by Eva Brandt
Irritation surged through me at her comment. Yes, it was unfortunate, but not because there was anything wrong with being a nephilim. No wonder people treated Mikael like shit if even the teachers didn’t have enough sense to understand such a simple concept.
A goddess of such wisdom should’ve known better.
I stood up as well and hooked my arm through Mikael’s, providing him with silent comfort. Right now, his wings were hidden inside his body, but I could still feel them brushing against my skin, ever so slightly. “Being a nephilim isn’t a bad thing. On the contrary, Mikael has a gift, and the fact that he can use both infernal and celestial magic is an advantage. I’d think that you, out of all people, should understand that, Lady Morrigan.”
I tried to keep my tone level and polite, but my frustration still showed, and by the end of my little speech, something bright and fierce was burning in my chest, very similar to the fire that had caused me to attack Professor Jones at the end of the last year.
If Morrigan was intimidated, she didn’t show it. Instead, she laughed. “Oh, you are intriguing. I see now why you’ve drawn so much interest.” She cupped Mikael’s cheek with a sharp-nailed hand, never tearing her eyes off my face. “I agree with you, but things aren’t so simple in the demon world, as I’m sure you know by now.”
Yes, I did know, but I also wished every single teacher at the academy hadn’t decided to make the situation more complicated than it already was.
As it turned out, in this instance, I should’ve worried more about myself than about Mikael. “In any case, as much as I’m enjoying catching up with my dear former cambion, I’m not here for him,” Morrigan said. “It is you I wanted to talk to, Ms. Michaelis.”
“Me?” Oh, dear, I didn’t like the sound of that. “Why?” She and I had never met before, but past experiences told me that whenever I met someone new here, I was unavoidably going to be hit by an unexpected, inexplicable disaster.
“Yes. As Dean Mephistopheles must have told you, to be admitted into your next year in a higher level of course work, you need to pass a test. I’ll be in charge of administering that—”
“No!” Mikael cut her off before she could finish the sentence. When Morrigan turned toward him and arched a brow, he quickly added, “I mean… We haven’t finished catching up with all the material yet.”
“Protective, are we?” Morrigan’s full lips twisted into a knowing, smug grin. “Don’t worry so much, Mikael. I won’t harm her. I know how to control my strength.”
That didn’t sound encouraging at all, but I’d never been one to back out from a fight, and I had indeed promised that I’d go along with this insanity. “Excuse me, Lady Morrigan, but what does this test involve?” Also, why had it been necessary for her to do it when there were already plenty of teachers at the academy who could’ve handled it?
“It’s quite simple. You see, Ms. Michaelis, as you so kindly pointed out, I’m a complex deity. But here at the academy, I specialize in battle magic.
“As a student, you are still largely untrained. Even so, I’m told that you managed to knock David out while he was in the middle of casting a very powerful elemental enchantment. That means your potential may be limitless, and it needs to be assessed as soon as possible. Studying categories of herbs and demons is all well and good, but it might turn out useless if you blow yourself up.”
She frowned and extracted a feather from her strange garment. It glimmered in the dim sunlight, and when she brushed it over my forehead, my skin vibrated with magic. “And then, there’s your affliction to consider. Everything in the body of an individual is dictated by the brain. You were unfortunate enough to be born with one that can’t keep up with the power you carry.
“Mephistopheles tells me you already had trouble last year when the other students were showing their displeasure over your condition. If we’re not careful, they might be the least of your concerns. We wouldn’t want you to drift into status epilepticus.”
My breath caught at the latter two words. As a rule, the teachers of the school didn’t discuss the specifics of my condition with me, and half the time, they didn’t seem that aware of how it worked. That dreaded concept had never been brought up, but in my heart, I’d feared it.
When my condition had been medically controlled, my seizures had always lasted less than three minutes—well within acceptable parameters. The possibility of status epilepticus had never been an issue. But with the increasing strain The Academy of the Devil was putting on my mind and body, it wasn’t out of the question that it might happen.
It hadn’t occurred to me until now that my power might ultimately be my downfall.
“A-And you can help me?” I stammered, unable to suppress the surge of anxiety.
“It’s not in my character to make promises I can’t keep, little witch,” Morrigan answered, not unkindly, “but I can say that I will do my very best.”
I appreciated her honesty. I far preferred it to empty vows and pledges of loyalty that never materialized when you most needed them to. Here at the academy, I didn’t have a lot of friends, but still, I’d hoped that at least Gemma and Darling would support me. They hadn’t, and that still burned.
But Morrigan was said to be a deity of motherhood too and maybe it was worth it to give her the benefit of the doubt. Besides, Mephistopheles truly had said that I needed to take this test to advance into a superior level of classes. And so, although I still had some doubts, I agreed. “Thank you. Whenever you feel it’s appropriate, we can go for our test.”
“Excellent, Ms. Michaelis. Please, follow me.”
Without another word, Morrigan retrieved her sword and buried it in the ground. The earth splintered, but the crack didn’t stay natural and linear. It widened until it became very similar to the strange portals Mephistopheles had used to summon his shadowy creatures.
Winking at me, Morrigan sheathed her sword and jumped into the portal. As she disappeared inside, I shared a look with Mikael. “Where is this going to take me?”
“No idea,” Mikael admitted, “but if it helps, I don’t think she intends to hurt you.”
I let out a resigned sigh. I was going from hentai anime to Alice in Wonderland and I really wasn’t surprised. “I guess there’s no point in waiting then. Shiro! Come on. We’re going.”
Taking a deep breath, I approach the portal and braced myself for what would undoubtedly be yet another insane experience. With Shiro and Mikael by my side, I jumped in. I hoped like hell that I’d pass whatever test Morrigan had in mind for me. The alternative was unthinkable.
The Test
“So let me get this straight. A series of monsters will come rushing at me and I’m just supposed to… hit them?”
We were in Morrigan’s sanctum, or battle arena as she liked to call it. It wasn’t an actual room, but rather, a ritual circle that reminded me a bit of Stonehenge. Twelve megaliths surrounded me, emanating a diffuse, black light. The energy that came from the standing stones echoed into the ground, making it vibrate underneath my feet.
I was at least ninety-nine percent sure we were in the mysterious forest I’d crossed when I’d first arrived at the academy, and which was supposedly dangerous enough that I should’ve never braved it on my own. That alone would’ve made the sanctum intriguing and interesting. The standing stones were beautiful too, the ancient engravings on them tempting me to look closer, to see if I could decipher any secret message.
But since the whole business with Shiro, I’d regained some of my self-preservation instincts, so instead, my priority was finding out how much danger I was in. “What kind of monsters?” I prodded. “I don’t think I’m ready to face one of those strange shadowy creations the dean likes so much.”
“I disagree.” Morrigan crossed her arms over her generous breasts and shook her head. “Shadow magic isn’t that difficult to counter if you know what you’re doing. But you don’t need to worry about that now, or about the nature of the monsters. Simply allow your ma
gic to flow through you. Let yourself be guided by your instincts. Don’t overthink it. The purpose of this test isn’t to judge how much you’ve learned, but how much you still need to.”
That made sense, but it also filled me with renewed anxiety. I’d never been in an actual battle before. Blasting Professor Jones away didn’t count, since I’d knocked him out before he could do anything, and his allies hadn’t attacked me after that. Could I handle this test of hers, especially when she was refusing to give me further details?
“It’s all right, Lyssa,” Mikael said from his assigned spot next to the largest standing stone in the area. “You can do this, and we’ll be right here if something happens.”
Shiro barked in encouragement. Now seated on Shiro’s back, TB waved at me with her wing.
I still didn’t feel very confident, but I reminded myself I couldn’t fail them. If Mikael could defeat his natural aversion for the angelic magic he possessed, I could take on Morrigan’s test. “Okay,” I said to myself. “I can do this. Everything is going to be all right. I won’t let a few monsters get the better of me.”
“That’s the spirit!” Morrigan said. She withdrew from the circle, joining Mikael next to the massive standing stone. “Begin!”
When she spoke that final word, she brought her hands together and clapped. The sound echoed over the sanctum like thunder and the megaliths started to glow even more brightly.
All of a sudden, it felt like a thousand different eyes were watching me. I licked my lips nervously as I waited for Morrigan’s beasts to appear.
When the creatures did show up, there was nothing monstrous about them. A murder of crows descended upon me, appearing out of nowhere, screeching and targeting me with alarmingly sharp beaks and talons.
For a few priceless seconds, my mind went blank. I couldn’t even blame my epilepsy for it. The attack just shocked me, because I’d expected some twisted monstrosity to appear. Compared to what I’d seen so far at the academy, birds seemed plain, mundane.
But the moment the first crow reached me, I realized my mistake. I managed to evade its attack at the last moment, but its talons still raked over my exposed arm.
An animal didn’t need the ability to petrify you with a look to be dangerous. Appearances were very deceiving, and enraged crows could be just as lethal as angry demons. After all, there was a reason why Hitchcock’s classic The Birds was still considered a remarkable thriller, more than fifty years after it had come out.
With a dose of hysteria, I thought that sometimes, the weird things about the English language were completely justified. A few hundred years ago, some random dude had thought, ‘hey, crows are bad news, we should call a group of them a murder’. Whoever the guy had been, he should’ve received a prize for his genius, because the birds certainly seemed murderous now.
I had no place to hide or retreat to, and it took me only a couple of seconds to fall under the assault of the feathery mob. Several crows landed next to my face and tried to peck my eyes out.
I panicked. Energy exploded out of me, blasting the crows away. I didn’t even think about it too much, nor did I realize what I was doing. One moment, the birds were there, and the next, the scent of scorched flesh and burning feathers filled the air, and pieces of dead birds littered the ground.
It was honestly pretty disgusting. For a few seconds, the only thing I could think about was the fact that the whole sanctum looked like a nightmarish version of a KFC kitchen, with burnt meat scattered all over the place. Then, those moments passed, and a fierce pang of regret coursed through me. I’d always hated violence toward animals. The birds had attacked me and I’d only defended myself when I killed them, but still, I wished I hadn’t been forced to do that. “I’m so sorry,” I told Morrigan. “I didn’t mean to kill them.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Morrigan said. She flicked her fingers and a parchment popped up in front of her. She extracted another feather from her strange garment and jotted something down. Once she was done, she looked at me again. “This is battle magic. You have to realize that you’ll be forced to do far worse than kill a few birds. Granted, I could bring the birds back if I so desired, but it’s not necessary.”
Did that mean the test was over? Had I passed it? Surely, it couldn’t have been so easy.
Morrigan smiled as if she could guess my thoughts. “Don’t worry. We’re just getting started. I did promise you some monsters, didn’t I?”
Yes, she had, but after my nauseating clash with the evil crows, I wouldn’t have been averse to avoiding any other fight. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a choice. Morrigan blew a gust of air over the feather in her hand, and then tossed it into the middle of the circle. It didn’t hit the ground per se, but rather, landed on the mess of animal parts.
Under my horrified eyes, the crispy remnants of the birds began to come together in a strange, crimson blob that glowed with ominous, dark magic. The process should’ve alarmed me, but I was too distracted by the genuinely disturbing sight. It was kind of like looking at a car accident. You knew it was disgusting and you didn’t want to stare, but you couldn’t glimpse away. The… thing rippled and flared, changing color and consistency like a chemical experiment gone wrong. At the same time, I could’ve sworn I caught glimpses of beaks and claws underneath the transparent, gelatinous surface as if the birds were still inside it and were trying to escape.
I’d seen a lot of weird things since I’d come to the academy, but this was the strangest one yet.
While I didn’t know what to make of the blob, Mikael didn’t have such problems. “Lady Morrigan,” he snapped, “you never said anything about Lyssa having to fight a necromantic construct.”
When my other teachers had brought up necromancy, I’d always imagined things like skeletons and zombies, not shapeless, amorphous blobs. I should’ve known better than to expect anything here would be predictable or make sense.
Morrigan ignored Mikael’s protests and anxiety. “It is precisely a necromantic construct that she must fight. We already know that she can handle elemental magic and I don’t want to tackle shadow magic with her yet. This sort of creature will allow me to judge her raw power.”
“Yes, but—”
Before he could finish the sentence, several holes popped up in the surface of the strange blob. One was bigger than the others and when it moved, a loud screech echoed over the sanctum.
The blob had a mouth now. Wonderful. Its digestive system was sorely lacking, though, because remnants of the crows I’d killed splattered all over the ground in front of me and on the hem of my dress.
“Oh, that is foul,” I muttered as I took in the gruesome spectacle.
“Necromancy usually is,” Morrigan replied. “You remember what you need to do, right? Just hit it.”
That was easier said than done. Earlier, I’d instinctively lashed out at the crows because they’d attacked me, but the strange blob was barely moving. It didn’t seem much of a threat at all, not to my health, at least. If it got any closer, I might lose my lunch simply because of the way it reeked, but I wasn’t in any danger. Was I?
Next to Mikael, Shiro started to pace anxiously. TB hissed in distress. Mikael clenched his fists, looking like he wanted to jump into the arena, to shield me from the threat.
Okay so maybe underestimating the massive amalgamation of animal parts would be a bad idea. But what else I supposed to do? Yell Abracadabra? Bombarda?
No one at The Academy of the Devil used spells. They just… seemed to know how to naturally channel their magic. It had come to me too when I’d needed it, but how did I summon it when I didn’t have to face an immediate threat?
“Well?” Morrigan prodded. “What are you waiting for? It’s right there.”
Yes, I could see it. My target was not the problem.
Okay, Alyssa. You can do this. You can attack the blob. It shouldn’t be too difficult. Just focus on it and blast it away. Like with the birds.
I lifted my hand and pointed i
t straight at the blob. Taking a deep breath, I tried to focus on the power that had helped me in my fight against the birds, on the core of energy that had burned so brightly inside me the day I’d lashed out against Professor Jones.
Nothing. I was left standing there awkwardly, with my hand extended, mentally scrambling for something that wasn’t there.
Morrigan snapped her fingers and all of a sudden, the blob started to move faster. It didn’t attack me, though. Instead, it lunged toward Mikael, Shiro, and TB like an amorphous cloud of body parts and hatred.
It shouldn’t have been possible, considering the way the blob had been moving before and the raw material it had been created from. But this island and its inhabitants obeyed no rules, not even the simple laws of physics. Why would a necromantic construct be any different?
It didn’t matter anyway, because the blob didn’t get the chance to reach my companions. Three seconds before it could hit them, the creature vanished, as if suddenly consumed by a black hole.
This time, there was nothing left behind except the regurgitated remnants the blob had spat out.
I let out a sigh of relief. Morrigan must’ve realized I wouldn’t be able to fight the thing off and had decided to intervene herself. Thank fuck. If she hadn’t stepped in, I didn’t know what would’ve happened.
I opened my mouth to convey my gratitude to the goddess and to apologize for my failure. She stopped me before I could say a single word. “Congratulations, Ms. Michaelis. It would appear that you are as powerful as I expected.”
My mind went blank. What the hell? There was no way I’d done that. I should’ve at least realized it if I’d been the one to attack the blob. Right?
“That was me?” I asked, my voice sounding like a squeak that would’ve embarrassed me had the circumstances been less serious.
“Indeed. Another instinctual response, no doubt.” Morrigan’s feather jotted something else, and then disappeared, along with the parchment. She looked up at me, and her stern expression could’ve meant anything at all. “You have a bit of a mental block when it comes to attacking something that isn’t a danger to you or someone you care about. That’s not a problem, since you are very young, and you’ll get used to the necessity of killing.”