Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 99935 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99935 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
She hung off my neck, twisting her body around to look me in the face. “I don’t deny that their motives could be many, but it is difficult to believe you have no purpose in these events. After all, they did not start until after you arrived.”
“That’s true,” I muttered, tapping my knuckle against my lips. “That’s very true. So... does this mean... they need us both? That’s why they haven’t touched me even though they know I’m here. That’s why they—”
The events of the last few days tumbled through my head. The eyes that have always been on me. The whispers that have always been following. The hands that keep reaching out to me, offering help in a world that knew nothing of kindness, generosity, or cooperation.
“That’s why they’ve been here the whole time,” I rasped. “Right by my side. Watching my every move.”
AN HOUR LATER, A FRAZZLED, nervous mess stumbled into my next class, Haven’t Fucking Decided Yet. A name that was so apt at the moment, because my jumbled brain hadn’t decided a single thing either.
I thought I was being so clever and tough, tricking Lucifer himself into helping me bust into hell, but what if that’s what Dora’s kidnapper wanted all along?
If it was, another voice whispered in my mind, then it would explain a lot. Professor Radu said that with the gates closed, demons could only return to the mortal world while under a mortal’s control. That can only mean that it was a MORTAL who summoned the demons that took Dora. And why couldn’t that mortal be—
“A witch.”
Bang!
The door slammed the opposite wall, letting in a fresh tide of students. It jolted me into picking up my feet and finding a seat.
The lecture hall was much the same as all the others, laid out like an auditorium. I claimed a seat near the front and took out my notebook and pencils—just in case.
The last couple classes had consisted of the entire class goofing off, messing on their phones, and picking fights while Professor Somnus lay flat out across the desk, snoring loudly and clutching a near-empty bottle of booze.
Sighing, I shook my head at the drunken lout once again passed out on his desk. The worst part was that Professor Somnus seemed to be a red panda demon. So as much as he annoyed me for wasting my time, I couldn’t help but look at his little button nose and red-and-white furry sleeping face and think... he was kind of adorable.
But I’m not spending another hour and a half watching him sleep today.
I just couldn’t. Things were getting weirder and weirder by the day, and I was still no closer to finding Dora. Sabrina heard a lot of angry, vengeful talk about the psycho murderer who most likely had my sister in their clutches, but she didn’t see or hear anything about Dora herself.
She said she tried to do a search of the vampire wing, but every single door except the exit and the murder room were closed to her, and every single eye followed her through the hall.
There was just no such thing as spying on creatures who had ten times better night vision than they did day.
“Which leaves me with very little options,” I muttered, jiggling my legs under the table.
Things were getting too dangerous. Ten people had already been murdered. I was ninety-nine percent sure I was playing right into the hands of the killer-kidnapper. I still didn’t have a clue where Dora was, or why she was taken. And friends and foes were all starting to blur together, making me more paranoid by the minute.
I can’t go on like this. I need more information. I need to talk to the people who know the truth, not the lies and propaganda. I need—
I shuddered as the thought went through my mind.
“I need Professor Radu.”
“That leech?” Tristan made me jump to the moon when he banged his textbook down on the desk and dropped down next to me. “What do you need him for?”
“I— I—”
“How many times do you think your Tristan has shoved her screams back down her throat with his tongue?”
My face hardened. “Don’t worry about it,” I clipped. “It’s my business.”
Tristan’s smile twitched—surprise popping his brow. “Oh... yeah, sure. Of course it is. I’m not trying to pry, but”—he looked around, leaning in close—“you know you have to be careful, right? If he suspects—”
I scraped my chair across the rough stone pushing it back. “I said it’s none of your business. If you don’t mean to pry, stop doing it.” Sliding over my pencil and notebook, I plopped in the next seat over, leaving a very pointed space between me and Tristan.
And it made me feel like sun-baked crap.
My stomach twisted in knots, burning my throat with bile. I stuck my face in my notebook rather than see the expression on Tristan’s.