Page 42 of Dancing With Demons

Nik smirked at Charlotte’s and Dora’s backs. Flipping open his notebook, he jotted down one more bullet point on the page newly titled Humans.

Beautiful

Reckless

Funny

Gullible

“You see a prize.”

The mirror drifted away from him, following its true subject, and with growing fury, I watched as the ridiculous woman plopped down in the dark and offered up her soul and life to the first shade passing.

I bit off a curse when Charlotte suddenly stiffened. The blood brained from those rosy, plump cheeks as the shade dug her claws in. “Fuck’s sake,” I gritted. “You’re going to die just to save that mouse from a run?! He wields dryad magic. He’s been using the lower lifeforms to cheat his way through the academy since day one. He was never going to run anywhere; he’s just using you as bait to win!”

“Hmm?” Sauda slid over and laid her head on my chest. “What did you say, baby?”

I tensed like a bowstring, no longer pretending to sleep. Not only did Charlotte not hear my heated warning, she was also... losing the white of her fingertips.

Where the fuck are you, fools? It was your idiotic plan to run in with the flames and chase the shade into a box, so what the hell are you waiting for!?

Eyes dropping shut, Charlotte slowly fell forward.

“No!” I swung my legs down, readying to run down there and shred that shadow to ribbons. You’re not killing my new pet before she’s even mine! I bolted up—

—then stopped.

I couldn’t run in there without an explanation of why and how I knew she was in danger when I was supposedly sleeping in the lounge a dozen stacks away.

Just as suddenly, another idea occurred to me.

Pressing my thumb and forefinger together, I blew soft but sharply through the tiny “o” of my fingers—sending the magic on. A dozen stacks away, Charlotte’s voice—the magic exact in its mimicry—bellowed “now!” in Nik’s and Adora’s ears.

“Argh!” they roared, charging in with the torches and freeing my pet from the shade.

I LEISURELY STROLLED around the manor as the race began—not even pretending I was going to do something as undignified as run. Mirror gripped tight in my hand, I watched as Charlotte’s screaming quickly morphed into laughter—laughs she shared with her sister, and that sneaking rodent Nik as they soared above the manor.

“Take her and her sister the second they’re out of sight of Erlik,” I said to Kazuya, Bruno, and Pravat.

They walked by my side, tripping over themselves straining to walk straight and keep their eyes glued on my face at the same time.

Stupid fools. Do you think I’ll trip and my glamour will slip down like a skirt?

“Do what you have to do to get her to take the sub bond,” I ordered, “but don’t damage her. I won’t have you breaking my toy before I’ve played with it.”

“Yes, boss,” Bruno agreed.

“Once she calls, I’ll put on a good show,” I went on. “Perfecting illusion magic is required to hold a glamour in place that can smother the beauty of sloth, so it’ll be no issue to fool a mortal into thinking I killed you. But if she doesn’t accept the bond after I take her away, I’ll hunt you three down, gut you, and hang you from the mess hall chandeliers from your entrails.”

“Absolutely, boss,” Kazuya agreed—showing not a trace of fear as a good demon shouldn’t. “I’d expect nothing less. But... if we succeed?”

“Yeah, if we succeed,” Pravat seized, pushing Bruno to get closer to me. “Can we...? Will you...?”

I growled, rolling my eyes. “Fuck’s sake, yes. If you succeed, I’ll let you look at my true face.”

“Yes,” they whooped, debasing themselves like the sloth sluts they were.

“For ten seconds,” I snapped, “and not a millisecond more.”