Page 79 of Two Who Live On

“King Clucks, we need to find Tara.”

“Un demonio real.”“I got this. I can do this. I can fight this.”

“I said back to the bus—nowhere else, or it’ll be more than your fledgling permit you lose.” I ground my teeth, erasing the flurry of panicked thoughts. Making threats wasn’t how I wanted to redirect my students’ fear, but some were already composing ideas to intercept, search, fight, and protect. That blame fell on me. I’d forced their hands last semester, inadvertently drawing the ire of warlocks. There was no way I’d allow them to battle a demon. “Mrs. Whitehurst.Please contact the academy and notify guilds assigned to these neighborhoods.”

“Of course,” Chanelle thought. “Where are you?”

“Searching for Tara, Caleb, and Gael.” Their minds were swimming in terror the second I cast a widespread link. It wasn’t about getting to them before the gorgon found them...

Caleb’s fear spiked. “This is a gorgon. We need to run, but my legs won’t move.”

The demon had already found my students. Now, it was about getting to them before he killed them.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I flew to the end of the street, cutting the corner too wide, and almost crashed into incoming traffic. I stopped moving, struggling to maintain a sense of my students’ direction. Cars honked. People shouted. I had no time for their aggravation. I needed to save my students. This couldn’t be happening again. I couldn’t have led my students to their deaths a second time because of my foolish, impulsive selfishness.

If I’d let it go, this need to fix the world around me and let the work go to those who actually could, they wouldn’t be here right now. Or if they were, Milo would be here. No. Milo would’ve detained the gorgon, studied the hidden outcomes linked to the demon. Everything would be fine if I’d simply not involved myself. As always, I managed to ruin everything. And all my doubt, fear, and regret synced to my students.

There was no way I could chase them down while all three had such erratic, sharp horror in their thoughts. I shook away the terrified minds of Tara and Gael. Tightening my telepathy, I linked over Caleb’s shoulder. Calling out would only distract him. He needed his wits and entire attention fixed on this dire situation. Of the three, Caleb handled his panic with the most composure, evaluating the golden snake eyes and sapphire scales that shimmered against the setting sun.

“A gorgon which means we have to be vigilant if we want…” Caleb blinked, and the gorgon vanished. “Shit.”

Not just a gorgon. The very same gorgon that killed Finn. The one Milo banished twelve years ago. The one I’d banished. Some powerful demon continued pulling the strings from behind the scenes, resurrecting demons, and now the gorgon who took Finn from me, a piece of my heart, intended on slaughtering my students.

The demon reappeared behind Tara, the jagged teeth forming mouths on his palms, and snatched two of Tara’s weighted blocks. He shattered them in a single chomp. It forced her to immediately quell her branches.

Caleb’s peripheral scanned their surroundings. They were at the corner of Lux and Lathe. Less than five blocks. I’d be there in minutes. But that gorgon could eviscerate them in seconds.

“Gorgons can only slow down physical bodies through their line of vision, not magic itself. No time to hesitate.” Caleb released a steady wave of banishment on the area. “Both of you—over here.”

Tara and Gael levitated toward Caleb. The gorgon’s eyes flitted, and Caleb felt the pressure of the gaze hitting his banishment and attempting to slow everyone and everything on this near-empty street.

“Can you use that big banishment on this thing?” Gael asked, his spikes shrinking from anxiety.

“I highly doubt this kid has it in him to banish a demon.” The gorgon grinned, his yellow razored teeth evoking fear. “Even if he accidentally cast a perfect banishment.”

Caleb gulped, every thought scrambling to decern how this demon knew him. How did the gorgon know him? Was the gorgon watching me?

Caleb had no idea how to control the perfected root magic and casting a steady wave of banishment locked him in one spot. His banishment continued pulsating against the gorgon’s attempts to slow their bodies. If Caleb took a single step, his magic might falter. If that happened, the gorgon would petrify their movements and kill them.

My flight floundered. How’d the gorgon know Caleb had used a perfect banishment? Had he been watching my students? Was he attacking them because of me? Because I killed him? This entire thing was my fault.

“I need a plan of action. Something that’ll let us retreat.” Caleb eyed his classmates, drawing me away from self-pity and to the task. “Tara’s branches would all be fantastic at obscuring us from sight and creating enough distance for an escape.”

I ground my teeth. Probably why the gorgon destroyed her weighted blocks. He must’ve known about her branch overlap, too. I took a shaky breath and turned another corner. One street away.

“Gael’s spikes are strong, but few things can cut through a gorgon’s scales,” Caleb thought. “Plus, that’s an offensive move that won’t block his line of vision.”

Caleb knew a lot about demons for a first-year student especially considering demonology courses didn’t start until the second and third year at the academy.

Tara stepped in front of Caleb, twirling her hands round and round as shadows seeped from her palms, carrying a golden sheen as they slithered toward the gorgon.

“What’re you doing?” Caleb asked.

“Ending this.” In mere seconds, a black sphere swelled around the gorgon, encasing him within all three of Tara’s channeled branches.

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