Chapter 18

MISSED CALL: Chloé
MISSED CALL: Chloé
Chloé: AMARA ARE YOU UP??
Chloé: SOMETHING CRAZY HAIRBRUSH
Chloé: AND I NEED YOU TO POST ABOUT IT!!
Chloé: HAPPENED*
MISSED CALL: Chloé
Chloé: Okay I couldn’t wait
Chloé: I need you to look over the post I made
Chloé: Text me when you wake up!

Somehow, Amara had managed to sleep through Chloé’s barrage of notifications. After a split second of panic, she realized nothing was wrong and finally returned her friend’s calls.

“Chloé? Hey, I’m up, what’s going on?” Amara yawned, still not entirely awake.

“Amara! Okay, so you know Connie? From the charity? Wait, shoot, I don’t think you two have met yet. You’d love her, she’s great! She’s always posting really pretty pictures of herself, I think she might have a fancy camera too?” Chloé was clearly excited, and was talking a mile a minute.

“Chloé...”

“Sorry, that’s not important. Anyways, so Connie has this friend that lives off campus, right? Connie is over there all the time, and honestly I think they’re dating but don’t want to say anything yet, ‘cuz she seems to spend the night pretty frequently.”

“Chloé!”

“Right, sorry. Sorry! So Connie, she spent last night with her friend, and she’s walking home this morning, when she sees that a huge chunk of the Palace has been cleaned up! Like, the remaining walls are down, a bunch of the bigger pieces are in the dumpster, it’s crazy! I had to call the dumpster people to schedule a pickup, and we technically haven’t even started yet!”

By the time Chloé had finished talking, Amara had already moved to the kitchen. Her tail was holding her phone, which left her hands free to start the coffee. “So, did anyone see who did this?” she asked nervously.

“That’s the weirdest part! No one saw anything, it must have happened in the dead of night. But, I mean, who would do that? We’ve already been advertising the scheduled clean-up hours, why would they do this in secret?”

Amara chuckled at the irony of the situation, wishing she could tell Chloé the truth. “Honestly? It might be better that we don’t know. If this stays a secret, there’s a good chance people will speculate about what really happened, which translates to a bunch of free publicity for your charity!”

“Ooooh, see, this is why I wanted to work with you on this! You understand all the marketing nonsense!” Chloé paused, her initial excitement having faded somewhat. “Are you able to check my post? I’m sure I didn’t use the right buzzwords or whatever.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you did fine. I’ll talk to you later, okay? I gotta start my day.”

The girls said their goodbyes and finally hung up, leaving Amara alone in her apartment once more. She took her time with the rest of her morning routine, getting dressed, doing her makeup, and eventually setting up her laptop on the kitchen counter. She curled her tail around her coffee mug, took a long sip, and got to work.

Opening her editing software, she plugged in the smaller of her cameras and watched the content slowly transfer. She was very familiar with editing photos, and while she’d done some video work in the past, it definitely wasn’t her specialty.

Thankfully, she didn’t need to do anything complicated with the video from yesterday. The meat of the footage was roughly in the middle, and it was quick work to remove the useless footage from the beginning and the end. Her biggest concern was to look for any accidental flashes of her demonic abilities. She wasn’t entirely sure what they might look like to an outside observer, and the rest of her morning was spent watching the video in its entirety, just to be safe.

It was a surreal experience; she was watching her very first sex tape, yet she wasn’t actually in it. She did her best to focus on the important parts, watching her eyes, looking for hints of hellfire, and she was pleasantly surprised when she found nothing. While watching it was making her incredibly horny, she knew she couldn’t afford to be distracted at the moment. Plus, Nick and Tessa were probably busy.

After uploading a copy to her phone, she began packing up the rest of the day’s classwork. Her thoughts lingered on Mr. Luxnor, on this strange cult he was a part of. What did they want? What was this all leading to?

She tried to think back to all the magic circles she’d been exploring with Tessa. While she didn’t understand the technical side of things, she wondered if there had been any other clues she might have missed. Right now, they knew about the one under Lysander Hall, the Cafeteria, the Science Building, and Brandt Hall. Many of them hidden in different ways, none of them exactly the same.

Unfortunately, her curiosity didn’t amount to anything. In the end, she simply didn’t understand the magic at play. Her strengths were more tactile, and she was hoping this lead with Mr. Luxnor would pan out.

Thinking back on all the circles, however, did bring up memories of Vee. If Amara hadn’t been investigating these circles with Tessa, she might never have left the house while shapeshifted. Would that have changed things? Derek would never have accused Vee of attacking him, but how did she know she didn’t scare him off in the process?

Of course, Vee probably could have taken him. At the time, I thought I might have indirectly helped her avoid an attack of her own, but she’s an Angel! She could probably take him out with both hands tied behind her back! I still have no idea how I didn’t lose that fight ... am I really stronger than her? Is there more I’m not seeing?

Memories of Halloween began trickling into her thoughts. Flashes of pain, her body changing and warping, the house falling to pieces around them. The hatred in Vee’s eyes, the utter contempt for everything Amara was. Those same eyes, bloodied and tearstained, begging for mercy before—

Stay focused Amara. You can’t change the past, and you’ve already done so much to try and help.

She shook her head, grounding herself in the moment before her breathing started to settle. Pulling out her phone, she opened Vee’s contact and stared at it for a while, hoping she might manifest a response.

Predictably, nothing appeared.

Amara: I hope you’re planning on finishing the semester. I miss you.

She wiped a tear off her cheek, gathered the rest of her things, and left for class.

Amara was thrilled that her energy levels had returned to normal. While the new abilities had been fun to play with, and she was determined to explore those further, it hadn’t been enjoyable spending an entire evening bouncing off the walls. If nothing else, she was at least proud of everything she’d accomplished.

Every so often, she would hear students talking about the mystery of the Jade Palace. The event hadn’t necessarily gone viral, but there was a healthy amount of buzz that Amara appreciated. She’d simply been trying to burn off energy and atone for her actions, and she hadn’t even considered that she might be drumming up interest for the charity. With the official cleanup scheduled to start this weekend, she was hoping there would be a sizeable attendance.

Soon enough, the morning had come to a close, and that meant it was time for the next phase of her plan. She retraced her steps from yesterday, as Amara this time, and soon found herself standing outside Mr. Luxnor’s office. It was fortunate that he kept consistent office hours, and even luckier that the building was relatively quiet during them.

Still, she had to wait for a few minutes while the teacher finished helping another student. Amara sat outside while they talked, and she did her best to focus on what was happening inside. Thankfully, it seemed like nothing scandalous, though it struck her as odd that she was able to hear everything so clearly.

Has my hearing improved? I know my eyesight has, even apart from the night vision. Come to think of it, I was able to hear the teachers under Brandt Hall even though Tessa was talking, and she didn’t notice anything until I pointed it out...

Her train of thought was derailed when the office door opened, and another student walked out. She didn’t recognize this one, but he said goodbye to the teacher before heading for the exit. Inside, she heard Mr. Luxnor shuffling some papers around, and she stood to enter the office.

Showtime, Amara.

The professor looked up as she entered, a warm smile crossing his face. “Hi there! Are you a student of mine? I must admit, I don’t recognize you.”

Amara closed the door behind her, refusing to acknowledge the question. As she fell into the chair opposite the teacher, she kicked her feet up on his desk and playfully leaned back. She rocked back on forth on the chair, the front legs no longer touching the ground, as she let her gaze wander through his office. Atop his desk sat a small plaque with the teacher’s full name, Professor Garrett Luxnor.

“I’d rather you kept your feet off my desk, if that’s alright. Can I help you?” he asked, growing frustrated.

She let a few moments pass as they continued looking at each other, then pulled out her phone. “I want to know about this cult of yours. What’s their plan?”

A mix of emotions appeared on Mr. Luxnor’s face, surprise the most obvious. “I think you have me confused with someone else, Miss. If you’re just here to make baseless accusations, perhaps you’d better leave.”

Amara didn’t justify his denial with a response. Instead, she turned her phone sideways, increased the volume, and hit play. Her voice, as Kylie, soon filled the office.

“Is there anything I can do to make it up? To show you how much this class means to me?”

Mr. Luxnor’s eyes went wide, darting to the phone. His breathing quickened, and he swallowed nervously. Another few seconds passed, and it became more than obvious what he was listening to. “Where ... How did you get that?”

“Does it matter?” Amara asked. “I have it, and it’s backed up in multiple places. If you want this to stay private, you might want to start talking.”

The professor glared at her, but quickly yielded. “Fine. What do you want to know?”

“There’s a good boy.” Amara smirked, letting the video continue as she talked. “What’s the endgame? You’re tracking down all these magic circles, and making alterations, but why?”

“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me how you learned all this?” he asked. When Amara didn’t say anything, he sighed and continued talking. “I don’t entirely know. He’s been vague about many of his plans. He’s given us all tiny bits of magic, and he’s promised a lot more if we help him.”

“Magic? What can you do?”

“Nothing flashy, mostly improvements to our bodies. I’m faster, stronger, and more alert. Supposedly he’s getting us ready for the main event, but again, he won’t say what it is.”

“And who is he? This mysterious cult leader that you’re stupid enough to follow?”

Mr. Luxnor laughed, a touch of ego coming through in his words. “You think I’m stupid? I’ve seen what he can do, how far he’s come. Mr. Wellington has proven time and time again that he’s not lying to us.”

Mr. Wellington? Seriously?

“So why fuck with the circles?” Amara asked.

“He says they’re in his way. They’ve sealed up the magic, and he can’t take what he needs until we weaken them. We’ve been at it for a while, though, and it’s too late to reverse anything. He’s going to start delivering on his promises next weekend, in fact.”

The sound from the video picked up, and Amara now heard muffled moans from when she’d been bent over the teacher’s desk. “When and where?”

“There’s a small complex under the quad, one of the original structures from the founding of the campus. The only way to reach it is through the elevator in Lysander Hall; there’s a secret button hidden by an illusion. We’re meeting at three in the morning, next Sunday.”

“How does Kylie fit into this? Human sacrifice? Part of the cult?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.

“I’m not a monster, though I don’t expect you to believe me. Kylie has nothing to do with this; she needed help with classwork, and one thing led to another. No one is being forced, we’re just two adults enjoying each other’s company.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re the one with all the control. I think it goes without saying that, if something happens to her, this video is front page news the very next day.”

“I happen to care for her, and frankly I’m insulted you think I’m capable of hurting her.” Mr. Luxnor protested. “Why do you even care about any of this? Who are you?”

Amara pulled her feet off the desk, letting the chair fall back to the floor before she stood up. She leaned forward, placing her phone down so it would be obvious how damning her video was. “I’m no one you want to get comfortable with. How do I know you’re telling the truth about Kylie? About the cult? You could be making up a bunch of nonsense just to placate me.”

Mr. Luxnor leaned forward himself, matching her stern glare. “Because it doesn’t matter. Somehow, you’ve stumbled into some magic knowledge, and you’re convinced you’re going to be the hero who takes down the big bad cult. I’ve seen students like you before, utterly convinced that you’re invincible, that you can change the world with a can-do attitude, but that’s not how this works. This is bigger than you, and if you were smart, you’d drop this whole thing.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Amara moved away from the desk, turning off her phone and pocketing it to get ready to leave. “Do yourself a favor, and don’t go to this meeting next Sunday. If you do, the video leaks.”

Turning to leave, Amara moved the chair out of her way before reaching for the door. As it opened, however, the teacher behind her continued talking. “Threaten me all you want, but I’m not scared of you. I’ve seen what he’s capable of, and when I tell him some punk student is trying to disrupt his plans, I’ll be rewarded.”

Amara paused, the door partially ajar, her hand grasping the handle tight.

Fuck. I was hoping the blackmail would be enough, but he’s really all-in on this stupid cult. What else can I do?

Echoes of Tessa’s voice crept into her mind, and as much as she hated to admit it, her friend might have been right all along.

“If I had your powers, I’d only need 5 minutes alone with him and we’d get all the answers we wanted.”

“All you have are empty threats. You’re here because you care, and if you release that video, it’ll harm Kylie just as much as me. I don’t think you have it in you.”

Deciding it was time to commit to the bit again, Amara closed the door and started laughing. It started quietly, but she slowly let it overtake her body before she locked eyes with the professor again. “Oh, you stupid little human. You don’t think I have it in me? The blackmail was my attempt at doing this quietly, to give you a chance to realize your mistake.”

She stepped forward, leaning towards his desk as she locked eyes with him. He was still confident in his position, and she needed to fix that. Her eyes flared, and she urged her inner fire to get excited, to turn up the heat a little more literally.

“You get one tiny drip of magic and it all goes to your head,” she continued, “but do you know where magic comes from? None of it is yours, humans only get magic by stealing it.”

Wave after wave of heat poured out of her body, and before her eyes, sweat started appearing on Mr. Luxnor’s forehead. She knew she had to keep pushing, and with a small flurry of embers, she manifested her tail and sharpened its edge.

“Not me, though. My magic, my fire, it’s alive. It’s a part of me, and it’s hungry. Care to guess what I feed it?”

The teacher swallowed nervously, pulling at the collar of his shirt. “W-what—”

In a flash, Amara’s tail swung in front of her, and she cut off his words just as her tail embedded itself an inch into his desk.

“Souls, Garrett. Souls like yours.”

The teacher flinched at the tail, his gaze finally leaving her eyes as he started to figure out what she was. Another flash of fire, and her horns appeared, followed by a series of flames around Mr. Luxnor.

“Why do you think you’re alive? You think it’s because of a tiny man with a control fetish?” She pulled her tail free, then moved its blade towards his throat while she stepped closer. “Perhaps the goodness of my heart? No. You’re alive because it’s convenient for me. Because killing you would create more problems than it would solve.”

The teacher tried to push away from Amara, but he had nowhere else to go. “S-stop! I’ll scream!”

Amara grabbed his collar, pulling him close as she hissed in his ear. “I’m only going to say this once. If you make my life difficult, I’ll rip your soul out and throw you into the deepest pits of hell. You’ll spend eternity wishing I’d been kind enough to simply kill you.”

Pulling away from Mr. Luxnor, Amara shapeshifted back into Kylie. “I can be anyone I want, Garrett.” She shifted her appearance a few more times, cycling through other students she’d seen in his class. “If you ever have sex again, how will you know it isn’t me? Do you want to live the rest of your life looking over your shoulder?”

Despite his threats, the teacher stayed quiet as true panic began to set in. “Fine! Okay! I’ll quit the cult, I won’t tell anyone about you!”

Returning her form to her own, Amara finally pulled her bladed tail away from the professor and snuffed the fire that had been floating around the room. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?” After one last flurry of embers, she dismissed her tail and her horns, then happily walked back to the door. “See you around, Professor.”

Conveniently, the hallway outside the professor’s office was still empty, and Amara began walking as quickly as she could to get away. She could still feel her faux cruelty sticking to her, and it made her intensely uncomfortable. Her plan had worked, more or less, but seeing Mr. Luxnor so utterly terrified her brought back painful memories of Halloween.

That’s not who you are. It was a little heavy-handed, but he’s leaving the cult! He’s safe now!

With a plethora of information, including a date and location, Amara pulled out her phone to schedule a meeting with Nick and Tessa. She needed to put together a plan for Sunday morning, and she would need all the help she could get.

In the meantime, as she continued to try and run from the cruel persona she’d just invented, she knew it was time to start gathering information on Sebastian Wellington. The most powerful man on the school’s Board of Directors, a self-made millionaire, and father to Derek Wellington.

She had a hell of a fight ahead of her.

That night, Tessa and Nick came over for dinner so they could discuss everything Amara had learned. She explained every detail as best she could, though Tessa was incredibly frustrated to learn that Mr. Luxnor didn’t know the full scope of the plan. No one was particularly surprised that Derek’s dad was behind everything; if anything, it made his meteoric rise to fortune seem a little too convenient.

“Alright, well, obviously I’m not crashing this meeting, and I don’t know anything about magic, but I’ll start looking into Mr. Wellington. I’m assuming he’s put a lot of money into curating his internet presence, but maybe I can find something helpful, even if it’s just an itinerary or something.” Nick said, already bookmarking sites on his phone.

“Tess, I’ll need you to reveal the secret button in the elevator at some point. Probably better if it’s not the night of the meeting, just so we don’t risk running into other cult members.” Amara said.

The witch was being unusually quiet, all things considered. She nodded absentmindedly before finally speaking up. “So you seriously had sex with Mr. Luxnor? And recorded the whole thing? Any chance I could get a copy of that?”

“No! I’m gonna delete it so it never accidentally leaks! Mr. Luxnor was completely right, I would never do that to Kylie.”

“C’mon, at least let me watch it once before it’s gone forever! A hot-for-teacher roleplay where the student is secretly a succubus? Nick, back me up here, doesn’t that sound hot as fuck?”

Nick was blushing profusely, and clearly didn’t want to be dragged into this conversation. “I think that it’s Amara’s video, and she’s entitled to do what she wants with it.”

“Ugh, you’re all such buzzkills.” Tessa rolled her eyes before continuing. “I’ll find your stupid secret button tomorrow night. Sure you don’t want me to come with to the meeting?”

“Absolutely. I’ll be in disguise, and you would blow my cover.” Amara said.

“So, I’m researching the leader, Tess is studying the circles and getting you into the meeting. What’s your plan?” Nick asked.

“Well, right now it’s just to gather intel. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Mr. Wellington will finally tell everyone what the goal is at this meeting,” she said. “I’ve been trying to prepare for things going wrong, but I honestly can’t think of how they might figure me out. I figure the biggest threat is Mr. Wellington; if he’s hoarding the cool magic for himself, who’s to say he won’t be able to detect me?”