Fallen University: Year One

find its handler and ask if I could play with it.”

Xero blinked at him. “Bruh. Did you… did you try to pet a hellhound?”

“Yep!” Jayce chuckled, seeming genuinely amused. “Stupidest moment of my life. Would probably do it again.”

I laughed. “What? Really?”

“Oh, yeah. You should have seen this thing, Piper! It was like a big black husky with liquid fire dripping from its fangs and a big fluffy tail and smoke just pouring off of it. It looked so soft and cool… I swear to God, I thought it was just movie magic run amok.” He laughed and emptied his beer. Hannah grabbed us another round.

“What about you, Kingston?” she asked when she got back.

He shot her an irritable look. “Oh, you know, I was nobody special,” he said sarcastically. “Not a 90’s reject or an aspiring actor or anything. Just next in line to inherit a Fortune 500 company, that’s all.”

“And you’re clearly not bitter about that,” I observed wryly.

“Wouldn’t you be?” He glared at me, as if I’d been the one to turn him. “I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t go down any dark alleys, I didn’t pet any demon dogs, I did everything exactly the way I was supposed to.”

“Welcome to real life, where you can do everything right and still get fucked.” I took a sip of my beer. “So? How’d it happen?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “I went to a party. Not red Solo cups and beer pong either, a real party.”

“You’re going to have to get a lot more descriptive,” I said. “Where I come from, Solo cups and beer pong are the definition of a real party.”

He raised a brow. “Crystal champagne flutes. Cocaine on fine silver. Networking with billionaires. That kind of party.”

“So let me guess, you did too much blow and woke up as one of the fallen?”

“Of course not. I never touched the stuff,” he said haughtily. “I had a bit of an argument with a friend of my father’s. He wanted my father to take the company public, and was trying to get to him through me. I wouldn’t hear of it. He was drunk and pushy, so I stepped outside for a bit of fresh air.”

“Oh, I know! You went through one of those hedge mazes and got lost, right? I saw that movie.” Hannah’s eyes laughed as she sipped her drink.

He blew an impatient breath out of his nose. “Not at all. I was pacing the garden when I heard a woman scream. I… went to investigate.”

The way he hesitated made me wonder if he had actually run in the other direction.

“And then?” I demanded.

“Then I woke up with horns, wings, and emerald-colored scales,” he said coolly. “I was also about thirty feet long from snout to tail. I figured out how to shift back from dragon form to human, but I couldn’t always control it. And I couldn’t allow myself to be seen by anyone I knew in that condition. So I went to a shaman in Africa. The Custodians met me upon my arrival and informed me of the facts of the situation.”

“So you what, flapped your wings and flew all the way to Africa?”

He sighed. “No, Piper. I went in human form. And I took the jet.”

“Oh. He took the jet,” I groaned, rolling my eyes at Hannah. Great. I was hooked for life to a spoiled brat with a bad attitude.

“What would you have done with the company if you had been able to inherit it?” Jayce leaned forward with interest. I wasn’t sure if it was his acting background or what, but he was interested in everybody. In everything. Curiosity radiated from him like sunshine.

“Run it,” Kingston replied shortly.

“Just the way it’s always been run?” Jayce asked, looking startled.

“Of course. With a few improvements, perhaps. I don’t believe the company is running at peak efficiency. I feel a couple of good tweaks would increase our annual profits by half a billion at least.”

“Half a billion… annually… and you would just, what, sit on it?” Jayce had the look of someone whose entire worldview had just been called into question. I felt bad for the poor guy.

“Of course not,” Kingston sniffed. “I would invest it.”

“In what?”