Fallen University: Year Three

Ew.

He wasn’t wrong though. We all stank. And not only would that fuck up his senses, making it harder for him to detect any threats, it would make us a lot more likely to be discovered.

“Everybody’s wearing their vest, right?” I asked, sweeping the three men with my gaze.

“Yeah.”

“Take your tops off. Nothing we can do about the pants, but we can at least get the smell away from your nostrils.”

As quickly and quietly as we could, we stripped out of our tunics and shoved them into a corner of the storage closet under a barrel. Jayce went to the room’s door and directed his nose toward the hallway, inhaling again. Then he backed away, shaking his head.

“Can’t smell anybody. I’m not sure—” He pursed his lips. “No, it’s fine. I don’t think anybody’s out there. Piper?”

All I could feel was Xero. He was so close now, his presence was like a bright light, washing out the image in front of me. I did my best to focus, but I could only get a vague sense of a lot of people.

“I can’t tell where anybody is,” I said. “Not specifically. Even Xero’s just this sort of overwhelming presence.”

“Kai?”

“Your nose is better than mine. Mine’s still full of sewer.”

Jayce nodded grimly. “Best we can do, I guess.” He opened the door again and peeked through. “Looks clear. You know where we’re going, Piper?”

“I’ll know once we get out there.”

He nodded and slipped through the door. I went after him, and the other two followed me. We pressed up against the dank walls, trying to blend in with the shadows. The hallway looked even emptier now that we were in it. It was wide enough and tall enough for a platoon of cyclops to march through. I hoped that wasn’t a thing that happened frequently.

As we began to make our way down the hall, the tug in my gut sharpened so powerfully that it made me gasp.

“This way,” I breathed.

We moved to the left, and the internal reward was instantaneous. My magic was giving me little dopamine rewards whenever I moved in the right direction. It made me careless. I was so close, I could feel it—I could feel him.

I moved faster and faster until I was practically sprinting down the hallway, ignoring the hissed warnings from the men that I was going to get us caught. A violent blast of headache was the only thing that brought me to a sliding halt, mere seconds before I would have tripped over the armored boot of a giant guard.

Kai was right behind me. As soon as I stopped, he tackled me silently, rolled me up against the wall, and put a hand over my mouth. I looked up at him and he jerked his head at the giant, who hadn’t seen us. The massive man’s eyes were closed, and my heart thudded hard in my chest as I realized how close I’d come to blowing our mission as my succubus senses had overwhelmed me.

I nodded at Kai, lowering my gaze.

Shit. Motherfuck. Goddamn it. I’d almost gotten us all killed.

He released my mouth and put a finger to my lips, then mimed linking hands. The other two caught up to us and he repeated the motion. I agreed without argument. I clearly wasn’t thinking straight, and I needed my guys to tether me.

There was just enough room behind the giant’s feet for us to squeeze around behind him. Kai held my hand in front and Kingston behind, with Jayce at the rear. We held our breath as we pressed against the wall at eye level with the giant’s knee. The giant didn’t seem to notice. He didn’t even seem to be awake, but I was certain it wouldn’t take much to change that. Once behind him, I peeked through his legs at the hallway beyond.

It was an armory, and it was busy. Monsters of all kinds scurried back and forth with various weapons, all very intent on what they were doing. Maybe their distraction would be enough to save us. I hoped like hell it was. We were good as long as we were behind the giant, but as soon as we were on his other side, all it would take was one person looking in our direction. There were too many eyes around, too many potential witnesses.

I stopped, making everyone stop with me. Accidents happened in armories, right? Jayce gave me a questioning look as I pulled a magic smoke grenade out of my bag. I put a finger to my lips, then opened the tiniest portal in front of me. The other end would be right in the middle of the crowd of monsters. I pulled the pin and lobbed the orb through, then instantly collapsed the portal.

Three, two, one.

Pandemonium.

The giant snapped awake with a roar. He charged forward, demanding an explanation in a language I didn’t recognize.

The men and I bolted for the opposite hallway, disappearing around the wall just as the argument behind us turned physical, breaking into an all-out brawl.

“Nice,” Kai breathed. “What now?”