Fallen University Complete Series

by Callie Rose

  Now they’ll get to the bottom of it and Sonja will have to find some other reason to be a bitch.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Everywhere we went for the rest of the day, the same thing happened. The assistant would come in, say three names in alphabetical order, and leave again. The clusters of names didn’t seem to be in any kind of order at all, strangely enough. She bounced around from A to R and back to D with no apparent rhyme or reason. I got the strangest feeling of being circled, like they were spiraling around to my name and making it look random.

  My group had slowly scattered throughout the day as we tried to find ways to entertain ourselves. Honestly, I didn’t see the reasoning behind a mid-year break if we couldn’t even visit home. Sure, the media and art rooms were open, and the cafeteria was running all day now. Plus the library, of course, and the gym downstairs in the basement. Hannah and I wasted a solid few hours sparring, but my heart wasn’t in it.

  We all gathered together again at dinner.

  “Any of you guys get called in for questioning?” I asked.

  Xero, Kingston, and Jayce all shook their heads. Kai wasn’t in earshot. He’d gone back to being utterly avoidant, but that was fine. Well, it wasn’t, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.

  I bit my lip as a spark of anxiety curdled my gut.

  “What’s wrong?” Jayce asked. I wasn’t sure if it was because he and I had gotten physically closer than I had with the others or what, but he was so in tune with my emotional state it was like he knew what I was feeling before I did sometimes.

  “I just want to get it over with.” I sighed and shook my head.

  “Can’t wait to tell all your lies?”

  Just what I needed. I turned around to find Sonja sneering at me.

  “Hi, Sonja, do me a quick favor, would you?” I smiled sweetly, enjoying her confused expression.

  “Um… what?”

  “Get a fucking life.” I turned back around. My spine tingled as my body braced like she was going to hit me, but I deliberately relaxed. Let her. I could use a good brawl to work out this case of nerves I’d developed.

  She walked away instead.

  More power to her, but damn I would have loved to make a fool out of her in front of everybody.

  Over the next week, as more people were brought in for questioning and released in various stages of disgruntlement, the atmosphere in the school grew more and more hostile. Whispers turned into loud conversations, with accusatory stares going in all directions. They came my way more often than I would have liked, but I took solace in the fact that I wasn’t the only one.

  Everybody was suspicious of everybody else, and tempers were short. Shouting arguments could be heard in the hallways from morning to night. With every day that passed without the admins calling for me or my guys, my anxiety grew. Sure, rumors were flying around about everybody, but the stories about me and my men were by far the most prevalent. If I were Toland, I would have gotten us out of the way first. What the hell was he waiting for?

  Exactly a week after the fight, it finally happened. As soon as the assistant stepped into the cafeteria at breakfast, the room fell silent. We’d learned the drill.

  “Neil Lane. Oran Lake. Piper Lawless. Follow me.”

  “Fucking finally!”

  Every eye in the cafeteria turned to me. I glared back at them. They were all feeling the same way, I knew they were. The dread of anticipation wasn’t something most people could stomach easily. I brushed past a crowd of mean-girl wannabes and followed the assistant. The men who went with us kept their distance from me. Good. Fuck off.

  I expected to be taken to Toland’s office, but the assistant led us downstairs instead. The basement housed the gym and a bunch of storage rooms. I hadn’t bothered to find out what else was down here—I had assumed it was just more of the same. She brought us through a heavy metal door I’d never looked at closely, into a labyrinth of corridors I had never seen before.

  The deeper we went into the bowels of the castle, the more my anxiety grew. I would never be able to find my way out on my own. And what were they keeping down here anyway? A torture chamber? A freaking Balrog?

  After many twists and turns, she brought us to a tall door. I could feel the magic wafting off of it, making my skin bristle. The woman chanted an incantation, and the barrier fell. The door opened without her touching it, and she ushered us inside. It was a small waiting room, complete with out-of-date magazines and a television that looked like it had been haphazardly transplanted from 1952.

  “Oran and Neil, have a seat, please. Piper, with me.” There was a subtle power in her voice that I recognized. Persuasion? Whatever. The men sat down with a familiar dazed look on their faces, and I followed her through another enchanted door at the far end of the room. It was dark inside. The only light was a blazing bright spotlight over a crescent-shaped table. Toland sat at the far side. The healer, Cassandra, sat on his right, and an old woman sat on his left. A man who looked like an anxious professor sat on her left, and the assistant took the seat on the nurse’s right.

  That only left one seat for me. The one on the inner curve of the crescent, where I would be surrounded by all of these stern-faced people. My anxiety had long since passed my own personal threshold and had morphed into something more closely related to fury.

  “Very theatric,” I said, nodding at the whole setup as I sat down. “Is there a point to it, or do you just like intimidating students?”

  Toland looked me over slowly. “There is a point to everything. You know why you are here.”

  I wanted to say something sassy, so I just bit my tongue and nodded. I was already on thin ice, and my self-control was wearing thin.

  “Before we get started, is there anything you would like to confess? We are a very understanding group. You have shown yourself to be an inquisitive and adventurous sort of person. If you inadvertently released the sprites without knowing what they were capable of, that is certainly a thing we could understand.”

  I raised a brow. “What kind of judge are you? You’re just going to hand the culprit an out like that? Are you insane?”

  Toland’s eyes twinkled briefly, but he kept a somber expression. “It is important our students feel like they can trust us, Piper. Especially with something as egregious as this. It could have been a simple mistake, or a bit of mischief. It could also have been deliberate sabotage. We wouldn’t want to punish someone for sabotage unnecessarily, you see.” The twinkle was gone, replaced with steel.

  “Let me guess, a one-way ticket to the underworld?”

  Toland merely blinked at me.

  “I’ll take that as a yes. Well, I’ll tell you. I didn’t sabotage the school. I didn’t wreak any havoc, inadvertent or otherwise. I was sparring with Hannah in the Combat room when the sprites started doing their spritely thing, and I’m sure other people can back me up on that. Sonja’s flunkies could, but they won’t.”

  Toland raised his brows. “Oh? And why won’t they?”

  “Because she hates me, and she wants nothing more than to get me kicked out of this school. Her friends go along with it. If she tells them I was absent that day, they’ll parrot that lie until doomsday. But Beedle talked to me directly a couple of times, he could tell you.”

  Toland nodded then turned to the healer. “Cassandra, if you would.”

  “If she would what?”

  Toland gestured for Cassandra to speak, and I turned to her. When her mouth opened, she didn’t speak though. She sang. Softly, wordlessly. I could feel her spell spinning around my brain, coaxing me to give her everything and anything she wanted. I felt the insane urge to strip out of my clothes and give them to her. I would have turned cartwheels across the table if it would have earned her approval.

  I could have fought her off. Persuasion was a familiar tool for me; I could feel the strength of will lying dormant in my chest, and I knew exactly how to tap it. But I didn’t. I had nothing to hide.

  “Tell
me your secrets,” she whispered. How did she whisper while holding a note? Damn, that was some good magic. My mouth was moving before I had even thought of what to tell her.

  “There’s an empty tower above my room. I use it all the time for practice and privacy. I fucked Jayce in a closet after I left your office that day. I cheated on a math test in sixth grade. I cheated on my boyfriend in eighth grade. I—”

  “Tell me about the sprites,” she whispered.

  “Sprites. Like little liquid firecrackers of destruction. They were attacking everybody, I had to stop them. People were getting hurt. Lots of people. Everybody was running in different directions. They needed to be organized. I persuaded them to fight.”

  Oh, God. It was my fault. The wall...

  “Guilt!” the old woman next to me piped up. “Guilt, guilt!”

  “Tell me your guilt,” Cassandra whispered through her music.

  “So many people were hurt when the wall went down. Did anybody die? No, don’t tell me, I can’t stand it. I told them to fight. They broke the wall. That was my fault. That kid who got a brick to the head. That was my fault.”

  I was still staring vacantly at Cassandra, but tears were streaming down my face. It was too late to fight it. I was too far under her spell. But goddammit, I hated crying in front of people.

  “Charles?” Toland’s voice sounded like it came from somewhere very far away.

  A high tenor—the professor dude, I assume—spoke behind me. “No counter-spells detected.”

  “Very well. Enough, Cassandra.”

  The music stopped. I wanted to scream at her to give it back, I needed it, I would die for it. God, that was some powerful stuff. I swallowed hard and wiped my face with a scowl. Very deliberately I turned away from Cassandra to face Toland again. He looked relieved.

  “You are cleared,” he said. “Vesper will show you out.”

  I nodded, my lips pressed tightly together. After the wringer they’d put me through, I didn’t know what would come out if I let myself relax. As I turned my back and followed the assistant—Vesper, apparently—back into the darkness, Toland spoke again.

  “You did a good thing, Piper. Many more would have been lost if you hadn’t acted.”

  It should have made me feel better, but it didn’t. Many more, he’d said. So at least one person had been lost. I nodded a silent acknowledgment and let Vesper lead me out of the room.

  Neil went in after me and came out again looking pale and shaky. Oran went next, and looked even worse than Neil when he returned. We were all silent as Vesper led us out of the labyrinth. I couldn’t be sure, but I suspected she took us out a different way than she’d brought us in. Either that, or the hallways were moving.

  All I wanted when I got upstairs was to see Jayce, but he was nowhere to be found. Hannah was pacing the hallway anxiously and ran up to me as soon as she saw me.

  “There you are! What happened? What did they ask you? Did they use magic? People are saying some awful things about what goes on down there, and now with the guys gone—”

  “Wait. My guys? All of them?”

  She nodded, then shook her head. “Jayce, Xero, and Kingston. I don’t know about Kai, I forget that he’s part of all of this sometimes. They went down right after you did, the other assistant came to get them. Didn’t you see them on your way up?”

  I shook my head. “I think that was on purpose. This place is weirder than it looks.”

  “Anyway, was it horrible? Tell me everything, I’m so scared, they’re going to work their way around to me eventually.”

  I told her everything. Well, almost everything. I didn’t want her to know how much I blamed myself for people getting hurt, and I didn’t want her to know how the siren song had brought me to tears. I had a reputation to think about. But I told her everything I could to prepare her and ease her mind, though I don’t know if I managed it. She was still twisting her hair around her finger and chewing her lip long after I’d finished.

  We sat on one of the wide windowsills and watched students go by.

  “How long was I down there?” I asked.

  “About three hours,” she said. “But like I said, the guys went down right after you. They should be up here any minute.”

  As if called by her words, Jayce and Kai walked in together. Jayce looked utterly unruffled, because of course he did. What could he possibly have to feel guilty about, ever? Kai looked tired but not completely tapped. I jumped off the windowsill and reached them in a few quick strides. Kai didn’t move away, which was nice for a change.

  “How did it go?” I asked, not even bothering to disguise the worry in my voice. I’d never cared about any guy I’d dated as much as I cared about the four men I’d bonded to—and I wasn’t even dating most of them. But still. Fuck with my men, you fuck with me.

  “We’ve been cleared,” Jayce said happily. “Shit though. That was some interrogation, wasn’t it? That woman with the singing, she’s something else.”

  “She’s a siren,” Kai said coolly. “So… yes. Something else.”

  “It’s weird that the school nurse is a siren, isn’t it?” Hannah asked.

  Kai shrugged. “Not really. A siren song is better than anesthesia if it’s used properly.”

  Ah, so the man will talk when he’s given a reason to.

  I was just about to add my two completely unnecessary cents to the conversation when I spotted Kingston over Kai’s shoulder. He glanced around shiftily, then turned his back to the main hall. I thought he was about to take a piss against the wall or something, but I saw him tuck something away in his pocket.

  What the hell? He straightened up and slicked his hair back, then sauntered over to us.

  “All clear,” he said in a bored tone. “Of course.”

  “Crazy stuff, right?” Jayce’s eyes were still wide.

  Kingston shrugged. “Not entirely unexpected. This is a magic school, after all. How would you suggest they go about things? That was far more efficient than an electronic lie detector. Probably more accurate, as well.”

  “Does the accuracy concern you?” I asked. I had felt a spike of anxiety as he spoke that wasn’t my own, barely there and instantly squashed.

  He lifted a haughty brow. “Why would it? I’m innocent.”

  I was sure he was innocent… of letting the sprites out anyway. But there was definitely something else going on with him. I didn’t have a chance to pry further, though, because at that moment Xero stepped out of the basement stairwell, crusty with dry sweat and leaning on the wall for support. Every other concern rushed out of my head as I ran to him.

  “Hey. You okay?” I touched his face and almost panicked. There was no rush of energy or power into my blood the way there should have been. Like he was almost… empty.

  He looked at me and pulled his lips back in what should’ve been a smile but was more like a grimace.

  “Cleared. Found not-guilty.” He leaned heavily on my shoulder.

  God, what had they done to him? I helped him—without looking like I was helping him, the man had some dignity—into the library across the hall, then sat on the couch beside him. I held his face and gazed deeply into those magical eyes of his.

  “What happened in there?” I asked softly.

  He shrugged, but the action seemed to take far more energy than it should have. “Same as you, I guess. The siren. The succubus. The empath. The mage. Then around and around and around again.” He sighed and leaned heavily against the back of the couch.

  “You were their prime suspect, weren’t you.” It wasn’t really a question.

  Xero smiled blandly. “You do time in the underworld, you’re a suspect for life. It’s fine. I expected as much.”

  “No! It’s not fair,” I blurted fiercely. “You’re a good guy. Better than a lot of people here. Hell, most of them couldn’t spend twenty minutes in the underworld without succumbing to evil, let alone twenty years. You’re a fucking hero, damn it.”

  He brush
ed his thumb across my cheek, and to my immense relief, I felt a spark of power. They’d drained him, but they hadn’t drained him for good.

  “It’s the same in every world, darlin’. Human or demon, prejudice is the judge and jury before anything else. I’ve been used to it.” He sighed and looked away. “People like things to go the usual way. My circumstances weren’t usual. They’re going to stay suspicious. Best to just accept that.”

  My heart just about broke for him. Of course he was innocent. How could a person look into his eyes, feel his feelings, and not immediately know that he was innocent? He cherished this school like no one else here did. Most of the rest of us had been dragged here. He’d fought his way out of the underworld, marched up to the front gate, and volunteered.

  He should never have been a suspect of anything, ever.

  But he was right. People would always make assumptions. I leaned my forehead against his and held his hand, overwhelmed with the need to protect him.

  Maybe it was a silly impulse. A brand new succubus protecting a big ol’ demon with decades of experience? But it didn’t matter. I would stand between him and anybody in this damn school.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Do you hear what they’re saying?” Hannah hissed at me through her teeth, gesturing with her chin toward two students in the row ahead of us.

  We were sitting in History class, and I was still half-asleep. Hannah and Jayce sat on either side of me; mostly because nobody else would sit beside any of us. It’d been a month since our names were technically cleared of any wrongdoing in the sprite attack, but the official word hadn’t meant shit to most students.

  The blonde girl’s eyes were full of furious tears, but I shook my head, fixing my gaze forward.

  “Sven’s talking,” I hissed back. “Just ignore them.”

  I had very nearly failed the first semester, and I couldn’t afford any slip-ups. So what if they were talking? They’d been talking for weeks. Everybody had. The rumors circulated, died, and were reborn with a twist. Of course, by now the various groups and cliques had kissed and made up, so the only rumors that still had any steam were the ones about me and mine.