“The underworld, Hell, down there. Whatever you call it, today we are going to learn all about it,” Mrs. Delacourt trilled.
My attention pulled to the front. I still wasn’t used to seeing Centaurs. Mrs. Delacourt was a magnificent white horse on her lower half and a tanned Greek goddess on her upper.
“The realm where the Prince of Darkness rules, lies directly under our world,” she called out.
More than a few eyes landed on me when she mentioned Lucifer. I’d taken to wearing high-collared shirts to hide my mark, but it was useless since everyone already knew it was there. I’d come to terms with the fact that the mark would be a part of me forever.
“If I were to open a portal today and look through, then open a portal next week and look through, I could see the same swatch of landscape. That tells us that the underworld doesn’t move or shift.”
Interesting. I immediately thought of Sera.
A hand shot up, and I inwardly groaned to see it was Tiffany.
“Yes, Tiffany.” Was that a curled upper lip I detected from the professor?
The blonde Light Mage wiggled in her seat. “Is it true that Celestials can’t go there? That it’s, like, a thousand times worse for them there than it would be in Demon City?”
I glared at Tiffany. What an annoying and stupid question.
“Yes, that’s true. They’ve tried, and crossing the threshold inflicts so much pain that it brings the person near death,” the professor admitted.
Tiffany glanced back at me. “But for someone who has no problem in Demon City, someone demon gifted, they’d be fine in Hell, right?”
Bitch. Why was murder illegal? Some people just shouldn’t be allowed to live.
Mrs. Delacourt glared at Tiffany. “Hypothetically, yes. Moving on.”
As our history professor started to draw a diagram on the board, I stared at the back of Tiffany’s glossy blonde hair and thought of all the ways I could inflict harm on her.
“I just want to see him. Just for a minute, to make sure he’s okay,” I pleaded with Clark.
“No.” Clark’s firm commanding voice flared through the phone, getting on my last nerve.
“He’s my brother!” I shouted.
“Yes he is. And how would he feel if he mauled you to death?” he snapped back.
Jesus.
This guy really had a way with people.
“My mom’s really worried and losing sleep over this. Can’t you tell us anything?” I decided playing the sappy mom card might work.
Clark sighed, followed by a long stretch of silence before he spoke. “Mikey is showing signs of being a lone wolf. He’s rejecting the pack and my lead. But at the same time, he needs us or he’ll be lost to the beast. If he doesn’t turn back to human before the next full moon, he may be too far gone for me to bring him back.”
My whole entire body sagged as I slid against the wall in my dorm room, emotion tightening my throat.
“Oh my God.”
Mikey was my little brother. I felt completely responsible for him.
Clark sighed again. “Look, kid, was there some trauma when you were younger or something? It’s like he wants to stay like this. He’s avoiding his humanity for a reason, which happens in cases where they went through some tough shit they didn’t properly deal with. The beast brings it all out and forces them to deal with it to make them stronger.”
Trauma.
That word was ugly. It meant you’d endured something horrific that left a lasting impression. But it was also accurate.
“My mom and I sold ourselves to the demons to heal my dad’s cancer when I was twelve. He was hit by a bus six months later and died.”
“Oh God.” Clark’s voice, for the first time, was full of empathy. “Yeah, that’ll do it.”
My whole world felt like it was caving in around me.
“Can you… I dunno, try harder? Get a shrink out there? Something.” I had reached the point of begging. If my dad’s death and my mom’s and my demon enslavement was messing with Mikey, I felt totally responsible.
“I’m doing the best I can, but I can try something different. Was your dad buried anywhere? You have ashes or anything?”
His question caught me off guard. When my dad died, we all agreed as a family that we didn’t want him buried in Demon City. It was nearly a month’s salary, but my mom bought him a plot in Angel City at the prettiest Catholic cemetery. We’d all gotten day passes, and she was given the time off work to lay him to rest. I’d been so used to not being able to see him that I didn’t even think of visiting him now that I lived here. Until now.