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Fallen Lauren Kate 35290K 2023-09-02

So did Molly

She reached up just in tiernails, but Luce was not going to let her win this one She snatched the plane back fro loudly down the h time to pocket the torn note before Miss Sophia whipped around

"Lucinda and Molly," she said, pursing her lips and steadying her hands on the podium "I would hope whatever you two feel the need to discuss in a disrespectful passing of notes could be said before the entire class"

Luce'sfast, Molly would, and there was no telling how e that could be

"M-Molly was just saying," Luce starees with your view of how Hell is broken down She has her own ideas"

"Well, Molly, if you have an alternate schema of the underworld, I'd certainly like to hear of it"

"What the hell," Molly muttered under her breath She cleared her throat and stood up "Well, you've described Lucifer's mouth as the lowest place in the inferno, which is why all the traitors end up there

But for me," she said, like she'd rehearsed the lines, "I think thelook back at Luce - "should be reserved not for traitors, but for cowards The weakest, most spineless losers Because it seems to me that traitors? At least they made a choice But cowards?

They just run around biting their fingernails, totally afraid to do anything Which is totally worse" She coughed out, "Lucinda!" and cleared her throat "But that's just my opinion" She sat down

"Thank you, Molly," Miss Sophia said carefully, "I'htened"

Luce didn't She had stopped listening in thein the pit of her stomach

The shadows She sensed theround A tentacle of darkness curled around her wrist, and Luce looked down in terror It was trying to weasel its way into her pocket It was going for Arriane's paper plane She hadn't even read it yet! She stuffed her fist deep into her pocket and used two fingers and all her willpower to pinch the shadow out as hard as she could

An a back like an injured dog It was the first time Luce had ever been able to do that

Across the room, she met Arriane's eye Arriane's head was cocked to the side and heropen

The note - shefor Luce to read the note

Miss Sophia flicked off the light box "I think ht" She chuckled, encouraging the brain-numbed students to chuckle with her "If you'll all reread the seven critical essays I've assigned on Paradise Lost, I think you'll be more than prepared for tomorrow's exam"

As the other students rushed to pack up their bags and peel out of the rooive you that lame "I've been burned before" bit

Ouch She definitely needed to talk to Arriane and find out exactly what she knew about Daniel But first He was standing before her His silver belt buckle shone at eye level She took a deep breath and looked up at his face

Daniel's violet-flecked gray eyes looked rested She hadn't spoken to him in two days, since he'd left her at the lake It was as if the time he'd spent away from her had rejuvenated hi note spread open on her desk She sed hard and tucked it back into her pocket

"I wanted to apologize for leaving so suddenly the other day," Daniel said, sounding oddly fory, but he didn't give her time to respond "I take it you made it back to dry land okay?"

She tried a smile It crossed her mind to tell Daniel about the dream she'd had, but luckily she realized that would be totally weird

"What did you think of the review session?" Daniel seemed withdrawn, stiff, like they'd never spoken before Maybe he was joking

"It was torture," Luce answered It had always annoyed Luce when s just because they assuuy would want to hear But Luce was not pretending; it really had been torture

"Good," Daniel said, see pleased

"You hated it, too?"

"No," he said cryptically, and Luce noished she'd lied to sound more interested than she actually was

"Soyou liked it," she said, wanting to say so

"What did you like about it exactly?"

"Maybe 'like' isn't the right word" After a long pause, he said, "It's in uess I can't help feeling a connection"

It took a ister with Luce Her e basee file The file that claiori had spent e

"I didn't know you had any family," she said

"Why would you?" Daniel scoffed

"I don't know So, I mean, you do?"