The demon’s presence hovered and paced in the back of Emilia’s mind. This had not gone as it was supposed to. She danced from foot to foot as she waited outside of Max’s door. Her first knock had been tentative, quiet. But by the third knock, she’d grown desperate so she banged on his door loud enough that she worried Cynthia would awaken in Emilia’s room.

No matter what happened, if Cynthia woke up there, Emilia would be in incredible trouble.

Max’s door flew open without warning. “What the actual fuck, Em?” He rubbed sleep out of droopy eyes. Wearing nothing but plaid green boxer shorts, Emilia could see why she’d been so attracted to Max years ago. His body had remained whip-cord thin and well muscled.

That wasn’t why she was there. “Cynthia is knocked out in my room and I need your help now!”

To his credit, Max only blinked at Emilia once before he nodded, shut the door and re-emerged with his robe on. It was technically an improvement, because at least Emilia could ignore his body now.

And if Cynthia woke up to find Max wandering the halls in his underwear, the evening might actually get worse.

What could get worse than Cynthia waking up to find herself brained in my bed room with her summoning supplies and robes there?

Nothing, really. Max’s state of undress, one way or the other, would be like spitting into a hurricane, it wouldn’t add anything one way or another in terms of how wet Emilia ended up getting. In this case, wet translated to dead.

“Jesus Em.” Max held his hand out to the supine form of their cruel guardian. “You finally get tired of her? I mean I’m not complaining, but maybe we should just slit her throat.”

“Shut up and help me carry her to her room!” Emilia grabbed Cynthia’s legs and pointed from Max to Cynthia’s head. “Get her head.”

“Seriously though, is she still alive?”

“Please Max, we don’t want her waking up in here.”

Max shook his head as he muttered, “you don’t want her waking up in here, you mean.” But he didn’t keep complaining or asking irrelevant questions. Instead, he picked up Cynthia by her arms and helped Emilia carry her into the matron’s own bedroom.

It smelled as musty with old people funk tonight as it had when Emilia had stolen the gear in the first place. She hated the sight of this room. The moment her hatred rose in her heart, she felt the intensity of the connection between herself and the demon grow stronger. Emilia didn’t know what the demon was doing at that exact moment, but she could sense her presence up in the north somewhere.

Hopefully she wasn’t hurting anyone while Emilia struggled to dump her godmother’s body in her bed.

“Can you clean this up for me?” Emilia begged Max for his help and he eyed her dubiously.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the next great magical hope?”

“Yeah yeah, please just do your thing before she wakes up?”

Max waved Emilia off and they walked briskly back to her bedroom. After Emilia returned the robe and summoning gear in the original folded bundle shape, Max tapped the walls and bit his inner lip. He’d didn’t flinch when he did it, but Emilia did on his behalf. Dipping his finger into his mouth, Max mumbled words Emilia couldn’t understand and the blood vanished from where Cynthia’s head had smacked into it. The dent poked itself out while the other cracks sealed themselves up.

“Man Max, that is so handy!” Emilia held her hands behind her back and swayed to and fro as he finished up.

“Yeah yeah, flattery and all that.” He walked back down to Cynthia’s room. “Stay there. If she wakes up during this and finds both of us in her room, we’re screwed.”

Emilia fluttered her eyelashes at Max and scrambled out of her room the moment he walked out of the room and down toward Cynthia’s. With his power, he could heal the old woman. Ideally, he’d heal her just enough to keep her from waking up and shouting them down. Or worse.

If she found Emilia downstairs stocking, or better yet, doing her exercises, maybe Cynthia’s rage might be muted a bit. That could ward off some of the potential pain.

“Hey Bets, what’s the haps?” Emilia tried to make her voice upbeat as she skipped down the stairs. The scene that greeted her toned down her ebullience at a glance. Two police officers huddled around the front of the store while three of their regulars wept big tears and pointed down the street. Emilia had a bad feeling about this.

Betsy’s plastic grin and the way her eyes darted to the door sent a chill through Emilia’s soul. “Hey Emy.” Betsy grabbed Emilia’s arm and pulled her back to the employee’s only door from whence Emilia had come. “Your new girlfriend tore through this place and then beat the shit out of the Emo Triplets.”

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So many parts of that sentence failed to pass muster in Emilia’s brain that she just stared at Betsy blankly. After a few seconds she finally managed to form a question. “Girlfriend?”

Betsy made a motion over her chest. “Busty, hot as a short supermodel, came down from your room covered in your scent. Blonde?”

“Oh shit.”

“Oh shit’s right, sister.” Betsy winked at Emilia. “You owe me details. It’s about goddamned time you got over my stupid dick for brains brother.”

Emilia blinked at Betsy several times and finally understood her. “No, that’s not… I mean. Shit Betsy. That girl was a demon I summoned.”

Betsy’s jaw dropped open. “You finally did it! And you got some tail in the process? Man Olren, color me impressed!”

“What? No! There was no sex…” Emilia would have covered her face if she could. “I summoned her to deal with… never mind. What did she do to the Triplets?”

“Wailed on poor little spoiled Henry. Gloria looked like she was going to throw up. It was awesome!”

“But the cops are here?” Emilia felt like she was going to throw up right then.

“Yeah, they’re just collecting statements and stuff.” Betsy patted Emilia on the arm. “I already made sure the security tapes were properly mangled, so there’s nothing you have to worry about on that side.”

“Um, good. Thanks?”

Betsy shrugged. “I thought she was schtooping you, so it was the obvious thing to do.”

In different circumstances, Emilia might have hugged Betsy. But right then, trying to figure everything that had happened out, Emilia just stood there in shock.

“Emilia Olren!” A voice from the top of the stares made Emilia and Betsy jump at it harsh tones. Cynthia Olren stood with the upper door opened, looking down at Emilia furiously. “I need to speak to you, now.”

Nothing about the ice in her tone invited question or offered Emilia a moment to do anything but comply. “Yes ma’am.”

Max opened his door as they walked by. “What’s going on guys?” He rubbed sleep out of his eyes just like the first time Emilia woke him up. She wished she had Max or Betsy’s knack for acting or just for lying in general.

“In here, young lady.” Cynthia pointed to the ragged carpet of her own musty room. Her heels came together like some kind of bell or drum sounding the first part of a funeral dirge. Closing the door behind her, Cynthia opened the drawer that contained her robes and summoning gear. At the sight of the gear atop the robes, Emilia swore under her breath. Taking that reaction as confirmation of Emilia’s guilt, Cything snapped at her. “What were you doing with my magical equipment?”

“Trying to summon a demon who would take me away from here.” That was ninety-percent true. Emilia had found that sticking with the truth, or as close to the truth as possible with Cynthia would minimize the pain.

“And did you succeed?”

Emilia was exhausted. In a way, she had succeeded. Just not in the way she’d intended. “If I had, would I still be here?”

Cynthia raised the corner of her lip in a snarl. She curled her fingers into the shapes of a claw and Emilia braced herself for the inevitable. As she expected, the pain came quick and right in the center of her back. Arching her shoulders and tying to curl into a ball didn’t help, but Emilia found herself rolled into that ball as the bright, magical agony faded. She’d stopped wetting herself during this punishment years ago, but that did little to dull the bright pain Cynthia’s magic wracked through Emilia’s body.

“If you’d succeeded, perhaps I wouldn’t have to employ these methods.” Cynthia clicked her tongue at Emilia, who tasted her own blood in her mouth. Most likely, Emilia had bit her lip or tongue at some point during Cynthia’s bout of torture.

“Yeah, because I wouldn’t be here anymore.” Emilia swallowed and shook her head. Antagonizing Cynthia during these punishments was never a good idea, but she’d almost gone too far and said “…because you wouldn’t be here…” If Emilia had slipped up like that, she’d been in for more punishment while Cynthia extracted the full truth from her.

But instead of continuing her torment, Cynthia waved Emilia off. “My head hurts, and since you’re useless with that, go away. Send Max back to my room when you pass him eavesdropping in the hallway.”

Emilia let Cynthia see the sigh and full-body tension release in her shoulders. If Cynthia noticed, she didn’t react. Hopping to before Cynthia grew impatient, Emilia shot out of the door and into the hall.

“The wicked witch wants you.” Emilia tried to smile when she said it.

But Max pointed at her and narrowed his eyes in the way that said he wasn’t amused. “You owe me, Olren.” He turned back to Cynthia’s door, shifting his face into a placid smile as he did. “Cynthia, I’m coming in, okay?”

“Enter.” The flat response from within the dragon’s lair sent shivers through Emilia’s back.

Back downstairs, the police were wrapping up their business. They looked as though they were about to leave any moment. The Emo Triplets stood at the counter with Betsy fawning over them. As Emilia walked up, Gloria curtsied at Betsy. “…change you mind, stop by our manse sometime. You’re always welcome.”

Betsy blinked rapidly and leaned her whole body to the right. “Oh, I’m just so flattered. Thank you Gloria! But I’m busy with work and school. You know how it is.”

Gloria harrumphed as she nearly collided with Emilia, who stood there unspeaking and staring at Betsy’s performance. Both of the Triplet boys glared at Emilia as they brushed by her. Once they, and the cops, were out of the store, Emilia closed with Betsy. “She’d leave you alone if you dressed a little…”

Betsy rolled her eyes and said, “a little less gay? Thanks Emy. But I can handle Gloria just fine. I’ve told her I don’t play for your team and I don’t switch hit, but that doesn’t really matter to her.”

“Oh, that sucks. You never told me…”

“Enough about my stupid problems! You summoned a…” Betsy glanced to the employee-only door and and lowered her voice. “You first demon. And who darling was she a little hottie!” Betsy raised her hand. “Gimme five! Come on, Emy!”

“This is just about your brother, isn’t it?”

Betsy shrugged. “Max isn’t good enough for you, even if he’s capable of not being a dick occasionally. But yes, I can be happy that my bestie is finally done lying to herself about her… interests.”

“I told you, I’m not into Max anymore. And I thought I told you…” Emilia lowered her voice with a flick of her gaze toward the upstairs door. “I didn’t mean to summon that specific demon.”

“Wait, you messed up the summons?” Like a new bit of base coding had been uploaded to Betsy’s brain, she switched over to noting but business. “Tell me what happened.”