If Zoe had it her way, she would only be using non-sentient demons in her tests, though she would defer to Devon’s advice on the matter.
Above all else, Zoe did not want to cure Eva only to have her wake up to find Arachne deceased–or whatever happened to demons when they died.
The conference room was almost a mirror image of the dining hall. The only real difference was the lack of food scattered around the massive tables.
Ylva had already taken a seat at the center of the table, facing the room’s entrance. She made eye contact and gave a brief nod with each person who entered the room.
Devon slouched down in the seat furthest from Ylva. He dipped his hands into his trench coat pockets and pointedly avoided eye contact with the hel. Arachne moved to stand a short distance behind him. Carlos and Genoa took their seats, leaving the final two open spots for Zoe.
Wayne had yet to stop by for the day. He had mentioned that he might head out and visit young Mr. Anderson and Mr. Weston, as well as a handful of other students of his.
I really need to get back in school, Zoe thought, before they make my substitute permanent. Even if there would be few complaints about Catherine reprising her position for a longer length of time, Zoe did not find the idea of any of Martina’s demons being left around the students appealing in the slightest.
Ylva waited until after Zoe had taken her seat to begin the meeting. She gave one last look at everyone.
“The Elysium Order is preparing to deal with Nel. Tonight.”
Genoa leaned forward, placing a sweaty arm on the table. “And you are certain that Nel will be able to find Juliana?”
“Our servant will assist. We have reason to desire the safety of Our subject.”
A short grunt came from Genoa. She looked to Carlos. For a moment, the two simply stared at one another. Then, Genoa nodded and turned back to Ylva. “What do we do?”
Ylva’s icy lips parted in a regal smile.
“We interfere.”
Chapter 009
Juliana groaned out.
Fever heat had always bothered her. She hated the simultaneous inclination to both kick off her covers and gather them around her in a cushy pile. There was just no winning either way. The moment the covers were off, she’d be too cold. Gather them up and she’d be too hot.
And someone had the brilliant idea to dump an extremely heavy, extremely hot blanket on top of her.
Groaning again, Juliana reached out to shove the blanket off.
The tips of her fingers found themselves digging into something warm and sticky. Something wet.
Did I knock over a bowl of soup? Some drink?
Wrinkling her nose, Juliana opened her eyes. Just a crack. Not enough to let too much light in. Just enough to see.
Juliana clamped her mouth shut.
Screaming, her mother had said once upon a time, never helped anybody.
Everything came back at once. Shalise. Prax. Demons. The prison.
Feelings of dizziness while talking with Prax. Passing out almost as soon as she had lain down.
She pinched her eyes shut and counted backwards from three. There probably wasn’t enough time for a full ten. As soon as she hit one, she snapped her eyes open and shoved the leg off of her chest.
At least, she thought it was a leg. It was difficult to tell.
Carefully keeping her eyes off of whatever it was, Juliana looked around the room.
And had to immediately duck back down as something went flying past her. As soon as it hit the ground, a void opened beneath and swallowed it whole.
A demon.
Two women fought in the direction it flew from. One, a purply-blue and very naked woman with horns. She fought with nothing but her hands, though they looked reinforced with clawed gauntlets.
The other looked human, if humans had silver hair–they didn’t, last Juliana checked. Gray maybe, but nothing quite as metallic as this demon’s hair.
A demon entered through a hole in the wall, a bulky one. Looked like he had swallowed a few elephants.
Before Juliana could even consider more than his initial appearance, the silver-haired demon appeared in front of him, cut him in two with a sword, and appeared back in front of the naked demon.
Both halves of the elephant demon disappeared into a void, something Juliana was extremely pleased with. It hadn’t been pretty. The putrid stench it left behind was more than enough to cause Juliana to gag.
The naked demon hadn’t been idle during the other’s absence. She made it a mere two steps farther into the room before the silver-haired demon knocked her back one step.
Juliana had to consciously close her gaping mouth and force her eyebrows back down to their regular position.
That the indigo demon was slowly yet surely making its way towards the crystal–Juliana assumed that was her goal–had her somewhat worried. It couldn’t be anything good.
Juliana kept the crystal only in the corner of her eye. She had glanced over it for a brief moment and almost got stuck, drawn in like some sort of hypnosis.
Neither of the demons so much as glanced in her direction throughout any of their fight. That was a small miracle in and of itself.
One thing was certain. This was definitely not Prax’s cell.
“Shalise,” Juliana hissed.
She couldn’t have–she wouldn’t have just left her.
Juliana scanned over all of the body parts littering the floor. There were surprisingly few considering that the sword-master kept flashing over to the hole in the wall and dispatching any that approached. Most of the parts likely vanished into the portals that appeared wherever a demon died.
There must have been a whole horde outside, clamoring to get in. Probably fighting one another to fit through the small hole. That none bothered to widen it was somewhat surprising. The silver-haired woman was fast and powerful, true, but anyone could be overwhelmed.
There!
A messy set of wavy brown hair stood out against the background noise of body parts.
But the thing attached to the hair…
“Shalise?”
Juliana twisted up to her hands and knees. She cracked her neck from side to side. There was an absolutely awful kink like she’d been sleeping half off the bed again.
Right as she laid her hand on the muscled-over shoulder, ‘Shalise’ stirred. She pushed herself up onto her on knees with a groan, bringing a hand up to her forehead as she moved.
“Wha-what?” Shalise flipped back on her butt and started clawing at her arms, digging in and drawing blood. “No! This–this is not right.”
“Shalise, you have to calm down!” Juliana gripped Shalise’s arms and tried to pull her off of herself. Whatever had happened to her gave her enough muscles to overpower Juliana’s efforts. “Shalise!”
Shalise blinked and stopped struggling. Her eyes focused on Juliana.
Recognition took a moment. She pulled back and blinked again. “You! You mo–”
Shalise blinked again. “Juliana?”
“It’s me, Shalise. Are you… What happened to you?”
“I–” She looked down at herself.
For a moment, Juliana thought she was about to start clawing at herself again.
She didn’t. She almost snarled at herself. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Shalise jumped to her feet, narrowing her eyes at the naked demon and the sword. “This place is dangerous.”
“Yeah.” Juliana followed Shalise to her feet.
Oh, too fast. Juliana wobbled and pressed a palm to her own forehead.
Strong, iron-like fingers gripped her arm, holding her steady.
“Thanks.” Juliana glanced down at the fingers. “You’re going to have to tell me what happened.”