Page 13 of Dancing With Demons

If I wasn’t watching, I wouldn’t have believed it happened.

With a single word of the headmistress, they stopped fighting, shouting, and coming after me— No, they stopped thinking of me at all.

They ran to their seats like it was musical chairs and clamped their mouths shut—their faces carrying an emotion I’d never seen on a demon.

Fear.

“Wh-wh-what j-just happened?” Terror numbed my tongue and lips. “Wh— Why—?”

“Charlie, it’s okay,” Tristan whispered, resting my head on his chest. “I’m here.”

Two words, and the dam holding back my tears almost broke.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so sorry, but... we have to go back in there.”

I clamped on his forearm, my nails piercing his skin.

“We can’t ignore an announcement from the headmistress.” Tristan picked me up in his arms even as screams bled through my teeth. “She— She is—” He shuddered.

Tristan Hamapa—the man who faced a hundred hungry vampires and lived to tell about it—shuddered in fear.

“She’s the most dangerous woman you’ll never meet.”

Tristan carried me over the threshold and let the door slam shut behind, but he didn’t go in any further. Instead, he pressed back against the wood—holding me tight.

“Cheers, wolf, for bringing in the topic of today’s discussion,” Erlik began. He took his place standing on the platform at the opposite end of the room. “With the news that a little mortal girl has slithered her way into the academy, the headmistress has decreed that changes must be made.

“Seeing as she earned her spot, and her badge, fair and square, she cannot be expelled,” he announced. “Therefore, you are all now looking at Abaddon Academy’s first human student.”

The heckling sounded immediately.

“Human, my ass,” someone snapped. “She’s a fucking witch, isn’t she! That winged shit had the right idea. Why shouldn’t we burn her now and get it over with!”

My heart leaped into my throat.

“She’s not a witch,” Erlik drawled with a certainty that made me lift my head in surprise. “Gods, I swear hell sent me its worst and dumbest this year. If she was a witch, wouldn’t she have blasted you horny fuckers to dust when you were clawing over each other to climb on top of her?” Again he spoke of gang rape the same way someone talks about how to make lemonade. “No witch alive would let a demon lay a finger on her and live.

“Witches don’t need to beg, bargain, or plead to use their power. It is always at their fingertips, and if she had a scrap, you weak cunts would be dust!” he barked. “Now stop fucking interrupting!”

He got back some choice insults in response, but as ordered, they quieted down quickly.

But my thoughts didn’t. Breaking through the fear, those words spun around in my head. A witch’s power is always at her fingertips? So why didn’t I know I had any until my dead mother told me?

“—since the admittance of this girl,” Erlik went on, “means this school is now coed, the headmistress has decided in all her wisdom to make this change permanent.

“Female demons, werewolves, vampires, and fae will now be allowed to attend Abaddon Academy for Men.”

I expected hooting, hollering, and lewd remarks. I braced myself for them, burrowing closer to Tristan... but none came.

No one made a sound.

“But...” a voice spoke up after a deep, pregnant silence. “We’ll die.”

Erlik barked a laugh. “Undoubtedly! All your asses are cooked the minute those ladies set foot in here, so, to minimize the damage, the headmistress has set down one final decree.

“Classes in Abaddon Academy will no longer be mixed. From this minute forth, vampires are confined to the south wing. Fae are confined to the north wing. Demons and humans are confined to the east wing. And werewolves—” Erlik spun on Tristan.

Wait, no!