Fallen University: Year Two

“Keep your voice down,” he whispered. “We’re under—Piper!”

He hissed my name because I had just tripped over something hard and landed on my face. He found me in the dark and lifted me into his arms.

“You good?” he whispered.

“Yeah. We’re under what?”

“Harpy nests. Dozens. We have to keep going.”

Kingston, whose night vision was as poor as mine, had relegated himself to the sky. Kai, Jayce, and Xero had no t

rouble at all, though Jayce had shifted into his hellhound form. Sometimes I could see him if I looked hard enough in exactly the right spot, since his fur had a purplish glow to it.

After we had been walking for what seemed like hours, I heard a rustling in front of us. Xero stopped, wrapping a protective arm around me.

“Guys?” Kingston’s voice came through the darkness. He sounded tired.

“Right here,” Xero answered.

“Good. We’re half a mile from the edge of the forest. There’s a big pile of rocks over there. I think it may be a cave.”

“Sounds like camp,” Xero said.

“Yeah. Just keep walking straight. I’ll meet you guys there.”

Another rustle and a rush of wind, and he was gone. I had never been afraid of the dark, but existing without sight for so long was beginning to get to me.

“How long will it take to walk half a mile?” I asked, trying to keep the whine out of my voice.

“Not long,” Xero said, rubbing my shoulder comfortingly. “We’ll be there before you know it.”

Half an eternity and change later, we finally exited the forest. My eyes had been straining for light for so long that the weak starlight in the inky night sky was enough to make me wince. I turned my head to press a kiss to Xero’s cheek, then wriggled out of his arms and looked around. The area we’d emerged in appeared almost normal—just a rolling prairie tucked between two swatches of forest—but there was something eerie about it. The breeze that blew through the long grass seemed to whisper words I could almost make out, and there was a stench in the air that I couldn’t identify.

“Over here,” Kingston called.

When we got to the cave he’d spotted, we found it dry and empty except for the fire that he’d built while waiting on us.

“Took you ground walkers long enough,” he said with a grin.

“So fly us all next time,” I countered through a yawn.

We each took turns keeping watch while the other four cuddled together in a messy pile of limbs and shared body heat. My turn was last, in the hours before dawn. For the first time since we’d been here, I was going to get the full effect of an underworld sunrise. I expected it to be similar to earth’s—a drop in temperature, the sounds of animals waking up, and a slow fade to warmth—and ached for that normalcy. I stepped outside the cave and sat on a flat stone, waiting.

The heat hit first, rushing past me like a tidal wave. Something screamed in the forest behind us, then something else. Soon the whole forest was screaming, as if a hundred thousand tortured souls were dying. There was no rainbow of color as the sun rose; just black, which slowly faded to a muddy sort of yellow, and a yellow that exploded into an angry red. The grass around me—which I had erroneously assumed was green in the dark—came to life in shades of red and purple, looking more like billions of bloodied swords than plants. The sun glared down mercilessly, but the grass didn’t droop. It stood sharply erect, miniature swords at attention.

Shuddering, I went back inside. I thought I would have to wake the guys up, but they were all fully alert and scrambling for their things. All except for Xero anyway. The fire demon was blearily rubbing his eyes and brushing Kingston off as the man with the angular features tried to wake him up.

“What happened?” I asked, my heart lurching in my chest. What did I miss?

The three panicking men stopped and stared at me with their mouths open.

“You didn’t hear that?” Jayce’s eyes were like dinner plates.

“What, the screaming? Oh, yeah, I did. But I figured it was just the birds or whatever waking up. Like back home.”

“I told you,” Xero muttered grumpily.

“It sounded like a war,” Kingston argued. “Straight-up, flat-out war.”