by C. L. Coffey
“Why else would I be here?” he asked. “They want us all in one place so they can control us and our parents.” His expression darkened. “At least I don’t have to worry about that.”
“You’re going to have to explain that one.”
“What’s to explain.” He shrugged. “They want the Fallen to do something, and they have us hidden away in the mountains. Only they’ve completely misjudged that plan of attack.”
I stared blankly. “That doesn’t help.”
“These are all kids whose fallen angel parents have abandoned them. They’re here because their human parents sent them here—and I bet half don’t know what their child really is. But yes…” he stared at me. “Bait or blackmail. If they’re not going to train us to turn on our parents, then the school is going to use us to control them. Only they won’t care. They’ve already abandoned us.”
In a college. The tuition fees at this place—any college—wasn’t cheap. Was he really so unaware of how lucky he was to be here? “Did daddy not pay you enough attention when he paid for this?”
“He’s dead,” Ty said, shortly.
I couldn’t help but wince at the fact I’d just put my foot in it. “I’m sorry.”
Ty tilted his head. “You wouldn’t be if you knew who he was.”
“I…” I shrugged. I wanted to ask, but it felt inappropriate. “I’m sorry your father is dead,” I said, instead.
“You sound like Angel,” he muttered, bitterly.
That was another surprise. “Angel? You know Angel?”
The head tilt was back, but it was accompanied by eyes wide in surprise. “You know Angel?”
“I assume so. British, bright red hair?” When Ty nodded, I shrugged. “I guess she’s why I’m here.”
“She has a habit of saving nephilim.” Ty leaned against the wall, tilting his head back and staring at the ceiling.
“Why did everyone think you were a ghost?”
When he didn’t say anything, I started to walk away. I was now late for a history lesson.
All of a sudden, he grabbed my hand and spun me around.
I stumbled into him. “What are you doing?” I glared up at him.
His hand released me then moved up to my face, brushing the hair from my cheek. “You don’t strike me as someone who cares about getting to class.”
I jerked back, scowling at him. “You don’t know me.”
“Maybe I’d like to,” he said, grinning now.
Once again, I found myself locked in a staring competition with him, and once again, I could feel the heat spreading over my cheeks. I wasn’t entirely certain if it was because I thought he was attractive or because he was making me feel uncomfortable.
His hand went back to my hair, pushing it gently to the side as he fixed his attention on a spot on my neck. He slowly leaned in as my heart began to speed up. “What is that?”
It took me a second to realize his interest in me was actually the Lichtenberg scars. I batted his hand away, my face flushing in embarrassment.
Behind me came the sound of someone clearing their throat.
I quickly leaped away from Ty like he was on fire. Turning, I found Dean Pinnosa glowering at us.
“Classes started three minutes ago.”
“Don’t know where I’m going.” Ty shrugged.
Pinnosa’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t know where you’re going, what?”
Again, Ty shrugged. “It’s not like you let me go exploring.”
“I beg your pardon?” The dean’s tone was calm, but I could see her jaw clenching.
“We’re lost,” I said. “Ma’am,” I added quickly.
Pinnosa shot Ty a pointed look before she started walking down the corridor. She stopped a few paces away and turned back. “Well?”
I immediately started moving after her. I could hear Ty following behind me.
She led us around the corner. Stopping in front of a door, she pushed it open and ushered us inside. As with English, the entire class stopped and looked up, watching us as I hurried to the only empty table and took a seat.
Again, Ty sauntered down the aisle before sitting down next to me. “I didn’t realize you were such a suck-up,” he whispered.
“A what?”
“You know,” he whispered, with a nonchalant shrug. “A suck-up.”
“I’m not a suck-up,” I hissed back at him.
“Could have fooled me.”
“Unless you two want a detention, I suggest you be quiet,” Dean Pinnosa dropped a textbook between us with a loud bang. While her back was turned, I shot Ty a murderous glare and opened the book.
I managed to make it through the lesson without any further incident, despite the fact Ty was doing his best to irritate me. By the end of class, I had concluded that while Ty was indeed good looking, he was an ass. Being partnered with him for all my classes was going to suck.
By lunch, I’d had enough of him. I hurried to the dining hall and grabbed a sandwich before figuring out the table situation. It really was like being back in high school.
In the back corner, Leigh-Ann was at a table eating by herself. Seeing as I hadn’t made any progress with her, and I couldn’t see her brother anywhere, I made my way over to her table and sat down across from her. She looked up and glared. “Lottie is over there.” She pointed her thumb over her shoulder.
“And yet I want to sit here,” I told her. “Look, I get that we got off on the wrong foot, but I was hoping we could start over?”
“You can keep on hoping.” Leigh-Ann tossed what was left of her sandwich onto her tray. “And while you’re at it, I think it would be for the best if you went to Professor Pinnosa and requested another room.” She got to her feet abruptly, causing her chair to squeak angrily across the floor.
“Don’t leave on my account,” Lottie said, joining us.
Leigh-Ann shot her a glare. “I can’t help being allergic to bitches.”
“Wow,” Lottie said, dryly. “And yet you seem to manage around yourself just fine.” Lottie didn’t wait for Leigh-Ann to leave the table before taking the seat she had only just vacated. “I wouldn’t be too upset, you know?”
I watched Leigh-Ann’s retreating back while chewing at the inside of my cheek. I was upset, but not for the reason I suspected Lottie thought I was.
“What happened between you two?” I asked.
“She fell in love with me.”
I nearly choked on my sandwich. “What?”
Lottie nodded. “Yeah, we used to share a room, then one night she made a move. I told her I didn’t see her that way, and that I loved her brother. She went a little crazy. She even tried to get Harrison to break up with me.”
“That’s weird.” I didn’t have the greatest dating experience, but even that seemed a little extreme.
“What’s up?” Harrison slid in beside Lottie. Simone and Cody also joined the table, looking desperate to see what they had just missed.
“I was just telling Kennedy about Leigh-Ann’s crush on me.” Lottie shrugged, stealing a fry from Harrison’s plate.
Surprisingly, Harrison’s face darkened. “How about we don’t have this conversation when I’m eating.”
There was silence around the table before Simone finally brought up a new topic: our last lesson of the day. “So, has anyone seen the new gym teacher? He’s yummy.”
“He’s our new academic advisor,” Harrison said, gesturing between us.
I was in the middle of processing the fact that the college even had a gym class—I hadn’t really enjoyed that in high school—when it dawned on me who they were talking about.
“Gabriel?” I asked, as all four sets of eyes turned to stare at me.
“Since when are you on first name terms with a professor?” Lottie leaned forward.
I didn’t like the look she was giving me, and I quickly shook my head. “I knew him before I came here,” I told her. “I just find it weird calling him Professor.”
“Wha
t’s he like?” Simone asked.
I glanced between her and Lottie then rolled my eyes. “I think you’re going to be very disappointed,” I said before finishing my sandwich. “The guy can’t work out if he wants to kill me or not.”
“Well that’s boring.” Lottie slumped back into her chair. “Though you and the loner looked pretty cozy earlier.” Her tone was light, but it was accompanied with narrowed eyes.
“Ty?” I asked, unable to keep the disgust from my voice. And then I started laughing. “The guy is good looking, yes, but he’s an ass. There’s a reason he’s a loner.” I allowed myself ten whole seconds to imagine making out with him before shuddering.
Nope. All the nope.
Lottie leaned forward, a smirk on her face. “And yet, it was today he chose to leave the room he’s been holed up in for weeks and fix his attention on you.”
Did everyone know I was coming here before I did?
“I’m not interested.”
“What do you think happened to his hand?” Simone asked, in what I was guessing she thought was a conspiratorial whisper, but in reality, wasn’t subtle at all.
And while Ty’s missing hand wasn’t something I wanted to discuss, I was grateful for the change of subject.
Simone looked around the room as though looking for Ty, and when she couldn’t see him, turned back to us.
“I heard he was in one of those countries where you get your hand chopped off for stealing,” Cody said.
Lottie’s nose wrinkled up. “One of those countries?” she repeated. “If you don’t know what country it was, clearly, that’s a story and not the truth.”
“That’s just what I heard.” Cody rolled his eyes. “Why else would someone cut it off?”
“An accident?” I shrugged.
Was the first place he went to really punishment? I hadn’t given it much thought, but the injury looked recent enough for me to guess that losing a hand wasn’t something he had dealt with since birth. Plus, I’d noticed that he would keep reaching for things, as though he’d once had a hand there.
“What about you? What do you know?”
A moment passed before I realized Simone was directing the questions at me. “Huh?”
“You’ve been sitting next to him all day. What did he say?”
I blinked. “About what?”
“His hand, idiot.”
I stared at the blonde-haired girl, my eyes widening. “You expect me to have asked him what happened to his hand?”
Yes, I was curious, but given his reaction to me staring at it earlier, I wasn’t in any hurry to broach the topic. And then I’d slowly decided I didn’t even like him enough to ask anyway.
“It didn’t come up in conversation.”
“Well you suck.” Simone scoffed, looking at me like I was a traitor for not asking.
I was doing my best to hide my own scars, and the last thing I wanted was any attention brought to them. I had no interest in pushing Ty to talk about something he didn’t want to.
I decided that if he did choose to share that information with me, I wasn’t ever going to tell Simone.
Instead, I looked over at Harrison. The more time I spent with these people, the less I liked them. The problem was Harrison: I was … actually, I didn’t know what I was. His guardian? Were his friends really part of the package? I’d thought Harrison was nice at first, but if these were the friends he’d chosen, I may have misjudged him.
Trapped in the mountains, I doubted there was much that posed a risk to him here short of the people he was associating with. If that was the case, maybe I could just focus on college?
Feeling like something was boring into the side of my head, I turned to find Lottie with her gazed fixed on me. Then slowly, more deliberately, she turned to Harrison and kissed him, practically sticking her tongue down his throat.
I was sure that was her way of marking her territory.
Again.
I had a feeling that even if I told her I wasn’t interested in her boyfriend, she was never going to believe me.
CHAPTER TEN
The longer I spent at Greenwood Prep, the more I believed Ty’s conspiracy theory.
Especially when the last lesson of the day was gym class. We even had a uniform for it: a white polo and a pair of shorts. Or, for winter, sweatpants and a sweater.
Apparently, I was the only female choosing to wear them, but as long as I had the lightning bolt marks scarring my skin, I’d be wearing them in the summer too.
Keeping an eye out for my roommate, I came out of the locker room and joined Lottie by the side of the gym. It was big enough that down the center, three raised nets were splitting the gym in two. Were we going to play volleyball?
“Oh, praise the lord,” I heard Simone mutter from the other side of Lottie.
I turned to see what she was talking about.
Gabriel had entered the gym.
It was obvious why Simone was two minutes away from swooning. Even I didn’t fail to appreciate the way Gabriel’s black T-shirt hugged every bit of his torso.
“The notes my predecessor left tell me you started playing badminton,” Gabriel announced. “So partner up.”
I turned, ready to ask Lottie if she wanted to play, but she was already with Simone. Harrison had paired up with Cody, and even Leigh-Ann was collecting a racquet with somebody else in the class.
Just as I realized there was an odd number and that was me, Gabriel spoke. “Kennedy, you’re with me.”
My shoulders already hunched up, and I spun on my heels to find Gabriel watching me. “Oh, the joy,” I muttered, dryly.
With a sigh, I followed the others to collect my own racquet before joining Gabriel on the opposite side of a net. At least I wasn’t partnered with Ty again. I glanced around the room, curious as to where he was.
Skipping gym, apparently.
I’d not played badminton before, but like most sports, I had a natural ability to pick them up. I was quick and had good reflexes. I cast my mind back to all the gym classes I’d ever been in. It was the only class where I was guaranteed to be called on first to join a team. Though, thinking about it now, that was probably because I was a nephilim, which meant the one thing I had thought I naturally excelled in was actually something I supernaturally excelled in.
The shuttlecock smacked my arm, making me jump. I looked up to find Gabriel watching me.
“Pay attention, Kennedy.”
I leaned over to scoop the shuttlecock up from the floor and glared at him. I served then, sending the shuttle sailing over the net towards Gabriel’s empty corner, but he was there before it could hit the floor, hurling it back to me.
Unfortunately, we were evenly matched, and a rally went on between us for ages. I was getting frustrated yet unsure where it was coming from. Probably the archangel on the other side of the net who looked like he was putting no effort into the game.
“Are you getting tired?”
I wasn’t. To prove my point, I backhanded the shuttle back over the net.
He dove for it, hit it, and it sailed into the net.
“My point,” I told him through gritted teeth.
He served next. I knew I shouldn’t be getting annoyed, but he was good. And he knew it. Sweat was beading along my hairline, and my chest felt tight. The frustration and anger was building to a level like it had with Duncan. I should have walked away, but I figured that on the other side of the net, Gabriel would be safe.
With my attention on my own game, I forgot about the one going on next to me, though.
Gabriel’s next volley sailed to the opposite end of the court, and I lunged over, swinging my racquet.
I didn’t see Leigh-Ann until it was too late. Somehow, the racquet hit her face, and blood spurted everywhere.
I dropped the racquet in horror. “Leigh-Ann!”
“Go away!” She jerked back from me as she covered her nose. Tears were already streaming down her face.
“I’m sorry.” I t
ried to get close enough to help, but she kept trying to get away from me.
Gabriel stepped between us. “Kennedy, go wait in my office.”
“But–”
“Now.” Gabriel’s hand shot out, but instead of hitting me, he pointed at the door to the office.
Flinching, I did as he said. Casting one last look over my shoulder as Gabriel got Leigh-Ann to pinch her nose and lean forward, I disappeared into his office and took a seat.
Through the closed door, I could hear some activity in the gym as Gabriel blew his whistle and ordered everyone to pack up and get changed, calling time on the lesson.
It took a while for him to return, and by then, I was chewing nervously on my nails. “Is Leigh-Ann okay?” I asked the moment he walked through the door.
“No thanks to you.”
“It was an accident, Gabriel. I didn’t mean to hit her.”
He sighed and took a seat behind his desk. “I know that, but it wasn’t like you hit her like a normal human would have. As a nephilim, you’re faster and stronger than any human.”
“I guessed that,” I said. “But I was reigning it in. I was trying to play the game like I was normal.”
“But you’re not normal. And I take some of the blame here.” He added, causing me to look at him in confusion. “I know what you are, and I know what you’re capable of. I should not have allowed you to play.”
“It won’t happen again.” I sighed.
Gabriel folded his arms. “I know it won’t, because from now on, you will not be participating in gym with other students.”
My mouth fell open. “What do you expect me to do?”
“Until I’m confident you can not only disguise your abilities, but also control them, you will stay in this office and catch up in your other classes.”
“But that’s punishing me for something which was an accident.”
“I know,” he said with a sudden softness to his tone. “But it would be irresponsible of me to allow you to play with humans when you could so easily hurt them. I’m sorry, Kennedy. But from now, you will stay in here.”
“Not everyone is a human in there. And I’ll just end up falling behind in gym,” I said.
“But there are some humans. If you can’t control your abilities in a gym, how will you be able to control them out in the world? Your training will count towards making up the class,” Gabriel assured me, seemingly having already thought of this. “Starting tomorrow morning at 5:00 a.m. Wear your gym gear.”
