Dancing With Demons (The Academy of Amazing Beasts Book 3)

by Melody Rose

  “... with a sorcerer from centuries ago who served Bouclier before it was an academy,” he continued. “From what I’ve learned, he was an enchanted guardian who didn’t exactly tame beasts. No, he actually got to know them inside and out, you know? At the time, the concept of familiars didn’t even really exist. Beasts and mages were more like comrades, making sure Lemuria was safe together.”

  My heart warmed at that story. Maybe I was old-fashioned because that was really how I looked at magical creatures. Even in my own world, with regular animals with their own special skills but not a lick of enchantment, I didn’t believe in “pets.” I thought that all the furry, feathery, scaly, or even slimy patients I met in the vet clinic were a lot more reasonable than most of the humans I met. I could get on board with a system where spellcasters and beasts were given completely equal status. Marveling at Bast’s ability to turn seamlessly from a bat into a dragon was more proof for me of how much familiars could pull off.

  “That sounds,” I sighed dreamily, and Damian nodded at my obvious appreciation, “absolutely amazing. It’d be awesome if we could turn back the clock or at least bring back those traditions. Honestly, familiars are being used as status symbols, and all these beast brawls make me pretty sad. If they were necessary, that’d be one thing, but it’s really just a bunch of ego-stroking!”

  Damian was now fired up, his forehead wrinkled like a soldier ready for war. “You’re singing to the bards, sister! So, Guardian Deltise, as he was called, told me all about how he studied alongside his phoenix, Resurrection, and learned to shapeshift with her. Both of them were able to turn into almost every species they could imagine, usually pretty common ones, like ravens or dormice, so they could spy on any rival factions trying to sabotage Bouclier. Truth be told, I’m actually plotting a bit of an uprising…”

  Damian paused then, his eyes narrowing. I wondered if he suddenly grew suspicious of me or worried that he had said too much. I was hoping that wouldn’t be the case. The idea of learning about Lemuria outside of what my school fed to me was really tempting. I turned to meet his gaze and show that I was sincere.

  “I’m sorry.” The tone of my voice dropped, genuinely apologetic. “I’m really interested in learning more, heck, maybe I can even help, but I don’t want to push you into talking if you don’t want to.”

  Damian chuckled softly, gave me a small squeeze, then took on a defensive stance. As he drew his wand, he squared his shoulders with his feet. That alone made a sense of dread blossom in my stomach. Maybe we had shared too much. Did I have to worry about Bouclier? Watch my back? How well did I really know its motives, anyway?

  I took a deep breath and thought of Theo. I was sure he’d warn me or let some secret slip if I were in serious danger. As we became more intimate, he revealed all his concerns about the academy.

  “That’s not it,” he answered. “Look straight ahead, over Aurelius and Bast. I think that their little playdate is over now. Are you ready to get serious now?”

  I followed his instructions, training my focus on our two familiars. A dark cloud formed right above Bast, swirling rapidly before it sprouted spiraled horns. It took on a leathery dark purple texture instead of its original transparent form, revealing itself to be a boggart.

  Bast veered away from the boggart, reacting decisively but without fear. Aurelius followed suit, baring his fangs and growing into the sinister and enormous form I’d seen all that time ago when a peer tried to fling a fireball at me.

  “Oh, fuck!” I spluttered. I should have been a lot calmer, especially to serve as a role model for Aurelius. Rationally, I knew it was just a training exercise, but my body refused to accept that. Adrenaline pumped through my blood, and my system went haywire. I wondered if it was normal to be this bent out of shape for such a standard ritual.

  “It’s going to be fine,” Damian reassured me. Even though his voice trembled, I appreciated his support. I let him soothe my nerves as best he could, given the situation. “It’s probably because we’ve got a couple of really capable familiars, so the boggart has to be sizable to prey upon their combined fears.”

  I grudgingly agreed with him. I wished that I had my own combat wand just in case this skirmish went sour. The boggart just kept evolving, getting larger by the minute until it looked like some truly sickening hellspawn.

  Based on what Lander had told me, I expected a mild nuisance, an aggressive but ultimately squashable demon. This was supposed to be more of a psychological test, not one that could actually endanger our familiars. Why, then, did we have to handle an opponent that towered over the treetops? Even the lunar faeries, who thrived off a good fight, sped away into the skies.

  It was up to me, Damian, Aurelius, and Bast to defend ourselves.

  I felt seriously lost. All of my shame at Lydia locking me in place with knives flooded my mind, and I decided I couldn’t just be the same mousy cook. As the boggart reached for me with its razor-sharp talons, I didn’t even tell myself it was an illusion, all a sick joke to prepare us mentally. I treated this as though it were life or death with every expectation my time at Bouclier to get riskier.

  Since I didn’t have my own combat wand and couldn’t conjure new offensive magic, I searched my memories for old spells I could cobble together. I thought about the vines that Theo used once to bind me up, and then I pictured all the different metal cauldrons I worked with to create buffer infused stews for the Arcane Combat and Contests team. By blending the ideas together to create an enchanted alloy, I could rob the boggart of one of its biggest intimidation tactics.

  “Je veux forger des chaînes de vignes et déchirer les griffes de ce démon!” I cried out in my amateur Lemurian. “I want to forge chains out of these vines and rip this demon’s talons off!”

  For the first part of my spell, vines crawling up trees changed direction and snaked their way over to the boggart, flexible and quick until it was time to wind around the blood-curdling talons. As they set to work covering the claws so they wouldn’t be my problem anymore, the vines morphed into iron chains.

  Damian nodded with quiet approval as he adjusted his wrist, tilting his wand backward. It blazed as though caught on fire, charged to its peak power.

  “Je canalise toute la force de mon esprit pour déchirer les serres de ce démon!” Damian demanded native Lemurian, clear and forceful. “I channel the force of my spirit to tear away the claws of this demon!”

  The boggart screamed in agony, so offended by the pain that I doubted whether it was illusionary magic at all. Did we get roped into a lethal fight with a monster straight from the abyss? I clapped a hand over my mouth, cringing as Damian mercilessly ripped the talons right off the demon’s gnarled fingers.

  I don’t know why I was so surprised. Damian promised that he would with his fierce curse, but I hadn’t seen a spell quite so violent before. During tournaments, I had the luxury of being far away. I didn’t have to worry about any of the summoned beasts getting too close for comfort. Plus, none of the athletes were supposed to get seriously hurt.

  Before my reflexes could even kick in, the creature swiped at me with its now declawed hand. When its knuckles connected to my cheekbone, I knew we were in real trouble. My heart started to pound, the possible consequences of being secluded in the woods really sinking in. As pain radiated across my cheek, I began to see bright pinpricks, glowing grey stars that made me spin. I was really glad I wasn’t knocked unconscious, but I was in absolute terror.

  I staggered backward, rubbing the now tender skin. The ache of a nasty bruise bit at me, making it really impossible to concentrate.

  Aurelius really lost his mind at this point, barking up a storm as Damian gritted his teeth. In perfect, ruthless synchronicity, Aurelius flared up, turning into a vicious hellhound while Bast began to grow into a genuine, full-sized dragon worthy of legends. A beam of amber light shot outside the core of our attacker, twisting toward my familiar. Aurelius was siphoning energy away from the demon, a new power manifeste
d in his rage. Meanwhile, Bast went straight for the jugular, soaring up to the demon’s neck and tearing into it.

  My usually sweet-hearted wolf was now seething with actual flames. His eyes blazed red, his fangs dripped with embers, and horns unfurled from his head, exactly like the demon he magically fed on. As Bast focused on the demon’s upper body, Aurelius gnawed on the weakened creature’s trembling legs. Damian went in for the real coup de grâce, his finishing blow.

  “Transformez ces serres brisées en sinistres canaris!” he cried out, his voice leaping up with barely contained laughter. “Transform these shattered talons into sinister canaries!”

  That certainly wasn’t a spell I’d ever heard before. As amusing and creative as the hex was, I was too on edge to enjoy the moment really. As the side of my face throbbed, the talons we’d just angrily plucked off hovered off the wet soil. Just like Damian promised, the curved claws began to sprout soft yellow feathers. Fully enchanted, they were almost comically bright, but their eyes radiated what looked like pure hellfire. I had no doubt that they could deal real damage without a shred of guilt.

  Bast and Aurelius were already doing their part in the effort, tearing off chunks of the demon’s flesh. The horned beast buckled its knees from the pain, swiping wildly in rage. Both familiars were able to dodge its blows with ease as the maniacal canaries took over. They flew at the demon in perfect unison, heading straight for his face. Like a miniature air force brigade, the murderous birds began pummeling the demon’s eyes. With repeated ruthlessness, they took turns rapidly stabbing it until the creature was completely disoriented. If I didn’t feel such a sense of dread, I would have felt bad for the poor beast. It had gone through a whole series of agonizing attacks with none of us holding back.

  The demon stumbled to the ground with a thud, causing Damian and me to jump from the small earthquake. That’s when Bast went in for the kill, diving and clamping its fangs into the demon’s torso until the rib cage was exposed. I winced as Bast tore out the heart, somehow managing to cradle it in her sharp fangs. As the boggart went into its death throes, she flew over to Damian and unhinged her jaw, dropping the organ into his outstretched hand with a sickening plop.

  I cringed, unable to take the gore any longer. I walked backward until my back brushed against a tree, then slid down, utterly exhausted. Aurelius returned to his innocent form and bounded over to me, whimpering in solidarity and laying his head in my lap. I patted him weakly as the adrenaline wore off. I felt that this was more than enough to prove the mettle of our familiars, and I definitely believed we all had enough excitement for one day.

  “That’s strange,” Damian mused as he curiously inspected the heart.

  Meanwhile, I was trying to keep my breakfast down. I couldn’t for the life of me understand how someone could be that composed about all the bloodshed and body parts. Then again, he was right at home with ghosts that demanded to haunt Bouclier grounds, so I guessed he had a taste for the strange and unusual.

  “What’s that?” I asked tiredly, just to play nice. I actually didn’t care to learn more about the infernal heart. It was probably throbbing with bad juju and negative energy. I honestly didn’t know why he’d even risk touching it, but maybe I still didn’t quite know how life worked in Lemuria.

  “Well, I thought this might have been Lander’s handiwork,” he began. “I know that the Headmaster gets on his case and tells him that our beasts need to be restored to their former glory and all that. I was of the mind that this was just one elaborate challenge.”

  I nodded. Based on all my talks with Theo, I wouldn’t put it past Abelard to put us through this just to see how we’d handle it. I guess in Lemuria, academies didn’t really have to worry about liability waivers. Everyone just put their lives in the hands of this mad wizard.

  “That sounds about right,” I mumbled, growing more exhausted, “but it seems like you have a different theory?”

  Damian turned the heart around in his hands, inspecting it like a precious treasure. Its dark blood began to drip through his fingers as though he’d scooped up ink. I scrunched up my nose at the sight.

  “If this were just an advanced illusion,” he started to answer, “this heart should have disappeared by now. It shows no sign of doing that. I already have a pretty good sense that this is a genuine infernal specimen because its blood stings to the touch, but let’s just make sure…”

  I blinked sleepily and let him work his magic. Bast returned to her standard bat form and glided toward Damian, landing on his shoulder. She didn’t seem disturbed at all. Instead, she curiously studied the heart as well. I guessed they were a couple of peas in a pod. Neither of them was bothered at all by how morbid this was.

  “Montre-moi la vraie nature de ce coeur,” he began his detection spell, looking at the heart intently as his hands glowed. “Show me the true nature of this heart.”

  I gasped as the sopping heart dissolved into dust. The cinders scattered onto the ground before a transparent red spirit floated up with a deafening screech. The abyss seemed to pull it back where it came from. I wondered if Damian had folded a banishing hex into his incantation.

  Aurelius was pretty stirred up by the scene, curling his lips back and growling. That must have been his special way of warning the demon to never come back. Bast was a lot more unfazed as if she’d seen this many times before.

  Damian studied me and smiled weakly, sympathy gleaming in his eyes as a bit of nausea kicked in. “You got clobbered pretty badly. It’s a wonder you’re still conscious. Do you have anyone who can perform some healing on you? I can give it a try, but it really isn’t my forte.”

  I went through my mental catalog of friends, thinking about how well I knew about their abilities. Honestly, coursework at Bouclier was getting more intense every day, and I didn’t think I had these in-depth conversations with friends. Theo was more focused on a combination of defensive and offensive magic, and Becks was smitten with illusionary magic. Maybe Nathan would be the best at healing? He had a lot of teammates to take care of, after all.

  “I… will look into it,” I answered, not wanting to be some charity case. I really disliked people fussing over me and didn’t want to be seen as some helpless lamb’s blood. “Anyway, about the heart? What did you find out?”

  He shook his head, his black locks brushing against his shoulders. “Well, infernal creatures aren’t even supposed to be in Lemuria. Maybe there have been some exiles, but they definitely shouldn’t be attacking innocent mages. Boggarts are just a simulation, but that was a genuine demon. Maybe not one from the deepest circle of the abyss, granted, but it still has no business here.”

  I paused, petting Aurelius thoughtfully. A migraine was licking away at my focus, but even at my worst, I could connect the dots. This definitely seemed consistent with some type of sabotage or foul play, but I wondered who was to blame.

  “Sounds like we need to get to the bottom of this,” I answered as more energy trickled into my system. I guessed that the pursuit of justice ignited my curiosity and made me forget my fatigue, at least for a while. “Who should we report to? Abelard? Theo?”

  Damian walked over to me and extended his hand. “I think we should look into that later, Joan. What’s most important is that we make sure that you’re on the mend. Unless you want to wear that black eye as a badge of honor?”

  I laughed at that, and Aurelius shuffled off, his grimace turning into a relaxed smile. Then I took Damian’s hand, wrapping my fingers around it. For having such a cool air, his skin was surprisingly warm. I took it easy, letting him take charge and pull me up.

  Maybe a small part of me enjoyed being catered to, especially since I was so frazzled. At least I could take some comfort in the fact that my familiar and I weren’t left passed out in the woods. Hopefully, after we sorted everything out, Aurelius and Bast would get recognized for all their hard work.

  7

  Joan

  I allowed Damian to take the lead, leaning into my
weakness and unashamed to rely on him. Even if anyone were to see me, I had an airtight story to explain my fatigue. I mean, we had fended off a legit demon and survived, so no one had room to judge.

  “So, where should I take you, heroic young maiden?” Damian said in a real tongue-in-cheek way, making light of our brush with death.

  When I thought we were dealing with a well-designed boggart, it was all child’s play. Maybe I was still in a state of shock, but I frankly felt betrayed wandering into the circle of eternal death. I mean, I was basically ordered to do that if I wanted to train Aurelius fully. Instead, I was led right into a trap.

  I just wished I knew who to “thank” for that.

  Still, having a handsome and good-spirited new friend to help me navigate the chaos sweetened the bitter situation. I laughed at his humorous take on the demon, pretty proud of all of us for surviving the adventure. Bast fluttered like my giggle was a melody, and Aurelius had an extra spring in his step. Damian treated me to a satisfied smile, glad that his chipper attitude landed well.

  “I bet you probably would benefit from a nice, long nap. Could you let me know a friend of yours who you trust and knows their way around a healing spell? I still have enough ‘ingredients in the cauldron’ to whip up a summoning incantation.”

  I probably should have accepted the offer, but I wasn’t really in the mood. After all this stress, I had worked up a killer appetite. I wanted to drown my anxieties in comfort food and good company before I nursed my wounds. If I knew where Becks had run off to, she could probably spirit up some enchanted concealer even if she didn’t know how to heal me.

  The only problem was that she was so damn difficult to track down. Since she was so obsessed with “civvie” matters, she could rarely be counted on to stick around in Lemuria. The girl constantly got away with it since she could ace exams without breaking a sweat.