“She called forth a legion of demons,” Orin said. “She can’t even help it. We can’t allow that to happen again.”
I screamed. It wasn’t very loud, but it had the intended effect of shutting them up. Taking a long, shuddering breath, I said, “Somebody tell me what’s happening.”
Basil crouched down in front of me. He took my hand. “You know what a forsaken is,” he said. I nodded. “Somehow you’ve become one of them. Your soul is a homing beacon for them. Using the strength of your magic, they will be able to breach any barrier that we can erect. That’s how they got past the wards at the academies.”
“But I haven’t had that much contact with demons.” My bottom lip quivered. I was so tired that I couldn’t piece together a proper thought. One thing I did know was that the known cases of forsaken was those people who had continuous and prolonged contact.
“Nanna was possessed for seven years and she isn’t forsaken.” I was all out of tact. But she didn’t seem to mind. She was smoothing my hair back from my face.
“Yours are extenuating circumstances,” Professor Avery said. “We believe your connection to Lucifer has amplified your susceptibility.” She cast a pitying look at me. “Which is why we must insist on removing her.”
“She cannot be allowed to continue at the Academy,” Orin said.
“She can’t be allowed to continue within supernatural society,” Tiberius added.
“What do you want to do?” Jacqueline snapped. “Do you want to murder a child for something she can’t help? Is that how we’re going to do this?”
“How else are we going to protect our people?” Tiberius said. “Your Academy was under siege and Bruce is just barely holding on to his life. And still you refuse to concede she’s a monster that never should have been allowed to live in the first place.”
“What if I leave?” I said.
“Where will you go that you’re not a danger to this dimension?” Professor Avery said. “You think you can just go back to the human world and hide? The only safe place for you now is the Dominion prison.”
Basil rose to his feet. “You don’t get to imprison her just because you’re afraid.”
“We will do what’s best for the populace.”
“We’re just going around in circles,” Megan sighed. She fixed me with her gaze. “I’m sorry, Alessia. Though we are loath to do it, the Dominion is the only place with enough protections to keep the demons from detecting you.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” a voice cut through the tension in the room. All heads turned in the direction of the doorway. One of the red-headed sorceresses that I’d met at the party for the Human League leaned against the door. Her amused expression made their solemn ones seem ridiculous.
Scott Brandis gritted his teeth. “This is none of your business, Eugenia.” He went to block her as she swept into the room. The green dress she wore hugged her body, revealing a supermodel figure.
“I’m here to give you the solution to all your problems,” Eugenia said. “We’ll take her to Ravenhall.”
Victoria snorted. It sounded dusty in her throat. “You’re dreaming.”
“Am I? Right now, your choices appear to be kidnap and life as a fugitive or murder.”
“You’ll have the same problems,” Orin said. “She’ll call the demons and they’ll overrun the fens.”
“Not if she’s sealed. There are enough of us on the...shadier side to mask her aura.”
My head swivelled from one side of the room to the other. “Sealed how?” I asked.
“If the seraphim seal your powers away, the demons won’t be able to detect you,” Jacqueline said. “But it also means that you’ll become completely human. No more bone magic. No more hedge magic.”
“Ravenhall will protect her,” Eugenia assured me. I didn’t like it when Kai suggested it and I didn’t like it now. But with Eugenia, I might have some semblance of free will rather than being ordered around for the rest of my life.
I glanced down at my hands. My thoughts reverted to that day at Terran when Gaia had tried to convince me to take my own life to stop Lucifer from ever being able to break free. I’d refused then. And look what happened. Now that I knew what life was like with powers, would I be able to forget them? My head sank low. I thought of all those times I’d hidden from the human monsters and felt helpless. Back then I had made myself a promise that I’d never feel that way again. Was I willing to go back to that state?
And then I thought of something. If I didn’t have my powers, I wouldn’t be able to release Lucifer from his holding place. A tiny spark of hope ignited in my chest.
No, little one, Azrael’s voice said in my head. The seal will help stop you from calling forth demons, but your blood remains the same. Spill enough of it in the right way, and Luc will be freed.
Damn. What was I thinking trying to outsmart the Prince of Darkness?
What should I do? I asked Azrael.
A long stretch of silence. What do you want to do?
Can you just drop the cryptic free will crap for a second and impart some bloody wisdom? Right. So super tiredness equalled no filter. I thought for a second he’d abandoned me.
You survived seventeen years by your own sheer determination, Azrael reminded me.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll go to Ravenhall.”
The sorceress grinned.
The sealing took no longer than a moment. Megan called the seraphim. Michael placed his hands on my collarbone. I stared into his ethereally handsome face and wondered how his line had departed so fully from the warrior in front of me. He was formidable, but there was compassion in his blue eyes and warmth in his smile. His essence chased through my body, locking away the magic. He frowned for a second.
“Your hedge magic is
