Fallen University Complete Series

by Callie Rose

  Jayce had told me I was a good leader. I really fucking hoped I didn’t repay him for the compliment and the faith in me by getting him killed. I’d never fucking forgive myself.

  Licking my suddenly dry lips, I raised my hands in the air in the universal gesture of “don’t shoot.”

  “We’re not here to fight!” I called, my voice carrying over the short expanse of space that separated us from the figures near the door. “We came to tell you something. Trust me, it’s something you’re gonna want to fucking hear. Unless you were hoping to send all your members into a death trap anyway.”

  The two people standing outside the door were a man and a woman. I finally realized that I recognized the man from our little sentencing hearing at FU. It was Clipboard. I didn’t know the woman, but she had the same sort of air of authority about her as the old guy did, making me think she was at least as high up in this organization as he was, if not higher.

  She confirmed my suspicion when she was the one to speak, taking two steps down the stairs as she did. “We’ve been expecting you, Piper Lawless. You and your little team of rogue fallen. Ever since our agents returned to headquarters this morning with a story of a rather interesting encounter they had in Toronto. One of our number died, and one was gravely injured.”

  “We didn’t do that,” I insisted firmly. “We were being chased by a pack of Gavriel’s minions when they stopped us. We helped your agents take out that threat while trying not to be killed by them—if we hadn’t had to keep our guards up like that, maybe we would’ve been able to help more. Ask that blonde chick with the lightning hands. She was there. She knows.”

  “Oh, we’ve already heard plenty from Clara,” the older woman shot back, and from the tone of her voice, I wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing at all.

  “Then ask him!” I said desperately, pointing to the newcomer who’d just emerged from the building behind the two Custodian leaders. Magic crackled in the air around us, and I felt like we were balancing on a tightrope. One wrong move, one too-sudden movement, could send us plummeting to our deaths.

  The Custodian woman turned her head slightly to watch as Dru blinked down at us, a look of surprise overtaking his features. He must’ve heard about the fight in Canada this morning, but maybe he hadn’t expected us to be dumb enough to show up here.

  Ha. Think again, buddy. I’m way dumber than you give me credit for.

  “What is she talking about, Mr. Gaede?” the woman asked.

  I saw his lips twitch and his eyelids flicker, and I could practically hear the gears grinding in his brain as he tried to figure out what to say.

  Before he could answer, I raised my voice, addressing my words to him and him alone.

  “Dru. Gavriel’s planning something. It’s big. It’s deadly. It’s a dirty fucking cheat, and if you guys don’t listen to us, there will be no Custodians this time next week. There won’t be a hell of a lot left of earth, for that matter.” His gaze snapped to me, his expression sharpening with surprise, and I practically bored a hole into him with my eyes as I added, “I know what I’m talking about. You know I do.”

  I stopped speaking, and silence fell.

  Tension hung in the air like a fucking rain cloud over our heads, and I honestly expected to get drenched any second—only instead of rain, it would be a shower of blood.

  My lungs seemed incapable of sucking in oxygen as I stood poised, ready to fight tooth and nail to protect the people I loved.

  Damn it. I should’ve come alone.

  Although I knew them all well enough to know they wouldn’t have let me.

  I was just debating the pros and cons of doing a pre-emptive attack when Dru’s shoulders slumped slightly. He turned to the two Custodian leaders at the top of the stairs.

  “I was in contact with five of those six students last year. I was aware of their journey into the wilderness of the underworld, and their attempt to find the Temple Stones in order to return Fallen University to earth. They’ve spent more time in the underworld than any of us have, and if they say they know something important, I believe them. You can of course put all of us through the usual lie detection measures, but I suggest you listen to what they have to say.”

  Clipboard bristled.

  “You what?” He rounded on Dru, gesturing toward us. “First of all, these are no longer students. They are banished fallen, subject to removal or death on sight.”

  The woman next to him furrowed her brows, glancing from us to Dru to the man beside her, who was practically quivering with indignation.

  “You heard everything that was just said, and that’s what you took away from it, Gregory?” The man opened his mouth to respond, but she lifted a hand, cutting him off. Then she nodded to the Custodians surrounding us, gesturing in our direction. “Bring them. Peacefully. As long as they don’t fight back.”

  I nudged Kai beside me, silently reminding him that now was not the time to indulge any of his long-held grievances against the Custodians. I could sympathize with all of his gripes, but if he took it out on our captors right now, it would be like tipping the first domino over. The extremely fragile truce we seemed to have forged would be ripped to shreds in a matter of seconds.

  He made a sound in his throat that was almost a growl, but his hand found mine, squeezing once before releasing me. I let out a small sigh of relief as we were herded inside the building.

  It was hard to feel too relieved though, and utterly impossible to feel relaxed.

  As the large entry doors shut behind us, I couldn’t help the feeling that we might’ve just voluntarily walked into a prison.

  Or a tomb.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  My four bond-mates surrounded me like we were literally glued together as we were escorted through the halls of the Custodian headquarters. The inside of the building was about as bland and boring as any office space that hadn’t been updated since the late eighties.

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as we headed down a wide hallway, our shoes squeaking on the linoleum tile floor.

  God, it’s like these guys were trying to be as lame as possible. First, they pick the name Custodians, then they choose an office building that looks like it ought to be filled with accountants?

  It was probably a good thing they had a sort of forced recruitment system, where all FU graduates were required to join their ranks. Finding new members might be a little difficult otherwise. Nothing around us made this job look glamorous or exciting.

  Any amusement I felt was quickly snuffed out when we were led downstairs into the bowels of the building. Our surroundings gradually changed, becoming more modern and sleek, and by the time we made it two more floors down, I felt like I was in some kind of futuristic sci-fi movie.

  Much like Kingston and his team of researchers had, it looked like they’d managed to combine magic with technology in some pretty interesting ways. I was sure my dragon shifter mate would’ve loved to poke around and ask some questions, but we didn’t get a chance to stop.

  Instead, we were led into a small antechamber with a large door on one side.

  “You will wait here,” the older female Custodian said curtly, casting her gaze on us before shifting her attention to Dru. “You first.”

  Without another word, she slipped through the large door. Dru and Clipboard—er, Gregory—followed her.

  The rest of us waited in silence, surrounded by the Custodians who had escorted us through the building. I drummed my fingers against my thigh nervously, anxious to get this over with. I knew exactly what was in store for me beyond that door, and I’d rather just bite the bullet and get it done with than stand around forever waiting.

  Thankfully, this waiting room seemed to have the same enchantment on it that the one at FU did. After what seemed like only a few minutes, the door opened again and Dru stepped out. He looked a little shaken, and I wondered when the last time was that he’d been subjected to questioning like that—if ever. It wasn’t pleasant at all,
considering that the process involved basically stripping down all of your emotional barriers and poking around inside your head and heart.

  But whatever he’d told the Custodian officials, it must’ve convinced them that this actually was important, because a moment later, I was ushered inside the room.

  My heart squeezed in my chest as I took in the familiar sight.

  The siren. The succubus. The empath. The mage.

  Together, they would pick me apart and analyze the pieces, determine if my words were true and if I was hiding anything.

  I took a seat in front of the table where the two officials sat, trying to project an aura of confidence even though my insides felt like jelly. “You know, I kinda would’ve expected your lie-detector system to be a little more advanced. Maybe use some kind of magic-tech combo?”

  The woman narrowed her eyes at me. “I’ve read your file. I know you’ve been subjected to this kind of questioning on multiple occasions. Are you saying you don’t think it’s effective?”

  Shit. She had me there.

  People could be trained to fool a polygraph test relatively easily. But I only knew one person who’d managed to keep something hidden from a magical interrogation—Kingston. And that had only been because of his dragon’s ability to protect treasure.

  I shrugged. “Just making conversation. No harm meant.”

  “Wait until you’re asked a question before speaking,” Gregory snapped. “Keep the commentary to yourself, and refrain from questioning Director Price’s methods.”

  “Wait. Director?” I glanced at the older woman again, my eyes widening. “You run this place?”

  “Yes.” She lifted one eyebrow a fraction of an inch. “Does that surprise you?”

  “Well, no,” I said. “It’s just, with how inefficiently things are done around here sometimes, and how out of touch you guys are, I sort of thought it would be some old dude. You know, like him.” I jerked my chin toward Gregory, whose cheeks flushed a dark red in outrage and annoyance.

  I swore I saw Director Price’s lips twitch just slightly, but her face was impassive as she waved Gregory silent and asked, “You think we do things inefficiently? That we’re out of touch?”

  “Um, yeah. Sometimes.” I clamped my mouth shut before I could get started on a rant. If I answered her question with complete honesty, I wasn’t so sure she’d want to listen to my warning after that.

  “I mean, you seem smart,” I added, shrugging evasively. “But you’re the first person from this organization besides Dru who’s been willing to listen to what we have to say, rather than just writing us off as a bunch of dangerous, delinquent fallen.”

  Some people might’ve preened under the compliment, but Director Price barely even acknowledged it. She gazed at me seriously for another moment, then turned to the team of four who had gathered around me.

  “You may begin.”

  The process of being interrogated was just as emotionally draining and painfully exhausting as I remembered, but it helped a little that I was eager to spill my guts. There wasn’t anything I was trying to hide from the Custodians—at this point, I wanted them to know everything.

  By the time I finished, my cheeks were wet with tears. They’d started as I described finding Xero chained up in a dungeon at Gavriel’s fortress and hadn’t really stopped since then.

  Silence fell over the room, broken only by my muffled sniffs as I tried to keep snotty tears from dripping out of my nose. Let a girl keep some dignity, huh?

  Director Price looked even more serious than she had before, although I didn’t know how that was humanly possible. She gave a single nod.

  “You are dismissed. Wait outside while we question the others.”

  I stood, surreptitiously wiping my nose with the sleeve of my shirt. On the way to the door, I blinked as many times as I could, trying to somehow hide the fact that I’d been crying.

  Not that it mattered. Even if my eyes had been completely dry, the guys could sense my emotions as clearly as if I’d shouted them from the rooftops. Xero and Kai were on their feet in an instant, striding over to me quickly. Jayce joined them a second later, and Kingston grabbed my hand briefly on his way inside the room.

  We all sat again, and Hannah gave me a quavering smile that was half sympathy and half terror. She’d only done this once, and I could tell she was petrified.

  Each interrogation probably took upward of an hour, but from where we sat in the antechamber, they only seemed to last a few minutes. Kai was the last one in, and before long, he stepped back through the doors, followed closely by Gregory and Director Price.

  The curt, take-no-nonsense woman didn’t linger at all. She walked quickly across the room, the heels of her boots tapping on the floor, barely turning to glance back at us as she instructed, “Come with me.”

  “Well, we’re not dead yet,” I murmured to Jayce as we made our way through another maze of hallways and up a set of stairs.

  “Wow. So optimistic.” He shot me a grin, although his eyes were a little glassy from the lingering effects of his interrogation. “Who are you, and what did you do with my girlfriend?”

  “I’m turning over a new leaf,” I joked quietly. “From now on, I’m only going to believe in positive outcomes.” Then I glanced over at him. “Is that what I am?”

  “What?”

  “Your girlfriend?”

  He wrinkled his brow, thinking. I could see one of our Custodian escorts eyeing us curiously, but I ignored the guy. This conversation didn’t concern him.

  Finally, Jayce shook his head. “Nah. It doesn’t feel good enough. Like, it’s not a big enough word, y’know?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. I do know.”

  “I’ll have to think about that and get back to you,” he said, and I could hear the grin in his voice.

  “Okay. I can’t wait to hear what you come up with.”

  Maybe it was a dumb conversation to have as we were marched through the Custodian headquarters, still not entirely sure what they planned to do with us. But it was a moment of normalcy and sweetness that I’d been craving. A moment that reminded me why we were doing all this, reminded me that there could be something really good on the other side of this terrifying, seemingly insurmountable challenge.

  If we survived it, anyway.

  Before Jayce could say anything else, we reached our destination—a large room that looked like it doubled as the director’s office and a sort of command center. We were ushered inside, and a little flame of hope lit in my chest when I noticed that most of the guards who’d been escorting us left the room.

  Do they trust us? Really?

  Director Price crossed around the large desk on one side of the room and sat down behind it. Gregory came to stand to one side of the desk, and the rest of us gathered in front of it.

  The older woman threaded her fingers together, steeling her index fingers and tapping them against her lips as she regarded us.

  “Believe it or not, given the amount of inefficiency in this organization”—she shot me a pointed stare, and I blinked, unable to tell whether she was joking or completely pissed that I’d insulted the Custodians—“your news doesn’t come as a total surprise to us.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Well, we’ve been aware for quite some time that Gavriel was planning some kind of attack. We knew that simply infiltrating earth in greater numbers wouldn’t be enough to appease him. However, we did not know he was planning to use one of the Great Portals to invade. And we certainly were not aware that he planned to lure us into a trap.”

  “So… you believe us?”

  I almost didn’t want to ask the question, in case putting it into words made her suddenly reconsider her stance, but Director Price just nodded once.

  “You all passed your interrogations with no lies detected. So did Mr. Gaede.” She jerked her chin behind us to where Dru stood by the door. “Nothing is ever one hundred percent certain in this world, but I do believe you
are telling the truth. Not only because no lies were found, but because it jives with what we already know. It fills in several pieces of a puzzle we’ve been trying to complete, and the pieces fit.”

  My knees felt like they’d gone boneless. I wished there was a chair I could sink into, but since there wasn’t, I locked my legs and straightened my shoulders, determined not to collapse out of relief.

  “I’m… I’m really glad to hear that,” I said slowly. “Because the thing is, we didn’t come here just to tell you what Gavriel has up his sleeve. I have an idea of how we might be able to stop him, but we would need your help. The help and resources of the entire Custodian organization.”

  Around me, the guys all stiffened. I hadn’t had a chance to fill them in on my idea yet, since it’d only just taken solid shape in my mind. I’d been working on it slowly ever since our phone call with Michael, and it’d finally clicked into place.

  Director Price cocked her head at me.

  “And what might this plan be?”

  I took a step forward, and my men and Hannah did too, moving with me so that we presented a single, united front. They might not know the specifics of my plan yet, but they believed in me. They had faith in me.

  And even more shockingly, for the first time in a long time, I had faith in myself.

  “You probably aren’t gonna like this,” I warned Director Price. “But hear me out…”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  I was right.

  Director Price didn’t like the plan.

  And Gregory, Mr. Fucking Clipboard himself, hated it.

  But as I spoke, I could feel the guys around me nodding, beginning to agree with me. Hannah jumped on board, and eventually even Dru stepped forward to tell Director Price that while my plan might not be perfect, it also might literally be the only shot we had.