What are we going to do if there ends up being dozens of these rifts—each hurling out beings that have no sense of caution when it comes to mortals?
Rollick’s expression tightens into a frown. “I don’t like it. But at the moment, there’s nothing we can do except continue to observe and experiment.”
He brushes his hands together and waves to one of his shadowkind assistants. “Make sure the jet’s fueled up. I’ll be out there in ten minutes.”
As the being nods and darts into the shadows, Rollick turns back to me. He considers me for long enough that my skin starts to itch.
“I probably should have done this sooner,” he remarks. “You’ve put so much of yourself into helping the academy grow and thrive, and it’s meant a lot to me—and I know to Quinn too. But neither of us, or Sorsha and her partners, would have wanted your dedication to shadowkind to hold you back from having an actuallife. I don’t think you can serve me or yourself best right now as a member of my staff.”
A surge of cold lurches through my gut. “What are you saying?”
The demon claps me on the shoulder again. “Consider yourself relieved of duty, Jonah. You are no longer employed by the Quinn Moody Academy for the Shadowkind. I assume you’ll continue helping here at the rift out of the goodness ofyour heart, but it’ll be as a volunteer consultant with no special authority.”
The chill spreads through my entire body. I have to struggle to stop my voice from shaking. “But—I don’twantto stop teaching—I’ve done a lot of good?—”
“Of course you have. Now I’m repaying you for that good. I think you’ll thank me once you’ve seen how you can go forward.”
Rollick tips his head toward Peri. “You no longer have any authority overher. You can’t decide whether she earns a higher level or faces sanctions. So appreciate her however you like.”
He strides off, leaving me feeling as if a sinkhole has opened under my feet and at any second I’ll be swallowed up entirely.
He doesn’t think the comment I made was a hint that I wanted him to fire me, did he?
Fuck, what are the other administrators going to think when they find out? That I tossed aside all the responsibilities I’ve taken on just to pursue a fling?
Even as that thought passes through my head, part of me rejects it. Whatever I feel about Peri, it goes a lot deeper than fling territory.
But that doesn’t make any of this okay. I devoted so much of myself to my job. I thought I was helping at least some of the shadowkind students who came through my classes.
Apparently not enough. Not so much that Rollick needed more than a few minutes to toss all my efforts aside.
I’m so lost in turmoil that I don’t notice Peri approaching until her feet are whispering through the grass just a few paces away. At the jerk of my head toward her, she stops, twisting her hands in front of her.
“Are you all right?” she asks hesitantly. “What happened with Rollick? You seem really upset.”
And she knows that for a fact, because no doubt every anguished emotion that’s wrenching at me is echoing into her. Fucking hell.
I open my mouth and close it again, afraid of what I might say to her if I don’t think it through—afraid of how much frustration might spill out that she doesn’t deserve.
You could let her comfort you, a little voice murmurs in the back of my head.That’s why Rollick made this call—so you can pursueherwithout feeling guilty.
The demon may be wise and worldly when it comes to a lot of subjects, but he’s miscalculated for once. The fact that my conflicted attraction was obvious enough for him to kick me off his staff only doubles my load of guilt.
Despite my best efforts, my voice sounds hollow to my ears. “He demoted me. Dismissed me. I’m not part of the academy staff anymore.”
Peri bristles with a rush of outrage so potent it reverberates into me on the inside as well. “What? You’re one of the best teachers there.”
She spins on her heel, peering across the landscape. An orangey-red glow wavers over her hair like firelight. “Where is he? I’ll talk to him. He’ll see how wrong he was.”
Seeing her so vehement on my behalf sends a pang of affection through me, but it’s stifled by my horror at the image of her chasing down the demon and giving him a piece of her mind in her own Peri way.
“He’s already headed out to his plane,” I say quickly. “Another rift showed up halfway around the world that he’s going to take a look at. Maybe he’ll have rethought the situation by the time he gets back.”
From the way Rollick talked, I don’t believe that at all, but at least the suggestion seems to simmer Peri down.
She lets out her breath in a huff and focuses on me with an expression that’s more worried than angry. “No wonder you’re upset. I’m sure you didn’t do anything wrong. He must be distracted by the problem with the rifts—maybe he thinks you’ll be able to pay more attention to dealing with them if you’re not feeling responsible for the school too.”
I’d find that possibility easier to believe if I was doing anything more constructive than peering at the rifts and scratching my head in bewilderment.
