Leslie felt her mouth go dry at Mycah's words. She raised an eyebrow. “The binding? Really?” Didn't we just have a conversation about this last night?

     “Early this morning actually,” Mycah replied to Leslie's thought.

     “What's the binding?” Nicolas then asked as he got off the bed.

     “Uh…” Leslie didn't expect that she'd have to explain this to Nicolas yet especially when he had just arrived at the Haynes Academy.

     “Basically, when a witch here turns eighteen, they have to bind themselves to a demon,” Sage explained to Nicolas.

      “A demon?” Nicolas asked.

      “Mhm.” Sage nodded. “But you look pretty young, so I doubt that you'd have to worry yourself with that for a while yet.”

      “A demon,” the eight-year-old boy repeated as he looked down to the ground. He looked up at Leslie, Sage, and Mycah once more. “So, like my sisters then?”

     “Pardon?” Sage responded, curious to understand what Nicolas meant.

      “My older half-sisters are demons,” Nicolas explained. “Does that mean they'll be bound to a witch at some point?”

      Mycah nodded as he looked at Nico. “Yeah. Probably. It'll eventually happen.”

      Nicolas then asked, “What happens when a demon is bound to a witch?”

      “Well,” Mycah began to respond as he wetted his lips. “That depends. Most of the time, the demons are used as personal servants to the witches… But, I'm going for something different.”

     Nicolas cocked his head a little to the side at that comment. “A little different? What do you mean?”

     “What an inquisitive boy you are…” Mycah laughed softly at that, seemingly amused. “I'm… Well, I plan to fall in love with my demon… If that's possible. …If the demon is a man of course.”

     Leslie raised an eyebrow at this. “If? Mycah, what happened to your plan of ‘rigging’ it to get exactly what you wanted?”

     Mycah shrugged. “Well… It's not possible.”

     “And why is that?” Leslie asked her friend.

     Mycah exhaled. “It would appear that our dear Iris has already picked out who gets what demon.”

      Leslie's heart dropped as she felt her breath catch in her throat at hearing this bit of information. “W-What?” Shit! Oh god… Who the hell am I gonna be binded with? I swear if it's that bastard I succumbed to… I won't let him near Tomi… He sure as hell isn't Tomi's father. I won't let him hurt my baby. I'll put up a nasty fight if it comes down to it.

     Sage and Mycah glanced over to Leslie briefly, listening to her mental ramblings and concerns.

     Sage looked like they wanted to say something to calm Leslie down, but they didn't—-it was as if they couldn't think of a single word combination woven intricately enough to put Leslie's tumbling mind at ease.

    Mycah nodded to Leslie. “Yeah… I heard she had them finalized at four this morning.”

    “Right after I went to sleep?” Leslie groaned. “Great.” Just my fucking luck!

      Mycah then turned back to face Nicolas once more, changing the conversation point back to an earlier one. He inhaled. “I don't know what Sage's plans for their demon are—”

      Sage interjected, “I'll befriend them… I really don't believe in the servant thing…” They shuddered. “It’s disgusting.”

      “Welp,” Mycah started to say. “There's my answer.”

    “And Leslie?” Nico asked Mycah. “What's she plan to do with her demon? Something nice?”

     Mycah shook his head. “I'm afraid not, kid.”

     Nicolas's expression shifted from one of curiousity to one that showcased how upset he was by that response. “Why not?”

     Mycah answered the young boy's question, kneeling down to Nicolas's height. “Well, bud… Leslie here doesn't like demons.”

     “Why doesn't she like them?” Nico then questioned.

     “Because she's got some trauma tied to demons,” Mycah said.

     Nico looked over to Leslie, as if the little boy expected to hear the story.

     “I…” Leslie's voice was soft and sounded somewhat defeated and almost broken. “I'd rather not talk about that right now.”

     “Okay. I understand,” Nicolas said, looking back to the ground again.

     Mycah stood, looking over to Leslie. “Sage and I came here for a specific reason, you know… Not just to talk about the binding.”

      “Oh?” Leslie raised an eyebrow. She tried to push all of the dark thoughts about what had happened to her when she was in the control of the demon who fathered Tomi.

     “We were gonna go check out who we were supposed to be binded with,” Mycah explained.

    “And how do we do that?” Leslie questioned.

    Mycah grinned a little. “We break into Iris's quarters.”

─┉─¡! • !¡─┉─

     Finding a perfect time when Iris wouldn't be in her quarters and when the hallways wouldn't be packed was hard enough—-actually getting into the room was even harder.

    “We could always burn the lock…” Mycah suggested.

     “No… Because she'd know we were here,” Sage responded. “And for all we know, maybe the door's got some sort of spell on it that would make it resistant to our magic.”

    “Touché,” Mycah said before he studied the door once more.

     Nicolas had stayed in Leslie's quarters while Mycah, Sage, and Leslie attempted this nerve-wracking act.

     Leslie was a little worried of what might happen if Nicolas decided to go wandering through her dorm room and came face to face with Tomi. Don't worry, she tried to tell herself. If that does happen, you have nothing to fear. Nicolas seems like a trustworthy kid. He won't tell anyone… I hope. She swallowed.

     “Leslie…” Mycah began. “Any ideas?”

     That snapped Leslie back into reality. “Uh… Yeah actually.” She used magic to conjure up a paper clip and began to straighten it out.

     “Ah yes,” Mycah replied as he watched her. “The oldest trick in the book.”

     Leslie slid the paper clip into the lock and slid it around a few times before there was a clicking sound and the door opened.

     The three headed inside as they closed the door behind them.

     Mycah made a mad dash to Iris's desk and flipped through her papers. “Ah-ha! Bingo! Sage…”

     “Yeah?” Sage looked curious to hear what they'd get.

    “You've apparently got a girl by the name of Tiyuk Habik,” Mycah said. He turned the page. “...and I've got this… Dylan Thao… Whoever that is.”

     “Sounds like you might get what you want after all,” Sage commented to Mycah.

     “Hopefully,” Mycah responded.

     “And me?” Leslie could feel anxiety eating away at her.

     “Oh yes,” Mycah said. He flipped through the papers. “Eliesavetta… Eliesavetta… Eliesavetta… Oh! Got it!”

      Leslie tensed a little. “Yeah?”

     “You've got some chick named Kara Satuman,” Mycah replied as he dropped the papers back on the desk and approached his friends once more.

     Footsteps echoed in the hallway outside the door.

    Mycah's eyes grew wide. “Now we need to get out off here before Iris finds us and throws us to the wolves.”

     Mycah and Sage grabbed onto Leslie as they used magic to teleport back to Leslie's quarters just moments before Iris opened the door.

    “Strange,” Iris whispered to herself when she realized the door had been unlocked. Iris brushed that off.

      You've been busy lately, Castella said. For all you know, you could've just forgotten to lock it on the way out.

    “I suppose so…” Iris exhaled. “I need a drink…” As Iris made her way over to where she'd pour herself a glass of wine, she stepped on the paper clip that had been left behind.