AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Eventually, when I was too old to carry out the work, I would be relegated back to instructor or some other job at The Academy.
Literally from the day I walked through the doors until they took me out in a body bag, there was a plan for me.
I’d never needed to think about it.
But with the possibility of expulsion in my future, I was doing a lot of thinking.
About what I would do for money.
Where I would live.
What the hell a future for someone with demonslayer powers, but no job, would look like.
Law enforcement?
Private security?
No.
I mean, it was too easy for me to hurt someone. I was a walking lawsuit waiting to happen.
“Stop,” Minos demanded as we made our way down the front path toward one of Arick’s fancy sports cars that he was lending us since, apparently, Minos had carried me on foot all the way to Arick’s place because I’d been too injured to hold onto him on his bike.
“Stop what?”
“Worrying. You’re practically buzzing.”
“There’s a lot to worry about,” I insisted.
“Like what?”
“Like losing my job. And my place to live. And my income. You know… everything.”
“You’ll live with me.”
That wasn’t a question.
He said it almost as if I was silly for not realizing it myself.
“Umm. I don’t think that’s going to work.”
“Why not?” he asked, turning to face me. “Because they’re demons?” he asked, brow raising.
“Partly. And I’ve been really fucking nasty to those women there too.”
“They’ll get over it.”
“Says someone who wouldn’t have to live with the awkwardness of being disliked by everyone around you.”
I’d dealt with that enough in my life.
If I was going to start over and create something new for myself, I didn’t want to feel like the odd one out, like everyone else didn’t want me around.
“It’s not… like that,” Minos insisted. “It’s… it’s like a family,” he said after trying for a moment to figure out what to compare it to.
“A family. A demon family.”
“It’s not that crazy. We’ve been together since we got stuck up here. And the women who have been claimed, they are a part of it now too.”
“I don’t…”
“Listen,” he cut me off. “How about we try? You don’t like it, you feel weird, we go somewhere else.”
We.
It was always we.
Because, to Minos, there was no other way.
There was no breaking up and starting again. It was me, or nobody.
Maybe I shouldn’t have felt so comforted by that, but I couldn’t seem to help it either.
No one got guarantees like that.
“Say okay. Because I’m fine with either.”
To that, I let out a deep breath.
“Okay. But that only solves one of the problems.”
“What were the other two again?”
“Job and income. Which are two parts of the same problem.”
“I have money.”
“And that’s nice for you. But I need my own money too.”
“You can have as much of it as you want.”
He said it in such a confident way that I had no choice but to imagine that when he said he “had money,” he meant he had a lot of it. And, I guess, if you’d been walking the Earth for as long as he and his club had, you found a way to make and keep making money.
“I still need something to do. I can’t just sit around all day. I’m used to doing things, having a purpose.”
“So you will find a new one,” he said, shrugging. “But you still don’t know if you will even have to do that. You need to go talk to your mentor first.”
And maybe all this talking and stressing about the future was just my way of stalling that inevitability.
I couldn’t help it.
I was more nervous than I’d maybe ever been in my life.
Not even having the security of a home and money if I was kicked out was easing the anxiety.
“Let’s just get it over with. You’re only getting more anxious the longer we stand here,” Minos said, opening the door for me.
And when he was right, he was right.
So I got in the car.
And I worked myself into knots as we drove back toward The Academy.
“What’s the matter?” Minos asked when the building came into view and I stiffened.
“The flag,” I said, looking at it. It was the schools emblem with some carefully hidden sigils in it. “It’s at half-mast.”
“Someone died?” he asked, taking a wild guess.
“Someone important. They don’t lower the flag often.”
I’d seen it lowered twice in my time there.
Once, when a Council member died.
Another time when one of the full-fledged demonslayers died in the field.
My mind went to Maggie.
But, no.
Students had died before. It didn’t warrant the flag lowering.
Marsh?
Had something happened to him?
“Come on, we have to go in,” Minos said.
“You can’t,” I said as he started to get out of the car. There was no mistaking the hurt that crossed his face at that. “No,” I said, shaking my head. “No, you really can’t. It’s blessed. You wouldn’t be able to get inside.”
