“No! I wouldn’t!”
I breathed hard through my nose and turned away from all the nasty and confused looks that came my way when I shouted out.Sabrina obviously thinks we’ve found the culprit, so she’s twisting every new thing we learn to fit her conclusions. But a few people wanting Tristan dead doesn’t automatically mean he’s at the beck and call of whoever took Dora.
“What about my nestmate?” I asked, not wanting to saysisterorDoraout loud. “Anything?”
“No one spoke of a captured human girl, and for the rooms I could accesssss, I saw no sign of one either,” she replied. “But I was unable to finish my search before I had to return.”
“That’s okay,” I said—because it was polite, not because I meant it. I wanted to find Dora and getoutof this place, but I also knew snakes needed a lot more sleep than Sabrina was getting these days. She was really pushing herself to help me, so the least I could do was appreciate it. “Hey, if you want to go back to the room and—”
“Listen up, you fools,” Erlik barked. “Classes were canceled yesterday to investigate the murder of those asswipes and determine if they were really killed by a witch.
“They were.” Erlik said the magic words, in the most uncaring way possible. Just like that, everyone who had been lazing around rushed to take their place on the line—crowding in to hear.
“What?” “Seriously?” “You’ve got to be fucking joking!”
The only one who wasn’t flipping out or on the line was Ronin. The demon heir had conjured up a chaise lounge and was kicking back—fast asleep.
“You’re not serious,” a demon with snake eyes and a scaly face hissed, drawing my attention back. “It’s not possible for a witch to have gotten in here.”
“Of course it’s possible,” Erlik drawled. “All one would have had to do is glamour themselves and then blend in with the new applicants. As long as they passed the trials, they would’ve received a patch that gave them free run of Abaddon.”
I fell very, very still.
And not just because I felt Tristan’s eyes on me.
“No, that’s not what I mean,” Snake Demon snapped. “It’s not that it’s impossible for them to get into Abaddon. It’s impossible for a witch to get intohell. The bitch would’ve lost her soul when she crossed the gates, and a witch without a soul is just another demon.”
Erlik inclined his head. “Very true. There is no such thing as an undead witch. Even one turned by a vampire leech willlose their power once the change is complete,” he said. “The only explanation is the witch who has invaded our school is very much alive—alive in the way only a red-blooded mortal could be.”
“Ssssss!” Loud, nerve-wracking hissing sounded from the throats of the vampires—trapping a scream in my throat.
I knew it was just my imagination, but right then, I could’ve swornalleyes were on me.
“How could a living mortal be in hell?” one of the werewolves—the biggest, blondest, and beardiest—asked. “Is everything that bloodsucking worm said true? There never was an invasion. Because the wolves and the fae aren’tundeadlike all you bunch of walking corpses but somehow we ended up trapped in hell. You’ve been spreading that propaganda bullshit that we abandoned the moon just to waste away in this shitheap, but it wasn’t true, was it?
“Wewerebanished here because you fuckers wouldn’t stop pissing off the mortals,” he flung. “Wegot caught up in their psycho revenge bullshit because ofyou,and now they’re back to finish the job! Because if witches have the power to send living wolves and fae through the gates of hell, why wouldn’t they be able to cross themselves?”
I was sweating something serious—eyes flicking from Erlik to the blond werewolf. And for a rowdy and disrespectful bunch, everyone else was staring and listening just as intently.
Erlik’s expression was unreadable. “I don’t know what lies were poured in your ear, wolf, but no mortal—witch or otherwise—is a match for the great and mighty power of a demon.”
A snort snapped my head to the right. The blond fae who called me diseased looked at Erlik with even more nastiness. “This fucker says after a witch gutted five demons in your own house and splattered their entrails for all to see? What a joke.”
“They were weak,” Erlik replied, unmoved. “And like the woman she is, she used tricks and deception to achieve her task. Hiding among us instead of revealing herself to the slaughter she’d receive. Anyone who falls prey to a sneaking, slithering woman deserves their fate.
“But you know all about that, don’t you, fairy boy?”
The grin snatched off Ravenscar’s face. “What the fuck did you just say?!”
Ravenscar lunged at him and had to be held back by four of his feathered cronies.
“My lord Iarla, please, don’t rise to his provocation! It’s what that dead, putrid thing wants.”
Wow. There is no respect for teacher or student in this world.
Erlik compounded this thought by not respecting Ravenscar enough to even glance in his direction as the fae shouted obscenities and fought to get his hands on him.
“So, there you have it,” Erlik dropped. “There’s a witch in Abaddon. She’ll kill you if she gets the chance. Give her that chance, or don’t. That’s your fucking problem.”
