The Puppet Master: The Paranormal University Files: Skylar, Year 4

by Savage, Vivienne

  “Think we can convince Daddy to get doughnuts?” I mumbled groggily.

  “Already done,” Gabe said from the doorway. “There’s a dozen on the coffee table with some croissant sandwiches.”

  “My hero.” I sat up and groaned, half tempted to burrow right back beneath the covers. “I feel awful.”

  Chuckling, Gabriel offered me a hand up from bed. “That’s what happens when you give two pints of blood to a friend.”

  Once he had me up on my feet, Gabriel didn’t relinquish his grip on my hands. After taking my track record into consideration, I waited for the silent disapproval along with questions demanding to know why I’d done it. He knew how to lecture without lecturing when I did something foolish. His disappointment hurt more than a vampire’s fist to the face. Or fangs to the arm, maybe.

  Warm arms surrounded me instead, much like the night before when I’d drifted back to sleep.

  “You’re not angry at me?”

  “Angry?” Gabriel leaned back. “Nah, I’m not angry at you for doing what you needed to save a friend’s life. I’m…real proud of you, Sky.”

  Then, even though I didn’t want to cry after enduring the harrowing experience of assisting with an exorcism of a close friend, my shoulders shook and my breath hitched. “I promised to be Lia’s Morrigan.”

  “I know.”

  “It’s gonna mess up everything.”

  “Hey, no, don’t say that. This is Lia we’re talking about.”

  “I should have discussed it with you.”

  “You did, Sky. And I told you to go with your heart. I’m never going to be upset with you for that. C’mon. Doughnuts and lots of juice, then a hot shower.”

  “Bath.”

  “Hot bath it is. With bubbles. Then, if you’re up for it, I think you should visit your friends.”

  “I think you’re right. Holly needs us now more than ever.”

  * * *

  The doctors released Anji from medical early that morning, but Holly remained under observation. Pilar and Lia met me in the lounge, though Oberon and Dain were conspicuously absent. I hadn’t expected either fae to let them out of their sight.

  “You’re still gray as slate,” Pilar fussed over me.

  “I’m good. Really. I didn’t lose enough to be close to the danger mark.”

  Her brows knit in disbelief. “You passed out, Skylar.”

  “From all the emotional trauma coupled with the blood loss. Not the blood loss alone. Please don’t mention that around Holly.”

  “I know better than to do that.”

  “Good. How are you two?”

  Liadan laid a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “We’re fine. She never touched us. Anji made sure of that.”

  “How is she?”

  “Well enough that she’s staying overnight with Cole at his place. Riordan put us in campus guest housing.”

  “Yeah? How did the guys like that?”

  “They hated it,” Liadan said, some of the mirth returning to her eyes. “Oberon thought his desire for me to return to Tir na Nog was justified, but I reminded him that he’d already agreed. So he threw glamours around the entire room.”

  “And Dain spent an hour pleading in different ways for me to return to the Vale until I shut him up.”

  I admired both women for standing up for themselves. They were beautiful and strong, inside and out, and I was proud to call them my friends.

  “They do it because they love you.”

  “They do,” Pilar agreed, quite literally glowing with happiness.

  “But maybe you should tone that down before we visit Holly.”

  “Oops!” Pilar dampened her light until not even a twinkle remained in her hair.

  After that, Nurse Kristi directed us to a private room at the end of the hall. A sentinel sat outside the door with a tablet in hand. Recognition sparked in the slim man’s gaze, and he waved us past. Pilar gave a brief knock then opened the door into the dim-lit room. Holly was propped up in her bed with the television tuned to a cooking show, and she wasn’t alone. Victor and Ben occupied the two armchairs by the window.

  To my relief, the worst of Victor’s burns had regenerated. Some discoloration remained on his face and hands, but he was no longer crisped and blistered. In a few days, that would all be gone, too. According to the story I got out of Gabriel, Victor’s werebear roomie had shaken him out of his coffin soon as he heard an incident was in progress at building eleven of the Phoenix Townhomes. Victor had then spent a stressful twenty minutes texting and calling Holly before he tried to cross the yard.

  Both men smiled when we stepped inside. Holly turned her face away.

  “Hey, now, none of that,” I said.

  “I fucked up.”

  “Holly, no one here blames you.”

  “How can you say that?” she whispered, keeping her gaze averted.

  “Because you weren’t in control of your actions or words.”

  A deep, heavy sigh slumped Holly’s shoulders. She turned toward me, eyes lowered. “Those thoughts came from somewhere.”

  “Well, we all have bad thoughts from time to time. I mean, I call people all sorts of things in my head sometimes, but I don’t actually ever say them.”

  “I did.”

  “The demon took your darkest thoughts and obliterated your filter,” Pilar said.

  “Yeah, it doesn’t matter what you said. What matters is that you’re safe now. You’re free.”

  “Maybe, but…I don’t think you have a hero complex, Sky,” Holly said quietly. “I think you are a hero, and I’m just…I…I’m so ashamed of the shit it made me say to you that I don’t know where to begin.”

  I sat on the edge of Holly’s bed and took her hand. “Begin by letting it go. You weren’t yourself. You had a demon inside you, girl. You gotta let go, otherwise that thing, Tricia, and Annalise—they win. Think of it this way. We’re so badass the only way they could have a chance at taking us down was by summoning a demon. You know how awesome that makes you?”

  Holly laughed quietly. “I guess I didn’t think about it that way.”

  “It is completely true,” Lia said, grinning initially, until the smile eventually sobered. “It was the only way they knew they could have a shot at all of us.”

  “By tearing us apart.”

  Finally, I realized something and turned my attention on Victor. He’d been smiling. Victor, who had been sullen and withdrawn for weeks, was smiling like old times again. “How do you feel, by the way?”

  “Like a million bucks,” he replied easily. “An assload of shit makes sense now that didn’t before. I mean, it sucks that I can’t walk in the sun. I’m down about it, but taking it out on Holly isn’t me. My mom is so mad, so so mad, cause that shit arrived in a box with her name on it and she feels to blame. When Holly thanked her for the gift, she assumed it was the new parasol she sent her.”

  “Ugh.” I’d heard a little about that from Gabriel. A dozen sentinels had appeared at his mother’s house and crawled over every inch of it, only to inevitably confirm she hadn’t been involved. The handwriting on the gift box, that Holly had thankfully kept, didn’t even match.

  “I just feel like a fucking tool for not realizing,” Victor concluded.

  “Yeah. Me too, man.” Ben rubbed the back of his neck. He’d withdrawn from our group too, barely hanging out with us since the semester began. “I feel kind of like shit for not mentioning something I saw when we went to Holiday City. It didn’t occur to me then, but Gabriel’s sword was glowing big time. I just assumed it was because of the darkling, not Holly.”

  “I saw it too,” I admitted. “I misread its meaning.”

  “No. That was definitely the demon.” A shudder trembled through Holly’s shoulders. “I had this intense urge to take Lia and leave. To separate her from everyone else. But my sentinel training told me otherwise and I ignored it.”

  Understanding dawned upon me. “It didn’t have full control yet.”


  “It didn’t. For a long time, I had no idea something was wrong. I’d get the worst feelings and thoughts, these jealous emotions always telling me that you wanted to replace me as Lia’s sentinel. That I’d never be good enough because I’m not a fae. God, I went into this knowing we were only to be paired until graduation. I’m looking at working on campus in the alchemy lab! I don’t even want to be a battlemage.”

  “You didn’t tell me that.”

  “Oh yeah.” She grinned unevenly, fleetingly, the sense of her happiness wavering in and out then finally emerging full force. “I guess…I forgot to tell you a lot of things. Ben and I are staying for grad school. I even put in an application one day before the posting closed. Haven’t heard back yet.”

  “Me either,” Ben said. “The suspense is killing me.”

  I didn’t want to talk about the demon anymore, the way it had hurt us, or the signs we had overlooked of someone manipulating us. More importantly, my friends deserved better.

  “Tell me about the job.” I wiggled into the empty spot to Holly’s left, casually placing down enough glamour to make room. “We have a thousand things to talk about, and I’ve got all evening.”

  * * *

  As far as the student body knew, the incident at the townhouse had involved a spell gone wrong. Which, technically, it sort of did. Either way, I was grateful no one blathered about the demon incursion. As awful as people were being to Jiro, and now even Professor Tristal, I could only imagine what they’d do if they found out the truth about Holly’s possession.

  Still, I was a little surprised that the provost didn’t outright cancel the Halloween carnival. Surprised, but grateful. After all that had happened since the start of the semester, everyone deserved a night of fun, even if that night of fun had just cost us two hours of magical potions, glamours, and spellcraft to make it happen.

  “I feel like everyone is staring at me,” Holly whispered to me as we stepped out of the guest house in full costume. The townhouse wouldn’t be restored for a few more days, which meant our entire group had piled into Dain, Pilar, Lia, and Oberon’s temporary lodgings.

  “That’s because you look gorgeous.”

  A glamoured copy of Pilar’s engagement tiara sparkled against Holly’s updo and she wore one of our friend’s best dress glamours—black silk swirling with stars and colorful nebulas. Every time she moved, shooting stars streaked across the long, trailing skirt. The effect was really quite stunning.

  The unseasonably warm Halloween day blessed us with weather in the high sixties, though we had been prepared to cast comfort charms and glamours on all of our attire to produce ambient warmth. In fact, we had to turn the flames on my dress down to keep me from sweltering and going as a messy puddle instead. When Lia did me up in full phoenix regalia, she didn’t cut corners.

  “Gorgeous and all mine,” Victor agreed, spinning Holly around by one hand. As part of his costume, he’d submitted to a host of Cinderella glamours from Dain. They’d vanish at midnight, right in time for him to take his shift at the haunted house. Until then, Victor resembled an angel perfectly paired with his celestial queen.

  “Careful, man, or you’re going to make me look bad.” Gabriel grinned, resembling a bishounen anime hero with his long, golden hair. I much preferred his natural color, but he still made a painfully attractive Oberon.

  Everyone had switched with someone in our group, most of us remaining couples with the exception of a few members of the gang. Since Oberon wasn’t present, we had an uneven number of costumes to choose from.

  Despite my glamorous makeover into the queen of all fae, my favorite costumes of all had to be Ben and Teresa, who had gender swapped to become each other. Much to my surprise, Ben had been a good sport about the whole thing, right down to the attire. He’d donned one of Teresa’s halter tops and a matching skirt; he’d even shaved his legs. The combination of glam and muscles made me giggle every time I looked at him, not because he looked ridiculous, but because he wore the entire deal with confidence.

  “You look like a drag queen,” Cole laughed.

  “A hot drag queen,” Teresa pointed out.

  I quietly agreed.

  The truth was, everyone looked great, and I thought we had a real chance at snagging a win for best group costume. Pilar and Dain had transformed into Holly and Victor for the night, Holden rocked a supersized replica of Anji’s favorite jogging suit complete with fake tatas and a brunette ponytail wig, Cole wore a muscle suit under one of Holden’s rock band T-shirts, and Anji wore some of Gabriel’s clothes.

  I cracked up every time I saw Anji with her glamoured clone of Shōki, which was actually a plastic lightsaber. Gabriel had offered to let her hold the real weapon for the night, along with a casual offer to give her lessons any time she wanted, but she’d waved it off in a hurry. Apparently, no one but Gabriel and me felt comfortable touching a weapon possessed by the soul of a dead demon hunter.

  By the time we all headed out, the big campus scavenger hunt was well underway. I didn’t mind too much, since I didn’t really need the cash prize. People had their lists in hand and were running across campus in search of clues.

  “Dain, what do you all think about the scavenger hunt? I’ve always wondered how the fae view it since the whole campus wanders into Tir na Nog.”

  “We find it rather amusing,” he replied candidly, rather than going for something more politely oblique. “Eldan will have his hands full guarding the borders without my assistance.”

  “Keeping nosy students out of places they ought not venture?”

  “Yes.” Dain paused, then leaned in, a sly grin on his face made all the more unnerving by his pearly vampire fangs. “And ensuring they do not run headlong into danger while fleeing from darklings who are not really darklings.”

  I flushed beet red, but Gabriel buckled over in laughter. Even Lia giggled at the reminder of our freshman year scavenger hunt. It seemed so long ago that Gabriel had disguised himself as a wendigo and chased Lia and me through the Autumn Wood. I’d protected her even then, now that I looked back on it and realized how much of my college career had been spent guarding Lia from harm. As much as I loved Pilar, Anji, and Holly, she and I had a special bond.

  We’d come full circle, and…I was good with that. Becoming the right hand of a queen meant I would be more than a sentinel.

  “Were we ever that little?” Ben pushed his glasses up his nose and watched a pair of freshmen hurry past with their clue list.

  “They only look little because you bulked up,” Anji replied.

  “Besides, not all of us are little,” Teresa said with a sniff. She cast a minor illusion, seeming to conjure a fireball between her hands, and threw it at Ben. He caught the “attack” in the chest and acted out a dramatic fall to the ground.

  “Mercy! Mercy!”

  Ready to show off our imaginative costumes, we hit up the campus square where the event organizers arranged all the games and snacks. One thing I loved about PNRU was that even at the age of twenty-two, I could trick-or-treat to my heart’s delight.

  Pilar and I laughed maniacally as the rest of our friends lined up to bob for apples. Dain’s feeble attempt to back out backfired when Pilar challenged him, asking innocently if he was afraid the others would outperform him. Lia, dressed like a badass sentinel trainee, stepped up and said it was a shame, but that she understood if he was afraid of his queen beating him.

  Then it was on and a line of my favorite people were on their knees with their wrists tied behind their backs, desperately fighting to be the first to capture one from their water-filled tub. Much to our endless amusement, Dain had no talent for it. He bobbed artlessly and clumsily, dipping the apples below the surface and growling his frustration.

  “He definitely has a cu sith for a brother,” I said to Pilar.

  Lia and Anji tied for first, followed by Holden. Dain, Gabriel, Cole, and Victor didn’t even have a chance.

  The defeated expression on my mentor’s face
almost brought me to amused tears. As if he couldn’t fathom what had happened.

  “It means nothing,” Dain muttered when Pilar cocked a brow at him. “I have no experience with these mortal games.”

  “Uh-huh,” I said.

  “Then you won’t object to participating in the pie-eating contest,” Lia declared.

  The fae lord snorted. “Of course I do not object to such an easy, trivial task.”

  Ten minutes later, we reached the contest, a long-ass table set for up to a dozen people at once. When people saw Dain, participants jumped out, preferring to watch a fae lord participate instead of competing against him.

  I cackled with glee, and once again chose to sit out with Pilar, Holly, and Ben, as the latter loathed pumpkin pie and Pilar couldn’t fit it into her carb count.

  “Where are the utensils?” Dain asked when the pie was set in front of him then covered in a perfect circle of fluffy whipped cream.

  Lia grinned. “There are none.”

  “Then what am I to use? My fingers?” This was accompanied by the most incredulous expression I’d ever seen from him.

  “Nothing. Using your hands will disqualify you,” she told him, quite triumphantly, as the rest of us howled in laughter.

  “Then how do I eat it?” he asked, expression increasingly bewildered.

  “With your mouth,” Lia replied innocently.

  Dain lost again, but it was glorious to watch the sophisticated fae burying his face in pumpkin pie. While he sulked after his crushing defeat by Teresa, then Holden in second place, followed by Gabe, Pilar cleaned his face with a handkerchief.

  “You are still a winner to me, my love,” she told him, not at all unaware of the swooning fae girls enviously watching nearby.

  “Dude, did you just try to console him like he’s five?” Holly asked.

  Dain shot her a dark look that told me she would have earned herself three years of jinxes and bad luck if he’d lacked the self-control to contain himself.