Fallen University: Year One

Dru sighed. “This place is impossible for human vehicles to get to. You can transport, or you can use an animal. I suggest the former. The headmaster’s office is just up here. Be polite. He’s got veto power.”

The headmaster’s office looked surprisingly benign. Set into an internal hall, only the back wall was stone, and that was mostly covered in beige filing cabinets. I could have sworn I’d seen his exact desk at a furniture store in the mall the week before. Kyle and Sonja hadn’t bothered coming in when Dru had ushered us inside. I looked around at the utterly normal décor while the brown-haired man spoke with the headmaster in a low voice.

I didn’t pay attention to what they were saying, too busy trying to get the fog of lust in my head to clear. It’d started fading the minute we left the large main hall, and although my entire lower half still felt swollen and needy, I could at least breathe and think a little more clearly.

“Your name, please?”

“Piper! Hey!” Hannah hissed, elbowed me in the ribs.

“Oh, sorry,” I muttered. “I was distracted. I swear I’ve seen this exact office before. It reminds me of my middle school principal’s office. I kind of figured there would be tapestries and parchment. Maybe wands and crystal balls? Not filing cabinets from nineteen eighty-five.”

Hannah choked on a surprised snort of laughter, then looked horrified that I’d made her giggle in front of the headmaster.

The gray-haired man with a thick, bushy mustache blinked at me for a moment, and I wondered if he’d heard me. I’d meant to keep my voice low, but all my perceptions seemed to be thrown off at the moment.

The headmaster cleared his throat. “Your name. Please.”

“Piper Lawless.”

He raised a brow. “Not too fitting, I hope. My name is John Toland; I’m the headmaster of this institution. Have a seat. Dru tells me you were apprehended in the act of terrorizing an old woman.”

I scoffed, glancing at Dru a little defensively as Hannah and I settled into chairs in front of the headmaster’s desk. I’d thought the man was on our side, but I felt a little sold out by him at the moment. “She wasn’t that old. And we weren’t terrorizing her on purpose.”

“Oh?”

“Seriously. We went to her for help. She’s the one who claimed she could rid people of their demons. It’s not our fault she was full of shit.”

His mustache twitched. For an instant, I thought I saw a twinkle of laughter in his eyes. It turned to steel again almost immediately, but at least now I knew the guy had a sense of humor.

“In that case, I see no reason not to move forward with your enrollment. Let me see—” He turned the ancient monitor toward him and typed something. “First-year, first-year… fortunately for you, we aren’t quite full this semester. We were forced to add staff last year. That was a fiasco. Ah, there we are. Now, you two are friends, correct?”

“Yes,” I said immediately.

Hannah beamed like I had just given her Christmas on her birthday. I grinned at her, glad she was on board with that answer. She was literally the only friend I had in the world right now.

“Mm-hm. I generally prefer to keep friends close the first year. A transition of this nature can be a bit overwhelming. Of course, that depends on whether or not you two think you could maintain focus on your studies if you were to room together. You aren’t in elementary school anymore. I assume you can be adults?”

“Um… yeah?” I squinted at him.

He sighed. “This isn’t a pass or fail situation, Piper. If you don’t do well here, you won’t be sent home with a transcript and a ‘better luck next time’. There’s nowhere to go but down. You catch my meaning?”

A chill shivered down my spine, but I narrowed my eyes at him. “Is that a threat?”

He looked at me, his eyes flat and cold, all trace of humor gone. “No, Miss Lawless. It’s a fact.”

Tension rose in the room. Silence stretched. I never let my eyes drift away from his steely gaze. After several long minutes, Hannah shifted in her seat and cleared her throat.

“Um… can I call my grandma? She’ll be worried.”

Toland’s expression softened into one of practiced sympathy. “I’m afraid not, my dear. As far as your family is concerned, you simply disappeared. It is in your best interests to keep it that way. There are rules. You’ll be given a handbook at the end of this meeting. I suggest you both go over it meticulously.”

Hannah’s eyes shimmered, and her breath caught. I wanted to comfort her, but I was afraid touching her would make her cry.

“Oh,” she said in a quivering voice.

I glared at the headmaster, who remained infuriatingly calm.

He ignored my obvious anger, switching topics smoothly. “Now then, your classes. I’ve kept you together for the most part.”