Fallen University: Year Three

“All clear,” Kai said after a moment. Then he grimaced. “I don’t know about the higher ground though. The walls aren’t climbable from here, and we can’t get around the waterfall.”

He gestured toward the thick, oily liquid that was pouring off the high ledge of the canyon to our left. He was right. We could cross any of the three converging streams, but the river and waterfall would have been dangerous even if it had just been water. I wasn’t even sure what this was made of. Probably something fucking deadly.

Kingston scoffed. “Um, hello?” He morphed into his dragon form without another word, then lowered his wings and tail, jerking his head to indicate that we should get on.

“All three of us?” I gave him a doubtful look. He could adjust his size when he shifted, and at the moment, he was a big dragon. I’d seen how capable he was of carrying a single passenger when he’d flown Hannah into battle, but I didn’t think his snake-like torso could hold all of our weight.

He gave me a flat look. Even in dragon form, I could read the expression on his face easily—or maybe it was just because I could feel his emotions almost as strongly as if they were my own.

“All right, all right, big man. Wasn’t trying to question your prowess.”

I grinned at him, although I knew it didn’t reflect in my eyes. I wasn’t sure anything would seem funny again until I had Xero back. Until I had the missing piece of my soul back.

He huffed out a breath of smoke, and I shrugged and climbed on his back, followed by Kai and Jayce. Kingston took to the air with a little more force than was strictly necessary. I clung to him, terrified that I was going to slip off his slick scales.

“Okay, you proved your point!” I shouted over the wind. “Level out, would you?”

He snorted a burst of flame into the sky but did as I asked. We were on top of the mountain less than five minutes later, looking out over a part of the underworld we hadn’t seen before. I could see farther into the distance than I’d expected, and ice filled my belly as I caught my first glimpse of an underworld city. It was as blackened and savage as the wilderness we’d traveled through before. It was so far away that the buildings looked tiny, but my gut pulled in that direction.

“Over there,” I said. “Pick a spot we can all see clearly. We’ll open a portal.”

“Not inside the city?” Kai asked, sounding horrified.

“No, of course not. But close to it.”

“You see that big tree with the red branches?” Kingston asked, pointing.

“I see it.”

“Me too.”

“Yeah, me too. Good. That’s where we’ll go,” I decided. “Come on.”

I focused hard on the GPS signal in my gut, holding onto it desperately. I’m coming, Xero. Please hold on.

“Three…” I started the count, grasping hands with the three men. “Two… One.”

The portal opened on my final word, and we blew through it. A moment later, we were standing beneath the tree my dragon shifter bond-mate had pointed out. The city loomed close on the horizon now, just as intimidating as the mountain range we’d come from.

“Where to now?” Jayce asked, his voice quiet and hushed.

“Hang on,” I said, lifting a finger as I closed my eyes, trying to refocus on the connection I could feel to Xero.

But it was gone.

What? No!

Panic clutched at my heart. I pressed on my navel but got no reaction. I focused every bit of my energy on Xero, on wishing him back into reality, but nothing happened.

“Shit.” Kai rubbed a hand over his face, reading my expression.

“No! I lost him. I lost him! Fuck!” I buried my fists in my hair.

How could I have been so stupid? Of course a portal would disrupt the tracking! I couldn’t track him from earth, and now I’ve screwed up the signal here.

“Okay, so we go back,” Kingston said calmly, laying a hand on my arm.

“What?” I whirled to face him.