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That was what they should know me for.
That was who I was. That was what I did best.
Kept my life together. Concealed my external wounds with makeup. Concealed my internal shadows with breathing exercises and sometimes a little help from Gaksi. Successful, put together, competent. I belonged at this University.
* * *
“You almost hitthat spot at least once today,” Reaper remarked.
“That sounds like an insult.”
“Perhaps it was.”
“I think it was, sloppy seraphim,” Gaksi said.
“Don’t call me that!” I responded. Reaper’s eyebrows rose. I resisted the urge to gag. Gaksi using Reaper’s nickname for me was so foul my lunch threatened to reappear.
“I don’t even like him,” I grumbled in my head.
“Is that why butterflies possess your stomach every time he looks—”
I blocked him out.
Then missed the target again.
And again.
And again.
* * *
Classes came and went,along with exams. Hunter’s gang left me well alone, swamped with the intensity of their own schoolwork. They must be too busy and scared to torment me, with school and recruitment pressure amping up.
Cracks were showing in every student’s carefully constructed facade.
Aubrey broke first.
Crying, she confided in me that being first generation made her feel lost at Aether.
Cordelia’s downfall was her homesickness: Aubrey caught her trying to drown herself in the ocean, drifting away more than a mile from shore. Aubrey watched her like a hawk after that.
Brayden broke down publicly, crying in the middle of an exam. He must have still passed, though, because he returned the next day. And the next. And again after that.
Even Hunter peered over my shoulder a little in class sometimes. Of course, I didn’t let him, but I noticed the desperation for the right answer was there.
I had what was close to my own escape plan after spending ten hours on a lab report from potions class. I barely passed. Somehow, I created a 200% yield, meaning I created matter out of thin air. Considering I didn’t have light magic yet, creation was impossible, which meant my calculations were way off.
My GPA sunk so low, if it wasn’t for Flora’s deal, I might not have a House come the next round of recruitment.
By the last exam, I was ready to kill everyone at this university, demonic or angelic, finishing with myself. I’d spent so much time in the library that students scampered away in fear when they saw me approach my spot. Lest I stare daggers at them until they left and I could reclaim my tragic, depressing enclosure.
* * *
“Think of what shadows are.Then visualize your surroundings. Imagine sending a shadow straight from you to wherever you picture it in the environment.”
Reaper’s voice was my only distraction from school. My eyes drifted closed, and I imagined I was a thundercloud, shadows swirling around me.
I pictured a bolt of black lightning hitting the Reaper who stood before me, and shadows jutted out of me—
