“I see,” the feminine voice replied. “That makes things simple. We’ll kill this ugly little wart thing that calls itself Charlie.”
What?!
“Exactly, yes,” Erlik added. “I agreed.”
I lay there stunned—disbelief rocking me to my core. I wanted to yell and scream. To curse them out for even suggesting such a horrible thing.
But I was quiet. Now wasn’t the time to clam them up. I wanted to know exactly what they were planning to do, so I’d know when and how to stop them.
“We’ll interrogate him first,” the woman went on, “but no matter what he says, we’ll tell everyone that not even under torture did he accuse Lord Lucifer in having a hand in these murders. More than that, he died swearing Lucifer wasn’t involved.
“With him dead and no proof, the faerie’s slander will live only as rumor before it eventually dies, and all of hell moves on. As for the real killer, with someone else dying painfully and brutally for their crimes—”
I felt my bladder leak a little.
“—they’ll stop the killings, believing they got away easy. We’ll finally be able to put this distasteful distraction behind us.”
“Yes, Headmistress,” Erlik said.
“Very good, Headmistress,” the stranger agreed. “But if I may, since this demon boy can’t point the finger at Lord Lucifer, who should we say helped him? Because even if he didn’t have alibis, no one will believe he did it alone.”
“Hmm, yes, quite.”
There was a pause while she pondered.
“Say it was Somnus,” she dropped. “That drunken fool has slept through his last class.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the two voices agreed, taking up the direction to frame their colleague as a mass murderer without the slightest complaint.
“Shall I carry out the torture, ma’am?” Erlik asked with way too much eagerness.
“If I may,” interjected the fourth and final voice, “I’d like to handle the interrogation, Headmistress.”
No.I shook—suddenly so terrified and cold, a bucket of ice water to the face would’ve warmed me up.Please, no, no, no!
Cool fingers grasped my chin and forced me to meet those lantern eyes.
“I’m more than certain, ma’am,” Professor Radu said, “that I can get him to talk.”
ERLIK AND THE OTHERprofessor I didn’t know carried me kicking and screaming into the classroom. Except, less of the screaming because they spelled my mouth shut. They couldn’t have me shouting through the halls about their plan to execute and frame two innocent people for the murders—just to make their lives easier.
Erlik plopped me—shackles and all—into the chair placed in front of Radu.
“Are you sure you don’t need some help?” Erlik offered.
Revulsion climbed my spine when he gripped my shoulder.
“The headmistress said I’m to interrogate him alone.” Radu didn’t even bother looking up from his phone. He slumped in his chair, looking more like an annoyed, perpetually bored teenager, than he did my soon-to-be torturer. “Do you intend to disobey the headmistress?”
Erlik snatched his hand off my shoulder. Turning on his hooves, he clomped out as fast as they would carry him—taking his companion with him.
It was just me and Radu.
And the millions of torture tools dominating the classroom. Everything from weapons, to the rack, to spiked chains, to buckets for the blood. But then, of course, theIntro to Tortureclassroom wasn’t going to be filled with anything else.
“Speak,” Professor Santino drawled. From thepew, pew, pewcoming from his phone, I was pretty sure the jerk was playing a game. “They’ll have removed the silencing magic.” Radu smiled at his screen. “And if it makes you feel any better,the cost of taking someone’s voice is losing your hearing for the same length of time the victim is silenced.”
“Where’s Sabrina?” I demanded, skipping the chitchat.
