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His accusation hit me hard enough for my steps to teeter. “No. My mother taught me to throw long before I came to this school.”
She’d insisted on teaching me how to defend myself with blades. I thought she was being ridiculously overprotective, but I appreciated her now.
“Cute. A demon slaughtered my mother,” Hunter sneered, disdain dripping from his voice.
The admission faltered my steps. “I’m sorry, Hunter.”
And I was. I’d be nothing without my mother.
“Not sorry enough to stop associating with hellions.” He tried to step forward but blanched at his stuck feet.
I crept slightly toward him. “If I remove the knives from your feet, can we call a truce?” Hunter watched me with hungry, angry fascination. Would I have been this ferociously angry if I had grown up without a mother figure due to demons? Was poisoning my opponent justified if she posed a danger to humanity and my family?
He laughed, head thrown back with the force of his own derision. “Do I have a choice? I’m unarmed, and my friends are imbeciles.”
Swiftly, I yanked both knives out of his feet at once. We both jumped away, maintaining a safe distance.
“I will destroy anyone that supports demons, Luna. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” His vindictive tone promised death.
“I think we’re on the same side, Hunter,” I said, hoping it wouldn’t come to that.
He threw his head back again when he laughed, a humorless sound. “You’re going to regret letting me go, liar.”
With a firm grip on his friend’s shirt collars, he started dragging them away, a visible display of his animosity written on his face.
“Unlike you, hideous, I could never forgive.”
ChapterThirteen
THE ORACLE MUSINGS
Virgin ghosts will be visiting the campus today! From the ancient kingdom of Silla, they haunt places where young girls like to reside. Stargazers, coffee enthusiasts, hopeless romantics: all of those will get a special visit today. It was thought in ancient times that they appeared as reminders of what you would become without love: deserted and drifting.
I caughtmy first demon today.
Well, Gaksi helped me catch one.
I was walking home from class yesterday, admiring the autumn leaves falling, when Flora assigned me a lead in the observatory.
Not a lead about the notorious one, who haunted me daily with the mark on my neck. Not the one Cordelia’s so besotted with and Gaksi so captivated with.
This one was a lost little girl. She donned a long white dress and a dead, unmoving stare. Her body floated aimlessly, legs hidden under her gown, figure flickering between a solid and transparent state. Long black hair swayed with the unmoving wind around a ghost-pale face.
“HEY!” I called out. I braced myself for an attack, blades drawn.
No response.
Should I ambush? All my blades were on me. I could earn an easy amount of points from taking down this demon. I could see the clock tower leaderboard change now: my name would rise to the top, and everyone would know I had a successful kill. That I was one to watch out for. Houses, students, and faculty would see that I’d proven myself and that my admission to this university was far from a mistake; in fact, I was thriving.
The spirit floated around me. Now or never. I raised my blade, and her head turned.
Uneven eyeliner lined her wide-set eyes. Like a middle schooler, unsure how to apply her first product, her face looked uncertain and bewildered. Her face was almost exactly like what mine looked like a few years ago.
I lowered my hand.
She sailed aimlessly past.
“Are you lost?”
