“Hello cousin,” Zach drawled as the last of the freshmen fled from Instructor Walter Leig’s classroom.

“Zachary,” Walter greeted with a raised eyebrow. “Last time you came to me you wanted to take every course the school had to offer. I hope this time your demands are a little more reasonable?”

Zach scoffed as he shut the door. “It was reasonable before, and I still say you could have fit me in a few more courses. I just came her to talk today, though. No demands.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it.”

“Okay, fine. One demand. I have a letter for mother. Mostly I wanted to talk though. I could have sent the letter normal post otherwise.”

“Why not just email it?”

“Because there’s a gift inside, you nut,” Zach scolded as he made his way into the classroom and sat on the teacher’s desk. He let his backpack fall to the floor and stretched. “If you can’t figure that out, you probably can’t even answer my question.”

“Academic or personal?” Leig asked. “And get off my desk.”

“Academic, and no.”

“I’ll give you detention.”

“You can try. You really think Principal Johns will enforce it?”

Leig sat in his chair and leaned back far enough he could see the ceiling. “Your parents never taught you restraint, did they? Fine. What’s the question?”

“If something doesn’t have a heart, what is it?”

Walter sighed, propping his hand on his fist as he slumped forward. “I thought you said this was an academic question? That sounds more like a riddle.”

“Well it wasn’t a personal question,” Zach said with an eye roll. “The only other option was academic.”

“Brat.”

“No worse than you. My question?”

Walter rubbed at his head as he thought it through. “I’m no good at party riddles. Kingsley’s better, but he hasn’t talked to me properly since that thing with His Majesty.” Walter was even further removed from the royal line than Zach, being the son of the king’s aunt, but Kingsley didn’t discriminate when it came to hating all of them. “Well then. A thing without a heart. Would that be a corpse?”

“A living thing without a heart.”

“Hmm… well, traditionally plants are living and they don’t have hearts in the same sense. You might get that as an answer. You’ll have to specify living in the question or everything from rocks to houses will qualify.”

At least Walter was taking the question somewhat seriously, though Zach wasn’t sure he liked the answers. Without proper context the answers were clouded.

“A living thing without a heart, but with a heartbeat,” Walter mused. “I think only two things fit: a demon, or a king.”

Zach felt his chest tighten. “A demon? What do you mean?”

“The old myth is that demons were once humans who lost their hearts, or had their hearts stolen. Same result either way, I reckon. Since you’re surprised I guess the answer was a king?”

“It’s a puzzle for the dorm midterm party,” Zach said with a smile he didn’t mean on his face. “I doubt the eighth graders know demon origin myths. Anyone who gets the riddle wins candy. Think they’ll like it?”

Walter shrugged. “They’re kids. It’s candy. Of course they will. I’d go with the plant answer, though. Not enough of them know politics well enough to get the king answer.”

“Hmm. How about candy for the plant answer, and a very special prize for the one who guesses ‘king’ first?”

“You’re the one figuring out the party. Go, get. I gave you my advice, get off my desk.”

“Don’t forget to mail my letter,” Zach reminded him as he pushed himself off the desk.

Demons. If Zach didn’t find his heart in time, would he turn into a demon? That wasn’t part of the plan at all.