Now I’m Following You

I ’m pretty certain that fucking control freak has his people watching me.

As I sat in my Intro to Demons I can feel it in my bones.

The only thing I can do to prevent a nasty scene I end up getting punished for is to keep my head down and do everything I’m supposed to. Unfortunately, I’m only good at the second part. The first part seems to have fled the building when I got whisked away to this place. I’ve never felt more willing to stand up to people and tell them to get fucked than I do here. Is that because we’re in Hell? Does this place feed my resentment and anger? Maybe I can ask Salem. He seems to?—

“ Mr. Camponella. ”

I blink, looking up at the professor with wide eyes. After Intro to Demons at least from my years in the human world. “Well, different religions believe different things. You’d have to deconstruct what evil is for every subsect of those systems. Some Christians would point to original sin... Eve and the apple. Other religions will have a similar, but also different, moment in which they say evil came into the world—like Pandora and her box for the Greeks.”

The classroom is quiet and I swallow hard, hoping she won’t dress me down for stupidity. We all wait for another moment, but finally, Lillabet nods. “Excellent answer. We need to break down all the mythos where demons became the symbol of the ills of the world and then rebuild those tales with the truth humans are unaware of. That is part of what this class will entail—learning where the narrative diverges and why.”

Son of a bitch, I did it.

Sinking down into my chair, I focus on the rest of what she’s saying as I type notes on the laptop Oriel got for me. I know I can’t keep anything truly important on the devices Jasper’s pet hacker set up for me, but class notes and things that he can check up on should satisfy his need to act like I’m a goddamn sea monkey.

If I can keep his attention on my behavior , he won’t look as closely at me , and I won’t get outed in some tragically awful version of a 90s movie where they strip the girl and laugh.

As if that isn’t sexual assault—what a bunch of horseshit.

I swallow hard when those words flitter through my brain and only the motion of the spinning ring on my thumb keeps me from sinking into the past.

“Damn it, Kit. Keep it together,” I mutter to myself. It gets me a weird look from the dude sitting next to me, so I hunch down more and clack at the keyboard.

Pretending is going to be even harder than I thought.

After my history class, my schedule says I need to head to the library. I have a class called Demonic Lineage 101 , and I’m sure that’s going to be another fresh hell involving shit I’ve never heard of. The students here probably started studying this shit when they were toddlers. I’m not only behind simply in knowledge of their existence, but also in the massive amount of general knowledge they have from their earlier schooling. In order to keep my grades up and professors happy, I’ll have to catch up on more than just the two weeks I missed by coming in late.

I’m never going to have time to take part in whatever stupid extracurricular Jasper demanded the other day.

Before I can plan my protest in my head, a figure pops up behind me and I almost scream. I take a minute to catch my breath, but when I do, I glare at Oriel in annoyance. “You should know better than to sneak up on people like that! It could get you stabbed.”

His brow quirks and he tilts his head, much like the bird he’s named after. “You carry a weapon?”

My gaze narrows as I consider my answer. Will he try to take it away from me? Maybe he’ll tell Jasper and they’ll demand I give it up, which will leave me defenseless in this place full of shit I don’t understand yet. “What if I do?”

“Then you’re smarter than we gave you credit for initially, dude.” He shrugs and I roll my eyes as he stays in step with me. “Definitely smarter than Jas gives you credit for now.”

Dottie pops her head out of my bag, scrambling up the strap onto my shoulder to peer at him. I look up at her, smiling as she nibbles on one of Salem’s snacks held in her tiny hands. “I don’t know why he’s here, either, Dot. Probably stalking me because Prince Dickface thinks I’m going to embarrass him by breathing in the same plane as he does.”

Oriel snorts, shaking his head. “He seems unreasonable because he is, but there are good reasons.”

“It’s almost like he thinks we’re talking to him,” I coo at my kinkajou as I continue to the building marked on my map. “Do you know why these fucking douche canoes are intent on ruining my day with their presence?”

Dottie chitters an animated response, and that gets a full-on laugh from my emo shadow. He doesn’t look at me this time, just asks, “Are those treats made by Salem?”

I suck in a deep breath, irritated that I have no more choice in what I do here than I did at home. “ Yes , they are. He made me Dottie and I snacks to keep our energy until lunch.”

“Smart panda. The magic here will tire you out more quickly until your abilities unlock. It will be hard for you to endure the entire day without bursts of energy from somewhere.”

What the fuck? Was no one going to mention that shit until I fucking collapsed?

My anger increases, making me stride faster towards the immense library as if putting distance between me and the rest of the caliphate will fix my problems. Of course, I don’t even know where the hell they are, so that’s wishful thinking. “Yeah, I suppose it’s a good thing he slipped these to me without telling me why. That way, he could defy your lord and master, but not be nearly as big a jackass as the rest of you.”

Oriel stops, grabbing my arm, and I jerk away with a snarl. He sighs, looking at me from under his shaggy hair in frustration. “I don’t agree with everything Jas does or I wouldn’t be here walking with you.”

“Oh, sure. Like you’re not tracking me for him like Slash did when he ‘escorted me’ to my first class.”

His lips curve and I see the handsome devil behind his mask of indifference. “I told him I was nowhere near here. Which was true, but now it isn’t. He thinks none of us have eyes on you until the last class.”

Oh, great.. They know my schedule, but I have no idea where any of them will be.

We walk again, and I hold back the growl of annoyance. “That makes me feel so much better. What happens in my last class? Do I get one of your super secret rings if I behave all day?”

He frowns as we approach the sprawling steps of the library. “We don’t have rings. Besides, I only meant that Zav, Salem, and I have Literature of the Dark Ages with you.”

Inhaling slowly, I spin the ring on my thumb and try not to let Oriel see how irritated I am. Opening my bag, I nod at Dottie, hoping she understands I want her to hide in it until I figure out what the next class’ professor is like. “Got it. You’ll all be able to observe me and report back whether you think I’m going to fuck up the caliphate GPA or whatever.”

“Uh, no. I mean, we’ll be lucky if Salem doesn’t do that in a Lit class. He’s more of a hands-on demon, and he gets really snoozy as the end of the day nears. You’ll have to help us keep him alert more than anything.”

I blink, licking my lips as I watch him fidget. He seems sincere and Oriel has said more words at once to me now than I think he usually does around people. “Okay, I guess. I’ll try.”

“Thanks. Um, I have to go to EsTech now, so… just…. fly under the radar, okay? That’s the best way to keep Jasper from losing his shit.”

“I’ll do what I can,” I reply with a shrug.

That all depends on what I run into before he sees me again.