Sebastian whistles. “Maybe you should be checking on our friend Ryker. He hasn’t been this focused on a woman in a long time.”
Fuck.
“Maybe she won’t like him,” I reason out loud.
“Because so many girls hate the hellhound and never drag him to their beds,” he coolly replies. “Does it matter anyway? She is mortal, and you are—”
“I’m well aware of the rules,” I reply. “It isn’t like that. She is…watched by the gods. That’s all I can say.”
“Am I watched?” he asks me, looking back.
“The gods love their secrets, Sebastian, and I will not whisper another to you,” I finally reply.
He grins. “That means yes. Fuck yes.”
Reminding myself that this asshole is my best friend and like a brother to me, I storm ahead of him to the place we bury the Unseelie. “Don’t say it.”
Of course he doesn’t. “I’ve waited years to see a girl catch your attention and lure you to the dark side. I’m so fucking happy it’s happened.”
I stop and turn back to him. “The last time a god fell for a mortal, I was born and hundreds died for it, as you well know. Do not wish for something so forbidden, Sebastian, I am happy as I am.”
“With your mission?” He raises an eyebrow. “I overheard my mother speak of it. I believe it’s a fucked up decision, and you should say no.”
“Then my mother dies and I will be killed…or worse,” I tell him. His dark purple eyes find mine.
“Shit luck, mate,” he replies, walking past me. “I think you should be warning yourself to stay away from Daesyn. Not me.”
Muttering under my breath, I look up at the stars. “I tell myself that every day since I met her, and so far, it’s not worked. I will have to try harder.”
Gods help me…staying away from Daesyn Heartlocke is not going to be easy.
Chapter 12
Laying my whip across my bed, I decide to leave it here for the first day and let it be a surprise on the second. I clip my dagger onto my hip just as Poppy comes out of the bathroom, looking paler than she was before she went in there. The never-changing night sky makes the stars so much brighter, and it’s still weird that it is morning without the sun to greet us.
“I won’t let you die, so stop overthinking,” I suggest to her. Mossy nods along with me, stuffing his face with waffles and strawberries just like I am. “Come and eat.”
“I will just throw it up,” she admits, rubbing her arms. I sigh, hoping she isn’t going to pass out on our first day, before finishing my food. I eye Mossy as I pull my cloak over my shoulders.
“You’ll have to stay here,” I warn him. “You’re fae, and they don’t like you here.”
Mossy sticks his tongue out at me before jumping up the tree and sliding out of the gap at the top. The leaves must protect this place from rain and snow getting in.
“I’ve never known a fae creature to look so big and normal. I almost thought he was from Earth,” Poppy comments, staring at the space Mossy was just sitting in.
“If it’s an odd colour and talks with attitude, it’s fae,” I tell her, pressing the lift button. “And Mossy is as fae as it gets.”
She smiles at me as the lift opens, and we both step inside. I press the button for the ground floor before she asks, “Are there a lot of fae on Earth?”
My smile disappears as the lift moves down. “No, they never made it past this realm. Past the war the queen of the reapers started with the fae and the deal the Seelie king made with her.”
“Dad said before the fae war, there used to be peace. The reaper city was full of fae, and the Otherworld was a holiday place for reapers to go,” she whispers to me, knowing as well as I do that talking of how it was over a thousand years ago will just get us in trouble if someone hears. “I wonder if we will ever stop hunting them for a crime committed by their ancestors?”
“‘The two most powerful warriors are patience and time,’” I say, quoting one of my favourite authors, Leo Tolstoy. “A human wrote that, and they might not be powerful in the sense that supernaturals are, but they have a certain incredible power with words.”
Poppy nods with a small smile as the lift swings open, and we step out. On the floor in front of us is a circle shadow, and I want to groan. What happened to simply walking where we need to be?
“You go first,” I suggest to Poppy, mainly because I’m worried she is going to run away if I don’t watch her go in. Poppy holds her head high, but her hands shake, and she steps into the shadow. She sinks into it and after a minute, I step in next, letting the shadow pull me down, and I come out on the other side in a place I never expected to see again. A place I could never forget or willingly come back to.
Hell.
The sandy plains of Hell spin around in the distance as I pick myself up out of the sand, seeing we are inside a big protective bubble of reaper magic. This is the second level, one hard to get into and impossible to portal to, so I’m intrigued how we got here, but not that interested over staying alive. The second layer of Hell used to be free of spirits, but it’s not anymore, it’s just as bad as the first level. That’s why hardly any demons live here anymore. Only the ones who are banished. More students fall out of nowhere as I walk to Poppy, who is frozen in shock like a lot of the one hundred students around us.
“I bet she will die first,” a girl laughs with her friend nearby us. I eye the brunette girl in a black cloak and a bow and arrows on her for weapons. She raises her perfect brown eyebrows, and I smile. She might be pretty and clearly skilled, but she just guaranteed I’m going to kill her.
“I bet you will,” I reply with a creepy grin. If the dead souls down here don’t kill her, I’m going to. I don’t like bullies, and there is no real need for them in the world. I place my hand on Poppy’s arm, shaking her a little, and she finally snaps out of it.
“Is this Hell?” she whispers to me.
I nod. “Let’s move to the front and find out what the plan is. Okay?”
“Okay,” she replies, much like a zombie still in shock, and follows me through the crowd until we get to the front. Torfinn and an old lady are standing with their arms behind their backs in front of the crowd. Both of them have white cloaks covering their bodies and a silver clip on the collar of the cloak that looks like the marking rune on my wrist. The old woman has long silver hair that is in one braid down her back, much like how I have braided my hair today. Her blue eyes sharply cut through the crowd, silently judging everyone here. Torfinn looks my way for a moment, but the look is gone so quickly I couldn’t read his expression.
“The last student is here,” Finn tells the woman. She nods and steps forward.
“Welcome to the first day at The Royal Reaper Academy, my name is Professor Kate. As you must be aware, we are no longer in Messorem, and we have brought you to Hell for your first test. The test is simple.” She pauses and points in the far distance at a mountain. “At the top of the smallest mountain in Hell is a portal back to Messorem. You have to get to it, and you have eight hours.”
