Page 11 of The Prince of Demons

“You have an… alliance with a demon? That is forbidden.” Xavier’s voice said, wavering.

At once, the wolves stepped toward me.

“Principal Consta already allowed it!” I blurted. I heard a collective gasp of shock.

“The Beyond, he didn’t,” a sinister voice called.

A sharp-eyed, cruel-mouthed boy with a mop of brown hair emerged from the trees. “I’d know if my father approved any unregistered demon activity.”

My heart lurched to my stomach. Hunter Consta. Trust fund baby extraordinaire, son of Principal Consta, and sole heir to the Fae King’s throne.

Could the prince fight? I hoped not.

He sprinted forward, long strides covering an unholy amount of space.

Oh no. He definitely could.

“Finding a traitor to humanity so early? It must be my lucky day.”

He paused abruptly like he wanted to savor the moment. Lukas tensed beside me.

It was against the rules to kill another member of the school, right? Definitely against the rules.

“Get out of here, Gaksi.”

“Not when it’s getting this good.”

“Never thought we’d discover a demon lover so early, huh?” He clapped Xavier on the shoulder, who flinched. He was barely a breath away now. A pink and purple dagger waved in the air, taunting me. “Isn’t it kind of ironic for a demon’s whore to be killed by her own weapon?”

“You’re late.” I retorted, squaring my shoulders to stop from trembling. “The real demon already disappeared. And considering you were ahead of me when you stole that, you must have hid this whole time. The only demon you discovered was your own fear.”

He hesitated. Anger flashed in his ice-blue eyes.

“Meanwhile, Gaksi was here, fighting for the good of the students,” I continued. “What was that line of the treaty again? The one that separated the good magic users from the bad? ‘Any demon who wishes to harm humans must be extinguished or sent back to their realm. But any demon who wishes to join the House system is permitted to do so, given that they have humanity’s best interest as their motivation.’”

“Gaksi is allowed to be here just as much as any other mythical being.” I looked pointedly at Lukas, Xavier, and Adam. Their faces were blank, revealing nothing.

The tension was thick enough to cut with a blade.

Lukas broke it by ripping my blade out of Hunter’s hand and holding it out to me.

“Luna’s right. If Gaksi is willing to behave, he can be here just as much as anyone else.”

Hunter’s withering glare could have melted metal.

“We need to update your father, Hunter,” Xavier said behind me. “You didn’t see it, but that poor guy was—” he huffed in a breath, “mutilated.”

“Yeah,” Lukas responded, nodding. “Probably better that you didn’t see it.”

“Are you really going to talk about a demon that’s disappeared when there’s one with us right here?” Hunter demanded.

“Rude,” Gaksi responded. I gritted my teeth to stifle a smile when our phones dinged.

HYDRA ALERT! Classes are canceled for the rest of the day. A student has been murdered, and a series of unidentified demons have appeared on campus grounds. Return to your dorms immediately. Curfew is in place until the threat is neutralized.

“The Underlord works hard, but whoever runs the university alert system works harder,” Gaksi noted to nobody in particular.

“Why was he talking about curses, Gaksi?” I asked, ignoring Hunter’s crazy eyes as he tried to identify where the sound came from. He didn’t make any progress, although my dagger glowed faintly as I zipped it back into my backpack.

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