Page 64 of Black Onyx
The conversation is dropped after Storm’s sarcastic reply, and everyone orders food up to the room and then gets on with their own things. I end up snuggling between Loki and Reaper, and I’ve stuffed myself full of food and enjoyed being surrounded by them. I must’ve fallen asleep at some point because I’m vaguely aware of being carried to bed. Halfway through the night, I feel the comforting warmth of Poca getting onto the bed, and I wrap my arms around him.
“Missed you,” I mutter sleepily and receive a scorching hot lick on my cheek in response.
With Poca next to me, my nightmares don’t affect me like they usually would, it’s almost like there’s a layer of protection between them and me, so I’m just witnessing them rather than experiencing them as I normally would.
*********
“Morning, Farren,” Mayhem greets far too cheerfully when I emerge from my room the following day.
I grunt my reply, not awake yet and slightly sore from riding so hard yesterday. He smiles at me like he’s amused and then holds out a cup of coffee for me.
“Thanks,” I mutter.
“Aw, hey Poca, where have you been?” Rival asks the hellhound, who is excitedly jumping up and down and saying hello to everyone. He even gets a slight smile out of Storm.
“He’s like a giant puppy,” Loki grins, his vampire teeth on full display and doing something to me, which I am going to ignore this early in the morning. More coffee, that’s what I need, not to be thinking about sexy vampire bites.
“Did we get our new schedules?” Killian asks, making a beeline for me and kissing me on the forehead as he goes past, his tail stroking my butt.
“Yeah, they’re on the coffee table,” Storm replies, frowning at Killian and me.
Of course, I ignore him, rather than engage, and grab a schedule, looking over it. I’m glad that we still have Professor Fitz since, out of all of the teachers, he seems to be one of the only ones who is genuinely invested in helping the students. I suppose the other teachers could have still been in shock and trying to get their own heads around the implications before they dealt with students. I hope that is the case and they all step up their game today and actually help us properly. After all, it’s our lives on the line, and we’re all woefully unprepared. At least I’m fortunate enough to have my training behind me. As I look over it, trying to memorise the room numbers and incredibly grateful that now all the guys are in my classes, I can follow them to the right one; as I look it over, I notice that they’ve combined combat and weapons together and made it an hour longer so instead of finishing at five our school day ends at six.
A knock on the door interrupts my study of the classes, and since I’m closest, I put it back down and open the door, surprised to see a harried looking Magnus on the other side.
“Magnus, are you okay?” I ask.
“Yes, yes. Well, is anyone really okay at the moment? Can I come in?”
“Of course,” I frown, stepping back and letting him into the room.
“Hey Magnus, how’re you?” Rival asks.
“We have a problem,” Magnus says in reply.
“Of course we do. What now?” Reaper sighs heavily.
I can’t blame him at all. We seem to constantly have problems or things that aren’t going quite right; at this point, what’s one more problem?
“Coffee?” Kill asks Magnus.
“Yes, please, a bit of something strong mixed in if you have it.”
I raise my eyebrow. Exactly what has gone fucking wrong now that means Magnus is drinking in the morning and before classes? Surely it can’t be just because of the games?
“Sure, I can do that.” Kill grins, seemingly unperturbed, he quickly makes up Magnus’s drink and then hands it to him.
“Thanks.”
He doesn’t say anything else, and Reaper is clearly feeling impatient as he asks again, “What’s gone wrong now?”
“I’m sure that you’re aware by now that the Headmaster is up to something?” we all nod, “well, he tried to send you out again this morning. Fortunately, I caught wind of it and managed to convince him to put it off for two days. I have no idea what he’s hoping to achieve by sending you out this regularly.”
“Do you know where we’re being sent to?” Storm asks, arms crossed over his chest.
Magnus’s worried look becomes severe, “He’s sending you to the Shadowlands.”
“What?” Loki yells, shocking me with the sudden outburst. “The Shadowlands are practically a death sentence for anyone who enters them. Only the senior enforcers go in if they have to, and even then, they rarely come back out again.”
