Page 43 of Demon Apathy: Sunderverse
“Five. Hundred. Thousand. Dollars,” Sage repeated, emphasizing each word.
I shrugged. I would sure like to have that kind of money in the bank. To add insult to injury, with an ironic cherry on top, I had information on Lunar’s whereabouts. Oh, well, at least my bank account was a bit heftier than at the beginning of the semester. Spending all those hours stocking shelves had helped.
A part of me wanted to share what I knew with them, or at least Jenna, but I’d decided the less they knew, the better. Jenna had made a few inquiries about Drevan, but so far, I’d managed to keep things under wraps.
“Isn’t your sister a tracker?” Jenna asked me. “Maybe she could find Lunar.”
Sage huffed. “You don’t think the Hudson’s have a team of powerful Skews already on the case?”
They probably did. Dumb of me not to think of that. I was sure Toni would’ve liked five hundred thousand dollars, but seeing as Lunar wasn’t truly kidnapped, getting my sister involved would be all kinds ofethical wrongs.
I ate a few of my fries, deep in thought. I was glad for the three days of relative quiet I’d had, and the opportunity to focus on studying. It had been a hard three days, and I’d barely scratched the surface of what needed to be done, but it would’ve been a lot harder if I’d had to deal with Drevan and his mission.
Still, I couldn’t help but get curious about what was going on and wonder why I hadn’t heard anything from my favorite demon. I had thought about him plenty, but my thoughts hadn’t been about deadly sins and whatnot. Nope, my mind had pretty much been stuck in that crypt, replaying the heady moment we’d shared. Not only that, I’d spend more time than I would like to admit thinking about my feelings for him and wishing there was a way I could erase them. Maybe I needed to find a witch to make me a special potion. He was not boyfriend material. Even if he shared my attraction, that was a far leap from love—not to mention the impossibility of a real relationship.
True, if I was to spend my life chasing sins, it wouldn’t be conducive to building any sort of relationship with anyone, but still, I could hope for a little love.
I shook my head, realizing my thoughts had, once more, drifted in the wrong direction. What I needed to know was what was going on with Solar and Lunar. For all I knew, Khargon had pinned the poor girl up to the wall and was performing unthinkable, torturous acts on her.
Maybe it was time to talk to Grant.
Later that day, at the end of all my classes, I headed toward the director’s office, determined to find out how things were going with our Sloth Subject.
When I got there, I knocked on Grant’s door and waited. No answer. I wondered, not for the first time, why he didn’t have an assistant. If he did, they might have been able to tell me where he was. I turned to leave just as he appeared at the end of the hall.
“Ms. Sunder!” he exclaimed. “Just the person I wanted to see.” He walked past me and opened the door to his office. “C’mon in.”
He was wearing his dark blue demon hunter uniform, the letters “DH” in the middle of his chest. A Queller was strapped to his back, and his blond hair lay limp with sweat. From the looks of it, he’d been out hunting.
“Busy day,” I asked.
He removed his Queller with a sigh and set it aside. “Very,” was all he said, appearing in no mood to rehash his exploits. I wondered briefly where Striker’s Queller had gone, then told myself to forget about it since the sword and its prophecy had nothing to do with me.
“Um, do you have news from Drevan?” I asked as he took a seat in his tall leather chair.
“No, I do not. But don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll contact us when he needs us.”
Then why did Grant say he wanted to see me? Was I in trouble? Had I gotten a bad grade in my Demonology?
Grant glanced up at me, rubbing his chin. “I have been considering giving you Truesight,” he announced, shocking me.
Truesight was something apprentices received when they got to their third year. It was granted through a complex spell that, if successful, allowed the person to recognize demons on the spot, no matter what shape they took.
“Really?” I said, almost breathlessly. This was unexpected.
“I have been researching the risks.”
“Risks?”
He nodded. “There is more than one reason why Truesight is reserved for older students. The obvious one is that they don’t need it until they’re sent out in the field to actually hunt demons. The other one is that we must wait for any possible hormonal imbalances left over from adolescence to be completely out of their system. Even under normal circumstances, these imbalances can change someone’s vision, causing things like nearsightedness. Adding the spell on top of that is an added risk. The spell is complex, and it will make its own changes, so it is best to wait until hormones aren’t a concern anymore.”
“So what happens if it goes wrong?”
“Well, the spell could be altogether ineffective and cause blurred vision and even blindness in some rare instances.”
Blindness!No, thank you. I could do without Truesight for the moment. Besides, judging by the pimples that had sprouted on my forehead in the last few days, I had to guess I was still pretty hormonal. Jenna said it was stress, and maybe she was right. I hadn’t had a breakout in at least three years.
“I can tell from your expression that you would be opposed,” he said, surprising me with his perceptiveness. I still wasn’t used to this version of Darrold Grant. He seemed sensitive and caring—not at all like the asshole I’d first met.
