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7. Any complaints about Grim Reaper Academy and the staff will be made directly to the Headmaster.
I covered my mouth with both hands. This was bad. There was a curfew now?! The Academy had never had a curfew before. If we wanted to study, we could study in the library all night. No parties and celebrations? Did that mean no Mabon, no Halloween, and no Christmas? What the hell? Why? What had Christmas ever done to Valentine Morningstar?!
“Don’t gather in groups, don’t go to each other’s rooms,” I whispered. “What are we allowed to do, then?”
“Study. You’re allowed to study.”
Valentine had followed me from the dining hall. Of course, he wanted to see my reaction to his stupid ideas.
“Proper dress and decorum will be maintained at all times,” I read out loud. “So, uniforms day and night. No exceptions. But why?”
“Have you seen Miss Darkmoor’s choice of clothes when she’s not in uniform? Unacceptable.”
Sure, Pandora loved her super short skirts. But she was a demoness, for fuck’s sake! And Kitty was a succubus. Of course they were going to dress sexy! It was in their nature.
“I can’t believe you did this. It’s too much.” I crossed my arms over my chest. His exaggerated rules would make it impossible for me to have any kind of normal contact with my guys. No groups, no spending time in each other’s rooms… What was this? Catholic school? “This is Grim Reaper Academy, father. There are demons, and vampires, and angels, and incubi… and they’re all used to their freedoms. Freedom of speech, freedom of being themselves, freedom of fucking whoever they want. You can’t just waltz in here and do whatever the fuck you please.”
“Yes, I can.” He straightened his back, his expression turning dark and sour. “Also, language, daughter. Language.”
“What? Are you going to make a rule about that, too?”
“Keep this up, and I just might.” He scowled at me, and I scowled at him. Fortunately, he gave up first this time, turned on his heels, and went back inside.
I sighed deeply and went over the seven rules one more time. Not because I was trying to etch them into my brain, but because I was hoping the words would magically change before my eyes and become something else. Something more palatable. Magic didn’t work that way, though.
“What are you going to do now, Mistress?”
Crassus was standing behind me, as usual. I shot him an annoyed glance and tried to remind myself he was just doing his job.
“Adapt, I guess? Anyway, how is he going to enforce all this bullshit? He doesn’t have eyes everywhere, and the other professors are not on his side.”
Was that a smile on my Unseelie bodyguard’s face? I stared at him like I was suddenly realizing I must be losing my sight and needed glasses.
“Is he smiling?” I asked Corri. “Are you smiling, mister?” Not that he was going to answer me.
“I am.”
He did! He answered me! I blinked, more confused than ever.
“And why are you smiling, pray tell?”
He turned on his heels and walked away. I felt like I was supposed to follow him. He was leading me toward my first class, anyway, so that suited me just fine. But when we reached the corridor where most of the classes were held, I almost tripped over my own feet. Unseelie guardians. At every classroom door. Tall, well-built, dark-haired, ever-so-silent, ever-so-sober fay guardians.
“Hell no!”
CHAPTER THREE
Once the class started, the Unseelie soldier appointed entered the classroom with the professor and stayed guard until it ended. Up in the four towers, there were always two or three guards patrolling the dorm corridors. Crassus was in charge of my floor, of course, since my room was the only one there. Now that he’d actually said two words to me (exactly two, no more and no less), I started to think of him as a living, breathing person. I tried to initiate a conversation a few times after that, but he’d fallen back into his stubborn silence. No matter. The ice had been broken. With a smile and two words. There was no going back, only forward. I was going to crack Crassus the Unseelie no matter how hard a nut he was. It went on my list of goals, right under “retire stupid Morningstar” and “find ways to fuck my boyfriends”. The list was growing every day. With so little freedom, what else was I supposed to do?
The classes hadn’t changed much from last year. We still had Geography with Mrs. Maat, Rhetoric with Mr. Curio, Anthropology with Mrs. Po, and Psychology with Mason Colin. Honestly, I was surprised my father hadn’t kicked Colin out. The Supernatural Council wouldn’t have protested, I was sure. He’d scared the shit out of them last spring, turning all skeleton-like and all. It was the only clas
s I was looking forward to. But it was on Friday, right before Literature, the last class on our weekly schedule, and until then, I had to suffer through two PE classes – plus one extra, four Geography classes – we were studying pocket universes this year, – and Morningstar’s brand new class – History of the Human Inquisition. My brain did a double take, which didn’t help much, and it never quite recovered from the initial shock. We didn’t even have a textbook. That was how much of a ridiculous Morningstar-invention the subject was.
“Like, we’re going to learn about the Spanish Inquisition, or something?” I mumbled under my breath as I walked toward class. “How they burned witches at the stake?” I was talking to both Corri and Crassus, my only companions. I saw GC and Paz in class every day but couldn’t interact with them. Our relationship had moved online. We texted our secret group when no one was around. The Headmaster hadn’t confiscated our phones yet, but I wouldn’t have put it past him. Also, I was glad he was so out of touch with the world that he didn’t realize students didn’t need to gather in groups when they could group text. I also had a group with Klaus, Patty, and Klaus’s boyfriend, Joel the merman. Just for shits and giggles. We didn’t usually discuss important matters.
What bugged me the most was that Francis and I weren’t texting. I would have loved to see how he was doing. Even knowing that he regularly fed young women to his abomination of a god, I still kind of liked him. And Sariel… Oh my God, Sariel! I saw him at breakfast on the first day of school, then at lunch and dinner, and every day after that, too. But I never saw him in class. He wasn’t VDC anymore. He’d been transferred to the Merciful Death Cabal, and he kept to himself. It was a relief, really. Things like these made me even more confused about Valentine Morningstar and his agenda. I would’ve thought he’d expel Sariel. He didn’t. Instead, he’d moved him to the cabal he actually belonged to. Was it possible that my father wasn’t entirely evil? Was it possible that he had a heart and was even willing to show it sometimes? So many questions, but this particular set could wait. All that mattered was that Sariel Gracewing was okay, that he was back at the Academy, and that he still had a chance to become a Grim Reaper.
“I’m sure you’re all wondering about what we’re studying in this class,” Headmaster Morningstar began once we all settled in our seats. “This is the first time History of the Human Inquisition is on the Academy’s curriculum, so I apologize for the lack of study materials. Don’t worry, you will receive an extensive bibliography in the next couple of minutes. We might not have a textbook, but we have a library filled with books, articles, and even research papers on the horrors humans have inflicted on the supernaturals through the years. Centuries after centuries of oppression, cruelty, and misinformation.”
