9. Ethan

Chapter 9

Ethan

“Prof?” Tanner says when I stroll into the classroom. “You’re okay?” He races towards me and pats my arms as if to check that I’m really here.

“I’m okay.” Better than okay, but I won’t tell him that. Florence says the demon that brought her home last night is coming back tonight with messages from Wick.

“Thank fuck. I thought… well, Professor Hallow said you’d live, but I wasn’t sure. The way you went down, that was scary.” He goes pale. “Not to mention you have an admirer or stalker or something that wasn’t too happy to find out what I’d done to you.”

“You didn’t do anything to me.” It takes me a moment to register what else he said. “What do you mean, admirer or stalker?”

“After… you know…” Courtney, one of the other four remaining students, pipes up. “We wanted to cheer Tanner up and went to Flutter and Fangs. There was this demon that heard our conversation and flipped out when he heard you’d been poisoned.”

“He was scary,” Tanner says as he paces. “He didn’t hurt me, though.”

My heart drops. “What happened?”

Courtney shrugs. “A lot of growling. The bartender was a hot nephilim and even he couldn’t get the demon off Tanner. It took another other demon to pull him off.”

“He just kept going on about ‘don’t touch my Ethan.’ I told him it was an accident. Someone set me up. But he just kept talking about his Ethan.”

“I’m sorry you went through that Tanner.” I really really am. “It’s… complicated.”

Courtney’s eyes light up. “Is he your lover? Is there a lover’s quarrel?”

I snort at her imagination. “No, nothing like that.”

Florence snorts. “More like—” They shut their mouth though they can’t stop grinning. “Hmmm…” They tap their lips. “How do we explain it?”

Courtney squints at Florence. “If the demon is Professor Speller’s lover, then shouldn’t you be upset about that?”

“Not in the least.” Florence smoothes out the front of their skirt before they take the seat behind the desk. “We’ll have an open marriage. If it even happens.”

Courtney squeals. “I want all the deets.”

“Absolutely not,” I say. “At least not anytime soon.” I wave towards the desks. “Take a seat and we’ll get the written exam started.” We’re still waiting for the last two of our remaining students. They’re always late and I’m not worried.

Darla and Phillip walk in, hands clasped together with the biggest smiles on their faces.

“Looks like those to are getting chummy,” Tanner says as he looks longingly to Courtney. She’s totally oblivious.

“Alright everyone, have a seat,” Florence says. And we start the first round of finals, the written exam.

Three hours of staring into space, wondering what the heck Wick might send with this Pike guy. What do I want to send back to him?

Of course, my phone number. Maybe… maybe something like a note, but what do I say? Sorry, I don’t remember who the fuck you are, but I see you in my dreams every night and you’re the most handsome person I’ve ever laid eyes on. That’s so dumb. But I grab a notebook and start scribbling words down, anyway.

When the timer goes off, I’m startled out of my thoughts. The pretty demon stares at me from my notebook. At some point I’d gone to drawing him. How I know every violet freckle on his blue face, I have no idea.

“Ethan?” Florence drops a hand on my shoulder and squeezes. “Want to go grab lunch?”

My stomach rumbles in answer. “Probably for the best. That way you can help me figure out what the hell to say to Wick.”

They give me a gentle smile and I realize all our students are gone. “You’ve been staring at that picture for twenty minutes.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. We’re at the end of a long mystery.” Another squeeze to my shoulder. “I’m happy for you.”

I rub my cheek against their hand. “You’re the best, you know that?”

“Yep. We’ll get you your demon and I’ll get me my puppy. Oh! Maybe I can get a Hellhound! Wouldn’t that be exciting?”

“Can witches have Hellhounds?” I ask. “And how will Squid take it? He’s pretty territorial.”

Florence snorts. “Squid won’t mind. He wants a sibling to play with.”

“Vi likes being an only child.” As if right on cue, my familiar flitters right in my face as usual. She fills my head with everything she’s learned on crossroads demons. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s enough. “Thank you, love. You’re amazing.” Her little wings shimmy as she preens at my praise. “I’ll get you your favorite treat tonight. Go rest.” She zig zags in front of me, then flies right back out the window she came.

“What’d she say?” Florence asks as we head towards the cafeteria.

“Not much, but it’s still solid. Like crossroads demons can travel anywhere they want, but when they’re summoned, they have to stay in the circle of salt they’re summoned with until either the deal is struck or they deny it.”

“Curious.”

“It’s a safety issue.” I go back to thinking about what I want to pass over to Wick. “I hate not knowing what I should know, you know?”

“I get it.”

“I can’t even think straight. I thought we were just testing my theory last night and I find a missing piece of the puzzle.”

“ The missing piece.”

We shuffle in line and grab a tray each. I’m not so hungry now that we’re here, but if I don’t eat, Florence will be cross with me. I choose a salad and we find a pair of seats in a far corner.

“Do you think cellphones work in the demon realm? Do you think?—”

Florence holds up their hand. “We can ask Pike all that tonight.”

“I want to go to the masquerade party. Maybe my grandmother will let me if I play my cards right.”

“She’ll probably make you promise to actually marry me and we can’t have that.”

“No, we really can’t.” We eat in mostly silence. My brain too active to focus on conversation. “Thank you for arranging for the demon that got you home to come back.”

“It was his suggestion, but I would have come up with it had he not. You need closure on this. We need to know what the fuck happened to your memories. We can figure the why is you were dangerously close to what you wanted and Cordia cut you off.”

I huff into my salad. “I understand why I need to be bound to someone before I’m twenty-five, but it pisses me off to no end. It’s all on her. If it weren’t for Cordia meddling in my life before I was even born, I wouldn’t be forced to do any of this.” I drop my fork.

“What do you mean?” Florence glares at me.

And that’s when I realized I slipped up. “Shit.”

“What are you keeping from me, Ethan Speller?”

I throw back my head and blink into the witch lights serving as the lighting in the cafeteria. I take a drink and tell her everything I know.

Florence sucks in a breath. “She sold her soul to make you powerful?”

“Fucked up, right?”

“Very. I’m so sorry.” They reach over and grab my hand. “So damn sorry. We’ll fix this. Fuck her, she gave up her soul, and it’s not your problem. Nor mine.”

“That’s how I’ve felt for years.” I take another sip of my water.

“I wish you’d told me this sooner. We could have carried this together. That’s what best friends are for.”

“You have your own shit you have to deal with. If I can keep a little bit of the burden off you, I will.”

We finish our lunch in silence.

Florence takes my hand on our way back to the classroom. “Why don’t you go home? I’ll take the office hours. That way, you can gather your thoughts and get ready for the meeting with Pike.”

“If you’re sure?”

“Very sure.” They wave me off, but instead of going home, I head to the dean’s office, where my grandmother sits like a queen on a throne behind the big oak desk.

“Ethan? I wasn’t expecting you here today. I thought you were staying home.”

“I feel better. And I wanted to talk to you about my birthday.” I settle into the seat across from her.

“Oh?”

“I want you to remove the barrier spell. I want to?—”

“Out of the question.”

“You will, or I’ll expose the truth to the coven. That you sold your soul to manufacture a powerful witch.”

Her eyes narrow on me. “You wouldn’t.”

“Want to take bets?” I push back to my feet. “I want the barrier down for twenty-four hours, at the very least. Better yet, permanently. I know you’re trying to protect me, but you can’t keep me locked up. I’m not a caged bird, and I’m no longer playing by your rules.” I won’t play all my cards just yet. I’m just hoping this works. “Let me out, or you’ll regret it.”

I don’t look back when I leave. The door slams a little more harshly than I intended, but I think it gets the point across.