Devon sucked in a breath. His tentacle shot out and grasped Eva by her shirt. Eva couldn’t help but to let out a small yelp as he pulled her into the room, slamming the door behind them.
“Did someone follow you back?”
Eva would have slapped him away, but he had already released her. His ring-foci hand was pointing to the windows to shore up some wards while his tentacle reset all five-hundred latches on the door.
“If you’d calm down for a moment and let me talk,” she said as she smoothed out her shirt.
Devon was
“It was about two months ago. A taller man in armor and a female companion were on the local news down in Florida. They claimed to be demon hunters. By the time I got there, they had already gone. I figured you should know since it is a safe bet that they were looking for us.”
“Your place wasn’t ransacked?”
“Looked untouched. Can’t say the same for yours. Though that looked more like the city had decided to finally demolish the old train station. Something new was under construction when I stopped by. Hope you didn’t have anything important in there.”
He scratched at his beard with his tentacle, shaking his head. “No. Everything is here.” His words came out more as a mumble than an actual response to Eva. “I wonder…”
“Wonder wha–”
“Hold still.” Devon’s hand snapped up to eye level. The rings on his fingers emitted a faint glow as he waved them in Eva’s direction.
A chill ran down her spine. Like someone had dropped an ice-cube down the back of her shirt.
Eva ignored it as well as she was able to. When Devon said to stand still and started casting unknown spells on her, she wasn’t about to budge. Even if nothing bad happened from moving–such as suddenly exploding into a million meaty chunks–Devon was probably doing something important. He’d be annoyed if he had to start over.
As the process went on, several flashes of light lit up around his fingers. Most were dark violet hues, but one or two were a lighter blue color.
After five minutes of mimicking a statue, Devon finally dropped his arm to his side. Eva shook her arms slightly just to get some movement in them. Glancing around the room, she caught sight of something interesting. Eva moved to lean against the edge of his desk as Devon fiddled with his rings.
His notebook was lying open on the top. Designs for her treatment ritual were out for the world to see. More importantly, they were out for her to see.
The circles were wrong. Or different, at least. She had long since memorized the circle for use by herself and Arachne. The biggest difference were the large circles equidistant apart around the center. Judging by the markers for people, there were supposed to be four people–herself in the very center and three demons–involved in this version.
A stark change from her old version; Arachne and Eva were both between the center and the edge with Devon initiating the ritual from the center position.
Before she could ask any questions about the new design, Devon spoke up.
“Not really my specialty, but I can’t detect any spells on you that might be used for tracking.”
“That’s good,” Eva said. “Right?”
Devon just hummed in response. “You didn’t bring anything back with you?”
Eva shook her head. “A pouch of bloodstones. The clothes I wore back were the ones I left in. Despite being smaller, I used some old clothes I had left behind between when I arrived and when I left.”
“The bloodstones–”
“Freshly made. They were in my sight or in my pockets from the moment I made them to when I dropped them off at my room.”
“And you didn’t trip any alarms?”
Eva shrugged. She had no idea. There had been no overt beeping or wailing, so any alarms would have been silent notifications to whoever set them. “If I did, no one showed up to murder me.”
“Too busy to respond?” Devon mused to himself. He let out a small sigh. “Or just inexperienced or plain bad at their job. Either way, probably best for both of us to avoid the entirety of Florida for a while.”
“Not worried about them tracking us down up here?”
He let out a clipped laugh. “We were in Florida for ten years, some of that before Arachne and I found you. They still showed up two years late. We probably have some time left.”
“If you’re sure,” Eva started.
She decided to let it drop. Devon had been a diabolist longer than she had been alive. He had to have plenty of experience in evading demon hunters.
Instead, Eva tapped the notebook containing her treatment circle.
After a pointed look from Eva, Devon frowned. “Still a work in progress. Since you’ve barged in here–”
“You dragged me in here,” Eva said, crossing her arms.
“Since you’re already interrupting my work, I may as well explain now rather than later. You’re going to need three donating demons.”
“I gathered as much. Why?”
