Studies in Demonolgy: the complete series

by Nichols, TJ

“Thank Becha for me.” Again it took effort to form the words. Was there lasting damage? He didn’t have the energy to heal himself.

  “I am going to get you something to eat. I will not leave you tonight.”

  “Not a word to Usi.”

  “She will not hear it from me.”

  But if Wek had felt the ripple, how many other mages had?

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Angus dressed without a word. Whatever mission they were being sent on that night was obviously dangerous. Trainees were only sent on dangerous missions. They were never told where they were going or what they were going to be doing, until the last moment.

  He never traveled without his bone-handled knives. On both sides of the void, they were always strapped to his wrist. They were the only weapon he could carry without raising questions.

  Norah, Lizzie, and Angus got into the van. Three of the other trainees were already there, all dressed in black. He nodded to Dustin, the one trainee who’d offered his condolences and claimed to be a friend of Jim’s. Syg was there, along with another man—both of them dressed in black.

  No other trainees had been killed since Jim’s death. But two had been injured and healed, which added weight to his suspicion that the underground wanted Jim to die. They expected him to turn again for the right price. Maybe they were right. Maybe he would’ve. The college was sentencing suspected traitors to death on a daily basis. There were no trials. Their lives were given to the college for ritual.

  The only TV station still on the air talked about how great Vinland was and how jealous their enemies were. It claimed the Mayan Empire and the Nations were trying to steal their magic, that the World Council of Demonology had created the ice age.

  It was all lies. How did everyone not see that?

  But the college had been lying for years, pushing the truth a little further away each time. First it was the wizards who were to blame. They were unreliable and dangerous. Then, when the cold became a fixture, they blamed the underground. Finally they turned against anyone who criticized them.

  “Where are we going?” Angus tried to be calm.

  “To save demons,” Syg said. “You should like that.” There was a curl to his lip when he spoke. He leaned closer. “Could you not find a human to satisfy you? What does your boyfriend think of that?”

  Angus held Syg’s gaze without flinching. He didn’t say a word.

  “He hardly gets to speak to his boyfriend,” Norah said in his defense.

  Syg leaned back and shot her a glare that would’ve made most people recoil. Norah didn’t even blink. She’d been trying to get her hands on the old texts. Between the three of them they’d decided that she had the best chance. When they were in the house, Angus kept his distance and barely talked to the two women. In Demonside they talked about everything.

  “Safer that way. Too many good wizards have been arrested.”

  The college ran the government—not officially of course, but the president seemed perfectly happy to let the college order him around. Did they have something on him, or had they helped him to power? The Vinland Angus thought he knew was unrecognizable.

  The change had been so slow that he’d barely noticed it.

  If Saka hadn’t taken him to Demonside the day Angus first opened the void, he might still be blind. If Jim had never talked about the underground, he’d still be ignorant. Would he have followed his father’s footsteps and helped the college or would he have woken up? He hoped that the latter was true.

  The van stopped.

  “We believe this is where the college is holding the captured demons. There are magical dampeners to stop the demons from attacking us.”

  “Then we can’t use magic either,” Angus said.

  “No need to. We’re breaking in and getting the demons into a truck that will be here in ten minutes.”

  No one spoke for several seconds.

  “You should’ve brought thieves on this mission. Our strength is magic,” Lizzie said without a smile.

  “I am the thief,” the other man said. “You’re the demon herders. You know all about demons. You might even know some of them. Your job is to get them on the truck.”

  Dustin leaned forward. “And then where do they go?”

  The thief shrugged. “I don’t know. This is my part of the job.”

  “Now we have nine minutes. Try not to get caught unless you want to die before sunrise.” Syg stood and opened the door.

  A half-moon made the snow and ice gleam. The world was black and white and gray. They moved through the light industrial area and heard nothing but their own footsteps.

  Around them magic glided over the snow and whispered in the breeze. Angus gathered it to him, and it heated the sigil Saka had carved into his chest. He was sure his eyes had darkened—no longer blue but closer to black as he held the magic within his body in case he needed it.

  His skin tingled as though there were a storm brewing, but it was just because he was too full of magic. Oh, the rebalancing he could do….

  He drew in a breath and let the cold fill his lungs. When he flexed his fingers, there was a crackle of static. When they reached the dampeners, it was going to hurt. The dampeners exerted pressure when they encountered magic, and it was worse when he was full.

  He glanced at Lizzie, who gave a small nod.

  She was gathering too.

  They couldn’t kill the dampeners with magic, but maybe they could take out the electricity. The thief was well ahead of them, and no one else was supervising them. Syg was staying warm and safe in the van.

  Angus could’ve run. He could’ve vanished into the night. But for how long could he manage on his own? He wasn’t ready to live in Demonside, and he wasn’t ready to abandon Terrance. He had no doubt, if he ran, evidence would turn up and Terrance would be charged with treason to the college.

  Then there were the other trainees. All their lives were in the hands of the underground. As much as he wanted to think the underground was the answer, he didn’t believe it anymore. All they wanted was the power the college had. It had become infected by too many disaffected warlocks.

  He’d been one of them once.

  The thief opened the door, and no sirens went off. He beckoned them forward. Were there actually demons inside, or was it a trap? Angus wanted to take out the dampeners so they wouldn’t be helpless. Powerful warlocks had ways to make sure they weren’t affected by dampeners. Maybe they wore antidampener bracelets.

  Would it be hard to make an antidampener? He’d look into it later.

  Angus glanced up at the cable that connected the building to the electricity grid. No electricity, no dampener. He wasn’t close enough for the dampener to dull his magic yet, but he could feel the edge. He’d be walking into a magic-free bubble in less than a dozen steps. In the distance a truck rumbled closer.

  The demons couldn’t get on that truck. He wouldn’t let the underground take demons out of the college to use for their own rituals. The trainees slid along in the shadows of the building, but it was too quiet.

  Angus glanced along the line and realized one of the trainees was missing.

  Lizzie brushed against him and glanced at the side of the building where a dark shape was climbing. “Dustin’s taking out the dampener. Saw you looking. Said good luck.”

  Angus nodded and hoped that Dustin didn’t electrocute himself.

  The dampener pressed against his skin. It smothered him and made the air thick like molasses. He was tempted to let go of some of the magic he was holding, but that was the way dampeners worked. They encouraged people to release magic, even if they didn’t realize it. Angus refused to comply.

  The thief was just inside the door. “Get the demons. The truck will be here soon.” In his hands were the cables. The thief kept the alarm from going off by using the magic in his body.

  Angus nodded, flicked on his flashlight, and made his way into the building. The hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stood on end. The si
nging voices of demons reached him as he moved deeper into the building. He responded—somehow he’d learned the words while he was in Demonside. The song was about rain and water.

  There was a pause, and then the song resumed.

  Angus moved more quickly. The air tasted of death and blood. It was heavy and metallic. The college must work their rituals there.

  But where were the guards? Or had dispatching them been someone else’s job?

  He turned the corner and saw the cells of demons. “I’m here to let you out.”

  “Angus?” A blue demon stepped forward. He knew her.

  “Yes.” He looked at the cell door. There was no lock to pick. It was magical, and he couldn’t use magic because of the dampener. He swore.

  The air shimmered, something crackled, and static built on his skin. The dampener was down. He lifted his hands and, without bothering with a circle or any finesse, he ripped the locks off the doors. The demons pushed them open and ran.

  The trainees were herding the demons, just like they’d been asked. Angus followed the demons, and they all ran to get out of the building where they’d be trapped and helpless.

  A surge of something hit the air, and the dampener came back online. The slap took Angus’s breath away, and he stumbled. A demon grabbed his arm and pulled him up. The scent of barbeque hit his nose. The thief was slumped over, dead at the door with the cables in his hand.

  Someone would be getting a call that the building had been breached.

  Dustin, who’d been on the roof, was now holding the door of the truck open. “Get in the truck!”

  The demon at the front stopped short and started to walk in circles.

  Angus knew what the demon was trying to do. He was trying to open the void to get home. When Angus got close enough, he tore open the void. Most people would think the demon had been successful, but the demon knew better. He gave a nod and stepped through. The others didn’t even pause. They followed.

  The trainees watched as the point of the mission went home. No one made any move to stop the demons, and Angus was very tempted to follow them. The void called to his blood. He could feel the heat and smell the air. Then the demons were gone, and the void closed.

  “Well, I guess they’re away from the college, which was kind of the point,” Lizzie said.

  Angus pulled himself into the truck. Syg and the van they’d arrived in had vanished. “We’d better get in unless we want to be arrested.”

  They climbed in and slammed the door closed. The trainees were all alive, but none of them were smiling.

  Angus was delivered to the headquarters at the old school. The corridors were cold, and his footsteps echoed. While there were no dampeners, there wasn’t any magic accumulated in any corner either. The other trainees followed him as though he knew where he was going, and he had a vague idea, but he was just following the signs. They’d been told to go to the auditorium.

  The underground wasn’t impressed that they allowed the demons to escape. But what were they supposed to do? Use magic to recapture them? He expected one of the other trainees to say something about the demon opening the tear… or even that the demon had help, but no one said anything.

  It was clear to all of them that the underground wanted the demons for their own use, much like the scarlips. The only person who’d died that morning was the thief, but it could’ve easily been one of them. If they’d fought with the demons, there would’ve been injuries.

  Risely, the masked warlock in charge, had been waiting for them to discuss their failure, had impressed upon them the importance of keeping demons safe. How was going back to Demonside unsafe, Angus asked? Risely had no answers, but he gave Angus a look of pure hatred.

  Odds were that Angus would find himself brushing up against death on the next mission. He was getting used to that feeling. But while he didn’t want to die, it didn’t terrify him the way it once had. At least if he were dead he’d be free from fighting battles on behalf of people who were only slightly less bad than the college.

  He pushed open the door to the auditorium. Many of the seats were missing, and most of it was in darkness, but the stage was lit. A single pale light shone on one person dressed in black—Syg. Another person was almost hidden in the shadows to the side.

  “That can’t be good,” Norah whispered.

  Angus knew it wasn’t going to be good the moment they were all ordered to go. He’d thought it would be a meeting, but it wasn’t.

  “Come and get a front-row seat,” Syg said, not moving from his circle of illumination.

  “Are they going to kill a demon in front of us?” Dustin whispered.

  “I don’t think this is going to be congratulations for fucking up,” Lizzie said.

  “We didn’t fuck up.” Angus took a few steps closer. “The demons escaped when they got the chance.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t have taken the dampeners off-line,” one of the trainees said.

  “Then we’d have never gotten the locks open without setting off the alarm.” The locks were magical. “We were set up to fail.”

  “To be arrested by the college.” Norah crossed her arms.

  The other trainees spoke softly, but worry swirled around them. They formed a tighter cluster.

  “We could have fled to Demonside with the demons,” Angus muttered. But they hadn’t, and while they hadn’t yet been arrested, things were not looking good. He couldn’t leave Terrance behind. The underground had found a most effective way to bind him into near obedience.

  “Would you flee to Demonside?” Dustin’s voice was curious, not incredulous.

  “Yes,” Angus answered immediately. “I’d rather take my chances in the desert.” He knew how to survive, although he would never again take a swim in a lake—not without a hunter present. His ankle was bare, and his steps too quiet without the bells. He missed the noise of the village. In Humanside he was slinking around in the shadows as though he didn’t exist.

  They could all be erased, and no one would care.

  His mother already thought he was dead—or worse, a rogue warlock. Did the others have family to miss them or had the underground become their family? Like him, they were all around twenty years old.

  While they had all volunteered to go to Demonside, they had probably only done so because there was nothing else for them. None of them loved the college, but none of them talked about how good the underground was either. They no longer hoped the underground would somehow make things right. They would have to save themselves.

  They all went silent as they reached the last couple of steps. Angus remained standing as the others took front-row seats that had seen far better days. “Why are we here?”

  “To remind you what happens when you don’t obey.” Syg tugged on the rope around the other person’s wrists. It wasn’t a demon. It had to be a human man from the height and broadness of his bare shoulders.

  Angus’s stomach flipped over.

  No.

  He didn’t need to see Terrance’s face to know it was him.

  “Take your seat, Angus,” Syg said.

  “I will stand.” His hands fisted at his sides.

  Lizzie hissed at him to sit.

  They didn’t know that he’d helped the demons across the void, and the underground didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. Terrance was still going to be punished because he hadn’t done exactly as the underground wanted.

  If Angus had been killed or arrested on the job, Terrance would’ve been given the bad news. If Angus had survived and brought the demons, Terrance would have been there as a reward for good behavior.

  It was sick.

  But Angus had no idea how to break the bonds. Terrance wouldn’t break up with him. While he no longer believed in the underground, Angus knew that Terrance believed in what it had once stood for. And the underground had enough on Terrance to turn him over to the college for the smallest infraction. As long as they needed him to keep Angus in line, Terrance was almost safer
in the underground’s hands than he would have been if he were free.

  With a flick of his fingers, the man sent the rope upward, where it tied itself to a rafter. Terrance’s toes barely touched the ground.

  Angus’s nails pressed into his palms, and the scar on his chest burned.

  Finally the man removed Terrance’s hood. He blinked a few times. When he saw Angus, he gave a very small shake of his head.

  What did that mean?

  Terrance didn’t look away in disgust. He kept his gaze steady and on Angus.

  Something snapped. Terrance’s face contorted, and Angus realized what the punishment was. Syg had a whip, and he wielded it with the finesse of someone who had done it many times.

  Angus took half a step forward, but Terrance shook his head again.

  The third stroke drew a grunt of pain.

  Angus’s nails broke the skin. He couldn’t just stand there and do nothing. But Terrance continued to stare at him.

  Someone to his right gasped and let out a cry as though they were receiving the lashes. But the underground still needed them. There were plenty of dangerous jobs the trainees could do. Terrance was fully expendable.

  He’d be written off as one more troublemaking rogue, even though he no longer had a demon. People went missing every day. He’d be one more, and no one would investigate too deeply, in case they were next.

  Angus flinched with every stroke. Tears blurred his vision. He shouldn’t regret helping the demons escape. But he did.

  Terrance gritted his teeth, but a grunt escaped with each lash. When it became too much, he cried out. The anger broke free and magic flowed from Angus’s fingers. He didn’t care what happened to him. He tore the whip from Syg’s hand, looped around his throat, and dragged Syg to the edge of the stage.

  Syg recovered fast and lashed out with magic. Angus was thrown back and landed awkwardly four steps up. He gasped for breath, but he was sure that nothing was broken, just bruised. He raised his hand, but Lizzie held him down. The other trainees restrained Syg.

  Angus struggled until he realized that he didn’t need to use his hands to direct magic—he’d never seen Saka wave his hands like a warlock. He reached out with his mind and freed Terrance from the rope that bound him. Terrance stumbled but didn’t fall.