Heaven's Fall: A Paranormal High School Bully Romance (Pandorax Academy Book 1)

by Ember Hollis

  “Time to go,” Sybil nudges me halfway through my breakfast. She nods over my shoulder and I turn around to see a group of girls sashaying down the aisle. Briley and Vivette are among them, their necks craned as they peer around the dining hall.

  Thankfully, we’d taken seats right behind a large palm and are mostly obscured from view. Still, I quickly follow Sybil’s example and shovel the last of my eggs into my mouth, then get up to stow away my tray.

  “Not that way,” Sibyl hisses when I move towards the tray racks at the back of the room.

  I pause but not soon enough. The doors at the back of the room swings open and four tall boys stride into the room.

  The noise in the cafeteria dies down as heads turn to watch Bane, Malek, Christian and Knox walk in. I can’t help but stare as the four of them breeze past me by like runway models, arrogant, beautiful and utterly magnetic. With their good looks, amazing bodies and silver, red, honey blond, and black hair, they look like the best representatives of male beauty on earth. I can’t stop looking, until Sibyl hisses at me to come back.

  I turn, but not before Malek catches sight of me. I freeze on the spot, my hands ready to pull my tray up against any knives he might throw, but all he does is glare. Christian on the other hand, plucks a glass of deep purple juice from a tray that Briley holds up for them and saunters over to me.

  “First day of class, little lamb,” he drawls. At this close range, I can see how tired he actually looks. He’s not giving me his usual heavy-lidded stare so much as trying to keep his eyes open, and his voice is hoarser than usual. He’s definitely not a morning person, I think, as he winks at me. “Feel free to come running into my arms if you can’t handle it.”

  “You wish,” I blurt out, before I think better of it. Behind me, Sybil groans.

  Christian just grins and gulps down the rest of his juice. Whatever is in it must be good, because he immediately looks refreshed. “You know, it took real effort to get the others to back off and let you stay. You could at least show some gratitude.”

  He leans in close and my pulse quickens when he slides a hand around my waist. “Come on, what do you say… how about a quickie after breakfast, hmm?”

  “No thanks,” I look past his shoulder to Malek. He and the other two boys are sitting at a round table right in the middle of the hall, with girls fawning over them and bringing them trays of food. As if he senses me watching, the red-head picks up a knife and tests its edge, before glancing at me.

  Christian follows my gaze to look over his shoulder. “I wouldn’t worry too much about him, little lamb,” he says with a chuckle. “Malek loves his toys, but it’s me who’s more likely to make you scream.” He slides forward so his leg presses between both of mine, then slides a hand down to grab at my butt.

  “Seriously,” I wriggle out of his grasp. “Thanks, but I know what you’re trying to do, and you’re not pretty enough to tempt me.” As much as I want that to be true, some part of me knows it’s a lie. Still, I’ve done my own fair share of seducing, and nothing too easy to get is anything but cheap. I smile and get ready to turn and walk away.

  Something clinks by my ear, and a moment later, watery ice cubes tumble down my collar, drenching my blouse and chilling me to the bone. A shriek tears its way out of my throat and I jump away from Christian, while everyone around me bursts into laughter.

  Christian dangles his glass, now empty of ice, then leans forward and leers at my chest. I look down and see that the thin white material of my blouse is thoroughly soaked through, and the cold has caused my nipples to peak. He leans forward and flicks one of them before I can stop him. “Doesn’t quite look like it, little lamb. You know where to find me if you need someone to… warm you up.”

  Briley and Vivette have spotted me by now. They hoot with vicious laughter as Christian turns to join them at the table, both of them casting nasty looks at me that promise further retaliation in the near future.

  “Come on,” Sibyl says. I turn, surprised to find her still here, but also relieved that she hasn’t abandoned me again. “There isn’t enough time to get back to our room, but I have a spare shirt in my locker.”

  I nod and follow her silently, inwardly seething. Christian might have gotten the other boys to let me stay, but that didn’t mean he can treat me this way. He’s literally committing sexual harassment, and there’s no way I’m going to let him get away with it.

  Chapter 13: Heaven

  After breakfast, classes begin in earnest, and aside from the fact that we’re in a French Gothic castle with gargoyles glaring down at us from atop our lockers, and that some of my classmates look as if they might fit right in amongst them, I can almost believe I’m studying in a normal high school.

  I spend part of the morning in homeroom, then attend double History and Geography. They aren’t my favorite subjects but I actually stay awake and pay attention since the topics are way more interesting than they usually are in Terra.

  Although Christian is also in my History and Geography classes, he sits next to a window with two other girls who’ve dragged their chairs over to be close to him. Muffled laughter and moans occasionally come from his corner of the classroom, but eventually I forget that he’s even there and enjoy the class.

  Four hours later and I’m still captivated by the amazing hidden roles supernaturals played in the World Wars, and that fact that there are multiple magical realms that either overlap or touch Terra in some way or other. Despite my shaky start, I begin to feel like coming to Pandorax is totally worth it.

  When the bell rings for lunch break I head to my locker to stow my books and meet up with Sibyl.

  “So how was it?”

  “Not bad,” I grin while I dump my textbooks into my locker. “I had History and Geography. Everything was new, but in a good way. The textbook almost reads like a novel, and I’ve always liked reading. I think I’ll be able to catch up.”

  “Yeah, you will in no time,” Sibyl replies. Her textbooks are thicker than mine and I quickly scan the titles as she throws them into her locker: ‘Foretelling for the Fervent Futurist’; ‘Curses, Enchantments and other Hereditary Magic’. Now those sound like real magic school subjects. “General Ed subjects are usually quite enjoyable, though I personally find Alchemy to be the hardest of them. That and SPE, which unfortunately, is mandatory, no matter what stream we’re in.”

  “SPE?” I frown.

  “Supernatural and Paranormal Education,” Sibyl clarifies, pointing to the timetable I stuck onto the inner side of my locker door. “You and I have it after lunch break for the rest of the day.”

  “Oh… and what exactly is it about?”

  We head to the cafeteria, grab a tray, then find a table while Sibyl tries to explain what SPE is to me. It turns out to be something like Phys Ed for supernaturals, only worse.

  “Chiros adjusts his assignments based on each student’s abilities. Normally it’s fine, but the final exam last year was such a killer that I actually failed.”

  “Really? What happened?” I exclaim.

  “We had to use what we’d learned throughout the semester to duel in teams against each other,” Sybil explains. “It was tough for me because I usually train in isolation, but I couldn’t convince Chiros to let me take my exam alone. Talk about getting picked last on a team! Nobody seemed in the least bit interested in teaming up with me, so I tried approaching people to partner with. But since I hadn’t actually seen anyone in action, I just made all the wrong choices,” Sibyl shakes her head.

  “I thought I could predict what someone can do, but even in the same species, people don’t always have the same set of powers, and even if they do, they don’t use them the same way. Take elemental manipulation. One of the elves that I approached last year could throw massive fireballs that would have burned a house down with one shot. I thought for sure that he would help us get through the exam, but then Vivette came along. She doesn’t have much power, but she’s got great control and tons of sneaky t
actics. She fought him by literally threatening to burn his eyes out with tiny flames that wouldn’t even have singed his eyelashes. We lost by a landslide and because SP&E is one of my core subjects I have to retake it all over again this year,” Sibyl sighs.

  “It sounds terrifying,” I admit with a shudder. “Especially since I have no idea what powers I have.”

  “Well, everyone starts out like that unless they grew up using their abilities, which isn’t as common as you’d think,” Sibyl says, waving a hand dismissively. “But no one is going to make you fight yet since you don’t even know what powers you have. Chiros will most likely just assign you tasks to help you discover and manipulate whatever abilities you might have.”

  “Why wait for Chiros when you can start now?”

  I jump when someone bends over my shoulder and dumps something onto my plate.

  It’s a little white dove, covered in blood. One wing is broken and the other is pierced by an arrow. I stare at it in horror as it coos pathetically, its thrashing wings sticking against my mashed potatoes. The poor thing is obviously in terrible pain.

  Sybil gasps and claps her hands over her mouth, while I gaze helplessly down at the dove, then up into Malek’s furious golden eyes.

  “You’re an angel aren’t you. Aren’t angels supposed to protect and guard all living beings?” he says, his voice vicious and mocking. “What are you going to do about this one, then?”

  “B-but I… I don’t—” I swallow thickly. The bird’s flapping is weakening and my heart breaks to hear its plaintive cries. “I can’t save it,” I whisper. “I don’t know how.”

  “Maybe someone else can heal it,” Sybil cries. She tries to rise from her chair to search the cafeteria, but Malek shoves her back down.

  “This is for our little angel to fix,” he growls. His eyes are challenging and angry, yet somehow expectant. Does he really think I can do something like this? “No one here has strong enough healing powers, and I doubt it’ll last long enough for you to find a professor. It’s all on you, angel. So either heal it, or kill it and end its suffering.”

  “He’s right,” Sybil whispers. She looks at me, her eyes wide with dismay. “It doesn’t have much time left.”

  But wouldn’t killing it be a bigger sin than just letting it die naturally? Then again, letting it suffer simply to avoid having its blood on my hands might be an extremely selfish thing to do.

  I look down at the bird and try to picture its wounds knitting together and its blood to stop flowing from them. Heat floods my face and my skin grows tingly. At first I think that something must be happening. But nothing happens and I close my eyes, feeling useless and stupid. And even without looking, I know that everyone’s staring at me expectantly.

  But this isn’t my fault. It’s Malek’s. He’s the one who’s put me in this situation.

  “How could you hurt it?” I whisper. I know he hates me, but to take it out on an innocent little creature, and a dove especially… it’s hard not to see the resemblance between the little dove’s wings and my father’s big beautiful ones. Tears prickle the back of my eyelids as I open them to stare at him accusingly.

  “Have you no conscience?”

  Malek’s eyes harden. He reaches down and swiftly snatches up my knife. I know what he’s going to do, and in the split second before he can do it, I grab Sybil’s from her hand. Before I can doubt myself, I stab the little bird straight in its heart.

  Gasps rise up around me, and the murmur of gossip and chatter subsides. The little dove convulses once, twice, then grows limp and stops moving.

  I look away, unable to meet Sibyl’s horrified gaze. I feel terrible, but I know that if I’d let Malek do it, the poor creature would have suffered even more. Still, I’m not happy with what he’s forced me to do. This reeks of an attempt to make me Fall, I realize, fury bubbling up and over inside me.

  “There, are you happy, you monster?” I scream at the top of my voice at Malek, whipping towards him so fast, I make him jump.

  I yank the knife out of the dove’s body and toss it at him, trying to ignore the crunching sound the knife makes when it leaves the bird’s body. “Killing this bird was an act of mercy but there’ll be nothing merciful about what I do to you if you try to trick me like this again!”

  Curiously, Malek’s eyes don’t even track the knife as it sails past his head and embeds itself in the wall behind him. Instead, he remains looking at the dove with an unreadable expression on his face. When he reaches out to take it, I yank my plate away from him.

  “Don’t you dare,” I hiss. “I’m going to bury this bird where someone like you can’t desecrate it anymore.”

  “You do that, angel,” Malek scoffs. He drops my knife onto the table then wipes his gravy smeared hand on my napkin. Something between his fingers gleams, but before I can determine what it is, he throws the napkin down and stalks off, leaving Sybil and I alone with the dead dove congealing on my plate.

  Chapter 14: Heaven

  “Are you really okay?” Sybil asks me again on the way to the Shattered Forest, where SP&E is apparently held. Despite the name, the forest seems peaceful, with tall old trees forming a dense canopy overhead and complicated root systems all through the sandy ground.

  “I think so,” I reply. I sound confident even to my own ears. It’s all a sham though. Inwardly, I’m panicking at the thought that my hastiness in killing the dove might have led to some bad karma or been interpreted as a negative credit against some divine scoreboard of how angelic I currently am. What if I’ve already jeopardized myself and begun to Fall? I believed that nothing the boys could do to me would shake my conviction to be good, but it seems I underestimated their ability to make me dance to their tune.

  “As I said, helping the bird pass on was an act of mercy. Plus, there are warrior angels like the Archangel Michael whose job it is to defend against evil,” I say. “I bet that involves at least some amount of killing.”

  Sibyl looks at me skeptically though she says nothing, and I can’t help but agree with her. The dove was hardly evil (though Malek might well be), and I am hardly comparable to the Archangel Michael. After all, no matter who shot the arrow, I’m the real reason that dove got hurt.

  “I’m going to pray really hard for this dove when I bury it,” I say into the silence. “And I guess I haven’t Fallen just yet, considering that as much as I’d love to smite those four,” I nod towards the group in a sun-dappled clearing ahead where I’ve caught sight of a particular group of four boys surrounded by people, “I still don’t have the power to do so. Maybe I can’t Fall until I’ve actually achieved some level of angelic ability. Or maybe I’ve already Fallen, so I’ll never get my wings.”

  “I don’t think so… isn’t a Fallen angel just as powerful as a regular one?” Sibyl quirks her brows at me. “Maybe a better indicator is the fact that no angels are descending onto the castle to take you away.”

  “Angels rarely come to Pandorax and Themis, and neither do demons. This whole mountain and the valley below are historically neutral zones for the forces of Good and Evil,” a voice says from behind us. “But then again, since you’re studying here, they might make an exception for your Dad. Did you ask him to come visit?”

  I look over my shoulder and spot Noah. “Oh, are you taking SP&E too?” I exclaim in delight. I wait for the werewolf to join us, then give him a hug. “How are you doing?”

  “I’m good, considering I spent the whole night hunting,” Noah says with an easy grin. He looks a little more tired and scruffier than the last time I’d seen him, but otherwise, he’s still a sight for sore eyes. “Come on, if I’m late for this class too, Madam Wilkins will have me on guide duty forever.”

  We gather together with the other students in front of Professor Chiros. I make sure to stand on the opposite side of the clearing to stay out of the Four’s way, but I can’t help shooting glances at them to see what they’re up to.

  Christian is his usual lecherous self as he fli
rts with the girls, while Knox talks to a group of pale-skinned, black-clad people that I realize with a start are vampires. Bane is a little way away, silent and staring. He notices me first, but is soon followed by Malek, who’s already started sparring with someone in a ring of on-lookers. The golden-eyed warrior scowls at me when I walk up to the group, but I ignore him and just shift the strap of my bag from one shoulder to the other. It’s not all that heavy, but the weight of the dove wrapped in my napkin feels like its dragging me down. I really need to fine a nice place to lay it to rest as soon as possible.

  “What’s the matter?” Noah asks, sensing my subdued mood. “Did something happen? Or was it something you saw last night? Whatever it was, you should forget about it, because it wasn’t real, it’s just—”

  “Yeah, no, I’m just a bit nervous,” I say, waving my hand vaguely at the clearing and attempting to smile. It’s not wholly untrue, but I really don’t want to get into what happened at lunch with Malek almost within hearing distance. There’s bravery, and then there’s just foolishly looking for trouble. Neither do I want to dwell on how I thought I’d seen my dead Mom chasing me last night, at least not now while we’re outside and about to begin our class. But Noah’s still gazing at me in concern, so I blurt out something else that’s troubling me.

  “Everyone seems more supernatural than me,” I tell him. “I’m just worried that I can’t keep up.”

  Noah bursts into laughter, then stops when he realizes I’m not joining in.

  “Are you kidding?” he gives me an incredulous look. “You’re part angel! After the Big Guy, angels and demons are as supernatural as they get.”

  “Yeah, but I haven’t done anything yet,” I say, thinking back to how helpless I’d felt with the injured dove. “What if I’m a dud? Like if I have the bloodline, but just didn’t inherit any abilities to go with it?”