Athena went back to her hotel room after they had eaten. She took a shower and changed her clothes. After that was done, she grabbed her staff and began to practice. She imagined Celso standing in front of her blocking her attacks and dodging her stabs.

Celso didn't return to the hotel with her. He decided to go back to his place to clean up. He told her that he would come back when he was finished. She didn't know when he would return, but she would wait.

A knock sounded on the door. Athena stopped practicing and placed her staff down on the bed. She walked to the door and opened it up. Derek stood there in the doorway leaning against the frame and typing away on his phone.

Athena smiled and leaned against the door. "How's the wife?"

Derek shot her a glare. "She's not my wife."

"Yet." Athena turned around and walked back into the room leaving the door open. She sat on the bed and heard the door close. Looking up, she smirked as Derek continued to look down at his phone and sit down on a chair. "But seriously, how is she?"

"She's good," Derek answered while smiling. He put his phone up and looked at her. His eyes traveled down to the staff next to her. "What's that?"

Athena looked down at the staff and grabbed it. "A staff."

"No doubt," Derek rolled his eyes. "Why do you have it?"

"Because," Athena hesitated. "Celso's teaching me how to fight and this is the weapon I chose."

Derek gave her a weird look. "Why do you want to learn how to fight? Shouldn't Celso be protecting you?"

"He is protecting me!" Athena countered. "I just wanted to learn to fight like him - or even remotely close to him - in case something happens and he's not with me." She thought back to the incident yesterday.

"What would make you think like that?"

Athena shrugged. "It was just a thought." She looked down at the staff and started to run her fingers over the strange writing.

She hear Derek get up from his seat and walk over to her. The spot beside her dipped letting her know that Derek had sat down next to her.

"May I see it?" he asked quietly.

She nodded and handed the staff over to him. She watched as the bubble's blue light fade as it left her hand and landed in her brother's.

Derek ran his hand over the writing and traced some of them with his pointer finger. He held it out in front of him and bounced it from hand to hand. "Did Celso explain what these symbols are?"

Athena shook her head. "No. I didn't ask him, but I'm going to when he comes back."

"Where is he?"

"Back at his place."

Derek got quiet for a while. He turned to Athena and handed her back the staff. "Seriously, Athena, why do you want to learn to fight? What happened at that asylum that I don't know about?"

Athena took a deep breath. She looked back down at the staff. "Nothing happened."

Derek sighed. "Don't lie to me, Athena. I know something happened. You're just not telling me."

Athena looked at her brother. She pursed her lips together and made a decision. "Everything was going fine until we were about to leave. We were in one of the rooms and I was taking pictures."

Athena paused and took a deep breath. "Suddenly, Celso was thrown into the hallway and the door of the room slammed shut. I tried opening it, but nothing worked. I felt a presence behind me and turned around to see a bony figure standing behind me. It - it tried to take my soul."

"Soul?" Derek asked confused.

Athena nodded. She shuddered when the memories of the silver line came back into her mind. "I started to feel weak, Derek. I felt like my life was being sucked out of me and I couldn't do anything about it. Truthfully, I can't remember much about what happened next. All that I remember is that Celso got the door opened and killed the demon. Somehow my soul came back into my body and my strength returned. Celso waisted no time getting us out of there." Athena shut her mouth and prevented herself from telling Derek about how Celso had talked to the demon and what the demon had said to him. She thought that it would be safer if he didn't know that part of the story.

Derek was quiet. She watched as he clenched and unclenched his hands.

"Derek," she called out to him while reaching out for his hand. "I'm fine. Celso saved me. I'm fine."

Derek shook his head and abruptly stood up. "No, Athena, it's not fine! You could have died! Celso wasn't there to protect you when he said he would!"

"Derek, no! He-"

"He promised to protect you and he almost let you die!"

"Derek-" a knock sounded at the door. Athena tried to get there before Derek, but he got there first.

He opened the door and saw Celso standing in the doorway. He grabbed him by his shirt collar and pulled him into the room. He closed the door and pushed him against it.

"Derek!" Athena yelled. She tried to pull him off of Celso, but he wouldn't budge.

Derek pulled his fist back and punched him straight in the jaw. "You promised to protect my sister! Why didn't you? She almost died!"

"I see you've told him about yesterday," Celso responded calmly. He looked at Athena over Derek's shoulder. She could tell he was holding back a smile.

"You're dang right she told me! Why didn't you protect her?" Derek asked through clenched teeth.

Celso turned his gaze to look at him. "I was not expecting to be thrown against a wall and a door being shut on me."

"Why didn't you get back in?"

Celso took a deep breath. "Trust me when I tell you that I tried with all my might to get to her, but that demon wouldn't let me in. I doubt against that door as hard as I could until somehow the demon lost focus. When I got in I killed the evil and made sure that Athena was revived. You don't know what I went through in my mind the whole time. I was worried to death that the demon would kill her!" Celso stared him down. "I promised to protect her and protect her I will!"

Athena went to Derek's side and grabbed his arm. "Derek, please."

Derek looked down at her and let go of Celso. "I need a minute." He pushed Celso out of the way and walked out of the door.

Athena put her head in her hands. "I'm sorry, Celso. I didn't think he would react like that."

She felt Celso's arms wrap around her and a kiss being placed on her cheek. "Don't apologize. He's just a protective brother. You didn't tell him what the demon told me did you?"

Athena shook her head. "No. I knew for certain that wouldn't go well." She looked up at him and noticed the bruise beginning to form on his jaw. She reached up and gently touched it. He flinched at her touch. "I didn't know that he could punch hard enough to leave a bruise."

Celso chuckled. "It didn't hurt that bad."

Athena rolled her eyes and walked away from him. "Remember, the bad boy persona doesn't work with me." She grabbed her staff and ran her fingers across the symbols.

Celso grabbed her waist and pulled her towards him. "Who says that I was trying to be a bad boy?"

Athena laughed and leaned against him. "Celso, what are these symbols on the staff?"

Celso looked over her shoulder and took the staff out of her hands. He looked closely at it before answering. "It's an ancient language that is still spoken today."

"Who speaks it?" Athena interrupted excitedly.

Celso looked at her quickly before looking back down at the staff. "Demons."

"Demons!" Athena backed away from the staff. "Why do I have a staff that has demon writing on it? More importantly, why did you have it in your weapon room?"

Celso took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It was a gift."

"From who?"

"A friend."

Athena waited for him to continue, but he didn't. "Well? Who's the friend?"

Celso walked over to her bed and sat down. "When I tell you this, I don't want you to freak out." He kept her gaze until she nodded her agreement. "When I was younger, in the academy, there was a certain being there that I befriended. I noticed his strange behavior and followed him around constantly. I soon became friends with him and learned that he was a demon himself."

Athena pulled the desk chair out and sat down in it. "A demon in your academy? How is that possible?"

Celso held up his hand. His face looked like it was in pain for telling her this. "He was different from the ones who we've met so far. He didn't like his family and didn't agree with them, so he enrolled at the academy. The headmaster made sure to keep his race a secret and did really well at it. To this day I don't know the reason why the headmaster agreed to let him in, but I'm not going to pry on it." He took a deep breath and continued. "Like I said, I became friends with him and followed him everywhere I went. He was only older than me by two years so he was the big brother that I never had. 

One day while we were out in the woods around the academy, we went too far. A gang of demons sprung up on us and attacked us. That staff was his and he protected me as much as he could, but it wasn't enough." Celso ran his hands through his hair and pulled at the ends of them. "One of the demons injured him badly. That's also when I killed my first demon. I killed the one who killed my first best friend. While he was laying there - dying - he told me to take his staff and keep it safe. It has secrets that I haven't figured out yet, but I hope to someday. He died that day in my arms and I couldn't do anything about it."

Athena stared at him sadly and walked over to where he sat. She picked his chin up and made him look at her. "I'm sorry, Celso." She wrapped her arms around his neck. "I can't imagine how hard that must have been for you."

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into his lap. "I wanted to quit the academy that day. I didn't care if I couldn't protect myself. I didn't want to be there if he wasn't there helping me." He buried his face into the crook of her neck. "He was my first friend, Athena."