It was as if I’d been splashed with cold water. “Fine, then.”
I stood up and continued on my way. Why had I even tried? James was an insufferable and not my problem. The administration offices, a squat one story building made of red brick, stood at the side of the campus, closest to the main street, I climbed the steps to the second floor and stopped at the secretary’s desk in front of the dean’s office.
“Cassi Wayne. The dean just called for me?” I shifted from one foot to another.
She waved me over to the dean’s door. “Go on in. They’re waiting for you.”
They? That didn’t sound good. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door before entering. A deep, rich smell of leather and cedar filled my nose as I entered.Dean Elkridge sat at his oak desk with his hands clasped together. Aunt Jo looked over her should at me. My heart plummeted. Not good.
“Miss Wayne, please have a seat,” Dean Elkridge said.
I sat on the edge of the leather armchair and circled my thumbs around each other in my lap as I glanced between the two of them. Elkridge’s smooth face was marred by the lines around his lip caused by his frown. He had his nose slightly scrunched as if he smelled something unpleasant. My aunt gave me a quick scowl before turning back to the dean.
“There any paperwork we need to sign?” she asked.
“What’s this about?” I asked.
Elkridge cleared his throat. “Your family has decided to pull you from the rest of semester. Since they are funding your college stay, I don’t have much of a choice.”
“What?” I gaped at Aunt Joanna. “You can’t do that. You said I could finish this year.”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “That was until you blew me off. We’re going home.”
I turned back to the dean and crossed my arms. “She still can’t do this. The semester has been paid for, and I’m an adult.”
He cleared his throat and stared down at the papers in front of him. “There is the implication of your involvement of incidents of academic dishonesty. I have several statements of you selling test answers to students.”
I gaped at him, caught between the urge to laugh or choke. “That is completely ridiculous. I’ve never been remotely involved any anything like that, and you know it.”
His eyes shifted to my aunt. “I only have your word against the evidence I have before me. I’m trying to make this easy for you, but if continue the push, I will have to expel you.”
I glared at my aunt before I turned back to the dean. “Is it alright if I talk to my aunt alone for a moment?”
He stood up and gave us a strained smile. “I’ll let the two of you discuss this.”
As soon as the door closed, I rounded on my aunt. “What the hell?”
She snorted. “Did ya think we’d let ya go to any ole college? We made sure ya picked one we had fingers in.”
“This is you getting back at me for skipping out on training. I told you I’ve been busy.”
“Yeah, and that’s why we’re goin’ home. Ya need to get proper trainin’ and get away from all these distractions.”
“These distractions are my life now, and I’m happy with them.”
“Ya need to stop ignorin’ yer real callin’”
“Haven’t you realized it yet? I don’t want that calling.”
She snorted. “Don’t matter. The Fates chose you, just like they chose all of us.”
“Screw the Fates. Why do we have to listen to them out of all the gods and spirits? They should be hunted first.”
She turned pale. “Girl, stop speakin’ that way. There’s no fightin’ the Fates.”
“Well, I can damn well ignore them.” I crossed my arms. “I’m not going back.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Do I need to remind ya again that the Pyrrha’s payin’ for everything here? You defy her, and yer out on yer ass.”
I squeezed my hand into a fist. “I’ll find a way to survive.”
“Until ya get grabbed by a daimon. Killed at best, worn at worst” She gritted her teeth. “Anyway it goes, yer done here.”
My heart dropped to my stomach. This had been my last year. Covering the project would have substituted for my Thesis. Now I had to leave it all behind and return to the gilded cage to be let out only when it was time to find a new spirit to trap. I had no future but one of either death or worse. Even if I ran from her and managed to make some sort of life, the ending was probably the same. I hadn’t even had a chance to make up with Serenity. I’d never see Mercer again. I tried to swallow the lump clogging my throat. My dream, so close, was slipping away.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “Please give me another chance.”
“We’ve been through this beggin’ before.”
“I know.” I shook my head. “I’ll come to your training. I’ll do whatever you want. Just don’t take me away yet.”
She glared at me for several moments before sighing. “I never could refuse that look of yers.”
Hope, that little deviant, blossomed in my chest. “So, I can stay?”