Eva ignored it. “I’ll speak with my mentor, he’s dealt with unsavory sorts before.”
“We have to at least tell Professor Baxter. If this is d-dangerous to students, the school needs to know.”
“I agree,” Juliana said before Eva could object.
Eva repressed a sigh as Juliana withdrew one of the instructor’s business cards. Eva avoided carrying them around. Being tracked to the prison would be a terrible thing.
She’d have to do something about that. It wouldn’t do to have snooping bounty hunters stumble over the prison in their search for necromancers. Eva almost felt bad for Arachne; the moment she got back from setting up Devon’s room at the prison, she’d just be returning.
Her master had lived in the women’s ward until he decided it was too demeaning. He moved out to cell house one, the oldest prison block, and requested Arachne’s help in remodeling. The set up shouldn’t have taken all day. Eva glanced out the window. For all she knew, Arachne was hanging on outside the windows, not wanting to barge in and be seen by the unknown Shalise.
They really needed to work on better communication and transportation to the prison. It had become one of Eva’s top priorities since Zoe Baxter had refused to teach her the method of teleportation she used. Arachne was becoming increasingly convinced that Eva could handle a walk through Hell. The fact that the spider-demon always ran to the prison when going alone gave Eva some reservations about that.
A knock at their door brought Eva back to the present. She, being the closest to the door, stood from her desk and allowed Zoe Baxter into the room.
No one said anything.
“Out with it.”
“There are zombies in town,” Shalise blurted out.
Zoe Baxter glanced a hard glance at Juliana. “More than just the one time?”
“No. Shalise means to say that we suspect necromancers running around the city.”
“Of course there are,” Zoe Baxter glared at the three of them. “Zombies don’t raise themselves. Well, they do. The first ones don’t raise themselves. Rest assured the matter is being investigated. Unless you know who the necromancers are?”
Eva frowned as both Juliana and Shalise turned her direction. Zoe Baxter noticed and looked to Eva as well. “Juliana and I,” she said, making sure to emphasize the blond’s name, “ran into people we now believe are necromancers on our first week of school. We didn’t exactly get their names, but they were in Toomey’s bookstore destroying a book.” She patted the book on her desk, already hating herself for drawing attention to it. “The one I ran into was tall and thin, very bony. I might have thought he was a skeleton if he hadn’t obviously been alive. I didn’t get a good look at his partner.”
“Larger, but not fat,” Juliana chimed in. “Probably muscle. He had short black hair.”
“You might want to check in with Toomey, he seemed fond of them for some reason,” Eva added.
“And the book?”
“It is…” Eva leaned over to read the cover. “Resplendent Mysteriis. Know anything about it?”
“A collection of poetry, if memory serves. None of the poems have any known magical use. I don’t find them particularly good, either.”
“It is a common book then?”
“I wouldn’t say common, but the school library should have a copy of it. I believe I will be confiscating that copy, however.”
Eva frowned. Given that it was destroyed like it was, and that Stephen Toomey called it an original, Eva had hoped it was destroyed to cover up what the necromancers were doing. A common book with plenty of copies would just get attention drawn to the book. That meant her first theory was probably more likely, but she just didn’t know enough. And now the book would probably be destroyed before her master had a chance to examine it.
Unless… Eva smiled.
“Something amusing, Miss Eva?”
“My mentor has dealt with necromancers in the past, told me stories one time. I’m sure he would be very interested in examining this book.”
“I am not going to leave a potentially dangerous book in the hands of a student, let alone some mysterious mentor who refuses–”
“I wasn’t going to ask you to,” Eva interrupted the now frowning Zoe Baxter. “Just don’t destroy the book right away and I think I can force the meeting you so very much want to have.” She smiled to herself. Her challenge was about to be complete.
That set frowns across Zoe’s face. “Indeed,” she said.
Chapter 013
“I don’t see why this is necessary,” Devon complained.
He struggled tying his tie. He last wore a tie around the same time he last participated in a demonology circle. Probably further back than forty or fifty years. And that had been a clip on.
“Zoe Baxter is a very precise woman. You don’t want to look like a schlemiel.”
“I’m supposed to examine a possible dark artifact. Not looking to date some girl.”
“Well,” Eva crossed her arms, “I don’t want to be pitied as the poor kid who was mentored by a hobo.”
“I lived in a train depot. You were mentored by a hobo.”
“So I am slowly coming to realize. I can’t believe you don’t have a better method of traveling than blinking. Zoe Baxter just disappears and reappears wherever she wants.”
Devon ignored the girl. She complained non stop about transportation since he arrived a week ago. Supposedly, instant teleportation was taught at higher levels of schooling. Hogwash. There were no safe methods of instantly moving oneself. Even stepping, developed on his own specifically to not kill him with short hops, had a chance at tearing an unskilled user in two as Eva was very well aware.
That this teacher had refused to teach the teleport only reinforced the thought. That didn’t mean he wasn’t interested. Only that he would be cautious about learning it.
“You’re idolizing her too much, girl. Don’t be disappointed when you see through her smoke and mirrors. Just because she trounces you in your little seminars doesn’t mean she’s the most powerful mage around.”
“I’m not idolizing her,” Eva huffed. “And our contests would go a different route if I were to use all the powers at my disposal.”
“You think you’re the only one with tricks up your sleeve? I bet even with full use of your blood magics, she still knocks you on your ass. You’re too arrogant for your own good. I can only hope you lose that arrogance before someone takes it from you.”
Devon finished fumbling with his tie, deciding it looked good enough. “How is it?”
“I’m sure you’ll have her swooning by the end of the night.”
He grunted, “let’s get going.”
Together they left the third floor penthouse suite Devon and Arachne had constructed in the cell house. It had turned out alright, all things considered. It had a nice sized bedroom, a room for books, and a room for potion brewing. It was no train depot, but it would do for now.
Best of all, it was out of Eva’s house. If he woke up in the middle of the night to catch Arachne staring at Eva’s sleeping face, he was going to be sick.
Arachne hadn’t been allowed inside since his penthouse’s completion. Shackles had been set up around the entire top floor. Eva had started having irritation when she crossed them. An unfortunate but not unexpected side effect of his experiments. Hopefully she would never be completely jailed by them. If she were, it wouldn’t be that big of a setback.
Speaking of the demon, it stood just outside in the night air. Thanks to his work, no lights inside the building shined their light outside. Moonlight was all that illuminated the complex. Upon seeing Eva, it immediately lifted the girl into its arms. Eva didn’t care or even react in any meaningful manner. She smiled at the demon and wrapped an arm around its neck for stability.
“Let’s get going,” Devon grunted once again.