Julian gives her a nod and steps back through the door. I don’t breathe until he comes back, with Lucas by his side.
“Oh thank god.” The flesh on Lucas’s cheeks is singed from passing through the door, but he’s healing before my eyes and will be fine. Ruby closes the door and clicks her tongue, calling her familiar. A gray shadow whooshes forward, taking the form of a white-and-brown Beagle.
“Charlie,” Ruby starts. “Tell the High Priestess and Professor Greystone to meet me in my office now. It’s an emergency.”
Charlie lets out a yip and turns, taking off and running down the hall. Ruby takes the books back from me and I immediately go to Lucas, running my hands over his arms to check for damage.
“I’m fine,” he assures me, kissing my forehead.
“You got burned.”
“It tickled,” he says to calm my nerves. “I kind of liked it.”
Smiling, I shake my head. “Let’s go.”
“This way,” Ruby says, ignoring the curious stares from the students. They know who Lucas is, and even if they hadn’t seen him, they’re able to read his energy and know he’s a vampire. Two girls who are sitting by the fireplace in the common room get all giggly when we walk by, and a few others stiffen and move away.
No one knows who or what Julian is. He gives off a certain energy, but I might be the only one sensitive to it since I’m part angel. He’s able to slip through crowds unnoticed, blending in with humans with ease. Well, until he tries to feed someone a scented candle, thinking it must taste good because it smells good.
My boots click on the cobblestone floor on our haste to get to Ruby’s office. Lanterns hang on the stone walls, casting long shadows through the hall. Portraits of past professors hang on the walls, with their names engraved on little golden plaques.
We turn down a hall, pass through another small common room and up a narrow set of spiral stairs. Ruby has a corner office, with a fireplace behind her desk and two stained-glass windows looking down at the courtyard where students can eat lunch or hang out and get fresh air between classes.
Her office is neat but cluttered, full of books and enchanted items. The Infernal Dictionary is on her desk, and I remember Evander saying she’s been trying to narrow down what demon would devour hearts.
“What happened?” She waves her hand, telekinetically closing the big wooden door to her office.
“We were at the new house and he just appeared,” I say.
“Something happened to you first,” Lucas starts. “You were in pain.”
“Oh, right.” I nod. “I was super dizzy, and it was like someone shoved a dagger between my eyes. My ears rang, you know, like they do right before you pass out?”
“I haven’t passed out as much as you have,” Ruby quips.
“Right. I’m kind of suspired I don’t have brain damage from all the times I’ve blacked out.”
“Well, that’s debatable,” Ruby says with a smile, easing a bit of the tension.
“He’s trying to break out again.” I go over to the window, looking down at the courtyard. It’s dark but not that late yet, and several students are gathered around a fire. They have no idea the danger we all could be in, and I’ll be damned before they find out. “Julian said he’s looking for someone else to use like he did with Ruth.”
Lucas looks curiously around the office. He’s asked me questions before about what it was like going to “witch school” and was more than happy when I found my senior-year uniform in the basement while we were packing things up to go move to the new house.
Julian paces around, tossing the dagger from one hand to another. Ruby goes around to her desk and opens the Infernal Dictionary.
“This is all I the info we have on him. The School of Shadows in New Orleans has an original Lesser Key of Solomon. I went to a conference with a professor from there last year. I’ll contact her and see if she can pull any strings to let us take a look at it.
“What’s a Lesser Key of Solomon?” Lucas asks.
“A more precise demon encyclopedia,” Ruby explains. “Full of summoning spells we have deemed far too dangerous to teach in classes.”
“The spell Felix used to lift the curse was altered from a spell he took from that book,” I tell Lucas. “Maybe Felix has access to one as well. He’s helped me before, I think he’d do it again.”
Lucas crosses his arms, his possessive and jealous vampire side coming out. Felix is an ex. We dated briefly and parted ways mutually. He was a year older than me, friends with Evander, and very good-looking. The physical attraction faded fast and the lack of a spark was felt between the both of us. Plus, he had a hard time accepting that I was a stronger witch than he was.