Free Demon Girl by Penelope Fletcher Page B

classes in the last month keep picking it
up as the main study topic.”
    “We have orders to increase your training on
lesser known beings, in particular fairies. There has been
increased activity and sightings near the Wall.”
    My heart tripped a little in my chest.
“Increased?”
    “Forty in the last month.”
    “Where?”
    Tu’s gaze bored into mine. “Here, around the
Temple.”
    I swallowed and scrunched my hands into fists
on my knees. The silence thickened, and several sharp intakes of
breath sounded throughout the room.
    “Do we know why?” asked Devlin.
    “No,” Tu replied. “But we can make an
educated guess. This is where the greatest protectors of our race
are trained. A demon gaining access to this Temple would be
disastrous. They know this, and since we first came here we’ve
suffered the odd attack.” He pushed his hands out in an open and
calming gesture. “And that is why you should not worry. Every
attack made by a demon on this Temple has failed. The Wall keeps us
safe, and when it is breached we erase the danger.”
    He paused, and paced back and forth across
the classroom floor. Hands behind his back his eyes were on the
floor. His face had become drawn, dark. Is that what he thought
he’d done earlier, erased a danger? My stomach lurched as my eyes
wandered over his crimson blazer. It was hard to look at him
straight. I wanted to stand and shout and point and tell everyone
how sick and twisted he was.
    “Tell me, how you would identify a fairy?” he
asked as if plucking the question from the air.
    “Textbooks say fairies are the most diverse
of all demon kind,” Jono started. “Some have bright colored hair
and funny colored eyes, but all are noted to have an in-depth
connection with nature, and possess inhuman strength, speed, and
regenerative ability.” Jono’s mouth opened, breathing in deeply, no
doubt about to spew more statistical nonsense.
    My hand shot up.
    Dark eyebrows climbing at the forceful thrust
of my hand, Tu jerked his chin at me. “Rae, you have something else
to add?” There was faint surprise in his tone.
    I could admit I was a more sit in silence
then ace all my exams type, but just looking at him had all sorts
of questions swirling around my mind.
    “Lord Cleric,” I said thickly then had to
grunt a few times to clear my windpipe. Bile had risen at having to
address this man with the honorific. “I know despite the reports of
sightings that fairies are rare, but have… Have you ever seen one?
Up close, I mean? ”
    He stopped pacing, and his mouth opened then
closed. He stared at me hard before rubbing a large hand over his
face. “No. I have never seen a fairy. They are incredibly rare
demons.”
    I cocked my head and my mouth won out over
logic. “Have the Clerics ever caught a fairy? They hunt vampires
and shifters all the time, but I’ve never heard of them actually
catching that particular type of demon.”
    From the corner of my eye I saw Devlin shift
in his chair. I was not surprised. People didn’t question Clerics
like this. The only reason I was managing it is because I’d seen Tu
in his most base form. He had lost all my respect so it was nothing
to talk to him as an equal.
    His eyes went wild, glassy with repressed
panic. Could no one else see it? “Like I said they are so
rare–”
    The direction of my thought changed abruptly,
“If they haven’t,” I interrupted and tapped Alex’s textbook with a
finger, “how does the Sect know to put such detail in our
books?”
    Now I’d looked, they’d even described
different variations of fairy coloring. Once you’d seen it, it was
so striking it was not something you could ever forget. How could
the Sect know that, and why had I not noticed before?
    His eyes darted to and from mine. He placed
his palms up, pushed them out. “Such beings are commonly–”
    My mind flashed to the fairy in the clearing,
all that blood and sizzling skin. The ruthless way he had behaved
made my gut churn