Saving Year Three (Grim Reaper Academy 3)

Silence. Once in the North Tower, I started up the stairs to the last floor.

“It was one hell of a party, right?” He wasn’t going to answer me, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t keep talking. “How did you guys know where to find us? The beach is pretty well hidden. The cloaking spell only failed for a couple of minutes. We should have been able to get it back up, b

ut you and your men were all over us in seconds. See? I don’t get that.”

Silence.

“We thought of everything. The plan was flawless. Something went sideways, and I don’t know what. It just bugs me, you know?” I sighed theatrically. “I should have been partying right now, not going to sleep.”

We reached my door, and I took out the key. He was going to take his place next to it and guard my room for the rest of the night. Whatever. I was used to it. It would’ve been nice to have a bodyguard in year one, when everyone was bullying me. Now, he was useless. He wasn’t there for my protection, he was there for my imprisonment.

“Good night, Crassus darling.” I loved making fun of him.

“The teleportation pins,” he said in a low, gentle voice.

I snapped around. “What?”

“Shh…” He looked around. “The walls have ears.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Yeah. Unseelie ears.”

“The teleportation pins were provided by the Council, and they can be traced. Your father asked for the Council’s permission to do just that. Every time students teleport, Morningstar knows where they’re going.”

“Son of a bitch!”

“Because you all teleported right under a cloaking spell tonight, he couldn’t tell where you were. Once the cloaking spell was down, it was just a matter of seconds.”

“I can’t believe this…”

Crassus stepped closer. He was so tall that I had to strain my neck to look him in the eyes. He didn’t seem to be lying.

“He can’t track you like that, but as long as he tracks your two boyfriends, he knows exactly where you are. He likes being in control, so there’s this one thing that annoys him to no end: he detected Apis, Eremus, Saint-Germain, and that friend of yours Hamelin teleporting from somewhere beneath the Academy back to their rooms one night. One, he doesn’t understand how they got there without using the pins, and two, he doesn’t understand where they were and why.”

Was that a grin on the guard’s lips?

“You’re welcome.”

He stepped aside and took his position next to my door.

“Are you kidding me?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “You never talk to me, you never tell me things. Why now?”

“You’re welcome, Mrs. Morningstar. Just go to bed.”

“Oh no, I’m not dropping this. Why? Not that I don’t appreciate your help, but I need to know if you’re for real. You could be working for him, and your new mission could be called ‘confuse the hell out of Mila’. He has the money to pay you, after all.”

“He doesn’t. The Unseelie are very expensive. I’m still waiting on my last month’s payment.”

“Huh. Oddly, that makes more sense than if you told me you’re suddenly my friend.”

He shrugged. “No money, no work.”

I laughed. “Is he aware of that?”

“It’s in the contract. I didn’t feel like reminding him when he told me he’d pay me later but I needed to keep doing my job like nothing happened. I’m not breaking any rules.”

“Indeed. Well, thank you, Crassus. If I had any money, I’d hire you myself.” I winked at him and went into my room.

Corri attacked me with enthusiastic squeals and tiny hugs. My nose was the only thing she could comfortably hug, though, and her pixie dust, or whatever she had on her wings, made me sneeze half a dozen times.