Demonspawn Academy: Trial Two

by Annabel Chase

  “Oh, please,” Sage said. “If you were a real demon, you would’ve ripped off his face and claimed it as your own.”

  Rylan inched away from the rakshasa hybrid. “You should really curb your violent tendencies if you expect to live among humans, Sage.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend,” I mumbled, not that anyone was listening. I hadn’t told my kenzoku what had happened between us because then I’d have to tell them the reason why. Of course, I would love for Rafe to be my boyfriend. Even if Rafe wasn’t angry with me, a relationship wasn’t feasible—not with me as the secret granddaughter of the King of the Nether and Rafe as the son of a seraph. Angels and demons didn’t mix, not romantically. Usually not even professionally. My mind began to drift as I lost myself in the softness of his lips. Initially I thought the enchanted kissing booth was the only reason we’d kissed, until Liesel explained that the booth only prompted those who already wanted to kiss each other—which meant that Rafe had wanted to kiss me too. I clung to the memory, wishing I could go back in time and experience the moment all over again.

  “Cassia?”

  My head jerked up. “Yes?”

  “I asked you to share your recipe for headaches,” Elder Kali said. “The one you and Aldo devised a few years ago when…”

  “The humidity,” I said. “I remember.” The humidity had been oppressive and more than a few of us had suffered regular headaches as a result. I’d spent days in the main spire greenhouse with Aldo trying to come up with the perfect elixir.

  “It has wormwood and—what else?” The Elder snapped her fingers.

  I surveyed the rows of plants in the greenhouse. Spire 10’s options were more limited than those in the main spire’s greenhouse, but we had enough to work with. “Sweet Melissa.”

  “Forget headaches,” Sage said. “What about battle wounds? Some of us don’t have special healing powers.” Her eyes shifted to me.

  “We’re not sending you into battle,” Elder Kali said. “We’re sending you into what we hope is a normal life where you might occasionally become ill or injured.”

  “Still, the whole point of training us is preparation,” Sage said. “So we can defend ourselves if we’re attacked by demons or celestials.”

  “Or Whistlers,” Barris said. “How do we classify those guys anyway?”

  “As monsters,” I said, shuddering. The Whistlers were a group of five mercenaries that combed the realms for cambions. They were the threat adults used to keep small cambions in line me. Eat all your carrots or the Whistlers will get you. Cambion children were warned that if we heard whistling in the woods, we’d better start running. I knew from experience how terrifying the Whistlers were. Moloch, their leader, had tried to kill me as an infant. Another Whistler had attacked me more recently. This one had run off after I’d blasted him with the energy from my crazy, glowing hands.

  “I’d like to know how to treat wounds,” I said.

  “Why?” Barris asked. “Yours heal so quickly, there’s no point.”

  “But I’d like to be able to help others,” I said. I thought of the way Rafe was able to heal me more quickly than I could heal myself—a useful skill.

  “Help others?” Sage rolled her eyes. “Seriously? Are you sure you’re half demon?”

  Yes, and I had the mark to prove it, not that I was inclined to share that information. It was too dangerous.

  “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to show you how to make a simple elixir to heal more severe cuts and bruises.” Elder Kali contemplated the available plants. “I see a few possibilities here.”

  Zeph raised his hand. “Are they all available in the Nether?”

  “Which level, my dear?” Elder Kali asked. “There are many parts to the Nether. A plant in one area won’t necessarily be found in another, much like different species grow in North America than in Southeast Asia, for example.”

  Zeph appeared stumped. “I don’t know.”

  “Why don’t you teach us more about the Nether?” Rylan asked. “Is it because you secretly don’t want us to live there?”

  Elder Kali snipped a few pieces of barley and placed them in a mortar. “I feel that your education on the Nether has been adequate.”

  “It’s because we’re half human,” Barris said. “The Elders know we’ll be eaten alive in the Nether. We’re much more likely to be accepted by humans because we look like them and our powers are watered down.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Sage sniffed. “My powers aren’t watered down.”

  “Is that why the academy is hidden in the mortal realm instead of the Nether?” Rylan asked.

  “There are many reasons for that choice,” Elder Kali admitted, “but, yes. That is one of them. Your safety is paramount.”

  “Does anyone watch over us once we graduate?” Sage asked. “Do cambions have their own version of Watchers?”

  “I’m afraid not.” Elder Kali poured a dash of pale blue liquid into the mixture. As she ground the contents with a pestle, the sweet fragrance of lilacs permeated the air. “We simply don’t have the resources for that sort of thing, unfortunately, but we do our best.”

  “Why do the seraphim have Watchers in the mortal realm?” Rylan asked. “I thought they only cared about themselves. Why should they care what happens to bounders?”

  “They don’t,” Elder Kali said simply. “But you have to remember that the mortal realm is the divide between the Nether and Dominion. It’s their way of making sure that the demons don’t use the mortal realm as a stepping stone on the way to Dominion.”

  “They tried that before,” Barris said. “I don’t think it worked out well for them. That’s why the treaty exists.”

  Sage pretended to snore. “You and your history factoids.”

  “I didn’t hear you making that sound the other night,” Barris said, then seemed to catch himself. “When I read that page of the history book to you.”

  “You read Sage a page from a history book?” Rylan asked, amused. “I’d like to hear more about that.”

  “It was about the end of the war between the seraphim and demons over control of the realms,” Barris said slowly.

  “Yes, and a treaty,” Sage added vaguely.

  “Tell us more,” Rylan coaxed. “I don’t recall the particulars.”

  Zeph snorted. “Of course you do. Elder Alastor hammered it into us for years.”

  “I don’t think Elder Alastor was the only one…hammering,” Rylan said.

  Zeph remained completely oblivious to Rylan’s insinuation. “The seraphim agreed to stick to Dominion and let the demons have the Nether. Then the fae found a pocket between realms and carved Faerie out of nothing. The mortal realm became the divide between the Nether and Dominion that neither side could claim ownership of.”

  “Very good, Zeph,” Elder Kali said. “I believe we’re all caught up on history. Now, who would like to volunteer?”

  Zeph frowned. “For what?”

  She held up the bowl. “To test the elixir. Then you can each practice making it.”

  “I’d volunteer, but I don’t have any cuts or bruises to heal,” Sage said.

  Before anyone could react, Elder Kali’s fingernails extended to talons and sliced across Sage’s bicep.

  “Hey!” Sage said. The cambion wrapped her other hand around the arm to stymy the bleeding.

  Elder Kali handed the mortar to Barris. “See what you can do.”

  Barris stared blankly at the mixture.

  “Hurry up,” Sage said sharply. “She has some kind of poison in her talons. The cuts burn.”

  Elder Kali wore a vague smile. “Indeed.”

  Yikes. Elder Kali had gone full method. We watched as Barris fumbled his way through applying the elixir, but he managed. He spread the fragrant concoction in a thick band across the cuts and Sage sighed with relief.

  “What about the poison?” Sage asked. “Do we need to do something special for that?”

  “It’s only a trace amount,” Elder Kali
said. “I thought the burning would add a sense of urgency.”

  Sage crossed her arms. “This is cruel and unusual punishment.”

  “You wanted a real world experience,” Elder Kali said. “This is as close as it gets without being in the midst of a fight.”

  The lesson wasn’t unusual to me. Over the years, the Elders had often subjected me to training that involved genuine fear and danger. If it felt like nothing more than a performance without teeth, it wouldn’t have been as effective. Elder Sam dangled me over the ledge of the main spire when I was only a child to help me learn to fly. Even though I had wings, I’d been afraid to use them because no one else around me had them. If memory served, that was when Elder Alastor designed artificial wings for my mentor, so that he could join me in the sky.

  Rylan raised her hand. “Which ingredients are in the elixir and where can I find them in the realms?”

  Elder Kali’s lips curved into a satisfied smile. “There. A sensible question. I knew we’d get back on track eventually.”

  Chapter Three

  “This library is so small,” I said. It seemed to take me about ten minutes to read each and every book title in the Spire 10 library.

  Sage gave an exasperated sigh. “Pardon us with our pitiful display of books. Tell us, O learned one, what’s missing from our inventory?”

  I ran a finger along the spines of the row in front of me. “These are all geared toward education and training,” I said. “Where’s the literature that’s just for fun?”

  Zeph stifled a laugh. “Fun? Who reads for fun? The only reason we need to crack open a book is to find a cool spell, learn some boring history, or translate a prophecy.”

  “Speaking of cool spells, I found another one in the Advanced Magic Rites and Rituals book,” Rylan said.

  Sage tipped her head back and closed her eyes. “Can we get back to the armory? That’s where the real action is. Spells are for cambions that can’t fight.”

  “Hey,” Barris said, withdrawing in offense. “I resemble that remark.”

  Sage scraped back her chair and stood. “Come on, tornado butt. I’ll help you with your technique.”

  “But I don’t have a technique,” he said.

  Sage gave him a pointed look. “Then I guess I have my work cut out for me.” She sauntered out of the library with Barris trailing behind her like an imprinted chick.

  “Something’s going on with those two,” Rylan said, the moment they vacated the room.

  “Yeah, they can’t stand each other,” Zeph said. “That’s what’s going on with those two.”

  Rylan tapped the book in front of her. “Think about it, Zeph. They can’t stand each other so much that they’re willing to go to the armory alone and practice a technique? That makes no sense. Sage doesn’t help anyone. And Barris was reading to her from a history book?” She blew a raspberry. “Like Sage would tolerate that.”

  I drifted over to the table. “You think the technique…has nothing to do with weapons?”

  “They’ll never admit it,” Zeph said. “They’ve loathed each other for too long. It would be like saying they were wrong.”

  A hint of a smile appeared on Rylan’s lips. “What if we forced it out of them?”

  “Like a truth serum?” I asked. I didn’t like the idea of using a truth serum. It reminded me of Harlan, the dead demon that revealed the academy’s location to Mephisto and indirectly caused Mariska’s death. Mephisto had used a truth serum to extract the information from Harlan, after torturing him first.

  “Something even better,” Rylan said. “We can use a spell I found in this book.”

  Zeph's face lit up. “Perfect. That makes it educational.”

  “What’s the spell?” I leaned over Rylan’s shoulder for a better view. “A binding spell? Doesn’t that just prevent a magic user from doing harm?”

  “Not this kind,” Rylan said. “This one is also called a binding spell, but it has a different origin.”

  I scanned the description. “We’re actually going to bind them together?”

  Zeph laughed. “Like physically? Does that mean they’ll be each other’s shadows?” He doubled over. “I can’t wait to see the look on Barris’s face when he needs the bathroom.”

  “It’s not physical, although that would be hilarious.” Rylan flipped through the pages. “Now I want to see if that’s an option. Some kind of conjoined twins spell.”

  “How would they be bound if not physically?” Zeph asked.

  “It’s more psychic,” Rylan said. “He would feel what she feels and vice versa. They would experience each other’s…experiences.”

  “So we could bind them without their knowledge and then send them back to the armory for sparring?” Zeph slapped a hand on the table. “Oh man. That’s almost too good.”

  “Just don’t accidentally kill one of them,” Rylan teased, “because the other one dies too. They become a package deal.”

  “Maybe if they feel what the other one feels, they’ll finally admit what’s going on between them,” I said. “They’ll be too overloaded with emotions to keep quiet.”

  Zeph grabbed the book. “What if there’s no real emotions, though? I mean, this is Sage we’re talking about. She’s kind of a corpse-manipulating robot.”

  “This is one reason we do magical experiments, Zeph,” Rylan said. “To test a hypothesis.”

  “Good point.” He slid the book back across the table. “Says we need a rune stone.”

  “We need more than that, but I’m on it.” Rylan jumped up from her chair with enthusiasm and skipped over to a tall dresser with thin drawers. She opened and closed a couple of drawers as she searched for the necessary elements.

  “What is that?” I asked.

  Zeph followed my gaze to the dresser. “It’s where the Elders keep rune stones and other rocks we might need for lessons.”

  “They catalogue by color,” Rylan said without looking at us, “which isn’t always helpful.” She plucked two shiny black stones from the drawer. “We can use these.”

  She returned to the table and set the black stones in the middle. I noticed a white character scratched into each one.

  “Is that the rune for bound?” I asked.

  “No, this means joined,” Rylan said. “We have to add a little extra to make it work the way we want.”

  “It’s not a potion?” I asked.

  Rylan giggled. “Can you imagine trying to get them both to drink something they don’t recognize? They’d never fall for it. No, this is much easier because they won’t be aware of it.”

  I glanced back at the binding spell. “We have to forge a connection between the two stones?”

  “Yes, and then we place each one on their person,” Rylan said. “The stones are small, so that should be easy.”

  “I can tuck one into Barris’s pocket,” Zeph said. “He wears his trousers so baggy, he won’t even notice.”

  “I’m going to attach this one to a hairband,” Rylan said. “She’s forever fixing her ponytail. It’ll be easy.”

  “Remind me never to keep a secret from you two,” I said. I didn’t miss the irony in that statement. As it happened, I was already keeping quite a big secret from them, but it certainly wasn’t one that a prank spell would reveal.

  “Now what do we do?” Zeph asked.

  Rylan smiled. “You’re not usually this excited about spells during lessons.”

  “Because the outcome isn’t as fun,” Zeph said. “I mean, how many times can we change the color of Gretel’s fur?”

  I recoiled. “The Elders bring Gretel to you for experiments?”

  “Relax,” Rylan said. “Nothing that would hurt her. Besides, she looks really good in hot pink. I think she liked it.” She glanced back at the page. “We need a few items from the greenhouse.”

  “I’ll get them,” I said. Mariska had once told me that the quickest way to make friends was to make myself useful. Now seemed like the perfect time to put the advice int
o practice.

  “Ash, aster, and calamus. You should be able to find the calamus in powdered form in the drawer underneath.”

  “And bring a bowl,” Zeph added. “One that’s fire resistant.”

  Fire resistant? This spell suddenly seemed more complicated. I hurried to the greenhouse to gather the materials. On my way there, I passed by the armory and noticed the door was closed, not that a closed door was unusual. It was safer than risking a spear flying into the corridor. I didn’t stop to listen at the door. If something was truly going on between them, we’d know soon enough.

  It didn’t take me long to locate the three ingredients and the bowl and return them to the library. Rylan deftly tore up the leaves and mixed them with the powder.

  “You seem like a natural at this,” I said.

  “I don’t find it that difficult,” Rylan said, “but, to be fair, I’ve seen this one done before.”

  Zeph snorted. “When you were spying on last year’s Spire 10 cambions?” He looked at me. “Rylan and Sage used to sneak through the internal portal to check out the older crew.”

  “I also liked to know what they were learning in case it was something useful,” Rylan said.

  “Right,” Zeph said, stretching out the word. “I’m so sure it was their lessons you were interested in.”

  “So where have you seen this done before?” I asked.

  “My mother,” she said. She retrieved a book of matches from a drawer at the head of the table. “Before I came here.”

  “Your mother’s a succubus,” Zeph said. “Why was she doing a spell like this?”

  “Because the kinkier the situation, the more power she derived.” Rylan scraped a match along the packet until a tiny flame appeared.

  Zeph's cheeks flamed as he realized what she meant. “And your mom used to…involve you?”

  Rylan cringed. “Not like that.” She lit the mixture on the fire and added the two stones. “She’d let me watch her prepare spells. She said they boosted her power.”

  “What happened to her?” I asked.

  Rylan blew the smoke from the bowl. “Nothing. After a few hairy incidents, she realized she wasn’t cut out to raise kids. I was her first, so she was still figuring things out, you know?”