All right, so maybe I had test anxiety, but it honestly made no fucking sense.
“I took an oath,” Toland said shortly. “A blood oath. Pass your damn finals.”
Xero inhaled sharply. I shot him a questioning look, and he shook his head at me.
Ugh. Fine.
I wasn’t about to get answers right now, so I stood up and joined the guys. As we all filed out, I glanced back and saw Toland fold his hands and lay his head down on the table.
He looked like he was regretting his career choices.
Chapter Four
“Blood oath?”
I turned to Xero as soon as Vesper led us out of the labyrinth and disappeared, probably to go help Toland sort through the multitude of headaches being suddenly plopped into the underworld had caused.
The fire demon shuddered. “A blood oath is bad. Even fallen in the underworld take a step back before taking a blood oath. Blood magic is forbidden for almost everybody. If he lets us move on to next year’s schoolwork without our finals on file, he’s in for a world of hurt.”
“I thought he was in charge around here though. Who would punish him?”
Xero gave me a somber look. “The oath itself. These things have built-in fail-safes. I don’t know exactly what would happen to him—it varies from oath to oath—but it would be bad. Bad enough that he would banish us in a heartbeat, even if we managed to save the day.”
“Fuck.” I grimaced. “Everything’s so life and death around here. You’d think the stress alone would make people snap and go full monster.”
Kai snorted. “Who says it doesn’t?”
I thought about the way Toland had behaved during my interrogation, and my stomach churned. Was what Xero had said true? Was there something in the air, in the very atmosphere here that destroyed humanity and fostered evil?
We started up the stairs toward the ground level, and I looked at my guys a little more closely. They all—except Jayce, naturally—bore the marks of intense psychic exhaustion.
“How did it go for you guys?” I asked as we reached the main hall upstairs.
“Not as bad as last time,” Xero reassured me with a small smile. “Still sucked though.”
“It was fine.” Kingston preened haughtily. “I could do that every day.”
“Shut up,” Kai growled. “Those interrogations are hell, and you all know it.”
“Only because you fight it.” Jayce slipped an arm around my waist, sending an instant wave of calm through me. “Which I get. I mean, it’s completely normal. But honestly, if you just sit back and invite them in, it works so much better.”
Kingston snorted. “They can have what they’re good enough to get.”
“You hid something from them?” Kai asked sharply.
“Who said that? I didn’t say that. All I’m saying is that I’m not going to let some creepy elders poke around in my head unsupervised.”
My instinct was to agree with Kingston. I valued my privacy more than almost anything else. But I didn’t want to have to go down there and break my heart in front of Cassandra a million freaking times, so I looked up at Jayce instead.
“Can you teach me?” I asked.
“Teach you?”
“How to invite them in. Those missing memories—they’re talking about the moments when I was blacked out and coming out of it, when I was all disoriented. Or, you know, literally not conscious. I’d give them the memories freely if I could, but I can’t get to them.”
Jayce rubbed his fingers thoughtfully over the necklace at his throat. “I think I can. I don’t know for sure. My mom started teaching me this stuff before I could talk, so it would kind of be like trying to teach you to breathe, it’s so second-nature to me now. But I can try. You’re welcome to learn too, Kai.”
“Yeah, I’ll pass.” Kai’s lip curled bitterly. “I’m with Kingston on this.”