chapter one

      My name is Callie Danneger. Well, actually, my name is Calliope, because my mom is hella into Greek stuff, but that's besides the point. I am fifteen years old and I am studying Demonic Sciences at the Academy, which is this huge academical slash magical slash technological institute in Porisea, which is pretty much the cultural capital of the world. I, uh, I'm smart, considering the regular age for starting any University, let alone the Academy is like, seventeen at the earliest. I'm taking it 'cause it's a neat area of study, and also there are a lot of opportunities in demon hunting and s**t today. And also it's what my best friend Max is studying. And also what Kristopher is studying. Really, Demonic Sciences is where it's at.
      Max is my best friend, I've known him since we were in the same daycare. He's a Dusksmith - one of those big feline dudes, y'know? Except he's albino or something, 'cause his fur is white. His parents dumped him in a cardboard box outside of the daycare (Happy Smiley Party Room, if you're curious. Don't send your kids there, it is For The Loss.) when he was a kitten and they took him in. People call him Snowball, which bugs him A) because he is not a house cat, and B) because he doesn't see why. He's blind, he sees with his ears. Like echolocation, I guess. But anyway, I love him dearly and he gives me piggyback rides around town, so that's cool of him.
      Then there's Kristopher. He's kind of the most amazing person in the universe, ever. He has dark brown hair that kind of floofs upwards instead of having bangs and he wears ties everywhere all the time for no reason. I mean, he totally doesn't know I exist, but someday I'm gonna seduce him away from that b***h Antoinette.
     She's really not that bad. I mean, I guess we're even kind of friends. But you have to understand, she is with Kristopher and I am Not. So, there's the dilemma. She's nice enough, but kinda ditzy. She basically fills me with a boundless rage, that's all. Whatever. Y'know.
      I have, like, curly white-blonde hair, which is obnoxious, because it reflects light really bright in my eyes, and everyone assumes I'm really dumb, 'cause of how I'm not skinny enough to be a ho-bag. Which isn't really a bad thing, I guess. I'm a little overweight, but at least not a stick with skin on it. Which really, I think is a good thing, and f**k the ones who say it isn't.
      So I was sitting in my dorm one day, staring out the window and listening to Max babble about this hot girl he saw last week, watching Kristopher and Antoinette being cutesy. Mental torture keeps me alert. There are plenty of bangable guys at this school. I don't know why I'm so stuck on him. It's really unfair. Max keeps trying to hook me up with some of his friends. Most of them are girls, which is totally cool, except for how I don't like girls. I mean, not usually. Anyway.

     I'm barely listening to Max. I mean, I love him, but he is really boring sometimes. Blah blah blah Hot Girls, blah blah blah and her HAIR blah blah. Well, probably not hair, since he can't see it. Occasionally I catch a snippet of his speech - "Cleo is so creative, I mean, ohmygosh, she writes the most beautiful sonnets," "Cleo is so amazing, seriously I think she is probably a demigod or something," blah. It's kind of heartbreaking to listen to, 'cause Max has no game and if we're thinking of the same Cleo he really has no chance. I mean, he has less game than I do, and lemme tell you, I have zero game. So he's babbling and all of the sudden there is this flash of light and a loud bang in the room. And then it's gone. And Max is crying because he is a wimp, and hiding under my quilt, and I'm like what the hell, and there's this single white feather that just floats down to the ground, and I'm like no really what the hell, and Max stops crying but he's still shaking. Things are going to get a lot more interesting from here on out.
      Someone starts pounding on my door, which causes Max to shake harder. I yell at them to open it, so they do, and it's Kristopher and Antoinette, but also some other guy I don't know. He's kind of cute, and he has big feathery wings, but my eyes are stuck to Kristopher, obviously. Kristopher is like,

      “We saw a big flash of light, are you guys okay?”

      And I'm like, duuuuh cannot formulate sentence. Max saves the day, kind of.

      “I don't know what happened, man, it was like BOOMF and then gone and then you were up here.”

      “Really?” Kristopher asked. “'Cause it took us, like, ten minutes to get up the stairs. You sure you're okay?”

      “Ten minutes?”

      “Yeah,” Antoinette cut in. B***h. “People kept trying to tell us to stop, they looked like zombies. It was freaky.”

      “Why?” Max cringed. He had been calming down up until the zombie thing.

      “I dunno, but they looked, like, half-asleep.” I picked up the feather from the floor. It was pure white, like, so white it makes Max look black.

      “What's that?” Kristopher. Was talking to me. Looking straight at me. I blushed, I think.

      “A feather...it wasn't here before the flash.” The new guy looked at it really intensely, like he was trying to do something. Actually, he looked kind of constipated. Unattractive, that right there. I handed it to him. He looked at me.

      “Oh. We should introduce them, Kris,” Antoinette said. God, that b***h, who does she think she is, using a nickname on him when I can't.

“Oh, right. This is Cameo,” Kristopher nodded. He still seemed a little perturbed by the random flash of light, whereas Antoinette seemed to have forgotten about it. “He just got here. Cameo, this is Max and...Callie?” He knew my name. I blushed. Cameo waved. He looked less freaked out about the flash than Kristopher, too. I wondered where all of the professors were, at least the dorm mom usually checked in on us if she smelled incense, let alone what could've been a bomb or something. It was kind of strange.

      It was about to get a lot stranger.