And really, there wasn’t much inside. Maybe a few books of hers that shouldn’t be lying around, but nothing too damning. Anything important was in the prison.
Though she wondered if the same could be said of Shalise and Juliana’s belongings. Had Juliana cleared out her stuff before leaving? Shalise still had things in there for sure.
Taking a step back from her door, Eva had a brief thought to go visit Shalise. Being alone in Hell with no one but Prax for company had to be a nightmare. Besides, it was about time to deliver more homework and collect what she had done.
Shalise had been overjoyed to find she could still do her homework in absentia. Zoe had even passed through Ylva’s domain every other week so far to give her private tutoring lessons.
In light of that, Zoe’s busyness was even more understandable.
Just as Eva was about to leave, she stopped again. Turning to the door adjacent to room three-thirteen, Eva knocked.
A moment of muffled shuffling later and the door opened.
“Shelby,” Eva said as the black-haired girl opened the door, glad that the twins weren’t of the identical kind. Though she hadn’t signed any contracts, accidentally talking about what she wanted to talk about with Irene might lead to some awkward silence and deflections. “Is your sister in?”
The girl before her scrunched up her eyes, brought her hand to her mouth and released a truly magnificent yawn before responding. “Haven’t seen her all night,” she said. “Thought she was with you.”
“I haven’t seen her all night either,” Eva said.
“Maybe try asking Jordan? I know that he met with her earlier today.”
“It wasn’t that important. I mostly stopped by on a whim. I’ll talk to her on Monday.”
“Say,” Shelby said, stepping out of the room. She left the door open a crack behind her. “What have you been up to with my sister? She’s been all secretive and evasive whenever we ask her. She tries not to act like it, but,” she crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame with a smug smile on, “I’ve been her sister my whole life. It’s pretty obvious.”
Eva opened her mouth
and froze.
“You aren’t dating her, are you?” Shelby asked, saving her from responding. “I mean, not that I have any problems with that. She’s my sister and I’d support her even if she wanted to marry a troll.”
Eva winced as Shelby’s face turned to a grimace of disgust.
“Well, maybe not a troll,” she said. “But I don’t think you’re very troll-like at all.”
“That’s… thanks? But no, we’re not dating. I can’t say I’ve had a single thought of romance towards anyone. Kind of not my thing?”
Shelby reached out, resting her hand on Eva’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll awaken to a more interesting side of life when you’re older.”
“I see…” Politely smiling, Eva backed up a few steps. “I’ll talk to her later. Don’t want to keep you up all night.”
Letting out another tremendous yawn, Shelby waved her off. “Good idea.” Slinking back into her room, Shelby started to shut the door. “Oh,” she said, “in case I don’t see you tomorrow, happy birthday!”
Eva froze in her walk away, blinking in surprise. After telling everyone when her birthday was over the summer, she hadn’t actually expected any of them to remember.
She only remembered because it meant that it was almost time for her spring treatment.
After giving Shelby a belated “thanks,” Eva wandered off to the nearest stairwell. Arachne would probably want to spend the day with her.
Probably. It was becoming harder and harder to tell exactly what she was thinking.
Sighing, Eva built up the magic for a teleport to the women’s ward.
She still had Sister Cross to deal with.
Or perhaps not. It was her birthday. Sister Cross was not the sort of company she cared for any day of the week, let alone her birthday.
She’d live for one day.
There were others whose company she’d rather be in.
Enigma
Eva glided to a stop just outside of what she had taken to calling the alternate women’s ward.
The women’s ward of her domain.
And something was wrong. She could
It had nothing to do with her gliding. Whenever Eva entered her domain, she never had to fear. Everyone else who came in fell from some height. After tiring of having to stop her fall every time, Zoe had created a sort of air cushion to land on.
Eva felt that she should be able do the same or better, but she was still far too new at controlling her domain properly. Replicating real-world things she had seen and experienced was easy enough. Accidental conjuring of things she thought of was annoying enough. Purposeful creation of new concepts wasn’t that easy.
Since she had seen Zoe create the slow-fall area, she thought it would be easy to copy. It was something she had been meaning to attempt for a while now.
Unfortunately, that would have to wait.
The alternate women’s ward had its heavy steel doors closed.
