So Eva just shook her head.
Devon put on a rueful smile. “Perhaps I’ll tell you one day. I’ll give you a hint. It has to do with the endings of the stories.”
The smile behind his goatee twisted back into his usual expression of impassiveness and grumbling. “Now get out. I still have work to do.”
Eva nodded. Hopping to her feet, she started off towards the exit of his cell block. She stopped almost as soon as she started as two things came to mind.
The first was that she had forgotten to ask about the Powers. Probably a dead-end, as Ylva said, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.
The second…
Eva stared down at the half erased ritual circle where the remains of Simon had lain not so long ago.
She bit her lip and asked a question she had never considered before.
“Was I the first?”
“First what? Demon-that-was-originally-human? Weren’t you listening, girl? Arachne and Hel are two–”
“The first of your experiments. I’m obviously your only current success. But was I the first you attempted the treatment on?”
He regarded her with a suspicion-filled raised eyebrow. “What? Growing a conscience now?” He gave a cold laugh. “More than that kid have died in the course of my research–if he wasn’t dead before the ritual even began, that is. Anyone with zero failures on a project as big and as unique as mine must be a literal god. ‘Course you’re not the first.”
Eva nodded. That was roughly what she had expected. Though, at no point when he had originally explained the process to her had he ever mentioned any dangers. “Perhaps in the future,” she said slowly, “you might warn your potential subjects that they might not make it.”
Looking at her like she was crazy, Devon just shook his head. “Most subjects weren’t exactly in the state to give consent. Not to the point of that kid,” he gestured towards the door, “but a lot less well off than yourself.”
Frowning, he pulled out his notebook again and started writing. “Ill individuals may not make for the best subjects,” he mumbled to himself. “Subject should display moderate drive and willpower, the will to live, and generally be in a healthy state.” Shutting his notebook, he glanced up and met Eva’s eyes.
A moment passed before he pulled out his notebook again. “Correction: willpower not needed. Subject should be slightly more self-aware than a pineapple.”
“Hey!”
—
Eva lifted her teacup, taking in a deep breath of the fragrant fumes.
Devon hadn’t had any useful information on Powers. At least not the one that they were looking for. Just as Ylva expected. The closest he had come was correctly identifying the residue that Nel had received as belonging to another plane of existence, a foreigner to the mortal realm. Finding out what specific plane was beyond his abilities.
So nothing they hadn’t already known.
With that in mind, Eva wasn’t entirely certain what Carlos was going to be able to discover. Did he know anything about the Powers? Doubtful.
But Eva had sent the letter before finding out the origins of the creature. By the time she had found out, he would have already been on his way. Unless he had someone like Zoe teleporting him in.
In fact, he was due to arrive any minute.
Hence Eva’s cup of tea. A nice cup of tea for calming the nerves.
Carlos probably wouldn’t be upset at being called out to something he didn’t already know what it was. Given his reaction to the gargoyles within Ylva’s domain, he would probably be ecstatic at the chance to research something new.
No. Her initial reason for calling him here did not worry Eva.
It was just that the last time she had seen him, Genoa had a hole the size of her arm in her chest. And Genoa had fairly muscular arms.
Would he hate her? Blame her? Regard her with cold eyes behind those coke-bottle glasses of his?
She had read his letter. What he said about his concerns regarding his wife, Eva, and Arachne. But letters could be pondered over. Words could be erased and rewritten. What he actually felt might never have made it to Eva.
There was a reason she had written him a letter in the first place instead of just calling him, and it wasn’t that she still didn’t own a cellphone. Though that may have been a contributing factor.
After all, she wanted the time to consider her words. To avoid any questions or words that he might say to her that she would have to respond to at that moment.
Eva replaced her teacup in its saucer, shaky hands barely able to keep the tea from spilling over before the ceramic clacked together.
The tea was definitely not doing its job at calming her nerves.
She didn’t have tea often. Hardly ever. Eva was willing to believe that she could count the times she had had tea on a single hand. Perhaps it only worked on those who consumed the stuff regularly.
This batch was more like a syringe of adrenaline straight to the heart.
“What are you so worked up about?”
Eva glanced up with a slight start.
“You’re jumpy enough to make me nervous,” Catherine said. “Stop it.”
“He’s the father of my very first non-Arachne friend. I’d rather not have him hate me.” Eva started towards her tea, but stopped.
She’d had enough.
“Besides,” Eva said, “you don’t need to be here anyway. I’m perfectly capable of taking him to see the enigma on my own.”
“I wish I didn’t need to be here. Martina insists that absolutely every visitor to the Academy must be escorted at all times. Especially around the ‘enigma.'” Catherine used a single hand for her air-quotes. Her other hand held a cellphone.
One she had been tapping on incessantly for the last fifteen minutes.
The constant beeps and vibrations made by the thing didn’t help with Eva’s nerves.
“How long is he going to take?” Catherine moaned while she flopped over onto the table after a series of depressing tones. “I have better things to do than to waste away my time in the mortal realm babysitting you. And why isn’t this the job of the security team? What did Martina even hire them for?”
“His letter said noon,” Eva said, glancing up to the clock. She didn’t bother to respond to the rest of Catherine’s complaints. “And it’s high noon.”
As soon as she spoke, there was a soft knock at the door. A moment after, the door cracked open and Carlos walked in.
He looked… well, not as gaunt as he had while Juliana was stuck in Hell. He had been eating better, that much was clear.
However, Eva’s heart sank as he failed to smile in the slightest. No twinkling appeared in his eyes at the sight of her.
At least he isn’t scowling, Eva thought.
Eva kept her disappointment bottled up. Her face remained as neutral as his own.
At least until a second person entered the room. Someone unfamiliar. Taller than Carlos with sun-baked skin and darker hair. There might have been a passing resemblance to Genoa if she looked close enough; he had the same strong bone structure in his cheekbones and jaw line.
His eyes managed to wander half the room before snapping to Eva.
Particularly her hands as they rested on the table around her teacup.
Eva watched his eyes grow wide. They traveled up to her elbows before shooting upwards to meet her gaze.
The entire school knew what Eva looked like. She actually did not have to deal with much in the way of reactions. Not anymore. Half the school had been there to see her directly on the first night, an incident she fled from before anyone had a chance to do anything. The rest of the school had heard rumors–most probably exaggerated to the point where her actual appearance was boring in comparison–and were therefore prepared.
There was bullying after. Not much other than a thrown ball of dirt or water in the hallways. Most people tended to avoid her. And all that had pretty much stopped once the security force started patrolling the hallways.