Until Eva met his eyes.
With a slight jerk of his head towards the doorway, he stood up, slipped between the students crowding him, and made his way to the hallway.
Eva sighed. “I think he wants to talk with me now too.”
Irene, having watched the whole thing, just shook her head. “What gave you that idea?”
“Just the words of a little birdie passing by. Come on, let’s go see what he wants.”
“Me too?” Irene asked, taking a step back. After a moment, her shoulders slumped. “Fine. Save your breath. I would have just gotten talked into it in the end anyway. Or dragged along somewhat unwillingly.”
“That was one time. Every other time has been entirely your choice.”
“And that one time just so happened to be the time monsters almost killed us. At least nothing too bad happens when I go willingly.”
“You’re acting far too melodramatic,” Eva said as they got out into the hallway.
Looking around, she couldn’t find Srey anywhere. She could still feel him around, but his body was gone.
Which meant he had to be invisible.
Walking towards the insubstantial sense Srey emitted, Eva reached out with a single finger. “Poke.”
She had been anticipating her finger touching something invisible, but it passed freely through the air. As her lips curled into a frown, the air drew together, solidifying into the shape of Srey.
Not invisibility then. Or not solely invisibility. Either intangibility or some gaseous form.
It didn’t really matter right now. Maybe not ever, even. It was still nice to know.
And it gave just a little more reason for the insubstantial feeling she got from him.
“Sorry to disturb you,” he said, averting his eyes to one side while giving a slight bow.
Eva waited for him to explain what he was sorry about or what he was disturbing her for, whichever one he thought to call her out for. But Srey stayed frozen in his half-bow, head angled towards the ground.
Glancing towards Irene, Eva rolled her eyes. These demons were getting annoying. She was extraordinarily grateful that Arachne, Catherine, and Ylva hadn’t changed their mannerisms around her. It would be absolutely miserable if she couldn’t hold a conversation with any of them.
“Alright. What do you want?”
“I thought you might be interested to know that you are being watched.”
“That doesn’t sound particularly new.”
“They hate you. A lot. And me as well.”
Eva shook her head. “Nope. Still doesn’t sound too new.”
Though if Des was the one watching her, things could get troublesome. She was already known to not be too careful in involving innocents in her plots. Unless Eva was grossly underestimating her, she shouldn’t be that difficult of an opponent unless she had brought the haugbui with her.
Which she probably had, if it was her. However, Nel had been keeping track of the dark spot in her vision that followed Des around. Last Eva checked in, she hadn’t been moving anywhere close to Brakket. If she had been, Eva imagined that Nel would be running straight to Eva to let her know. Or borrow Zoe’s cellphone and just send off a simple text. Either would work.
The only other people who might hate Eva—at least the only others she could think of off the top of her head—would be demon hunters. They were a far more likely choice given the amount of demons openly walking around. If it was the hunters that had attacked Martina Turner, all the better. Eva hadn’t pretended to like the woman, but getting a little revenge on her and Lucy’s behalf might be fun.
“I don’t suppose you know who or where these people are?”
“They were watching us long enough that I just might. A vague direction to check out, at the very least.”
Eva took a deep breath. “Let me contact Arachne and perhaps Vektul. Irene–”
“I’m not going.”
“Wasn’t going to ask you to,” Eva said with a smile. “Just let Zoe know when you see her in class. We’re on a pure reconnaissance mission. The first sight of anything amiss, we’ll retreat. So tell her not to worry.”
“She’s going to cancel class to come and find you.”
“Maybe.” Eva paused, considering a thought. “Maybe I’ll go find Juliana. If she’s sneaking around meeting with demons, maybe she’s bored enough to go searching for demon hunters.”
Chapter 012
Vague directions, as it turned out, were not the best ways to find people. Especially not people who were spying on Eva and probably knew that she was on her way to find them. Given the time it had taken to gather everyone up, their spy would have had plenty of time to move.
Srey ended up bringing everyone to a stop in an alley some distance from the school.
“This is the spot.”
Eva glanced around, looking for any sign that someone had been around. Her sense of blood wasn’t picking anything up. Neither people nor droplets left behind from cuts or other injuries.
“Here,” Arachne said. She had crouched down, running her long fingers against the ground.
Her fingers were just a few inches away from touching a small metallic emblem. Its silver sheen stuck out against the darker colored ground. There was nothing obviously anti-demon about the simple eye-shaped symbol on the front. But best to err on the side of caution. Especially given the fact that it was metal.
Eva didn’t need to tell Arachne not to touch it. Though she was too close for comfort. With how much the apartment room had been trapped for Ylva, there could be traps lying around for anyone approaching. But Eva couldn’t see any on the walls or ground, so there probably wasn’t much cause for worry. At least on that front.
Touching it was an entirely different matter.
Juliana came up alongside Eva and Arachne, squatting down at their sides. Most of her armor was under her clothes. Still, Eva slid over just a small bit, making a little more room.
Her armor was the perfect example of why she didn’t want to touch the emblem. It was still made up of the metal that had broken off the demon hunter’s armor. No matter what shape it was in, the metal still hurt. While possible it was some lingering enchantment, it was far more likely that the effect came from the metal itself. Something specifically designed to hurt demons. Zoe had a sample that she was investigating, but nothing much had come of it so far.
The small bit Juliana had claimed turned black had a certain resemblance to void metal that was not lost on Eva.
But that had been silver in coloration before changing. This emblem was bright glittery gold.
“We should destroy it,” Eva said before anyone else could offer their input.
“Without investigating it? What if it is important?”
Eva glanced over to Vektul and shook her head. “You usually don’t leave important things lying around. Not to mention, it has an eye on it. We already know that they are spying on us. Perhaps there is information that they cannot glean through whatever methods they are using. Giving this to someone to look at might just reveal more than we want. Touching it might put some curse on us so that even if we destroyed it later, they could still spy.”
“What if it could be reversed? We could spy on them then.”
A possibility. Eva couldn’t dispute that. However, they already had Nel. Her ability penetrated almost any wards. In fact, the only things that could block it would be whatever Sawyer had done to Del and whatever Lynn Cross did—something that was exclusive to the higher-ups in the Elysium Order. Both methods involved the Elysium Order’s eyes.
Well, that and Ylva’s domain. The way domains interacted with the mortal realm while anchored was odd, occupying the same space at the same time. But the demon hunters probably didn’t have access to a domain.