Fallen University: Year Three

Maybe that wouldn’t be the end for them. Maybe we could find some way to reverse the magic once this was over.

Assuming any of us were still alive to do that.

The battle raged around us, the air tinged with desperation as the Custodians shifted from fighting for victory to struggling just to stay alive.

Where the fuck is Gavriel? Why hasn’t he shown up?

Maybe I’d been wrong. Maybe he wouldn’t come until all the fighting was over, until our corpses littered the battlefield and he could walk the earth unimpeded.

But that didn’t make sense. It didn’t fit with what I knew about the evil lord. He was, above all, an egomaniac. He thought highly enough of himself to believe he was worthy of ruling not only the underworld, but the human realm too. A guy like that would want to see the victory, to be present for the moment when his enemies finally fell.

He might not’ve been willing to stick his neck out by joining in the fight at first, but now that the Custodians were obviously losing ground, he would want to come and gloat, wouldn’t he?

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Toland and a bunch of Fallen University students all fighting off a massive creature that looked like a cross between a spider and a rat. His bushy mustache quivered as he bellowed out directions to the less experienced fighters.

Together, they could take the spider-rat out. But what about the next one? And the next?

We need to end this now. Now, goddamn it!

Finally, as if called by my desperate thoughts, a flicker of light caught my eye at the lip of the crater to my right. I looked up, my heart lodging in my throat when I saw the tall figure dressed in a long, sweeping black cloak.

I might’ve thought it was highly mockable that Gavriel dressed like a cartoon villain—if he weren’t so damn terrifying. He could’ve dressed in jeans and a ripped t-shirt, and the effect would’ve been slightly odd, but no less terrifying.

“There!”

Jerking my chin, I drew the guys’ attention to Gavriel. They barely had time to look before they had to turn their attention back to their own fights, but I could see the renewed energy that seemed to fill their bodies as hope bloomed inside them.

This thing wasn’t over yet.

“Did Price see?” Jayce called out, swinging his massive, dog-like head toward me.

“I think so,” I grunted, ducking under a blast of magic that flew over my head. “Even if she didn’t, the team back at the headquarters should’ve picked up on his signature. They’ll know he’s here. Now they just need to tell Michael where he is.”

The werewolf we had befriended was using Kingston’s cell phone. He had called the point team just before the countdown timer ran out, and as far as I knew, he’d stayed on the line, waiting for the signal from them.

Come on, Michael. Come on.

When he blipped into existence on the rim of the crater, several yards from the evil lord, I almost cheered. In a flash, dozens of other fallen stepped out of the ether too, surrounding Gavriel—isolating him.

Other fallen resistance members joined the fray in the basin too, helping the Custodians hold their attackers off.

But I couldn’t look away from where the fifty or sixty fallen, led by Michael and Vee, surrounded Gavriel.

This was the final part of our plan.

Isolate Gavriel and destroy him.

As I watched, our fallen allies

surrounding Gavriel all unleashed an attack on him at once. And as they did, Vee worked her magic to encase him in one of those bubbles she’d used to trap me and my bond-mates.

He was too strong to take out in a fight, too fast and powerful to be overwhelmed, even by dozens of fighters. But if we could incapacitate him, however briefly, we could kill him.

Magic swelled on the air as Vee’s bubble settled around him. Several other fallen cast spells as well, and they all hit the dark lord at once.

He froze, and for just a second, my heart swelled with relief.

But then a pulse of magic erupted from his body, exploding outward and disrupting every single spell that had been cast on him. A shockwave of power radiated from him, knocking the fallen over and sending them stumbling back.