AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She held her hand up to stop me. “I understand what you’re doing here, Nadine… and I want to help. The priestesses have taken more from me than you’ll ever know.”
She kept an even tone, but I saw the pain behind her eyes. “They hung my sister, and they provided me with no support when my son died. I’d sooner die than let this injustice continue. No one deserves a death like Nicole’s.”
Her sister’s name sent chills down my spine. I quickly gathered my composure. “This means a lot, Headmistress, and we’d love to have your help. There’s a lot to catch you up on.”
“Then by all means, let’s get started,” she suggested.
“We should talk in private,” Lucas said, gesturing her through our ward.
The three of us stepped into the hall with our cats, where we couldn’t be overheard. Isa huddled next to Oliver. Verla passed through the ward easily, accepting her as a member of The Coven’s Shield. The alarm had stopped going off, now that Verla wasn’t trying to break through it.
“There’s a demon inside the school,” I started, and the confessions spilled out from there. Lucas and I told Verla everything. By the time we finished, she had her finger to her chin.
“I knew something was off about Professor Leto when we hired him, though I didn’t know how to prove it,” she said. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?”
“I thought you’d stop us,” I admitted. “This is all so dangerous, and I thought you’d want me to stay out of danger because you care too much.”
“I do care about you, Nadine,” she insisted. “Far more than any headmistress has the right to care about her students. But doing nothing would be dangerous, too. You’re a priestess, and you’re doing the right thing.”
“I want to do right by the coven,” I said. “Do you know anything about demon spells and how to stop him?”
“There are so many ways demons manipulate contracts,” Verla said. “Without knowing the terms of his contracts, we can’t know how the spell works or how to break it. There may be a way I can help against the priestesses, though. If I can brew a potion to take away their magic, they’d lose their power and be forced to step down. If they’re left vulnerable, they could be persuaded to break their contract with the demon.”
“I’ve never heard of a potion like that,” Lucas said. “Is it even possible?”
“We never thought the Waning was possible until now,” Verla pointed out. “If the Waning is possible, so is this. I believe Nadine and I could brew such a potion if we combine our powers. Her Curse Breaker powers could take theirs away.”
I didn’t like this.
“Whether it’s possible isn’t the question,” I argued. “We could be caught, and by Miriamic law, we’d suffer far greater than a hanging.”
“I’m well versed in Miriamic law,” Verla said. “I have a law degree myself. However, we’re in the perfect position to blame it on the Waning.”
“And still, we’re stooping to the priestesses’ level,” I replied. “If we’re controlling who has magic and who doesn’t, we’re no better than them.”
“This is war, Nadine,” Verla pressed. “I hope you’re prepared to have your morals challenged, or you will not win.”
I shook my head. That couldn’t be the only answer. “I believe we can win in our own way. I won’t become like the other priestesses.”
Verla sighed. “If that’s the way you want to do it, I can’t force you to brew this potion. But think about your decision carefully. I know you don’t wish for people to die, and we may have to make tough decisions to prevent that.”
“We’ll find another way.” I had to believe that.
“I will be on your side for all of it, but choose wisely,” Verla said. “Because if this demon is allowed to run rampant, there’s no telling who will be alive by the end of it.”
CHAPTER 5
LUCAS
Verla could prove useful to The Coven’s Shield, but not until we all got on the same page. Nadine didn’t want to become like the priestesses. I didn’t, either. Verla seemed to think we had to in order to defeat them. We’d talked about making tough decisions, and this was going to be one of the hardest of all. Stick to our morals, or defy them for the greater good? Those couldn’t be our only two options.
My stomach churned as I sat in the back of my Advanced Mortana Magic class on Monday, trying not to hurl. Professor Leto projected gruesome pictures onto a screen at the front of the room and lectured on how necromancers could use various body parts as weapons. He described using intestines as ropes to suffocate enemies, as well as other gruesome descriptions. He believed that the more death you saw on the battlefield, the stronger you were. He had a real fascination with reanimating the dead. I didn’t think he could do it himself, but he sure found joy in necromancy.
It wasn’t the photos that bothered me, though. It was him. It made me sick knowing there was a murderous demon roaming these halls, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop him.
Even with Verla on our side, he was untouchable. She couldn’t fire him, not when the rest of the school board had a say. And most of them had their heads so far up the priestesses’ asses that they couldn’t see daylight. He wasn’t going anywhere.
We hadn’t figured out how he’d been vanquished in the past, either, so that wasn’t helpful.
