Elder Sam waited until they’d left the armory to speak. “I haven’t mentioned our conversation to anyone, just so you know. And I don’t think you should tell your kenzoku either.”
I’d already made the decision myself, but now I was curious. “Why?”
“Because the more of us that know, the more of a threat your family becomes.”
“It’s not like anyone here is in contact with the King of the Nether,” I said. “I think the secret is safe inside the academy.”
Elder Sam’s expression turned grim. “I think we both know that isn’t true.”
I understood his thought process. Someone had told Mephisto, not only about the existence of the academy, but that Harlan had once worked here. Without the demon’s inside information, Mephisto wouldn’t have been able to create a portal that entered the archives room. The Book of Admissions would still be safely at the academy and Mariska would still be alive. There were very few individuals with that specific knowledge. While not all of them resided within the ten spires of the academy, most did.
“Elder Alastor?” I whispered. The demon had never liked me. Never liked Elder Sam either because he was a seraph. He tolerated both of us, though. He’d even been the one to make Elder Sam’s artificial wings so that he could teach me to fly, so he wasn’t one hundred percent awful. Maybe just ninety-five percent.
“I honestly don’t know, Cassia. I only know that we need to be careful. The Book of Admissions is still missing, and until we have it back, this isn’t over.”
I fidgeted with my hands. I still hadn’t told Elder Sam the details of everything that had happened leading up to Mephisto’s death in the cemetery. I’d tried a couple of times, but he’d been too busy to hear me out. Maybe now was a good time. He was the only one I could confide in now that Mariska was gone and Rafe had shown that he couldn’t handle the truth about me. Elder Sam was my only option.
“You know how I get headaches?” I asked. “Well, I was having a monster one in the cemetery right before Mephisto was incinerated. This spot was throbbing.” I touched the place between my eyebrows where the pain had been.
“I know all about your headaches, Cassia,” Elder Sam said, somewhat impatiently.
That much was true. Oftentimes when we fought during training sessions, I would feel a buildup of pressure until a headache bloomed.
“The cemetery was different, though,” I said. “The pain…released.” And a wizard was obliterated as a result. I hadn’t intended to kill him, only apprehend him. Whatever power I’d unleashed was deadly.
Elder Sam rubbed his temple, as though fighting a headache of his own. “You should catch up to the others before they come back searching for you. You know how dogged Sage can be.”
I gaped at him. “Elder Sam, I killed someone. Don’t you think it’s important to understand how that happened so it doesn’t happen again?”
“Believe me, Cassia. No one is mourning the loss.”
The words sounded cold and heartless, the kind of response I would’ve expected from Elder Alastor.
“I had a nightmare about Mephisto,” I blurted. “I didn’t have any weapons in the dream. I used my hands to open a sealed entrance to a tomb.” The words tumbled out and I went on to describe everything that happened. I shuddered as I recalled the details.
Elder Sam squeezed my shoulder. “It was only a dream, Cassia. You faced a formidable wizard in battle and you won. That’s the key.”
“And now it’s going to haunt me for the rest of my life? Is that it?”
He offered a sympathetic smile. “We all have invisible scars.”
And visible ones, too, I thought to myself. Elder Sam’s face and body bore the scars of his single act of rebellion against the seraphim, his own kind. When he’d chosen to rescue me from a deadly Whistler as an infant instead of letting me die, they’d tortured him and torn off his wings before casting him out of Dominion. They’d seen his actions—protecting a lowly demonspawn like me—as disloyal. He’d been tasked with killing me, not saving me. To say I owed him a debt was an understatement.
“Listen, I know you’re trying to understand what happened that night, but from what I hear, there was far too much chaos and magic to know for certain. Best to put it behind you and move on.”
If Mariska were still alive, she’d hug me and offer me a cup of peppermint tea. Although Elder Sam had his good points, maternal affection wasn’t one of them.
“We can’t move on until we’ve found the missing book,” I said. “There’s too much at risk.”
“And you’ve done what we asked of you and found Mariska’s killer,” he said. “Leave recovery of the book to us.” He paused, his lip twitching. “Bone armor, huh?”
“Yep. She even made a helmet.”
“You mean a skel-met.”
I laughed. “That’s what I said.” I may not have been Elder Sam’s kin, but I seemed to have inherited his sense of humor.
“Did you tell her about it?” he asked.
“Of course. She was very intrigued.”
Elder Sam smiled. “I have a feeling she’ll be digging up bones wherever she can find them in the hope of recreating it.”
“We do have a field trip coming up.”
He groaned. “Don’t remind me. I’m still recuperating from your last adventure.”
“It’ll be fine,” I said. “Besides, you won’t be alone. Elder Kali will be with you.”
“True and she’s quite…” He trailed off.
“Quite what?” Elder Kali strode into the armory, her hands clasped behind her back. While she wasn’t as humorless as Elder Alastor, she was a close second.
“Adept at handling wayward cambions,” he said.
“That I am,” she said. “Years of experience, you see. I’ve been handling field trips with Spire 10 cambions for as long as we’ve been doing them. Haven’t lost one yet.” She wagged a finger at me. “Don’t take that as an invitation, Cassia. You’ve had your fun.”
“I wouldn’t call it fun,” I said.
“Nor would I,” Elder Sam agreed.
“Don’t let me interrupt,” Elder Kali said. “I only came to retrieve a morning star for the cambion in Spire 7. I think he’ll do quite well with one based on testing.” She plucked the weapon from its resting place and crossed the room to exit. “Carry on.”
“I didn’t realize there was a party in the armory.” Elder Bahaira appeared in the doorway.
“No party,” Elder Kali said. “I was just popping in to borrow a weapon. Be sure to copy me on notes from the meeting.” She continued past Elder Bahaira and disappeared.
“Meeting?” Elder Sam queried.
“Yes, that’s why I’m here,” Elder Bahaira said. “Have you forgotten? The others are waiting.”
Elder Sam’s expression suggested that he had, in fact, forgotten. “I’ll be right behind you.”
Elder Bahaira smiled at me. “You may as well come with him. We were going to send for you anyway.”
“For me?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she turned on her heel and left.
Anxiety seized me. “What’s the meeting about?” I wasn’t a fan of surprise meetings that required my presence. No good ever came from them.
Elder Sam motioned me forward. “I guess you’ll just have to come and find out.”
Chapter Two
I exited via the hatch and flew to the main spire. Spire 10 was the furthest away, so I was able to enjoy a few breaths of fresh air before returning indoors. Elders Bahaira and Sam used the internal portals that transported them between spires without the need for wings. A few years ago, there’d been a discussion about building walkways to connect the spires to each other, but a majority of Elders decided it wasn’t necessary and voted against it.
I strolled down the familiar corridor and smiled at the pencil mark on the wall outside the kitchen, where Mariska had once measured me. She and I were the only ones who knew the reason for the mark. Now there was
only me.
“I’m not sure why you bother to have offices in this place,” I said, entering the kitchen where the adults were assembled.
Aldo looked over his shoulder from his place at the stovetop, where he stirred the contents of a pot. “I know, right? They like to invade my office. I should have limited hours.”
“We gravitate to your baked goods,” Elder Bahaira said. To demonstrate, she snatched a cookie from the serving plate on the island and bit into it. “They help ease the pain of our current challenges.”
“What current challenges are those?” I asked. I didn’t wait to be offered a cookie. I grabbed one from the plate before anyone could stop me. Mmm. White chocolate was divine in any form.
“Our efforts to locate the Book of Admissions have been unsuccessful thus far,” Elder Asago said.
My brow lifted. “And you want to send me back to the city?”
“No, no,” Elder Bahaira said. “There’ll be none of that, my dear. We want you here safe and sound. We just thought it would be helpful to do another run through everything you learned during your investigation, to see whether we’ve missed anything.”
Gretel leaped onto the island to sniff the plate of cookies and I gave her a quick scratch on the top of her head. She was so overweight that it was a surprise she could manage the jump from the floor to the island.
“I gave my full report to Elder Alastor, as requested,” I said. Elder Alastor had insisted that I provide a detailed summary of my experience in Philadelphia. “What else do you need to know?”
“Yes, we read the report and we appreciate your efforts,” Elder Alastor said. “We had a few questions based on what you wrote.”
Although my face remained impassive, my insides were churning. I didn’t want them to ask too many questions. I’d deliberately omitted a few details from my report, such as kissing Rafe and the discovery of the birthmark on my torso—the telltale sign of my heritage. That tidbit was also confirmed by a demon named Yara that I’d met in Faerie, who also turned out to be my aunt. She’d told me about a prophecy that stated the king’s first-born son would produce a child that would one day overthrow the king. She seemed to think I was that child. As I didn’t know the identity of either one of my parents, it was hard to know if she was right.
“What kind of questions do you have?” I polished off my cookie and Aldo slid a cup and saucer across the island. Although the aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled my nostrils, one sniff of my cup revealed that Aldo had given me peppermint tea. I wasn’t about to complain. Now that I lived in Spire 10, most of the time I was stuck with water.
“This Watcher that you became friendly with,” Elder Alastor began.
“There were two,” I said. “Rafe and Liesel.” Liesel specialized in knowledge and actually lived in a library, not that I was jealous. Okay, maybe I was a little jealous.
“We’re interested in the one you made the bargain with,” Elder Asago said. “He told you about the existence of something called the gray market.”
“Yes, he was trying to find a way in,” I said.
“To do what?” Elder Alastor asked.
“To put a stop to it,” I said.
“That was his plan? Find the entrance and storm the market by himself, or worse, with you at his heels?” Elder Alastor seemed decidedly unimpressed.
“He knows how dangerous it is,” I said. “He’s a Watcher. It’s kind of his job.”
“Based on what you learned, do you think it’s possible the book will be sold at auction there?” Elder Asago asked.
I’d actually used that as a cover story to obtain information from Tommy the Bull, the owner of a demon nightclub. I hadn’t meant it at the time—I’d only been trying to help Rafe get the information—but it was a reasonable question.
“It’s possible, but I’m not sure,” I said. “I feel like the book is more of a black market item. According to Rafe, the gray market is worse because he thinks they’re selling children.”
Elder Bahaira recoiled. “This is more distressing than I thought.” Her gaze flickered to Elder Alastor. “We should try the locator spell again.”
Elder Alastor groaned. “It won’t work. Our own protective spell prevents it.”
“Look on the bright side,” I said. “At least that means the ward hasn’t been broken, right?” The Book of Admissions had been warded to prevent it from being opened should it ever leave the academy. That way no one could read the contents, which included the names and abilities of most cambions currently attending the academy. As the academy’s existence was a closely guarded secret, the leak of this information could be catastrophic for all of us. Cambions were already targets. As the children of demons and humans, we had no real place in the realms. We were either reviled, rejected, or hunted. If the academy found us in time, they took us in, raised us, educated us, and prepared us for life as adults in the realm of our choosing. I’d been rescued by Elder Sam as an infant, but some cambions arrived later in life, depending on their circumstances. I was unique in that I stayed in the main spire until recently, but only because I cried so much that they couldn’t keep me in the nursery without depriving everyone there of sleep. It was a story I’d been told often as I grew up and asked why I wasn’t in the other spire with cambions my own age.
“I suppose that’s true,” Elder Bahaira said. “What a relief that we took precautions to protect the information. I never believed we’d actually need to rely on them.”
“I’m still concerned that this Watcher knows of our existence,” Elder Alastor said, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. “I don’t think we can underestimate the importance of this.”
“He won’t talk,” I said. “He understands our predicament. In fact, he agreed that the Watchers should do more on behalf of our kind.”
“That’s not the role of the nephilim,” Elder Alastor said. “Their allegiance is only to the seraphim and to humans, not demonspawn.”
Elder Bahaira gave him a reproachful look. “You know very well we don’t use derogatory terms at this academy, Alastor.”
Elder Alastor’s cheeks reddened. “I was simply making the point.”
“But Rafe sees that we’re a vulnerable group,” I said. “And he agreed that, as half human, we deserved protection too.”
“He’s one Watcher,” Elder Asago said. “Unfortunately he doesn’t speak for the entire race.”
“What about this Liesel?” Elder Bahaira asked. “Does she know about the academy as well?”
“No,” I said. “I only told Rafe and he hasn’t told anyone.”
“That we know of,” Elder Alastor grumbled. “Who knows what he’s done now that you’re out of his sphere of influence?”
“I trust him,” I said firmly. Despite the fact that he left Mount Martha Cemetery in a haze of revulsion and anger and I hadn’t seen him since.
“Rafe fought by their sides to defeat Mephisto and it wasn’t even his fight,” Elder Sam said. “He could have abandoned the cambions at any point, but he didn’t. He and Liesel even guided Cassia safely through Faerie.”
“Yes, Faerie. I hadn’t expected to read about that little excursion.” Elder Alastor sounded none too pleased.
“You’re the one that cast her out,” Elder Bahaira reminded him. “She only did what was necessary.”
“Are we finished here?” I asked. I wasn’t in the mood to defend Rafe any more than I already had. He knew the truth about me and about the academy. There was no point in trying to stuff that djinni back into the bottle. “Lessons are about to start with Elder Kali in Spire 10.”
The Elders exchanged pensive glances.
“You may go now,” Elder Alastor said. He never sounded more cheerful than when he was dismissing me from a room.
“With pleasure,” I muttered. I hurried from the kitchen, stealing one more cookie on the way out.
“How does a greenhouse of magical herbs prepare us for life outside of the academy?” Rylan asked. She was pr
opped up on the table by her elbows and looked ready for a long nap.
“Herbal remedies are invaluable no matter where you reside,” Elder Kali said.
“If I live in the mortal realm, I can just go to one of their pharmacies and buy pills,” Rylan said.
“Pills?” Elder Kali pursed her lips. “Have we taught you nothing here? How do you think your demon side will react to two hundred milligrams of ibuprofen?”
Rylan pushed herself upright. “I don’t know. That sounds like a reasonable amount.”
“For a bounder, yes,” Elder Kali said. “For a hybrid with demon blood running through your veins, you could swallow a whole bottle and have it make no difference at all.”
“I don’t even know that I want to live in the mortal realm,” Zeph interrupted.
Elder Kali pointed at him. “Another excellent point. Do you think there are pharmacies in the Nether? Of course not. You need to know which types of plants will help your particular ailment and where to source them. You must learn to be resourceful.”
Sage grimaced. “Why would you want to live in the Nether? Every level of that place is a pit of despair.”
Elder Kali raised her brow. “Oh? This opinion is informed by your vast experience there, is it?”
Sage tugged at the leaf of a plant. “So I’ve heard.”
“Well, I have to live somewhere, don’t I?” Zeph replied. “I don’t know that I’ll feel comfortable in a city like Philadelphia.”
“Then go to a more rural area like Iowa,” Sage said. “Or better yet, go to another country. You can live in the Alps. Then you can ride the wind to your heart’s content.”
Zeph smiled at me. “How about it, Cassia? Want to move to the Alps? You can fly and I can command the wind.”
Sage elbowed him in the ribs. “She’s not going anywhere with you. She’ll want to live in the city and see that gorgeous Watcher boyfriend of hers.”
“Rafe is undeniably handsome,” Barris added. “If I had to be one of the nephilim, I suppose I wouldn’t mind looking like him.”
Demonspawn Academy: Trial Two Page 2