Surviving Year One (Grim Reaper Academy 1)

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. My thoughts were a jumble. I’d almost died drowned because Sariel was jealous of my ability to dream?! He was so fucked up in the head! So fucked up! Basically, it was the same as saying that he wanted me dead because I was me. Because I was human, I existed, and I could, apparently, do something he couldn’t: dream. Like… forget that he was a goddamn archangel with wings as tall as the ceiling, he could fly, and God knew what else he could do. He couldn’t dream. And that had made him snap and plot a way to murder me. Fucking brilliant! Yeah, brilliant. That was the last thing Sariel Gracewing was.

“I need to think,” I managed. “I need to…” I finally unlocked my door and opened it. I should have gone inside and slammed it shut behind me, slammed it shut between me and the crazy people outside. Instead, I seemed to be stuck on the threshold.

“Okay, you know what?” Paz pushed me inside and followed me, motioning for GC to do the same. “If you have to think, then I’d better tell you what I came to tell you, too, so you’d do your whole thinking thing just once.”

“What the hell?” I found myself in my cramped room, with Paz making himself comfortable at my desk, and GC rummaging through my mini fridge. Of course, he didn’t find what he was looking for. A good reminder that compared to them, I was rather poor. “You didn’t come to tell me anything. You came to mess with my head, hoping GC would find us and break up with me.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Dearie, you were with us all this time, weren’t you? I mean… you were there when he specifically said that he doesn’t care and he’s fine with sharing. Not for a second did I think he’d break up with you. If I ever had a plan, it was to make you break up with him.”

“Oh, that’s cold,” GC narrowed his eyes at him. “Unlike this water. I think your fridge is broken, my normie goddess.”

“I don’t understand what’s happening anymore!” I plopped on my bed and covered my face with my hands.

“I’m trying to tell you…” Paz started again.

“You came to tell me something. Really?” I looked up at him, and instantly regretted it. He looked hot at my desk. Like he belonged there. He was playing with one of my pencils, and I felt like it was all so natural. He was taking up space in my room as if that space had always been his to claim.

“GC had something important to reveal. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Is this a competition to you?”

GC snorted, which was a bad idea since he was drinking my water. A few drops splashed out right through his nose.

“Better get used to it. It will all be a competition from now on. Like… who gets to claim your virginity.”

I groaned. This was getting worse and worse.

“Who says I’m going to sleep with either of you?”

“Tell you what,” Paz said. “Apis told you about the dream thing and how Sariel went batshit over it. If my reveal is better than his, I get your virginity.”

“What the fuck, guys?! What even the…! Ugh!” I took a couple of deep breaths. Without meaning to, I eyed my scythe, which was propped at the head of my bed. It would be easy, wouldn’t it? I was pretty good with it, too. Chop-chop, and all my problems would be gone. Two of them, anyway. Chop-chop.

“It’s on,” GC said.

I jumped off the bed. “No, it’s not on. Nothing is on! Knock it off, okay? I’m not sleeping with either of you.”

“Maybe just wait until you hear what I have to say?” Paz chuckled.

Oh my God! They were impossible!

I crossed my arms over my chest and tapped my foot impatiently.

“Spill already.”

“Actually, I’m surprised you don’t know this from Patty. Since you’re back to being friends.”

My heart sank in my stomach. What did Patty know and hadn’t told me?

“Maybe she didn’t want to jinx it. She’s superstitious like that. Anyway, after Lorna pulled that whole magic crystal ball thing at Christmas, people started talking. I mean, not the students or the professors. The kitchen staff, the maids, the janitor… You know, the lower social groups at the Academy, so to speak.”

“Don’t call them that. You dated Patty!”

“Yeah. To get your attention. Did you think I was really into the kitchen girl?”

I can slap him right now. Two steps, one blow, that insufferable smirk will vanish in an instant. I didn’t do it, though. I hated to admit it, but he’d made me curious.

“I did get something out of dating her, though.” He leaned over and placed his elbows on his knees. “She told me about some prophecy. The people in the kitchens love a good prophecy, know what I mean?”