Surviving Year One (Grim Reaper Academy 1)

“I don’t know if I trust you.”

“Fair enough. Still, I saved you, didn’t I?”

I considered that for a second. “Was I going to be a sacrifice?”

“Not an intentional one. You should have never come down here. You should have never found the secret passage.”

“But I did. You showed it to me. You made me follow you. You left the door open on purpose.”

He turned to me, his green eyes boring into mine. “That wasn’t me.”

“See? That just sounds like a big fat lie. Because I know what I saw!”

“An illusion.”

“For fuck’s sake!” I’d been keeping my hands in the pockets of my uniform blazer to keep them warm, and now I pulled them out harshly, in frustration. The feather I’d stuffed in there flew out and floated toward the ocean.

“What is that?”

“I don’t know. A feather. I found it in the room, right after you went down the secret stairs.”

Francis jumped to his feet and ran to catch it. He studied it for a moment, then looked back at me, lips pursed and brows furrowed.

“It’s an angel feather.”

“Really? I thought it was a goose feather. Anyway, what does it matter?”

“It matters. Because I think I know who it belongs to.”

A feeling of dread started in my solar plexus and spread simultaneously to my heart and stomach.

“Sariel?”

“Do you know what angels and archangels can do? Besides flying, that is.”

I shrugged. I’d barely managed to learn a thing or two about demons. I hadn’t had time to study the heavenly beings, also.

“They can create illusions. Mirages. Images that look, sound, and feel so real that to an untrained eye, become real the moment they come into contact with them. You didn’t see me upstairs, Mila, because I wasn’t there. I didn’t lead you here. An illusion created by Sariel did.”

“Fucking fuck. That bastard. He really wants me dead. He does.”

Francis nodded.

“And he knows about your… erm… Great Old One?”

“Yes. We’ve been best friends for such a long time. I never thought he’d do something like this.”

“Do Paz and GC know?”

“No. Only Sariel. He and I grew up together.”

“Of course you did,” I muttered. I resumed pacing the beach, running my hands through my tangled hair and pulling harshly at the knots. I needed to feel something, anything, that could convince me I was still alive, that could reassure me that I wasn’t at the bottom of the well, c

overed in tentacles, poisoned and dreaming.

“I’m sorry, Mila. I truly am. You weren’t supposed to see this. Ever. You weren’t supposed to know.”

“Know that you’re bringing sacrifices to some tentacled monster right under the Academy? For what? To preserve your immortality? Is that it?” I’d just snapped at him, and given the circumstances, maybe it wasn’t the best idea. He was the crazy cultist, after all, and he seemed powerful and in control enough to turn me into a victim if he so desired. “Oh my God! The girl I saw you with… The tall, blond one. When you came back from the winter vacation earlier than everyone else! Was she? Is she?” I gulped. “Where is she?”