Fallen University: Year One

“Does the accuracy concern you?” I asked. I had felt a spike of anxiety as he spoke that wasn’t my own, barely there and instantly squashed.

He lifted a haughty brow. “Why would it? I’m innocent.”

I was sure he was innocent… of letting the sprites out anyway. But there was definitely something else going on with him. I didn’t have a chance to pry further, though, because at that moment Xero stepped out of the basement stairwell, crusty with dry sweat and leaning on the wall for support. Every other concern rushed out of my head as I ran to him.

“Hey. You okay?” I touched his face and almost panicked. There was no rush of energy or power into my blood the way there should have been. Like he was almost… empty.

He looked at me and pulled his lips back in what should’ve been a smile but was more like a grimace.

“Cleared. Found not-guilty.” He leaned heavily on my shoulder.

God, what had they done to him? I helped him—without looking like I was helping him, the man had some dignity—into the library across the hall, then sat on the couch beside him. I held his face and gazed deeply into those magical eyes of his.

“What happened in there?” I asked softly.

He shrugged, but the action seemed to take far more energy than it should have. “Same as you, I guess. The siren. The succubus. The empath. The mage. Then around and around and around again.” He sighed and leaned heavily against the back of the couch.

“You were their prime suspect, weren’t you.” It wasn’t really a question.

Xero smiled blandly. “You do time in the underworld, you’re a suspect for life. It’s fine. I expected as much.”

“No! It’s not fair,” I blurted fiercely. “You’re a good guy. Better than a lot of people here. Hell, most of them couldn’t spend twenty minutes in the underworld without succumbing to evil, let alone twenty years. You’re a fucking hero, damn it.”

He brushed his thumb across my cheek, and to my immense relief, I felt a spark of power. They’d drained him, but they hadn’t drained him for good.

“It’s the same in every world, darlin’. Human or demon, prejudice is the judge and jury before anything else. I’ve been used to it.” He sighed and looked away. “People like things to go the usual way. My circumstances weren’t usual. They’re going to stay suspicious. Best to just accept that.”

My heart just about broke for him. Of course he was innocent. How could a person look into his eyes, feel his feelings, and not immediately know that he was innocent? He cherished this school like no one else here did. Most of the rest of us had been dragged here. He’d fought his way out of the underworld, marched up to the front gate, and volunteered.

He should never have been a suspect of anything, ever.

But he was right. People would always make assumptions. I leaned my forehead against his and held his hand, overwhelmed with the need to protect him.

Maybe it was a silly impulse. A brand new succubus protecting a big ol’ demon with decades of experience? But it didn’t matter. I would stand between him and anybody in this damn school.

Chapter Sixteen

“Do you hear what they’re saying?” Hannah hissed at me through her teeth, gesturing with her chin toward two students in the row ahead of us.

We were sitting in History class, and I was still half-asleep. Hannah and Jayce sat on either side of me; mostly because nobody else would sit beside any of us. It’d been a month since our names were technically cleared of any wrongdoing in the sprite attack, but the official word hadn’t meant shit to most students.

The blonde girl’s eyes were full of furious tears, but I shook my head, fixing my gaze forward.

“Sven’s talking,” I hissed back. “Just ignore them.”

I had very nearly failed the first semester, and I couldn’t afford any slip-ups. So what if they were talking? They’d been talking for weeks. Everybody had. The rumors circulated, died, and were reborn with a twist. Of course, by now the various groups and cliques had kissed and made up, so the only rumors that still had any steam were the ones about me and mine.

It was my own fault, really. Well, mine and whoever it was who’d lost control of the rebar way back at the beginning of the year. My display in the middle of Combat had already given me a reputation for being wild and unhinged, and the fact that neither I nor my guys had much interaction with anybody outside of our strange little group added mystery to the mix. People were primed and ready to believe any and everything they heard about us, and I wasn’t going to waste my time trying

to correct them.

Hannah wasn’t satisfied, though. She scribbled a note and passed it to me. I glanced at it, and immediately saw red. Damn it.

They’re saying that you and Xero worked together to attack the school. They think Gavriel recruited you through Xero. They’re talking about jumping him in the library.

I rolled my eyes and wrote quickly, trying to keep my attention on Sven as much as possible.

Then they’re idiots. He’d kill them.