Fallen University: Year One

“This is going to be quite a trip. Brace yourselves.”

Dru, Kyle, and Sonja had brought us to an abandoned house down the alley from the so-called psychic and we were standing in a derelict living room full of mildew and spiders. At least, I assumed there were spiders.

“Hold on.” I held up a hand, palm out. My heart was still racing, and as relieved as I was not to have been sucked through some portal to the underworld, I wasn’t keen on going anywhere without at least a little advance information on where we were headed. “Brace ourselves for what? You still haven’t told me where we’re going. Or how we’re getting there.”

“Or if we’re ever coming back,” Hannah added in a small voice.

Sonja sighed restlessly, looking like she wanted to hit me again. I shot her a look that told her I would most definitely fight back. Come on, bitch. Give me a reason.

Dru nodded. “The only way for demons to remain in the human world is through us. You will spend the next three years learning how to use your skills as a benefit to humanity.”

“And then we come back? Then we can get back to our old lives? Will we be cured?” Hannah asked hopefully.

Dru’s face closed and my heart sank. “When we get to where we’re going, you’ll speak to a man named Toland who will explain more.”

“And where exactly are we going?” I demanded. He still hadn’t answered my question.

“Not the underworld,” Sonja said impatiently. “Isn’t that good enough? God! Can we just circle up and get this over with already?”

Dru’s lips pressed into a line. He didn’t seem to like the redhead any more than I did. But he gestured for us all to come together.

“Hold each other’s wrists,” he said. “This is going to be a bumpy ride.”

I clasped Hannah and Dru’s wrists. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting. Maybe for the floor to lift up and reveal that the decrepit house was really a hovercraft or for a helicopter to land outside or something. But what actually happened was much harder to believe.

r /> Dru’s eyes glowed purple—Madam Ophelia had gotten one thing right, at least, when she’d told us the importance of that color—and a shot of energy blasted from his arm into mine.

It kicked me in the chest, and my head flew back as my spine went rigid. A second later, Hannah gasped in shock beside me. My eyes refused to focus. Every nerve in my body buzzed. I couldn’t catch a breath. Tension in my body grew and grew until I was sure my bones would snap and my lungs would explode. Just as it became unbearable, the world went black.

I truly thought I had died.

When my consciousness finally meandered back to my body, all I could feel was cold.

Did they bury me already?

But I was still holding onto two wrists, one in each hand. I squeezed them to make sure they were real, and the hands clasping my wrists squeezed back. Slowly and tentatively, I opened my eyes.

The first thing I saw was snow. Our little group steamed in it, evaporating flakes as they fell—my skin was still extremely hot, which I was beginning to think was a permanent condition. The effect was like our own private cloud, which was weird but not weird enough to hold my attention for long. Because there, behind Sonja’s head, stood a massive stone gate. It looked ancient, all gray and black, covered in snow and crusted with ice. Stone letters stuck out from the arch.

Fallen University.

“FU?” I asked. “Really?”

Sonja rolled her eyes. Hannah made a sound like she was trying to laugh, but when I looked at her I saw tears rolling down her cheeks. She began to shake again.

“So, are we just going to stand in the snow, or…?” I looked at Dru.

“Come along,” he said. “Welcome home.”

“Temporarily,” Sonja sneered as we all tromped through the deep snow toward the gate. “Assuming you don’t wash out in the first week.”

Hannah shot me a worried look, and I forced myself to grin at her, jerking my chin toward the redhead. “Hey. Black Widow wannabe over there clearly didn’t wash out. The bar’s pretty low—I think we’ll be fine.”

Hannah hid a grin as Sonja marched up next to us looking like she wanted to fight.

“Are you both really going to go in there looking like that?” she asked.

“Sorry.” I rolled my eyes. “I left my makeup at home.”