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I liked her. Instantly, completely liked her.
“Thanks,” I said, shaking her hand. “Nice to be here. Well, besides the circumstances,” I corrected.
Her smile faltered. “Oh… well, yes. We’re all a little on edge too. But your help will be greatly appreciated. Let’s show you to your office and get you familiar with the space!”
‘Familiar with the space’ was code for ‘endless filing.’
None of the counselors were in today, but they had plenty of paperwork that had to be organized, scanned, and mailed. It was a nightmare, and after three hours, I was pissed.
I’d even tried to use my magic to lead me anywhere that useful information could be supplied. All routes led to the counselors’ closed rooms. Likely their confidential files. In other words, I was stuck in a useless room doing a useless job while some killer ran around the campus.
This is not how I’m going to solve any damn crimes, and now I know why the contract gave me free access to the campus at night. Fucking hell.
My small office boasted a window overlooking the campus square. The chair creaked with my weight as I leaned back, testing its limits.
A flash of magenta hair flounced angrily out of a building and into the quad. I squinted at the girl, wondering why she looked so familiar.
A smirk lifted my lips. “Looks like you got in. What was your name? Emily? Amber?”
The girl I’d run into after carrying the turtle to safety was pissed. The vines trailing her twisted and writhed in agitation. She stopped beneath a tree, breathing deeply as if to calm herself.
From the same door she’d exited from, a tall, muscly dude emerged. He paused on the steps, sweeping his gaze across the quad until it landed on her magenta hair. Even from this distance, the dude’s sinister grin was clear as day as he stalked toward her.
This wasn’t good.
I’d guessed he was an angel. He could be a shifter, but my bet was based on his obviously dickish attitude.
As if on cue, his gorgeous white wings appeared. With a twitch of his fingers, her vines blistered and smoked as a streak of coal-red burned through them.
She flinched and retracted them in a panicked flurry and then turned on her attacker.
Oh, hell, no.
I’m not sure what made me do it. Maybe it was my boredom. Maybe I’d liked the girl more than I’d realized.
But one thing was certain. I would not stand by and watch her get bullied. Not when I was Isra Valence, community coordinator. Right now, Gray Wilder wasn’t here. In her place was an employee placed in this position specifically to help students and protect them.
Apparently, I took that job seriously.
I’d never run down stairs so fast in my entire life. As I leapt to the next landing, jumping over four steps, I figured this was what flying really felt like. Hey, if I couldn’t show off any fancy wings of my own, then I’d just have to improvise, wouldn’t I?
Quinn regarded me with raised brows as I ran through the lobby and out the door, bursting into the quad.
There were now two more dudes flanking the first. I dismissed them, focusing on the man who had Evelyn—or whatever her name was—cornered between a thick oak tree and a wooden bench.
She could have easily jumped over the bench and made a run for it if not for the two other henchmen. And so, trapped and outgunned, the girl stood her ground as defiantly as possible. She stared up at him, not even flinching as his glowing hand reached for her face.
The only thing outshining the burn of his magic was the infinite fire in her eyes. Terrified yet undaunted.
Brave idiot.
His fingers were less than an inch from her skin when I shouted, “Hey, asshole!”
The man stiffened.
“Yeah, you,” I confirmed, entering the fray.
The two other boys backed off immediately, one of them noticing my name tag. The girl’s eyes lit up when she recognized me.
