Page 6 of My Demon Teacher

“I…” I turn to the side to face him and take a deep breath. “I do. Yeah. My mom was one. You know about the eldritch?”

I leave the dimension out. If he knows about the eldritch dimension, he’ll know what I mean. If he doesn’t, it’ll trip him up. But I need to know either way. Not many people know of eldritch magic, let alone the eldritch dimension.

It’s rare, even in a world full of magic and creatures of all kinds.

“Oh yeah, man. It’s a fucking great power. We’re actually having a party tonight to invoke a creature from the eldritch dimension. It’s gonna be rad.”

Cold sweat forms in the small of my back and trickles down my butt crack.

“You…you are?”

Ryan takes his hands out of his pockets and slaps the shoulders of the two nearest guys.

“Sure are. You should drop by. Always handy to have someone knowledgeable about the eldritch around.”

The other guys nod.

They’re doing an eldritch invocation? How the hell are they doing that? My mom was the best eldritch witch out there and never told me other witches could invoke them.

Unless they know something I don’t. And if that’s the case, I need to find out.

“Yeah. That…that sounds fun.” I try a smile, but I have no idea how successful or convincing I am.

“Rad! See you tonight then. After midnight, at the old gym. No need to bring booze. We’ve got it all covered.”

I give him a thumbs-up that even I feel is pathetic and Ryan and the gang walk away, getting into a discussion about a rock band or something.

“Please don’t tell me you’re seriously considering going to their party.”

I glare at Ryan’s back and nod.

“Why the hell would you go?”

“Because…I need to know what they know about eldritch magic.”

“Pfft, they know nothing. They’re a bunch of spoiled rich kids whose daddy bought them a place in Lockwood. They’re not worth your time.”

“That, my friend,” I start and finally look back at Jace, “is where you and I disagree.”

CHAPTER THREE

“READY, BOYS?”

“Nothing.” I sigh and close the book I unearthed from the apothecary stock.

While Mom’s store usually sells herbs, spells, and potions, we also carry a stock of magical books and accessories. They were just never a priority for Kevin. Why sell a book that teaches magic when you can sell magic one little trinket at a time? That was his motto. Well, not really. Just his greedy mind and thought process.

We still have books, though, and I’ve gone through every single one here and at the library, but there’s nothing about the eldritch dimension anywhere.

How the hell do those guys know about it? And even more, how the fuck do they know how to summon an eldritch creature? That’s a skill reserved for witches like my mom and me. No one else can do it unless…

I mean, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.

After all, summoning demons wasn’t considered easy or common, but that’s turned out to be a lie.

Lucian explained it to me the other day. Hell-demons have been walking the Earth for a long time, but other kinds have been locked away, trapped in their own dimensions, and it’s only become possible to summon them in the last few years for some reason.

Maybe it’s the same with the eldritch dimension. Maybe now that demons are freer to roam, the eldritch creatures are also more summonable.

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