That was about all I had been able to determine as well from the reading I’d done. “What if the person was a sinister-magic user? A necromancer?”
He went from scratching his beard to stroking it. “In that case, the necromancer wouldn’t allow the possession. It wouldn’t be a true possession because the necromancer would retain control. What you’re suggesting is a dual-personality-type situation, and in that instance, the necromancer doesn’t usually live long enough that it would matter. What’s this about, anyway?”
The lie slipped out easily. “I was just thinking about what could be wrong with Professor McKenna.”
He sighed. “We’ve tried everything, Sophie. Rest assured that if there’s a way to release her, we will find it.”
I picked at the hem of my blouse. “I mean, have you tried some of the more unconventional methods?”
“Unconventional how?”
“I was reading in the Necromancer Bible–”
He held up his hands. “Whoa. If you’re talking about sacrifice and resurrection then no, we haven’t stooped to those drastic measures.”
I swallowed. “What if the only way we can help her is to invoke a powerful demon?”
He pierced me with a stern look. “I think you might have to consider that she may never wake. And that some things should never be done no matter how much we desire the outcome.”
I placed my hands on the desk and sighed, letting my shoulders droop. With all my might, I wished that I didn’t have to go down this road as well.
“I wish things could go back to the way they used to be,” I found myself saying.
“I do too. But wishing for things seldom gets us anything but a ruined present.”
I knew he was right. It was just a hard pill to swallow.
Conversations with all the professors gave me much the same results. Professor Magnus couldn’t think of anything in the history of the supernaturals that said demons could be separated from the host’s psyche. “Their whole purpose is to take control,” she said. “They would hold on until there is nothing left of their host to salvage. You’ve seen exorcisms before, Sophie. Sometimes even an angel blade won’t get them to leave. The only time we’ve seen something close to what you’re saying is when they tried to get at Alessia. The problem was that they destroyed their hosts to do so.”
Andrei reported the same after he’d been in contact with Betty. “She says that she barely remembers anything from when it was happening,” he relayed. “It was like she was in a fog. It seems that her mind became locked in a chamber that was protected from the demon. Raphael thought it was something unique to the Hastings genetic line, though. A by-product of the bone magic in their blood.”
Dammit. That was clearly not something I could replicate. Especially since the reason the demon had jumped ship was because it decided Lex was a better vessel. I didn’t have an endless line of souls better than my own to offer a demon.
“Basil says that you better not be messing around with something demonic,” Andrei warned me. “He’s already tearing his hair out about what happened to you in the arena and this whole mating situation.”
“For somebody who is supposed to be on the run, he sure has his nose in a lot of gossip!”
“Some habits are hard to break.”
That was true. In an effort to stop the nightmares from coming, I had returned to drawing salt circles at night. After I screamed the place down following one of my nightmares about Kai, Laila and Hank thoroughly appreciated me taking precautions.
Something strange was happening in the Reserve too. I arrived home one night to find delegates of para-human guards gathered around the portal. Gwen was taking them through their paces. “What’s going on?” I asked her when she walked past.
“None of your business,” she said. “You’re a civilian. You don’t get inside information.”
Ouch! If only she weren’t a hundred percent right.
Now that I didn’t have a shifter guard at the Academy anymore, I snuck off into the Fae forest to try a summoning. I’d approached the Grove first thinking Kai might be more inclined to appear there but almost got my eyes scratched out by the nymphs. It was futile anyway. One night I even fell asleep in the forest still sitting inside the summoning circle. But Kai never showed up.
For two weeks I did nothing but go to school, work in the infirmary, avoid the hell out of Max, and read books in the library. Closing the Book of Beasts one night after another re-read, I closed my eyes and let my forehead rest on the cover.
Jem, the library assistant, cleared his throat beside me. “That’s a priceless artefact and you’re getting sweat all over it.”
Sitting up straight again, I gave him an apologetic smile. “Sorry.”
“You wanna tell me what you’re looking up?” he asked. “I’ve never seen a student so engrossed in study. Even for you this is a bit out of hand.”
He pumped his non-existent para-human brows at me, reminding me of a time before Lex when all my nights had been spent in the library because I’d had no friends to share them with. “Just trying to figure out if it’s possible to co-exist with a demon and then politely ask it to leave.”
He screwed up his face. “Ah. Is it the malachim that you’re worried about or demons in general?”
I thought on it. “Demons in general, though I suppose it might not really matter.”
Either way, the look he gave me said
