36. WEN

“That was so fucking cool!”

The exclamation hits me as I burst back into existence.

I stagger, the switch from the void’s nothingness, what felt like the limitlessness that everything is made of, to the finiteness of reality, overwhelming me.

Matt is still in her place, dark eyes pinned on me, glittering with elation. “Can I move now, Professor Astaroth?”

“Remain where you are until we’re sure she’s stable—Cadet Conrad, no.” Astaroth’s shout is cut short a second before a tearful Sarah charges me.

Matt takes that as permission to move, too, and rushes at me, and I find myself squeezed between the two girls. Jinny is approaching at a slower pace, and all the other cadets are scattering outside the heptagon.

Astaroth remains in his place, pose thwarted, gaze heavy. It’s only when he looks up that my mind comes back online. Godric.

My gaze snaps up as I hug Sarah back on auto, my knees wobbling, with her weight and with relief at finding him hovering above me, eyes raging with emerald flames.

He brought me back.

I wish he’d swoop down, scoop me up and fly away. Or at least come close so I could climb him, like I did the one time he flew me. But he can’t approach me now.

Still, I’m back. And he said all those incredible things. Once we’re out of here, I’ll make him pick up where we left off.

“What happened?” Sarah pushes away, eyes wet and still wide with fright.

“I don’t know.” And that’s no lie, for once. I have no idea what happened.

She paws me, as if for extra assurance I’m solid again. “Are you okay? Does anything hurt?”

“No, Sar, I’m feeling exactly as I did before I blinked out seconds ago.” Godric always said time slowed down for us in the Mindscape. I assume the void has the same rules.

“You were gone for over twenty minutes!” Sarah cries.

“Professor Astaroth forbade us from moving,” Matt pipes up. “So we wouldn’t disturb the process, and maybe your return.”

Sarah dives into me again. “I-I thought you were gone.”

“Yeah, I thought we got rid of you for sure this time, Nothing,” Jinny drawls, meeting my eyes above Sarah’s head. Hers aren’t as taunting and vicious as her words.

I curl my lip at her. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily, Demoncakes.”

Sarah turns on her with an appalled look. “How can you say that, Jinny?”

Jinny’s cheeks darken. Sarah’s the only one who can get away with reprimanding her. “I was only joking, Sar.”

Matt pulls away to glare at Jinny, too. “How can you even joke about something like that?”

Jinny bares her teeth at Matt. “Did I give you permission to speak to me, angel-disgraced?”

“As if I’d ever want to talk to you, demon-dick.” Matt looks suddenly crestfallen. “And I’m demon-blighted.”

Jinny cracks an ugly laugh. “So you’re basically a sentient demonic infection.”

“Order.” Astaroth’s loud but calm command drops an immediate hush over the expansive space. “We will investigate your vanishing experience, later, Cadet White. A phasing Grace is rare, but not unheard of.”

Matt again says it’s fucking cool. A few corroborating comments come from around me.

Since he knows I have no such Grace, it seems Astaroth is covering for me until they’re ready to break the news about my real powers.

But could Nulls do what I just did? If not, how does he explain it to himself, when he doesn’t know about the void?

Who knows. Maybe Nulls have Graces, and no one told me. Or no one knows.

“We must continue our session.” Astaroth waves at me. “Please step out of the heptagon. Everyone return to your places. All but Cadet Conrad and Cadet Jinny. It’s your turn.”

In seconds, we’re all back to the usual formation around the Lapides Sacri.

Sarah still looks rattled, while Jinny seems keen. She’s all for anything she gets to do with Sarah. Which isn’t much nowadays.

After Sarah’s unprecedented results during the Amulet Ceremony, we were all surprised when she got a very non-specific Grace Development curriculum. She reasoned it’s what suited her, since she has no specific Grace. While Jinny didn’t care what they gave her, as long as she got classes with Sarah.

This is the only one the two of us got with her. And yeah, neither of us is happy about it. I really hate it when we’re united in anything. But Sarah always manages to bring us together.

As soon as they stand facing each other, Astaroth intones, “Begin.”

Sarah closes her eyes and raises her hands, creating the triangle shape. Jinny sighs, as if she finds the whole thing ridiculous, but does the same.

From observing the other encounters, there is always some indication of what’s happening between the pair. We’ve seen everything from Grace flares to changing hair color to weeping. But as Sarah and Jinny go into the trance, for long minutes, nothing happens.

My gaze wanders up to Godric, only to find his blazing all over me. I’m getting lost in those one-of-a-kind eyes when a blinding light suddenly fills the space.

I snap my eyes toward the heptagon. It’s Sarah. Not that I can see her anymore, just her outline. All of her body is glowing like a white star about to go nova.

It all happens at once as time slows down. I realize something is wrong in the same second Jinny flies back and hits that semi-existing monolith, her spine folding backward against it with a sickening crack. She crumples to the ground, and tentacles of billowing darkness shoot down from every direction, cocooning her, besieging the heptagon, and attacking Sarah.

Then I’m running, crying Sarah’s name louder than the chaos that erupts around me, and breaching the heptagon’s energy ribbons. I get caught in them, but I struggle, start to tear through, and the darkness turns into tornado funnels that head toward me.

A thunderclap followed by hurricane level wind blows them all away, and tears me out of the ensnaring energy.

I know what that was. I’ve experienced it before. Godric’s world-shaking wing flap.

Before I slam to the ground, my trajectory slows down just as Godric lands before me, and I end up flopping at his feet.

“Enough.” Astaroth’s shout is an inexorable force this time, pressing me down to the ground.

I struggle to sit up as Godric turns to him, and I see Sarah again, out of her trance, her light snuffed. And she’s looking in horror at Jinny’s inert form at the bottom of the monolith.

“What happened?” Sarah cries out. “Did I do that to her?”

“Do not approach her, Cadet Conrad. You will obey me this time. Make another move, any of you, and you will face my wrath.” Astaroth’s voice is a nightmarish rumble straight out of Hell as he advances on us, glaring at Godric. “Except you, nephilim. You can move, preferably out of here.”

Godric’s lips twist. “Don’t worry, archdemon, I won’t damage your precious stones.”

Astaroth’s own lips curl in distaste at Godric’s double entendre. “You might already have. Or she has.” He lowers his voice, as if he means only us to hear. “Together, you’re a disaster that always manages to happen.”

Godric’s eyes target me, suddenly somber. “I can’t argue with that.”

Before I can object, Astaroth sniffs his exasperation with us both and strides away.

He stops at the heptagon, a wave of his hand interrupting the energy cage before he rushes to the still unmoving Jinny. Sarah remains rooted, shoulders shaking and eyes streaming and glued to her.

Crouching beside Jinny, Astaroth hovers a hand over her back. It glows crimson at first, then after a while it bursts with pitch black flames. I can feel the heat from this far, on many levels beyond the physical. Jinny moans and moves, and he turns her gently on her side as her eyes flutter open.

Did he just scan her injury and heal it? It’s nothing like what he did with me. And he didn’t recite any invocation. Maybe he can diagnose her, and infuse her with reviving Hellfire or something, because she’s also an archdemon, and they both run on the same juice.

“Can I please move now?” Sarah begs, voice trembling.

Astaroth exhales as he rises to his feet. “Very well. You can come fuss over your friend. She’ll be fine, but do take her to the Sanatorium for a check up, since I know you won’t rest until you do.”

Sarah flies to Jinny’s side, helping her to sit up and deluging her in hugs and tears. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Jinny shakes her head, clearly not recovered from whatever happened, but smiling for Sarah’s sake. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s this stupid exercise. It sucked Wen into the Phantom Zone, then made you short-circuit.” She looks over at Astaroth. “Any way to change classes around here? Anything else Sarah takes is fine by me.”

Expecting Astaroth to say that curriculums, once set, are immutable, I’m surprised when he nods. “I’ll see about switching you over to something more suited to your—dynamic. It’s clear to me now that you won’t benefit from this class.”

“Thanks, man.” Jinny turns to Sarah with a wobbly wink. “See? I always tell you archdemons are the best.”

As Sarah helps Jinny hobble out of the heptagon, Astaroth calls out, “You’re all dismissed. And Cadets White and Conrad, next session, do read the material I send you, and practice the techniques I recommend. It’s clear neither of you did, or those accidents would have been prevented.”

As we leave the hall, then eventually the Library, I’m still wondering about Astaroth’s parting words.

He’d still been covering for me, pretending what happened wasn’t such a big deal. But he’d also covered for Sarah.

What does he think she did that needs covering up? Does he know, or does he only have theories like Godric?

Whatever it is, I’d rather both our secrets remain buried forever.

Do I have any hope they will?

Not a single one.