Academy of the Devi- the Complete Collection

by Eva Brandt

  Our conversation died after that, drifting into a comfortable silence. I ended up sandwiched between Mikael and Callum on my bed and closed my eyes. I knew that in their own way, they were right. Our relationship wasn’t perfect. But how could it be? They were demons, while I was human. I still didn’t understand so much about their world. But I fully intended to fight for what we had, for them, for me, and for our future.

  Demonic Contracts

  Had I thought that my new relationship with Callum, Stefan, and Mikael would change much about my life, I would’ve been disappointed. Beyond the fact that I was having regular sex—which was, granted, pretty amazing—my routine remained the same. My three idiots still bickered when they thought I wasn’t around and I still wanted to throw some kind of demonic rock at them that would make them understand that there was room in my life and in my heart for all of them.

  It was on this unsettling and insane note that my second year at the academy finally started. I dreaded it, because, like the dean had said, I knew the students wouldn’t respond well to having an angel around.

  I had hoped we’d have a little more time at our disposal to get our proverbial ducks in a row, but it wasn’t meant to be. On the first day of the school year, every member of The House of Envy gathered in the common room to tackle an issue I’d prayed wouldn’t pop up.

  “We can’t start the new year without an actual head of house,” a third year named Eman declared. “We have to select a new one.”

  “We already have a head of house,” I pointed out, knowing it was useless, but still needing to say the words. “It’s Mikael.”

  “And he’s been a great leader,” Lena argued, “but let’s face it, Alyssa, we can’t have a nephilim as the head of our house. We’d be the laughing stock of the whole academy.”

  “There’s no reason to pick anyone else,” Mikael replied. “Since I’m Lyssa’s familiar, my authority extends to her. She can officially take up the position.”

  Wait, what?

  “Mikael! I can’t do that. I’m only a second year, and a human at that.” Not to mention that three-quarters of the school undoubtedly still hated me and deemed me inferior because I was an epileptic. They might tone down the bullying because I’d proven I wasn’t weak, but they couldn’t have forgotten about my condition.

  “Your background and age don’t really matter, Lyssa,” Mikael insisted. “I believe in you and I think you’re perfectly capable of taking over this title. Besides, I’ll be right there by your side, so you won’t have to do this alone.”

  Did that make me a sort of placeholder for him? Possibly. The thought should’ve bothered me, but in the end, that was the whole point of him being here as my familiar. I might not be wholly comfortable with taking on another responsibility, but I had made him a promise and I did owe him for Shiro. I couldn’t back out of this, not if the rest of our house agreed, at least.

  “I’ll consider it, but I don’t think it’s just my decision, is it?” I asked, looking around at the group of students. “Do you all agree with this?”

  Much to my surprise, there were nods all around. Boys and girls alike supported my unwilling candidacy to the post of head of house.

  “Sure.”

  “I don’t see why not.”

  “It seems like a good arrangement.”

  I wanted to cry, but I refrained. In my heart, I’d already known my familiar bond with Mikael would bring about complications.

  Besides, this was actually a good thing. The House of Envy had taken the revelation of Mikael’s angelic nature very well. No one seemed inclined to socialize with him, but they weren’t attacking him outright, so I couldn’t exactly complain. “Okay, then,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll do it.”

  The moment I spoke the words, the whole tower started to shake. The painting of Leviathan began to twist and glow and a green fog flooded the common room. Shiro started to bark in agitation. “Lyssa, be careful! Something’s coming!”

  It was always nice to hear him talking to me, and under normal circumstances, I would have rejoiced. But the fog was quickly engulfing everything, making the silhouettes of my housemates blur and vanish. “Lyssa!” Mikael cried out. “Don’t—”

  Whatever he’d wanted to say was cut off when my view of the common room vanished altogether, melting away into an ominous darkness. Shiro managed to rush by my side before it happened, but seconds later, I almost wished he hadn’t.

  We appeared to be standing in an isolated sphere in the middle of an ocean of darkness. A dim light provided me with illumination, but it didn’t slice through the obscurity outside. Curious, I reached out and tentatively brushed my fingers over the edge of the sphere. Seconds later, I stumbled back, clutching my hand to my chest and struggling not to hyperventilate. “Shiro, get away from there!” I told my familiar, just in case he spotted something interesting too.

  When I’d touched the edge, it had felt wet underneath my fingertips. At the same time, I’d sensed an overwhelming pressure, something that had threatened to crush me.

  This was more than an ocean of darkness. It was the actual ocean. I couldn’t be sure, but I suspected that somehow, I’d been transported into the darkest depths of the sea, where no human being could ever go. The magic that had brought me here seemed to keep both me and Shiro safe, but demonic enchantments weren’t that reliable, and I doubted it would be able to protect us if we emerged from this sphere.

  Besides, oceanic pressure wasn’t the only thing we had to worry about. There were all sorts of dangerous creatures down here, beasts that thrived on darkness and would be lured to the small amount of light we had.

  Confirming my worst fears, the shadows stirred outside my shelter, and a massive creature appeared within my view. It swam to the edge of the sphere and looked straight at us. That was a bit of a poor description, though, because its eyes were at least ten times the size of my whole body and it had at least a hundred of them, all over its whale-like form.

  When the creature spoke, its mouth didn’t move, but I still heard the vibrations of its voice around me. Or perhaps inside my mind? I wasn’t sure.

  “I am Leviathan, Prince of Hell, Lord of Envy,” it—or rather, he—said. “It is nice to officially meet you at last, Alyssa Michaelis.”

  “It’s… It’s nice to meet you as well…” Uh, what was the official title I was supposed to use here? “Your Highness,” I finished, somewhat lamely.

  “Not to worry. I don’t insist on formality when I’m among my children. You can call me whatever you please, little darkling. ”

  Darkling. Mikael called me that when we were together in bed. I hadn’t asked him about it yet, although maybe I should have. I supposed it didn’t matter right now. Or did it?

  A loud laughter echoed through the depths of the ocean, clashing and discordant, as if coming from a thousand different voices. “Everything matters when it comes to demons, and the young nephilim always has been very perceptive. There’s a reason why he picked The Infernal Realm over The Heavens, after all. But for what it’s worth, that’s the least of your problems right now.”

  Leviathan approached the sphere a little more, so close now that I could see the details of his body a little better. His skin greenish skin glowed like amethysts, and it was the same light that kept Shiro and me safe in our shelter.

  “Being the head of The House of Envy isn’t a game, Alyssa Michaelis,” Leviathan offered. “But I think you already know that, don’t you?”

  I tried very hard to remind myself that Leviathan was the patron of my house and as such, my protector. It was a bit of a challenge since his massive, fanged mouth was so close to me and to my Shiro.

  I found it too easy to imagine Shiro being ripped apart and killed again. Shaking, I knelt next to him and wrapped my arms around his neck. I didn’t tear my eyes away from Leviathan. I feared that if I did, he would attack me. “Y-Yes,” I stammered. “I do know.”

  “And you know that starting today, you have a duty
to your housemates, and to me.”

  “I already had a duty to Mikael,” I replied. “This isn’t that different. Besides, I always wanted to keep the students at the academy safe. I might not be able to prevent every person from getting hurt, and I don’t think I want that, but I can at least protect some of them.”

  The ground beneath my feet started to shake and the water around the sphere rippled. “You’re as interesting as he told me, little darkling. I had my doubts about his assessment at first, but I see now that I was the one in the wrong. I should’ve trusted his judgment.”

  He? Was he referring to Mikael? It seemed unlikely, as Mikael had not wanted to draw Leviathan’s attention to me. But if Leviathan was talking about someone else, who could that person be? Another Prince of Hell? I hoped not.

  “I think you’re giving me too much credit, Sir. I’m just a girl trying to do her best.”

  “That might be, but ‘the best’ isn’t the same thing for every single person.” Leviathan waved his fin, a strangely humanoid gesture that looked odd in a gigantic, fanged whale. “Tell me something, Alyssa Michaelis. Do you know what a Sacrifice actually is?”

  I froze. For the better part of the year before, most students at the school had called me that. I’d gotten the feeling that it was a title used for humans in the demon world, but if I remembered well, Lenoir had said that it was more complicated than that.

  “Not the details,” I replied hesitantly. “I guess it would be too much to hope the ‘nickname’ is just because I’m human?”

  “Indeed. I advise you to look it up. There are a lot of secrets inside, underneath and outside this school, little darkling. If you want to survive what’s coming, you’d do well to start finding your own answers.”

  That was much too vague for my comfort. It was also something I hated on principle, because I’d never had much patience for teasing games of ‘should I or shouldn’t I tell you?’

  “I can’t argue with you there, Alyssa,” Leviathan said, having obviously guessed my thoughts, “but knowledge is more valuable when you have to fight for it. There’s something special about knowledge, wouldn’t you agree? It’s a gift and a sin, beauty and ugliness, pain and pleasure wrapped into one. Are you brave enough to shoulder that burden, to accept what you truly are?”

  The immediate agreement was on my lips. Some might consider knowledge a sin, but to me, it was far worse to be ignorant and not understand. That was a true curse, and it was something I’d always wanted to fight, even before I’d come to this wretched place.

  Before I could point that out, a bright glow manifested in the darkness, right next to my Shiro. Mere seconds later, Mikael stumbled into the strange sphere. Much to my surprise, he was in his winged form, but he didn’t seem to be paying attention to this.

  He stepped in front of me and Shiro, shielding us with his own body. “Your Highness, my apologies for interfering in your conversation with Alyssa. I was concerned for her. Her mind is not completely prepared to withstand the presence of your true form.”

  Sharp shards of light manifested in the darkness as Leviathan bared his fangs at us. “Is that a fact? Do me a favor, nephilim, and don’t try to lie in front of me. I know very well who you are and what you want. You might be able to fool everyone else, but you can’t fool me.”

  Mikael clenched his jaw, but didn’t answer. The shadows shifted around the sphere, a silent, ominous threat.

  “Remember what I told you, little darkling,” Leviathan said after a small pause. “Keep searching. Don’t ever give up. In the end, the only person who will ever stand up for you… is you.”

  Shiro snarled at him angrily. “That’s not true. I will always protect my Lyssa.”

  Leviathan just laughed, and the world around us started to swirl once again. I blinked, and before I knew it, I was back in the dorms of The House of Envy.

  All the other students had vacated the common room, which probably had something to do with the fact that the whole place was in disarray. Three-quarters of the furniture had been shattered, broken, or upended. Leviathan’s painting had fallen off the wall and was slithering on the floor.

  Shaken and confused, I turned toward Mikael. “What was that all about? Where did we just go?”

  “Leviathan likes to test his heads of house whenever they take up the position,” he replied, averting his eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think he’d do it to you, since our familiar bond makes my strength your own. I should’ve seen this coming.”

  “It’s not your fault,” I automatically replied. “Nobody here ever follows a pattern or a rule, no matter how much they claim they do. And I guess nothing bad happened, so it’s okay.”

  Mikael shot me a weak smile, one that didn’t reach his eyes. “You have to understand, Lyssa, that there’s a reason why The House of Envy never turned on either of us. It’s because of Leviathan. He protects all the members of his house. It’s forbidden for any one of us to do anything against each other.

  “That doesn’t mean the others like me or support me. I had hoped that through this, I’d make them see that I haven’t changed that much, that I can still be who I was. But I suppose that was a little too selfish and ambitious.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with wanting something for yourself, Mikael. I will never blame you for that.”

  “I know you wouldn’t,” Mikael replied. “I don’t really deserve so much kindness.”

  I wrapped my arms around him, feeling even more uncertain and afraid than before. What had Leviathan meant when he’d spoken about secrets? What did I have to do to protect the people I cared about? Were my lovers keeping something from me because they didn’t want to upset me?

  I didn’t know, but I fully intended to find out.

  * * *

  Classes began in a whirlwind, and from the very first day, it became obvious the other students wouldn’t be as accepting of Mikael as those of our house. They didn’t have to obey Leviathan’s dictates, and they took shameless advantage of that.

  We walked side by side through the corridors, and the weight of the vitriolic gazes felt almost crushing. No one tried to physically attack us, not at first, but the promise of violence was there and it would happen.

  Whispers reached our ears from every corner.

  “I don’t understand why they’d let an angel into the school.”

  “They have no choice. He’s her familiar.”

  “Look at him, sauntering through the school, like he owns it.”

  “That freaking abomination has to die. Just breathing the same air with an angel turns my stomach.”

  “We have to get rid of him at once.”

  It was a recreation of what had happened to me in the second semester, except with less flashing lights. They’d yet to find a method that would allow them to hurt Mikael too badly, but it would happen. I had to be faster, to make sure I was prepared when the attack unavoidably came.

  Unfortunately for me, my time was limited, and despite the private tutoring I received, I still had to attend every other class assigned to my current year. And so it was that on the first morning, I found myself in Law class, learning about the details of demonic contracts.

  It was the first time I had Professor Faust as a teacher, and I did not enjoy it. Gemma had once told me—or rather, the now deceased Jax—that Faust taught upperclassmen. I’d skipped a year and had managed to avoid him during Mundane, but that hadn’t saved me from having to cross paths with him. I hadn’t forgotten that he’d refused to help me when I’d been badly struggling with my seizures and had pushed for Mikael’s immediate execution.

  The thing that irritated me most was the fact that Faust wasn’t a bad teacher. He didn’t glare at me and Mikael when we entered the class, and he seemed invested in providing information.

  “Can anyone tell me the difference between magical contracts and binding spells?”

  In front of me, a vampiric third-year I didn’t know raised his hand. Faust nodded at him. “Yes, Mr. B
yte. Go on.”

  “A magical contract can only take place between a mortal and a magical being, and involves the mortal taking the magical creature as his servant in exchange for services of different kinds. A binding spell is an enchantment any creature can cast on another in order to enslave them or create a connection between them, either of servitude, partnership, or even of a romantic nature.”

  “Very good. But why are demonic contracts unique? What makes them special?”

  A girl at the front of the class lifted her hand. Upon Faust’s cue, she answered, “The fact that they’re created by demons and they often involve claiming the souls of mortals?”

  Faust looked like he was about to facepalm. “That is incorrect. The origin of an object isn’t enough to make the item in question unique. Keep in mind that contracts created by fae also involve mortal enslavement. Anyone else? Preferably someone who doesn’t think being a demon is enough to make you special?”

  I barely managed to suppress a giggle. Gemma had been right. Faust was bitter as fuck for being tied down to this blasted school. It was a shame he was taking it out on people who were blameless, like me and my lovers. Otherwise, I might have liked him for it.

  But I couldn’t forget his previous attitude toward us, and neither could Mikael. He chose to do something about it and raised his hand. “Yes, Mr. Lost?” Faust asked.

  “With demonic contracts, mortals are usually given a free pass to ask for anything. But they lack the ability to process and comprehend the power at their disposal, so they run out of things to ask for very quickly, which in turn means the contracted demon can claim their souls with ease.”

  A shadow flickered over Faust’s face, and I wondered if he was remembering his own contract. I couldn’t help but notice that Mikael’s reply was a not-so-subtle dig at the teacher’s intelligence, but I didn’t begrudge him for it. Maybe being discreet would’ve been wiser, but we’d surpassed that when Faust had banned me from the library because I had dared to be an epileptic.