Page 28 of Fatality on the Field

* Open this book and reveal the combined evil within. I command the spirits of the dead, the dying, and the inbetween to heed my call!

* Enough! The magic will yield or the dead. shall. rise!

* This is a trick; he says it is meant to harm us.

seventeen

MORGANA

“Uh, maybe you could share with the rest of us what happened?” I give the big man a hopeful smile, despite the fact that I’d like people to get to the damn point with a much greater frequency than they do in Hell.

I’m technically an uninvited guest in the realm, though, so I can’t really complain about their manners.

“Indeed, Morgana,” Arces says as he looks at the vexed looking half-shifted bird man and the prowling feline. “The young Aldaric over there took longer than anyone I’ve seen yet to find his familiar. It has to be a record, but perhaps my new pupil helped him unlock that potential, eh? It wouldn’t surprise me; no, not at all!”

Now the entire gang of demons and supes are looking at one another with slack-jawed surprise. I guess the demons my friend is dancing with didn’t think they could draw one? Demon lore is very bizarre, I’m finding out, and while we do stupid shit on the surface, they have their own quirky idiocies down here. I’ve never heard of ruling out the possibility of drawing a familiar in our realm; anyone or any species has the possibility of finding one or occasionally more. But the flabbergasted behavior of our hosts and The Keeper’s remark indicates that demons definitely do not believe that to be the case.

“Uh, so like… why can’t we see it?” Lucas asks as he scratches his head. “Or is that just me?”

The Prince stalks closer, his dragon eyes sliding over the area where the lioness and his caliphate brother are standing. There’s nothing there as far as I can see, so I’m in agreement with my bear. Jasper’s tail whips back and forth in agitation as he turns back to face Arces. “No, I can’t see it either. Is it a species that can turn invisible? That would be quite useful in the future and possibly mitigate the inconvenience of this discovery.”

CatKat lets out a rumbling growl at the snarky royal, and I wait to see who stops the dumbass from provoking her again. This time, it’s the panda and he looks at his leader with an annoyed sigh. “Don’t be mean about familiars. You know it’s not an inconvenience, Jas. Finding one, especially this late in the game, is a gift and even if Annie is freaking the fuck out, you know that he’ll eventually be deeply honored.”

“I suppose that depends on what it is,” Kaspar drawls as he gives the demon dragon another reproachful look. “Something difficult to manage may feel more like a curse until you learn the ropes with the new companion. However, your Keeper would assist with that, I take it?”

What he’s not saying is that unlike Anton with whatever he’s been claimed by—there’s no one here to coach Kat on her shifting who knows what they’re doing, which is why she’s struggling.

I don’t know if his somewhat stealthy message will get through to the demon prince or not, but I hope it does. Kaspar has spent a long time focusing on Liam, and healing from their rift may be even easier if he has a hobby like helping my friend to keep him busy. No one likes to feel useless and Li is powerful enough to almost not need a bodyguard. At least, that’s what I think, but I admit I don’t know enough about Fae politics to make an accurate assessment of how many assassins there could be lurking.

“Someone better tell us what your buddy found, or I’m going to have a temper tantrum,” Li drawls as he stares at the demons. “The suspense is killing me.”

“By that he means princes get cranky when they don’t get what they want,” Kaspar mutters with a smirk. “But he’s not wrong about it being irritating.”

Arces walks over to CatKat, patting her on the head absently as he moves in between the shifted girl and the panicking bird demon. “Aye, now, Aldaric. I know ye have some little quirks, and this isn’t something ye expected to happen, but ye have to shift back so we can do the thing. No one will be able to see your new friend if ye don’t complete the ritual.”

I frown, tilting my head as I ask, “Not that I’m sure, but I have to ask. If Kat was alone in the human world before she came here…”

“Yes?” Salem says curiously. “That’s right.”

“Well, if she was alone and showed up with her little bear gal, how did it become visible if this dude says they have to do a ritual? I assume you all could see Dottie when Kat arrived, since no one has mentioned the invisible pet.” My gaze moves to Arces and then back to run over the other demons quizzically. “It’s a fair question, right?”

Jasper frowns, his eyes dark as he agrees. “It is, Morgana. And I’d like to know as well, because everything we were told says our newest member knew nothing of this world before arriving. The story was that the animal appeared one night soon before Dank was sent to fetch the late admission. Our headmaster would normally dispatch that old fart in admissions to do it, but Horatio was otherwise occupied that evening.”

“Do you think that was on purpose? Can’t be,” Salem says as he scratches his chin. “The dude never leaves the school, much less the realm.”

“But many demons do leave the school and Hell for various purposes,” Arces says with a thoughtful expression. “Just because I was denied does not mean someone, somewhere did not have a watcher on our new student. Perhaps that is even tied to her late invitation, yes?”

That’s a lot of rampant speculation, but it sounds plausible, I suppose.

“We don’t have to answer my question today,” I say with a shrug. “But you should figure out how she was able to take Dottie from whatever step this invisible thing is to the one that is going to let us all see what’s wigging your peacock guy out. Because it sounds like you all agree that it has to happen and yet Kat had no one present to do it—to her knowledge.”

“Right. Put that on the list—Shit.” The prince runs his hand through his hair and I have to hold back a laugh when it becomes obvious he would normally ask the squawking bird man to do that task. “Salem, please?”

The panda snorts, obviously unused to this duty. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and slowly types something in with an intense expression of concentration. “No problem, Jas.”

Now that we’ve taken care of that, I’d really like to know what the fuck this familiar is.

“Fatum nostrum et fidem vestram accipio, donec ignes extinguantur, utinam numquam ita sit.⁠*”