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8

PANDORA

“W elcome to your finalterm at Demon Reform Academy,” Respa announced with a haughty smile on her lips. “You’ve survived a lot during your academic stay. Normally, we don’t have quite as much chaosas we have had this year. Though, you’ve done well with everything happening. Hopefully, this term will be less difficult. In this class, we will be focusing on Demonic Ethics.”

“Demons don’t have ethics,” a student from the back called out with a chuckle.

I rolled my eyes and met Reed’s violet gaze as he did the same. We smiled, and our matebond pulsed with love. I was more than happy that my mate had the same mindset I did.

Nebula was tucked securely in my bag, and Reed and Jenni sat on each side of me.

“Ethics are important to any supernatural—but especially for demons.” Respa tsked before she began pacing the length of the classroom. “For our first exercise, I want you, as a class, to rank demons by subspecies on worthiness .”

Frowning, I glanced at Reed and Jenni. “That doesn’t sound very ethical.”

Jenni voiced her agreement as well. “It’s not giving what she wants it to.”

“No kidding,” Fester murmured his agreement on the other side of Reed, but Reed glared at him slightly.

Fester shifted awkwardly in his seat and looked away.

I placed my hand on Reed’s thigh. “Be nice.”

“Sorry.” He ducked his head down. “I just don’t trust him.”

“I understand that, but we don’t have to be jerks about it,” I scolded him a little.

“You’re right. Sorry.” He frowned, and my heart squeezed a bit at him being upset.

“Well, obviously, nobility would be ranked at the top!” the same demon who spoke up before shouted. “Dismiss the lower class demons as tools, and thus, irrelevant.”

The other nobles nodded their agreements.

“ Most demons are low-class,” Jenni shot back to them. “What makes you better than us? Your fancy last names?”

They scoffed at her. “We have more resources and better opportunities than most demons. Clearly, it makes us better and worthy to be at the top.”

Respa whistled sharply.“Stop,” she demanded, shaking her head with an exasperated sigh. “This exercise went way over your heads. Class standing is irrelevant . I’m asking about subspecies .”

“Subspecies should not be ranked,” I spoke up.

“Oh?” Respa nodded at me to continue.

“I mean, there’s a reason the supernatural hierarchy was abolished, after all. I feel the same way about the subspecies of demons.”

The nobles in the class scoffed at me, but the majority of the demons sitting around nodded in agreement with me.

“Says the scavenger,” one of the nobles, a chaos demon that used to hang around Dreadful, called out. I bet he was one of the demons included in jumping me at Odyssey Bluffs. “Eating souls isn’t that fucking cool.”

“Dude, stop,” one of his friends whispered in fear. “Do you want to die?”

“She could literally eat your soul,” Jenni snorted. “She’s a fucking predator . Not a scavenger. She’ll rip your entire soul out and leave your body lifeless on the floor in five seconds flat. Want to test it?”

“Not really.” The guy’s face turned ashen, and he shut his mouth.

“Keep things civil,” Respa reminded us. “Let’s change the topic. What about this—which can determine a demon’s worth: raw power or their morals? Keep class standing out of it.”

“Raw power, obviously,” the chaos demon, whose name I really couldn’t remember, huffed.

“I disagree,” Fester muttered.

“You literally got rejected for not being powerfulenough. As in not nobility...clearly class alsodetermines worthiness,” the demon snapped back.

Respa groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Did I not just say to keep class out of it?”

Fester sank into himself, and I opened my mouth to stand up for him, but Jenni beat me to it.

“Shut up,” she snipped. “Nightwind wasn’t worthy of Fester. Fester has morals, unlike you assholes. I say that makes himway fucking better.”

“I have a low-class chaos demon as a mate,” I stated, narrowing my gaze at the little group of nobles in the back. “And he’s much stronger than you are.”

He snorted in amusement. “That Bram guy who dropped his last name like a fucking weirdo? Yeah, right. Prove it.”

“Sure, meet Demo.” Chaos magic bloomed in my stomach, and Demo manifested.

He cracked another smile. “That little manifestation proves what? All chaos demon mates can use their mate’s power to manifest a minor form of their mate’s manifestation.”

“True, but Bram and I figured something pretty cool out. Care to see?”

My spectral black puppy tilted her cute head before growing double the size that Chaos usually did. She stepped forward and snarled, making him fall off his chair, trying to get away from her.

“What the fuck? You aren’t supposed to be able to do that!” He scrambled back. “There’s no way a low-class demon could lend his mate that much power! You are probably why it’s so fucking strong.”

Demo stepped forward with a threatening growl.

“Demo is Bram’s magic.” I shrugged, smiling.“I hold no sway over chaos magic, but Bram does.”

“Okay, okay! I get it! Class isn’t part of worthiness! Please, make her go away.” He closed his eyes as Demo snapped her teeth in his face.

“Demo.” I tugged on my chaos magic, and she yipped happily, decreasing in size until she was a cute puppy again. Then, she leapt back into me.

Reed cleared his throat, biting back a proud smile. “Judging demons by class doesn’t work. Never know how strong another demon’s magic is. That alone should be an ethical issue.”

Some demons did laugh at that, but most of them nodded their heads in agreement.

“You’re right.” I reached over and placed my hand on his thigh again.

Respa nodded. “Ethics are important because of what we just saw. It’s not ethical to bring class into demon rights. All demons are worthy of being treated with respect. Both nobility and low-class. Now, I want to focus on...”

She dove into ethics further for the rest of the class, and by the time we were dismissed, I knew Demonic Ethics would be a fight ethically against the nobles in the class for the rest of the term.

Their entitlement and privilege ran so deep that it made anger spark through me. I was privileged, too, but I would never speak down to another supernatural being the way they did. We all had souls.

“Thanks for standing up for me,” Fester whispered to us before turning and rushing down the hall in the opposite way we walked.

“Aw, I think he’s nice,” Jenni cooed.

“I think he needs friends,” I agreed with her.

Reed grunted. “I just don’t think it’s smart to add friends into our circles right now. We can’t trust anyone, and Fester has already been infected once.”

“I get your concerns, but he’s not infected now,” Jenni pointed out.

“He tried to kill my mate,” Reed reminded us with a huff.

“Aw, Reed.” I squeezed his hand. “I’ll be okay. He was infected when that happened.”

Dex walked out of the shadows in the hall with Bram and Skel flanking him, and they stopped right in front of us.

“Hi, trouble.” Dex wrapped his long fingers around my throat and tugged me toward him, kissing my lips softly before pulling back with a groan. “Fuck, I’ve wanted to do that all day.”

“You did this morning.” Skel rolled his eyes, bumping him out of the way with his hip. He reached back and threaded his fingers through my hair and tugged my head back before devouring my lips with kisses.

“So did you,” Bram muttered as Skel reluctantly let go. Bram slid in and kissed my cheek. “How was class?”

“You all clearly need to have a gang bang,” Jenni stated, eyes glowing as she fed off our sexual tension.

“Jenni!” I gasped, whipping my head toward her.

“What?” She frowned before her eyes lit up like she just remembered something. “Oh, right. You haven’t slept with Bram yet. I guess the gang bang can wait until you do that first.”

“So kind of you to suggest,” Bram replied dryly, but I felt his white hot desire coursing through his matebond at the suggestion.

“But also a fucking hot idea.” Dex smiled wickedly, tapping his tongue ring against his teeth. “I’m so down.”

“Agreed.” Skel bit down on his lip ring.

“Ew,” Nebula’s disembodied voice rang out from my bag.

My cheeks heated.

“Don’t worry, Bram, it’ll come.” Reed patted Bram on the shoulder.

“Oh, yeah.” Dex and Skel shared mischievous smiles. “You’ll both come.”

Nebula sighed, as if our desires for each other truly disgusted him.

He and my dad were a lot alike in that aspect.