Void Domain, Book 03 полностью

Slowly, Juliana dragged Shalise back onto the summoning circle. It wasn’t active yet and the shackles should keep demons out. A traitorous thought crossed Juliana’s mind. Not a demon of that caliber. He could walk over the shackles without even noticing their presence.

“I-I was. He just appeared.”

“My, my. Children missing from the gym? And here I find them setting demons loose to terrorize their peers.” He shook his head in mock sadness before he ran fingers through his wavy, brown hair. “Where did I go so wrong that my own students became such malefactors.”

“No!” Juliana shouted. “We were trying to help.”

“Help bolster the enemy forces? You’ll never get away with such deviance!” Zagan sighed. A long, drawn out, fake sigh. “Then again, you did skip out on your other punishment. Perhaps we’ll have to go with something harsher than mere detention, yeah?”

Juliana blinked. It took a moment to jog her memory enough to realize what he was talking about. “That was the first week! Zoe got attacked. I had a lot on my mind.” She took a breath and added, “you should have said something the week after, not now.”

“I let it slide because I thought you were normally a good student. Now I find you here and you don’t even try to deny bolstering the enemy?”

“I’m no–”

“And what about this mess?” He gestured towards Juliana’s feet.

With a flash, he was standing right in front of her, just outside the shackles. He flashed again and he moved around the circle, towards Juliana’s one o’clock. He moved to two with another flash. It was like watching someone dancing in a strobe light.

Shalise huddled in right next to Juliana. Her shivers could be felt through the thick layer of metal covering her arm.

“Shoddy work,” Zagan said with a tut. “I’d have expected Eva to be far better a teacher than this.”

“I learned it from a book.”

“I’m surprised you managed to get anything out of this. Without killing yourself,” he added.

Juliana felt her face heat up. She was mostly sure this circle was no different from the other ones she’d used. “I’ll have you know that I’ve summoned plenty of things. Without killing myself.”

He laughed. Laughed. “So I see. Still, far too dangerous for an uneducated student. I think Martina plans to do something about that, but it will come too late for you, I’m afraid.” He flashed in front of Juliana with his lips curled into a grin.

If he hadn’t already got the hairs on the back of Juliana’s neck to stand on end, that grin would have done it. Shalise actually let out a small whimper.

“And you,” Zagan said as his golden eyes flicked to Shalise. “What’s your role in this treachery.”

“N-nothing. We weren’t doing anything.”

“The circle you’re standing on begs to differ.”

Juliana took half a step forwards. Not enough to move off the circle, but enough to get slightly in Zagan’s face. “Is this really the time? The school is under attack! If you’re half as powerful as Eva thinks you are, you could stop everyone with less effort than a snap of your fingers.”

He took a step back, looking far more affronted than he had any right to be. “I’m but a humble teacher. We hired the security guards to protect the school. As a teacher, my job stops at instructing students and correcting mistakes.

“Ah, and it seems you’ve made a mistake.”

A chill ran through Juliana’s spine as she broke eye contact with the demon. Following his pointed finger, she glanced down at the light glow beneath her feet. The summoning circle started rotating.

It wasn’t the circle she drew. The lines were all wrong. Arrows turned the wrong way. Crosses became circles. A curve to the left became a curve to the right. She couldn’t have messed it up that badly.

A cold sweat dripped down Juliana’s back as she turned her eyes towards Zagan. His golden eyes spread a faint glow through the suddenly dark room.

“That isn’t a summoning circle,” he said. “That’s a transference circle.”

“Wha–”

“Don’t worry, there will be plenty of time for you to make up your detention.”

Juliana’s stomach dropped. The ground no longer supported her weight. The classroom shrank to a tiny dot in the all-encompassing darkness.

Gripping Shalise’s arm, both fell screaming into the void.

A burning sensation ached within Arachne’s legs.

It was an odd feeling. A foreign feeling. She couldn’t remember the last time she had any ache at all. It was a testament to how hard she was pushing herself.

Allowing herself out of Eva’s sight while there were troublesome events afoot was a horrible idea in hindsight. But she couldn’t help it.

Genoa was just so fun.

She never got to go all out against anything these days. At least not without also worrying over potential collateral damage. Even the zombies from last year had been target practice for Eva.