“My information was incomplete,” she whispered. “The demon in question is not quite a demon.”
Both Zoe and Wayne turned slightly to glance in her direction while Arachne moved from ahead and to the side of Eva to directly between her and the doll. The latter let out a low growl as she bent her knees, ready to jump into action.
Eva grit her teeth, mind searching for possibilities. Unless there was another ‘not quite a demon’ running around, the doll was talking about her. But I haven’t done anything wrong. What is she talking about?
A beacon.
Her hand drifted up to brush at her throat. The only beacon she had been in contact with aside from her own—something that never left the mortal realm—had been Arachne’s. But that had been destroyed. Arachne had never used it. Void sent Arachne to Earth.
It had been around her neck nonstop before that.
Eva clenched her fists together.
Including when I sent Sawyer to Hell.
She had taken both Nel and Serena up to the mortal realm. And the beacon had gone with her both times.
“I destroyed it,” Eva said, stepping around Arachne. The blood was still floating behind her, just in case she needed to use it. For the moment, she would try to get out of this mess through words. “I realized my error and destroyed the beacon. It was never once used.”
Through her sense of blood, Eva could tell that Arachne was looking at her. Her carapace didn’t have blood flowing through it, but she was still obviously questioning Eva’s words.
Eva didn’t glance to the side in the slightest. Her focus was on the doll.
Who was now focused on her. Bright silver eyes stared straight at Eva.
“I didn’t help any demons to the mortal realm. The beacon was destroyed. So there shouldn’t be a problem regardless of my status of being only a partial demon.”
That should work. Hopefully. The logic was sound from Eva’s perspective. But would a demon—no, a doll feel the same?
“It is not my place to make such a decision. And something…” the doll’s whispering voice trailed off, staring at the sky for a moment. “Something is preventing my contact with the Keeper.”
Thank Life for that, Eva thought to herself. Had everything been working properly, Eva might have found herself on the receiving end of a sword falling from the sky. It would have come completely unnoticed, as it likely had for that Timothy demon.
“But you said that perhaps these humans might be able to assist in your decision,” Eva said, turning her stare on to Zoe.
“Right,” the professor said after clearing her throat. She shifted slightly, even less comfortable now than she had been when first approaching the doll. “Well, if no crime was committed, there shouldn’t be a punishment, right? There wasn’t even any intention in the actions.”
Still staring at the sky, the doll made no indication that she had even heard Zoe. “I need to reestablish contact.”
Eva followed her gaze up to the sky.
And noticed something.
A white crackling stood out against the blue sky, the clouds, and the violet streaks.
Chapter 019
Eva’s head spun. Everything hurt. She couldn’t think straight and she couldn’t see straight. The only thing she could see was a blinding whiteness.
Her memories were hazy. A vague sensation of seeing something dangerous followed by pain.
The crackling white in the sky. That had to be it. She saw it and had activated her shield. Had she shouted out to warn the others? No? She couldn’t think properly.
Everything hurt.
But she was alive. She had to be. If she was dead, she would be in that hallway again. Or the darkness she had fallen into when Ylva tested out her theory. There was far too much pain for either of those options.
As time trickled on, she started to gain an awareness of her surroundings. Not through her eyes, those were still out of action at the moment. But concentrating hard enough let her sense the blood of those around her.
Has it always taken so much concentration to see blood?
Arachne was at her side. As expected of Arachne. She was even on her feet. All eight of them. Arachne had shifted into her largest form at some point.
Possibly because she was fighting.
What was she fighting? A human? If so, it was a very fast human. They jumped around, Arachne slashing with her claws while the human waved around his arms as if he were swinging a club.
It couldn’t be the doll.
That’s right, we were here to talk to the doll. The doll wanted to imprison me.
But the doll hadn’t attacked. Even if it had, Eva couldn’t see the doll through her sense of blood.
Then who had attacked?
Wayne and Zoe should have been nearby. Eva couldn’t sense either of them. Maybe they had been vaporized without a shield to take the brunt of the attack. Maybe she had managed to warn them in time for them to teleport away. She hoped so, but she wouldn’t be able to find out for sure until she managed to get off the ground.
Turning her attention to herself, Eva would have cringed had she not been too busy being in a world of hurt.
Her body was very reminiscent of Wayne’s body immediately after they had gone to Zoe’s house to clear out the demons attacking the place. He had ended up scorched badly enough to require medical treatment from experts at an elven hospital. Not really an option for Eva at the moment.
At least she knew why her body ached so much.
But Arachne was fighting. Fighting someone fast. Someone using a sword. And the sky had cracked.
Eva shuddered.
If she was right, Arachne was fighting the demon hunter who had vanquished Zagan.
Eva needed to get up. She needed to help. Arachne was large, tough, and strong, but she was no Zagan.
And it had to be that hunter. He was the one who had chased them down in the wilderness. His partner must be the one who cracked the sky. Eva hadn’t thought that they would be so cowardly as to attack the school while regular students were around. They hadn’t so far, anyway.
Maybe Eva had been just too juicy of a target. With both her and Arachne essentially standing still along with Zoe—who essentially lived with Ylva—how could the hunters not attack? Wayne might have been a casualty of it all, but Eva doubted they would care. Especially not with him being friends with Zoe.
What about the doll? Did they know who or what she was? Did they care? Did she get hit as well? Maybe they had watched her kill the other demon and assumed that she was another hunter. They might have aimed their spell just enough to miss her.
Eva was guessing that the doll was still alive. Being unable to sense her at all made the guess all the more uncertain.
The hunter kept dodging to the side or locking his blade with something that Eva couldn’t see. Now that she was starting to think properly again, she could easily see that there was another combatant fighting against the hunter. One that Eva couldn’t detect through her sense of blood.
Eva really needed to get her eyes working properly again. All the maybes and mights needed to become certainties. Maybes and mights got people killed.
Gripping her hands into fists, Eva tried to push herself off the ground. She had wound up lying face down in the brick and gravel. She couldn’t feel it in the slightest. Something that probably didn’t speak well of her.
Oddly enough—or perhaps unsurprisingly enough—her hands and legs felt perfectly fine. Between Arachne’s carapace and her own blood shield, she had managed to get away without any damage that she could see through her blood. There might be cracks or warping, but she would have to wait to tell for sure.
Unfortunately, all the important bits were in the rest of her.
Eva paused in her fruitless movements for just a moment.