Page 91 of An Academy for Liars

“You lack discipline,” said Dante, cutting her short. “I’ve told you as much myself. But their concerns are farther-reaching. According to Alec, it’s not just your gatekeeping capabilities that have been called into question. It’s your personality, your conduct with your peers at school, namely Ian but others too. Your mental health history was also a point of concern, as was your past promiscuity. In general, the school’s opinion is that you’re chaotic, unreliable—”

“And a bit of a whore?” Lennon snapped, her cheeks flushed hot with shame and anger. “Do you agree with their assessment?”

“Not all of it,” said Dante. “I do believe you lack discipline. Your feelings are intense, and they often dictate your behavior against what I believe is your better judgment. As for their concerns about your health history and who you choose to sleep with, they can shove it up their ass.”

Lennon relaxed, immediately, with that assurance. The faculty could loathe her. Her peers could hate her. But if Dante was in her corner, that was enough. “So what now? They’re not going to let me return, are they?”

“I don’t want you to just return,” said Dante. “I want you to go back to Drayton and graduate by the fall semester’s end.”

“What?”She was stunned. The thought of graduating from Drayton hadn’t crossed her mind once since she’d come to Dante’s house for the summer. Any hopes of graduating had died along with Ian in that elevator. “How am I supposed to defend my right to graduatewhen the majority of the school thinks I’m rash, incapable, and violent—”

“You prove them wrong.”

“But how, Dante?”

He was quiet for a moment. “Do you know why we were all so afraid when you opened your first gate?”

“Because it was dangerous,” said Lennon. “I mean, look what happened to Ian.”

“Surely you didn’t think that hearing was because we were worried you’d turn an elevator into a guillotine? You had to know there was a greater thing we feared.”

Lennon racked her brain, trying to think of an answer, but came up short.

“Your gates are more than just a means of transportation through space. Or at least, they could be more. Some gatekeepers possess the ability to open channels not just through space but through time also. The consequences of such an act can be both deadly and far-reaching. That’s why everyone was so wary of your power…and potential.”

The hairs on Lennon’s arms bristled, stood on end. She was overcome by the feeling of being followed, like something terrible was lurking just behind her shoulder. “Well, they don’t have anything to worry about. I’ve never opened any channels through time, and even if I could, I wouldn’t. I mean, why would anyone risk dabbling with that when the cost could be so high?”

“Because the school is in danger,” said Dante. “The gates that currently surround it are failing. Soon they will fall and expose Drayton to the world.”

“I’m not following. Like at all.”

Dante heaved a sigh. “Look, for as long as you and I have beenalive, the gates around the school have been weakening. You know this because you’ve seen it yourself. There have been more quakes since we left. The elevators malfunctioning. Officials at Drayton have been doing their best to stabilize the situation, but the school’s power, the power of the faculty who serve it, has its limits. They can’t keep the school stable for long. One day, the gates around the school will collapse entirely and expose the secrets of Drayton to the world. As you can probably imagine, the effects of such a collapse would be devastating not just to the school but to the world at large. What do you think will happen when nations start wielding persuasion like a weapon?”

“I—I don’t know—”

“Take a guess. What will the world’s worst people—the rapists and the warlords, the billionaire CEOs and the corrupt politicians—do with the power we possess?”

Lennon felt sick just thinking about it. “They’ll use it to their own ends.”

“Violent ends,” he said. “The results would be far-reaching if not world-ending. But I believe you can prevent that.”

“Why? If you and Eileen and the rest of the faculty can’t figure out how to keep the gates up and stable, then what can I possibly do?”

“You can raise a new one. You’re the only one who likely can.”

“But how? I open gates that move through space. But the boundaries around the school are different. Illusionary. They just shield it from the outside world. That has nothing to do with my elevators.”

Dante shook his head. “You’ve got the wrong idea. Drayton isn’t static. It’s alive. Moving through spaceandtime.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that the boundaries that protect it from the world aren’t illusionary. They’re not keeping it invisible. Drayton is a reality of itsown. You can think of it as a ship, moving along a river through space and time. The elevators we use to access it—even that long road that marks the end of campus—all of them are like small lifeboats carrying us back and forth between the reality on campus and that of the present.”

Lennon felt, with no small amount of discomfort, her mind stretching to accommodate this new information. “So you’re saying that the campus itself is kind of like one big elevator cabin?”

“Exactly,” said Dante. “And when that elevator fails, the cabin of the campus will fall back into the present.”

“Why the present? Why not the future or the past?”

---