Fallen University: Year Three

We were both breathless, and I had a strong suspicion I would’ve been covered in a sheen of sweat if I weren’t already bathed in pool water. Jayce wrapped his arms around me, muttering, “Let go, baby. You can let go. I’ve got you.”

It took me a second to realize I was still clinging to the edge of the pool like my life depended on it, and I huffed out a laugh as I unclenched my fingers, wrapping my arms around my hellhound’s neck again. My breasts mashed against his chest, our wet bodies pressing flush together as I grinned at him, feeling a little dazed.

“You do have me, don’t you?”

He grinned back, and it was like someone had turned up the lights in the pool house by a million watts.

“Always, baby. No matter what.”

Chapter Twenty-One

“Still no Kingston?” Kai asked at breakfast a few days later.

I shook my head. “Pretty sure he’s sleeping in the lab, if he’s sleeping at all. I went down there to check on him yesterday and the day before. He said he was close and told me to go play. His exact words.”

“When did he turn into a dad?” Jayce asked, his lips twisting in amusement.

“He won’t even let me help.” Hannah frowned, setting down her spoon. “I guess his people know more about all this than I do, but still. I think I could be useful.”

“Guess you just have to sit around and look pretty with the rest of us,” Xero said with a sympathetic expression. “Trust me, I’d rather be doing something too.”

“Something other than kicking my ass at pool,” Kai grunted.

My fire demon mate grinned. “Get good, son.”

A door slammed somewhere in the house, followed by thundering footsteps. We all stood up, instantly alert. Custodians? Fallen?

Neither, fortunately.

Kingston burst into the room a second later, holding a piece of paper and looking like he hadn’t slept in days. His emerald eyes were glassy, his hair was all over the place, and there were two bright red spots on his cheeks.

“Come on,” he blurted.

“You found it?”

He didn’t answer me, just gestured frantically for us to follow him. He led us down into the basement, through a hidden door on one wall, and down a long sterile-looking hallway. There was a half-flight of stairs at the end which led down to another sealed door. He punched in a code, chanted a spell, and waved his hand in front of a sensor. The door slid open.

Franz, Buford, and Gerard were all standing around a massive electronic map on a table in the center of the room. No, not electronic—magic, I realized as we got closer. The lights on it were tiny floating energy balls, spinning up from points on the map. There were hundreds of them in different colors—green, red, purple, yellow, blue—and five which were a blinding, brilliant gold.

“It took time to narrow it down,” Kingston said as he led us to the map. “We’ve been using a combination of my magic and my team’s tech. First, we had to get between the created magic and the natural magic, then we had to sift out the portal magic, then we had to narrow that down to portals powerful enough to bring an army through.” He shook his head, running a hand through his already tousled hair. “Do you know how many interdimensional portals are just sitting around on earth? So many. Like, oh my God, don’t go hiking in the Rockies unless you want to end up on a different plane of existence.”

“So we have to scour the entire Rocky Mountains?” Kai asked incredulously. “How do you expect us to do that in the time we have? Gavriel’s general said they’d be ready for the attack in a week, and that was three days ago.”

Kingston huffed impatiently. “You aren’t paying attention. Those are the little portals. We’re only interested in the big portals. There are five.”

“The golden ones,” I said, chewing my lip as I looked at the map. “Okay, so how do we narrow it down from there?”

“We’re going to have to go to each of them,” Kingston said. “And we’re running out of time. We can’t afford to jet around, it would take days.”

“Days? Where are these places?” Xero asked.

“There’s a pentagram in Kazakhstan. Everybody thinks it’s man made, but it’s not. It’s the reflected impression of a demon-carved pentagram in another dimension.”

Uh, what?

I decided to pretend that I followed what he’d just said.

“There’s another pentagram in Cuba,” Kingston went on. “Same deal—an imprint from the other side. Franz, show them.”