But the point about the Keeper stood. For all Eva knew, she was too far over the line to summon a demon herself.
“So what are we teaching this class for?” Eva asked, aghast. She had far better things to do with her time than waste it all on sitting around twiddling her thumbs.
Catherine pressed her lush lips together in a sneer. “I believe our job was more supervision than actual teaching. That’s why we have books with all the diagrams needed.”
“That’s slightly more reasonable,” Eva said. “I can’t believe they’re making a student supervise this class. Couldn’t they spare one regular human?”
“I believe that was the point in asking for Devon Foster. Though after Zagan–” she said his name with undisguised venom “–foisted his responsibility off on me, he actually suggested you by name.”
“This was supposed to be his job then?”
Catherine’s eyes briefly lost their glamor, reverting to their natural red.
That answered Eva’s question adequately enough for her. “Still,” Eva said after a short pause, “I’m more of a haemomancer than any sort of diabolist.”
“Unfortunately, the only two summoners that I know of, aside from you and your mentor, are Martina and the governor. Both consider themselves far too busy for such a menial task.”
Eva shook her head. Again, she was having bad feelings about this whole thing. She had told Martina that it was a disaster waiting to happen. That was only enhanced by the realization that she couldn’t actually do much herself. Not to mention that the students would be drawing shackles. Shackles would definitely be dangerous for Catherine to accidentally step over and probably for Eva as well. She actually hadn’t tested in a long while.
“So we just stand around and wait for something to go wrong?”
“Between the two of us, we should be able to clean up any of the mortals’ accidents.”
Under her breath, Eva muttered, “now I’m reconsidering whether or not I should have told Arachne.”
The moment she finished speaking, the door to the classroom creaked open. Eva got her first look at one of the students she was expected to supervise.
And immediately groaned.
Eva didn’t recognize his face, but his circulatory system stood out to her. Currently walking through the door was that kid that tried to trip her at Zoe’s lecture after Eva lost her eyes. The kid that refused to fight her properly in Isaac Calvin’s fight club.
Something Burnside. For the life of her, Eva couldn’t remember his first name. Thinking harder, Eva wasn’t certain she had ever heard it. Zoe had always called him ‘Mr. Burnside’ and nothing else.
Mr. Burnside paused in the doorway as his eyes met Eva. There was a brief pause in both their actions.
Part of Eva wanted to send him away immediately. He didn’t respect her and she didn’t respect him back. Trusting him to listen to directions and to summon demons was going to make this project even more of a disaster than it already was.
On the other hand, if he stayed then he would start summoning demons. Eva might accidentally be slightly too slow to save him from being eaten by some nasty demon.
It probably wouldn’t come to that… probably. In the end, Eva decided to ignore him. Catherine could be in charge of that little nuisance.
Burnside came to his own decision. Averting his eyes from Eva, he went and took a seat in the farthest corner of the room.
A broad-shouldered man arrived next. He immediately moved up to the closest seat in the room, giving Eva and Catherine both an appraising look as he moved.
There was a large empty space between the first row of desks and the desk at which Catherine and Eva sat. Plenty of space for these budding diabolists to draw out whatever markings they needed to.
One red-headed girl, Eva noticed, was covered in scars not dissimilar to a more pronounced version Wayne’s own disfigurement from the fire in Zoe’s apartment. It took Eva a minute to realize who that was.
It was the girl who had been injured by the nuns’ white flames almost a full year ago. The one who Eva had been just slightly too slow to erect a shield around.
The scarred girl glanced around the room, eyes dipping down to Eva’s claws, but otherwise completely passing over her. She moved up and sat near a mousey, brown-haired girl who entered as she was looking. Both immediately entered into a hushed conversation.
A handful more students filed in over the course of the next few minutes. Eva barely paid attention to them. Most were older students that she had limited interactions with, if anything at all. As such, none of them particularly interested Eva.
At least not until a timid girl walked into the room, biting her lip.
Eva balked at the sight. No matter how she looked at it, this girl was far younger than any of the others in the room.
“Irene,” Eva said as she stood.
Her voice got Catherine’s attention. The succubus took her sneer off one of the students and turned to the doorway. Her sneer morphed into an almost-smile as she waved Irene over.
“What are you doing here?” Eva said to the approaching girl.
“Catherine said–”
“I invited her here.”
“What?” Eva glanced between a nodding Irene and a very smug Catherine. “Why?”
“All the others get their little pets, why not me?”
Irene blinked. “Pet?”
Ignoring that tangent, Eva asked, “do you even know why you’re here?”
The brown-haired girl shook her head side to side.
“No one has been informed. Not until they sign the contract.”
Eva looked out over the students. Only one person had shown up after Irene. Counting quickly, Eva found that their class had reached thirteen people, including Irene. That should have been everyone. “None of you know why you’re here?” Eva said, raising her voice slightly.
Everyone shook their heads in silence.
“No guesses?”
“We were told to keep quiet about this meeting on the penalty of expulsion,” the mousey girl said. Several of the other students nodded in agreement. “I recognize a few students who have parents of… less than scrupulous backgrounds. So,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone, “we are here for something less than scrupulous.”
Dropping her voice’s volume once again, Eva turned over to Catherine. “Governor Anderson screened these people based on their parents?”
That fit with how Eva suspected most students got into the ‘underground’ schools. Still, she expected at least one person to have an idea about what the class was for.
“And where is he, anyway? Shouldn’t he and Martina Turner show up for the first class at the very least.”
“I believe the phrase is ‘plausible deniability.'”
“So when–and that is a when and not an if–something goes wrong, they’re going to blame us.”
“Like I said, they’re using you. Us.”
Eva shook her head with a sigh. “Look, Irene, you probably want to leave. Being–”
“And how do you know what I want?”
“You’ve complained about me before. Something about how it is ‘always me’ and I believe the word ‘freak’ was thrown in at some point.” Irene winced, but Eva continued talking. “This is going to be one of those ‘freak’ things.”
Irene took a deep breath and straightened out her back. “Will running and hiding make those things disappear?”
Eva gave a curt shake of her head. “No.”
“Then why shield me from it.” She stuck a finger in Eva’s chest. “You’re not the only one with ‘freak’ things anyway. If this is one of those things, then I want to stay and learn.” Though her eyes were wavering, Irene’s voice came out firm. That firmness washed away as uncertainty surfaced in her expression. “This is a class, right? You’re going to keep us safe, right?”
“Fine,” Eva said, ignoring the last few questions while knocking the girl’s hand away. “Stay. Go take a seat with the others.”