“Probably for the best.” Eva raised her voice ever so slightly—she didn’t want to be obvious in her machinations, but she wanted to get a message out to all the nosy students who were pretending not to listen in. “We shouldn’t crowd them. Making
Another moment of silence descended on the cafeteria after a brief whisper session to transfer her message around the room. Eva watched with a barely concealed smile as half the room lost a good deal of blood from their faces. Many had probably been planning on following along. Whether they would have kept a distance or walked right up alongside her didn’t really matter. She would have been annoyed with their presence.
Eva didn’t really care whether or not the approaching demons would feel the same. Maybe they
Though, some of the paling faces had Eva worrying. A few people almost looked sick—at least as far as she could tell through blood sight alone. Hopefully her words weren’t being too distorted as they made the rounds. The last thing she needed was to have the people farthest away thinking that she was going to kill anyone who followed her.
“In that case,” Shalise said, “I think I’ll stay here. I’ve had enough of demons to last a lifetime or two.”
“They are going to be around the school. You’re going to meet them anyway, most likely. You know that right?”
“Well… yeah, but…” Shalise trailed off into a short sigh. “I wouldn’t mind one year of school that was just nice and normal. No zombies. No trips to Hell. No camping out in the woods.”
Eva shrugged. “You picked the wrong school.”
“But I didn’t pick it. Professor Baxter came and found me.”
“Anyway,” Eva said with a wave of her hand in Shalise’s direction. She glanced between Irene and Juliana. “You guys ready to go?”
“I suppose.”
Juliana shoveled in one more spoonful of whatever was for lunch before she nodded her head.
“Great,” Eva said, standing. She nodded to the others. “We’ll see you guys later then.”
—
“Hello Ylva,” Eva said as she walked up to the demon. “And Catherine.”
Both were standing around the center of the plaza between the dormitory buildings. They weren’t really together, just near enough to speak if they wanted to.
Which created the perfect opening for Eva to slip in.
Catherine didn’t respond save for a shallow nod. She, as always, was absorbed in her cellphone. Peeking over her shoulder, Eva found a lack of a game on the screen. A series of nonsensical scribbles covered the screen. It took Eva a moment to puzzle out just what they were. Catherine zooming out was the clue that Eva needed.
It was section of a ritual circle. Likely a new version of what she had already done.
In contrast to Catherine’s lack of response, Ylva turned to face Eva fully.
“Greetings.”
“I know I technically visited you just the other day when Nel helped to find Shalise, but we didn’t really talk. How have you been? Keeping busy with anything interesting?”
Ylva’s cold eyes stared, forcing memories to surface in Eva.
She suddenly recalled just why she had been avoiding Ylva. Perhaps it was subconscious. Eva didn’t think that she had been thinking much of anything while in Ylva’s presence. At least not towards avoiding her.
But Ylva had killed her—or came close enough so as to be indistinguishable—not so long ago.
“We have been ruminating on the idea of Life being Our opponent. Though the motivations of a Power are difficult to pierce, We believe that We have come to a conclusion.”
“Oh?
“Our mother is a primary target. Hel, being a servant of Death first and foremost, is a direct opponent of Life. Aosoth would be another target as another demon touched by Death. Life is targeting Void because of Void’s alliance with Death. An attempt to weaken Death’s influence and power base.”
“But Death has other, non-demonic… uh, servants?” Eva wasn’t entirely sure what the proper terminology was and Ylva had used the word ‘servant’. She had always called them gods. “The Baron isn’t a demon. He was—or is—a human.”
“And the enigmas have made attempts at breaking into the mortal realm as well. Some through Hell—the issue with your dormitory room was not caused by you, therefore the enigmas caused it. Who is to say that the Baron is not a target?”
Eva fell silent, considering. Ylva was probably right. Life was attacking Death and going through both Earth and Hell to do so. When she had agreed to become a guinea pig for Devon’s demonic treatments, he had failed to mention all the politicking between Powers.
Granted, he probably didn’t know. If he had known, they wouldn’t have been so surprised when the enigmas had appeared in the first place.
As they talked, the demons continued to get closer. Eva had been about to ask Ylva another question.
The question died before she could voice it as she caught sight of the approaching vehicle.
Eva wasn’t sure what she had expected.
