When he reached out this time, it was to grasp my hand. Green light glowed around his. It activated the seal on my hand that I’d been given before my entrance exam. For a second, the twin blue and green lights flared.
“There you go,” Kai said. “Since you want it so badly, you don’t have to have anything to do with me anymore.”
He was gone before I could try to soften the blow. The Grove suddenly felt empty. Pulling my schedule from my back pocket, I saw that my late afternoons when school was finished were now completely free. I no longer had to have anything to do with Kai.
I sat down on the ground next to the Arcana tree, pressed my head to its thickening trunk, and sighed. It was a victory in a battle I could never win.
7
I woke up the next day feeling like death. I’d made the right decision and yet somehow it felt like everything was all wrong. If Sophie was aware of my mood, she didn’t say anything about it through breakfast.
“You’ve got Demonology 101 again?” she asked at our dining hall table.
“Yep. I need to get to the junior campus pronto.”
“You’d think with all the extra studying you’ve been doing that they’d bump you back up to the proper class,” Trey said. He stuffed another breakfast burrito into his mouth. I could swear that like Charles, Trey had grown both taller and wider over the short holiday break. It just wasn’t fair. “Didn’t you ace that exam?”
“There’s still quite a lot I need to learn. Even I can’t cram five years of basic learning into six months.”
“It shows,” Diana said, referring to my abysmal progress in Weaponry and Combat.
“Which reminds me, I kind of fired my combat tutor. Do you have the time to give me extra help after school?”
Sophie choked on the piece of bacon in her mouth. She sputtered so much that Trey had to smack her on the back a couple of times. Taking a gulp of apple juice, she tore strips off me with her big, brown eyes.
“What do you mean you fired your tutor?”
I flipped through my Demonology textbook and tried to affect a breezy attitude. “It wasn’t working out, so I thought it best if we parted ways.”
“Trey,” Sophie said, “We need a little bit of privacy.” The way she said it reminded me distinctly of Nora. It was that calm, polite voice that was hiding a punch. Trey noted her change in demeanour and skedaddled.
Sophie stabbed her fork into the pile of eggs on her plate. “That’s it,” she said. “You’re going to tell me what’s going on or I’m going to poison your food.”
“Forget poison,” Diana said. “We need to get her psychiatric help. I mean, you would have to be insane on a grand scale to cut Malachi Pendragon loose.”
“She’s been moping around for a month since the demon attack and now she’s fired him. What gives?”
“Are you guys done?” I said. “Maybe I’m just over being gossiped about. It’s like all anyone ever does around here is talk about other people. Did we all forget there’s a war happening out there?”
Sophie was not dissuaded. “We in general are fighting a war. You specifically are an Academy student. You don’t get to use that excuse. Besides, the last time a student wanted to get a leg up in that arena, we got Fred.”
“Can you please just drop it?”
“No.”
“Then I’m leaving.”
She slammed a fist against the table so hard Diana and I both jumped. My heart almost leaped out of my chest. “Sophie?”
“Don’t Sophie me,” she said. “We’re supposed to be friends. You’re not meant to hide things from your friends. I know you like him. And he sure as hell likes you. So, what gives?”
“Why are you so riled up?”
I could only think of one thing that would affect her like this and he came in the form of a muscular shifter hottie. “Max has been talking to you about Kai, hasn’t he?”
“Don’t try and change the subject.” Her ears turned red.
Diana grinned. “This whole thing just gets more interesting by the second. Tell me again how Max carried you off into the canopy.”
Sophie shushed her. “We’re not talking about me right now.”
“Well, we’re most definitely not talking about me,” I shot back. The warning bell rang. I’d never been happier to hear anything in my whole life.
I packed up my things hastily. Sophie’s hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. “Lex,” she said. “I know you’ve always relied on yourself, but you have us now. You’re not alone. Whatever you think you have to do, it’s not real.”
That’s when I realised it wasn’t the Kai thing or the Max thing that was really bugging her. It was the rumour that one day I would be fighting against them.
“I know that,” I snapped, more at myself than at her.
“I hope so.”
I ran before I could get bogged down with the details of it all. By now the Nephilim who guarded the border between the junior and senior Academy campuses knew me. I heard a chuckle overhead as I ran past.
“Again, Alessia?” Curtis said. I heard his wings flapping above me. It was the first day and I was already running late.
“A little help?”
I was only half kidding, but a hand gripped me by the arm and lifted me into the air. My stomach felt like it had been left on the ground. I might have screamed a little which made Curtis laugh even more. Luckily the upshot was that he dropped me off right outside the door to the junior campus. A teleport would have been faster but I swear he was just trying to mess with me. Somehow, I was still puffing when I slid into the seat beside my junior campus buddy, Cassie.
“Hi,” I said.
She smiled at me. “Hello.” She’d had a haircut over the break. It now sat in soft waves just under her chin.
“I
