Heavy winds buffeted Amara as she walked across campus, repeatedly throwing her hair in her face as it wildly changed directions. The biting winter cold was no match for her inner hellfire, and she was perfectly comfortable in spite of the weather. She’d long ago grown accustod to regulating her own temperature, but the intense cold front highlighted sothing new today; proof of just how effective her illusory clothing was.
When she’d created her outfit, she’d taken her mother’s words to heart, fully internalizing that the clothing didn’t actually exist. Now, as she marched across campus, she was shocked at how well the illusory fabric blocked the wind. As an experint, she even tried ssing with the fabric of her pants, slowly tweaking it to be thinner and thicker. To her surprise, this had an imdiate and obvious effect; the wind forced itself through the thinner pants much easier than it did the thicker ones. It was one thing to see static illusions like walls, but it was another to be confronted with the true complexity of this new magic of hers.
Hopefully this doesn’t make it harder for my tail to phase through my clothing.
She was unable to test the thought, as her tail wasn’t out at the mont. In her incredibly brief conversation with Vee, she’d been invited to Nick’s apartnt and told only to “dress for the public.” While it was obvious that Vee wanted Amara’s true form completely hidden, there were no hints why it was necessary, or why she’d asked in such a secretive manner.
Whatever the reason, she doubted she would enjoy hearing it. Vee’s enigmatic tone had even prevented Amara from sharing the news about her mother, despite how excited she was.
I fucking swear, if the campus is getting raided by the CIA or sothing, I’m gonna lose my mind. Whatever this is, it had better be sothing I can punch.
As she neared Nick’s apartnt, she fired off a quick text to Vee and waited at the entrance. Staring through the window, her eyes ca to rest on the lobby just a few feet in front of her. According to her mother, she could teleport there if she wanted. Doors were simply a suggestion now, a flimsy mortal construction that held no more power than the cold of winter.
Vee’s appearance interrupted her thoughts. They quickly hugged, but it was obvious that the angel’s attention was split. Her eyes scanned the campus behind Amara, her words of welco were painfully generic.
The act only dropped when they returned to Nick’s place. He appeared just as tense as Vee, and they both sighed in relief when the door closed behind them.
“Alright, what’s with all this cloak and dagger bullshit?” Amara asked, vaulting Nick’s couch to take a seat.
The others quickly followed, Vee sitting next to her on the couch while Nick sat on the loveseat opposing them. With a deep breath, he began talking. “We’re not entirely sure if this is a bad thing or not, but… Tessa’s Coven is here. They took her away, seemingly quite upset about sothing, and she warned us not to get involved.”
“What do you an, took her away? Like, tossed her in an unmarked van and drove off?”
“No, nothing that dramatic,” Vee said. “They said sothing about having their own quarters, and Tessa simply walked off with them. We’re mostly worried because they were horribly rude to her, and she didn’t say anything. She let them walk all over her, it was really weird.”
“She’s never had good things to say about her Coven,” Amara pointed out. “In all the ti I’ve known she was a witch, I’ve never gotten more than a few words on the topic.”
“She’s told a bit, actually,” Nick added, leaning forward. “Her Coven supposedly monitors social dia looking for signs of magic, and works to scrub all the evidence they can. According to their rules, Tessa should have reported back ages ago, back when the cult started ssing with the circles, but she never did. She wanted to deal with it herself, to avoid dealing with them, but after learning you were a demon, things changed. She was adamant they never find out about you.”
“Alright, so…” Amara paused, pulled her legs underneath her as she took everything in. “They’re probably here because they found out the Gate broke. They’re mad at her for keeping it a secret, and need to start by interrogating her. You think they can read minds?”
“I hope not, or else this is gonna be impossible,” Vee said. “We have nothing to go on right now and figured that, if nothing else, you should know.”
Amara looked between Nick and Vee. “Wait, that’s it? Our plan is just to hang around and hope they let Tessa go?”
Nick nodded. “We don’t know what they want. For all we know, the worst thing that’ll happen is Tessa gets a slap on the wrist. Heck, they might be on our side for all we know. We can’t risk turning this into a fight just because they’re unnecessarily an to Tessa.”
“How an?” Amara asked, narrowing her eyes.
Vee stamred, clearly hesitant to share the full scope of what had transpired. “The one in charge, she calls herself Headmistress Davenport. Tessa forgot her title at first, and the Headmistress slapped her.”
Amara had to stop herself from jumping to her feet and running off. She slamd her fist into Nick’s couch, then imdiately raised her hand in front of her face. As she flexed her fingers, chitinous exoskeleton rippled across her skin, joined by small waves of hellfire. “That fucking… After everything Tessa’s done for this campus?”
“I know it’s upsetting, but Tessa’s a grown woman, and she knows more about them than anyone. We need to trust that she’s doing what’s right, and until then, there’s nothing to do but wait. Hopefully she’ll reach out soon.” Vee reached over, grabbing Amara’s arms as she tried to talk her down. Their eyes t, and Amara sighed before nodding slowly. Vee smiled, her hands rubbing Amara’s jacket softly before she changed the topic. “Is this a new jacket?”
“What? Fuck, that’s right! I’ve got crazy news!” Amara jumped to her feet, her eye flared, and the extravagant red jacket disappeared. “My mom’s a demon! She’s why I’m like this!”
“Wait, Evelyn?!” Nick asked from behind Amara.
Amara spun around to look at him. “Yeah! After Vee left yesterday, she called, and I finally told her I was a demon, and then she teleported into my living room! She told a whole bunch of crazy stuff; she even told who my dad is!!”
Nick was on his feet within seconds, beaming with excitent. He pulled Amara in for a hug, squeezing her as hard as he could. “Amara, that’s incredible! Who is he? Does this an you’ll be able to et him?”
“Well, no, he died a long ti ago. Like, in the fifties,” Amara said, burying her face in Nick’s shoulder.
“Wait, what?” Vee asked.
“Alright, I should probably start from the beginning, we talked about a lot.” Amara moved back to the couch, took a seat, and cleared her throat. “So, she started by telling all about the Garden of Eden, which is totally real, and about how Adam was given a wife…”
Amara spent the better part of the next hour relaying everything she’d talked about with her mother. Vee and Nick both had countless questions of their own, and Amara did her best to answer them, but she stressed that she hadn’t been able to spend much ti with her mother. Supposedly, she was never supposed to have been a demon, and Evelyn had left to try and figure out why this was happening.
“…And then she gave so pointers about how teleportation works, which ended with her leaving. Then Vee called, and here I am.”
Vee sighed as she slumped back in her seat, her eyes wide. “That’s… wow. I an, direct family ties to Lilith?”
“Amara, I’m so sorry about your dad,” Nick said. “After all those years, at least you have the truth, right? How are you feeling about all this?”
For the first ti since her mother teleported away, Amara finally stopped to reflect. It was sothing she’d always been bad at, and Nick had a frustratingly helpful habit of pushing her to introspect. “I’m… hm. Part of is ecstatic, I finally have answers that I’ve been looking for all my life. It’s upsetting that I’ll never have a chance to et him, though. When I didn’t know, there was still that chance, right? That vague hope that, if I found a na, I’d be able to et him, but now that’s gone. Apart from him, though, I also have all these answers for everything that’s been happening the last few months. I know why I’m a demon! At least, a little bit. My mom seed absolutely convinced I wasn’t supposed to be like this, and I hate that I had to lose her so soon after finding the truth.”
“She’s leaving because she cares about you, right? That’s got to count for sothing,” Vee said.
“I’ve never doubted that she loves , but what if there’s sothing she’s not telling ? She spent all that ti explaining that demons co from damnation, and I’m a demon, so…”
“Hey, you don’t know that,” Nick said sternly. “Look, I don’t understand the chanics of the soul, but your mom has never shied away from having uncomfortable conversations with you. The fact that she’s leaving to look into this tells there’s more going on here.”
Amara looked over at Vee, hoping that, as an angel, she would have sothing helpful to say.
“Cards on the table,” Vee started, “I don’t know that much about souls. Yes, there’s a lot the Church has told , but a bunch of it has already been proven wrong. I an, they told demons were universally cruel and sadistic, and now I know two that are anything but.”
With a frustrated sigh, Amara grabbed a throw pillow and mashed it into her face. “Uuugh, I hate this! Why is everything so complicated?” With another groan, she fell sideways, her head coming to rest in Vee’s lap.
“How about we focus on one thing at a ti,” Nick suggested. “Evelyn said she only needs a few weeks, so there’s no point in worrying about that for now. Tessa’s Coven is certainly unexpected, but their appearance could work out in our favor. Tessa’s biggest fear always seed to be them finding out about you, Amara, so we keep your true nature hidden as best we can. In the anti, we put our trust in Tessa.”
“Tessa herself would be the first to argue that’s a bad idea, Nick,” Amara said. She felt Vee chuckle, just a tiny bit, and caught herself smiling in response.
“C’mon, she’s pulled through dozens of tis already!” Nick protested. “Look, we’ll give her to the end of the day, and if we haven’t heard anything, we’ll start poking around. Fair?”
“Sounds good to ,” Vee said, resting a hand on Amara’s shoulder. “Besides, we’ve got a master shapeshifter on our side, right? If we need to play dirty, we can.”
Looking up at Vee, Amara smiled again. “Oh, alright. One day.”
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