Fallen University: Year Two: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance Page 4

  “Is this absolutely necessary?” I asked his back. My loose, dark-brown hair hung in a curtain from my upside-down head, sweeping side to side gently as he walked.

  “Apparently,” Xero said wryly. “We’re trying to stay out of trouble, remember?”

  “Ah, damn it. But I want to kick her ass,” I whined.

  “Later.” I could feel the rumble of his voice in my chest and stomach. “After you’re no longer under suspicion for treason and murder, maybe.”

  “Ugh. Fair enough.” I glanced from side to side, trying to get a good view of the hallway. “Where are we going?”

  “I don’t know. There are stairs up ahead, and I think we’ll be able to get to the library’s second level if we go up. And Kai can make it back to his bedroom if he still wants to.”

  “He does.”

  I couldn’t see Kai’s face, but I could practically hear him rolling his eyes.

  “What’s with you lately?” I asked Kai, craning my neck to look at him. “You’ve been pissed off all day.”

  “Yep.”

  “Why?”

  “Why? Did you already forget where we are? Fuck this place.”

  “The school or the underworld?” I asked.

  “Both.”

  Yeah. Kinda thought so.

  We made it to the hallway that Xero had been looking for, but unfortunately, so did Sonja. She stood between us and the library, breathing hard and tossing a ball of fire back and forth between her hands.

  “We weren’t finished,” she drawled, her voice a sickeningly sweet purr. “Put your mistress down, pet. Let her put her money where her mouth is.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I made a frustrated noise in my throat. “Can I please tear her apart?”

  “Not even if I let you,” Xero muttered grimly, his voice meant only for me. “She’s got years of training and at least fifty pounds of fury on you. Let it be.”

  “Tell her that!”

  But he didn’t. Instead he turned and went the other way.

  God fucking damn it. This is getting ridiculous.

  “She’s following us,” I told him, twisting and lifting my head to look down the corridor.

  He broke into a run, and so did the others. I wriggled to get free as we turned a corner, which threw him off-balance. He bumped hard into a wall panel, which opened under the pressure.

  “In here!” He recovered his balance quickly and dragged me through the opening.

  The others followed us inside, and Kai shut the secret door. Then we froze, listening.

  “Where are you?” Sonja’s sing-song tone floated through the heavy door. “Come out here and get what’s coming to you.”

  Nobody moved or made a sound as all of us practically held our breath. I was still dangling upside down over Xero’s shoulder, and I could feel the tension in his body as we waited to see if Sonja would discover us. It infuriated me. We had just taken down a massive, powerful stone demon. A walking boulder. Now they were making me hide from a PMS-ing hellspawn? We could rip her to shreds!

  And we would, I realized. If all of us fought Sonja together, she wouldn’t stand a chance. Depending on our ability to control our powers—which, for some of us, was rudimentary at best—we could kill her without even meaning to. Which would raise our body count to two, and Sonja wasn’t actually a threat to anybody but me so I couldn’t use the saving the school defense again.

  Fine. Xero might be right.

  The demon bitch queen kept pacing the hall, sometimes shouting for us, sometimes mocking us, sometimes silent. The point was, she didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave.

  I slapped Xero lightly on the ass, then pointed over my shoulder and whispered, “Let’s go.”

  As silently as possible, we walked down the secret passage we’d discovered. It led to a narrow staircase leading upward that seemed to go on forever. Granted, I was still looking at the world backward from my perch on Xero’s shoulder and couldn’t see the end goal, but even so, the stairs seemed insanely long. By the time we reached the top, I could no longer see the bottom.

  “Probably safe to put you down now,” Xero murmured.

  He set me gently back on my feet, allowing all the blood to rush back out of my head. He rolled the tension out of his shoulder and let his demon form melt away, the purple of his skin tone replaced by a deep chocolate brown.

  “Okay,” I admitted grudgingly. “You were right. We can’t keep racking up bodies.”

  “Good call, mistress.” He flashed me an ironic smirk.

  “Great, lesson learned. Now where the hell are we?” Kai scowled at the dim hallway in front of us.

  “I think we’re right under the attic.” I craned my neck, looking up at the ancient rafters above us.

  “Let’s keep going,” Jayce said. “There’s got to be another door up here somewhere.”

  He looked downright cheerful to be having an adventure where we didn’t have to fight someone and nobody died. He grinned at us and led the way down the hall. A while later, a door appeared on our left. It was a simple door, but ancient. Jayce opened it gingerly, probably afraid he’d break it if he pushed too hard.

  Rather than opening into the dormitories like I had expected, it opened into a tiny room with an equally tiny balcony that overlooked the library. From here, we could see through the library’s decorative interior windows into the main hall, and all the way down the main hall to the front door.

  “Old timey security?” Kingston wondered out loud.

  “That would be my guess,” Xero said. “These little lookout posts must be all over.”

  “It’s a shame they weren’t using them,” Kai grumbled bitterly. “We could have been spared two rounds of questioning.”

  “Just one,” I said. “I doubt they have perches like this in the basement or any of the sub-basements.”

  The dark-haired vampire made a sound of disgust. “Probably not.” He cut his gaze to Xero and Jayce. “So, geniuses, you got us up here. How do we get down?”

  Xero shrugged. “Jump?”

  “I like it here.” Jayce beamed happily. “I say we claim it as our own secret meeting spot.”

  “Oh, yeah, that’ll clear our name in the court of public opinion,” Kai shot back, rolling his eyes. “Secret meetings will really take the heat off.”

  Jayce’s happy-go-lucky enthusiasm deflated, and I glared at the other man. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t be allowed to hang out in private, Kai. It’s not like there’s a ‘get out’ sign on the damn door or anything.”

  “Look.” Ignoring the tension flaring between me and Kai, Xero pointed at the floor. “There’s a trap door.”

  “Finally, a way out.” Kai tugged the door open to reveal a circular staircase. He sighed. “Great. More fucking stairs.”

  “What were you hoping for? A slide?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Jayce’s eyes lit up. “Dude, we should totally put a slide there!”

  Kai blinked at him slowly, then started down the stairs without a word. It took a while to make our way down them, but we discovered they led to a secret door near a secluded bookcase in the same corner of the library where we’d spent most of our study time. Hannah was sitting on our favorite couch and stifled a scream when we spilled out of the stacks in front of her.

  “What the hell?” She glanced around, as if expecting more people to just appear out of thin air.

  “This place is hella cool.” Jayce grinned broadly. He seemed to have bounced back almost entirely from his rough start to the day. “Secret rooms, secret staircases—man, I’m glad I live here.”

  Kai stared at him expressionlessly for a moment, then turned on his heel and walked away, heading in the direction of his dorm room.

  “What’s his problem?” Hannah wrinkled her nose, staring after him.

  “When I figure it out I’ll tell you,” I deadpanned, trying to ignore the ache in my chest that I’d known would flare up as soon as Kai left us. “But right now I need to c
ram for finals. Will you help me?”

  “Of course! Honestly, they were easier than I thought they would be. Lots of subjective questions, way more than I thought.”

  I sucked in a breath through my teeth. “Ugh. I don’t like that at all.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, if they’re subjective, that means they’re open to interpretation on both sides. What if one of the professors just hates you for no discernible reason? Wouldn’t they grade your answers more harshly?”

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” she said. “But anyway, you are gonna need to have at least a basic understanding of the facts, so let’s get to work.”

  All five of us spent the next several hours studying. It felt a little unfair, since four of us had already done all our cramming, to have to go through it all again. But after what Xero had told me about Toland’s blood oath, it didn’t seem like it was worth taking a chance on these exams.

  I forced myself to retain the information, but what I was really interested in was what would happen after our study session. When we finally stopped cramming for the day, and Kingston, Hannah, and Xero went off to do their own thing, Jayce and I went back up to our little secret alcove.

  “So how do we start?” I asked, sounding more nervous than I liked. “Sit in the lotus position and say ‘ohm’?”

  Jayce chuckled. “If that’s how you’re most comfortable, sure. But let’s skip the ohm for now.”

  We sat facing each other on the wood floor. He fiddled with his necklace, watching me thoughtfully for a long moment.

  “Okay,” he said finally. “First, let me ask you this. Do you believe it’s possible to get to the memories they want you to tell them about?”

  I didn’t have to think about that at all. I shook my head. “They want me to tell them what he said when I was unconscious. I can’t give them memories I don’t have.”

  “Ah, but you do have them.” He grinned, the blue of his eyes shining like a summer sky. “Have you ever been dreaming about some random thing and then the dream changes somehow to match what’s going on in the real world?”

  I cocked my head at him. “What?”

  “Like—okay, so you’re having a dream where you’re carrying balloons. Then someone comes along with a big needle, and they pop a balloon and it’s loud enough to wake you up. You sit up and hear the last bit of sound from a car backfiring or something.”

  “Okay, yeah. Not that exactly, but I see what you’re saying. So?”

  “So being unconscious doesn’t mean your ears aren’t working, or that your brain isn’t processing what’s happening. The information is all there, stored inside.”

  “All right, but I don’t remember my dreams either,” I pointed out. “How am I supposed to remember that?”

  “You aren’t.” Jayce’s hands found my knees, resting gently as he rubbed small circles with his thumbs. “You’re supposed to let Cassandra take you back there. But the reason I asked what you think is because your brain believes whatever you tell it. So if you tell it that it’s impossible to remember something, it won’t let you remember.”

  “So, what, I just have to decide that it is possible to remember something I can’t remember, and then I’ll remember it?” I raised an eyebrow at him.

  He shrugged. “Sort of. If you decide that it’s possible, then Cassandra can help you find it. Otherwise she’s going to have to force it, and it’s going to hurt.”

  I shuddered. I knew that the more she forced it, the more attached I got to her in my hypnotized state. I couldn’t handle that much heartache. There were already four men at this school who drove me crazy in the best and worst ways.

  “So how do we practice?” I rubbed the back of my neck.

  “Easy. You’re going to remember what you dreamed about last night.”

  I gave him a flat look. “I literally just told you that I don’t remember my dreams.”

  “Which is literally why it’s practice,” he said with a patient smile. “Close your eyes.”

  I did as he instructed, trying to banish my belief that none of this would work. Jayce’s logic did make some sense, and both he and Cassandra seemed convinced that I should be able to access those memories somehow.

  We sat together in the little room for a long time as I let Jayce mess with my head, helping me coax out memories of things my conscious brain hadn’t even registered. By the time we called it quits, my whole brain felt like a puddle of melting ice cream.

  The next day was more of the same, cramming all day and meditating well into the night, trying to get ready for both the final exams and my second interrogation.

  I wouldn’t say I felt prepared, exactly, but at least I was no longer certain I would fail.

  Chapter Five

  I woke up in a panic the day of our makeup finals, thinking that I had missed my test because of how bright it was outside. But the clock said it was seven, which made no sense to me at all considering how dark it had been at eight o’clock the first morning we’d arrived. The sun hadn’t even risen until almost nine.

  “What kind of fucked up cycle is this place even on?” I grumbled to nobody in particular as I tugged on my tunic. Our clothing had been provided by the school since we’d been brought to FU with nothing but what we were wearing at the time. I had instantly approved of the long-sleeved tunics and leggings that made up the majority of my wardrobe now. At this point, it was hard to imagine wearing anything else.

  “Xero would probably know,” Hannah answered. “It’s clearly not a twenty-four-hour cycle, but I haven’t figured out what it is yet. The sun seems to come up whenever it feels like it.”

  I jumped, throwing a hand over my heart. “Shit! I didn’t know you were awake! You scared the hell out of me.”

  “You can scare the hell out of the girl, but you can’t scare the girl out of hell.” She chuckled softly, then sighed. There was a worrying lilt in her voice, almost as if she were drunk. Her honey-colored eyes seemed to glow like two suns in contrast to the deep purple smudges beneath them.

  I frowned. “Are you doing okay?”

  She shook her head. “Nope. I haven’t slept more than a few hours since we got here. I think I’m losing my mind.”

  “You should ask Cassandra for something that’ll help you sleep.” I tugged my hair back into a ponytail, still eyeing her warily. “I can’t have you going off the rails on me.”

  “I thought about that yesterday, but she wasn’t there.” She shrugged. “Her assistant said she was taking the day off to rest. I guess that interrogation session really wiped her out.”

  “I think this place is what wiped her out. Have you noticed how tired the staff looks?”

  “It’s because they’re all trying to figure out how to get us home. Plus, they’ve been running circles around themselves trying to keep the wards up and fully functional.” She did a little full-body shake, like a wet dog trying to dry itself, probably trying to banish the dismal thoughts I could practically see filtering past her eyes. Then she refocused on me. “How do you feel about today? Do you want to review anything before your test? I know I was repeating facts to myself up until the bell rang, plus I was doing flash cards all through breakfast. I don’t know if it helped or not, but it made me feel better.”

  I shook my head. “If I don’t know it now I’m not going to learn it in the next two hours. A shower and breakfast will do me more good than studying.”

  She blinked at me. “I would kill for a modicum of your chill, you know that?”

  I huffed a laugh. “The unknown scares me. If we were still on earth and were taking the final, I’d probably be praying for somebody else to attack the school so I wouldn’t have to do this. The idea of getting sent to the underworld used to terrify me. But now that we’re here, I know what I’ll be dealing with if I fail. It can’t scare me now that I can see it.”

  Her eyes widened in disbelief. I just smiled at her and went about my business. What she knew but maybe didn’t quite understand w
as that I’d been through hell before. When my mom died, and I was too old for anyone to really worry about me but too young to sign contracts, that was hell. The wasteland of the underworld couldn’t hold a candle to the wasteland of being totally alone at seventeen.

  I met the guys downstairs at breakfast and gave them all a quick mental once-over, reaching out through the connection between us. Jayce had already been meditating for hours; I could tell by the serenity wafting off of him. God, I would kill for a modicum of his chill. Kai was annoyed, but not stressed. He was good at tests. Xero’s lips moved as he read over the notes he’d been keeping all year. Kingston seemed more nervous than everybody else, and kept turning away to look into his pocket.

  “Pretty sure cheating counts as failure,” I told him as I sat down.

  “What? Oh. I’m not.”

  “Then what’s in your pocket?”

  A flash of anger crossed his face, but he pushed it away with an over-the-top leer. “Come here and I’ll show you.” He wiggled his eyebrows and licked his lips.

  I rolled my eyes. “You don’t have to be a dick about it.”

  “A dick! You guessed it! Well, that’s no fun. Now all of these fine people will have to find a way to enjoy their breakfasts without a show. What a shame.”

  “Oh, shut up, Kingston. God, you’re—” I groped around for the right word.

  “Attractive? Enticing? Superb?” He grinned as he filled in the blanks.

  “Obnoxious,” Jayce said.

  “Insufferable,” Xero added absently.

  “Yeah, what they said.”

  Kingston smirked and went back to his meal. He didn’t look in his pocket again after that, and I wondered if he’d just been messing with me to begin with.

  I chalked it up to nerves. We were all dealing with them, but Kingston didn’t exactly deal with emotions well. He preferred to pretend he didn’t have any, but he couldn’t hide the truth from me. I could feel an echo of what my bonded foursome were feeling all the time, and right now we were one giant mass of walking nerves.