"About Kayla?" Shelton said. He snorted. "Waste of time."
I wrinkled my forehead and gave him a look of disbelief.
He held up a hand to ward me off. "Look, I appreciate what you did, but they practically caught her red-handed."
"But not literally," I replied.
"Yeah, that too." He huffed. "The girl is guilty, and I guarantee you Thomas Borathen won't do a thing to help her. He'll take one look at the evidence and blow you off."
He was probably right. Thomas and I were on better terms now that he'd accepted I wasn't evil incarnate, but we were far from being buddies. Elyssa would help me in a heartbeat, but she was in the middle of her Templar tests. I went through a mental list, but the only other Templars I knew who might help were Ryland and Elyssa's brother, Michael. I put Michael in a similar boat with Thomas. He accepted my relationship with Elyssa, but only barely. I had a feeling it was less about being demon spawn and more about being a guy who was dating his little sister. What Michael and Thomas conveniently overlooked was Elyssa's ability to kick my ass anytime she wanted. She didn't need protection from me. If anything, I'd need protection from her if I tried to do something she didn't want me to do.
"Michael," Shelton said out of the blue.
"Huh?"
"He'll help you. He won't like it, but he will."
I narrowed my eyes. "What makes you think he will?"
"He knows Kayla and Zagg from when he attended the university."
I stopped dead in my tracks. Cinder nearly ran into me. "Michael Borathen went to Arcane University? He doesn't even know magic."
"That wasn't why he went. A lot of Templar candidates attend to learn defense against magic." Shelton shrugged. "Even your girlfriend probably went when she was younger. In case you hadn't noticed, there are other supers here. The university caters to a lot more than just Arcanes."
The thought had never occurred to me. "They should change the name to Supernatural Academy then."
"Yeah, well I ain't on the naming committee." He resumed walking. "Anyway, ask Michael. It's still a waste of time, but at least it'll keep Zagg and his merry band of idiots off our butts for the time being."
I matched his pace. "Who else do we need to worry about, Shelton? Did Zagg give you the split lip, or was that someone else?"
"Well, aside from a couple of professors, most of the people I pissed off don't go to school here. Zagg and his bunch are grad students, I guess. I didn't expect him to be here." Shelton wiped a clump of muddy grass off his leather duster. "I was following Jeremiah and literally ran into Zagg when I came around a corner. He was with the other two Arcanes I don't know, and they chased me down. I tried to get to the shuttle, but I guess he'd already called Acworth and Natalie to cut me off."
"So you ran into a forest with a tragon." I shook my head. "I'm surprised someone didn't get eaten sooner."
He chuckled. "Guess my plan worked out okay in the end."
"It might not the next time." I gripped his upper arm and stopped him. "You need to tell me right this minute if I need to worry about more of your past acquaintances trying to kill us."
Shelton regarded me for a long moment before nodding. "The guys who split my lip wanted money. Thankfully, I was able to take care of that. Like I said, there's bad blood between me and a couple of professors, but they pissed me off when I went to school here, so I got back at them after I graduated." His eyes went distant for a brief period as if trying to remember anything else. "Otherwise, I can't think of anything."
"I am curious about this bad blood you mention," Cinder said. "Is the blood defective? Whose blood is it?"
"It's slang," I said in an exasperated voice. I sighed. "Let's go. I'm bushed."
"Yes," Cinder said, picking twigs from his shirt. "I also have bits of bushes on me from the forest."
Shelton barked a laugh.
"I take it you never had the chance to talk to your dad about the arches, did you?" I asked.
Shelton shook his head. "Nah, between stalking Conroy and Zagg ambushing me, I forgot about it."
"Well, it might not be necessary now." I told him about MacLean.
"Holy dog balls in a turtle shell," Shelton said, shaking his head in wonder. "Talk about a blast from the past." He chuckled. "MacLean always loved watching spider bats chase terrorized coeds."
When we arrived back at Science Academy, I took a long shower, put on clean clothes, and braced myself to talk to Michael. A huge guy, Elyssa's brother possessed the same ninja-quick reflexes as his sister and also like Elyssa, was a dhampyr. I'd only recently discovered he was working—or had been working—for Underborn, the most notorious assassin in the Overworld, not to mention a lying slime-ball who'd manipulated me and Elyssa every chance he had. Why Michael had worked for the man was beyond me.
After mulling over the past for a good five minutes, I realized I was stalling and dialed him.
"What is it?" said a deep voice from the other end after two rings.
"Hello to you, too," I said in a cheery voice.
Silence.
When he still said nothing else, I cleared my throat and told him about Kayla.
"You want me to help Shelton out of a mess," he said in a tone indicating it wasn't a question.
"I know you don't care for Shelton or me," I said. "But if there's a chance Kayla is innocent—"
"Okay, I'll do it."
"Uh, really?"
"On one condition."
I tensed. Here it comes. "And that would be?"
"Help me with Elyssa." For a moment, his low voice almost—almost—bore a sign of emotion.
"She's still ticked about Underborn," I said.
"Yes."
"You know I can't make her do anything, right?" I tried to keep the crack of fear out of my voice. "Even bringing up the subject is like telling her I want to eat puppies for breakfast."
"I know, but that's my price."
Holy hell. I wondered how in the world I could ask Elyssa to mend fences with Michael and decided that he was only asking me to help, not to actually perform a miracle. "I'll help. But I can't promise you she'll listen."
"I can't promise you Kayla is innocent. But I'll look into it." He went silent again, not even breathing loud enough to be heard over the phone. The man has ninja skills for sure.
I decided to risk asking another question since it related to his problem. "Are you still working for Underborn?"
"I'm out of his game." He paused. "Underborn isn't on anyone's side, but I thought I could protect Elyssa better from the middle. It worked out in some ways, but not in others. Underborn wanted her to know I was working with him. That's why he brought me along to see Elyssa that day. By the time I figured out who we were going to see, it was too late for me to leave."
"Why would he want Elyssa to know?" I asked.
"To show me who was in control. To show me he knew I was trying to manipulate his plans with regards to Elyssa." Michael hissed out a sigh, the first sign of emotion I'd heard. "I thought I was smart enough to avoid his traps and to turn them back on him. I was wrong."
I didn't know what to say to that. If someone as capable as Michael couldn't outthink the assassin even when it knew it was coming, I had no hope of avoiding Underborn's traps when he blindsided me. "Thanks for being honest. I think that's what Elyssa really needs. She loves you and trusted you. Seeing you work with someone like Underborn destroyed that trust. If you're being completely honest with me, then it's obvious you wanted to protect her. You knew bad stuff was coming, and you did what you could to shield her."
"Yes."
"I'd do anything to protect her," I replied. "Maybe that's not the same as being her brother but—"
"I think you understand. I'll look into your issue."
The line went dead.
"That went better than expected," I said to myself since Shelton had gone out for food, and Cinder was off doing whatever golems did when they had nothing better to do.
I dropped into a chair at one of the desks in the room and spotted the class schedule Miles had given me. Beneath the schedule, he'd listed the books I would need in a neatly quilled scrawl. A nervous cramp gripped my stomach. I'd almost forgotten about classes and hadn't even thought to buy books. I texted Lina and asked her where I could buy books. While I waited for a response, I lay down on the bed and looked at pictures of me and Elyssa.
Most of them were selfies, with me holding the phone out and snapping the picture with one hand. Elyssa crossed her eyes in one and kissed my cheek in another. My heart felt like a chunk was missing, and it hurt. I hoped her trials were going well, but the selfish part of me wished she'd just hurry the hell up and come give me a kiss.
I woke up with a start. Looked around the room in confusion. Checked the time. It was almost seven-thirty, an ungodly hour to even think about waking up. I closed my eyes, but something nagged at me. After a moment, I grunted and sat up. A sheet of parchment slid off my chest, and my brain made the connection between what was nagging me and the time. My first class started at eight.
"Crap!" I said and jumped out of bed.
Shelton, snoozing on the bottom bunk, mumbled something about me shutting up, and rolled over to face the wall.
My mind ran a quick calculation on how long it would take me to shower, dress, cross over to the university in the shuttle, and possibly eat along the way. I was pretty good at math, so it only took a moment to realize I had to cut something out of that list. Since I wasn't about to traipse around the school emitting a ripe odor, I decided against cutting a shower from the list. I slid on my flip-flops, wrapped a towel around my waist, and ran into the shared bathroom. Steam filled the tiled space, and all the shower stalls looked occupied. Time ticked on as I waited. To save time, I brushed my teeth and shaved. I heard a curtain slide open and cut off another guy as he made a beeline for it.
