by Jayme Morse
He let his words hang in the air for a few moments before saying, “You must set them on fire.”
Chapter 25
Lux
As I gathered my books to leave the classroom, I couldn’t help but feel sort of overwhelmed. How was I supposed to just light someone on fire if they tried to attack me? I honestly wasn’t sure if I would be capable of it, even if someone was trying to harm me.
Killing someone wasn’t exactly at the top of my to-do list, but I supposed that I might not have a choice.
I knew that I was jumping to conclusions. There was a good chance that I might not even have to worry about killing anyone—not any time soon, at least. As far as I was concerned, I had no reason to believe at this point that anyone besides that girl, Alice, wanted to kill me.
Come to think of it, I wondered if Alice might have been a Demon hunter. I had looked just like an ordinary human.
Was it possible that Alice had somehow figured out that I was a half-Demon? It might have made sense why she had tried to kill me for seemingly no reason.
Whatever Alice was, the reality was that I had managed to escape her once—even if it had been with Zay’s help.
As I approached Zay, I remembered the letter I had written during The Balance of Good and Evil. Pulling it out of my notebook, I held it up for him to see. “So, how do I mail this thing?”
“Oh.” A weird look passed through his eyes. “The mail portal is right down the hall from my dorm. If you give it to me, I can put it in there after you go to bed, if you want.”
I held the letter in my hand for a few moments longer, trying to decide if I should let him mail it or not.
The letter just felt so personal, even though it wasn’t really. It didn’t contain any confidential information, nothing that I wouldn’t have openly shared with Zay if he asked. And yet, for some reason, I just felt like I needed to guard the letter with my heart.
I realized that I was just afraid of the letter somehow getting lost between now and the time he put it in the portal.
As if he could read my mind, Zay said, “I promise it will make it into the mail portal.”
“Well… okay.” I handed it over to him, trying to hide my reluctance.
Zay slipped the envelope into his back pocket.
“I almost forgot that I need to meet with Professor Walker,” I realized aloud. I glanced over at Zay. “Where’s his office?”
“It’s right next to Kieran’s office,” Zay informed me.
“Oh, okay.”
We were already headed in that direction. I was about to say that I wondered why Professor Walker wanted to meet with me, but at that moment, I heard a voice say from behind me, “Hey, are you Lux?”
Turning around, I found a guy with reddish brown hair and fair skin staring back at me.
“Yeah, that’s me,” I replied, an uneasy feeling passing through me. I supposed that it wouldn’t have been hard for anyone to pick me out of a crowd, considering I was one of the new girls, but it still made me nervous to know that everyone seemed to know who I was.
“I’m Tyler. I heard you want to go to the dance with me tomorrow?” He stared at my face, gauging it for a reaction.
“Oh, um, yeah. I mean, if you’re not going with anyone else, that is,” I said nervously. I tried my hardest not to glance over in Zay’s direction, even though I could feel his eyes on me.
“I didn’t have a date, so this works out. We can go together. It’ll be fun.” He smiled at me.
I felt a nervous heat rise to my cheeks.
I wished I could tell him that the only reason I was even thinking about going to the dance with Tyler was because Kassidy was pushing it—not because I actually wanted to go with the guy.
In fact, I really would have rather not gone with him, but now that the other girls had already asked him, it looked like I was stuck as his date. As much as I would have preferred to go alone, I didn’t want to seem rude, either.
The reality was that even though I didn’t care if I made friends at Demon Blood Academy, I didn’t want to make enemies.
“So, I’ll come to your dorm room around seven? The dance starts at eight,” Tyler informed me.
“Yeah, that works,” I replied with a small smile. “I’ll see you then.”
As Tyler walked away from us, Zay glanced over at me.
I raised an eyebrow at him. “What?”
“Oh, nothing,” he replied with a shrug.
He looked hesitant for a moment.
“Say it,” I said.
“Say what?” Zay questioned.
“Whatever it is that you’re thinking, because I know you’re thinking something.”
It was weird to think that I could read him after only knowing him for a few days, but the look on his face gave it away.
“It’s just… Tyler? Of all the guys at this school, you want to go to the dance with Tyler?” He eyed me curiously.
“Why? What’s wrong with Tyler?” I asked, feeling almost borderline defensive.
“He’s just…” He paused, as if he was trying to choose his words carefully.
“Just what?” I pressed.
“He’s just not the type of guy who I would picture you with. That’s all.”
“Oh? What type of guy do you picture me with?” I asked, glancing over at him sharply.
Zay’s eyes locked on mine. For a moment, the look behind his gaze had me half-convinced that he was going to say, “Me.”
So, it came as a shock when he said, “The type who deserves you.”
I just stared at him for a long moment before he turned to the door in front of us and knocked on it.
It was pulled open and Professor Walker’s smiling face stared back at us.
“Hello, Lux,” he said. “Please come inside.”
I shot a nervous glance at Zay before following our professor into the office.
“Please, have a seat.” He closed the door behind us and motioned for me to sit down. Nervously, I took a seat.
As he approached his desk, I glanced around the room. Though I couldn’t seem to put my finger on what it was, there was just something about his office that seemed so much darker than Kieran’s office. It just had a different energy.
Professor Walker took a seat across from me. He stared at me for a long moment. Finally, he said, “How are you doing so far at Demon Blood Academy?”
I shrugged. “As good as can be expected, I guess.”
“Have you had any… problems… with anyone since you’ve arrived?”
There was a genuine look of concern in his eyes.
“Problems?” My eyebrows shot up questioningly.
“Yes, you know. Has anyone given you a hard time over anything?”
I considered it for a moment. For some reason, Camille came to mind. I wasn’t sure why the girl seemed to hate me so much, but technically, she hadn’t actually given me a problem. It wasn’t like we’d had a confrontation or anything; all she had done was give me a strange look in the cafeteria and talked about me when she thought that I wasn’t even listening.
Glancing back at Professor Walker, I shook my head. “No. What makes you ask that?”
He frowned. “There’s a lot that you don’t know about yourself, Lux.”
“Yeah, I know,” I muttered under my breath.
His amber eyes widened a little. “You do?”
“Yeah. I’ve heard things… enough to know that everyone is keeping secrets from me,” I explained. “I just don’t really know what it is. And the truth is that it’s getting exhausting to wonder what everyone is keeping from me.” I paused. “Can you tell me the truth?”
Professor Walker stared at me for a moment. “As much as I would like to tell you everything, I can’t.”
“Can’t you tell me something?” I pleaded with him.
He paused. After a moment’s hesitation, he said, “You’re not who you think you are, Lux.”
“What do you mean by that?” I pressed.
“What is it?” I asked, leaning forward a little.
“You aren’t safe at Demon Blood Academy, Lux. Even those who seem most trustworthy cannot be trusted.” There was a solemn look in his eyes as they locked on mine. “You need to find a way to leave. Your life depends on it.”
Chapter 26
Lux
As I left Professor Walker’s office, I tried to ignore the feeling of dread that had taken over.
I felt even more confused than I had before I’d walked in there. The last thing I had been expecting the professor to do was give me a warning. I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting from our meeting, exactly, but it certainly hadn’t been that.
Now, I felt like I had even more questions than I’d had before.
Should I have taken his warning seriously? Should I have tried to find a way to leave Demon Blood Academy? Would I die if I stayed there?
I wasn’t even sure what to think.
As I rejoined Zay in the hallway, he glanced over at me. “So, what was that all about?” he asked me in a low voice.
I shrugged. “He just wanted to see how I’m doing here. You know, since it’s my first week and all. Wanted to make sure no one was giving me problems or anything.”
Zay glanced over at me. “Is that all?”
“Yup,” I lied.
Even though I wanted nothing more than to tell him everything that had really happened during my meeting with Professor Walker, I knew I couldn’t. The truth was that Zay was part of the problem, too. Like Professor Walker, he knew the truth—whatever the truth was—and he was keeping it from me. Even though I understood to some extent why he couldn’t tell me, I also couldn’t help but feel angry with him for keeping secrets from me at all.
“Well, at least your meeting with him wasn’t so bad then, right?”
“Yeah, I guess,” I replied with a shrug.
“Anyway, do you want to do something before we both have to get ready for the dance?” Zay flashed a smile at me—and I felt all of my anger melt away like a popsicle on a hot summer’s day. As much as I wanted to stay angry at him, I knew I couldn’t. He was just so darn cute with that irresistible smile of his.
I smiled back at him. “What’s there for us to do? We obviously can’t go on any more adventures without Kieran stalking us down.”
“Ah, but see, that’s only if we go on adventures outside of the castle. There are plenty of adventures that can be found right here, within the walls of Demon Blood Academy,” Zay told me.
I glanced around at the somewhat dreary castle walls, wondering what type of adventures he could even be talking about.
“Are you down?” he asked, leaning in a little closer to me—so close that I could feel his breath against my neck.
“Yeah, I’m down,” I replied, smiling up at him.
“Good.” His eyes remained locked on mine for a moment longer. Then, he finally said, “Follow me.”
We began to head down the hallway together. As we approached what looked like the door to a janitor’s closet, Zay twisted the knob open.
As Zay flicked on a light switch, I was surprised to find that it wasn’t a janitor’s closet at all. There was a set of stairs.
“Careful. These stairs are really old, so they’re really steep,” Zay warned me.
I took a step down and then instantly felt myself begin to panic. The stairs were steep, but it was more than that. The hallway was also really narrow, which made me feel slightly claustrophobic.
Zay must have noticed that I was freaking out inside a little, because he glanced over his shoulder at me. “You okay?”
I nodded nervously. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just go down the stairs as fast as possible, please.”
His eyes remained locked on mine for a moment before he turned around and began to descend the stairs.
I followed after him, and that’s when I heard it.
A loud, screeching sound that pierced through my ears. The deeper we got into the basement, the louder the noise became—so loud that it was almost deafening.
As we reached the bottom of the stairs, I covered my ears.
“What is that noise?!” I screamed at Zay.
He glanced over at me with a strange look in his eyes. “I don’t hear anything.”
“You don’t hear that?” I just stared back at him like he was a four-headed alien. “That noise! Where is it coming from?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” he replied, shaking his head. “What do you hear?”
“It’s this horrible screeching sound. It’s so loud,” I replied, feeling my head begin to spin. “I can barely even hear myself think right now.”
And then just as soon as the screeching sound had started, it stopped completely.
Taking my hands off my ears, I glanced around the basement, not trusting that the noise was really gone for good. When the screaming didn’t start back up again after a few moments, I breathed a slight sigh of relief.
“That was so strange. I can’t believe you didn’t hear that,” I told Zay.
His jawline hardened and his lips formed a flat line. I got the impression that he wanted to say something, but he didn’t. Instead, he pulled out a key and twisted it into a doorknob.
Glancing over his shoulder at me, he said, “What I’m about to show you might freak you out a little bit, but I promise that there’s no reason to be afraid.”
I felt my stomach tighten in a knot. If I had known that there was anything that could be considered even remotely scary about what Zay was about to show me, I probably wouldn’t have agreed to come down here with him at all.
And yet, I found myself following after him, even with my heart flitting around inside my chest like a hummingbird on caffeine. I was anxious to see what was behind the door, curious to know what type of adventure Zay had decided to take me on today.
As we stepped into the dimly lit room, I frowned. “This place looks like a jail,” I noted as I took in the prison cells that lined the walls.
“It sort of is a prison, in a sense,” Zay explained.
As we approached the back of the room, my breath froze at the back of my throat.
A set of eyes, which glowed a shade of blood red, stared back at me.
Chapter 27
Lux
I just stared back at the large-bodied, black creature that seemed to glare at us through those blood red eyes. It looked like an oversized scorpion, with a long tail that stood a few feet in the air and large, claw-like pinchers.
The only relieving part about it was that the thing—whatever it was—was inside of a prison cell.
Whirling around to face Zay, my eyes locked on his through the darkness. “What is that thing?”
As if in response, the scorpion thing let out a little grunt.
“That would be a Murlot,” he explained. “It’s one of the most powerful Demonic creatures in the world.”
Come to think of it, I was fairly certain that I recognized the Murlot from the portraits in Professor Snyder’s classroom.
“It looks like a scorpion,” I noted.
Zay nodded. “That’s because it is part scorpion. Basically, this is the Demon version of a scorpion. It has the ability to travel at 200 miles per hour. It shoots out some of the most lethal venom that you could ever encounter. It might be even worse than typical venom. This venom is enough to turn your body into stone forever.”
I swallowed hard. “Is it going to shoot venom at us right now?”
He shook his head. “No, we’re fine.”
I stared at the Murlot skeptically. The bars that separated us looked sturdy enough, but who could really be sure with something as powerful as this thing?
“So, what is this thing doing in the basement of Demon Blood Academy?”
“Ther
e’s something that no one’s told you yet—something you need to know,” Zay told me. “One of our missions as Demons is to catch demonic creatures and animals. We need to make sure that they don’t hurt innocent humans.”
“Someone brought this Murlot from the human world?” I stared back at him wide-eyed.
Zay nodded. “Yup.”
“But how could someone have gotten it here?” I didn’t understand how it was even possible that the Murlot could have made it to Demon Blood Academy without it attacking whoever had brought it there.
“When we go after demonic creatures, we’re given this stuff called Minimizer. It’s basically the Demon equivalent of tranquilizer. It’s potent enough to work on Murlots and other creatures. It also reduces—or minimizes—the size of these creatures for forty-eight hours. We collect them in a jar and fly them to Demon Blood Academy.”
“Then what does Demon Blood Academy do with them?” I asked with raised eyebrows.
Surely, the Murlot wasn’t going to stay in the basement of Demon Blood Academy forever… was it?
“I’m not really sure,” Zay admitted. “I know they come here first. After that, I assume they go to the Pit.”
“What is the Pit, anyway?” I asked, recalling that was where Kieran had told the Guardian to take Neil after he had died in the hallway.
“It’s exactly what it sounds like,” Zay explained. “It’s a fire pit. They either burn dead bodies there or they kill Demons there, when need be.”
I swallowed hard. “Why would they need to kill Demons? Aren’t we all at Demon Blood Academy because we’re learning how to be good?”
“Well… yes.” His eyes darted over to meet mine. “The only thing is that not all Demons turn out to be good, even after they go through all of their classes here. In those cases, sometimes there’s no choice but to eliminate them.”
“So, why don’t dead bodies just get buried in the human world?” I asked.
“Because even when our bodies die, our souls can still live on. We can transplant ourselves into a human’s body,” he explained. “To prevent that from happening, dead Demons get taken to the Pit. The only way to kill a Demon’s soul is with fire.”