Neither of the Coggins sisters were ready for any kind of combat. While Mr. Anderson may have learned a few tricks from his family, Zoe very much doubted that he was combat ready either. None of them attended her seminar. The only location where Zoe had an opportunity to observe their fighting was in the mage-knight club. Needless to say, those performances left much to be desired.
Zoe ceased her forward march through the hallway. Something had caught her eye in that last classroom. She took two steps backwards and looked in. There were no students in the room.
There was a ritual circle right in the center of the room. One of the desks had been shoved aside to make room. It wasn’t overly large, but still needed a good amount of floorspace.
As Zoe stared at the circle, her frown deepened. It wasn’t a ritual circle. While she had never practiced anything she read in Eva’s books, she had memorized the insignias and sigils associated with infernal summoning circles.
What the circle on the floor before her
One thing was certain, it did
She thought about sketching it for later study. That would have taken too long. A photo on her cellphone would have to do.
Just in case the real circle held secrets that her phone did not, Zoe stepped out of the room and locked the door. She scrawled a quick note and stuck it to the front before erecting a barrier of hardened air over the doorway. It would take an air mage all of two seconds to tear down, but she didn’t have the time to put up proper wards. The barrier would keep people from accidentally walking in for the time being.
Zoe turned and took one step down the hallway.
And hit the barrel chest of a man.
She hopped backwards, one hand rubbing her nose while the other readied her dagger.
Even after recognizing the man, she did not lower her weapon.
“Zagan,” she hissed.
“Zoe.” His golden eyes glinted for an instant. “A pleasure as always. You avoid me so much these days, have I offended you somehow?”
“You lied to me. I let you into my home.”
He tilted his head to one side before shaking his head. “I can’t recall a single lie I’ve told anyone. Unless you’re talking about lies of omission. Those hardly count. You’ve done so plenty of times, yeah?”
Zoe frowned. Omitting knowledge of Eva was the primary cause of her and Wayne’s little argument last semester. Still, that was different. Zagan was a legitimate monster. “You licked that nun’s face.”
“She tasted good.”
“That’s disgusting.”
Zagan just shrugged.
Zoe shifted her weight to her other foot as Zagan stared. When he didn’t make any move to give a proper response, Zoe said, “is that summoning circle your doing?”
“Summoning circle?” Zagan said with a blink.
Zoe blinked as well. Surprise was not what she expected.
He slipped around Zoe and opened the door, completely ignoring the barrier of wind in the process. After a moment, he shut the door with a chuckle.
“You had me worried for a moment there. I’ll forgive your ignorance this one time.” At the blank look Zoe gave him, Zagan continued. “That is a transference circle. It sends things to Hell. Not strong enough to bring things here from Hell.”
“As I said, it is used to send things to Hell.” Zagan’s voice turned a few notches more menacing. His eyes flashed bright gold. Zoe actually took a few steps backwards. “Presumably, someone wanted something sent to Hell. In a very literal manner. Don’t make me repeat myself.” All the hostility vanished in an instant. “Don’t feel bad, I don’t tolerate my students’ inattention either.”
Zoe licked the edges of her lips with a suddenly dry tongue. She cleared her throat twice before she could form words. “Right.” It took one more clearing of her throat before Zoe felt up to forming a full sentence. “Shouldn’t you be outside fighting?”
“Please. Nothing out there is strong enough to be interesting.”
“So you skulk about in the hallways.”
He put on a goofy, disarming grin. “A demon of my caliber never
That had Zoe on edge more than anything. One moment, he looked ready to murder her for making him repeat himself, the next and he looked nothing more than a particularly handsome man. After a borderline insult, no less.
“No, my contract only dictates that I keep this place safe. So long as I patrol the hallways and keep everything out, I am fulfilling my assignment.”
Zoe shook her head and focused. She couldn’t allow herself to be distracted by the antics of a mad demon. “Have you seen Eva in the past hour or two?”
“Can’t say that I have.”
“Juliana? Or Irene? Shalise maybe?”
