Fortune Academy: Year Three - J.R. Thorn Page 0,41
piece after the shit the Dean pulled. You know, after you broke through to Hell, we started getting bombarded with attacks from all sorts of monsters. Demonspawn, vampires, Incubi, Succubi and sirens, all sorts of stuff. They’ve been trying to go after the Dean and we didn’t know why, but if she’s the Conduit and Lucifer wants to use her power for himself, then I guess you’d better get to her first.” She tapped her lip as she walked up the steps to the dorm. “But Kaito is right. You said he feared she’d remember who she was if you tried to take her to Hell, and I fully believe that. My theory is that when I wiped her memory, she started pulling the Academy closer to Hell. I don’t know what kind of supernatural she is, but she’s powerful. The Dark Mages have been working overtime trying to push Fortune Academy out of the pit it’s sunken into, but we haven’t been having much luck. She’s strong—and if she remembers who she is, we’re all toast.”
“My mages can’t fight her?” Hendrick asked with a skeptical look. “Then they’re not pulling in enough blood duty. That shouldn’t be difficult with the amount of suffering going on around here.”
Olivia glowered at him before bumping his shoulder to get past him. “You think we haven’t been trying? The Dean has the mages using the majority of the tithes to travel to and from Earth to keep up her search for the perfect “vessel,” as she calls it. She claims that she’s looking for the right recruit to stop the monster attacks, but I saw her memories. She’s Guinevere, as in the Guinevere. I don’t know what she is, but I know that she fell in love with a guy named Lancelot. She fell for him so hard she took his last name after he died and now she’s been trying to resurrect him ever since.”
“That would make her the perfect candidate to be the Conduit,” Dante said with a sneer.
“Yeah?” I asked. “Why’s that?”
“It’s just something Kaito told me,” he said as he rubbed the scar around his neck. He always did that when I made him uncomfortable. “He said that Calamity is drawn to sources of suffering and can drive the Conduit mad. He had his suspicions of who might be the Conduit, including the Dean, but he couldn’t pinpoint what she might be suffering over. Now it makes sense.”
We went silent as we reached my old room. “How did you talk them into letting you stay here?” I asked Olivia.
She shrugged and pushed open the door that was already ajar. She watched Melinda as the muse gathered beers from the fridge and swayed her hips. “Music!” she ordered and one of the thralls turned on the sound system.
She grinned as she held up our drinks. “We chug before interrogation! Muse rules!”
Chapter 13
Of course, Melinda’s muse powers didn’t work on me, but she didn’t know that. And since my Virtues had already bonded with me, her mind tricks didn’t work on them, but we all played our parts and turned on our zombie faces as she asked us a series of questions.
We kept the story simple. We’d gone to Hell, traveled into the lower layers and fended off witch spirits until we were able to use a portal to get ourselves back. When we did, we found Fortune Academy in chaos and everyone had lost their damn minds.
Appeased, Melinda finished off her third beer and burped, giggling as she covered her mouth. “Excuse me!”
I resisted the urge to raise my brow at her and kept my zombie face in place.
“Do you have everything you need?” Olivia asked. “I think it’s safe to say they can reintegrate into the classrooms.” She touched my arm. “Actually, Lily here was mentoring the other students with me before she… left. I propose that she resumes her role immediately, and the same goes for Hendrik, Dante, and Orion.”
Melinda nodded in agreement, swaying slightly as she grabbed another beer. “Yep. Tots agree.” She tapped me on the nose. “You’re free, Miss Lily.” She brushed her fingers over each of my guys, lingering a little too long on Dante’s broad shoulders than I cared for.
“All of you are free to go, too, just keep in mind that I’m watching!” She made an “o” with one hand and stared through it at us. “And I can make you do anything I want!” She sighed as she looked at Dante.