A small part of her wondered if it were possible for a demon to give away wings like Arachne gave her legs. Not Zagan’s wings, but there had to be some other fallen angels or succubi that might barter.
Before that, however, came replacement eyes. Not a task she had made any progress towards.
“I don’t like him,” Arachne said.
“Neither do I, but what are we to do? Fighting him would be suicide.”
“Not if he were to unexpectedly wander into your blood wards.”
“Couldn’t he just turn them off?”
Arachne responded with silence.
“Come on,” Eva said with a pat on the spider-woman’s shoulder, “if we can’t narrow it down any more, we may as well get to Zoe Baxter’s seminar on time.”
Arachne opened her mouth to respond. She snapped it shut almost immediately. “Alright,” was her slightly dejected reply.
—
Zoe Baxter quirked an eyebrow at the two students as the rest of the seminar students filed out. “First my wayward first years, now Juliana skips the seminar?” Zoe heaved an exasperated sigh.
Shalise shook her head. “She’s been meeting with her father every once in a while this summer.”
“I think,” Eva said, “she’s setting up some meeting with me and her dad. She mentioned him wanting to meet with me and Arachne.”
“Arachne?” Zoe frowned. The frown quickly changed into a grimace. “She told her parents?”
Eva nodded. She’d had much the same reaction. “I think only her father. Something about her mother not reacting well to the news.”
“I can imagine.”
“With the nuns gone, I was hoping to avoid any more annoyances about me and Arachne. If things get problematic, we’ll probably just disappear.”
“I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Eva nodded.
School was something she had started looking forward to attending again. While she could study on her own, it just didn’t have the same feeling as attending class. She’d have left quickly had her classmates been like those in her middle school. All the students in her year were tolerable at worst while most were somewhat enjoyable to be around.
“In any case,” Zoe Baxter said, “Juliana was asking me about visiting Nel again. I don’t like her being around those two.”
“I kind of feel bad about Nel.”
Zoe raised one eyebrow. It was difficult to discern the rest of her expression, but Eva had a feeling it was somewhere between disbelief and disappointment.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Eva said. “She was spying on me and I was quite justifiably unhappy with that. I didn’t expect her to go and indenture herself to Ylva. Forever.”
“If you would have let me warn her…”
“Yeah. Hindsight though.” Eva dismissed Zoe’s concerns with a wave of her hand. “I don’t see a problem with Juliana visiting her. Nel seems somewhat lonely yet generally happy whenever I stop by. I don’t think she likes me, though. More than once have I noticed her looking at me like I was about to kill her.”
“I wonder why.”
“Excuse me, who is Ylva? And Nel?”
Eva turned to face Shalise despite the orientation of her head not mattering for her sight. “The half skeleton demon and her new servant who live at the prison. I think I’ve mentioned them.”
Shalise tapped her lip with her finger. “You might have. I still haven’t been to your prison, you know.”
Zoe stiffened and frowned at Shalise’s implied request.
Eva ignored her. “I’d take you, but it is a good distance away. My method of teleporting isn’t well suited for tagalongs; I think you wouldn’t enjoy it.”
A pout formed on Shalise’s face. She actually pouted. “Juliana got to go.”
“Juliana rode on the back of Arachne or was teleported there by Zoe Baxter. So it is really them that you have to convince.”
Shalise immediately glanced up towards Zoe.
“Absolutely not.”
Eva was about to laugh when Arachne poked her in the back.
Hard.
A little yelp escaped from her lips much to the surprise of the other two. Eva peaked down her shirt, less because she needed to and more to tell Arachne that she was talking to the demon. “Something the matter?”
Two pokes in her shoulder.
“Emergency matter or something we can ignore?”
Arachne said, ‘yes’ before Eva finished the question.
Both Zoe and Shalise stopped their half playful fight when Arachne poked Eva. Zoe’s face turned more worried with each question. “What’s wrong?”
“Arachne needs a place to turn back,” Eva said. The little amphitheater still had a few students loitering around. “The forest should work.”
The same forest behind the amphitheater where Eva had been possessed by a ghost and kidnapped. Eva tried not to get sentimental about such things. It didn’t always work.
Not that she felt afraid of the forest. Eva was quite confident that, should she be possessed and kidnapped again, she’d be able to escape and thoroughly dismantle Sawyer.
Another poke in her back brought Eva out of her thoughts.
“Alright,” she said, “I’m going.”
Only two steps later, Eva realized both Shalise and Zoe Baxter were following close behind.
“You don’t have to come, you know.”
“You mentioned emergency. If this is a danger to students, I can’t sit by.”
