescuing.”
I tensed up. She could say all the crap she wanted about me. High school and then working as a waitress taught me to dealwith every kind of difficult person, but what I wouldn’t do was let her talk crap about Dora and get away with it.
“Yours must be pretty special.”
Brows popping, a small smile stole over my lips. “Yeah. She is.”
Sabrina sniffed. “Then, she deserves more than a sweaty octogenarian with a faulty nose as her rescue party. Your useless human body has failed you before you’ve even begun,” she said, slithering back down into my shirt. “You’ll be dead before the week is up, and not even my lord will be able to save you. Serves you right.”
My brow twitched. Okay, maybe I knew how to deal with difficult humans, but mean-ass, prissy snakes that live in my blouse? Not so much.
“Right, do you think you can take a break from insulting me, Sabrina, and give me some of that information you promised me?” I flicked up to the scarred, shirtless Adonis strolling ahead of me, heading for the same place we all were—the black castle on the shadowed horizon. “Why did he get so mad when I asked about his eyes?”
“Because,” she began, heaving a sigh like I annoyed her. “Red eyes—truly red eyes—are the mark of a demon. That creature is not a demon. He is a werewolf.”
My eyes bugged. “He’s— He’s a what?!”
“You heard me. He’s a werewolf, and before you ask, those pale-eyed creatures are vampires, and the winged creatures are fae,” she stated like she didn’t just implode everything I thought I knew. “Werewolves, vampires, fae, and demons are the only beings allowed to enroll in the academy,” she said. “Well, the male academy. The Abaddon Academy for Women also allows succubae and sirens.”
“But what—?”
“Silence. I’m going to sleep.”
I held back my questions, shaking my head. I didn’t know how much sleep snakes needed, but I guessed it was a lot. Sabrina had been up for hours—barking at me and all-around grinding down my self-esteem. Of course she needed her rest after all that.
One after the other, our group arrived at the gates of Abaddon Academy and stepped inside. It likely came as no surprise that the castle housing the school looked like an old, haunted Gothic mansion.
The biggest one I’d ever seen.
My head tipped back, and further back, following the east and west towers to the sky. The entire scope of the place stretched miles up and miles wide. The pointed arches, rose windows, and weathered stone were so black they sucked the little light right out of the air, making it hard to know for sure if there was even more of the castle that you couldn’t see. For all that Lucifer explained this was neutral ground, I didn’t understand why those demon kidnappers would take my sister to a busy school if they didn’t want anyone to know what they were doing.
One look at the place, and I understood. A dark, drafty mansion this big would have endless secrets, and even more places to stash them.
“You could be anywhere in there,” I whispered, voice trembling. “But I will find you, Dora. I promise.”
A shadow fell over me.
Craning my neck around, I almost broke rule one.
Walking beside me like it was no big deal was definitely a demon according to his bright ruby eyes, but he was one who appeared before me to show that werewolf Adonis up. This time when I assumed the astonishingly handsome man crowding my space was a demon, I’d be right.
My jaw unhinged taking him in—brows blowing up my forehead. Where the Golden Adonis was a rugged, wild mountain man, that was not this newcomer at all.
There was something sleeker, sharper, and, dare I say, delicate about him. Thick raven hair was slicked back, allowing two black iridescent horns to poke through. His eyes were two downcast, almond-shaped jewels. His skin was breakable porcelain. His jaw smooth perfection. His lips small little puckered things, and his nose long and hooked.
He looked like he just stepped out of a Renaissance painting... if they painted pinup models during the Renaissance.
I shook myself, clearing my throat.Come on, Charlotte, you can’t stare at someone that long, and not introduce yourself.
“Uh, hi,” I began. “We’ve never met, but would you happen to know a demon with a frog’s head, one with a scorpion’s tail, or one with—?”
Someone tapped me on my left shoulder.
I turned around, and felt something tear from my chest on the right side. “What the—!”
The beautiful stranger strode off, flipping my academy badge on his palm. “Intruder,” he called, squeezing my heart to paste. “Come quick. Intruder alert.”
