But Eva paid him no mind. Zagan was a known demon. A devil and a scary one at that, but one that Eva could at least somewhat predict.
Her eyes were drawn over Martina’s shoulder.
The other demon that she had felt was standing there, staring at her.
Eva immediately realized her mistake.
She had seen this demon before.
“Prax?” Juliana said from behind Eva. “What are you doing here?”
The cambion huffed, crossing his beefy arms in front of his bare chest while glancing off to the side.
“What indeed,” Eva murmured with an aside glance towards Zagan.
The devil shrugged his shoulders. “I heard he got loose from his fleshy prison and wanted into the mortal realm. For a time, I considered torture and execution. Now I’ve decided to have him serve out his insult to me by taking over so many of my duties. Marvelous idea, yeah?”
“I only saw him just a few hours ago. He asked to get out of Hell then.”
Just how quickly had Prax been summoned up by Martina? She could understand if Zoe had let slip that Prax was out, but wanting to get out of Hell was another matter entirely. Eva could understand him being able to hear conversations while he wasn’t immediately present. Zoe could do the same through enhancing her hearing beyond human limits.
Even her enhancements didn’t reach Hell.
“Have you been spying on me?” Eva asked.
“Of course I have.”
Eva blinked, not expecting the blunt response.
“I told you before, I have a vested interest in you. A few simple enchantments on your person and…” he trailed off with another shrug and a nod towards Prax.
For just a moment, Eva had half a mind to protest. To demand the removal of whatever enchantments he had applied to her.
Those protests died off when she caught sight of his eyes.
He wasn’t glaring or anything, but Eva couldn’t help the shiver running up her spine.
Ignoring her discomfort, Zagan turned back to his original object of interest. “Juliana,” he said as he reached out a hand to ruffle her hair. “Welcome back.”
She just sat there and allowed him to mess up her blond hair. “Thanks.”
Her voice came out as a whisper as Zagan withdrew his hand.
Eva yearned to ask. Juliana’s earlier request to not talk about Zagan held her tongue. For now.
With a slight shake of her head, Eva turned to face Martina Turner.
“I rescued Lucy.”
“So I’ve heard,” she said, eyes flicking towards Zagan. “No sign of Daru?”
“None. Ylva is convinced that it was a trap for her. I’m inclined to agree.” Eva raised an eyebrow in Zagan’s direction. “Perhaps Daru is intended to be a trap for someone else?”
“A trap for me?” Zagan said with a chuckle. “I’d like to see that. Perhaps I’ll walk into it just to see what happens.”
“Well, I can’t imagine people fighting you in a fair fight. Even if you went as easy on them as you went on Sister Cross.”
“Dammit.” Martina slammed a fist on her desk. “I thought you were keeping these hunters off my back,” she said in a half shout.
“I told you that it wouldn’t last forever,” Anderson said, keeping his voice carefully controlled.
Picking up a large glass off the desk, she downed the dark brown contents in a single swig. A long and harsh sigh escaped her lips as she set the glass back on the desk. “Should have been longer than a handful of months. I expected a year at least. We’re not ready for hunters.”
Eva cleared her throat. Just a light cough before speaking. “You summoned Prax, right? I feel a few others too.”
“Replacements,” Martina said through grit teeth. “With Brakket’s security force decimated, I had to get more in a hurry.”
“There are three of them including Prax?”
“A second morail and a hellhound under his command.”
Eva nodded. The hellhound wouldn’t be sentient, but it made sense that she could sense it. Still, Martina had Catherine, Lucy, Daru, this new morail, a hellhound, and Zagan all contracted to her. The most she had seen Devon summon was three, and that had just been half a year ago or so. Before that, his highest was two at once.
She could only imagine what Devon would say about Martina. Her imagination filled in several uses of the words idiot, menace, and suicidal.
But, it wasn’t her problem. If Martina wanted to surround herself with demons, that was her choice.
Eva just hoped that she had a bag of popcorn nearby when Zagan decided that he didn’t want to take orders anymore.
“Anyway, I think Ylva is wanting to hunt down these hunters. I’m going to help her. Any resources that you could spare would be appreciated, I’m sure.”
Martina went silent for a moment. Her finger ran around the edge of her now empty glass. “Take Prax and Catherine. Zagan will stay at my side. Cereth and the hellhound will remain patrolling around Brakket Academy.”
Eva expected Zagan to stay with Martina. Unless she was far more altruistic than Eva knew her to be, Martina wouldn’t want her strongest asset away from her. Though he could probably kill the hunters in one shot, it would leave her far too vulnerable. The other morail, Cereth, would likely be a backup. Or, he would be sent in to die first while Zagan watched and laughed.
Maybe it was a good thing that Zagan wouldn’t be at her side.
Standing up, Martina placed the palms of her hands against the top of her desk, leaning over. “Get these bastards out of my town.”
Chapter 022
“Eva,” Juliana called after the rushing girl, “wait up.”
The problem with armor, especially metal armor, was that it weighed a ton. Not a literal ton, but definitely more than a school backpack. Other students never carried even a fraction of the weight of Juliana’s armor during their entire tenure at Brakket Academy.
Being a physically fit person, it wasn’t a big deal most of the time. Her mother’s training had built up her muscles and a slow yet steady increase in the amount of metal she carried built them up as well. She lacked the bulging muscles that Prax had and even the finely sculpted body of Zagan, but they were demons. In terms of humans around Brakket, especially those her own age, Juliana felt confident that she was among the top tier in physical ability.
Heat could sometimes be a problem. Whether that be too little heat or too much heat. The weather at Brakket was cold more often than warm. Summers didn’t last quite as long as they did down south. Though she was an earth mage, Juliana had found the application of mild warming spells to be one of the most useful things she had learned. Time well spent. The same was true in reverse. A mild water-based cooling spell worked wonders in the summer. Even if her ability with water magic was a far cry from her ability with fire, which, in turn, was leagues away from her earth magic.
But it worked for what she used it for. Temperature control combined with a proper distribution of the weight around her body let Juliana barely notice her armor while standing or walking around. Short bursts of activity weren’t a big deal either.
Chasing after a girl with demonic legs was quite another matter entirely.
Thankfully, Eva stopped. The black-haired girl spun around on the sidewalk, sending said hair whirling around her.
“Sorry,” she said. “I was just eager to see if Ylva or Zoe found anything important.”
Juliana used the brief pause to breathe in a lungful or two of fresh air. Her helmet wasn’t formed up. It was hard enough to sprint as it was.
When she started moving again, Eva kept her pace down to a brisk walk.
For just a moment, Juliana continued her rest. When she started following again, she kept a few paces behind.
And she watched Eva’s backside, thinking back to what her parents had said.