Chapter 20 – Super sneaking sneaky missions are way more fun that silly things like demonic transformations, romance, or cuddling, right?

The door swung open, unlocking with only a minor bit of trouble, and I stepped out. My boot pressed back against the thick wood, and I listened for the soft click of the lock, sealing me from the room.

Getting back in from this side would be a fair bit more difficult, I expected. Somehow, I would have to manage, in spite of the wards.

I pressed forward, striding down the hall with light feet as a dark cloak fluttered behind me. As I reached the underhalls, my mind went to my target: Dathlin Ropor. He was a student from a minor family of little import, a summoning family destitute and living in squalor who didn’t truly deserve to be here. He wasn’t important for who he was, however, but the mistakes he’d committed. Like most of the other demonic summoners at the academy, he sucked up to Melkar like the man was the fruit of eternal youth. Melkar liked to consider them his “apprentices.” His way of encouraging them to suck his cock—not literally, I assumed—and then grinding them into the dirt like the shit beneath his boot when he tired of them.

Dathlin had stolen from Melkar already once before. The boy was a fool, not for committing the theft itself, but because he made the mistake that many of his station made: admitting his crime to others. That blunder was how my father caught wind of the misdeed, through his extensive “information network.” And through him, the knowledge came to me. My father never failed to pass up a chance to snub the infamous Kheln diabolists. It was perhaps his one weakness. I expected he wanted to see what I would do with it over my time here. It also served as a subtle encouragement to form my own network of spies.

In my first few days at the academy, I confronted Dathlin. Blackmail was a powerful tool, but only if the other side knew you had it. After that, I simply left him to stew, waiting for a time when I had use of him. Since then, I’d only discovered one other bit of juicy gossip that had the potential for blackmail. One of the professors here had a not-so-secret addiction to jave, a rather nasty substance. I’d yet to act on it, partially because I still wasn’t sure who was supplying him, or how they might react to a threat.

If my father knew of my mediocre webwork, he’d be assuredly disappointed. Rightfully so. Such things took time, but I hadn’t put in the effort that I could have. Instead, I’d focused on other things, content with staying in the shadows. And where exactly had that gotten me?

My fingers dug into my palm as the shame of my failures washed through me.

The next few minutes would be the most challenging piece of this plan. With only a couple daggers to defend myself, I was vulnerable, though certainly less so than before. Still, I was about to travel near what had become one of the most dangerous areas in this school for me—the men’s dorm. It was lucky that I knew where Dathlin tended to hang out on free days.

The mask and cloak that I’d pilfered from Lilis’s wardrobe would at least help to obscure my identity from afar. The thick, black cloak was a bit too long, but having it drag along the floor hopefully wouldn’t cause me any problems. Much to my disappointment, the only mask that Lilis owned was a dark-red one that only covered the upper half of the face.

Anywhere else, a full-body cloak and mask would raise eyebrows. But here? There were a few people who dressed similarly on the regular. So long as I kept my head down, I could hopefully slip through the underhalls near the dorm unnoticed.

Each person I passed made me tense and clench the carefully hidden dagger at my side. Through what had to be luck alone, I managed to slip by them without being stopped. As the men’s dorm became increasingly imminent, my nerves rose, until they became ready to burst like an overfilled boiler. I wasn’t actually headed into the dorm proper, but I’d be close enough that it might make little difference.

Despite my nervousness, I couldn’t help but admit a small amount of excitement as well. There always was an aspect of thrill when it came to facing danger. And even without my magic, blackmail and burglary were far more familiar territories than many of the other situations I’d found myself in recently.

A lanky boy eyed me as I passed him down a particularly narrow hall. He leaned back against the bricks, releasing a puff of smoke from an overly-large pipe. Vaguely, I recognized him as an upperclassman. I kept my head facing forward and tilted down, a hand on the hidden hilt of my blade. As I passed, the smoky air filled my lungs, leaving a taste in my throat like acidic tar. He shifted slightly, and I nearly lashed out before I realized he was simply pressing the bottom of his foot against the wall.

Even still, I could feel his eyes lingering on my back as I walked on. Women didn’t come to this side of the school. For obvious reasons. Too many boys weren’t above grouping up on you even if you weren’t a girl. I couldn’t risk doing this again. Others would assuredly catch on and corner me a second time. I was decent in a knife fight, but even I wouldn’t be able to stand up against a concerted effort of several students. And that was before magic became involved. Perhaps I could convince Lilis to give me another means of communication, since I couldn’t form magewrits. We would need a way to talk in case we somehow got separated, right? The idea was sensible enough that she just might accept it without question. She was certainly naive enough.

As I continued on, the feeling of being watched didn’t fade. The guy from before was assuredly following me. I didn’t dare look back to confirm it, though. A ways ahead, a narrow lounge filled with scattered chairs, books, and clutter awaited me. I could see my target in one of the seats, rolling a pair of dice. Above him, a lamp swayed, from someone having smacked it. Two other boys hooted at the result of Dathlin’s roll, snorting and shoving each other as my target scowled. It seemed someone was having a spell of poor luck.

For a moment, I considered turning around, perhaps finding a corner to wait in until I could hopefully catch him alone. But the eyes on my back were still there, and I knew that I couldn’t slow. I took in a deep breath, mentally preparing myself.

One of them caught sight of me, a man with long, red hair and dark eyes. The trio went silent. They eyed me for a moment, but as I got closer, one seemed to suddenly like what he saw. The man stood up, scraping the chair back with light kick and sliding his hand across the top of his head to smooth his dark, greasy hair. I could see the smile on his face as he eyed my small figure.

“I think you’ve made a wrong turn, friend.”

When I didn’t slow or respond, his smile turned into a frown. The light of a lantern caught me, and I was certain he’d spotted my red skin below the mask. The boy turned, mouthing something like “a demon?” to Dathlin, who shrugged.

I could almost see the cogs in their heads slowly turn until one finally made the connection to who I was.

“Is that really Gellin?” the redheaded boy asked—another of Melkar’s “apprentices,” if I wasn’t mistaken. I hadn’t put much effort into memorizing their faces or names. At his words, the other two caught on.

Rumor had spread to them, after all, it seemed. As much as I wanted to turn to leave, I pressed forward at a steady pace.

“Surely you aren’t stupid enough to come here all by yourself, sweetheart?” the standing boy sneered.

The other two laughed as my right eye twitched. I’d make them pay for that.

“Why don’t you take that off and show us what’s underneath,” stooge-two, the redheaded boy said as I came closer.

Almost to my surprise, Dathlin kept strangely silent, eyeing me with apparent uncertainty. I supposed that he feared this might result in me giving away his dark little secret. Was I truly Gellin, or perhaps some other demon?

I approached within grabbing distance of stooge-one, the man with greasy hair, just as Dathlin stood. His mouth opened to say something—possibly to ask them to wait a moment.

Before he could, however, stooge-one bolted forward, his hand gripping onto my cloak with the intent of yanking it off of me. I didn’t waste any time in kneeing him between the legs as hard as I could. Unfortunately, I either missed or didn’t hit hard enough. Instead of letting go or falling to the floor, the boy yelled out a curse and pulled the cloak further toward him. He leaned forward, his other arm intending to grab me around the neck. I ducked quickly beneath. The cloak gave a loud ripping noise just before I slipped out of it. Stumbling slightly, I pushed stooge-one off of me, and the robe went with, leaving me in only the skimpy uniform that Lilis had offered up. He tripped over a chair, falling against the stone floor.

In front of me, Dathlin stood frozen and wide-eyed. His mouth was still agape as he continued to struggle with what to do or say. I slammed against him, subtly pressing a slip of paper into one of his hands before pushing him away.

As stooge-one continued to curse and get back to his feet, I continued forward, right into the grip of stooge-two. A fist smashed into my gut, taking the air out of me.

“Got you now, you dumb slut.”

His arm circled around my waist, pulling me toward him. On pure instinct, I shoved my head back, feeling a jolt of pain as I hit his face and cracked his nose. Stooge-two’s arm slackened just enough for me to slip free. A squeak slipped from my lips as his hand briefly grabbed and jerked the end of my tail. I slipped away from him, stumbling ineptly forward and falling briefly against a chair. My fingers pushed against it and my feet barely found its balance before I sprinted down the hall.

Their shouting continued at my back, but I didn’t turn to look. Instead, I swerved down the various halls, taking whatever turns I stumbled upon and only vaguely paying attention to the direction I was going in. After a short chase, the sound of stomping feet and shouts of “where’d that fucking succubus go?!” faded.

The burn in my legs and lungs finally made me stop. Leaning against the wall and taking deep, painful breaths, I listened for their voices to pick back up. Luckily, they faded to silence.

That hadn’t gone as well as I hoped, but had certainly been better than I’d feared. Either way, the event had cemented it for me—I definitely couldn’t do something like this again.

I felt another sting of pain as my tail slapped the wall in agitation. Turning, I glared at the thing. It had nearly gotten me caught!

A soft growl slipped from my lips before I huffed and looked away, turning up my nose. Getting used to this body was a serious pain. The thought of keeping my tail out of the way hadn’t even occurred to me.

I shook my head. Hopefully before long, it wouldn’t even matter.

Dathlin would read my note and meet me below the training grounds. He was far too much of a coward not to. Ideally, I needed to be there before he arrived.