“M-maybe he just wanted to be known. To say ‘here I am with my own demons.'”
Arachne half snarled, half laughed. “Then a stronger demon should have been sent. Sending that imp would be akin to waving around a rubber knife at a tank.” She leaned in, putting her face only centimeters away from Shalise’s face. Her sharp teeth were on full display in a wide smile. “I would be the tank.”
Shalise took half a step back with a nervous giggle. “I-I’m glad you’re on our side, then.”
Arachne pulled back to her full height. Her arms cross as she let out a small huff.
“Alright,” Eva said with a sigh. “Back to the dorms. Come on, Arachne,” Eva said as she patted her chest.
Arachne gave a small smile before turning herself small. She climbed up Eva’s legs and wrapped her own legs firmly around Eva’s chest.
Securely in place, Eva nodded to Shalise.
“We’re not waiting for Professor Baxter?”
“I’m sure she’ll find us if she needs to. Our room would be the first place she’d look for us.”
“I don’t know…”
“You could wait if you want,” Eva said as she started walking, “but there is no guarantee she’ll even be looking for us.”
Shalise ran a few steps to catch up. “Not on my own, I’m not.”
“To the dorms it is.”
They wasted no time in heading up to room three-thirteen. Juliana stood just outside the door. She had the room card held up to the door as they rounded the corner into the hallway.
“Hello, Juliana,” Shalise said with a wave. “Something wrong with the door?”
“Nope. Just got back myself.” Her eyes shifted over to Eva. “My father said,” she paused and shook her head. She swiped her card and pressed into the room with both Shalise and Eva on her heels.
As soon as the door clicked shut and Shalise’s carved runes started glowing, Juliana started again. “My father asked if he could meet with you sometime during the first week of school,” she said. “Someplace where Arachne is more free to be herself.”
“I don’t have a problem with that,” Eva said.
Arachne detached from Eva and turned herself back to her human size. A small scowl spread across her face as her face formed, but she didn’t say anything.
“I’m not sure The Liddellest Cafe is the best place for that. Perhaps the prison,” she suggested with a hint of hope in her voice.
Eva frowned. “I don’t know. Far more people than I ever intended know about and have access to the place.”
“I was hoping to say hi to Nel again.”
“We don’t need your father there for that.”
“You can discuss that later,” Shalise cut in. “Professor Baxter’s seminar was attacked!”
“Attacked?” Juliana said. “What happened?”
Biting her lip–Eva doubted Juliana would be happy to hear what happened on account of her mother–Eva picked a starting place. “A demon seemed to visit some random violence on students after Zoe’s seminar tonight.”
Eva took a seat on Juliana’s bed next to the blond and ran her through the events of the night.
“Oh,” Juliana said a minute or so after Eva finished. “That isn’t going to make my mom happy at all. She’s already mad about the bull.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Eva said. “It was just a little imp. I don’t think the student was badly injured either. I could see her heart beating just fine, if a little fast.”
“Who was it?”
“Don’t know,” Eva said with a flippant shrug. “I didn’t recognize her circulatory system.”
“Cosette something,” Shalise said. “She helped me study a little last year after Professor Baxter recommended her to me, mostly working on my order shield.”
Eva just shrugged again.
Juliana opened her mouth twice but failed to say anything, ending with a solemn nod.
“Don’t worry about it,” Eva said. “Like I said, Zoe dispatched it before any real damage could be done.”
Eva reached into her desk drawer. She felt around for the small black sphere. Made from her own blood–Arachne had taught her how the previous December. There was a single red swish on it. Eva couldn’t see the colors, but she knew it was there.
“Can I talk to both of you for a minute? About something that can’t leave the room, not even to Zoe Baxter.”
Eva watched as both of their heart rates jumped slightly, Shalise’s more than Juliana. Her own heart jumped slightly as well. Only Arachne, snuggling under Eva’s blankets, remained unaffected.
Still, neither of them shook their heads.
“I-is this something dangerous?” Shalise asked.
“Not on its own, though it could be if other people learn about it.”
Juliana sighed and flipped a lock of her hair behind her back. “You can’t just say things like this and expect us to walk away without hearing about it. So just go on and say it.”
Eva took a deep breath. “Last year,” she said, “I was trapped in Hell for a short period of time and only escaped thanks to Arachne.” Eva sent the spider-demon a small smile. “After getting back, she taught me how to escape without her help. I don’t intend to go back, ever, but it seems a prudent step to take. Unfortunately, escaping requires one of you to help.”
Neither girl made a sound. That suited Eva just fine. There would be plenty of questions later.
“This,” she held up the black sphere in her gloveless claws, “is a beacon. There is an official name for it, I’m sure, but I’ve never heard Devon call it anything else.
“When active, it allows a demon one free escape from Hell. It can be activated multiple times, but can only hold one ‘escape ticket’ at a time. As far as I know, that ticket lasts forever until it is consumed.”
Juliana opened her mouth, but Shalise beat her to the punch. “W-what does it take to activate it?”
“A mortal, like you,” Arachne growled, “must accept it. They must know full well what the giver is–a demon–and have at least a general idea that the beacon will allow the demon to escape Hell.”
It wasn’t the phrasing she might have used, but it wasn’t inaccurate. Eva nodded at Arachne.
“A demon,” Juliana said. “You?”
Eva sighed. “That is the part you cannot tell anyone. My master, Devon, is currently running an experiment that aims to turn me into a demon. I was born as human as you.”
Shalise’s heart started beating harder. Juliana’s did as well, but she started to smile as well.
“You’re turning into a demon,” Juliana said. Her eyes turned off to glance at Eva’s claws.
“Nope,” Eva said, “my hands and legs have nothing to do with it. They’re there simply because Arachne gave them to me, as she could with anyone.”
“Even me?” Juliana asked as her head twisted towards Arachne.
Arachne let out a low growl from half under Eva’s bedding. “You couldn’t pay me enough to consider it.”
“Anyway,” Eva said, “accepting my beacon will hopefully allow me to escape from Hell should I ever fall back into the Void.”
Shalise blinked and said, “hopefully?”
“Well,” Eva ran her claws through her hair, “I escaped with Arachne due to a technicality. I’m roughly half and half at the moment, according to Devon. For all I know, it won’t work until after another year or three of treatment.”
“Y-you want us to take a dangerous artifact without knowing if it will even work?”
Eva shook her head. “It isn’t dangerous. I mean, a demon hunter could find out if you told them, but associating with Arachne would be condemning enough, I think.”
Shalise gave a short glance and a frown at Arachne. The spider-demon merely shrugged.
“Really, they’d be hard pressed to find out. After accepting it, you could leave it in a drawer–better yet, you could leave it within the blood wards at my prison.”