The torment during next five nights turned more difficult to handle.

The demon has grown stronger, or I've grown weaker. Either way, the lingering in the shadows behind me turned into whispering and inexplicable thuds and thumps. Every time I turned off the lights, I could almost feel the presence in my room, so close to snatching me from my bed and making me disappear forever. 

In my dreams, I could see the shadow creeping around me. I could hear its voice; a muffled sound of wind carrying words. When I awoke, I found messages on my window-sill, on the wooden door, on the floor. Each time a different letter was written in the strange demonic alphabet. And every day the messages became more private, more dangerous, and more elaborate. 

Like the one I received this morning. 

I hear Dereck Montgomery's favourite pastime is traversing through hidden levels of the library. I wonder what he might be looking for there.  

Two sentences were almost completely written out in already familiar demonic alphabet, but the letter F was new. I took a photo and sent it to Amma. We almost had all of them. 

I tried not to address the demon, despite wanting to scream at him from the top of my lungs. I wanted to ask him what the fuck he wanted with me. But communicating with it was acknowledging it, and my fight against it lately consisted of solely ignoring and hoping he would go away.

My own passivity made me lethargic, apathetic, detached. Nothing helped anymore. Not being in the school, nor being with my friends. Not even Thar's presence shook the demon anymore.

He wouldn't fucking leave me alone. My fucking head was going to explode. 

I dragged myself out of bed and to the living room. It was noon. 

Was noon too early to have a drink? 

Well, I didn't care. 

My father left three days ago to attend to some Arch Mage business and was due to return today, two days before the meeting in the Veiled Hall. The meeting I, despite Thar's promise he'd try, probably wouldn't get to attend. 

I opened the bottle of red wine and poured myself a glass, ready to spend the entire day in this very living room, watching Netflix. 

Exams were starting right after Valentine's Day, and my dad still hasn't told me I could return to school. Right now, I felt like I might have imagined that was even a possibility. It was because Thar said he'd try to convince him, but he was closer to getting his job back than I was to becoming unexpelled.

I sipped the wine, my mood hanging somewhere between apathy and anger. Between the two, I'd rather choose anger, but there was no one around to be angry at. 

My phone rang, displaying Amma's name. I answered. 

"I called the moment Darth let us out." It sounded like she was in a rush. "I have five minutes before Potions, what the hell did that message mean?"

"You're going to class?" I smiled for myself, then immediately hoped she wouldn't note the surprise and relief in my voice. 

"I wanted to skip Potions today, but there's something about moonwort that I don't understand..." Her voice trailed off. "I think I just figured it out. No, never mind. I wanted to talk about the message. The library? The old library, the one beneath the new library?"

"Yes, Amma." I let out a sigh. "The demon wants me to go to the library."

"Should we do it?"

"Of course not." I frowned over the rim of the glass.

"But he said your father goes down there often, maybe we can learn something!"

The demon has shifted from an 'it' to a 'he' in the past few days.

"Or he wants to lure me down there and skin me alive." I downed the glass. "And I'm having quite enough fun being simply stalked and harassed."

"We should still go." Her voice turned firm. "It's a lead, a clue! We don't have enough of those."

"I don't even know what mystery we're trying to solve..." My voice trailed off. 

"We have to check the library, Jade-" Some commotion cut her off, "Yes, it's her. What?"

Someone took Amma's phone and a second later, Morta screeched on the other end, "We have a problem."

My gut twisted, "What kind?"

"It's Leon-shaped."

"No." I shut my eyes. "Just deal with it, please. Please."

"He's in the faculty lounge, Jade." She said my name with urgency. "He's drinking and dancing with some slut from Winston Academy."

I almost spat out the wine, "What?!"

"He's trying to get your father's attention." Morta shouted, and I heard her running down the hallway. "And it's working!"

My heart went into a frenzy that very second. 

"No, no, no." I slid off the couch, almost spilling the wine. "Get him out of there. If my father finds him-"

"Too late." Morta cut me off. "Teachers already saw him, they called your father."

"Why the fuck would he do that?" I tried to get my jeans on while still keeping Morta on the phone.

"My guess is always that he's actually clinically insane." Morta murmured. "Get over here."

"I'll be right there."

The passivity bubble I was in burst and adrenaline coursed through my veins, probably prompted by wine. This was just the sort of stunt he'd pull. But why? If my father spent five minutes around him, he'd realise something about him was off. Hell, he might even figure out that Leon was a demon. I did not need that on top of everything I was dealing with. 

From the cab, I phoned Thar. 

"Jade?"

"We have a problem. Leon-shaped."

"I heard." His voice sounded stiff. 

I frowned, "Who told you?"

"I'm here."

"What?" My mind scrambled. 

"Needed to talk to Darth. About the meeting at the Veiled Hall," Thar's voice turned strained. "Your father said no one should disturb Leon until he arrives."

My heart dropped like a stone straight to the bottom of my stomach. 

"He knows," I whispered. 

"Not necessarily," Thar sighed. "But this is not good. Not good at all."

"I'll be there in five-"

"Jade, you don't have to come here."

"Of course I do, what the hell are you talking about?" 

Thar kept quiet for a few seconds, "He's just trying to get your attention."

I chuckled, "When Leon wants your attention, he shows up in your room. And this time, it's not my room he showed up in. He wants my father to catch him. The question is why."

Because his aloofness was a mask, and he was actually a cunning, scheming bastard. 

"You should let me handle this," Thar said. "There is nothing you can do about it, Jade. Your father knows he's in the faculty lounge and he's on his way here."

Anger coursed through me, followed by guilt. In a way, he was right. There was no reason for me to be there. Hell, my presence might even implicate me further. But this was the first thing that happened in this entire week that I could act on. It was tangible, direct, handle-able. 

"I'll see you at school," I hung up. 

Thar kept calling me all the way to school, but I didn't pick up. The moment the cab left me in front of the iron gates, I rushed through the snow. Hunt Academy looked magnificent covered in snow, the dark facade standing out amidst the white, but I had no time to admire the view. I rushed to the main building, where the faculty lounge was located, and the crowd immediately took me aback. 

It wasn't just a crowd. It was a party. 

The teachers' hallway was full of people passing bottles around and jumping up and down to the rhythm of what I recognised as some Billy Idol's song. Some teachers were trying to calm them down, but their expressions were angry and desperate; helpless. They were told not to intervene. 

Why? 

Anger beginning to run down my veins again, I pushed through the swooning girls and pumped-up dudes until I found Morta. She stood leaned against the doorframe, hands crossed over her black top, her perfectly-drawn eyebrow raised, and stared into the faculty lounge. 

Before I could reach her, a tight grip on my forearm stopped me. 

"I've been texting you all week!"

I turned around and faced Bella, who looked like she hasn't slept in a while. Her hand was freezing to the touch, but it didn't stop her from wearing the skimpiest little black dress I've ever seen. 

"It was about Leon, and I didn't want to hear it," I tore myself out of her grip. 

"He's not himself, and no one's telling me anything," she pursed her lips. 

"Why don't you talk to him?" I suggested, "I'm sure he'd love to share everything with you."

"He's hanging out with Marissa Morrigan!"

"I don't know who that is."

Bella raised her eyebrow and crossed her hands on her chest, "All you need to know is that she puts out very soon."

"Sooner than you?" 

"Oh, fuck off," her hands dropped by her sides, "I don't know why I came to you."

"Yeah, me neither!" I shouted as she strode off, then faced Morta again right as Dancing with myself came along. 

Morta didn't look at me as I stood beside her and glanced into the faculty lounge. Leon sat on the table, tapping his foot against the chair's backrest and shaking his head in the rhythm, a bottle of gin in his hand, and a grin on his lips. There was an unlit cigarette between his fingers that he had no intention of lighting anytime soon. 

He looked... good. The leather jacket, the white shirt underneath, the jeans. The grin. The light in his eyes. He looked like he came into his own. There was still a destructiveness to him, a sort of madness and chaos that always consumed him, but he felt... stable. 

I swallowed the emotions gathering in my throat.

"I get it." Morta murmured next to me. "I get it now."

And when Billy Idol sang but your empty eyes seem to pass me by, he looked at me. 

Before his eyes and his smile managed to bewitch me, I slapped myself internally and remembered that he was in a fucking faculty lounge, drinking, and provoking my father. 

And then I noticed Marissa Morrigan, and her long legs, silky blonde hair, perfect black eyeliner following the slope of her green cat eyes, red heart-shaped lips and the hem of her uniform just an inch too high. 

Something sticky and bitter closed up my throat, and if I still had magic, I would probably burn her hair right about now. As if sensing my rage, Morta grabbed my upper-arm. 

Leon glanced away from me, a smile lingering on his lips.

The crowd quieted. 

And all jealousy dispersed from my throat, pushed aside by fear, when I saw my father march past me into the faculty lounge. 

Morta dug her nails into my skin. 

My father stopped opposite of Leon. Someone killed the music. Everyone stopped breathing. 

The entire school suddenly focused on the faculty lounge, as if they sensed this wasn't just a boy breaking one too many rules, not just a headmaster about to expel a student for outrageous behaviour, not just a regular occurrence in a regular school. This was a power-play. 

I realised three things at the same time as my ex-lover and my father stared each other down in the faculty lounge. 

My father knew Leon was a demon. 

Leon knew my father knew. 

And I wasn't fucking in on it.

Leon finally moved, and the school held its breath as he brought his finger to his lips, fire burst from it, and lit the cigarette. My heart hammered against my chest and my stomach flipped upside down. 

"Oh, my Goddess," someone breathed, probably Morta. 

A blatant display of his elemental power. An admission that he was the one who lit my dad's office on fire three months ago. 

"Mr. Lind," my father didn't come closer, "I believe it's high time you and I had a little chat. Meet me in my chambers in half an hour."

With that, he turned around and stormed out, gaze grazing me. The crowd seemed to breathe out when he left the room, but the party wouldn't continue. No, it was over. 

I stared at Leon, gritting my teeth, anger choking me. 

Morta's nails almost pierced my skin.

I tore away from her, marched to the table Leon was sitting on, my entire being zeroing in on the anger running through me. He was staring at me, his eyes murky grey, the cigarette between his lips. 

I slapped him. 

I slapped him hard, with everything I had inside me. 

His head snapped back, the cigarette fell from his lips, and the crowd choked for a second before they started awkwardly 'oofing' and laughing. 

I didn't wait for his reaction. I turned around and walked out, almost bumping into Thar who was witnessing the entire ordeal. He tried to stop me.

"Jade-"

"I know!" I shouted and continued pushing down the hallway. 

This time, everyone let me pass.