“How long are you just going to make us sit around doing nothing?” Silvertide demanded, his normally calm eyes burning with poorly restrained fury. The elderly soldier drove his staff into the dirt at his feet to punctuate his words. “Are you going to wait until the children are dead, Jalen?”

The tension within the small clearing in the mushroom forest was high. A number of teachers that most certainly should not have been present at the exam stood in a group, staring at a small, three-dimensional recreation of a section of the forest made from stands of twisting purple magic that floated above Jalen’s hand.

Even without detail, it was easy to make out the forms of the students squaring up against Jakob.

“Silvertide is right,” Brayden said. His knuckles were white around the hilt of the huge sword at his back and he shifted from foot to foot. If it had been anyone but Jalen standing in his path, he would have already acted — and he was starting to consider disobeying even the head of his own family. “Your games are going to get them killed. I promised Vermil that I’d protect his students.”

“You didn’t promise him shit. He fucked off to the Damned Plains before you could,” Jalen replied, examining his nails. He blew out a short breath and shook his head. “Nobody is moving anywhere. We will not be budging from this location.”

“Jalen, I think you might be taking things too far,” Bird said as she took a step toward the Linwick Family’s head. “I don’t have the tie any of you do to those kids, but Jakob is cheating. We should be notifying the proctor and stopping the exam. They can’t beat Jakob — and he’s clearly using artifacts to strengthen himself. This isn’t a fair fight in any stretch of the imagination.”

“I’m not taking advice from someone that starts stripping at the first sign of trouble,” Jalen said, placing a finger on Bird’s forehead and pushing her back the step she’d just taken. “But look at you, actually growing a backbone. Cute. Maybe we’ll keep you around.”

“I — what?”

“Ignore him,” Silvertide growled. “Jalen, I’m not playing around any longer. I spent far too many years standing to the side and ignorant of those kids’ plight. That will not happen again. I will not stand around while they are cut down.”

“Nor will I,” Brayden said. He glanced at Bird out of the corners of his eyes. She blew out a heavy sigh.

“Or I,” Bird said.

“Damned Plains, you’re all so cute,” Jalen said through a bark of laughter. He reached into his pocket. “I’d say I’m offended that you think so poorly of me. Do you really think that I’d be doing absolutely nothing purely because I thought it would be entertaining?”

“Yes,” every single other person in the clearing said.

Jalen winced. “Perhaps I deserved that. But I can assure you — this is not without reason. I would have stepped in long ago myself if not for this.”

He pulled a folded piece of paper free from his pocket and flipped it open with a finger. A single sentence had been cut into the paper with the tip of what seemed to have been a small claw.

Do not interfere.

“What is this?” Brayden asked, his brow furrowing in confusion. “A threat? From Jakob or Verrud?”

“No,” Jalen replied, his voice going grim. “From the fucking cat.”

And that was when Jakob’s arm, seemingly of its own volition, flew off his body.

***

Jakob staggered backward, his face as pale as a sheet. Blood coursed from the stump of his shoulder and soaked into his clothes as it poured down the side of his body.

“What are you? A demon?” Jakob demanded, flicking his other hand. A root burst free from the ground and shot for the abomination’s throat.

The warped monster twitched. It carved through the professor’s magic without so much as glancing in its direction. A raspy laugh ground out from its mangled throat.

“A demon?” The abomination lurched forward, dragging itself forward at a terrifying speed with its gangly hands before slamming a palm into Jakob’s chest.

Jakob’s legs buckled beneath the strength of the blow. It slammed him into the ground with a loud crunch, and several of his bones cracked under the monstrosity’s palm as it pressed down on him, claws tightening around the professor’s body.

“No, professor,” the abomination said, its words scraping against the air like nails on a chalkboard. The ghastly, wide-toothed grin on its face stretched even wider. “I am so much more than that. More than you could ever comprehend.”

It lifted Jakob into the air. The man writhed in the monster’s grip. He flexed his remaining hand like he was trying to call on his runes, but nothing happened. The professor wheezed, even more of the blood draining from his face as his legs kicked helplessly.

“What is this?” he wheezed. “What are you doing to my magic?”

“Taking it,” the abomination replied, shifting its voice to match Jakob’s wheezing tone. “You lack flavor, professor. You are hardly worth the effort my master spent sending me here. I no longer feast on fear, but I suspect that I would make an exception for you.”

“You are a demon,” Jakob forced out. “You’ll never make it out of this forest. You and your master—”

A laugh ripped through the clearing, and the rest of Jakob’s sentence vanished in a pained cry as the abomination’s hand tightened around his body, cracking his bones and ripping deep into his flesh.

“You don’t even realize your situation,” the vile monstrosity said. “Are you so scared that you speak to yourself, Jakob? Who will save you from the empty air?”

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Its grip loosened and Jakob dropped to the ground in a crumple. He groaned in pain and forced himself upward — only to find nearly every one of the students staring at him in confusion.

Jakob and Isabel realized what the abomination meant at the exact same time. Nobody else could see the monster. It was invisible to all but Jakob and Isabel’s eyes — and it didn’t seem that the monster even realized that Isabel was among the number of the enlightened.

“Verrud! Help me!” Jakob screamed. “The girl has—”

There was a wet crunch as the monster drove its fist through Jakob’s stomach, shattering his ribcage and tearing through his internal organs. It ripped its hand free. Blood dripped from its fingers. It flicked its hand, splattering viscera across the ground.

Twisting rivers of magical energy rose up from Jakob’s body and spun into the monster’s palm. It let out a satisfied sigh as Jakob wheezed, still gasping and begging for help.

Isabel swallowed heavily. She could still taste her own blood in her mouth. Something soft butted into her thigh. She glanced down at Mascot, who padded back over to the book before her and pawed at its pages.

Upon its surface was a circle of Runes. It wasn’t a pattern she recognized, but something about the runes almost felt vaguely familiar.

“Verrud!” Jakob screamed again. “We had a deal!”

Mascot pawed the runes on the page again. He sent a pointed look up at Isabel, then flicked her with his tail.

“What is it?” Isabel asked, wiping her mouth with the back of a sleeve. “What am I supposed to do?”

She could have sworn the cat squinted at her. Mascot planted a paw in the center of the page. Across the clearing, Jakob screamed again as the aberration lifted him into the air and shook his body around like a child’s doll. Blood sprayed from the professor’s body and splattered across the ground as his cries grew weaker.

Mascot wants me to touch the rune circle? Why?

Isabel reached for the page.

A loud crash roared through the clearing. Isabel’s eyes snapped up as a huge waterfall slammed down on Jakob and the abomination, driving them both to the ground. The blood in her veins froze as Verrud emerged from the side of the clearing, his features etched in fury and hand outstretched.

“What in the Damned Plains is going on?” Verrud snarled. He ripped a healing potion from his waist and hurled it at Jakob.

It struck the other professor in the side and shattered, coating him with glowing red liquid. Energy shimmered as his wounds started to knit themselves shut.

“Ah,” the abomination said. “There we are. I had to slow down. It was getting difficult to rip the power from your body. Humans are so fragile.”

The abomination rose back to its full height — and the professor’s eyes widened. He might not have been able to see the monster, but he could certainly see the water dripping from its form.

“What is that?” Verrud demanded, horror twisting his features.

“We need to run!” Jakob yelled. “It’s a demon! An invisible—”

The abomination drove its hand back into Jakob’s stomach and he let out a scream of pain. Verrud thrust his hands forward and water ripped itself from the air, slicing into the abomination in a hail of razor-sharp blades.

They cut through the monster’s black, twisted flesh and it collapsed into a pile of oozing pieces and shadow — only to start pulling itself back together a moment later. Jakob dragged himself backward and lifted a hand.

His fingers trembled, but no plants arose from the ground. A trickle of blood ran down from his nose.

“What is this?” Jakob demanded, his voice weak. “What have you done?”

“Ah,” the abomination said as it finished reforming in its entirety. “How disappointing. That was all you had?”

“Who are you talking to?” Verrud demanded, sending another wave of slicing water in the abomination’s direction. The monster twitched out of the way, only taking a few glancing blows. “The demon?”

“Where are my runes?” Jakob screamed.

“Thank you for the meal,” the abomination said through a raspy laugh. It lifted a hand, and seven flickering green runes twisted through the air above its fingertips before vanishing once more. “It’s a shame we won’t get to spend more time together, professor. My energy runs thin.”

The monstrosity turned toward Isabel. For a brief instant, its empty, eyeless gaze was directed right at her. Its smile grew wider. The monster knew she could see it.

Isabel’s blood ran cold and her hands went clammy.

Then the creature collapsed, transforming into a stream of energy that flooded back into the pages of the grimoire.

“Jakob!” Verrud roared. “Snap out of it. Tell me where the monster is!”

“It — it’s gone,” Jakob stammered, staring at his palms in disbelief. “I… my magic. Where—”

“Stop yammering, you idiot,” Verrud snarled. He spun toward Isabel. Magic twisted into a spinning disk above his palm. “You had one job. Kill a worthless, blacklisted girl. How did you fail so badly?”

Oh, no. We can’t beat him. Not like this. Where’s the monster? Come back!

“They were stronger than I—”

“Oh, shut up,” Verrud said. “Incompetent idiot. I should have known better to work with a second-rate family. I’ll deal with this myself.”

Todd staggered to his feet, his teeth gritted. Emily and James dragged themselves up as well, and Alexandra and Yulin both moved before Isabel as well.

“You’ll have to get through all of us,” Alexandra said, lifting her sword. She was tired — they all were — but none of them were out of the fight.

“Trust me,” Verrud said, the disk of water in his palm splitting into six, “that will not be a problem. I’ve been waiting to do this for quite some time.”

We can’t win. I don’t even know how strong Verrud is, but he’s more powerful than Jakob. He’s probably a Rank 5. This is so fucking unfair. I can’t let everyone die for me.

Isabel opened her mouth to tell the others to run—

Mascot batted her in the nose. He sent a furious glare at the page before her, then whacked it with his tail.

Isabel slapped her palm against the center of the rune circle. She felt a faint prickle as the grimoire pulled at the tiny sliver of magic that she had left, and she gave it freely.

A ripple of magic pulsed out from the grimoire. It ripped past Isabel and rolled across the ground, passing by all of the students and washing over Verrud. A crackle split the air and the professor’s eyes went wide.

“What have you done?” Verrud. Horror twisted his features and he took a step back, his face going several shades paler. “Idiot girl.”

Arcs of electric crimson energy screamed out from the grimoire and rose into the air. They twisted into a horizontal portal directly above the grimoire’s pages. Waves of power pulsed off the disk of energy, each one coming stronger than the last.

A flicker of smug satisfaction passed through Mascot’s eyes.

“Gods above,” James breathed, staring at the grimoire as fear gripped his features. “That amount of energy… everyone, run! Now!”

“Why?” Alexandra asked. “What did she do?”

“It’s far too late to run,” Verrud breathed, ripping even more energy from the air. An ocean of water twisted into the sky above him as he readied an attack. “She’s killed us all. The fool summoned an Archdemon.”

Rivers of purple lightning ripped out from within the portal and scorched the ground around the grimoire as a glowing figure rose up from within the portal, details twisting themselves into place as the energy took physical form.

Isabel’s mouth dropped open in disbelief as a familiar shape took form in the air before her.

“Wrong, you slimy piece of shit,” Noah growled as his form materialized in the mortal plane. He stepped down from the portal and cracked his neck. “She summoned me.”