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He nodded. “Yes. You were right. I was scared, and I was unwilling to accept the truth. I don’t believe a thing they’ve written about you in the Miriamic Messenger. We have to fight this.”
Professor Warren would never know how relieving it was to hear him say that. He’d been like a father to me since my Freshman year of college, and Verla had been a bit like a mother to Nadine after her own mom died. Having both of them on our side felt crucial. It was like The Coven’s Shield wasn’t complete without them.
“That means a lot to hear, Professor,” I said. “I accept your apology.”
“I’m here to help in any way I can,” he offered.
“Then perhaps you can help us understand what we’re up against,” I suggested. “Do you know anything about demons?”
“A bit, though Professor Daniels was the expert on demons.”
And she was dead. Stella had framed her for murder, and the priestesses had hanged her.
“I know there are many different types, and that their powers differ,” Professor Warren said.
“We know Professor Leto is a Nex demon,” I told him. “How strong does that make him?”
“From my understanding, that would make him a lower form of demon,” Warren explained. “Unless he came across some other power source, he wouldn’t be able to access the full extent of demon abilities. He wouldn’t possess the ability to control spirits or compel a person like more powerful demons could, for example. He might have some level of torture magic and teleportation, but his powers would still be limited by his classification.”
“What do you know about demon contracts?” I questioned.
“Demon contracts are tricky, and that’s why the coven no longer works with them,” Professor Warren explained. “To enter a demon contract, you must be a willing participant, but that doesn’t always mean what we think it means. To a demon, it may simply mean taking an action that he interprets as consent.”
“With the right wording, you can be tricked into a contract?” I asked.
“Yes. They use similar tricks as the fae.”
“So all he’d have to do is ask someone if they ever thought of death, and if they said yes, he’d interpret that to mean they want to die? Contract made. You’re marked for death.”
“That’s my understanding,” Warren said.
“How would he handle that with the priestesses? They summoned him, so they had every intent of singing a contract.”
“When a witch summons a demon, they’re the one in control for the time being,” Warren explained. “They have the power to send the demon back to the Abyss until a contract is signed. I’m certain the priestesses did whatever they could to word the contract in their favor. The demon would be willing to sign it in order to bind himself on Earth. It makes banishment next to impossible, unless the contract is broken. Even then, banishing him would require a strong enough spell.”
“How do you break a demon contract?” I asked.
“Demon contracts are all about consent,” Warren said. “To break a contract that the priestesses made, one of them would have to withdraw their consent. That must be followed up with spellwork to banish him. Otherwise, he will enact revenge. The spellwork becomes more complicated the stronger a demon becomes. Most witches die before they’re able to complete the banishment spell, because they’ve broken the contract that was protecting them from the demon in the first place.”
I sighed. “The priestesses won’t break the contract.”
“Remember that demons have twisted ways of establishing consent, though,” Warren said.
“So we could trick the priestesses into breaking it?” I wondered. “Or we could trick the demon.”
“It’s possible, but you’d need to know the original terms of the contract.”
“There’s no way to get our hands on that, though.” I contemplated it all for a moment. “What about his victims? Can they withdraw their consent to die?”
“That should be the case, but they may not entirely know what they’re consenting to.”
“Could you look into this deeper, Professor?” I asked. “There’s got to be a way to banish him.”
“I’ll see what I can find,” Warren said. “In the meantime, there’s something else I wanted to discuss.”
He drew a stack of papers out of a drawer and handed them to me. I furrowed my brow as I scanned the front page. It was an application of some sort.
“What’s this?” I asked.
