AllFreeNovel
Share Us
If I can’t get to it, the demons shouldn’t be able to either.
They’ll look at me and only see a demon.
A short one, but a demon all the same.
My stomach roils as the hazy horizon wiggles in the distance. The sun is low in the sky, and when the shimmer-vertigo subsides, I get myself ready.
I didn’t say goodbye to anyone in Celestus. I didn’t even stop to take in my realm’s beauty before coming here.
If humans only knew how trees are meant to look. How the air is supposed to smell.
How each leaf, each blade of grass and petal, sings to the wind and beckons the light with sweet melodies.
If only they knew how many more colors there are.
I honestly can’t understand why Gael spends so much time here.
I had more than enough of this realm after my first visit. Accident and brain damage aside, once the novelty of being in a forbidden realm wears off, the mortal realm is…
Woefully depressing.
But Gael always said to go to Blackwood if he ever got into trouble. So, here I am.
Though I could truly murder him for failing to mention the most crucial part. Not only is Blackwood entirely demon run, but he didn’t simply mean to go to the cloaked city of cast-out magic users.
No.
He meant to go to the blackened, writhing center.
The pit of evil itself.
The place where they train the worst of the worst magic users so they can be even…
Worse.
Blackwood University.
When Gael went missing almost two weeks ago, it took Sera and me days to figure out how to find the demons with information.
Walking into a den of liars and thieves who want nothing more than to corrupt and strip my magic by any means necessary isn’t something I’m doing lightly. Sera and I researched day and night for an alternative—some other way of getting the information I need about Gael. From inter-planar tracking spells, to tapping Sera’s old school contacts, to even—and I’m not proud of this—filing a formal missing person report with the local police.
If Malachi ever discovers I entangled myself in the mortal realm law enforcement…
When all that failed, and we accepted that Blackwood University was the only answer, we spent several more hours searching for a covert way into Blackwood University.
But the school has no weaknesses.
No way to infiltrate without being seen.
There’s only one way into Blackwood U—as a student. And you can’t get into the most illustrious magical college in the realm—according to them—with transcripts and letters of recommendation.
The evening birdsong draws my gaze to the trees. Autumn has changed the leaves to shades of brown and red and yellow, and while it’s nothing compared to the blood-drenched reds and aubergine of Celestus’s autumn, it has its charm.
By my calculations, the school year started at least a month ago. Entering mid-term isn’t ideal for keeping a low profile, but there isn’t another option.
I look down at my rings. Three in total. One charmed with my demon glamour, one with a tracking spell, and the other…
As I twist the second ring around my knuckle, it glows dull and red under my touch. My pulse races, and I speak the infernalphrase that unlocks the demon magic held in abeyance within the metal.
