Given the cameras centered on the event, there were probably even more safety features behind the scenes. Redford would want to make good impressions on mundanes while Anderson wouldn’t want to frighten away prospective new students. Someone winding up mangled or dead would dissuade most normal people.
“Plan for what you want,” Eva said after a moment of silence. “I told you what I heard. Since I’m not allowed to participate, you can deal with it as you want.”
Henry took his eyes off Eva and looked over the rest of the students with a far less hostile glare. At least, far less hostile when he wasn’t looking at a demon or a human associated with demons.
Which was basically just Rachael.
Still, he reserved the majority of his ire for Eva.
And she couldn’t figure out why. Maybe he was friends with the Burnsides. Or simply had a bad experience in the past.
“There’s two weeks before the event,” he said, getting to his feet. “See if you can find something out for yourselves.”
With one last glance around the room, he snapped his notebook shut. Henry moved out of the room before anyone else could even stand. He barely managed to keep from shoulder-checking Eva on his way past.
Though only two days had passed since the night of the first event, Henry had grown far more hostile. During the feast, he had alternated between glaring at her and avoiding eye contact entirely. She could understand him being upset that Brakket Academy had lost, but he was apparently the only one.
At least, the only one of the competitors. A few regular students had alternated between blaming her or Randal.
More so Randal. His dormitory door had been vandalized with several scathing messages about his heritage and bound demon alike. Something about how a demonic elf should have been faster.
As if they would have done better.
The vandalism only contributed to his now obvious depression.
Even now, Randal sat with his head resting on his knuckles, staring at the ground. He hadn’t spoken once during the entire meeting.
Eva wasn’t sure what to say to him beyond her words at the feast the night before. But he didn’t have to participate in the next event, so he should be able to take some time to himself to get sorted out.
As for the next event, the vampire had so far not come up to Eva to beg for blood or to renegotiate their deal. As such, she was torn between whether she wanted Brakket to win or to lose. Losing could take some heat off Randal. Depending on how and why they lost, it might knock Henry down a peg as well.
On the reverse side of things, winning was generally better. Not to mention the potential amusement if the demon-majority team had lost the predominantly destructive event only to turn around and win the constructive one. The only two humans who could participate and didn’t have bound demons were Henry and Irene, and Irene was heavily associated with Saija.
Of course, like Saija had said, demons really weren’t great at building things. She was a succubus. Her talents lay in manipulative magic, though her raw strength could come in handy.
The other two demons, Sebastian and Neuro, Eva didn’t know half as much about. Sebastian sat in his chair, stirring a cup of tea he had procured from somewhere with an ornate silver spoon held in his gloved hand. He had a faint smile on his face as he stared off towards Henry’s vacant seat.
Neuro’s eyes swirled in thought. Literally. They were a brilliant green rather than the usual demonic red. He was supposedly smart, but Eva hadn’t been in a position to confirm it thus far. Maybe he would come up with something.
Unless he was thinking about something entirely unrelated to the tournament. That was a decent possibility as well.
Meeting apparently adjourned, Eva turned and started away from the small conference room that they had been using for tournament related business. She wasn’t the only one. Rachael had been out the door almost as fast as Henry.
However, she stopped as she reached the door. A completely impulsive thought took hold. A somewhat dangerous thought as well.
“Irene,” Eva said, “might I have a moment of your time before you run off to wherever?”
She sat up straight, offering a slow nod of her head. “Did you need something?”
“Just a little training exercise I thought you might be interested in trying.”
“Training?” she asked with a frown. “For fighting?”
Eva shook her head. “You’re an earth mage and I’ve got a project I’m working on that needs an earth mage.”
“Juliana isn’t helping you?”
“She is, but maybe it will help train you for this event. It isn’t a problem if you don’t want to do it.”
Irene’s frown deepened. She crossed her arms, staring at Eva as Eva moved to the side to let another student out of the room.
Saija stood up, strutted over to Eva, and walked around her in a short circle. She hummed to herself as she looked Eva up and down. When she stopped circling, she was a bit close for comfort.
Eva glared at her the whole time. It wasn’t that she disliked Saija, but the succubus was a bit much sometimes. Eva didn’t know what kind of relationship Irene and Saija had in private. Ever since the demon hunters had attacked, the two had been nearly inseparable. Really, she didn’t care what they did.
So long as she was left out of it.
And, at the moment, she really didn’t need Saija’s face quite so close to hers.
“What are you plan–”
Eva snapped her hand up to Saija’s chin, clamping her mouth shut. “Saija. You can ask your questions from a respectable distance. If you want to go with us, just ask.”
Releasing her with a slight shove, Saija sulked back to Irene and desperately tried to look like she wasn’t hiding behind the human.
Really, it had been months since they started going to school. Yet she was still thinking that Eva would bite her head off at the slightest provocation? Sure, she had just grabbed her jaw. But she hadn’t hurt Saija.
Thinking more, if they likened her to Zagan, maybe it wasn’t such an outlandish thing to do. Even knowing that Zagan wasn’t going to permanently hurt her, Eva still wouldn’t want to be on his bad side.
“Go with you?” Irene said, still frowning.
“Yep! I’ll show you,” Eva said, starting towards the door.
She paused as a thought occurred to her. As sensitive as she was to cold, Eva had barely felt anything the other night during the event. The entire ward had to have been heated. Just because it hadn’t snowed yet didn’t mean that it wasn’t cold. Eva solved the problem through heating spells, but not everybody was a fire mage.
“Ah. You might want to bring a warm coat,” Eva said with a smile.
—
“Alright, we’re out here without anyone else,” Irene said as she nearly tripped over a stray branch despite the light spell Eva had thrown out for her benefit. Saija caught her, keeping her from falling to the ground. “You avoided mentioning exactly what you need help with. I assume it was because other people were around.”
Eva turned with a smile, walking backwards through the rough brush. “Thanks for having the tact to not ask about anything.”
“Well I’m asking now.”
“We’re almost there.”
Irene stopped moving. “Eva,” she said. “You’re dragging us out here in the middle of the night and being awfully creepy about it. I don’t want to get involved in anything big again. I’ve had enough as it is.”
Eva sighed, stopping as well. Rather than answer right away, she craned her head back to stare at the sky.
“The night you fought the monsters that came out of my dorm room, those purple streaks appeared in the sky.”
Looking up to the sky as well, Irene let out a soft groan. “I knew it. This is something big.”