“To complete the ritual to tear open the fabric of reality.”
Eva shared a quick glance with Arachne.
“Ah. That ritual. To bring Void to the mortal realm?” It was a question, but she was trying to make it not seem like one.
“Were you working on another ritual?”
“Me personally? No. I wasn’t working on any other ritual.” Or that one. “Everything we were working on was in the mere theoretical phase. Perhaps we should discuss this ritual further with you before starting on anything concrete.”
His lips curled downwards into a slight frown in possibly one of the first real facial expressions she had seen on the demon. “You haven’t collected the necessary demons and mages? Or begun clearing a space for the ritual circle?”
Eva blinked, confused for just a moment before she grit her teeth. He was acting like she should have known this already. A quick glance at Arachne showed nothing but confusion on her face. Why was she expected to know these things.
“At least we have yourself. That is the most important part.”
“Why don’t we start at the beginning and go over this ritual step by step. Everything that you know about it.”
Chapter 010
“Weren’t you supposed to go back and visit your mother tonight?”
Juliana glanced over to Shalise and shrugged. “Still plenty of tonight left.”
“But… why are we here?”
Leaning back in the booth, Juliana snacked on a plate of chips. “There aren’t many places open in the evenings.”
Shalise frowned, sulking slightly in her third of the booth, leaning into the corner.
Her dislike of the location was understandable, though not very sensible. The Vertex club had a bit of history with Shalise. It being the location of the little Halloween party during their fist year. Also the location of Shalise nearly dying from zombies.
It wasn’t a very sensible distaste because zombies really had nothing to do with the place. The structure had been fixed up, cleaned, and reopened for business. Sawyer was dead, so there was a much smaller chance of zombies spontaneously wandering in through the doors. Even if they did walk in, they could handle them now.
The zombies had shown up roughly two months into their magical education. Juliana could have taken them out then; she hadn’t. Seeing some zombies earlier in the year might have given her a small bit of trauma related to zombies. Since then, however, she had seen and done plenty of things far worse.
Shalise wasn’t incapable though. Sure, she had missed a portion of her first year and a larger portion of her second year, but she still kept up in her studies. Her tutor hadn’t been the best. That was something Juliana was slowly finding out about as she helped get Shalise up to speed. She could only help a little though. General basics and theory. Air and earth magics just weren’t compatible. But she knew that Shalise was getting extra tutoring from Zoe to help catch her up.
At the very least, she should be able to create strong enough gusts of wind to keep shambling zombies away from her. Her lightning was a fair weapon as well, though probably not the best to use against zombies.
“Besides,” Juliana said, “if there is one thing that I’ve learned, it’s that demons like entertainment. Anywhere else around here lacks the small bit of excitement that we can use for distraction if need be.”
A thunk to Juliana’s other side rattled the plates on the table.
Irene’s forehead was pressed against the table. She let out a small groan. “How did I get dragged into this?”
“Has anyone told you that you get pressured into things too easily?”
“No?”
Juliana patted her on the shoulder. “Ah. Well, don’t worry about it. If you weren’t here, Shalise wouldn’t have agreed to come.”
“We should have waited for Eva, at least.”
Pulling out her cellphone, Juliana shook her head. “No response. Must be busy still.”
In truth, Juliana had never sent out a text in the first place. Eva’s text asking where Shalise was had come as a surprise, but she had played it off as if Eva sent a message saying that she would be busy for a time and couldn’t join them.
It might be a dangerous game that she was playing, but Juliana wanted to meet with a few of the demons outside of Eva’s presence. The way that they had all but ignored everything around them to focus on Eva had been both disturbing and off-putting. Not a single one of the demons had looked at anyone else while getting off the bus.
With Eva gone, hopefully things would be a little bit more normal.
And it shouldn’t be too dangerous. Not more dangerous than sleeping in their rooms, anyway. These demons were going to be hanging around school and the dormitories. Slipping a note under a few of their doors to meet out in the club should be safe enough.
“Are they going to show up soon?”
“Maybe they couldn’t find the place.”
“We found it just fine.”
Juliana jumped at the sudden voice. The least exaggerated reaction of those present. Shalise stiffened like a board after letting out a surprised noise. Irene bolted upright, flipping a spoon halfway across the room as her elbow bumped against the table.
The spoon stopped in mid-air. A hand shimmered around it, coming into vision along with the rest of a body. A fairly regular human body. There were no obvious signs of his demon side despite him almost undoubtedly being one. No hands or eyes like Eva had or the odd facial expressions and mannerisms of Lucy.
Appearing out of thin air wasn’t typically a mortal ability, even for mages. Teleportation was one way, but that wasn’t teleportation. More like invisibility. Which was possible, but not easily. Therefore, he was likely a demon.
“You’re scaring the poor humans, Srey.”
A second demon—and this one was obviously a demon with the leathery wings sticking out of her back—came up the stairs to the second floor of the club. She sauntered up to the first demon and plucked the spoon from his hand. She turned it over once, looking at her reflection as she adjusted a strand of hair. As soon as she finished, she flung the spoon over her shoulder with a shrug.
Her eyes roamed over the three seated humans, watching each with the intensity one might give a venomous spider slowly creeping closer.
The look disappeared as she put on a radiant smile and offered her hand. “Saija. Charmed to meet you.”
Irene was the first to move forwards to shake the offered hand, being the one sitting closest to the two demons. She reached out almost instantly, pure reaction and conditioning forcing her to shake hands when one was offered.
Juliana grabbed hold of Irene’s arm just before she could make contact and pulled it back slightly. Both Irene and Saija looked aghast at her actions. Irene looked more scared with her eyes widening as she whipped her head towards Juliana.
Saija narrowed her eyes, lifting her chin slightly so as to glare downwards all the more effectively.
“Sorry,” Juliana said as fast as she could. “I don’t mean any offense, it is just that we’ve heard about a demon called the Lord of Slaves. Apparently shaking his hand isn’t a good idea.”
Saija’s face softened somewhat as she gave a heavy nod of her head. “I’ve heard of such a being. Enslaving mortals and demons alike. Truly a fearsome creature. Though you need not fear such from me! I am a succubus,” she said, fluttering her wings in obvious pride.
The demon she had called Srey stepped forward, closer to the table. He didn’t extend his hand, smile, or look very personable at all. In fact, he looked like he wanted to be just about anywhere but where he was.
His eyes weren’t on the three humans. They were darting around the club, never stopping on any one thing for any length of time. After a moment, he sighed and leaned in to Saija.