by Callie Rose
Toland sat down and wiped beads of sweat from his brow. “So what do they expect us to do? Carry on, business as usual?”
“Precisely.” Dru kept his features carefully neutral, but I could tell the words burned a little as they came out.. “All students must sit for their exams, and the third-year graduates and fourth-year students are to join the fight.”
“As previously stated,” Toland ground out, “these five students were busy saving the school. They may not be able to pass their exams.”
Dru rubbed a hand over his chin, grimacing. “You can’t exempt them. As a matter of fact, I am supposed to inform you that the delayed exams from last year did not go unnoticed, and another similar breach of protocol will lead to your termination.”
Toland paled. Somehow, I didn’t think “termination” meant the same thing here that it did in the human job market.
“They seem like smart students,” Dru added. “And there isn’t anything in the rulebook that states how the questions on the exams must be phrased, just that the specific concepts must be understood. Rewrite the exams to make them passable.”
“Yeah,” Kai drawled. His voice was languid, but I could see his hands clenching and unclenching into fists. “Write them like, the answer is C.”
Dru shot him a warning look, then shook his head.
“Obviously not. The exams themselves will need to be submitted along with the scores, just as they always have. They must be closed-book exams, but that doesn’t mean that hints can’t be projected on the wall. Get creative. Cover your tracks. Figure it out. But for the love of God, don’t get caught cheating.”
Toland pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “They should be allowed to help. They have as much at stake in this war as anyone else—more than most by now. They’ve been there, Dru, they’ve seen firsthand what Gavriel’s perfect world looks like, and it isn’t pretty.”
“The committee says they will not be allowed to help until they prove themselves,” Dru said quietly. “On paper.”
Toland looked like he was going to start shouting again, but he just clenched his fists instead.
“On paper,” he repeated bitterly. “We lost students in those battles. Brave, skilled students. Students who are more loyal to humanity than ever before because they have now been on the receiving end of Gavriel’s heartless violence.”
My throat tightened up, and I gripped the arms of my chair until my knuckles whitened. Dru shot me a knowing glance that Toland didn’t see, then looked at Toland once more.
“And for that, I am sorry,” he said softly. “I’m sure those students were good people. The best. But my hands are tied, and so are yours. We have nothing to gain by going against the committee. You know as well as I do what we have to lose. The stakes are too high.”
I wanted Toland to argue. I wanted Dru to get on the phone and call the committee back, tell them that they were full of shit and that the fate of the world depended on the willingness to break the rules. But they didn’t. I hadn’t really expected them to. We all sat in silence for several long moments while Toland slowly came to terms with his imposed reality.
He sighed heavily. “Well, that’s it, then. I can’t imagine the committee approving a rescue expedition to the underworld if they won’t even allow these students to fight.”
Dru shook his head. “Completely impossible.”
Toland nodded, then turned to us. “Piper. Jayce. Kingston. Kai. I’m afraid that I cannot possibly allow you to delay your exams, nor can I allow you to participate in the campaign on earth.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “You’ll just have to do the best you can. We’ll give you all the help that we are legally able to give you.”
The guys all looked at me with varying degrees of alarm, but I didn’t shout. I didn’t say a word. A chilling calm swept over my body and my anxious hands stilled. I nodded, a quick dip of my chin.
“I understand.”
The headmaster drew in a deep breath, looking relieved, but I could feel three sets of eyes practically burning holes in my skin as my bond mates stared at me in confusion.
“Then I suggest you go study,” Toland said. “Exams will take place on Monday.” He turned to Dru. “That is, if the committee will allow a four-day delay for all students due to extenuating circumstances?”
Dru flashed a brief, cursory smile and nodded. “The rulebook states that exams must take place within a week of the semester ending. Monday falls within that margin, I believe.”
Toland nodded. “Just barely. Very well. You four are dismissed. Please study hard. I know it’s impossible to learn months of material in four days, but—just do your best.”
“We always do,” Jayce assured him.
We left quietly, closing the door behind us. Dru and Toland clearly had more to talk about. I assumed Shen was still in there because the wards would need to be reset. All of the staff was busy putting things right, and we were all expected to fall back in line like nothing had ever happened. As if we hadn’t just spent a year in the underworld.
“Why aren’t you pissed?” Jayce asked. He sounded truly angry for the first time since I’d known him. “We have to take the tests completely unprepared, the consequences for failing haven’t changed, and they aren’t taking our hands-on experience into account at all. I thought you would lose it in there.”
“They’re expecting us to pass a test on material we haven’t even learned,” Kingston added. “Doesn’t that upset you?”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter what they’re expecting, because I’m not taking the test.”
Kai laughed. “You can’t just opt out. Trust me, I tried.”
“What do you mean, you aren’t taking the test, Pipes?” Jayce’s voice was quiet.
Glancing up at him, I slipped my hand into his, soaking up as much courage and power as I could from the connection that sparked between us.
I’m gonna need it.
“I’m not taking the test because I won’t fucking be here for it.” My gaze scanned the three men gathered in a tight knot around me. “I’m going back to the underworld. Xero’s alive. I can feel it. And I’m going to go get him.”
Fallen University: Year Three
Chapter One
“There’s nothing here.”
The despondence in Jayce’s tone was amplified by the cold echo of the empty cave. It surprised me, in an absent sort of way. He sounded like he’d lost a brother. I’d had no idea he cared so much.
“There’s blood,” Kai said grimly. He gestured around at the dark smears and splatters on the walls and floor. Then he inhaled deeply through his nose, and his eyes flashed predatorily for an instant. “It’s not all Xero’s.”
“How long has it been like this?” Kingston asked.
Kai glanced at him, confused. “Uh—less than a day? We ported back here directly, did you forget?”
Kingston cocked an eyebrow at him blandly. “The inter-planal whatever the fuck, remember? The whole reason we kept missing Dru?”
The dark-haired vampire with toffee skin blinked as realization seemed to strike him. Time worked differently in the underworld than on earth, and we still hadn’t quite figured out how the two timelines functioned.
Kai examined the blood more closely, transforming into his vampiric form in order to maximize his senses. “Hm. Still less than a day. This is all recent. Some of it is still wet.”
My stomach churned. I didn’t want to think about Xero’s spilled blood at all, but the thought of there being a wet puddle of it just about killed me.
But he was still alive.
I knew it in my bones.
I could feel his presence somewhere out there in the wide expanse of the universe, even though I couldn’t manage to pinpoint where he might be within it.
“Search for clues,” I said, pushing down the rising panic that threatened to overwhelm me. “There’s got to be something here that’ll tell us where he went. Or at least give us a vague direction.�
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The awful truth was that even if we found something, I wasn’t sure how much good it would do.
None of us knew the underworld like Xero knew it. He had been the only reason we’d made it as far as we had the first time we’d come here. Without him, we were lost. We were all powerful and magically talented. Kai’s blood sense, Jayce’s hellhound tracking skills, Kingston’s wings, my persuasion and shapeshifting abilities were all useful, but I didn’t know how far that would get us without Xero’s knowledge.
The guys fell silent as they did what I asked.
They were still working together, but the unit was fractured. I could feel it, and it seemed to me that they could too; none of them had complained about coming back here, not even Kingston with his business to run or Jayce with his claustrophobia or Kai with his distaste for the war between the Custodians and the fallen in general. I wondered if they missed Xero for his own sake, or if the fracture of my succubus bond with the fire demon was affecting them as well.
Forcing myself not to fall into a pit of helplessness, I went over every inch of the cave twice, and so did each of the men. There was nothing but the smears of blood and singes of fire from the battle.
“We’ll check the other chambers,” I said briskly.
Jayce and Kingston shared a glance, but they didn’t argue. I ignored it. I couldn’t afford to sit here and try to read their feelings, not with Xero missing. I didn’t have the energy to waste, magical or emotional. I needed my group to be whole.
Over the next several hours, we combed the fingers and cracks of the cave with no more success.
Even the main chamber was empty, except for the rotting evidence of our last battle there. It sickened me that Gavriel would’ve just left his minions to disintegrate without so much as a burial, but I wasn’t surprised. The guy was pure evil. And sadistic.
And holding my Xero somewhere on this godforsaken hellscape.
We reached the mouth of the cave with no luck at all. Tears sprang to my eyes and I shoved the heels of my hands against their burn.
Where are you, Xero? Damn it, why didn’t I come back sooner? I will find you, I swear it.
“We must have missed something,” I said. My voice trembled, and I bit my lip. Fuck. Not a good leadership look. “We have to check again.”
Silence hung in the air. I could feel the men’s hesitation, but also their willingness to do as I asked—not because I was using persuasion either.
I didn’t wait for them to convince me that I was wrong, that we’d seen all there was to see. I just turned around and went back the way we’d come, back to the site of the battle where we’d lost Xero. They followed behind as I made my way back to that small, hidden cave at the very end. When we reached it, I stood in the center and focused.
The magic mist was gone. It must have been attached to the stones somehow. The ground was bleached in the spot where we had opened the portal back to Fallen University. Blood spatters dappled the rocks everywhere, except in the natural little nest-like divot where the Temple Stones of the First Order had been before we’d collected them.
I let the scene wash over me, wishing with every fiber of my being that Xero had still been here when we returned. We’d come back as soon as we possibly could, but between getting the school back to earth and getting our asses chewed out by Headmaster Toland, it hadn’t been fast enough.
Fuck, I should’ve come back right away. How could I have been so stupid?
I’d thought maybe Toland would send us back with help, give us reinforcements to go find Xero. But instead, he’d forbidden us from returning to the underworld at all. We were supposed to be taking our final exams right now, leaving Xero to his fate as an “unfortunate casualty of war.”
Yeah. Fuck that.
You know when you were a kid and you would wish for something so hard it almost made you want to throw up? That’s where I was. I was writing letters to Santa in my head, praying to all the gods, putting a wish under my pillow for the tooth fairy that I could find Xero and bring him home. I squeezed my eyes shut and let the wish fill my consciousness.
My sudden gasp had the guys running to my side.
“What’s wrong?” Jayce held my elbow, his blue eyes shining with worry.
“I can feel something. It’s like—like a hook in my gut.” I pressed my hands over my navel, which only amplified the sensation.
“Does it hurt?” Kingston asked, his glittering green eyes narrowing, looking almost academically curious.
“No—it’s like a pull.” I took a few steps to the left and doubled over. “Ugh! Shit. That hurts.”
“Walking toward the pull?” Kai asked.
I shook my head. “No. Away from it. I think—God, it almost feels like my radar, but weird.”
“Everything’s weird in the underworld,” Jayce pointed out, a humorless chuckle falling from his lips. “Do you think it’s Xero?”
I stepped to the right, where the pull was leading me, and almost passed out with relief. Yes, this was Xero’s vibe.
“I know how to find him,” I said, a spark of hope lighting in my chest. “We need to get to higher ground.”
They didn’t question me. I could feel beats of hope and excitement emanating from them, proving again that they wanted Xero back almost as much as I did. It fueled my determination. We were going to get our fifth back, no matter what.
We raced out of the cave and into the canyon, and as soon as we emerged, I held up a hand.
“Anybody sense danger?” I asked, my voice low.
They were all quiet as they put out their various feelers. I put out my own, searching for any presence besides my guys. I couldn’t feel anything but the pull in my gut, leading me irresistibly forward.
“All clear,” Kai said after a moment. Then he grimaced. “I don’t know about the higher ground though. The walls aren’t climbable from here, and we can’t get around the waterfall.”
He gestured toward the thick, oily liquid that was pouring off the high ledge of the canyon to our left. He was right. We could cross any of the three converging streams, but the river and waterfall would have been dangerous even if it had just been water. I wasn’t even sure what this was made of. Probably something fucking deadly.
Kingston scoffed. “Um, hello?” He morphed into his dragon form without another word, then lowered his wings and tail, jerking his head to indicate that we should get on.
“All three of us?” I gave him a doubtful look. He could adjust his size when he shifted, and at the moment, he was a big dragon. I’d seen how capable he was of carrying a single passenger when he’d flown Hannah into battle, but I didn’t think his snake-like torso could hold all of our weight.
He gave me a flat look. Even in dragon form, I could read the expression on his face easily—or maybe it was just because I could feel his emotions almost as strongly as if they were my own.
“All right, all right, big man. Wasn’t trying to question your prowess.”
I grinned at him, although I knew it didn’t reflect in my eyes. I wasn’t sure anything would seem funny again until I had Xero back. Until I had the missing piece of my soul back.
He huffed out a breath of smoke, and I shrugged and climbed on his back, followed by Kai and Jayce. Kingston took to the air with a little more force than was strictly necessary. I clung to him, terrified that I was going to slip off his slick scales.
“Okay, you proved your point!” I shouted over the wind. “Level out, would you?”
He snorted a burst of flame into the sky but did as I asked. We were on top of the mountain less than five minutes later, looking out over a part of the underworld we hadn’t seen before. I could see farther into the distance than I’d expected, and ice filled my belly as I caught my first glimpse of an underworld city. It was as blackened and savage as the wilderness we’d traveled through before. It was so far away that the buildings looked tiny, but my gut pulled in that direction.
“Over there,” I said. “Pick a s
pot we can all see clearly. We’ll open a portal.”
“Not inside the city?” Kai asked, sounding horrified.
“No, of course not. But close to it.”
“You see that big tree with the red branches?” Kingston asked, pointing.
“I see it.”
“Me too.”
“Yeah, me too. Good. That’s where we’ll go,” I decided. “Come on.”
I focused hard on the GPS signal in my gut, holding onto it desperately. I’m coming, Xero. Please hold on.
“Three…” I started the count, grasping hands with the three men. “Two… One.”
The portal opened on my final word, and we blew through it. A moment later, we were standing beneath the tree my dragon shifter bond-mate had pointed out. The city loomed close on the horizon now, just as intimidating as the mountain range we’d come from.
“Where to now?” Jayce asked, his voice quiet and hushed.
“Hang on,” I said, lifting a finger as I closed my eyes, trying to refocus on the connection I could feel to Xero.
But it was gone.
What? No!
Panic clutched at my heart. I pressed on my navel but got no reaction. I focused every bit of my energy on Xero, on wishing him back into reality, but nothing happened.
“Shit.” Kai rubbed a hand over his face, reading my expression.
“No! I lost him. I lost him! Fuck!” I buried my fists in my hair.
How could I have been so stupid? Of course a portal would disrupt the tracking! I couldn’t track him from earth, and now I’ve screwed up the signal here.
“Okay, so we go back,” Kingston said calmly, laying a hand on my arm.
“What?” I whirled to face him.
“You picked up on him at the cave, right? So we just go back and pick up his trail again. Gavriel probably had his minions march Xero on foot. He’s sadistic like that. Just means we have to do the same thing. Track him the old fashioned way—no portal jumping.”
Oh, Jesus Christ. Thank fuck for these men.
I grabbed him and kissed him hard on the mouth. “You’re a genius.”