I Am The Demon Prince

CHAPTER 5: The Mark

The scraping beneath the floorboards stopped. A moment of dead silence stretched across the lecture hall before the metal grate near the front podium burst upward, clattering against the whiteboard and leaving a gaping hole in the tile. A gaunt shape dragged itself out of the ventilation shaft, then crouched on the carpet.

The creature had elongated limbs and skin the color of wet ash. Its hollow, pupil-less eyes fixed on Tyler as it hissed, exposing rows of jagged teeth.

Alex stepped forward, then froze. He wanted to cross the room and rip the creature apart, but the brand on his chest flared against his ribs. The burning sensation warned him that unleashing his strength now might crack the seal permanently.

The creature didn't give him time to decide. It lunged across the center aisle, aiming straight for the boxer.

Tyler snatched a folding chair from the front row and swung it like a baseball bat. The steel struck the creature's jaw with a loud crack, crumpling the metal frame and buying them a crucial second. The monster stumbled backward, shaking its head as dark ichor dripped from its ruined mouth.

Jenna raised her hands and shouted a string of foreign syllables that sounded like grinding stones. The binding chant wrapped around the creature like a physical chain, locking its limbs in place and suspending it mid-stride, its claws inches from Tyler's face.

“Hit it now!” Jenna yelled.

Alex charged into the aisle and drove his fist into the creature's chest. The impact shattered its ribs, sending it crashing into the floorboards with enough force to crack the concrete foundation. The monster dissolved almost instantly, collapsing into a pile of black dust scattered across the carpet.

Jenna approached the remains and knelt beside them. She brushed away the top layer of dust with her boot, revealing a burned symbol scorched into the floor tile. Two overlapping serpents formed the mark and the color drained from her face as she stared at it.

“What is that?” Tyler asked, dropping the dented chair.

“The mark of the Second Circle.” Jenna looked up at Alex. “Korrath sent this thing. He's testing your defenses.”

“Why did it go for the boxer instead of me?” Alex asked.

“Because Korrath knows I'm the easiest way to make you mad,” Tyler reasoned. “He wants you to lose control. We need to get out of here before more of those things crawl out of the floor.”

“Follow me,” Jenna ordered. “I know someone who can help us make sense of this.”

She led them across the dark quad, picking the lock on the campus library's side door. They slipped between the towering bookshelves and made their way to a small office tucked behind the archives, where a man sat at his desk surrounded by stacks of old newspapers and bound journals.

Professor Grant Holbrook looked up from his reading, adjusting his wire-rimmed glasses. “You brought a crowd tonight, Jenna.”

“We had a problem in the science building,” Jenna said, settling into one of the guest chairs. “Korrath sent a stalker.”

Holbrook leaned back, studying Alex. “So you're the transfer student everyone is whispering about. The one with the seal on his chest.”

“Who are you?” Alex asked.

“He's a former scholar for the Order,” Jenna explained. “He walked away a long time ago, but he still tracks supernatural activity around Crestwood.”

Holbrook pushed a leather-bound folder across the desk. “I mostly track history. I have records of campus disappearances going back fifty years. Every few decades, students vanish during the winter semester. The local police dismiss them as runaways, yet their last known locations are always near the steam tunnels. Those tunnels connect directly to the old chapel and the science building.”

Alex opened the folder, flipping through black-and-white photographs of missing students. “Korrath is using the tunnels to move his creatures around campus without being detected.”

“So he has a highway underground,” Tyler said. “He's building an army beneath our feet while everyone upstairs goes to class.”

He rested his hands on the desk, looking directly at the professor. “I have a question for you, Holbrook. What does the Order actually want with Alex?”

Holbrook went completely still. He studied Jenna for a long moment, allowing the silence to stretch across the cluttered office. Jenna averted her eyes, suddenly finding the bookshelf more interesting.

“They want to eliminate the threat,” Holbrook finally answered, shifting his gaze back to Tyler. “The Order doesn't take chances with demon princes. They believe the seal is a bomb waiting to go off, so they prefer to dismantle bombs before the timer runs out.”

“That sounds like a rehearsed answer,” Tyler noted.

“It's the only answer that matters right now,” Holbrook replied. “You boys need to learn how to defend yourselves. Korrath won't stop sending his pets and Alex needs to learn how to keep that seal intact under pressure.”

By the time they left the library, the sun was rising over campus, painting the sky in pale shades of orange and pink. Frost coated the grass as the cold morning air settled in. Jenna led Alex toward the center of the lawn, stopping beneath a row of streetlamps.

Tyler settled onto a nearby stone bench, nursing a cup of terrible dining hall coffee while watching them.

“The seal reacts to your emotions,” Jenna explained, pacing in front of Alex. “Korrath will keep threatening your friends because he knows you'll get angry and crack the lock. You have to learn how to breathe through the pull of the magic.”

“I'm not going to stand around watching him hurt people,” Alex argued.

“Nobody is asking you to stand around,” Jenna countered. “I'm asking you to control your reaction so you don't burn the city down in the process. Give me your hand.”

Alex held out his arm and Jenna wrapped her fingers around his wrist. Her skin felt warm against the morning chill. She met his gaze, refusing to look away.

“Focus on a steady rhythm,” she instructed, lowering her voice. “Hunters are trained to block out fear. You have to block out everything. Count backward from ten. Let the numbers replace the anger.”

Alex began counting silently. The tension left over from the library gradually faded, replaced by a different kind of energy. Instead of fighting the exercise, he surrendered to the moment and focused entirely on their contact.

He felt the pulse of her thumb against his wrist, studied the steady intensity of her brown eyes, then became aware of how little space remained between them. A small scar near her collarbone caught his attention, along with the way the morning light traced the edges of her dark hair.

The brand on his chest hummed, but this wasn't the jagged heat of rage or the freezing ache of fear. A smooth, rising warmth flooded his veins, making his pulse race.

Above them, the streetlights began humming with a strange electrical resonance. The frost beneath their boots turned black, spreading in a perfect circle around them.

Jenna glanced down at the scorched grass and jerked her hand away as though she'd touched a live wire. She retreated two steps, rubbing her wrist while her cheeks flushed red in the cold air.

“You lost focus,” she snapped, clearly flustered by the sudden change in temperature.

“I didn't lose focus at all,” Alex replied.

Tyler picked up a rock and tossed it toward a tree, pretending he hadn't noticed the streetlights sparking or the hunter losing her composure. “Are we done here? Because I have a morning class and I still smell like demon ash.”

“We're done for today,” Jenna said.

She turned and strode toward the dorms without waiting for them to follow.

Alex watched her leave before starting down the path, with Tyler trailing behind. Their friend walked slowly, letting the morning wind bite through his jacket while keeping some distance between himself and the other two. He needed the quiet.

The fight in the lecture hall kept replaying in Tyler's mind. Before Alex had shattered the creature's chest, the monster had scraped its claws against the tile and spoken.

Tyler reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. The screen lit up with a new text message.

“Hey bro, bought my bus ticket. See you this weekend!”

He stared at the screen, his stomach twisting into a tight knot. The message was from his sister, Lila.

Then he remembered the exact words the dying demon had rasped at him from the floor.

“The little one comes Friday,” the creature had whispered.

Tyler locked his phone and shoved it back into his pocket, deciding right then to tell no one…