“Oh, but I think I do. Your face got so red—”
“I don’t care about all that. If you want to be worried, be worried about Professor Luna.”
“Will you tell me now?”
I sigh and blink back tears. “The guards won’t say how she died, and I don’t want to alert them in case what I saw was just a dream and not the truth.”
“What did you see?”
“He clawed her chest, ripped out her heart, and ate it.”
He lets out a low whistle. “No wonder they didn’t tell everyone.”
“Yeah. But the dream infiltration, it’s not proof. Not in the eyes of the police. What do we do now?”
“Well, we can find the body, dig her up, see if the wound matches.”
“Rosemary, I would follow you to the ends of the earth, but I don’t think we should do that.”
“So you want to bring in the guards then?”
“You know,” Cosmo says, coming up behind us. “You two really need to keep your voices down.”
“Cosmo!” I shriek.
He puts a finger in his ear and wiggles it. “What part about keeping your voices down don’t you understand?” he asks dryly. “Now, what’s this about dream infiltration and seeing someone eat someone’s heart?”
I glance at Damon, who grits his teeth and nods.
“Zoth,” I mumble.
“You infiltrated a demon’s dream?” he asks, incredulous.
“And tried to use telepathy to get him to dream about the professor, so I have no idea if it was a dream or a memory, but, Cosmo…”
“It’s not quite proof, no, but if we can get a confession…”
“We?” I eye Damon. He’s busy texting on his phone, probably alerting Sage to everything. I feel terrible for not thinking about doing that myself. Poor Sage has to be beside himself wondering what’s going on.
“Yes, we,” Cosmo says firmly. “We aren’t going to let this go, and—”
“Does that mean her heart was eaten?” I whisper.
Cosmo hesitates. “Her heart was not with her body, no.”
“Fuck,” I murmur.
“You really are Bay’s sister,” he says in admiration.
“So Zoth really is the killer then.” I swallow hard. “Damon.”
“I’m here.”
“I am too.” Sage flies over.
Cosmo grits his teeth. “I don’t like the idea of so many students being involved.”
“Then call Bracken,” I beg. “What’s one more? Three students, two guards… Bay won’t want to fight me, and maybe if we put on a united front, she’ll listen. She’ll turn and help us, and then all six of us can bring down Zoth.”
“I hope your optimism is not without reason,” Cosmo mumbles.
It doesn’t take long for Cosmo to notify Bracken. Even though the sun is ready to rise yet, we make the trek back to the demon’s house. The lights are still on, and the door isn’t locked, so we stumble inside.
“Zoth?” Cosmo calls. “We would like a word with you?”
“What if I don’t want a word with you?” a voice from behind me asks.
I whirl around to be face-to-face with Zoth. Without thinking, I move away from him.
He just chuckles. “My, how you’re trembling, Rosemary! What’s wrong? Afraid of the big, bad demon?”
“More like you’re the one going to be afraid,” I spit out. “We know what you did, Zoth.”
“And just what is that?” he asks, sounding bored as he buffs his nails.
“We know you ate Professor Luna’s heart.”
He eyes me. “And just how do you know this?”
“Your dream,” I say. “You dreamt that you killed her and ate her heart.”
“Now, now.” He slowly claps for me. “You outdid yourself. Seriously. I’m impressed. You went and infiltrated my mind, but I’m afraid that’s not enough. You see, you made me think—”
“I didn’t make you do anything,” I shout.
“Where’s Bay?” Bracken cuts in.
I glower at the demon. “If you did anything to hurt her—”
“Me? You should ask your boyfriend about that drink he gave us because it sure as fuck wasn’t fae nectar.”
Damon just smirks. “You like it? I can give you the recipe. You actually look not too bad for having been three sheets to the wind.”
Zoth smirks back. “You, your boyfriend, your boy toy, and who are these other fairies?”
“Guards here to arrest you,” I say sweetly.
Right on cue, Cosmo and Bracken move forward to grab Zoth, but the demon just laughs and laughs.
“You still don’t get it, do you?” he asks me.
My stomach drops like a rock. “What are you talking about?”
Just ignore him, they say. Don’t ever listen to a demon.
But the words he’s saying cut me to the core, and all I can do is listen to his words and hope I’m hearing him wrong.
“You just don’t want to see it, so you think you’ll just have me locked up, and then you can go back to toying these two boys. Maybe what you need is a strong man.”
“Zoth, shut your mouth!” I shout.
He laughs some more. “Do you want the truth? Because, yes, a demon can tell the truth when they want to. Well, I’ll tell you anyhow.”
He pauses, and my palm itches to slap him.
Finally, he parts his lips from his insufferable pout. “You see, Bay was the mastermind behind the murder.”
Chapter 29
“You take that back!” I shriek, flying at Zoth.
Sage tries to stop me, but I duck beneath his arm and plow into Zoth. We collide with the wall.
Bay comes into the room. “What’s going on?” she asks, her words not slurring.
“He did it!” I scream. “He killed Professor—”
“Tell them the truth,” Zoth interrupts, his tone cold and impersonal. “Tell them about how you were the mastermind behind the murder.”
“I wasn’t,” Bay says with a gasp. “Don’t you dare say that!”
“She can’t lie!” I say triumphantly. “Zoth can because he’s a demon.”
“What am I?” Zoth growls.
“A demon!”
He backhands me so hard that I taste blood. He’s strong, impossibly so, even stronger than Spring had been courtesy of the drugs in her system.
The guards and my boys fly at Zoth, but I realize Bay’s flying off, and I take after her.
“Bay, where are you going?” I call, hating that she’s running, fearful for what her flight means. She can’t
