“Wha—?”
“Seriously,” Tristan barked, shifting before my eyes. “Run!”
Red-faced and enraged, Ravenscar shouted, “Kill it!”
Wings ripped from the backs of the fae. I was turning and running before their feet left the ground. The imp poofed out of existence—leaving me well and truly on my own.
“Ahhh!” I raced across the dirt to—where?! There was nothing ahead of me except for the forest of dead trees and miles and miles of nothing. If I wanted to get to the manor, I had to go back the way I came, and there were seventeen very angry fae between me and the way I came.
The wind off seventeen pairs of wings buffeted the dusty earth, kicking up a red cloud of stinging, choking dirt. I ran hard and fast, daring not to look back, but that didn’t prevent me from seeing the shadows of a dozen swords bearing down on me.
“Die!” His shout blew out my eardrum. I felt his presence on the back of my neck like the hand of Lucifer. “Demon scum—!”
Something hard slammed into me, tearing me out of my boots. The world twisted and spun me around in a whirling, heaving kaleidoscope, then spat me out on the cold ground.
I immediately pitched forward and vomited.
Heaving and choking, my stomach finally gave in and emptied me of my lunch—leaving me wheezing and shaking where I knelt.
“What...?” I blinked, trying to make sense of my new surroundings. I was inside—I knew that at once, but how? Did the faeman magic me away to kill me in a secluded spot?
Vision clearing, I began to make out shelves and shelves of books.
“A... library?”
“Not quite.”
I jerked. Whirling around, I landed on the relaxed figure slouching in an armchair, lazily lighting a cigarette.
My blood ran cold. “Professor Radu?”
He arched a brow, slowly blinking those lantern eyes as if he didn’t have the energy to expend answering stupid questions. Of course it was him. Who else would it be but him?
A proper look around showed me I wasn’t in a library. I was just in the bedroom of someone who really loved to read. Every square inch of wall was covered by towering bookshelves that reached as high as the rafters, and on the rafters were even more books—stacked precariously on top of the wooden beams, waiting to rain from the ceiling like knowledge bombs.
I couldn’t be too sure that it was a bedroom, because there was no bed, but there was something incredibly cozy about all the squashy armchairs circling the fireplace that made me believe this room couldn’t be anything but a place to relax.
And that was far from what I was doing.
I clung to the wall, fear jackhammering my heart into paste. “What— What am I doing in this room? Did you bring me here?”
“Obviously, and you’re lucky I did,” he replied. “Those fae would’ve killed you, and then killed you again for dirtying their swords with your blood. Your”—he licked his lips, eyes flashing—“dirty demon blood.”
He said that last sentence as a statement, so why did it sound like a question?
“Well, then... thank you,” I rasped, slowly rising to my feet. “You saved my life, Professor. Not even Erlik could be bothered to do that.” I tried for a smile. “So, if that’s all, I’ll just go—”
“You’re an odd one, Char... lie.” He drew out my name, rolling it around in his sinfully delectable mouth. “Your name, your manner, your actions—all strange. Furthermore, no one seems to know who you are or where you came from.”
My blood chilled. “You asked around about me?”
“Of course.” He didn’t even bother to lie. “I’ve been most interested in you, my precious little student.” Radu slouchedacross the armchair, his leg draped over the arm, and his chin resting on his knuckles. His button-down shirt and black pants were rumpled and loose like he randomly grabbed clothes out of a shared clothes bin, and didn’t bother checking the size—because he already knew he’d look amazing in it.
I swallowed hard. “Why would you be interested in me? I’m as boring as they come.”
Professor Radu’s replying smirk made me want to run and hide. “Not nearly as boring as that. Just your way of speaking is interesting.Nice, considerate, understanding.” His gaze pinned me to the bookshelf. “Friend.
“All of them words that don’t exist in hell, so where did you hear them?”
