I Raised the Demon Queen (Now She Won't Leave Me Alone)

Ashvale's School of Minor Arcana looked less like a prestigious institution of learning and more like someone had fused a bakery and a barn and sprinkled a few glowing runes on the walls for good measure. The roof sagged in the middle like it was sighing at its own existence, and the sign out front—Welcome Young Mages!—was hanging by one nail and a lot of hope.

Elias stood outside with Rhea's tiny hand in his, second-guessing every life choice that had led him to this moment.

"You sure you want to go in?" he asked.

Rhea adjusted her tiny backpack—hand-stitched and shaped like a baby wyvern—and nodded fiercely. "I wanna learn real spells. Like... the one with the lightning!"

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"Let's... maybe start with basic levitation," Elias muttered. "Preferably not on livestock this time."

"I only made one cow float!"

"And then it exploded."

Rhea giggled behind her hand. "She had a gassy tummy. I helped."

Elias sighed. He'd managed to enroll her under the name "Rhea Lightwood," fabricated all the documentation with the help of a shady scribe named Inkbeard, and convinced the local teacher—Professor Albine, a sweet, middle-aged enchantress with a voice like cinnamon cookies—that Rhea was just a very, very magically gifted half-demon.

Which... wasn't exactly a lie.

Now came the hard part: leaving her.