And then what. She still lived next door. Shelby lived there too. She couldn’t–wouldn’t leave behind her sister.
“I’m sorry,” Irene blurted out. “I just need time. To process.”
“You could say that again,” mumbled Max.
“Irene,” Shelby said softly. “She’s the same Eva we’ve know–”
“I know. I know. It’s just, well, creepy. It’s how she’s seen all this time with her eyes shut. She doesn’t even need to open her eyes to know what’s going on around.” Irene glanced at the wall. “She can probably see through walls. That’s how she knew about the bull even when we couldn’t see it.”
Eva raised one shiny black finger into the air, pointing at her eyes. “Actually,” she said, “I only got these eyes last night.”
“I just, I don’t know.” Irene could feel her panic settling in. The situation was just too out there. She missed Shelby moving to her side until her twin pulled her into a hug. “I-I need a book. I need to know–to explain everything to myself.
“You just pull a demon’s eyes out and pop them into your sockets and it just works?” A small whisper of horror snapped in the back of her mind as she realized something. “And your hands are the same, aren’t they? Your pet spider is a demon too.”
Eva’s wince told Irene that her guess was correct.
“Is that true?” Shelby asked.
“I didn’t want to mention. My hands and eyes are pushing the limits. I could potentially get demon hunters after me with them. Widespread knowledge of Arachne would definitely give hunters cause to turn their gaze in my direction.”
“Well, I don’t know about hunters, but that seems pretty cool. Is she like a–”
“Cool?
“They’re what?” Eva interrupted. “Evil? Going to kill us all? Please. I’m perfectly willing to loan you a book to educate yourself with, but use your head a little.
“She is a demon and I apparently cannot keep a secret if my life depended on it. Which it might,” Eva added with a sigh.
“Arachne has lived next door to you since I got here. She was on the airplane. How many times has she gone on a murderous rampage?” Eva paused and tilted her head as if thinking to herself, making sure her count was correct. “None. If anything, she’s saved people.
“I’m well aware that I’m creepy. Especially now with,” she raised and clacked her fingers together.
“I quickly alienated everyone at my old school. I was the creepy one who sat in the back and drew strange symbols all over her papers. By the time I realized the niceties of social interaction, it was too late. I’d already alienated myself from everyone. Only two of my fellow students ever spoke to me and that was borderline bullying.”
Eva took a deep breath as she glanced around the group. “Arachne was my friend. My first and only friend for the longest time. She wasn’t around as often–she wasn’t contracted to me then like she is now–but we always managed to be together on Halloween. Sometimes we’d have a party or even an occasional trick-or-treat.
“I’m rambling, but what I’m trying to say is this: she isn’t a murderous monster who is going to go around killing everyone.”
Eva let out a long sigh.
“Probably.”
Irene had almost been feeling bad. That feeling vanished in one word. “Probably?”
“A joke. Nothing more,” Eva said with her creepy hands raised. It was supposed to look placating, but it ended up more threatening. “If you really want a book, I do have one. It has no directions for summoning or anything, merely a neutral look at demons. Though you should keep it hidden anyway.”
“I don’t know. I just…” Irene shot her sister a glare as Shelby mouthed something to Eva. She’d probably be getting another lecture later.
A brief moment of silence reigned over the group until Jordan cleared his throat.
“If you don’t mind my asking,” he said, “how did you see?”
“That’s a secret.”
Jordan’s face fell. The look of absolute dejection on his face immediately turned Eva’s features softer.
The manipulative jerk.
Not that Irene was going to complain. She wanted–no,
“Technically it isn’t a magic that proper mages should know, so I’ll skimp the details. Basically I constantly spread a dust in the air around me. Very tiny particles and not even that much, but I could sense them. Therefore I could sense whatever they landed on and get a picture of my environment.”
“I see,” Jordan said with a nod. “Improper magic?” He made a light humming noise.
A familiar humming noise.
Irene could see the gears turning in his head, searching through all the knowledge he had pilfered from his family library for any spell that resembled Eva’s description. Hopefully he wouldn’t remember anything. The shadow thing he did was bad enough. Irene did not want him becoming anything like Eva.
