Page 32 of Fortune Academy: Year Two
She burst out laughing, the sound so genuine that I almost forgot she had horns. “Wow. I really had you all wrong.” She crossed her arms and settled herself against the wall. “You’re special, Lily. Part succubus, part demonspawn.” She tapped her horns. “You’re a special demonspawn, though. Since you have a hybrid heritage, you have a mortal body. Me? I have to make do with a human sleeve.” She scratched at the place where her horns protruded from her hairline. “After that Hunter friend of yours ruined my last one, I can’t quite get it on all the way.”
Ew. I didn’t ask what she meant by a “human sleeve” because that sounded self-explanatory, but that sounded disgusting.
I narrowed my eyes. “Why use a sleeve at all?”
She shrugged. “At first it was part of the job. I not only had to look human, but I had to be a supernatural that wouldn’t send you off screaming. Cindy thought that if I impersonated a succubus—with a little magical help, of course—and eventually revealed my demonspawn likeness to you that you’d be able to unlock those powers.” She lifted her lip in a snarl. “But there’s another pesky little part of you that kept interfering. It was what had wiped your memories and took a bunch of supernaturals down with you. Every time Cindy tried to dose you with evil, you burned it right out.”
I blinked a few times. “What do you mean?”
The side of her plump lips ticked up. “Remember those shots we’d sneak behind the bar? Well, yours were pure evil, a concoction from Hell itself. We were hoping it would Awaken you.”
“No,” I whispered, my voice going hoarse. “What did you mean that I took a bunch of supernaturals down with me?”
She laughed. “How do you think supernaturals have been losing their memories?”
“I thought it was because of the Echoes of Calamity.”
“Wrong,” she said in a singsong voice. “That was all you. You’re powerful, Lily. When the third part of you took over, it took away your demonspawn form, gave you a mortal’s body, took away your painful memories, and the shockwave rippled out through all the realms.”
I swallowed hard. “And the skull rune on Cindy’s door?”
“Meant to attract you. It worked, but it also attracted others you had impacted. We decided to use it to our advantage to recruit for Monster Academy on the down low.”
“I can’t believe it,” I murmured. All of this was my fault. I was the reason thousands of supernaturals didn’t know who they were, where they were from, or where they belonged.
I’d done this to them.
I almost didn’t feel bad for Jess poisoning me with evil, because I deserved it. The booze that Jess had favored always did have a funny taste, but I’d liked it before the burn came. I’d always taken that to mean it had high alcohol content. A shiver ran up my spine. “I don’t know what the third part of me is,” I admitted, “but now I’m not sure I want to know.” What if I had wiped out my memories for a reason?
Another thought rumbled through my body and made me tremble. What if Kaito knew I was the origin of the memory wipes? What if by binding me as his Virtue, he guaranteed that he could study me, all up close and personal.
Bastard.
Jess crawled closer to me and wrapped her clawed fingers around the bars. “You’re different now.” She sniffed the air. “I sense darkness within you.”
I nodded as I continued to stare at the torn badge in my hand. “The Academy has been trying to Awaken me, too. They succeeded, to an extent.” I let my claws come out, shredding the icon. It tore a little piece of my heart with it. I had wanted the Academy to be my redemption. Wanted to believe Kaito when he said that my Virtues would bring out the best in me.
Instead, it had just shown me where I really belong.
Jess gasped and delight lit her dark eyes. “So, when are we busting out of here?”
I told Jess everything.My debt to Hendrik. How I had bonded with Kaito and Orion. How I felt betrayed. How Kaito bound my succubus and demonspawn powers.
All of it.
She even apologized for trying to kill me and I believed her. When Dante had come to collect me, she really thought that I was going to embrace Fortune Academy’s rhetoric, resulting in the destruction of her and all the “monsters” that had come to Earth.
I was starting to see who the real monsters were.
She also explained that I had called a demonspawn to me in the panthers’ locker room out of instinct from feeling threatened. That unnerved me and I didn’t want to accidentally call more demonspawn to my “aid.” The dumb thing had tried to attack me, or so it had seemed. Maybe it was just trying to drag me down to Hell where it thought I might be safe.
Thanks, but no thanks.
“I’ll make a mental note not to ask the stone for help again,” I promised.
Her gaze lingered hungrily on the object of our discussion. “I can’t believe a Dark Mage had one of those,” she admitted. “It’s pretty rare, and only members of the royal bloodline can use it without severe consequences.” She smirked. “Which means he either knows what you are, or he wants to find out.”
That didn’t surprise me. Hendrik no doubt suspected I wasn’t telling the full truth and he liked to play with his pets. He also didn’t seem the type to have any qualms about letting someone else suffer magical consequences.
