Fallen University: Year Three

“Okay. So, what now?” Hannah asked, glancing around the alley as if she expected more fallen or Custodians to pop out and attack us at any moment.

Which, for all I knew, was a very real possibility.

“We need to go check out those portals for ourselves. The big five,” I said grimly. “I know it’s risky. We’ll draw Custodian attention, and we could even get caught by one of Gavriel’s scouts if our timing is bad. But we need to risk it. We know when he’s coming—although we still need to account for the different timelines between here and the underworld. We know about the huge fucking army he’s bringing with him. The one piece we’re still missing is the where. Once we know that, we can start figuring out how to stop him.”

“Agreed.” Kingston ran a hand through his brown hair.

The car chase and the battle seemed to have sharpened his focus and brought him down from the sleep-deprivation high he’d been on earlier. At least he’d gotten some breakfast before all hell broke loose, but I was sure that between the shock of seeing his parents and the three days of non-stop work, he was going to crash soon.

I stepped up beside him and wrapped an arm around his waist. He relaxed slightly under my touch, and I could feel the contact healing the scrapes and bruises on my body.

“You’ll have to lead us on this,” I said quietly. “None of us have ever been to the location of these portals before, but you’ve spent the most time studying. We’ll be stabbing in the dark a bit, but at least you know where we’re aiming.”

“Yeah. I can do that. We’ll do Kazakhstan first.”

He nodded, and Jayce came up on his other side, offering him more support. Everyone gathered into a tight knot around us, and we all grabbed onto each other somehow. We weren’t so much a circle as a giant glob of bodies this time, but hey, it got the job done.

A shimmering portal opened up around us, and a moment later, we were sucked through space.

The trip was a little rough, and I couldn’t shake the fear that we’d miss our target and end up embedded in a rock formation somewhere. But I should’ve known Kingston was too stubborn to let that happen.

We popped into existence near a large swath of open space in a rocky desert. Wind whipped over the landscape, blowing my hair across my face.

“What do you think?” Kingston glanced around, taking in the terrain that surrounded us before turning to me and Jayce. We’d been the two who’d overheard Gavriel’s general discussing their plans, which meant we had the best chance of guessing whether this was the right location.

I studied the barren landscape around me before shaking my head at the exact same time Jayce did.

“Nope,” he said sadly. “I don’t think this is it. They mentioned something about an uphill climb on all sides. There’s nothing to climb at all here.”

“Yeah.” I nodded decisively. “I agree.”

“Okay,” Xero said, gripping my forearm as he stepped closer, shielding me from the wind. “Next.”

We all gathered together again and teleported to Iguazu Falls in Argentina. Jayce and I spent more time debating the possibilities of that location while the other four members of our group stood around like bodyguards with itchy trigger fingers, scanning the landscape for any threats.

Finally, I turned to look at Kingston. “No, not this one either. There are waterfalls all around, so that could be considered an uphill climb. But the pentagram is barely visible here, and the general seemed to think it would be really important. This doesn’t seem prominent enough.”

He nodded grimly, not questioning my logic. We didn’t have time to stand around debating, so we had to trust each other’s intelligence and instincts.

I just hoped mine were worth trusting.

We linked arms again and transported to the Barringer Crater in Arizona, and by the time we arrived, I was dizzy from so many quick jumps through the ether.

“This could be it.” Jayce scratched at his chin, his blue eyes narrowing a little as he took in our surroundings. “What do you think, Pipes?”

“Well, there’s a climb all around, that’s for damn sure.” I sighed. “But again, what about the pentagram? I don’t see one at all here.”

“Fuck. You’re right.” He grimaced.

“Okay,” Xero said, sounding exhausted and a bit defeated. “Next.”

We transported to the final two large portals in quick succession, but Jayce and I couldn’t agree on either of them. As we stood in the Eye of the Sahara in Mauritania, I bent over, resting my hands on my knees and squeezing my eyes shut to press back frustrated tears.

Fuck.

That was it. We’d gone through all five. And none of them had stood out as being the obvious site of Gavriel’s planned attack. We could tell the Custodians to station fighters at each one, but given the size of Gavriel’s army, they couldn’t afford to divide their numbers like that.

“Hey.” Hannah rested a hand on my shoulder, her touch light. “You okay, Piper?”