However, aside from the pale streaks of purple in the sky, nothing looked amiss outside of her room.
“So what is wrong?” she mumbled to herself as she threw on a shirt and a skirt.
Through the walls, Eva took note of her guests. Ylva, Catherine, and Prax were all out in the common room. None really appeared to be speaking to one another. Prax leaned against a far wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest. Ylva sat in a chair, reclining back with one arm on the armrest. She had her fingers curled underneath her chin, supporting her head as she stared off into the distance. Lying on the longer couch, Catherine fiddled with a cellphone.
Zoe and Juliana weren’t around at the moment. They must have gone back during Eva’s nap. Juliana’s father had given some strict instructions to Zoe regarding his daughter’s extracurricular activities. Something about a curfew.
She would have expected Zoe to return afterwards. Or send a message if she was in trouble.
A quick check of her cellphone showed no new messages.
As she was slowly becoming used to, Eva could sense all three of the demons in the other room. And more. The carnivean and the wax demon were somewhere around as well, though farther away. Along with all those demons was Zagan, though his presence was faint and in the vague direction of Brakket Academy.
But there was something else. Something disturbing.
Whatever it was, it had been the thing to wake her.
Pushing open the door to the common room, Eva looked around at the demons with her own eyes.
None of them turned to look at her.
“Do you feel it too?” she asked no one in particular.
“It’s Daru,” Catherine said in an exasperated tone of voice. She didn’t bother looking up from her cellphone.
Though, moving slightly closer and catching a glimpse over the succubus’ shoulder, Eva found herself surprised at the lack of a game on the screen. Rather, she was in some sort of drawing program, tracing out sigil-inscribed circles with her thumb.
Practicing? Or maybe continuing whatever she had been working on with Devon, Eva thought. Her own version of a treatment circle.
Eva shook her head. “Why does it feel like that? It’s… It’s… vile.”
“He’s in pain. Lots of pain,” Catherine said. “Active torture, I’d imagine. Enough to mess with his aura.”
“And we’re just sitting around?”
Catherine sighed as she set her phone on the couch cushion. She glanced over her shoulder and shook her head. “Martina might have asked me to help you out, but that doesn’t mean that I need to die for you. I rather like being around here. The mortal realm, that is.”
When Catherine failed to jump up and charge out to rescue Daru, Eva turned first to Ylva before moving on to Prax.
“It is a trap,” Prax said. “Your defenses give us the advantage over any who would attack us. Leaving their protections to rescue some morail would be foolish in the extreme.”
“So we’re just going to leave him to be tortured?”
As someone who had gone through torture herself, leaving someone else to such a fate did not sit right with her. Eva had recovered, true. Perhaps even becoming stronger than she had been before with the addition of Arachne’s limbs. But that didn’t mean that others would be the same.
“Eva,” Catherine said, sitting up on the couch. “What you fail to realize is that no one here cares about Daru. No one here cares about each other, except in how they will fare should we need to fight. So long as the others keep me from dying, they’re my best friends. The moment they become a liability to my continued existence…”
With a frown, Eva glanced towards Ylva, expecting at least the hel to deny having the same thoughts.
Ylva turned her head slightly, looking towards Prax. “The cambion’s assessment is correct. This is a trap. Wandering into it, blinded by revenge or some foolish heroism, would suit no one. The morail is not Our servant. His demise matters little.”
Eva closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
With how much she interacted with them on a daily basis, it was easy to forget that most of everyone who she knew was a demon. And not demons like Arachne.
Arachne cared. At least about her.
Maybe that was the problem. She had a skewed perspective because of Arachne. Eva was willing to grant that Arachne likely cared little for anyone else. The only reason why Arachne had helped anyone else was because of Eva asking her to.
“But I care,” Eva said, looking Catherine in the eye. “I care about Arachne. I want her back. She was–is my friend and my companion.” Eva’s hand drifted up to the beacon set around her neck.
“Along with that, I care about you. Ylva too,” Eva said, turning to face the hel. “And,” she started looking towards Prax before snapping her gaze back to Catherine. “Lucy too. If any of you were being tortured, I would jump in and try to save you.”
Silence greeted Eva’s proclamation.
No one moved. No one said a word.
At least, until Prax let out a loud snort.
That broke whatever spell held them still.
Catherine rolled her eyes and picked up her cellphone again while Ylva just looked up at Eva and stared.
“A foolish notion. Mortals lack the ability to permanently kill demons. Any sacrifice you make would be pointless in the end.”
“I might as well try,” Eva said, fiddling with Arachne’s beacon once again. “By that logic, there aren’t any downsides to trying. If none of us die when we’re killed…” Trailing off, Eva stared at Ylva. “Can I die? Permanently.”
The air chilled by a few degrees. Enough so that Eva’s breath condensed into faint puffs of fog as she breathed.
Eva took a step backwards as Ylva moved to her feet.
Though she wasn’t standing in any sunlight, her skin vanished. All that remained was the giant skeleton, stooping over slightly to fit under the relatively low ceiling of the women’s ward. Two tiny white pinpricks of light emanated from the depths of her empty eye sockets.
Eva tried to take another step back.
Ylva was too quick.
Her hand reached out, digging her bony fingers into Eva’s shoulder.
Ice flowed through Eva’s body.
Not just ice. Whatever it was, it was colder than ice. Turning her sense of blood in on herself, Eva could see her very veins freezing beneath her skin. It spread, starting at Ylva’s hand and spreading.
Down her arm.
Down her chest.
Up her neck.
Eva managed only a short scream before her throat froze over.
She was only barely conscious of Catherine staring at her with wide eyes. The succubus made no movements to intervene.
Neither did Prax. He hadn’t even shifted from his position against the far wall.
Those white pinpricks where Ylva’s eyes should be captured her, forcibly holding her gaze and what little attention she could muster.
Tendrils of ice reached up Eva’s neck.
The moment they touched her brain, everything went dark.
— — —
“No one is coming.”
What little there was of the demon had just been swallowed by Void. Bits and pieces of him had been left behind. Void only took the largest chunk of the demon that was still connected to either the brain or the heart, if either were still intact.
Gertrude snapped her tome shut.
“No one is coming,” she said again with a glance around the empty wilderness. “All that work. All for nothing.”
Clement followed her gaze.
They had set up just to the side of the main freeway that passed by Brakket City. Several demon traps had been set up. Slick icy patches created by Gertrude made up the proper rings and symbols for shackles. Some out in the fields around them to capture any that might come by. Even a few on the roads themselves.