Page 96 of Demon Found

My finger trails along the list of unfamiliar names. There it is. I stab the page triumphantly.

Magnus Maggo, Levi Bal.

Bal. His surname was Bal.

Lorelei Bal.

I try it out, rolling it around my mouth, but it’s cumbersome on my tongue, foreign. Suddenly my dad seems foreign too. Did I ever really know him? Reluctantly I hand the photo back, my eyes lingering on the image. He came here, of all places, to this academy. That damn photo has been in the same room as me countless times. And I never noticed.

“So, he changed his name and hid me.” I shrug, doing my best to seem nonchalant.

“Idon’t know why he would do that.” Maggo suddenly looks old, tired. “He was always a champion of crossbreeds. I’m sure he wasn’t ashamed, Lorelei. Maybe he felt he was giving you the best chance by hiding you from the Collectivo, or perhaps even from his family and their legacy. They were quite intense.”

Demons, intense. How original.

“Wait. I’m definitely still a crossbreed?”

He hesitates. “Yes, but not harpy. I suspect it was the closestlookinggenus your father could come up with. The closer in appearance, the less complex the magic. And higher power harpy traits align with some demonic ones . . . very clever of him. The only paperwork that I could wrangle from the medical center indicates you’re still a cross. I made the nurse run the screen again. You’renotharpy. But I rather felt I was being discouraged from digging deeper. There’s something odd there.”

Professor Maggo studies his academy signet ring for a moment. “You’ll have to take demon class. At this late stage, that will drag your grade down. We’ll leave you in harpy specialization for now. It can’t hurt your overall grade.” He considers me for a long moment. “What the assessors don’t know can’t hurt. And the nurse isn’t involved in the academic side . . . ”

I glance at him suspiciously. He sounds like he’s on my side. Like he’s willing to cheat the system for me.

“Your father was a full upper-level demon, one of the last in Venez. But he was always kind to me. More than kind, for a demon. I’m here if you need help.”

He should have been supportive from the get-go. It shouldn’t matter if he knew my dad or not. He’s my damn guidance teacher, it’s his job. But right now, I need every single person I can get on team Lorelei.

“So, what happened to Dad after the academy?”

Maggo hesitates, and I can sense him choosing his words carefully.

“He vanished. Deliberately, I think. When the last of the Royal Dragons were killed, the Bals were known as heavily antiroyalist. People wanted a scapegoat. It wasn’t safe. Of course in the end it was all blamed on the Royal Aethers and they were dethroned. But . . . it was a dangerous time.”

A sadness creeps over me. “Do you think he had anything to do with it?” It seems unbelievable to me that my quiet, slightly distant dad was a Royal killer.

“He was a gentle soul, for a high-ranking demon.” Maggo avoids answering my question directly. “I will press the medical office for more information on your other genus. Lorelei, I don’t know what happened to Levi. You ended up in the care system . . . your dad?”

“He’s dead.”

The pain that flits across Maggo’s face makes me regret not choosing my words more carefully. It’s not that I don’t care. It was just so long ago.

“He died when I was four. Killed by some druggy. At least that’s what we were told.”

Maggo nods, and his expression hardens. “What you were told. I see. The Levi I knew would have been unlikely to lose a fight to a drugged-up supe. Thank you for telling me. That’s all I have for you today.”

He shoos me out his room, his expression pinched and drawn, and shuts the door in my face.

Chapter Forty-eight: Lorelei

Mywholeworldjustturned upside down, again. I swear I’m in a snow globe and an enthusiastic kid is shaking it. It doesn’t even sound like Dad died the way I was told. What the hell else about my life is a lie?

I’m a demon, not a harpy, and Dad was anupper-leveldemon. What does that make me? Am I inherently evil like upper levels are rumored to be? I did nearly kill someone.

Without thinking, I drift toward the center of the woods, finding the monument and flopping down so I’m sitting with my back against it. Elbows on knees, I rest my head in my hands.

Maybe I’m a horrible person. Maybe I deserve to be expelled. I lost control, so, so, so badly.

If I’m not here, there’s no way that allegiance is going to work without a buffer between Farrell and Chano. And then what? It splinters and breaks and none of them ascend. I don’t ascend.

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