As such, Genoa had seen things best forgotten at the bottom of a bottle.
That experience all led up to Genoa knowing one thing with absolute certainty.
She needed a drink.
A young-looking woman wearing the standard Brakket nurse uniform lay spread out on the floor.
Very spread out.
Her chest had been torn open. Several organs were arranged in neat piles to one side. Neither leg was attached to her body.
Another of the creatures stood over her. It had three demonic arms; one arm replaced one of its legs and it had a taloned foot in place of the other leg. Several tentacles extended out of the creature’s stomach cavity.
Genoa’s eyes turned back to the corpse on the ground. They drifted up to the face.
It was… familiar. One of Zoe’s friends, if she remembered correctly. They had dinner together once. Not even that long ago. It was shortly before Juliana started school.
Adrenaline fueled rage flowed through Genoa’s veins. She could see her daughter’s face on the corpse. She could see Zoe’s face.
Her face twisted into a snarl as she let out a shout.
Then it was gone.
Genoa lifted her knife with an unnatural calm. She channeled magic straight into the earth beneath the academy as she prepared her attack.
The impassive dissociation she relied on during her mage-knight days resurfaced.
Two massive slabs erupted from the ground. Before the creature could comprehend what happened, the slabs slammed into each other.
Red and black oozed from between the slabs.
Genoa turned from the doorway and stalked down the hallway after Arachne.
That could have been her daughter.
Her daughter was not safe.
Chapter 023
Eva took a moment to relax. On Ylva’s throne. It wasn’t easy.
The throne was carved out of the same black marble the rest of the throne platform was made from. It had no cushions, no curvature, and it was far too large. Eva couldn’t sit with her back against the throne’s back without her calves hitting the relatively sharp edge of the seat.
The hel was a skeleton while sitting on the throne. Maybe her nerves didn’t function in that form. Maybe they didn’t function anyway; she was barely better than a corpse while she had skin on.
All in all, it wasn’t relaxing at all. How Ylva managed was beyond her.
A whimper at her side had Eva rubbing her temples once again.
Nel’s self-loathing didn’t help Eva’s relaxation. Not in the slightest.
“I don’t know why you’re worried,” Eva said with a sigh. “Even if they tear down my blood wards and trash the prison, it isn’t like they can get in here. Devon just walks into the real cell house when he tries to open the door. I can’t imagine the nuns will be able to enter.”
“It’s not that–though I wouldn’t put it past them to find a way in; our magic can do fairly strange things under the right circumstances–it’s that they noticed me in the first place. I’m a rogue augur. They aren’t going to let me go.”
“And you’re sure they noticed?”
“I used my own blood to seek out the vial set away in the vaults. Another augur was doing the reverse. With a priest and two prioresses hovering over her shoulder. I could tell they lost track of me, but,” Nel slumped in on herself, burying her head in her hands, “there’s no doubt they saw me.”
Eva nodded. She jumped to her feet. Her blood-covered bloodstone lazily orbited her as she paced. Getting comfortable on the throne was simply impossible.
“How soon could they mobilize against you?”
“Depends. If they send an inquisitorial chapter after me, it could be within the hour. All of them are capable of long-range teleportation. They might decide on a chapter of nuns which would take significantly longer. Maybe even pull Charon Chapter for the job.”
Eva froze. “They could be here in minutes and you’re not watching them?”
“They’ve gone dark! They’re not going to be drawing up battle plans with me hovering over their shoulders.”
“And Sister Cross?”
“Also missing. She did that from time to time, so it might not be related.”
Eva scoffed. “Fat chance of that. They probably pulled her in to find out everything she knew.”
Which included Arachne and herself. Eva pinched the bridge of her nose hard enough to draw blood from her claws. She healed it with a stray thought. Hopefully Zagan would act as an adequate deterrent until the mess at Brakket gets cleaned up.
Nel gave a terse nod, but didn’t comment.
“Keep an eye on the prison’s perimeter. I need to speak with Devon. If anything comes within ten miles of this place, I want to know about it immediately.”
“You want me to leave if they show up?” Nel’s eyes went wide as her head twisted to make eye contact with Eva. She flinched away almost immediately.
Eva neither smiled nor laughed at her discomfort. She kept her voice as deadly serious as her fourteen-year-old self could. “Immediately.”
“B-but–”
“If I get hit by a lightning bolt from a teleporting nun that is after you, and you fail to warn me, I swear I will personally tear out your spine. Understand?”
Nel nodded. A shallow, pitiful nod, but a nod nonetheless.
“Good.” Eva smiled. “Don’t worry. I’m sure everything will be fine.”
“Y-yeah.”
“Get to watching. I’ll be back shortly.” Eva turned and left Nel behind without another word.
She walked straight across the pit without even a glance down the vast chasm.
Outside Ylva’s domain was… normal. The sun was out, though not incredibly bright. Cold wind tossed Eva’s long hair up and around her. Clouds hung over the land in the direction of Brakket. Ylva’s doing no doubt.
Although there were pockmarks everywhere from whatever battle Arachne and Genoa had had, nothing in her prison was on fire. Yet.
That was always a positive.
Eva stepped. While it had yet to snow, the late November air was not the warmest thing Eva had felt and she did not want to spend longer than necessary outside. There was a wind that constantly blew through some of the buildings around her prison.
She still hadn’t gotten around to heating the entire prison with a rune system. So much to do, so many distractions.
It took four short steps to reach the front of Devon’s cell house.
A few more steps had her at the top of the stairs, right in front of Devon’s revamped penthouse. She opened the door and walked right in.
Devon was leaning back on the hind legs of his chair with a notebook and pen in his hands. His feet were resting atop a desk he had procured for himself.
The moment Eva opened the door, he started to tip backwards. Eva grinned in anticipation of the crash.
An empty chair clattered to the floor.
A cold blade pressed itself against her throat.
“Eva?”
“I might actually have to start knocking,” Eva said. She closed her chitinous fingers around the blade and gently pushed it away.
“As if,” Devon said with a scoff. “Shouldn’t you be in school.”
“Something came…” Eva trailed off as she noticed what was holding Devon’s knife. It curled around the handle three times, denting the handle at one part. “Is that–”
“One of the carnivean’s tentacles. One of the larger, more powerful ones. Yes.”
“You replaced your arm with a tentacle?”
Devon raised an eyebrow. “You replaced both hands and both legs with Arachne’s crap and you took the carnivean’s eyes. I don’t want to hear any judgment from you.”
“Yeah, but you’re kind of weird about the whole demon thing. I expected you to find the most human-like arm possible.”