Page 120 of Angel Lost

His smile is taut, barely there. “My visions don’t always work like Chano’s suggesting. I’m not some kind of early warning system. But I’ll do my best.”

I wrap my arms around him and give him a quick hug before moving toward Farrell. “You’re up for the illusions. And I want to be a guy, please.”

Kai cackles in the background. “No luck, buttercup, you’ll not be needing spelled.” He turns to Farrell. “You said in and out quietly. Well, the only ones who should even be there are me and Lorelei. No one will bother if they see one of us wandering around campus.”

Farrell nods slowly.

“And, since Chano’s men will wipe the footage, there will be no evidence anyway,” Kai continues. “We go in teams of one Kai and one Lorelei.”

I shrug, trying to hide my disappointment. A teeny tiny part of me really, really wanted to have a dick for a day.

Hiding behind the portal, only twenty yards from where Davina will hopefully appear, feels like the riskiest part of our plan. If anyone looks hard enough, they’ll see five of me and five of Kai. I yank Zephyr’s hands out from inside his shirt, again. My shirt. He’s touching his—my—boobs. He winks and I can’t help grinning. It should be creepy, dammit.

I send my senses out, checking my ley line tangle again. I’ve created a maze. A maze that would contain a minotaur. On my signal Hewie starts wailing. Jess and Val add to the general chaos with their shrieks.

Dean Emrick will buy that I got myself stuck inside the ley lines, but will Davina? And I’m just assuming he’ll panic, and that with his star pupil in danger, he’ll call on Davina for help. What if he’s too proud?

A crowd gathers quickly. The dean rushes from the academic buildings toward the wailing, and I hold my breath. His long cloak flaps behind him as he struts around the edge of the mess of ley lines, rubbing his hands together. After listening to Hewie he practically runs back to his office.

We wait. And wait.

My nails are bitten to the quick by the time Davina’s floaty white robes come into view. Behind her trails my combat professor. Stage one complete.

We stay only just long enough to see the professor roll up her sleeves. I feel her tug the first ley line back into place while Davina taps her foot impatiently. Good luck, bitch. That thing is worse than one of Naeve’s balls of yarn.

Hewie’s wailing cranks up a notch and we slip, two by two, through the portal and into the Gifted Academy.

The last Lorelei and Kai pair slinks into my Gifted dorm room and I shut the door firmly. Hairy hell, and I thought this room was spacious. Within seconds, someone knocks on my door. I remove Farrell’s elbow from my stomach—or is it Chano’s?—and position myself at the door.

“Who is it?”

“Poppy.”

“Who?”

There’s a loud sigh. “Fine, Nyx.”

Without further warning the door opens, hitting me smack in the nose. I screw my eyes shut, seeing stars, opening them to find Nyx, wide-eyed.

“Do you like my, uh, illusion?” I scramble for an excuse. “It’s for a project at Fates—”

“The hell it is,” Nyx spits. She turns on a dime and sprints away.

Ah, shit.

“Hunt her down.” Farrell’s voice bursts out of a carbon copy of me. “Non-lethal force unless absolutely necessary.”

One of the rebels, a Kai copy, peels off down the corridor. I gape after him, before rounding on Farrell. “What the hell? She’s my friend.”

He scowls. “She took off. Right now, she’s the enemy. Doesn’t matter if you’ve had a cozy spa day together.”

“That isnotwhat I’ve been doing here.”

Farrell looks around my room, taking in the plush robe, the slippers, the yoga mat. He gazes out the window across the tennis courts and swimming pool to the jetty, lit up by thousands of fairy lights, decorated with rare ferns and palms. Somehow, I don’t think I made my point.

“We have to go now. Everyone,” Farrell commands.

This was not the plan. This was not the plan.

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