He looked at GC, then at Pazuzu. Disdain was written all over his face.
“And you’re still dating the false god and the demon, I see.” It wasn’t a question, so no one said anything. He changed the subject. “Where is the pixie?”
“In my room,” I said between gritted teeth. “She had nothing to do with this. She didn’t help me.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes.”
“If you’re lying to me…”
“I’m not lying to you! She didn’t break any rules, so you have no right to send her to the Blank.”
“Mila, I told you many times, and I’m telling you again. The Blank is not some sort of punishment or torture. It’s natural for pixies to dwell there when they’re not needed.”
I shook my head. There was no point in arguing with him. I wasn’t going to convince him about shit in this life. Maybe in the next.
“If the pixie didn’t cloak your dreadful party, then who did?”
I pursed my lips. Crap. He knows a mage helped me. I shrugged.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Mila…” He stood up from his desk, his fingers wrapping around his scythe menacingly. “I know there was a cloaking spell, and if the pixie is innocent like you say, then a mage was involved. Who was it? That friend of yours? Klaus… what’s his name? Hamelin? By the way, did you know some ancestor of his had this unnatural obsession with children?” He grinned, knowing that talking shit about Klaus and his family would piss me off. “I hear your mage friend has a thing for boys, which I guess isn’t that condemnable nowadays. Strange family, don’t you think?”
I did my very best to keep my mouth shut. His impatience was stronger than the pleasure of annoying me, so he turned to my guys.
“Mr. Apis, care to share the name of the mage with me? Your worth points aren’t looking good this semester. We can start fixing that today, what do you say?”
“I don’t know who it was, Headmaster.”
“Fine.” He moved on to Paz and tried the same method, and when it didn’t work, he tried it on Francis, too. When Sariel’s turn came, Morningstar just looked at him disgustedly. “Why are you hanging out with your old cabal, Mr. Gracewing? You’re MDC, you’ve always wanted to be MDC, and now that you have this incredible opportunity to finally be yourself and do what you were destined to do, you’d rather get stuck in the past? You’re the first, and hopefully the last, Fallen One to attend Grim Reaper Academy. Instead of taking advantage of this unique blessing that you’ve been given, you go around looking for trouble? Do you really want me to expel you?”
“No one is getting expelled,” I stepped forward. “It was just a harmless party, and it was all my idea. They came because I invited them.”
He sighed. “And why would you invite a Fallen One to your party, Mila? Isn’t it enough that you’re breaking my heart by dating two boys who don’t deserve you?”
I swallowed my pride and pretended I didn’t hear that last part.
“I didn’t know he’d lost his wings. I just found out tonight.”
Valentine looked at me for a long moment, then finally nodded. He believed me.
“He lost his wings because of you,” I added pointedly.
His brows furrowed. “He lost his wings because he betrayed his family and ruined the reputation of this Academy. He is the reason why the new rules had to be instituted, and the reason why everyone had to take the entry test all over again at the end of last year.”
Yeah, that had sucked. If until then I’d thought Mason Colin’s test to enter the Academy had been hard, Morningstar had sure changed my mind. Fortunately, it turned out all students were in the right cabals already. This time, Sariel included.
“No,” I insisted. Why did I insist? Why?! “He lost his wings because of you, because that was the only way you could be convinced that he is a future Grim Reaper and he must follow his destiny.”
His expression darkened. He was losing his patience. Fine. Let him lose it. What will he do?
“You keep defying me, daughter! Throwing a party when the rules clearly state parties are forbidden, corrupting other students, and now questioning my methods…”
I could feel his rage. We were facing each other. He had his scythe in hand, I didn’t have mine. I stared right into his eyes – as blue as mine, as fierce as mine. Just when I thought he’d yell at me again, or maybe come up with some twisted method of punishment, Valentine took a step back, and turned to my guys.
“Tell me. Have you ever felt the bite of a scythe?”