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But to er avoided er kept himself apart froe of our little group, but he was firmly a part of it

And it was a good goddaet weird

As the weeks went on, the pressure of living in the underworld had split the students evenly Those who couldn’t take it had been steadily whisked away to some mysterious “daycare” downstairs Those who could stand it, who grew stronger to spite it, were given jobs

The job that took the most time—and felt the y and strengthen our protection, the wards had been moved in fro itself Maintaining and checking theroups

The guys, Hannah, and I had all been assigned to peri natural groups together; he was as eneral as headmaster by this point, and he knew that ould work far ers

Hannah was in charge of wards, since she had the highest es in the ats like that—since he knew the place best Kai was tasked with checking the high, dark, and sht vision would cohtened sense of s, and I double-checked Jayce’s perceptions with h honestly, I didn’t know if it worked the way Toland intended it to I could barely tasteto taste a native of the underworld?

But I actually didn’t ave us a chance to screw around without attracting unwanted attention from Sonja or her posse, who’d only beco in their demon forms to see if vampires or hellhounds were faster

“Valy as he perched on a rock next to the castle wall that had been the end goal Then he frowned, confused He glanced over his shoulder, looking for the hellhound, and almost fell off the rock when Jayce popped up behind hi snarl

“Damn it!” the dark-haired vampire cursed “How did you do that?”

Laughter sounded evil and otherworldly through a hellhound’s throat, and I think it startled Jayce He froze, then shifted back into his hu sheepishly

“It’s the underworld,” he ad “I don’t know, it’s like I’m part of the atmosphere here I can just sort of… bleep forward at will”

“Portal travel? Cheater” Kai glared at him

“It’s not portals,” Jayce objected “It’s just—I don’t even knohat it is, honestly, but it makes it easier to live in this cave Makes me feel like I can breathe, you know?”

“You have been dealing with your claustrophobia pretty well since we’ve been here,” I said thoughtfully "Do you feel like this place is changing you?”

He shook his head, his blue eyes as bright and open as always He sure didn’t look like he was turning evil “Just adapting, I guess I’ up”