Chapter 9
I felt like some zoo animal on display as I walked along the molten paths to get to my first class. I still wasn’t used to how it made my feet burn, but given my lineage, it wasn’t unpleasant.
All the stares I was getting? Yeah. That was definitely unpleasant.
Everybody seemed to be staring at me—or, rather, at my wings.
The last time I’d walked to one of my classes, the students had either ignored me or given me the side-eye. I’d earned a reputation as a dud, and then as one of Hendrik’s pets.
Now the demonic cat was out of the bag.
As I glanced around the winding streets trying to orientate myself, my gaze locked with another girl’s and she froze, eyes widening as a look of panic skittered over her face.
I tried smiling. She wasn’t scared of me, was she?
“Hi.”
She bobbed her head and jerked her gaze away, moving off at a fast clip that turned into a run after just a couple of paces.
“Yeah, that’s nice.” I grumbled as I resumed wandering. Olivia had given me directions, but turn left at the black building hadn’t been the best landmark she could have chosen.
Or maybe she assumed I could ask for directions. Or, the most obvious solution would be to follow my connection to Logan.
I didn’t want to prod at the Virtue bonds right now, not while things were calming down. Which left asking for directions.
I opened my mouth to try again, which resulted in students scattering.
Seriously, what gives? Supernaturals aren’t supposed to be the skittish type, but given what everyone knew of me, I didn’t blame them.
I was the girl who’d come back from the dead and who was hunted by Lucifer himself, if the black wings weren’t indicator enough.
I wouldn’t want to get anywhere near me either.
It would be nice if there was another angel-type being around here. Were there other angels my age? It didn’t seem right that I’d be the only one, although I doubted any of them would have my complicated parentage.
Fallen angel, I corrected myself. With one of my mothers being the Queen of Hell and me the Princess, I wasn’t exactly somebody who’d be walking through the pearly gates.
I shoved my fingers into the minuscule pockets of my tight skirt, stopping when I felt something underneath my fingertips.
I pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and unwrapped it.
A map?
This chicken scratch must have been Yuri’s doing, because the edges were dotted with little hearts. The campus workings were useful, though. Three concentric circles, one inside the other, swirled with the edges meeting at the east while spanning out wide from each other to the west.
I couldn’t really read the building labels, but I could make out her sketches. I assumed the fuzzy wolf was where I was supposed to go.
It felt like I was walking in circles, but I kept consulting the map and made my way toward the wolf icon.
A twinge of my Virtue bond came to life, encouraging me that I was on the right track.
I’ll see you soon, Logan.
A building leaned up against the safety of the barrier, right up to the perimeter to the rest of Hell. A fitting place to keep the shifters, I decided.
A massive statue of a wolf greeted me at the doorway, confirming I’d succeeded in finding my first class.
“Here goes nothing.”
Taking a step inside, I found myself almost completely wrapped in darkness. A silvery light filtered down from what looked to be a regular night sky—moonlight.
But that couldn’t be right.
It was morning.
Even as I thought it, my senses recognized the prickle of magic in the air’s undercurrents.
If this wasn’t real, then, what I was I seeing?
Off in the distance a lonely, soulful sound of a wolf lifting its voice in song made my feathers prickle. Seconds later, others answered.
A snarl came next, and it was much closer, sending a tingle of warning down my spine.
Another shift in the air currents put me on alert. Before I could react, a hard hand grabbed my arm. It was too late to break away, but I jerked a hand up, ready to punch at my attacker—
“Logan!” I shouted when I realized who I was about to punch in the face.
He looked at my raised fist, then at me, one brow lifted arrogantly.
Flushing, I let my hand drop. “What do you think you’re doing, grabbing me like that?”
“What do you think you’re doing stalking in shifter territory? I was just about to call the hunt. You could have gotten hurt.”
“Seriously?” I glared at him. I’d come back from the freaking dead. It bothered me how my Virtues still treated me like porcelain.
An inhuman screech rippled through the air. Heart jumping into my throat, I fought the urge to grab onto Logan’s arm. That would really wreck the bad-ass vibe I was going for.
“That’s just Aaron,” Logan said.
I shot him a look and caught the barely hidden amusement gleaming in his eyes.
I glared and he cleared his throat. “Come on.”
“Where are we going? Oh.” I gaped at the door that seemed to appear from nowhere in the odd, endless nightscape.
Logan gave me an impatient look, so I stepped through it. He closed the door behind me and I found myself in an office. A plain old, everyday looking office, tucked somewhere off the side of the nightscape tucked behind a giant wolf statue on the campus.
Man. I couldn’t make this shit up if I tried.
I went to take a seat and froze at the sight of the chains behind his desk.
“Um… Logan?” I pointed at the restraints.
A half grin was the only response I got, but I decided not to push it. For now.
As he moved behind the desk, I pulled out a copy of the schedule Olivia had given me.
“I’m supposed to be here,” I told him. “For class.”
“You’re kidding me.” Sighing, he dropped down into the battered chair behind the desk and rubbed at his temples. “I guess the Dean is just going with the scattershot approach, huh?”
I stared at him for a few seconds. “I’m not following.”
He sighed. “Maybe you should sit down.” He waved to the chair in front of the desk.
After a second’s debate of how to manage a chair while I had wings, I swung it around so the back faced him and straddled it so my wings didn’t get smooshed. The skirt’s thigh-high slit accommodated for the movement.
Logan’s attention immediately dipped as he bared his teeth.
“Scattershot approach?” I asked, hoping to distract him. We would catch up with that side of our Virtue bond later.
Because when it came to Logan? Yeah, we definitely had some catching up to do and I needed more than a few minutes before class to fully explore that venture.
Logan’s gaze lifted to mine, the depths glowing with intense hunger. He took a deep breath, then shook his head in a wolfish way that made me smirk.
“You can blame Kaito,” he said, impressing me by his ability to continue our conversation when I literally had my legs spread in front of him. Not that I’d intentionally been trying to distract him.
“Kaito again,” I murmured. He seemed to be pulling the strings behind the Academy, which felt a little too familiar for comfort.
Logan swallowed and lifted his chin, visibly trying to stay on topic. “He and Olivia were one of the only ones who didn’t give up on you, and while the rest of us were just trying to get through another day, they were doing research.”
I leaned in, my chair squeaking under me. “What kind of research?”
“Your heritage,” he replied. “It’s incredible and no one has ever seen anything like it. Kaito said that we’ve been putting limits on you when we should be thinking bigger. He’s convinced that you have something else in your bloodline, Lily. He wants to bring it out of you.”
That sounded terrifying and dangerous. “And what do you think of that?” I asked.
He scratched behind his ear. “I think that it’s a possibility, but I don’t think you have any shifter heritage. I would have felt it when we bonded.”
“Hmm,” I agreed, although I wasn’t sure if I was ready to dismiss that so easily.
My powers had been buried so deep that even I had no idea what I was.
The Dean’s orientation spell hadn’t been able to figure it out, either, and it wasn’t until I unlocked those parts of myself that they came to the surface.
Unfortunately, past experience supported Kaito’s theory, which meant I had a long way to go in defeating Calamity.
I needed to be at the top of my game and with time running out, I worried I’d figure it all out after it was already too late.
“I’m such a freak,” I said, sighing.
“You’re not a freak.” Logan’s voice, all warm, deep, and intimate found a way to soothe me and bring me right back into the present.
“However,” he added, his tone turning serious, “if you stay in Shifter Tactics, you’ll get annihilated. Hell, this is a mixed bag I’m teaching here. Some first years, yeah, but there are advanced students here, too. And some…” He hesitated.
“Some…?” I trailed off.
He blew out a breath. “Some aren’t your biggest fans. If I put you out there, you’ll end up face-to-face with at least a few who want to hurt you.”
“They can get in line.” I had no doubt he’d intended to warn me away with that comment. But it had the opposite effect. Grinning, I said, “The last time I played with little wolfies and kitties, I kicked ass.”
“This isn’t a game, sweetheart.” Lids drooping low, he watched me with a hunger he didn’t bother to hide.
“Outside that door, the shifters are allowed to let their beasts come out to play. Not only allowed, but encouraged. And I’ve got to get wolves and panthers to work together.
If I throw a non-shifter into the mix, things could get ugly. ”
His gaze held mine steadily as I considered his words—both the spoken ones and unspoken ones.
He didn’t think I could handle this.