Sister Cross’ heart picked up another few beats.
“Go, take your nuns and save your augur. I’ll find my own way back.”
The nun’s jaw grit to one side. A moment later, she vanished.
“If you find Sawyer,” Eva called to the empty air, “please, don’t kill him. I owe him a dismemberment. Several, actually.”
Tension drained out of the air and Eva felt herself drain with it. She stumbled forward only to be caught by Arachne’s stumps.
“I thought you might hand me over for a moment.”
Eva spun out of Arachne’s arms and slammed her foot into the corpse of Weilks as hard as she could.
Sawyer got away.
She kicked again. The wound in her toes opened up again. Eva healed it quickly and kicked again.
Sawyer got away.
Eva kicked one more time and sighed.
“You might wish I handed you over when I’m done with you,” Eva said. She felt in a particularly vicious mood at the moment.
Arachne grinned. A wide grin. Eva didn’t need to look to see it. Eva didn’t mirror the expression.
She gave Weilks another kick.
“My legs would kick harder, if you want.”
“Later,” Eva said. “I need a bath. And a shower. And a nap. And…” Eva sighed. “And a lot of things. Let’s get back to the prison.”
Arachne moved to pick her up. Eva allowed it. She was too tired to complain.
Arachne walked slowly, careful to keep Eva from slipping out of her smooth arm stubs. They did stumble across a storage room. Eva collected a few books, using blood to carry them.
She had no idea how she’d read them. Maybe she’d force Arachne to read them to her. That might be a worse punishment for the demon than anything Eva could come up with.
Together they wandered, lost in the cavern until they found the exit.
Eva shut her–relaxed in Arachne’s arms.
Epilogue
“Spencer!”
Eva crushed a glass vial in her hands. She glared up at the teacher. Or the black band of leather over her eyes glared up.
“Gloves off in this class unless they’re lab gloves.”
“I was doing fine until you shouted at me.”
“You’ll soak up materials you don’t want to walk around with.” Professor Lurcher glowered down at the girl. “Gloves off.”
The steel spoon bent in her other hand. Grains of paradise spilled over the table. Eva grit her teeth. She threw down the spoon with a clatter and marched out of the classroom.
Juliana sat for a moment longer, watching her friend leave. She nimbly dodged a stool someone left out as she stormed out.
How the girl compensated for her blindness, Juliana didn’t know. Eva mentioned she could see blood, but Juliana very much doubted that stool had blood in it.
Her hands were another matter. They were obviously Arachne’s hands, but Eva didn’t want to talk about it. She just folded them up into some gloves and went about her day. The gloves only came off inside the dorm room before they left for school.
Juliana hadn’t seen Arachne in a week, since before Eva’s disappearance.
Before Eva came back to school, there was talk that she had left.
The flesh golems and their subsequent cleanup by the Elysium Sisters had simultaneously frightened off and reassured the students. Eva was rumored to be one of those scared away, or pulled by her parents.
She showed up at the start of the day, much to the surprise of everyone except Zoe and Juliana. Eva had been hiding out inside the dorm since she showed up the day after.
There was a brief talk of surprise before everyone’s eyes drifted to Eva’s lack of eyes. The thin leather band stretched over her eye sockets did nothing to actually hide the emptiness.
No one spoke to her, not even Jordan and Irene. Everyone stared for a moment and then quickly pretended she didn’t exist. She spoke to no one in return.
She sat with the group during lunch. Even there, everyone was silent. No one knew what to say. At least, Juliana didn’t. Max didn’t even speak up and Juliana had pegged him as impulsive enough to start up some kind of conversation.
He didn’t.
Professor Lurcher was the first to call attention to her while she was around. That she refused to remove her gloves did not go unnoticed by the class.
The room went silent in the wake of her departure, but murmurs started up soon after.
“–saved by the Elysium nuns.”
“How does she see?”
“Think she was a necromancer?”
“Watch the nuns, one of them gave her a nasty glare at lunch.”
Juliana dropped her flask of antimony oil on the ground. Loudly. She made sure it would shatter by helping it drop with a strong swing of her arm.
The classroom went silent.
She got up and walked to the door.
“Rivas,” Professor Lurcher said, “you both have detention with me on Saturday.”
Juliana opened the door and walked out into the hall, ignoring the murmurs of her classmates that were already starting up.
She’d taken too long. Eva wasn’t anywhere in sight. Juliana sighed as she headed towards the dorms. If Eva wanted to be found, that’s where she would be.
If she didn’t want to be found, Juliana couldn’t do much about that.
— — —
