“You’re late,” she says to me.
“You?”
But just then a smiling, dazzling Dia appears at Hiltop’s side. He’s a wearing a linen tunic that’s partly tucked into leather pants, which hug his long legs. His feet are bare. His sleeves are rolled up. He seems to have more tattoos, brighter tattoos, than he had yesterday. I can clearly read Dia + Gia = 4Ever on one of the larger ones. I see also tiny tick marks representing his thousands of followers, like Teddy mentioned.
“Anne!” Dia declares, swinging the door further open and elbowing Hiltop aside as he does. “You’re finally here. Don’t mind Mephisto—what a grouch, hey? Come in, come in!”
“Enjoy it while it lasts, Dia,” Hiltop says with a sneer.
“As long as Anne’s around,” he says, “I can depend on you being constantly outsmarted, Meph.”
I step by Hiltop and follow Dia inside, where I find Invidia lounging on a raised divan and watching me as I enter the room, which has been completely renovated in the mere hours Dia has been headmaster.
“Please, sit,” Dia says, swinging a thickly cushioned chair on its swivel and stopping it just as it faces me. “It’s comfortable. Go on.”
I’m sure it’s comfortable. Everything in Dia’s office is inviting. He’s taken what was once an oppressively hot gothic-styled room filled with war medals, lit by fire, and hidden from sunlight, and transformed it into a whitewashed study you’d read a great novel in while sipping hot tea on a rainy day; he’s even filled the bookshelves with what, I squint to see, are art books—thousands of them. Soft light glows in twinkling sconces and chandeliers hanging from the molded tray ceiling and falls on dozens of mirrors in all shapes and sizes, which hang on the newly painted panel walls. Pale white sculptures of Aphrodite, Helen, and Salome look both bashfully and knowingly at me, while toppling stacks of oversized ivory-colored cushions rest uncertainly against the walls behind them, layers of sheepskin blankets beneath. A dozen enormous canvases and an easel rest against the side of Dia’s desk, where he’s gesturing for me to join him.
Invidia stands. I swallow as I watch her move across the room to Dia’s side with such elegance she could teach elegance a thing or two. Her emerald-colored silk blouse floats with each step. I am transfixed by her and helpless to it. Dia, too, appears enthralled by her as she leans against him and strokes his arm gently, though he still watches me. Only Hiltop looks at Invidia like she’s some sort of foul beast.
Suddenly I remember! Teddy said Mephisto lost one of the Seven Sinning Sisters. Invidia must be that goddess. In the fallout of my escape, she must have chosen a new master over Mephisto: Dia Voletto. I wonder about the other six members of the Seven Sinning Sisters. Who are they? Where are they? And is Mephisto struggling to keep them?
As soon as I sit, Dia swivels me to face both him and Invidia fully, stopping the chair with his bare foot. I glance at his foot—or, more accurately, at the few inches of his naked calf that are now exposed. I shift my knee away from him and fix my gaze on my hands, which are gripped together over my uniform skirt.
“Are you okay, Anne?” he asks.
His hand passes under my eyes, and I feel his finger under my chin. He lifts my face until we’re eye to eye. Life on Wormwood Island was easier when the devils looked like devils.
“Just a little nervous, I guess, to be called to the office.”
“But you shouldn’t be surprised,” Dia guesses.
“No, not surprised.”
Hiltop joins the two others standing in front of me. Under the weight of their three stares, I ought to be sliding into the chair and disappearing entirely, but something about the way they’re looking at me makes me feel…the opposite. Light, not dominated. Invidia’s jade gaze on me is especially empowering. But just for a moment. Just until I remember my mortality and their eternal darkness.
“You know what you did this past weekend was wrong,” Dia begins, swinging my chair lightly with his foot. “You destroyed the life of Pilot Stone.”
“And I was punished when he was assigned as my Guardian,” I say, “among other punishments.”
“Mr. Stone as your Guardian is a far cry better than Ted Rier.”
“Do you have something against Teddy?”
Dia and Invidia chuckle knowingly but don’t bother answering me. They can probably sense he’s a good soul, and they don’t like that.
“More importantly,” Dia continues, “you almost jeopardized this school’s reputation. We’re a place of hope. And possibility.”
“Is that what you’re selling this place as?”
Invidia smirks, and even Dia looks amused. But Hiltop’s thin lips curl just enough to make a frown.
“The world nearly found out about Mephisto and his,” Dia unsuccessfully hides a smile as he and Invidia look Hiltop up and down, “various embodiments.”
At that, both Invidia and Dia grin. Hiltop doesn’t flinch and, for a second, I feel bad for her. Until I remember she’s evil incarnate. And she can take care of herself; my pity, even disguised as empathy, is unnecessary.
“Well, I wasn’t trying to expose anyone,” I explain. “I just wanted to go home.”
Dia and Invidia look at Hiltop. “That’s a good point,” Dia says to Hiltop.
I realize then why Hiltop’s here: because no one else knows how to run Cania. It’s a complex place, where secrets and lies are land mines you must carefully tiptoe around. Hiltop is pointing out the land mines. And it turns out I’m one of them.
Hiltop turns her flat gaze on me. “Give us your word you will not run amok with your stories of underworld führers and our followers.”
“Give me your word my dad can leave you the moment I get away from Cania Christy and Wormwood Island,” I reply.
Clearly, nobody saw that coming; even I’m a little surprised at myself. They all lean back. Invidia tilts her head like she’s seeing me in a new light.
“Tit for tat,” I say, staring at all three of them. I cross my arms. Invidia, too, crosses hers. “Isn’t that the law of the land here? Oh, and, just to be clear—I know how tricky you guys can be—whether I live or die, he’s free once I’m gone.”
Dia and Invidia wait for Hiltop to make a call.
“I would have thought,” Hiltop begins, “you’d have asked for the release of your dear, sweet love, Mr. Ebenezer Zin.”
I hadn’t realized that was an option! I hadn’t even thought that she’d consider my request for my dad, never mind Ben. I was just experimenting, just trying to see if I could get under their skin.
“Very well,” she says. “It is agreed.”
I’ve just made my first deal with the devil.
It doesn’t feel as awful as I might have expected.
“You’ll say nothing to the students of Cania Christy,” Hiltop clarifies.
“What about those who already know?” I ask. Like Ben.
Dia chimes in. “Anne, if the only thing you and the ‘people who know’ have to talk about is what we’re doing, maybe you need to find someone new to talk to.”
Dia instructs Invidia to round up the Guardians for a meeting; she glides out of the room, leaving me alone with Hiltop and Dia. When she leaves, I feel stronger and weaker; stronger because the raging jealousy she makes me feel follows her out, but weaker for reasons I can’t understand.
I rise to go, too, but Dia shakes his head at me.
Just then, someone