The Demon's Covenant

“Well, I think …” he began, and he was now so unmistakably staring over Mae’s shoulder that she turned around and saw Seb and Nick circling each other, gravel scattering under their feet and kids scattering away.

“Stay away,” Nick growled.

Seb was facing Nick down, and his eyes were fever-bright, his head thrown back. He looked like he didn’t care if he got hurt.

Since Mae knew Nick didn’t care if Seb got hurt either, that struck her as dangerous.

“Oh, what,” Seb said. “Want time alone with your new boyfriend?”

Nick laughed, a low, genuinely amused laugh that rolled like a panther in the sun. “Impugning my masculinity, McFarlane? Oh no, whatever will I do?”

He stopped circling and turned contemptuously away. Mae, advancing with Jamie in her wake, thanked God.

“I know what you did,” Seb murmured. “I know what you did in Durham to those people. To those children. And I know you did the same thing to Mae.”

Nick whirled around and punched Seb in the face so hard that Seb spun and fell sprawled on the gravel.

At Mae’s shoulder, Jamie spoke. “So the thing I was going to tell you is, I think Seb and Nick might be about to get into a fight.”

Seb threw himself at Nick and Nick hesitated, visibly checking himself from reaching for a weapon, so that Seb managed to tackle him down and get in one good blow before Nick rolled him, straddled him, and started punching.

Mae said, “Good call.”

Storm clouds were flying across the sky like the gravel as the boys rolled, and Mae was tensed for disaster even before she saw one of Seb’s gang pull something that gleamed in the dimming light.

Jamie ran forward, pushing past Mae, and the knife flew out of the guy’s hand and landed, skidding out of anyone’s reach. The guy’s eyes went to Jamie, shocked. Even Seb’s gang was backing away now.

“Whoops, butterfingers,” Jamie said. “Don’t throw those things around. I hear they’re dangerous!”

At Jamie’s voice Nick looked around and snapped, “Let me handle this,” which was when Seb grabbed him by his shirt collar and head-butted him in the face.

“Do you know what he did to your sister?” Seb panted in Jamie’s direction. “He put a mark on her. A third-tier mark. He could control her mind—he could make her his slave—”

Jamie looked at Mae in sudden horror.

“It’s not like that,” Mae said into his ear. “I asked him to do it. The magicians kept coming at me, your precious Gerald kept attacking me at night. He didn’t want to do it.”

Nick snarled wordlessly, blood trickling from the side of his mouth, and then he laughed as Seb went for him again and Nick went crashing backward. Gloom and clouds were churning together into a stormy brew in the sky. Some of the younger kids were really scared. The demon’s laughter was echoing coldly through the playground, Jamie was standing there trembling and looking ready to do more magic, and Mae had no idea what power Seb could command with Gerald’s mark on him.

Someone had to stop this fight.

She ran away from the boys and toward the school building, to the side of the front doors, where she drove her elbow into the glass of the fire alarm and heard it ringing a loud, harsh distress cry throughout the school.

Seb looked up at the sound, disentangled himself from Nick, and ran out through the gates and down the road, as if he was being chased.

Mae did not think they would be seeing him at school again.

“Don’t worry about it, Jamie,” Nick said, rubbing his knuckles against the center of his forehead as if he could iron away a headache. “It’s actually not the first time I’ve been expelled.”

The day was mostly over anyway, and Mae felt no guilt whatsoever about skipping class. Besides which, Jamie was apparently irresistibly compelled to stay by Nick’s side and agonize about Nick’s expulsion.

They had ended up walking down to Rougemont Gardens, taking the side entrance by the ruined gatehouse past the plaque about three hanged witches. The sandstone ruins looked rusty under the gray sky, as if some giant child had left his tin castle out in the rain, and the trees planted along the boundaries of the gardens looked spiky and menacing.

“But this wasn’t your fault!” Jamie said energetically. “This was a miscarriage of justice! Justice has totally missed the carriage! It’s all Seb’s fault.”

“He wasn’t lying,” said Nick. “About the demon’s mark.”

Jamie looked at Mae, distressed and confused and so sorry, all at once. “She told me why you did it,” he said, stumbling over the words. “I don’t believe Gerald would—but some of his magicians, or another Circle … you put the mark on her to protect her. I understand that.”

Mae grabbed his hand and squeezed it, and Jamie squeezed back, his mouth trying for a smile and collapsing like a badly put-up tent.

When Nick spoke his voice was distant. Mae did not think he was looking forward to going back and telling Alan he’d been expelled.

Giving Alan another reason to think he could never be human, another reason to betray him.

“Don’t you understand?” he said. “Demons can crawl into people’s minds and make them do what they want through the marks. Anything they want.”