But eventually he made it. Daylight was starting to peek over the horizon, but he made it. He took one last look around for any enemies; his visor, cracked and shattered as it was, wasn’t up to the usual task of highlighting any demons around. Still, he didn’t see anything suspicious.
With a weary sigh, Clement hopped the back fence, walked up to the door, and entered the house.
His breath hitched. His heart skipped a beat.
An icy cold gripped him, filling him with dread.
Gertrude was already home. Lying face down on the floor, she had her shirt off.
Three holes ran up her spine, starting at her lower back and ending towards the middle. All three had been frozen over, preventing her from bleeding out. But they were deep.
Zomorrodnegar, Clement’s sword, fell from his limp fingers to the ground with a soft clatter. Tearing the remnants of his helmet off his head and tossing it into a corner of the room, Clement charged forward before falling to his knees at Gertrude’s side. He reached out his hands…
and drew back immediately. Moving her could agitate her injuries. Even touching her might leave her worse off than before.
She was breathing. Her chest pressed against the hardwood floor with each shallow breath. Ice crystals came out of her mouth, only stopping as she breathed in.
The iced over holes in her back were the most obvious injury, but they were far from the only ones. Shifting his position slightly, Clement’s eyes were drawn to her arm. Or lack of arm. As with her back, ice covered nothing more than a stump just below her elbow.
Though, that wasn’t to say that her arm was completely missing. It was underneath her, fingers sticking out near her shoulder.
Her head had a similarly treated injury. A simple slit up the top of her scalp, visible through her red hair only thanks to the ice.
“Forget bleeding to death,” Clement hissed. “You’re going to freeze to death.”
Gertrude didn’t respond. Looking obviously unconscious, Clement hadn’t expected her to, but it was disheartening all the same.
Climbing to his feet, Clement ran to the bedroom. They had a supply of potions stashed away. Gertrude normally handled potion administration—Clement wasn’t a mage and, as such, he couldn’t brew potions. As such, he wasn’t the most knowledgeable.
They had labels. He would be fine.
Clement shook his head.
— — —
“The walls have stopped bleeding.”
Eva hummed, not really paying attention. She was too busy enjoying the embrace with Arachne.
Being a spider-demon made entirely of hard chitin, she wasn’t all that comfortable to hug. Arachne was smooth, not covered in spikes or anything, but it was like hugging a marble statue.
Not that she had ever hugged a marble statue, but it was how she imagined it to be.
“It happened before,” Eva said without opening her eyes. “Blood came out of the walls while Juliana was around. I didn’t see it myself, but I don’t believe she would lie about that. And then again when you… died. I don’t remember it exactly, but I guess there was a lot more blood around me than there should have been.”
“That isn’t caused by your blood magic?”
“I don’t know what it would be. I haven’t performed any rituals that might make walls bleed around me. It has to be a demon thing.
“A portion of my domain got attached to the dormitory. Ylva thinks that it is because I had humans inside the domain while I was out here. Whatever is attacking Void latched onto both me and Shalise, creating a connection through our dorm. I don’t know if I believe that, but after she showed me how to disconnect domains from reality, it went away.” Eva shrugged. “It might have something to do with that.”
“Part of your domain manifests as blood through the walls?” Arachne tipped her voice at the end, skeptical.
“It’s just a theory,” Eva said quietly. “Devon and I haven’t been on the best of terms since you died, so I haven’t had much of a chance to ask him about it all.” Not to mention how busy she was.
“Enough of me. How?” Eva pulled away from Arachne. Not much, just enough to look her in the eyes. She kept her hands firmly around Arachne’s wrists, just to make sure that she was real and wouldn’t disappear. “How are you here? I saw your beacon crushed with my own eyes.”
Arachne smiled. Moving one arm out of Eva’s grip, she ran her claws gently through Eva’s hair.
Despite knowing just how sharp the tips of her fingers were, Arachne didn’t cut her in the slightest as her fingers ran over Eva’s scalp. It felt light and tingly. Almost as if something was crawling through her hair—not in a creepy sort of way, but rather a relaxing and calming feeling.
Perhaps more like a massage.
“I accepted a bargain. The proverbial deal with a devil.”
And just like that, a dark storm cloud moved over Eva’s good mood. “What do you mean by bargain? What do you have to do?”
“Not only did Void put me back together far sooner than I would have been able to, but he gave me transport out of Hell. I suppose… you might say that I must return the favor.”
