Rival Demons (15 page)

That's when I decided to stay in the training
room until every last soldier and teacher had left. It took about
an hour of waiting after the last class before I felt confident
that I was alone. The lights had been turned out and everything
around me was silent as a tomb. I finally stepped out of my hiding
place and let my invisibility glamour drop.

Drained, I had to sit down and meditate in the
darkness for almost an hour before I felt my power return to me.
Plus, I was starving. It was stupid of me to forget to bring any
food along. I'd seen the demons eating some kind of power bars
during their lunch break so they didn't have to go back to the
marketplace for food. I lit a small orb and made my way to the
front of the room where I'd seen the instructor with the bars.
Unfortunately, there was nothing left in the box. I searched around
a little more, but figured out pretty quick that I was out of luck
as far as food was concerned. Luckily, there was a large container
of water in the hallway.

With my stomach growling from not eating since
breakfast, I positioned myself in the middle of the large training
space and got to work. For hours, I worked on the momentum magic
I'd seen them learning last week. Not knowing which type of energy
would be my strongest, I played around with all of them. I didn't
want to limit myself, but I was also curious if I would naturally
be better at one than another.

Fire was by far the easiest for me to
manipulate. I'd been accused of playing with fire my entire life,
ever since my adoptive father died in a fire that I accidentally
started. But I alone understood at the time that I hadn't created
that fire. It was my ability to move objects around with my mind
and my emotions that had set that fire.

The same thing happened with Agnes the night she
died. She was the one who lit the candle in the lakehouse that
night. All I did was use my powers to make it fall over. Still, the
fire had spread much more rapidly than any normal fire should have.
Was that because of me?

I remembered back to the old hospital the night
the Others tried to kill Jackson. Hadn't I killed someone with fire
that night as well? I'd sent the fire across the room like a wave
to save Jackson's life.

A chill spread up my arms. I'd always thought my
relationship with fire was purely accidental. An unfortunate result
of my ability to move things with my mind. But there in the quiet
darkness of the training room, I found something different to be
true.

The easy way my hands manipulated the small fire
I created told me in my deepest core that I had a real connection
with this blazing light in front of me. The flames responded to my
every thought, like an extension of myself. I moved my hands high
into the air and the fire spread itself up like a giant wall in
front of me. I spun around in a circle and the blaze followed,
creating a perfect barrier around me. I held my hands out to my
side and lifted them, amazed as the entire circle of flames rose
from the ground to a spot just above my head. I was completely
encircled in flame.

The control and power of it made me giddy and
light. I brought the fire back down to its smallest self, a tiny
glow in my palm. Then, with a happy smile, I leaned over and blew
it out like a birthday candle.

I slept in a dark cubby on the far side of the
largest training room. After my practice the night before, I'd gone
to the door and tried to find a way to open it, but it wouldn't
budge. I was locked in for the night. So I searched for a
relatively safe place to curl up and sleep until morning.

I was a little bit worried that Lea or Mary Anne
would notice that I had never come home, but there was nothing I
could do about it from here. Tired from so much magic work, I went
to sleep instantly, only waking in the morning when I heard the
first voices enter the training corridor. I'd been sure to hide in
a place where I'd never seen anyone practicing. Mostly, the various
groups seemed to stay exclusively in the smaller rooms, rarely ever
coming together in this larger hall.

Rested, I quickly worked up my invisibility
glamour and made my way to my normal hiding place in the beginner's
training room.

Things went on like this for a couple of weeks.
Obviously, I couldn't stay in the training room every night. It was
too hard on my body to go for so long without food. Instead, I
would spend a couple of nights resting up my powers, then spend a
night training, and so on.

One afternoon, Mary Anne knocked on my door and
pushed her way inside. "What the heck is going on with you?" she
whispered, shutting the door behind her.

Lea was home for once, so I hoped she couldn't
hear. I motioned for Mary Anne to join me in the bathroom. I closed
the door and turned on the shower and the faucet full blast.

"I can't tell you exactly," I said.

She opened her mouth to protest, but I
interrupted her.

"If I get caught, it's better if you know
nothing, trust me," I said.

Concern darkened the blue of her eyes. "What's
going on, Harper? I came here to help keep you safe, not to watch
you get into any kind of trouble."

"I know," I said. "But I can't just sit here in
the suite and stay completely clueless like they want me to. The
Order is still out there, here and back home, killing people and
making demons into slaves and doing whatever they want to do. You
guys didn't really think I'd just stay here forever and let that
happen, right?"

Mary Anne lowered her eyes and shook her head.
"I guess not," she said. "But Harper, how can we fight them? Even
if we took an army with us back home, we still wouldn't be strong
enough to stop them."

"How do you know that?" I asked. "Everyone keeps
saying we'd never beat them, but when has anyone ever really tried?
I mean, sure, small groups have fought back, but never a massive
army. At least not that I've ever heard of. Instead the King of the
North sits on his throne pretending nothing is wrong. The King of
the South, who knows what's up with him? The two are such vicious
rivals they'd rather hate each other than work together to fight
the Order. And back home? How is a demon gate town supposed to
fight back when the entire coven's lives are bound to a single
person? If the Prima dies, everyone dies. That's a serious
weakness, and one that the Order uses to its full advantage."

"But-"

"But what if we could break the connection
between a Prima and her demon? If we could find a way to do that,
the Order would have to take us out one at a time. It makes the
size of the army that much bigger in an instant, right?"

Mary Anne nodded, but there was still doubt in
her eyes.

"I know what you're thinking," I said. "You and
Jackson both think I'm crazy for insisting there's a way to break
the connection, but I'm telling you, I know there is a way. And I
won't stop until I find it."

"You think the answer might be in those books,
don't you?" she asked. "The books the soldiers brought back from
the hunters?"

I nodded. "I know it sounds like a long shot,
but don't you think it's possible? I mean, these books could be
hundreds of years old. These hunters aren't really human anymore.
You heard what they said. They're bonded to several demons so they
can live longer."

Mary Anne's face grew sad, and I knew she must
be thinking of her own family. The old crow witch did something
similar to stay alive for a hundred years by taking the power from
other witches. These hunters were the same.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I wasn't thinking
about..."

My words drifted off.

"It's okay," she said. "We all have our own
family's past to deal with. I'm not proud of where I come from, but
I'm not like them. I want to make something different of my
life."

"You already have," I said.

Mary Anne wiped away a tear and smiled up at me.
"I'll help you however I can," she said. "You know that right?"

I hugged her small frame and nodded. "I know," I
said.

"Please tell me what you're doing," she said. "I
hate being in the dark."

I suddenly realized, looking at the sadness in
her eyes, that I was shutting her out the same way Jackson had shut
me out. Yes, I'd been trying to protect her, but didn't she deserve
to know?

We sat down together on the tile floor of my
bathroom, and I told her about everything I'd been doing in the
training room. She was surprised, but excited for me.

"I've barely used magic at all since we got
here," she said. "I think my wounds are still healing, because I
haven't been able shift. I tried to explain it to Essex, you know,
my shape-shifting, but I couldn't make it happen. When I tried to
cast my magic, my side hurt so bad I couldn't keep going."

"Just give it more time," I said. "You were hurt
pretty bad."

"I know," she said. "I just worry that I won't
ever be able to use magic again."

"You will," I said. "It's a part of you just
like it's a part of me. Besides, it's the pain that's stopping you
and that won't last forever."

She squeezed my hand. "Thanks."

"So you'll cover for me if Lea ever realizes I'm
gone overnight?" I asked.

Mary Anne giggled. "Maybe I'll tell her you
found a nice demon to shack up with."

I playfully punched her arm. "Hey speaking of
shacking up, what's with you and Essex? Is there officially a
romance there?"

She blushed and avoided my eyes. She shrugged
like it wasn't a big deal, but I knew different.

"Hey, it's not like you're the only one who ever
loved a shadow demon," I said. "You don't have to worry about
judgment from me."

"I really like him a lot," she said. "I never
liked any of the boys back home. Not even a little bit. I always
felt so different, you know? Like I didn't really belong there. But
here, with Essex..."

"He feels the same way about you," I said.

"You think so?"

"Isn't it obvious?" I said. "Have you guys
talked about it?"

She shook her head and started playing with the
hem of her skirt. "I'm too scared to really bring it up after, you
know, what Jackson said about the demons here being forbidden to
love humans."

"It's a stupid rule anyway."

"Yes it is," she said. "Do you miss him?"

My breath caught my throat for a second. Did I
miss him? Such a simple question for such a complex set of
emotions. I nodded yes, but what I meant was that every day we
spent apart, I felt like a piece of myself was missing.

"I try not to think about it," I said once I
felt that I was in control of my voice again.

"Is that why you're doing all this?" she asked.
"Risking so much to train and look for the books?"

I shrugged. "Maybe," I said, tugging on the
white strip of fabric tied to my wrist. "But mostly it's because I
am tired of being helpless."

Mary Anne gave me another hug and stood up,
moving to turn off the water. "I've got your back," she said.
"Whatever you need."

"Thanks," I said.

"And Harper?" She turned back just as she was
almost out the door.

"Yes?"

"Promise me you won't leave here without saying
goodbye."

I started to deny that I was planning to leave,
but I knew she wasn't stupid. After a moment, I nodded.

"I promise."

I'd learned so much about magic and fighting
from my days in the training room, but there was still the matter
of the library.

I knew I could spend the rest of my life
training at the different magic levels and probably still not learn
everything. After all, the shadow demons were immortal. They had no
time limit to their learning, while I felt time slipping through my
fingers with every day I remained stuck inside this underground
fortress.

I had to find a way into the library.

My only guess was that it was somewhere down the
same hallway I'd seen Jackson disappear down the day I'd connected
to his essence.

As reluctant as I was to stop my training, I
knew my best chance at getting into the library was to follow a
similar plan to the one I'd used to sneak into the training door. I
needed to get there early. But I knew that there would be no throng
of soldiers crowding in and out, making me much less noticeable.
Getting into the council's secret space was going to take little
bit more planning.

I followed the map I'd made in my notebook back
to the place where I'd seen Jackson disappear into the wall. I
studied the shops in the area, looking for someplace where I could
sit and watch the entrance without looking too suspicious.
Unfortunately, the only place I could find that had a clear view to
the wall was a blacksmith's shop. I couldn't think of any reason
why I'd be spending several days hanging out at their shop, so I
needed a different plan.

I stood there for a minute, studying the area
and trying to find a place I could maybe hide, but the tents here
were more spaced out. Hiding between them might be a little more
risky.

Then I looked up and saw that from here, I could
see the balcony of the stairs where we'd first come into the
Underground. My heart skipped. If I had a clear view of it from
here, then I should have a really good view of this wall from way
up there.

I had to slow my steps to hide my excitement. As
casually as possible, I made my way through the maze of tents, up
the left side of the double staircase, and straight to the balcony
area. Yes! I could easily sit here in the corner and peer down
through the marble banisters. I had a perfect view of the wall and
would be able to see exactly who was coming in and out. And more
important, when they were coming and going.

The only trouble would be if there were other
people on the stairs, but for the most part, no one came in and out
of the Underground except to bring in food or supplies. As far as I
had observed, that only happened every once in a while, certainly
not every day or even every other day. Besides, if anyone saw me
sitting here, I could easily explain that I was sitting up so high
so that I could get a better view of the marketplace for my
drawings.