Return of the Runebound Professor

“Lee!” Moxie rushed over to the demon’s side. “Are you okay? What happened? Where’s Azel?”

Lee stared at the spot where Azel had stood. The only thing that remained of him was a slightly scorched patch on the grass. She wasn’t so sure she actually knew the answer to Moxie’s question.

The power of her new Rune hummed in the back of her mind, restrained by the other demon’s last act. With every passing second, the Rune relinquished more of its grip on her. It had still changed her body, but it had been stopped before it could progress any farther.

I don’t even know what its name is, and I don’t know if I want to. It feels like the more I learn about it, the stronger it’ll get.

“Lee?” Moxie asked again, taking her gently by the shoulders. “Are you with me? Did you get hurt?”

“I – I’m fine,” Lee managed. Her lips felt dry and parched and speaking hurt her throat. The vestiges of pain from Rafael’s rosary still wound through her body, reminding her of just how close they’d all come to death. Numbness gripped her as her mind tried to piece together everything that had just happened. Everything that she’d learned. “Rafael is dead, right?”

“Most certainly,” Moxie said with a concerned expression. “What happened to you, Lee? Did this all come from ranking up?”

Lee reached up to her head, running a finger along the horn that Azel had broken. It was rough to the touch and warmer than she’d expected. They were a bad idea to keep out in public. It was basically an advertisement as to what she was.

It should only take a moment to remove them.

Her brow furrowed – and nothing happened. Lee blinked, touching the horns again to make sure that she hadn’t imagined it, but they were right where they’d been a second ago. Her brow creased even further in concentration as she focused on her skull.

Almost reluctantly, the horns sank into her skull and vanished from sight. They were far from gone, though. Instead of sinking into her body and turning into mass that she could manipulate, Lee could still feel them waiting to burst free once more.

“How did you manage to defeat Rafael?” Moxie asked. “And what was with Azel? I thought he should be with Noah.”

“He’s been with me recently,” Lee replied. “Azel helped me kill Rafael.”

“I suppose that makes sense. I don’t imagine he likes Inquisitors much. We got lucky. Again.” Moxie let out a relieved sigh. Her skin was paler than usual, and Lee saw some of the stress she felt reflected in the other woman’s eyes. “I get the feeling Azel is going to lord that over us for a long time.”

“He isn’t,” Lee said. Her words caught in her throat, but she wasn’t entirely sure why. She hadn’t known Azel that well. She’d barely known him at all. They’d spoken a few times, but he’d always just encouraged her to do the exact opposite of the right thing.

Why did he die for me?

“Are you sure?” Moxie asked doubtfully. “He doesn’t seem like the type to–”

“He’s dead,” Lee said. “He died blocking the last attack from Rafael. It was really strong.”

Moxie did a double take. “Azel… is dead? He died for you? Why?”

Lee couldn’t bring herself to voice what Azel had told her. Her head felt like a twisted mess of spaghetti, but even in the confusion and exhaustion, it felt like Azel’s final words had been for her ears alone.

“I don’t know,” Lee said. It wasn’t a complete lie, but it definitely wasn’t the truth. A small, distant part of her mind felt a flicker of amusement. Azel probably would have approved of her answer.

If Moxie suspected anything, she didn’t let it on. She just nodded, then put a hand on Lee’s shoulder and pulled her into a gentle hug before releasing her once more. “You’re okay?”

“For now,” Lee said. “My new Rune is dangerous. I don’t know if I’ll be able to stay myself. You saw what happened in the fight, right?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“We’ll figure something out,” Moxie promised. She looked over her shoulder to Alexandra and Emily, who both stood at the bottom of the cliff but far enough away from Lee and Moxie to give them some privacy.

They headed over the moment Moxie turned her attention toward them, giving Rafael’s body a wide berth.

“You’re a demon,” Alexandra said, her features unreadable. “That was an Inquisitor you just killed, wasn’t it?”

Lee considered trying to lie, but she was too tired to come up with something that would have been even remotely believable. She half hoped that Moxie would cover for her, but coming up with a lie that could somehow completely deny everything Alexandra and Emily had just seen with their own eyes felt impossible.

But, before Moxie could say anything, Emily shrugged. “Does it matter?”

Alexandra’s eyes flicked to Emily before shooting right back to Lee. “Why wouldn’t it? Demons are–”

“That’s Lee, though,” Emily said. “Isabel and Todd told me Inquisitors came for Noah before, and they tried to kill everyone, not just him. This is the second time they’ve come looking for trouble. They can only blame themselves for finding it.”

“But–”

“I mean, even an idiot could have told there was something weird with Lee,” Emily said, crossing her arms. “I’ve been around her for a lot longer than you have, and she never once did anything that made me feel like I was in real danger – aside from a few of the stretching lessons. I don’t care what she is.”

A flash of warmth swirled in Lee’s chest. Emily hadn’t doubted her for a second. The warmth was quickly quashed as a thought slipped unbidden into Lee’s mind.

Maybe she should doubt me. If Azel hadn’t restricted my Rune, I would have become the exact thing that everyone thinks I should be. If I can’t find a way to fix this, I’m going to be a danger to everyone. The Inquisitors would be right in trying to kill me.

“Wow,” Moxie muttered under her breath. “I didn’t expect she’d get over it that quickly. Now I feel like an asshole for causing such a scene with Noah about you.”

“You knew?” Alexandra asked, her mouth agape, overhearing Moxie. “I don’t understand. Aren’t demons all evil? I thought they only came to this world to kill and feast on human emotion. Why is Lee just… teaching a class?”

“Lee isn’t an average demon,” Moxie said. She walked over to Rafael’s corpse and a vine twisted out of her pant leg, winding around the rosary laying by his severed hand. It picked the bone beads up and tucked them into Moxie’s bag. “Emily is right, Alexandra. Lee wouldn’t hurt any of us. She’s just trying to live. No different than a certain former criminal.”

Alexandra’s mouth clicked closed and she winced. She sent one last concerned look in Lee’s direction, then bit her lower lip and sighed. “I find that hard to believe, but I suppose that’s also a little hypocritical of me. Does this have anything to do with all the people that were dying?”

“No,” Lee said, finding her voice again. “It’s separate. Inquisitors have been after me for a long time. I thought they’d stopped, but I guess I thought wrong. The other issue is… separate.”

“And likely solved for the time being,” Moxie added. “Though we should keep that to ourselves until we figure out what the future holds. This could have gone really, really poorly. We’re all lucky to be alive – and that reminds me. I ordered both of you to run.”

“I’m not leaving you to die,” Emily said, setting her jaw and matching Moxie’s gaze.

“I think Vermil would have killed me himself if I just ran off while you got killed,” Alexandra added.

“He would not have,” Moxie said. “I don’t want my students throwing their lives away for me. That’s not how this works.”

“Then you should have been stronger,” Alexandra said.

Moxie blinked, then let out a burst of surprised laughter. It was a mixture of genuine amusement and relief from still being alive, all boiling up now that the threat was gone. Moxie quickly got a hold of herself and shook her head.

“You might have a point, but I don’t want to hear it from you. I’m working on it. I’ve been… delayed.”

Moxie held her hand out and vines twisted out from beneath the ground, binding Rafael’s body and dragging him beneath the earth. They tilled the ground around him, making sure every single piece of land around where he’d fallen had been drawn deep beneath the earth.

“I’m not sure I’m in the right state of mind to practice anything else right now,” Emily said as she watched the last traces of Rafael vanish. She swallowed heavily, then stuck her hands into her pockets, hunching her shoulders. “I want to go back to bed.”

“Me too,” Lee said. “I’m exhausted. We’re stuck here until the transport cannon reactivates, though. I–”

A flash of blue carved through the air. Lee’s eyes widened and she dropped into a fighting stance, all the exhaustion vanishing in an instant. “Get out of here. Someone just used the transport cannon.”

“Damned Plains,” Moxie cursed, summoning vines from the ground to rise up around her as her eyes scanned the Windscorned Plateau for any sight of the new arrival. “Another blasted Inquisitor?”

“I don’t know,” Lee said, sniffing the air. The wind was against them, but she could still pick up the faintest traces of something familiar. Her eyes widened. “Wait. It’s–”

A flash of purple split through the air and an enormous man stepped out, a sword of matching size rested on his shoulder. The sword was new, but Lee recognized the one bearing it immediately.

“I was told there was someone flinging around blood magic over here,” Brayden said, turning in a circle. His gaze lingered on Alexandra for an instant longer than the others, but it was clear that she wasn’t trying to fight back, so he dismissed her quickly and turned to Moxie. “What in the Damned Plains happened?”

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