“You are no longer in the world of the living,” the professor says gently, “but you are not quite dead, either. Reapers are a classification of spirits all on our own, able to interact with both the living and the dead. Now please, drink that tea. You look as if you are about to faint dead away.”
I glare at him, noticing that he didn’t really answer my question, but I feel so awful that I take a sip anyway. To my surprise, warmth floods and curls into my stomach, banishing the nausea. Energy shoots through me, bringing back my appetite in an instant, and I wolf down one of the cookies before I even realize what I’m doing.
“Excellent.” The professor sounds pleased. “Go on, finish up the rest. You’ll need the strength for your hearing.”
“Hearing?” I nearly drop the saucer in my hand. “What hearing?” Questions whirl through my mind, and I set the saucer down on the table with a sharp snap. “You need to explain what the hell is going on here instead of acting like I should know everything already. Who evenareyou?”
The professor sighs, pushing his glasses up his Roman nose. A lock of salt-and-pepper hair falls across his forehead, and suddenly I’m struck by how good-looking he is. Sharp gray eyes, strong, defined features, and I haven’t forgotten the striking figure he’d cut as he’d darted around those demons effortlessly, cloak flapping behind him in the wind.
Hot for teacher? Seriously, Addy, get a grip!
“My name is Felix Dalmatius, and I teach Demonology here at Reaper Academy,” he tells me. Even his voice is sexy—a smooth, deep baritone that spills from full, sensuous lips. “I was sent by the headmistress to collect you after Mr. Bellator reported his run-in with you. Naturally, we can’t allow reapers to run around on Earth unchecked. The council is deliberating over your fate as we speak. If all goes well, you will be enrolling here at Reaper Academy.”
“If all goes well?” I grip the arms of the chair tightly. What was the alternative?
“Professor.” A woman pokes her head in through the doorway. “They’re waiting for you.”
“Ah.” He rises from his chair and runs a hand through his tousled hair to straighten it. “That will be the council wanting my report. Sit tight, Miss Blake. Someone will come to collect you shortly.”
I nod numbly, too overwhelmed by the situation to be annoyed that after all this fanfare, I am being told to sit and wait. Another shiver wracks my spine, and I wrap my arms around my middle, wishing for a blanket.
Professor Dal glances at me in concern, then points a long finger at the fireplace. “Ignis,” he says, and I jump as flames roar to life in the grate, instantly illuminating the room.
“Is that better?” he asks, giving me a warm smile.
“Good.” Satisfied that I’m comfortable, he leaves the room and shuts the door behind him.
“Much.” I scoot eagerly toward the fire, wanting to soak in as much warmth as possible. Opening portals, conjuring magical fires, slaying demons…what else can reapers do? I turn my head to thank him, but he’s already gone, the door snapping shut behind him.
I sit by the fire awhile, enjoying the tea and cookies Professor Dalmatius left for me, but it isn’t long before I grow restless. What is he telling the others about me? And who are these “others” anyway, these faceless beings who get to decide my fate? He never told me what would happen if I didn’t get accepted to the academy—would I be allowed to go back to Earth? It hasn’t been that long since I’ve left my body, there is a chance I can still slip back into it—
And how, exactly, are you going to be able to get back to Earth?a snide voice in my head asks.Last time I checked, you don’t have the ability to rip holes into the fabric of reality to travel between realms.
I swallow, realizing how naïve I’m being. Of course they’re not going to send me back to Earth. But then where does that leave me? I am dead now, so that means I’ll have to move on to wherever normal spirits go, right? My father had been a Protestant—am I good enough to get into Heaven, or will I be sent to Hell for the time I’d stuffed frogspawn into Becca Stevens’s shoes when we were in third grade? Did Heaven and Hell even exist up here?
This is hopeless. I jump to my feet, cookies forgotten, and begin to pace the room. I can see through the window behind the couch that it’s nighttime where I am, and I squint as I look through the thick, wavy glass. There’s a courtyard right outside the window, and I think tables and chairs. Firelight flickers on the other side of the courtyard, reminding me a bit of the grounds of Lake Forest Academy, the private school I went to in lieu of public middle and high school.
Yeah, except that at Lake Forest, you weren’tdead.
I shake my head, resisting the urge to yank at my hair in frustration. I’m going to drive myself nuts if I stay in here. I need to talk to someone—I needanswers.
Without really thinking about it, I cross the room and open the door. I catch the faint sound of voices down the hall and follow them. My faded Chucks scuff on the stone floor, and in no time they carry me to another doorway. This one has been left open a crack, explaining why I am able to hear the people within, and I hover just outside, listening carefully.
“So you’ve confirmed it then?” a woman’s voice asks. “She is a reaper, then?”
“There is no doubt about it,” Professor Dalmatius says, his smooth baritone calm but confident. “She wielded my scythe effortlessly against those demons, and cut them down like they were nothing.”
“This is impossible,” another voice, a gruff-sounding male, protests. “Are you certain she is a novice, and not a deserter in hiding? You say she cut down those demons like they were nothing…”
I frown. A deserter? What does that mean? Like in the army?
“If she were in hiding, she wouldn’t have shown herself to Mr. Bellator,” Professor Dalmatius points out, still sounding as calm as ever. “You read the boy’s report—she was defending the soul he’d been trying to reap before the demon attacked. Why would a deserter risk her neck for a single soul?”
“There is also the fact that you don’t have any deserters matching her description,” the woman said. “Or am I mistaken, General?”
There is a long silence. “I won’t know until I see her myself.”
“Well you’re in luck,” the woman’s voice says, sounding suddenly amused. “She’s right outside the door.”
