Fallen University: Year One

Energy crackled between her fingers, and I swore her blonde hair floated around her head a little with the static charge. “Oh, I’m hearing it.”

I turned back to Sonja. “Do not ever tell me what to do.”

She took a step toward me, flanked by her friends. “You better get used to taking orders from me, cupcake. Let’s be honest here, shall we? You’re never going to graduate. You’re never going to make it to your second year.”

“Oh? And why’s that?” I rolled my shoulders back. She was in dangerous territory. I was still amped from my rounds with Hannah, and Sonja would be way more fun to tear apart.

Sonja smirked. “You do know you have to actually… pass Combat in order to graduate, right? I could destroy you. With one finger. Right now.”

I stepped forward until we were virtually nose-to-nose. “Prove it. Bitch.”

Sonja settled into a solid fighting stance and was gearing up to do something, but I never saw what.

Before she could move, the hallway outside erupted in screams of terror.

Chapter Fourteen

Adrenaline surged through my body at the sound.

Our Combat class was usually pretty loud, punctuated by bangs, pops, shouts, and grunts. But there was something casual and safe about those noises. We were fighting, but it was all in good fun; no one was seriously angry or afraid.

The screams outside though?

Those were different. They were panicked, terrified.

Hannah and I exchanged a look and bolted toward the door, heading toward the source of the screaming. Sonja and her posse were right on our heels, and I could feel my guys coming up behind them. In the hallway, people were running and yelling, but I couldn’t make sense of anything. Something exploded down the hall.

“Look up!” Hannah gasped and pointed.

My head whipped up, my gaze following the direction of her finger, and my jaw dropped open.

“What. The fuck. Are those?!”

They looked like liquid fireworks from a distance—lime green, electric blue, lava red, and brilliant lavender. One of the blue ones darted to a spot just over my head and dove. As it came closer, I registered small, iridescent wings and a little smiling cherub face. The thing laughed and batted its eyes at me before launching an energy ball as big as itself at my face. I yelped and dove out of the way, but I was too slow and the ball was too powerful. It singed my hair with a sizzling sound.

“Sprites!” someone screamed. “Run!”

“Don’t run! Fight!”

Arguments and fires were breaking out all over. The entire hallway was crammed full of people, jostling and trampling each other. And above it all, the sprites darted overhead, launching energy balls like they were shooting fish in a barrel. It was utter chaos.

Fuck. Someone’s gonna get hurt.

Scratch that. Someone’s gonna get killed.

Beedle had emerged from the classroom and joined another teacher in trying to control the students while simultaneously fighting off the sprites’ attacks—but it wasn’t going well. He was too distracted.

I spotted Jayce in the crowd and ran in a zig-zag toward him, then grabbed his face and made him look at me.

“Hey. I need some juice.”

He looked panicked for a moment like he was going to argue with me, then it clicked what I was asking for. He kissed me, hard, and even in the midst of chaos and danger, my body responded in an instant, melting against his, rubbing against him so our entire bodies were pressed flush together. I could feel him responding too, already hard against my stomach, and I felt a little bad that we couldn’t actually take this further.

I let him devour me with a greedy kiss for another moment, pumping me full of as much power as he could give in our temporary embrace. When I finally pulled away, I felt like I could lift up a truck if I had to, and Jayce was a little glassy-eyed. Buzzing with the taste of his essence, I scrambled to the top of a statue in the hallway.

Persuasion. “Everybody shut up and listen to me! These little fucks are trying to kill us. Don’t run. Don’t panic. Get them!”

And just like that, the tides turned, at least in my immediate vicinity. I couldn’t do a whole lot for the people out of earshot, but as soon as the crowd around me started working as a controlled, concerted team, the effect spread. We were all locked in battle with the evil little sprites, and I had nothing but persuasion and shape-shifting on my side.