Page 16 of My Demon Teacher

But he can’t always be with you. Whereas, if you let me bond with you, I’ll be within reach with a single thought.

“You don’t have to do that for me.”

Lucian walks into my field of vision and I fill him in on what the creature is saying.

I want to do it for you. Our Masters and us have a special connection anyway. If you allow me to bond with you, we’ll become…one.

“Okay.” I turn to Lucian to explain when the creature puts its hand over my heart and turns into a shadow. A shadow that swirls inside me and fills me from limb to limb.

Thank you, Master. I’m so happy to serve you.

I open and close my fists, becoming accustomed to the new sensation inside me. It’s as comfortable as putting on a pair of my favorite pajamas. Like wearing my warmest jacket.

“I haven’t accepted yet,” I say. “But if you’re happy…”

I am.

A tremble goes through my senses, and it’s like…like a cat that curls into a lap and purrs.

Strange, but also sweet.

“Darling boy?” Lucian touches me, and I look at him. “Are you okay?”

I lick my lips and nod.

“I guess I just adopted an eldritch creature.”

CHAPTER SIX

“IF ANYTHING HAPPENED TO YOU, I COULDN’T LIVE WITH MYSELF.”

“Let’s go.” Lucian wraps his arms around me and extends his wings.

“Go where? Don’t you need to go to the dean’s office?”

Lucian smiles and runs his hand through my hair.

“Not until I make sure you’re okay. That cockroach of a man can wait.”

He lifts us off the floor and flies us outside the broken gym windows and into the night sky. The breeze wraps around us like a blanket, and I close my eyes, welcoming its coolness.

The creature stretches inside me, its purr getting louder and louder inside my head.

Fly, it says, and I feel a flutter on my back. An itch in need of scratching.

I open my eyes and look at Lucian, whose fiery eyes scorch me with their intensity. How could I doubt his intentions for me? How could I doubt his feelings? He wants me. I know he does. And I want him too.

The itch grows in my back, and I take a deep breath before I let go of Lucian.

I only fall for a moment, a second, before the wings grow out of my skin and stretch wide open. It’s alien. Foreign. Sensation courses through my body as I gain control over my new limbs, flapping them to stay afloat.

It doesn’t matter that they’re not mine. They feel like mine.

They are, Master. All yours, like I am.

I smile, pull the wings back flat against each other, and dive backward. My stomach clenches, the thrill peppering my skin with goosebumps, and as I fall, my lungs fill with so much air it makes me woozy.

The ground gets closer and closer. I can smell the freshly trimmed grass of the academy, and just before I crash to my death, I open my wings and glide back up to Lucian.

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