by Alicia Rades
Silence settled over the room for a moment as we all took in the heavy weight of the story.
“A demonic god by the name of Santos appeared. As you all know, he is the father of all Miriamic people.” More orbs floated up out of Professor Richards’s palms and formed a second figure beside Mother Miriam. He seemed to look down upon her with mercy.
Professor Richards continued. “As he listened to her story, he became enraged. He traveled to the house of her master and killed him. It was after he sliced her master’s head clean off his shoulders that he spoke his famous quote, Even a demon would not be so heartless.”
First of all, decapitation? Gross! Second, if this master guy was pissing off demons, there was a lot more about his treatment of Miriam that Professor Richard wasn’t telling us. Part of me was curious to know, and the other part was grateful he’d spared us the gory details.
“In exchange for what he did, Mother Miriam pledged her soul to Santos, but he would not take it, for he felt she’d already given up enough to her master, that she didn’t deserve an eternity in the Abyss,” Professor Richards said. “To protect her, Santos remained on earth with Miriam, where they lived out the rest of their lives together. It was during that time that she taught him how to love, and they had five children together.”
I gasped and leaned over to Talia. “Does that mean we’re all part demon?”
She nodded.
Holy shit. Why hadn’t Grammy mentioned this earlier? I had demon blood running through my veins!
“Each of these children had a different power,” Professor Richards said. “With each child born, so was a new Cast. When Miriam died, Santos gifted her the power of the gods, and she became a goddess herself. Together, they formed Alora, our afterlife, and Mother Miriam became the sole judge of our people. Follow her, and you will be welcomed to Alora with open arms. Defy her, and you will be cast into the Abyss.”
“The Abyss?” I whispered to Talia.
“It’s basically Hell,” she whispered back.
“You have Hell?” I asked.
She looked a little shocked by the question. “Well, yeah. Don’t all religions?”
Touché.
Professor Richards went on to discuss the importance of Miriam’s relationship with Santos and how together they had changed demonic principles that had been in place since basically the beginning of time.
“No demon, be it a demonic god or a lesser spirit, had ever created a utopia before,” he continued. “It was the compassion Santos felt for Miriam that changed him, and her undying gratitude thereafter that helped them grow together. It was only because of their love for one another that they could create Alora in the first place.”
By the time class ended, I had so much information to process.
“What is it?” Talia asked as we walked out of the lecture hall.
I shook my head. “I just can’t imagine that kind of love—so strong and passionate that you can create an entire afterlife out of it. Can people really change like that?”
Talia cringed. “Don’t let anyone else hear you say that. Santos’s story is a beacon of hope for us. We believe in forgiveness and second chances.”
I furrowed my brow. “But can’t Mother Miriam kick you out of the coven as she pleases?”
“Yes,” Talia confirmed. “But not without giving you a second chance.”
I didn’t know what a second chance entailed, but worry knotted in my gut as I wondered if that’d be enough—or if being an outsider had already doomed me for failure.
Chapter 7
Lucas
The first week of classes passed by before I realized it. After Necromancy Safety on Friday, I waited until everyone else left the room before approaching Professor Warren.
“Lucas,” he said brightly. “What can I do for you?”
I looked down to the positivity journal I clutched in my hands. My heart beat rapidly, though I couldn’t explain why. This journal was private, and it felt like handing over a part of myself. I didn’t like being vulnerable, but Professor Warren was my mentor. He’d said it more than once that he couldn’t help me if I didn’t help myself.
“I, um, wrote down a few things, if you wanted to take a look,” I said.
He stood straighter, looking somewhat surprised. “Sure.”
I handed over the journal. Professor Warren glanced at the first page, then flipped to the next to see if there was more. I hadn’t even filled the first page yet, but at least I had a start.
Professor Warren didn’t look at the journal long enough to read what I’d written. He closed it and handed it back to me, and I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. It eased my nerves to know he wasn’t reading every entry. He probably wouldn’t have made sense of what it all meant, either.
My gift led me to Nadine.
Muffins in the Lounge.
We met Talia.
Grant seems happy.
It wasn’t sure if half that stuff counted. Technically, Grant meeting Talia had nothing to do with my gift, but if Professor Warren thought my gift led to Nadine—and meeting Nadine led to meeting Talia—then I guess it counted. Grant couldn’t shut up about her since they day they met. He kept asking me when we were going to hang out with the girls again. I told him he had to give her time or he was going to suffocate the poor girl.
“I’m glad to see you taking this seriously,” Professor Warren said. “I hope it’s helping.”
I shrugged. “I think so. I’m not sure yet.”
“Well, we’ve only started,” Professor Warren pointed out. “I want to see the next page filled by our next meeting.”
I nodded. “I’ll try.”
It’d been like pulling teeth. I’d sat there for hours trying to think of one other thing besides meeting Nadine that my gift had done for me. It was only when I started playing off meeting her that the other ideas came to me. If I could tie everything back to that, I could probably have a page filled by next week—assuming things went well tonight.
“How have you been, Professor?” I asked.
He tilted his head in question. “I’m fine. Why do you ask?”
“You said you weren’t feeling well the last time we talked,” I reminded him.
“Ah, yes. I’m quite well now, thanks for asking. Whatever it was wasn’t long lived.”
“That’s good to hear,” I said. “I have to get to Afterlife Studies, but I wanted to keep you updated on my assignment.”
Professor Warren nodded. “I appreciate that, Lucas. Keep up the good work.”
I left the classroom feeling proud. None of my professors had called anything I did good work. In fact, I barely passed last semester at all.
Afterlife Studies was pretty easy so far. We were studying the many ways ghosts could communicate with us. We’d covered how ghosts speak to mediums, and we were moving on to Ouija boards next week. Later in the semester, we were supposed to conduct our own séance and write a paper about it.
After class, I went looking for Nadine, since I wanted to talk to her about tonight. I stuck my head into the Lounge, but she wasn’t there. I considered visiting her room, but I didn’t want to look overly eager, so I checked all the other common areas, like the pool and the foyer. Eventually, I headed outside. I swear to the Goddess my heart stopped when I saw her.
Nadine sat below a huge maple tree on the front lawn. Her back was leaned against the trunk while she typed on her laptop. She was wearing a black floppy hat with a wide brim that should’ve looked comical on her but was actually kind of hot, along with a dark long-sleeve shirt and matching skinny jeans. I thought she looked really good in all black. A gray tabby cat came up to her and started rubbing against her foot. She stopped typing to scratch it behind the ears.
I walked up to her casually, pretending as if I’d just been passing by. “Hey.”
She glanced up, and a smile spread across her face. “Hey, Lucas. What’s up?”
I shrugged. “I couldn’t help but notice you wer
e sitting alone. Did you want company, or were you busy?”
“No! Not busy at all.” She shut her laptop and quickly gathered her books, then gestured beside herself in the grass. “Sit.”
I took her offer and sat beside her in the shade. It was a beautiful day, and the lawn was crowded with people. “What’s with the hat?”
She lifted her hand to touch it lightly, like she forgot she’d been wearing it. “Oh, uh, a fashion statement?”
I eyed her. She sounded unsure of herself, which was weird. I didn’t know Nadine well, but she didn’t seem like the kind of person who did things without a purpose. “A fashion statement?”
She wrinkled her nose, like she’d been caught in a lie. I found it kind of cute. “Okay, truth is, I don’t like the sun.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“I mean, I’m sensitive to it,” she quickly added. “It’s not a big deal.”
She seemed like she didn’t want to talk about it, so I changed the subject. “What are you studying?”
“Miriamic History,” she said with a sigh. “It’s a lot to take in.”
I smirked. “Yeah, I can see that, if you didn’t grow up with it.”
Nadine groaned. “I told Talia I’d never be able to keep up, but she didn’t believe me.”
I chucked. “Who do you have?”
“Professor Richards,” she said. “He’s a great storyteller, but he moves so fast.”
“Well, there’s a lot to cover,” I pointed out. “If you need help, I can slow things down for you.”
Nadine’s spine straightened. She was so excited that she grabbed my arm. “Really?”
“Yeah, why not? It’s like, the one subject I’m actually good at.”
“Shut up,” she said lightly. “Are you serious? Because I have so many questions and I need to be caught up by next week.”
“Absolutely,” I replied. “Whenever you want.”
“Are you free now?” she asked with bright eyes.
She had so much energy radiating off of her that I actually found myself smiling. I could tell I’d just made her whole day.
“Yeah, my classes are done for the day. I have a few hours until this party I’m going to tonight. But hey, why don’t we study until then and you can come with me?”
Okay, I officially deserved some sort of award for slipping in that invitation so casually. I expected it to go a lot differently, mainly involving stumbling over my own words and fucking up the invitation.
Instead, Nadine smiled. “Yeah, that sounds great.”
Score one for Lucas.
“So, what are you stuck on?” I asked.
“Just about everything,” she joked. “Okay, so I get that the demon Santos saved Miriam and all that, but like, I don’t get why he did it. He was a demonic god, so that makes him evil, right? How could he have any compassion for her?”
It was obvious Nadine was digging into things she didn’t need to know for her exams, but it was a valid question.
“Demons aren’t inherently evil,” I explained.
Nadine tilted her head to the side. Damn it, she was so cute. “Then what makes a demon a demon?”
“Demon is a term for someone who lives in the Abyss,” I told her. “There are a lot of reasons someone might end up there. Usually, they’ve either rejected their god or have been rejected by their god. Once cast to the Abyss, they usually band up with a demonic god and are gifted a set of powers to do that god’s bidding. They make people do horrible things and turn them away from their religion so more people will join them in the afterlife.”
Nadine furrowed her brow. “But Santos was a god.”
“Right, but the other gods rejected him,” I said. “All the demonic gods are outcasts.”
“How’d he become a god?” she asked.
I was a little taken aback by the question.
She seemed to notice. “I mean, Santos made Mother Miriam into a god. Who made him?”
“There’s more than one way to become a god,” I explained. “You’re either born a god or made into one by another god. Santos was a god at birth.”
She looked more and more confused as I explained. “How many are there? Gods, I mean.”
I shrugged. “I don’t think anyone knows.”
“So what makes a demon different from anyone else?” she asked.
“It depends on who they follow,” I said. “Think of the afterlife like a big city, with endless gated communities. Each of these communities have rules in order to enter. If you don’t pass or you leave, there’s only one place left to go.”
“The slums,” Nadine said with a frown. “The Abyss.”
“Right,” I confirmed. “It’s where the worst of the worst go. But it’s just chaos—a constant war zone. Trust me, you don’t want to end up there.”
“Well, why don’t all these demonic gods just go create their own communities?” Nadine asked.
I shrugged, wishing I had all the answers. “A lot of reasons, I guess. Some don’t have the followers for it. Others want complete control and aren’t willing to step aside and focus on their own people. Some are fighting their own wars with other gods. The whole thing is a mess, really. Anyway, back to your original question. You’re right to assume demons are evil, because most of them are. But they’re still capable of the same emotions we are. They just have to get past the bad first.”
Nadine nodded, looking deep in thought. “I guess I can understand that. It must be hard for them, after being rejected and outcast like that.”
Spoken like a true witch. No one else would show compassion for a demon.
“So, when people say we have demon blood, what does that mean?” she asked. “If Santos changed, does that mean he’s no longer a demon?”
I shrugged. “Once a demon, always a demon, I guess.”
Nadine glanced down to her textbook. “So, what happened after Miriam died? Like, to the coven, I mean? So far we’ve only talked about how she got her powers from Santos and they went on to create Alora.”
I opened my mouth to explain, but I suddenly came up with a better idea. “Why don’t I show you?”
Nadine’s eyes widened in intrigue. “Show me what?”
I stood and reached out my hand to her. “It’s a surprise.”
She eyed my hand curiously, then took it and let me help her to her feet. She placed a hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes at me. “Just don’t kidnap me, okay?”
I chuckled and pressed my hand to my heart. “Nad, I’m offended. I would never.”
“Liar.” She poked me in the side. It was the smallest of touches, but it made my insides flip. I swore to the Goddess, if she got any closer to me, my dick was going to give away just how I felt about her.
Shit. I shouldn't be thinking about that.
“Okay, okay,” I teased back. “You caught me. I’m here to kidnap you. Are you going to put up a fight?”
She pretended to think about it. “Nah, I’ll let you kidnap me just this once.”
“Perfect. Let’s go.”
I helped Nadine gather her books, then led her outside the gates of Miriam College.
She hiked her backpack up a little. “Is it a long walk?”
I shrugged. “Not far. Less than a mile.”
“Oh,” she said flatly, but she kept her eyes forward and tightened her grip on the strap of her bag.
“Do you want me to carry those?” I asked.
“My books? No, I’ve got them,” she assured me. “Tell me more about the coven’s history.”
“I told you,” I reminded her. “I have to show you.”
“Right,” she said. “Then tell me more about you.”
My body tensed. I didn’t often talk about myself. There were a lot of things she probably didn’t want to know.
“Like what?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. What do you like to do in your spare time?”
“Um, not much.” Seriously, I didn’t even know what I did
with myself these days. Most times, I just felt like a shell of a human being. I’d rather sleep than anything, but Grant usually forced me out of bed and made me go outside. “I like nature, I guess,” I admitted. “I like walking the Black Circle trail. Speaking of which…”
I gestured ahead of us to the trailhead that crossed the road to campus. “We’ll be taking it to get where we’re going.”
“Cool.” Nadine turned onto the trail. Her eyes went skyward, and she took in all the trees hanging over the path. It was really pretty out here, but I personally couldn’t keep my eyes off her.
“There’s a disc golf course close by that I like to play at,” I told her.
“Oh, that sounds fun,” she remarked. “I’ve never been.”
“It’s fun. You might like it.” I didn’t know why I said that, since I hardly knew her. “What do you like to do?”
She reached up to touch a leaf on a low-hanging branch. I noticed her pace slowed when she did it, and it never picked back up. I slowed my steps to walk alongside her. We were so close that we could’ve been holding hands. It was the first time I noticed that she smelled like roses, which I really liked.
“I like to read and binge watch TV, if those count,” she said.
“No, they don’t,” I deadpanned.
Nadine shot me a look, and I couldn’t hold in my laugh.
“I’m joking,” I said. “They totally count.”
“I do yoga, too, but not since…” Nadine trailed off.
“Not since what?” I asked curiously.
She sighed. “Not since I moved here. I really need to get back into it.”
“Yeah, it sounds relaxing.”
We walked for another ten minutes before we took another path and finally arrived. A small clearing spanned in front of us, where a massive, twisted oak tree sat in the center. Nadine’s head tipped so far back that she had to hold her hat to keep it on. She stared at the tree in wonder.
The tree was huge and took five people hugging the base to reach all the way around. It reached up so high that you couldn’t see the top when you were standing beneath it. The gnarly, twisted branches spanned so wide that the small clearing was completely shaded. The branches were heavy and hung low enough to climb onto them, though it was considered disrespectful among the coven to climb the tree. Huge leaves bigger than my hand fluttered gently in the breeze, and an assortment of acorns littered the ground. Several park benches were placed around the clearing. In the fall, the tree turned a rich, beautiful orange. It was the most beautiful tree in all of Octavia Falls.