Magic Trials (Half-Blood Academy #1)(5)

I sprang toward the young witch.

“Are you all right, Circe?” I asked, sounding like a mother even to my own ears.

She threw herself into my arms, trembling.

I stroked her back gently.

“Shush, you’re safe now,” I said. “We’re all safe. Now let’s get out of here.”

I pulled Circe to sprint with me since her legs wobbled. Seeing the demon had shocked her. I didn’t blame her. The appearance of the demon had shattered me as well.

Jasper kept pace, guarding and protecting us. His piercing wolf eyes darted around, his ears pricking backward as he scanned for any new danger.

I didn’t allow us to slow down, even though the scent of smoke lingered on my tongue and the air burned in my lungs.

As soon as we shot out of the last line of trees, crossing the boundary into the town’s territory, Jasper shifted. I knew he wanted to talk and demand answers regarding the flame that incinerated the demon, but I was just as baffled as he was.

One second he was still a wolf, then the next he was a good-looking teenage boy.

I glanced at him enviously. Being a shifter must be amazing.

The monsters usually didn’t cross the boundary of the forest into the town’s land during daytime. I’d wondered if Vi ever set a ward along the boundary.

Circe tossed Jasper a stack of clothes from the outside pocket of her backpack, and he snatched them from the air. In no time, he had his trousers on and his muscled chest pressed against an old T-shirt.

The witch’s gaze lingered on his cut chest a bit too long before she tore it away. The shifter was eye candy with dark, curly hair and rich brown eyes, and he always had a good laugh.

She’d developed a crush on him after her seventeenth birthday two months ago. It was fine with me if they hooked up. I couldn’t think of a better man to protect her.

I sighed. They’d grown up, and I was getting older.

Jasper didn’t notice Circe’s heated gaze before she disguised it. His concerned, sharp expression fixed on my face, uncompromising.

I waved a hand to signal for him to let me have a break and set my palms on my knees to brace myself. I bent from my waist, panting laboriously at the ground. Circe did the same. I took a little comfort that, even though she was younger, she was breathing louder.

When I finally straightened, I grinned at them. We’d survived once again, together.

“Guys, do you want to high five or a group hug?” I asked.

My motto was that every victory, no matter how small, should be celebrated so we would prowl on through life and never get beaten down.

Circe rolled her eyes. In her delusional mind, she thought she was more mature than I. But I understood that she wanted to keep that image in front of Jasper. At some point, I might need to talk to her, as she considered me competition more often than not.

Perhaps that was the problem with only one male in a pack.

Jasper obliged me and hit my palm with his rough one for a high five before we jogged down a long street toward the old, abandoned library—our residence—several blocks away.

The metal dish glinted in autumn’s sunlight at the top of the brown building, beckoning us to return home. That was always a comforting sight.

“We’ve never had a demon in this forest before.” Jasper started, strolling to my left.

“We almost became the demon’s snack today,” Circe said, large eyes peeking at Jasper. “Did you hear its laughter? It chilled me to the bone. If any more of them come, Crack won’t be safe for us anymore. Where can we go next?”

Worry knotted in my stomach.

We’d never lingered in the forest long enough for any monsters to ambush us. Each of us played a different role—Jasper flushed out game, I shot them, and Circe used her spells to cover our scent so we could leave the scene quickly once we’d grabbed the game.

We’d never had a demon complication before.

We weren’t equipped to deal with a demon. We might not be lucky again if another Hell-creature, especially a more powerful one, showed up in town.

However, the flame had appeared out of nowhere and burned the demon. The demonic being had vanished without a trace after it screamed, as if it had been dragged back to Hell.

But the realm of Hell had already merged with half of Earth’s surface, which was Lucifer’s greatest achievement. Somehow he’d broken the seal and the boundary after eons of confinement in the endless inferno. And now he sought to bring the full Hell to Earth. Only the God of War and his four demigods held on, refusing to give up their reign on the other half of the planet.

“You have magic, Marigold,” Jasper drawled. “It was powerful enough to banish a demon. And all this time you thought you were just a human.”

“But I am a human,” I said, staring down at my hands and willing a spark of fire to manifest, to give some evidence that the flame had indeed blasted out of me and prove that I might be something more.

I’d felt energy surge through me when the flame appeared, but it could’ve been my imagination. I’d tasted fire and smoke on the back of my tongue, but it could’ve just been the burning air.

Right now, not even an ember answered my call.

I shook my head. “I couldn’t have the kind of fire that could burn a grade-three demon.”

“How did you know that demon’s power grade?” Jasper asked.