A lot of security at that. Theoretically, there was only a single hunter who was only after people related to Eva. Zoe was one of those people. Being responsible for the students both local and from abroad, she could not take the risk that the hunter might decide any one of them would work. Zoe wanted to hire Genoa, so long as she was feeling up to it.
Maybe even Arachne as well.
— — —
Eva began her plan. Her genius idea to locate and defeat the hunter was underway. The simplest way to find her was to get captured. Nel could watch from afar and get following her again, maybe stop her far sight from slipping for a little while.
And for that purpose, Eva wandered around the city completely alone. Nobody liked the idea of using herself as bait, but Eva had her own tricks.
At the same time as she walked around, she sat attentive in Professor Lepus’ class. Or rather, she was pretending to be attentive. She was actually trying to avoid spewing projectile vomit all over her classmates. To be fair, the sensory feedback from her blood clone was nothing compared to the horrors of Sawyer eating macaroni and cheese without washing his hands after dissecting bodies. The odd feeling of being in two places at once still had her a little dizzy.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much going on. No hunters dive-bombing her. It had been two hours of her blood clone wandering around with no sign of any enemies. Srey was in her class and hadn’t yet sent her the message that anyone had been watching them. So they shouldn’t know that she was in two places at once. But a demon hunter might have methods of telling her clone apart from her real self.
Alternatively, the hunter was watching her clone and was trying to figure out just how the ambush was going to go down.
There wasn’t an ambush, but the hunter wouldn’t know that.
Unfortunately, if the hunter never showed herself, Eva’s plan would die before it could get off the ground.
“So,” Juliana said, leaning over to whisper into Eva’s ear, “how is it going?”
“Same as last class,” Eva said, voice slightly strained. Arachne was with her as well, but Arachne was actually doing as Eva had asked and hadn’t spoken a single word. The only thing she had done was to help her get to class. “It’s just wandering around as I ordered.”
Juliana opened her mouth to say something else, but a glare from Professor Lepus stopped her cold.
“Miss Rivas. You are new to this class. However, I’ve heard you are something of a prodigy. As such, I will not complain if you have managed to finish constructing your ward.”
With a wince, Juliana glanced down at her desk and the jar of live flies. They buzzed around within the jar, searching for an escape route. Professor Lepus gave them one. She reached down and unclasped the lid.
The three flies took to the air and flew off into the room.
“Your ward,” Professor Lepus said, watching the flies zoom through the room, “it doesn’t seem complete. It allowed me through, but also allowed the flies through.” She took her gaze off the flies and turned back to Juliana. “Or perhaps there was no ward around your jar at all.”
Pulling out her wand, Lepus tapped the jar. All three flies flew straight back inside. She capped the lid back on before they could escape a second time.
“Might I suggest working on your ward rather than speaking.” Turning to Eva, the professor smiled. “And how is yours coming along?”
“I wouldn’t be ready to test it just yet, Professor,” Eva said without a hint of shame.
“Then I suggest you work as well.”
Eva gave a shallow nod as the professor walked off to inspect another student’s ward. Closing her eyes in apparent concentration, she tried to tune out as much of the classroom as possible and focus only on the clone’s senses. So far, she hadn’t even tried to make a ward. She just didn’t have the mental fortitude at the moment.
“Kind of strict, isn’t she?”
“Just doing her job.”
“What if I was asking a real question. Like, I’m still a little fuzzy on how exactly to form the outer magic shell.”
“Are you actually asking? I thought your mother caught you up on the basics of warding? That’s like the very basic of the basics.”
“Well, she did. But her method of explaining is less teaching and more demonstration. Something that doesn’t help so much when you can’t visually see a ward.”
“Ah, well, you might have to ask Professor Lepus. I could explain, but I’ve got a bit too much of a headache at the moment. There–”
Eva cut herself off, staring through her clone’s eyes. A dark shadow moved overhead. Her simulacrum, ordered to look at anything suspicious as she wandered around, didn’t even get to look up. A brief spike of pain preceded all her secondary senses being cut off.
“Are you alright?” Juliana whispered again.
“Fine. I’m… not sure what happened though. I think my body was destroyed. Other body.”
“Obviously,” Juliana said with a roll of her eyes. “How was it destroyed?”
“Not sure. Saw a shadow then a split second later, nothing.”
“Is it the hunter?” Arachne said, leaning close so she could whisper without disturbing the class.
Eva, not wanting to draw Professor Lepus’ ire, merely nodded and proceeded to cast a small ward around her jar of flies. As she constructed the layers she would need, she thought. The hunter would be completely willing to instantly obliterate Eva should the opportunity present itself. At least, based on the what Eva knew of her so far. She might have wanted to torture her, but maybe had decided that Eva was just too dangerous of a target.
Assuming the hunter had even attacked her clone. Something about the situation felt off. The hunter had used the white beam from the sky before, so maybe she had found a shadow beam.
But…
Eva shook her head. Ten minutes until class ended. She would be able to call Nel. The augur was supposed to have been watching.
Just as soon as she considered Nel, her phone buzzed in her pocket.
Which meant something bad. Nel would know that she was in the middle of class. Even had Eva not told her, she almost undoubtedly would have spied in on the real Eva after seeing the clone fall. So something must have happened that needed an immediate call.
“Eva,” Professor Lepus said, sweeping back to Eva’s table. “Was that a phone I heard?”
“Ah, just a slight personal emergency. I can take the call in the hallway–”
Both paused and glanced upwards to the overhead speakers as they crackled to life.
“Dean Anderson has issued a warning code four.” The voice of the new secretary came over the announcement system loud and clear. “All professors are to keep their students in their classrooms and remain there until the all clear is sounded. At no point is any student to leave the main building. Security groups one to three are to get geared and report to the guard room for further orders.”
Eva merely frowned as the speakers clicked off. However, at her side, Juliana actually jumped. The blood drained from her face as she snapped an accusatory gaze over to Eva.
“I didn’t do anything,” Eva said, holding her hands up to shoulder level.
“Last time I heard that kind of message was the day Shalise and I got trapped in Hell,” she hissed, leaning towards Eva.
“Like I said, wasn’t me.”
Professor Lepus sighed, breaking her gaze off Eva and Juliana. “Constant interruptions. How am I supposed to teach with all this nonsense going on? Well,” she said, raising her voice for the whole class. “As long as we have been told to stay here, we may as well finish our lesson. Has anyone managed to properly construct their insect ward?”
After sending a few nervous glances around, a handful of students raised their hands. Eva didn’t. She waited for Professor Lepus to move off to one of the students before pulling out her cellphone. Nel had called and apparently left a voice message. Eva quickly put the phone to her ear.