A small squeak near her feet caused Aurelie to wipe her tears and look down. Mephisto was there, staring up at her with its cursed red eyes. She held her cupped hands out, not knowing if the creature would bite her or climb aboard. Tonight, fortunately, it seemed to understand that something was amiss, because it clambered onto her hands and spun in a little circle before settling on her palms. Its long, slender body was covered in bristly white fur, its pink flesh visible beneath them. It released a sigh through its nostrils and closed its eyes, and Aurelie felt a fresh wave of hot tears slide down her cheeks.
She laid it in her lap, hardly daring to run her fingers over its long back, feeling the delicate movement of its breath. Mephisto may be a demon, but it was far from evil. Anyone would see that, if they bothered to look.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered against its head, earning a small growl and a squeaky yawn.
Aurelie sniffled and set the demon on its pillow. For this week, at least, it would get all the cockroaches it could eat.
On Tuesday morning, Aurelie did what she should have done from the start. She told Kiara everything.
“I know it’s all completely mad,” she said when she’d finished. “And I should have come to you sooner,” she added, before Kiara could say so herself. “But I’m terrified, and I don’t know what to do. I need your help, Kiki.”
Kiara, who was sitting on Aurelie’s sofa with Mephisto curled up next to her, hadn’t said a word for the entirety of Aurelie’s speech. She blinked a few times, chewing on her lip. “I don’t... I can’t...” She leaned forward so abruptly Mephisto bolted from the sofa. “What the hell were you thinking?!”
Not once in the eleven years of their friendship had Kiara yelled at her. Hot tears sprang into Aurelie’s eyes, which was completely ridiculous. She deserved to be yelled at for what she’d done.
“I wasn’t thinking,” she cried. “At least not with my scientist’s brain.”
“Well, whose brain were you using, then? Because they are an utter pillock!”
“I know!” Aurelie rose and began to pace around her office. Some part of her had been hoping for reassurance that things weren’t as bad as she feared. But the rest of her had known they were worse. Otherwise she would never have dragged her best friend into this. “I’m done for, aren’t I? No matter what I do from this point on, I’m going to prison, and Uncle Leo will never speak to me again, and Mephisto is going to die.”
She collapsed onto the floor, somehow finding a reserve of tears despite all her crying last night. Thank goodness it was only seven o’clock in the morning and the students wouldn’t be here for at least an hour.
She felt Kiara sit next to her and wrap an arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry I shouted. I’m just worried for you, that’s all. Besides, I’m partly to blame.”
“What do you mean?”
“I meant to ask my father ages ago about this Everard, but I only just remembered this weekend. Father has never heard of him, Aurelie. Which means not only did that man lie to you, but we also have no idea how he learned of you in the first place.”
Aurelie’s back prickled with a cold sweat. Some part of her had known that all along, hadn’t it?
“But let’s remove one concern from your plate. I’ll take Mephisto to my grandparents’ house. I’ll release it into the countryside, where it will have all the grasshoppers and field mice it can eat.”
“Really?”
“Really. In the meantime, it can live in your other workshop. No one goes in that building.”
“That’s a good idea.” Why hadn’t she spoken with Kiara sooner? She would never have let Aurelie get so wrapped up in this mess.
“As far as the Iron Guard is concerned... Well, they haven’t turned you in yet. Maybe they’re not planning to. But either way, youhaveto tell this Everard person you can’t build his portal. It’s far too dangerous. And I love you too much to let you lose everything over this.”
“But—”
Kiara leveled her with a flat gaze. “Aurelie, if you don’t, I won’t help you with anything ever again.”
Aurelie lowered her head. She knew Kiara was right. She should never have accepted in the first place. Her life had been a disaster ever since Uncle Leo left and Everard showed up at the university. Before then, everything had been going well. Her grades were fine, her relationship with Uncle Leo was changing but not in a bad way, and she was keeping her inventing manageable.
She’d let her pride take over these past weeks, when she had always been so logical, so practical. For heaven’s sake, she still didn’t know what the portal was trulyfor, only a vague idea of what it might be meant to do. Still, all that hard work for nothing. The schematics, the hours wasted on Elder Vansion. Not to mention the risks she’d taken and the people she’d endangered, with nothing to show for it in the end.
She took a deep breath. This was the right decision. Everard would be disappointed, but he’d find someone else to do the job. At least Aurelie wouldn’t have to see it. And at least she’d know she had tried.
“All right,” she conceded as Kiara pulled her into her arms. “I’ll tell him by the end of the week. I promise.”
Aurelie spent the rest of the week constructing a cage for Mephisto in whatever time she could spare, one that was portable but large enough that it wouldn’t feel too restrictive. She crafted a shoddy cover for the cage—sewing was not her strong suit—and concocted a lie that she’d captured a juvenile least weasel and was keeping it for the zoology department until after Yule. No one would mistakean eight-legged demon for a weasel, but at least the color and size were close.
By Thursday, she was breathing a little easier. There was no sign of the Iron Guard, Miles Viridian had a boil the size of a small kingdom on his nose, and her professors were all in good moods because of the upcoming holiday. She even managed to get an extension on a paper for her requisite philosophy class, which she’d hardly paid attention to all semester.
There was just one loose thread hanging over her. At some point during the chaos of the other night, she’d lost the key to the front gate. Mr. Morel had a new one made for her, but she didn’t like knowing the other was still out there somewhere.