Professor Laufer cleared his throat and stared at the broken window. “So, how’s Jada?”

Eyes widening, I glanced over at him. “Why?”

After holding my stare for a couple of moments, he shuffled some papers together. Mid-shuffle, he sniffed the air, looked toward the open door, where she and Mikayla peered into the room, and stiffened.

While Jada usually had her shit together, she stood in the middle of the doorway, her nipples taut against the front of her shirt and her eyes wide.

Mikayla glanced between them, her smirk widening as she mouthed,I fucking knew it!

“There’s too many fucking people around here,” Acaros said suddenly, throwing Clayton back into the room and dragging him halfway down the staircase. He dropped him and muttered a couple of words, black mist forming in front of him.

Clayton lay at Acaros’s feet, wearing cracked glasses with two hazy black eyes. “I want more.” He looked up at me. “More. Give me more, Iza. I want more of you.” He scrambled to his knees and began taking off toward me. “More. I need more!”

Before he could get halfway down the steps, Acaros seized him. Gusts of wind blew from what looked to be a portal into the auditorium, blowing back my curls. I followed Acaros back up the steps.

“Where are you taking him?” I asked.

“To Hell.”

“To Hell?!”

“I’ll be back in ten minutes,” he said. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“But—”

After growling, Acaros turned toward me. “I will deal withyouwhen I return.”

And with that, he disappeared through the portal. I stared in surprise at the black mist spinning in circles in front of me, then looked over my shoulder to see Professor Laufer still staring up at Jada.

Welp …

While I wasn’t one for doing anything crazy—really, I wasn’t that kind of girl—Acaros had a special kind of hold on me. So, before Professor Laufer or my friends could stop me, my ass stepped right into the portal just as it was disappearing.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-TWO

IZA

After stumbling forwardinto the portal, I blinked my eyes a couple of times. Blurry objects blazed through my vision, hazy memories were fuzzy in my mind, and the whispers of demons drifted through my ears.

When I finally regained my eyesight, I looked around to find Acaros, but instead, I saw …

Demons.

Demons everywhere.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Get away from me!”

I turned around in an attempt to hurry back into the classroom, to get back to my life and to my friends because this was a mistake. A huge mistake. What had possessed me to follow Acaros through the portal? Maybe jealousy that he would see someone else down here?

When one touched my thigh, I screamed again and kicked them hard in the balls. No matter what way I looked, Iwas surrounded by darkness and hungry shadow-like demons heading my way.

The portal had disappeared completely. And I was stuck.

My mouth dried, and I shuffled backward, only to hit another demon, who wrapped his hands around my upper arms. Before I knew it, hands were all over my body, touching me, groping me, fondling me in places that only Acaros had.

“Acaros!” I screamed, hoping that he’d hear me. “Please!”