Eva shifted uncomfortably under the alchemy professor’s glare. Even without being able to see the slate gray of his eyes, they still held a piercing look.
“So what now?” Eva asked.
His answer could determine her future. She very much wanted to know if it was time to retreat to Florida, or even elsewhere. The prison had grown on her, a lot, since she came here. Leaving both it and the school would be something tragic.
“You weren’t the cause of whatever made Zoe lock herself away?”
Eva shook her head. “I am concerned to hear that myself.”
Wayne Lurcher spat on the ground.
Her ground. Her prison walkway. Spitting is a dirty habit, Eva thought with a frown.
“I need to talk to Zoe.” He turned and hobbled a few paces away.
Eva winced. His legs didn’t look all that bad to her vision. Her own shoulder didn’t hurt unless she knocked it against something. Walking had to be a nightmare if the same was true for him.
“I’m no hypocrite.” He paused and turned back to Eva. “Let it never be said that I treat my own students differently from others.”
Whatever he was saying, it wasn’t making sense to Eva. It was mostly under his breath. Talking to himself, probably. Without any directions, Eva stood there, staring at him.
“Well?”
Eva tilted her head to one side. “Well what?”
“Are you coming back or not?”
“I’m not sure I understand,” Eva said. She couldn’t help shifting her weight to one foot and lightly tapping the other on the ground.
“What’s not to understand?”
“Are you going to be alerting demon hunters?”
“Alerting hunters?” He flailed one of his hands in her direction the way he did when someone screwed up big time in his class. She’d never had that flail pointed in her direction. “I came out here to bring you back to the dorms. That’s what I’m going to do. You can explain how you got out of a locked room on your own.
“If you would hurry, that’d be great. I need to have several words with Zoe.”
Eva glanced at Arachne. It was less to see her and more to elicit a response from the spider-woman. That response ended up being a mere shrug of her shoulders.
With a sigh, Eva turned back to Wayne Lurcher. “Alright.” She walked up to him. Arachne followed with her claw gripped around Eva’s good arm.
Wayne clasped a large hand over her other shoulder.
Eva winced. “How are your legs?”
“Fine. How’s your shoulder–” His grip loosened slightly as he cut himself off. No apology.
The stinging sensation that spiderwebbed across her back lessened slightly. Eva would have preferred him moving his hand to her other shoulder.
“What do you think you’re doing?” He glared at Arachne. His heart rate didn’t jump in the slightest.
“I’m going too.”
“Arachne,” Eva started. The demon quickly cut her off.
“You were just attacked in your own bedroom. I’m not letting that happen again.”
“The nuns will be on the lookout for demons. You can’t come.” Eva opened her mouth but Arachne wasn’t finished. “And he,” she leveled a sharp finger at Wayne, “hasn’t actually said that you aren’t going to be arrested or lynched.”
“She’s not being arrested or lynched.” He batted the spider-woman’s hand away. “At least not until I’ve chewed out Zoe.”
“Arachne,” Eva gripped her hand with her own before she could attack the professor. “Go back inside. I promise I will keep you up to date–”
“No,” Arachne said. “You could have been killed and now there’s a pillar running around town.”
Eva turned to give Arachne a glare.
The demon had a point. As much as Eva hated to admit it, she might not have lost her eyes in the first place had she allowed Arachne to go with her.
But her isolation at the prison was more for the demon’s safety than any actual punishment. Arachne killed one of the nuns herself, after all. Eva didn’t want any revenge seekers to stir up trouble.
Then again, based on her actions the other day, Martina Turner might not allow the nuns to stay around the academy much longer. Something she would have to ask about when she got back.
“Alright,” Eva said. “On the condition that you do not antagonize the nuns at all. No even looking at them unless I am about to die at their hands.”
Arachne smiled at first, but her smile slipped to a frown as she heard the conditions. “Even the one who tried to kill you?”
“Especially the one who tried to kill me.”
“This is great and all,” Wayne butted in, “but I can’t take both of you and I refuse to do two trips. I’m tired and I’m cold and I still need to speak with Zoe.”
“What if Arachne were smaller?”
“Maybe. How small?”
“Arachne?” Eva turned her head to face the spider-woman.
“Can’t we take our method back?”
“I’m not very fond of our teleportation method. You know this.”
“What makes you think his is any better?”
“Won’t know until we try.”
“Let’s get a move on,” Wayne grunted.
Arachne growled at him even as she started shrinking. Soft squelching sounded in the air as her body folded in on itself until all that was left was a face sized spider.
“Freakiest thing I ever saw,” Wayne said as Arachne crawled up Eva’s arm.
Eva couldn’t honestly disagree. She’d seen a lot of things in her life from the mundane to horrifying, but there was just something about watching a human shrink down to a spider that nothing else ever matched. Watching how the blood pumped out of her heart tube throughout her body change as she shrank only added to the oddity.
Without a single motion from Wayne, everything changed. Her blood wards vanished along with her detection of every speck of her blood she had floating in the air.
Both of their circulatory systems twisted and broke.
She went completely blind. Weightlessness overtook her. She was in a constant free fall. Only Wayne Lurcher’s hand on her shoulder kept her from total sensory deprivation.
The cold settled in next. It plucked at her skin, pulling goosebumps out. It didn’t stop there. Eva tried to take a breath. Ice poured down her throat and settled in her lungs.
It all stopped.
The ground reappeared beneath her. Eva collapsed to it. She couldn’t help it. Shivers tore across her as her body tried to warm itself up. It bordered on convulsing.
The feeling lasted only a few seconds. She got a grip on her muscle spasms and pulled herself to her knees.
Arachne didn’t fare much better. She was on her back, her legs writhing and twitching. Eva might have been worried if the spider hadn’t flipped back over to her legs. Arachne looked like she was going to charge at Wayne in her spider form, but her legs weren’t finished twitching and she slid back to her stomach.
Not caring of Wayne’s circulatory system standing over her, Eva pulled out her dagger and jammed it into her arm. Her blood divided and spread throughout the room. There was a single bed, cabinets of potions and other medical supplies, and a smooth floor. The nurse’s office. Or one of the patient rooms.
“Ah, a blood mage too.”
“Don’t act–” Eva broke down into a short coughing fit. Wayne Lurcher actually patted her on the back. “Don’t act surprised. You had to have seen something in my dorm room.”
“That’s how you see,” he said, ignoring her. “I’ve been wondering. It is good you skip alchemy. You’d contaminate everyone’s brewings.”
“I’m careful to keep it off the ingredients and lab equipment.”
“Even worse. You can’t even tell what is what.”
Eva started coughing again. “I don’t think I like your teleportation. Not that mine is much better.”
“Oh? And what’s yours?”
Eva shook her head. “Some other time.”
Wayne stood up, helping Eva to her feet as he did so. Arachne managed to climb up Eva’s leg and hold on before she started moving.