“Galen Teresi heard your shouts for help and came to your rescue. The three of you escaped inside the academy where Galen finally noticed the smell coming from the child wasn’t that of a soiled diaper, but that of a shape-shifting tenebrae demon. Discovered, the demon murdered Mr. Teresi and then... died.”
I swallowed hard.
“Are those the events as they happened, Miss Galanis?”
My voice was a thin rasp. “Yes, Headmaster.”
I didn’t think I could end up in the headmaster’s chambers so soon—in the middle of the night before my first day could officially become my second. Another time, the room’s opulence would leave a lasting impression on me. As it was, the stretching stone walls, hanging tapestries of divine battles past, stacks beside stacks of bookshelves, and the long, grim shadows stretching over them all under a single lit candle’s losing fight against the gloom— All of it would leave me as soon as I walked out of this room. If I ever did.
I cast a look at Commander Vasili standing tall and imposing behind the headmaster. On his left was the woman in the white coat, finally named Stavra Remis—the academy historian.
“How could it have gotten in?” I heard myself say. “Aren’t there spells and enchantments to keep monsters out?”
“Of course,” Drakos said. “Many layers of protection had to be lowered to allow the trainees and novices in. It’s not the first time daemons that can don a human shape have used that opportunity. They’re able to because of another adjustment in the protections that allow non-demigods to reside in the forest.
“Dryads must be with their trees, so there is no choice in this other than ripping them out by their roots. The demon got as far as it was ever going to get... until you.”
I winced. “If the spells wouldn’t let it past the trees, why did I make a difference?”
“Because your life was in danger. You were holding the beast. Barring it from entering meant barring you as well. You would’ve been killed and barriers are meant to react to a demigod in danger, and hold your well-being above all.”
A single brow climbed his forehead, the only window into his thoughts. “You see how the tenebrae arranged the perfect scenario. Either he turned on the dryads and slaughtered them, or a softhearted little girl stole and brought him into the academy where he’d slaughter everyone inside. Quite a clever beast.”
A long silence stretched between us. He may have been leaving an opening for me to speak and explain how I fucked up so badly, but I had nothing to say. I already agreed with him.
I fucked up.
“I have a few questions, if I may.” Headmaster Drakos steepled his fingers, then laid them down, pointing his fingers like arrows at my heart. “Why did you not recognize the smell and therefore the child for what it was? Sulfur is quite distinctive.”
“I...” My gaze drifted down to my bloody fingers. I flinched. “I just thought the child smelled bad from soiling itself. I’ve never come across a tenebrae demon. I didn’t know the smell of sulfur revealed them.”
Three stony faces stared back and me. “I dare say, very few people have come across a tenebrae demon, Miss Galanis.” Drakos’s rich tenor flowed soft and slow like the river along a stone bed. “Even fewer have lived to tell about it. The demon spirits are so dangerous, learning how to identify and avoid them is a part of the standard curriculum in every schoolhouse, in every town, village, and city in Olympia. Did you not attend school?”
The question was asked in an even tone, but the way the three of them towered so dominating and judging gave me pause.
“I... I did,” I got out. “Up to the age of ten. Then I... couldn’t continue.”
“Why is that?”
I said nothing.
Drakos dipped his head and a band of silver-and-black locks fell over his brow. That silver sprinkled heavily through his hair, beard, and mustache, but it did not age him. No, it somehow only served to add distinction to a young man’s handsome face—telling the world as his other features couldn’t that he was a man of experience and authority.
“Alright, let us put that aside for the moment,” Drakos continued. “When you were in the forest clearing your head, and you heard this child’s cry, why didn’t you question the odd circumstances you found yourself in? Did you truly think that on the first day of training—after the school had been closed to all but instructors for months—that a heavily pregnant novice walked in, gave birth in the woods, and then ran off to join her class as if nothing happened?”
My cheeks burned. “The child looked a few months old. I thought— A girl could’ve—”
“—brought a child through the gates and then abandoned them without anyone noticing?” he finished. “Or did you think one of my instructors decided to do away with a child?”
I couldn’t answer. Stupidity burned hot and flush beneath my skin. He was right. If I had stopped and thought for a single moment, I would’ve realized something wasn’t right. And Galen would be alive.
“No response? Very well, let’s continue to my last, and most pressing, question. What reduced that demon to pieces and smears on my atrium, Aella Galanis—captured traitor and confessed non-demigod?”
“Oh, do please, tell them.” She giggled. “Let me have my fun tonight. Gift me the tainted, parasitic hearts.”
“I don’t know.” I balled my fists to stop them shaking. “It attacked Galen. I went to help him and turned my back on the horrid thing. The next thing I knew it was bits and blood. I didn’t see who did it. I’m just glad they did.”
His gaze hardened. Rising from his seat, Drakos leaned over and snatched my hand. The moonlight cast its unforgiving truth on the black-and-red stains. “Turned your back, you say. You are lying to me, Aella Galanis—”