The Hunter Secret (Rite World: Blackthorn Hunters Academy Book 2)

by Juliana Haygert

  As if on cue, dozens of garrimps swarmed the ballroom through the doors and windows.

  Panic ensued.

  Amid it all, Tanner, in his new form, pointed his long, thick finger at me. “I’m here for you.”

  26

  Rey

  Most students panicked while the demon hunters summoned their Dawnblades and started battling the garrimps.

  Holding my Dawnblade, I ran to Erin. I grabbed her hand and pulled her behind me. “Who are you?”

  “I’m the one who will be honored for ages,” Tanner snarled, his voice thick and loud. “Erin is a Demon Kissed Queen of the underworld, a demonic princess, and I've come here to kill her and gain King Brikan’s favor.”

  Even though the battle in the ballroom was loud and messy, it was like there was a pause, when everyone heard and acknowledged what Tanner said.

  Fuck, now everyone knew Erin was King Brikan’s daughter.

  I raised my sword. “Come and get her. It’ll be your end.”

  Tanner let out a hollow laughter as Andre lunged at him, coming from behind him, but as if he had sensed a fly, Tanner swatted him away. Andre flew across the room, landing on top of the other hunters.

  “Stop!” Erin yelled from behind me.

  Tanner snarled. “Only if you come to me. Come to me and let me kill you.”

  As if I would ever allow that.

  A few feet behind the demon, Claire cowered against an upturned table, her hand over her cheek, where Tanner had slapped her.

  Tanner stared at Erin with his dark eyes. “I’ve tried approaching you, but you never even looked at me. So, I started playing with Claire instead. This way, I knew I could eventually get close to you. Besides, your friend was fun … for a little while.”

  “You piece of shit!” Erin stepped forward, as if she would cut Tanner’s throat. I held her wrist and kept her back.

  With a wicked, sharp-tooth grin, Tanner opened his arms. “Come to me. I’m ready to kill you.”

  That was it. This fucking guy was dying right now.

  Dawnblade raised, I lunged at Tanner. With a guttural snarl, Tanner bared his sharp-teeth and lifted his arms, showing off his fingers, which elongated into long, knife-like claws. He clicked them before swiping for me.

  I skidded to a stop and leaned back, the tip of his claws whooshing past my chest. Half an inch closer, and he would have slashed across me.

  Doreen and Norah jumped on Tanner's back. He fought them off with ease.

  I took two steps back, trying to think how to reach for him before he reached for me.

  A foot from my side, Erin extended her hand. I grabbed her wrist. “No, don’t.” She turned her golden eyes to me. “Don’t call your Dawnblade. Not here with a room full of demon hunters.”

  “Why not?”

  I shook my head once. “They won’t like it, and who knows that they will do to you. This isn’t the time. Fight with magic only.”

  An annoyed furrow fell between her brows. She wasn’t happy, but she nodded.

  Tanner let out a roar, and I turned to see the two demon hunters who had been fighting him flying across the ballroom. Behind Tanner, Claire finally got up and ran.

  Beside me, Erin called her darkfire. She threw successions of bolts of darkfire at Tanner, but he moved his arms from side to side, cutting through the bolt as if they were made of air.

  “What the hell?” Erin asked, the shock clear in her voice. “Were those his claws?”

  I watched as Tanner zeroed in on Erin again. “I don’t know, but it seems Tanner’s best weapon is those claws.”

  Tanner took a slow step toward us, toward Erin, as if he wanted her to die of anticipation. I couldn’t let him get to her. I charged, my sword poised.

  As I expected, Tanner swiped his long arms and claws at me again. I ducked under them, my sword ready to strike his legs. But even though he was big, he wasn’t slow. He spun fast and slapped my arm to the side with his claws. The grip on my sword loosened as an electrical shock ran up my arm and radiated into my shoulder. I was momentarily taken aback by his power and barely saw one of his hands coming down at me. I stepped back, but not fast enough. One of his nails scratched across my collarbone, and pain like the sting of electricity squeezed my chest.

  Groaning and shaking, I fell to my knees.

  “Rey!” Erin cried.

  I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even respond to her, my motor control gone with Tanner’s overwhelming power. From the corner of my eyes, I saw as Erin summoned her magic. With a scream, she released a big bolt of darkfire. It zipped to Tanner, but as before, he cut through him like paper.

  Erin was ready, though. She sent one bolt after the next, in several directions and aiming at different places. Tanner was busy cutting through them all, until he finally missed.

  The bolt hit his shoulder, pushing him back a couple of feet.

  Tanner glanced at his shoulder and groaned. “That hurt!” He fixed his eyes at Erin. “You’re dead now.”

  Snapping his teeth like a cannibal, Tanner rushed Erin. She summoned a wall of darkfire, but Tanner sliced through it and grabbed her shoulders.

  “Erin! No!” I screamed, the words coming out in a croak. Desperation filled me. I willed the shock to leave me, my muscles to obey me, my strength to come back, but I could barely move my fingers.

  Claire came forward, trying to reach Erin. Tanner chuckled. “You’re so stupid,” he snarled before slapping her aside. Claire tumbled to the ground and slid across the floor.

  Erin fought against Tanner, but she yelped as he injected her with the same power he had used on me. Erin’s body shook as he slammed her to the floor. Her head lolled to the side, as if she didn’t have any more strength to fight.

  As if she was dead.

  My heart squeezed.

  “Erin! Wake up!” I screamed. My hand finally moved.

  Tanner lifted his big, ugly head and grinned with his sharp teeth. “I’ll enjoy this.” He poised his claws above her chest.

  A few seconds ago, I could barely move my hand, but right at this moment? I found strength I didn’t know I had and pushed to my feet. My muscles screamed against the faint shocks that still ran through my body, but I pushed through it.

  For her, I would always push through.

  I careened into Tanner, knocking him aside. Tanner turned his attention to me, but by then, I had already sliced through his chest.

  “You think that’s enough to kill me?” Tanner cried. He lifted his claws to me.

  I leveled my sword, ready to cut through his claws, even if he shocked me from here to the underworld, but then the doors of the ballroom burst open and Randall marched in, followed by Vaira and the rest of his Black Knight Unit.

  “Take this demon down!” Randall ordered.

  The Black Knights, dressed in a dark uniform similar to the Blackthorn Hunters', charged the higher demon. I grabbed Erin’s hand and pulled her back, before she and I were ever more hurt amid the chaos.

  With so many half-demons attacking him, plus the demon hunters, and a few brave students, Tanner didn’t stand a chance. He fell to the floor with a loud thud.

  Randall worked his magic and bound Tanner’s arms, torso, and legs, tying them with magical vines that sprouted from thin air. Tanner roared and fought against them, but honestly, no one had the power to defeat Randall. By then, most of the garrimps had been killed. The ones still alive fled.

  Randall halted beside a fallen Tanner. “He has been possessed,” he announced. “We’ll take him to the dungeons.” Then, he turned to Erin and me. “You two are coming with me.”

  27

  Erin

  In silence, Rey and I followed the headmaster and the rest of the Black Knight Unit as they carried a numb Tanner to the basement of the Aster building, where the dungeons were located.

  Until a few minutes ago, I didn’t know this building had a basement, much less a dungeon.

  On the way there, Rey asked me if I as all right about
three hundred times. I always told him I was, even though my hands still shook from the shock-like attacks, and my heart still raced from almost being killed.

  We went through hidden doors, down a wide, but dark set of stairs, past a long corridor, and then into a wide room with several doors.

  The headmaster opened one of the doors. “In here.”

  The handful of half-demons who were dragging Tanner went in the room. From the door, Rey and I watched as they deposited Tanner on a tall iron table in the middle of the room, where a wide black circle had been drawn on the stone floor. They strapped thick leather clamps around his legs, arms, and torso—the vines disappeared—then they retreated from the room.

  “Come,” the headmaster said to Rey and me as he entered the room.

  I hesitated, but when Rey went in, I forced myself to move and walked in with him. The headmaster closed and locked the door behind us.

  “What are you going to do?” Rey asked, his eyes trained on Tanner.

  “This is an exorcism room,” the headmaster said, approaching the iron table. “I’m going to strip the demon from Tanner’s body.”

  “What will happen to Tanner?” I asked in a low voice.

  “That will depend on him.” The headmaster took off the jacket of his tuxedo. “If he’s strong enough, he’ll survive.” He folded the sleeves of his shirt up. “Now, stay back. This can get messy.”

  Rey and I retreated to the wall beside the locked door.

  At first, I tried following the ceremony. The headmaster started by summoning his power and chanting some words in what I believed was a demonic language. A small dagger appeared in his hand and he leaned over Tanner. He ran the dagger’s tip across Tanner’s shirt, exposing his stomach. Then he grazed the blade’s tip over Tanner’s skin—enough to scratch and draw droplets of blood.

  Next, the headmaster moved to Tanner’s arms. He repeated the same process.

  How much blood did he need for this ceremony?

  The squeak of a little mouse reached my ears three seconds before the headmaster fished out a white mass from his pocket. Holding it by the tail, the headmaster tugged the mouse high, while still chanting the same nonsense.

  Then, he brought the dagger to the mouse, and pierced him. The headmaster drew the dagger down, and blood pooled on Tanner’s chest.

  Feeling like I was going to be sick, I grabbed Rey’s arm and buried my face in his upper arm. If I kept my eyes closed, maybe, just maybe, I wouldn’t register what was happening. Maybe, just maybe, I wouldn’t remember any of this later.

  “Here he comes,” the headmaster called.

  I spied over Rey’s shoulders. A dark shadow emerged from Tanner’s mouth. A thick, cloud that traveled up and swirled close to the ceiling. The shadow pushed against the invisible walls of the circle on the floor, and shrieked each time, as if it hurt. Finally, it came back to the rough stone floor, where it took shape. Even though it didn’t have Tanner’s features anymore, it was easy to see the demon who had possessed him and used his body. It had the same large build, the same greenish skim, the same dark eyes, the same gaping mouth.

  And the same gaze that zeroed in on me.

  Rey took my hand in his.

  The headmaster summoned his Dawnblade. “State your name!”

  “You can’t keep me in here,” the demon snarled, before pushing against the circle’s power again. It shrieked and retreated to the center of the circle.

  “I guess I can,” the headmaster said. “Now, state your name.”

  “I’m Orzon,” the demon said. He twisted around, as if the words were being pulled out of him. Like magic. Was this some power from the containment circle? “I came here to kill Erin and gain the favor of King Brikan.”

  “Why did you possess Tanner?” the headmaster gesture to Tanner, who was still lying on the iron table.

  I didn’t want to acknowledge how he looked right now.

  “I couldn’t get into the academy by myself,” the demon said with a bite. “I needed a body to carry me. This boy crossed my path and I took him.”

  The headmaster twirled his dark Dawnblade in his hand. “Anything else I should know before I kill you?”

  “I won’t go down without a fight,” the demon snarled.

  “As I hoped.”

  His sword held high, the headmaster ran into the circle.

  Orzon’s fingers turned into the same knife-like claws from before. But even a demon like him wasn’t a match for the headmaster. With his crude Dawnblade—so similar to mine—the headmaster slashed through his claws. The demon let out a roar that shook the walls. Using his magic, the headmaster immobilized the demon. Orzon roared again, trying to move, but unable too.

  The demon’s scream choked in his throat when the headmaster pierced the demon’s chest with his Dawnblade. Magic spread through the demon’s torso in light and dark lines, around his shoulders, up his neck.

  The demon shrieked as he was burned from the inside out.

  A moment later, Orzon exploded in a cloud of black smoke.

  The headmaster waved his hand and the cloud was gone. His sword disappeared too. Smoothing his shirt, he turned to us. “The demon is gone.”

  “What about Tanner?” Rey asked.

  The headmaster shrugged. “He wasn’t strong enough.”

  Oh no.

  Sadness overwhelmed me. Tanner had been a pest these past couple of months, but it was only because he had been possessed by Orzon. I bet he wasn’t a bad guy before. And now he was dead.

  “What do we do now?” Rey asked.

  “Take his body away,” the headmaster said, as if we were taking out the trash. “I’m going back to the ballroom to appease the masses and clean up the mess.” He turned his eyes to me. “Meanwhile, stay quiet. Now everyone knows about you and there will be repercussion.”

  “Should I be scared?” I asked, already scared. I hadn’t planned on hiding what I was and whose child I was forever, but I also hadn’t planned for everyone to find out so soon.

  “We’ll deal with it,” the headmaster said.

  Without another look at us, he walked out of the room.

  Rey and I exchanged a glance.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice soft. Caring.

  So much had happened in the last hour or so, my mind was still trying to play catch up. And my feelings … I was mostly numb on the inside.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I just want to get this night over with.”

  He nodded. “Then we better take Tanner’s body to the infirmary.” Rey left the room in a hurry. I froze, suddenly alone with a body in an exorcism room where a higher demon had been killed. A moment later, Rey came back carrying what looked like a stretcher and a gray blanket. “I found this in another room.”

  It wasn’t easy, but thankfully demon hunters had increased strength. Students, like me, might develop it slowly, but with my half-demon side, it balanced out.

  Rey and I put Tanner’s body on the stretcher, covered it with the blanket, and carried him out of the dungeons and the Aster building, across the courtyard, and into the Daffodil building, where the infirmary was located.

  We had barely stepped inside when Claire showed up.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, surprised.

  “I want to help,” she said, her voice as heartbreaking as her downcast expression.

  What could she help with? All we had to do was leave his body in one of the hospital beds, and be done. There was nothing more we could do for poor Tanner.

  I opened my mouth to tell her to wait outside, because honestly, I didn’t want her to see Tanner like this, but Rey was faster.

  “Okay,” he said. “Come on.”

  She hurried to my side and helped me with my end of the stretcher. Together, we went to the back room and laid Tanner in one of the beds.

  “Shouldn’t we call Cecile so she can come do something about him?” I asked, not comfortable leaving a body alone like that. Shouldn’t he b
e put in a morgue, or whatever?

  “I’ll call her,” Rey said. He fished his phone from inside his pocket.

  I frowned at him. “I thought cell phones were forbidden at the academy,” I said, going for a teasing tone. It didn’t sound right.

  “Usually, I don’t carry it with me, but in all honesty, most students carry theirs all the time,” Rey said.

  “That’s true,” Claire said. “They just hide it well.”

  “What the hell are you talking about cell phones when there’s a dead body to care for?”

  Claire yelped. I blanched. Rey summoned his Dawnblade.

  Opening his eyes, Tanner sat up and raised his hands. “Don’t kill me!”

  28

  Rey

  I angled my Dawnblade to Tanner’s throat. “Who are you?”

  “It’s okay,” Tanner said, his eyes wide at my sword. “It’s me. Orzon is gone now and it’s just me.”

  I lowered my sword a little.

  “H-how aren’t you dead?” Erin asked. After the exorcism ceremony, I was curious about that too.

  “I’m actually half-demon,” Tanner explained. He grabbed a cloth from the bedside table and dabbed at the cuts across his chest. The blood had dried already, but I wondered how the fuck he wasn’t dead from blood loss.

  Erin brought a hand to her amulet. “It’s warning me about you now. Why didn’t it warn me before?”

  I frowned. “I don’t know.”

  “Perhaps because Orzon was able to overthrow the amulet’s powers?” Tanner shrugged. “Anyway, I was able to slow down my heart rate enough so Randall would think I was dead.”

  “Why?” I asked, not understand. “Why not just wake up after the ceremony and walk out with us?”

  Tanner turned in the bed, his legs hanging on the side. He pulled at his torn shirt, trying to hide his bare chest and his injuries, then he let out a long breath. “It’s a long story.” He fixed his eyes on Erin. “I’m not only a half-demon, but I’m a demonic prince, like you.”