2
Raven
We’d hadtwo full glorious days off from classes, recovering from our ordeal and planning for what we thought was graduation. Instead, it was back to the grind. And of course, it was time for gym.
I begrudgingly said goodbye to the twins and Ben and headed toward the gym with Luka.
“You know, you don’t have to make any decisions yet,” he said.
“Decisions?” I asked.
“About what you’re going to do after the academy,” he said.
I took a deep breath. This was picking up our conversation from earlier today when we’d had a few minutes alone. “I guess that’s the good part about being stuck here a few more months. More time to decide what I’m going to do.”
“You know, you don’t have to only consider joining other people’s family businesses,” he said.
“Says the prince of hell,” I said.
He chuckled. “I’m serious. I don’t need to go back there. I could stay here with you if you’ll have me.”
“You’re kidding, right?” I stopped walking and turned to face my handsome incubus. His messy blonde hair was covering one of his eyes.
I reached up and pushed it aside and my heart skipped a beat when my eyes found his. Those baby blues were enough to stop me in my tracks every time. I didn’t think I could ever get tired of him.
“You’d give up being a prince of hell and stay here in the mortal realm?” I asked.
He shrugged. “What’s the point of eternity if you’re doing it alone?”
The bell rang again.
“We better hurry.” Luka grabbed my hand and practically dragged me the rest of the way down the hallway.
He brought up something I hadn’t considered before. I kept thinking about how I was going to insert myself into the life of one of my mates. Or even take Makayla up on her job offer. I hadn’t thought about what I really wanted and asking them to follow me.
It was an interesting thought and it brought up something I wasn’t prepared for. What was it that I wanted to do with my life? When I’d been living in the human world, it was survival. Just getting through to my next paycheck. The next day. The next shitty apartment. There wasn’t much of a future to consider.
Now, I was nearing the end of a program of study on magic of all things. What exactly did people do when they graduated from here? They mostly all had family positions to fall into but I knew there had to be some actual jobs and industries that I could consider. I mean, there was a government system and prisons and a school board. If they had that kind of infrastructure, what else was out there?
“See you in a few,” Luka called as he let go of my hand in front of the boys’ dorm.
I had a minute or two before we had to be dressed and on the gym floor. Five minutes after the bell, class started. If I was late, I was going to have to deal with Coach Miller. As it was, I was expecting something from him since I’d missed the last two days.
To be honest, if I knew there was a possibility of coming back here, I might have gone to his class just to keep him happy. Then again, I hated this class enough to possibly skip and deal with the consequences. It didn’t matter now. I was here and I was stuck with it till spring.
I quickly opened my locker and pulled out my clothes and changed. Jogging to the gym, I managed to join the others just as Coach Miller slithered over to us.
A shiver ran down my spine. No matter how many times I saw that man, I was going to feel totally creeped out just from looking at him.
Half man, half serpent, Coach Miller was a thing of nightmares. Add in the fact that he made us run laps and other unpleasant things that I thought I’d left behind in my high school gym class days and it made it that much worse.
“Isn’t this cute,” he said. “It looks like we’re all back where we belong. And none of us are special enough to get a free pass out of here.”
His eyes are on me then they move away and I know he’s looking for Luka.
“We had to close down the gym and go through the whole mess of bringing that monster in here. There was drool everywhere. For what? For some special little fae girl to open a portal and nearly let the bad guys win?”
Someone snickers and I want to crawl into a hole and hide forever.