“In addition you, what, want to play a prank on Catherine? Are you insane?” Closing her eyes, Irene sighed. I wish Eva were here.
Of course, if Eva had shown up, they probably wouldn’t be in this situation. Summoning a demon wasn’t supposed to happen for another month at the earliest.
“I–”
Irene snapped open her eyes, cutting him off with just a glare. She narrowed her eyes at the idiot in front of her. “You know what? Do go make your own circle. Then you can add all the flourishes you want. When you get kicked out for your disrespect and general idiocy, don’t come crying to me.”
For a moment, Irene thought he was going to object. And loudly at that. Maintaining her glare for a few moments put a stop to that.
Randal got to his feet. Hands in his pockets, he marched over to another group. One of the groups that had finished already, but that hadn’t been looked over by Catherine just yet.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Irene turned back to the task of finishing her circle.
She froze as a thought occurred to her. Now alone in her group, there was no one but her to perform the actual summoning.
With a look at the clock, Irene decided that no, they would not be summoning anything today. At least not her. She had a good quarter of the circle remaining still. If she timed it perfectly, she would only just be finishing as the doors unlocked.
Then next time, Eva could put an end to this madness.
Filled with relief and a great deal of pressure removed, Irene set to work. She still wanted to do a good job. Catherine had trusted her enough to offer her a slot in the class, despite her being the youngest person in the room. She could pay that back with a proper set of shackles and the summoning circle.
Even if one of the other groups finished their circle to Catherine’s standards and started summoning, the circles they had been directed to draw were specifically designed to call imps. A hierarchy of common demons found within the text had imps at essentially the lowest place. Non-sentient blobs of slime were apparently more dangerous than imps.
Irene was beyond relieved that Catherine hadn’t directed them to summon up cerberuses or anything.
With the circles being specifically for imps, no verbal request or tricky magic channeling was required. Only the imps’ enticement.
Honestly, what would an imp ever want with a rusted copper coin? Did they collect them? Hoard them off in some vault?
And it apparently did not matter what kind of coin it was. Anything from some ancient Greek coin to a penny. So long as it was a currency, predominantly copper, and tarnished–not necessarily rusted as copper didn’t truly rust, though that was the term the book used. The jar on Catherine’s desk was full of green pennies, so presumably they would work.
“Class,” Catherine spoke just as Irene was making the last few marks on her circle, “I am disappointed.”
She moved up to her desk, taking up a reclining pose against it. “Two hours, you’ve had to work on your summoning circles. Two hours of failure. Your shackles are lacking. Your circles couldn’t summon a demonic gnat.”
Irene quirked an eyebrow. She didn’t know there was such a thing as a demonic gnat.
“You’re here to learn proper diablery practices. You may not have known that initially, but nothing is keeping you here. Children, your contract ensures your silence, not your presence. If diablery does not appeal to you, you’re welcome to never return.
“Of the nine of you, split into four groups, only one managed to complete their circle to my standards.”
Glancing around the other circles, Irene started to get a sinking feeling in her stomach. Irene distinctly recalled Catherine moving between each circle, making disparaging comments at each. The only circle that had been left alone was hers.
Whipping her head to the clock on the wall, Irene almost groaned. She had misjudged her speed. There were still ten minutes left of class. Plenty of time to summon something.
That sinking feeling only grew as Irene turned back to find Catherine staring right at her.
One of the rusted coins spun at the tip of Catherine’s sharp fingernail. With a light flick of her finger, the coin went sailing across the room.
It rolled along the floor before losing momentum and falling flat on its side.
Right in the center of Irene’s summoning circle.
“Go on,” Catherine said. “Channel your magic into the circle. Become the first true diabolist of the class.”
“I, um…” Irene took a step back from her circle.
Oh great, she thought, looking around the room. Everyone was staring at her. Some with curiosity but most had a look of envy. Randal was less staring and more glaring.
Alright, Irene thought, Catherine is right there. It’s just an imp. Zoe killed an imp all by herself last summer without problems. The whole class working together could stop it if it goes out of control.
Taking a deep breath, Irene moved back up to the summoning circle. She knelt down at the edge and shut her eyes–more to block out the sight of the watching students than any part of the ritual. With another deep breath, Irene started pushing her magic into the circle.
She had never used a ritual circle before. Summoning circles operated much the same way, from what she understood from books. There was a strange tingling sensation that was completely absent when she used a regular wand.
When she opened her eyes, Irene almost jumped back away from the circle again. The runes and markings she had drawn on the tiled floor were moving, rotating around the center point she had used to mark her initial circle. None of the symbols in the circle seemed to move at the same pace as the rest of it. Outside runes moved slower while the geometric shapes towards the inside spun around like the blades of a fan.
Irene did note that the shackles weren’t rotating. The shackle lines glowed faintly even in the light of the classroom. Otherwise, they were the same as when she had drawn them.
She actually did jump back when a gaping black maw erupted from the rotating circle. Shark-like teeth chomped around the coin.
A snake-like appendage erupted from beneath the circle. Despite coming through the floor as if through water, the appendage clamped down on the tiles like the hard floor it was.
More tentacles pulled the rest of the body through the floor until the entire thing was above ground.
With all the snake-like tentacles hanging off of its body, it looked something like a cross between Medusa and a large dog. Definitely not what an imp was supposed to look like.
Four red eyes glared around the room, moving from one silent student to the next. Settling on Irene, the dog slammed into the barrier formed by the shackles.
Irene jumped back again, letting out a startled shriek.
Her shackles lost some of their glow, flickering lightly as the demon reared its head into the barrier again.
Irene only vaguely heard the startled shouts coming from the other students. All of her attention was focused on a desperate feeding of more of her magic into the shackles.
Though the glow strengthened for a moment, the shackles flickered again as the demon rhythmically pounded into the wall.
“Help,” Irene said, glancing towards Catherine.
The succubus was wide-eyed with her mouth slightly agape, almost pressing herself away from the circle and into her desk.
Irene didn’t have time to consider the implications.
A resounding sound of glass shattering preceded her shackles going dark.
Chapter 008
The demon’s gaping maw snapped shut mere inches in front of Irene’s face. Inches only because something gripped her arm and pulled.
Irene didn’t stop inches from the demon. The force on her arm kept her going. She flew backward, rolling into a table that had been pushed to the edge of the room.