He pulled the trigger again, and she jerked, once, twice—what?
The report of a second gun echoed from the other side of the rest stop where another parking lot spanned. Our attacker yowled in pain. A few moments passed, and then a brindle wolf streaked across the grass, followed by a smaller, snow-white beauty. Tree roots lifted from the ground in their path like animated whips, each one transformed into a nightmarish living weapon with barbs on their tips. The wolf pair never flinched, ducking under thorned roots, leaping then dodging and weaving through the danger.
The male wolf leapt aside and landed in his human form, confirming my suspicions of him being the big dude from the gas station. He spun to his right and whipped a weapon from beneath his leather jacket. The shotgun blast roared, discharging a shell at point-blank range into the dryad’s side.
Then he was a wolf again, ducking beneath the swing of her tree trunk limbs and slamming into the darkling’s legs.
Gabriel removed a dull metal shard from his jacket—so he had been issued an iron spike too—and thrust it toward her chest, but it rebounded off her tough skin like he’d struck rubber. She backhanded him away and tried to run for it, only for the pair of wolves to tackle her down to the ground again. Desperately, she thrashed beneath them. I tried to leave the circle of Liadan’s Prismatic Barrier, but she held me tight.
“No, Sky!”
“I have to help them—”
“But she’s after you.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m training to be a sentinel, so that’s what I need to be right now.”
The worry on her face didn’t go away, but she nodded and dropped her shield. The brindle wolf had been tossed aside and slumped by a tree in a daze. The other wolf and Gabriel continued to keep the hag busy, working together to keep her off guard, but she was stronger. Faster. For every wounding strike they gave her, she delivered twice as many. Blood glistened against the white wolf’s pelt, and a red line marred Gabe’s cheek.
She’d hurt him. My partner.
Fuck that.
The hot fury that swept through me manifested as more than feelings. An electric buzz tickled over my arms and across my cheeks, like static beneath my clothing. The air was alive with current, and the skies had darkened to a murky, storm-cloud gray, sweeping in from the east.
Tristal’s words rushed back to me. If I could control the wind, why couldn’t I harness the storm as my weapon?
“Lia, do you think you can put a prismatic barrier around all three of them?”
“I think so, if I can get them together.”
“Then be ready to throw one up and hold it with everything you’ve got.”
Lia skipped through the Twilight and emerged next to the injured sentinel. Good. Now I only needed to get the other two over there.
The energy around me continued to build until the air became alive with static, and lightning flickered across the sky.
“Gabe, get to Lia, both of you!”
He fell back without question, trusting me. The same couldn’t be said for the white wolf, though she followed Gabe’s lead when another flicker lit up the sky.
The moment Lia’s shield was around all three, I released the tightly held control I’d been maintaining. The power rushed through me, and in that moment, everything around me was sharper—more vibrant.
A sizzling bolt fell from the sky. It collided with the top of the hag who towered above the others like a putrid oak, blowing the bark from her body. Her chest split open and hot, gooey sap splattered over the grass. Her howls of pain raised goose bumps over my arms.
And then the same roots and foliage she’d used to attack the sentinels wrapped around her legs, pulling her into the ground. Her feet disappeared first, then her knotty knees vanished.
Gabriel bounded toward her with the iron stake and thrust it through the gaping fissure in her chest, into a fist-sized lump of muscle glistening like black tar. The sound of iron striking wet tissues echoed across the empty green lot.
Her submersion into the soil ended, retreat abruptly halted as a wailing cry parted her lips. She thrashed and shuddered, spewing fetid blood and rancid sap like a geyser in every direction until, at last, she collapsed backward.
All my concentration was divided between concern for Gabriel and not puking all over my new shoes. Before I could take a step toward him—or vomit everywhere, because the smell of rotten plant matter and decaying darkling was offensive as hell—he beelined to me and touched my arm.
“You okay?”
“Me? I’m fine. She knocked the three of you all over. What about you?” Besides his bloody cheek, I’d seen him knocked around a few times and imagined all sorts of bruises on him.
“Nothing major, I promise.” He cut his gaze to the two sentinels and Lia.
“Are you two okay?” I called over.
Chest heaving, the white wolf rose from four paws to two legs, becoming the woman from the gas station with the pristine ivory bob. She crouched beside her partner and touched his ribs. “I think so. Matt?”
Low whimpers became wheezing groans of pain when he transformed to his human shape. “The bitch got me good, but I’ll live. Definitely got a few cracked ribs. Go check those two out.”
The white-haired sentinel chuckled. “Are you serious? They came out of it better than us. Come on, big guy.” She helped him to his feet despite bright red blood staining her sweater.
“Nice work there, kids. Never seen a sylph in action before. And you, that was a damn fine shield you put up.”
Lia managed a small smile and dipped her head. “Thanks. We had a good teacher.”
“I can tell. Anyway, I’m Matt, and this is Patty. Figures the moment I go to take a piss, something would actually come after you.”
My brows drew in. “How long have you been escorting us?”
“Since you left Virginia.”
“And how far were you two gonna follow us before someone else took over?”
“About another hour. Bostwick and Kane were gonna pick you up after that for the second leg into Chicago.”
I didn’t know how to feel about that. Simon and Sebastian were sort of a big deal, and I didn’t think bodyguard detail was their usual schtick.
Gabriel’s shoulders dropped an inch. “Thank you. If you two hadn’t shown up...”
“Yeah. We’re totally not ready to be fighting darklings on our own, I guess. I couldn’t even escape her in the Twilight.” And that was my ace, my best talent I had over my peers.
Patty’s motherly smile eased the tension. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Your sentinel had the situation well in hand before we arrived.”
Matt nodded. “She’s right. Now, c’mon, there’s a field office about an hour from here. I imagine you’d all like to clean up a bit before you finish your drive.”
“Oh, Lia and I can just use glamours—”
She wrinkled her nose at me. “Absolutely not. Magic is no substitute for standing under actual hot water. I insist.”
And with a sentinel insisting, who were we to argue? Especially when she was right.
* * *
When we reached the campus around two that afternoon, Holly was sprawled across the couch in the living room with her head in Victor’s lap. They both flinched back from the pale-yellow rectangle of daylight cast by the open door.
I pushed it shut behind me. “Sorry. Maybe we need a ‘Vamps at Large’ sign to put on our door, like when people have angry dogs in their yards.”
Holly snickered. “It’s fine. It only stings after a while. How was the trip?”
Lia clutched her travel blanket against her chest. “Interesting.”
Gabriel glanced at his watch. “Hey, Holly. ’Sup, Victor? Y’all are up late.”
Victor laughed. “Yeah, we started a Friday the 13th marathon around midnight.”
I glanced around at the living room. “Where’s Pilar?”
“At the student center,” Holly replied. “Oh, and by the way, Provost
Riordan’s secretary called about fifteen minutes ago and asked me to send you both to the administration office as soon as you got in.”
“Seriously? But we just got here.”
Holly shrugged.
“Lemme take Ama home and I’ll meet you there.”
“Okay.”
Gabriel and I met up again about a half hour later at the administrative building. We headed inside together, checked in with the secretary, and stepped inside Provost Riordan’s office to find her sitting opposite Jada.
My gut dropped to the floor, plummeting like it was transmuted into lead.
“Hello, Mr. Fujimoto, Ms. Corazzi. Please, have a seat.”
Heart crashing against my ribs, I settled in a chair that put me between Gabriel and his ex.
“Do you understand why you are both here?”
I shook my head. Gabriel did too.
“I’d assumed it was about what happened at the rest stop.”
“No, though I would like to discuss that incident with you later, once you’ve both had a chance to settle in and relax.” The provost folded her hands atop her desk. “Ms. Harrington would like to lodge a complaint. She’s brought some troubling evidence to my office.”
“Evidence of what?” I wiped my sweaty palms against my thighs.
One photo after another revealed Gabriel and me at our most vulnerable together. Holding hands at the concert, kissing in the Centennial Wheel, and… sprawling across my bedroom floor. Someone had taken a photograph through my bedroom window.
Each one tightened my chest a little more. One of the pictures was an enlarged shot of me holding his hand as we shopped at the mall in Norfolk, surrounded by my high school, non-magical friends.
“These photos imply you have a relationship together. Is this true?”
Shit. What did we say to that?
Gabriel’s knuckles went pale on the armrests. I heard a small crack, a creak, and a pop, the splintering of wood. “It’s true. It’s my fault. I told her it was okay and I—”
“Don’t you dare take this on yourself. It’s true, and I’m as much to blame. But I don’t see why there’s a problem.”
Jada pulled out her student handbook and opened it to a dog-eared page. “On page sixty-nine, it says, ‘Romantic relationships between student sentinels and their wards are prohibited. Likewise, in situations involving a sentinel-sentinel pair, one half of the team shall be reassigned.’ That means those two are breaking the rules.”
Nothing about the provost’s stoic expression revealed her opinion. Riordan was a damn master at concealing her thoughts.
“That is correct. According to the student guide, they have technically broken policy.”
“Isn’t spying against the rules too?” I shot back before I could rein myself in. Knowing that Jada had been outside my bedroom window only yesterday replaced my distress with cold fury.
“As an administrator of PNRU, I can’t punish Miss Harrington for behavior conducted away from campus grounds.”
Jada’s gloating face sent my pulse into a gallop. “It’s stalking.”
“Indeed,” Simon said.
I jerked around in my chair to look behind us at what had previously been empty space. The two hadn’t been there a moment ago.
Sebastian removed a notepad from his leather jacket, the front of it stamped with the official insignia of the Sentinel Bureau of Affairs. “We were told a student needs to make a report.”
Gabriel blinked. “A report?”
Simon squeezed Gabriel’s shoulder. “An official report for stalking, harassment, and misuse of paranormal abilities by a shifter. The provost informed us you would need to make a complaint.”
The color faded from Jada’s face, turning her ash-gray. “A report? I didn’t do anything but take a couple photos of them.”
“You fucking followed us across state lines to Virginia and took incredibly personal pictures of us, violating Skylar’s privacy and mine. Her family too. And a bunch of humans.”
She sputtered for a moment then snapped her mouth shut. Finally.
The provost passed the manila folder with our photographs to Simon. He tucked it inside his coat. “You’re dismissed, Miss Harrington. I trust you’ll take this as an important lesson in restraint.”
“But Pro—”
“You are dismissed. Sentinels Bostwick and Kane will interview you at their convenience.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The moment she left, Simon’s questions began, a whole battery of them aimed at Gabriel, asking when he’d first noticed Jada was stalking him and the extent of the behavior. Had she been physical with either of us or made any threats? Sebastian took notes the entire time with a stoic expression on his face.
At the end, the wolf snapped his notebook shut and tucked it away. “We’ll get in touch with you in a few days after this complaint has been processed. Most likely she’ll receive a few months of probation and an order to stay away from you. I’ll push for more, because I warned her ass—”
“Ahem.”
“Sorry, Niamh.”
“I really had no idea she’d pull this kind of move.” Gabriel’s shoulders slumped, and he slouched in his seat.
I toyed with my jacket zipper. “What’s going to happen to us now?”
Simon chuckled. “Nothing.”
Gabriel’s gaze shot up. “But we broke the rules.”
The three staff members glanced at each other, a moment of eye contact seeming to convey a thousand words between them, before Simon said, “It’s an archaic law. It was actually struck from practice twenty years or so ago, and the school hasn’t printed new books.”
Gabriel’s dark brows notched. “Huh? But… that doesn’t make any sense. Why not mention that during orientation?”
“We don’t make it widely known on campus, because we need you all to focus on your work instead of getting laid,” Sebastian said.
I choked.
“You two have never let your relationship conflict with your responsibilities, so nothing’s ever been said,” Simon continued.
Provost Riordan looked at us both. “Ensure that doesn’t change.”
I blinked. “Th-thank you.”
“Enjoy the rest of your weekend.”
Simon and Sebastian walked with us from the office. Gabriel had his hands tucked into his pockets and a pensive look on his face. Jada’s invasion had been awful for me, but I imagined it was so much harder for him. He remained silent as we joined the two sentinels in the elevator.
“It’s because of you two, isn’t it?” I asked.
Simon raised a brow and glanced down at me. “What do you mean?”
“The law. You said it was changed almost twenty years ago, right? Isn’t that when you two paired up as partners?”
“Astute assumption.”
“Our case was unique,” Sebastian clarified. “Some bonds trump rules.”
Gabriel blinked. For being so observant, he could be really obtuse. “You mean…?”
Sebastian shrugged. “They reassessed the policy. It’s still preferred for partners to remain professional, but it happens. Don’t go spreading that around, though, okay?”
“We won’t.”
“Good. You let us know if Jada causes any more trouble.”
Long after the two men strode from the building, Gabriel and I lingered in the vestibule to watch the onset of a tranquil snowfall beyond the administration building’s double glass doors. Neither of us moved to return to the townhouse, and instead, stood mesmerized by the dancing flurries.
Finally, Jada could hold nothing over us.
“So,” I murmured, breaking the silence because he had gone broody, lost in his own thoughts. “What do you wanna do about this?”
His thick brows drew in. “About Jada?”
“Well, yeah. You’ve gotta be pissed. I know I am.”
“Nah. I’m not mad at Jada. Not really.”
My brows quirked. “Really?”
Th
e hand holding mine let go. My heart did a petrified double thump.
Then he raised it to nudge my chin, cupping my face. “I can finally take you out on a date without hiding.” His lips touched mine, igniting my blood and filling my chest with delightful warmth. “Kiss you in public and hold your hand. Hiding you was the last thing I ever wanted to do, Sky. So no, I’m not pissed at Jada. She did us a favor.”
“You’re okay with everyone knowing that you’re dating one of your faerie overlords?”
Gabe’s other arm wrapped around my waist and yanked me against him. “Completely okay. So okay I think I’ll drag my ass out of bed this evening to take you out on a date. You down for a night on the town?”
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
22
A for Effort
During the days that followed Jada’s super inappropriate behavior, Provost Riordan made a campus-wide announcement reminding students of the school’s honor code. Everyone knew the message referred to us because Ben, wonderful and sweet Ben, decided to burn Jada up in the gossip column of the Griffin Daily. He asked permission first and kept our names anonymous, but since there wasn’t another fae and shifter love triangle at PNRU, someone figured it out and word rushed across the school like wildfire.
I almost felt bad for her, but it was too damn delicious, and I was just petty enough to enjoy it.
And then finals week was upon us, and I didn’t have a spare scrap of time to rub it in Jada’s face by prancing in the open with my boyfriend when I was straddling the line between a C and a D in Biology.
The rest of my non-sentinel grades earned Pilar’s scorn.
“You must learn the meaning of the term ‘moderation.’ It does you no good if you pass your sentinel classes and fail out of your general courses.”
“I knooow,” I wailed. “I’m trying my best. Biology hates me.”
“You don’t study it.”
I grunted and bent over my notes again. “Everyone can’t be like you and Ben.”
Ben had confessed to listening to recorded lectures as he went to sleep at night, and he even played them again during his morning routine. That was just one step too far in the pursuit of education.
The Scary Godmother: The Paranormal University Files: Skylar, Year 2 Page 22
