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Kingston’s face fell. Jayce looked confused.
“It’s not gonna fly,” Xero translated. “Doesn’t matter the reason.
Actually—the fact that you went in there after me might make things worse. They didn’t exactly like me to begin with.”
“So what I’m hearing is we should take a portal to Madagascar, change our names, and lie low until this all blows over,” Kai said.
He was only half joking. Maybe less than half.
“With Gavriel and the Custodians both pissed off at us? How long do you think we could stay undetected?” I was trying to be reasonable, but honestly, the idea of retiring to an island sounded way better than going inside the castle-like school building to face the music.
Kai shrugged. “My record’s fifteen years.”
“Willing to bet your life that you can break that record?” Xero asked. “”Cause I’m pretty sure we’d be betting those against the fury of two armies.”
“It’s not worth it.” I shook my head. I’d almost lost my mind seeing what Gavriel had done to my fire demon mate. I wouldn’t risk him or any of the others again. “Come on. What’s the worst they can do?”
We all knew the answer to that, but none of us were willing to say it out loud. Being banished back to the underworld just sounded exhausting.
I told myself that I could persuade them to let us stay, and I clung to that thought against all reason as we walked through the gates and made our way back to the school.
We’d arrived late in the afternoon. The break in between school years was short at Fallen University—maybe because none of us were allowed to have contact with our families anyway, so they figure we had no place to go—so school was back in session already.
I expected to walk into the after-class hubbub as people laughed and joked in the halls or headed toward the common areas to chill.
Instead, we stepped into an empty hallway.
The castle was quiet. Not silent, exactly; there were muffled voices in the hallways around us, and the distant noises of people moving about the halls. But it was very subdued, as if the student body had been reduced by half.
“Let’s try to get to our rooms without being seen,” I whispered. “We should at least look presentable when they confront us. It couldn’t hurt to be clean and well-groomed.”
My three men and I had found ways to stay clean in the underworld, mostly with the help of magic, but it was nothing compared to a hot shower. And Xero looked particularly rough. His clothes were little more than blood-soaked tatters.
The guys all nodded their agreement, and we quickly crept through the halls. We managed to avoid being seen until we were nearly to the stairs, but before we could head up to the next level, I heard a muffled scream behind me. Preparing for the worst, I spun around.
My eyes went wide, and I barely had time to brace myself before my vision was obscured by a wave of white-blonde hair as Hannah tackled me with a hug.
“Piper! You’re back!”
“Yes,” I said with a laugh as I returned her embrace. “We made it. Missed you.”
She jumped back, her honey eyes shining. “Oh my God, I was so worried. Are you okay?”
I quickly filled her in, condensing our weeks in the underworld to a few short sentences. I could tell her more later. The main point was, we’d gotten Xero back—and she could see that for herself.
She smiled happily and waved at him, holding off on the enthusiastic hug like she’d given me. She was probably worried about hurting him, which I appreciated. Then she turned back to me.
“Come on, I’ll walk with you and fill you in on what’s been going on around here.” We started moving again, heading up the stairs, and she gestured around. “So you’ll notice it’s basically empty.”
“Yeah, we were wondering about that,” I said.
“So basically the third years and fourth years—well, I mean, the third years who got stuck with us in the underworld and had to stay even though they should have graduated—are all out with the Custodians. And there are no first years, because the Custodians have been too busy mitigating fallen activity on earth to do much recruiting.”
“So everybody they encounter is getting shafted,” I said with a frown. “They’re just sending them straight to the underworld without even offering them another option. Fantastic.”
“Right? It’s disgusting.” She lowered her voice, leaning a little closer. “This place feels like a ghost town some days. I know there’s been a lot of dangerous fallen activity on earth, but I don’t know if the Custodians are—”
Before she could say anymore, a voice rang out behind us.
