Chapter Twenty - Dorms
CHAPTER TWENTY
Dorms
BLYTHE AND I filled our dinner trays from the back, where Levi said the good stuff was stocked. I had definitely gained a couple pounds eating this well, but I didn’t mind. Neither my uncle nor I were great cooks, it was usually leftover takeout in the fridge or cereal.
My phone went off. I set my tray down near the buffet.
CALEB: What are you up to today?
I snapped a selfie with Blythe, who kissed my cheek playfully.
ME: Hot study date in the library.
CALEB: Now I’m really regretting going to this dinner .
He sent me a photo back. His pristine suit matched his cobalt-blue eyes, with a white button-up, undone at the top. His hair neatly combed back .
ME: Oh, you clean up nice. We’re staying on campus all day. When will you be back?
I refrained from the tad bit of jealousy. The outfit made it look like it must have been an important dinner. This weekend, Christina’s absence was already noticeable, and I knew she’d be with him all evening. It was really starting to feel like too much for me to get involved in.
Without a text back, I tucked my phone into my pocket.
“Cranachan, please,” Blythe said to the kitchen staff from over the buffet.
The staff member smiled at her, coming back a second later with two incredible-looking raspberry and cream desserts in glass cups. The faintest hint of whiskey wafted from the desserts.
“Thanks,” she said.
We headed out the door of the dining hall with our trays in hand.
“How did you know those were in the back?” I asked her.
“I requested it.” She smiled. “It’s been one of my favorites recently. My parents made sure it’ll be stocked for the rest of the month in honor of my 20th birthday. If everyone’s going to treat me differently for my last name, I might as well benefit from it, but that was all I asked for. I really want these years to be as normal as possible.”
I smiled at her, wanting the same, but for different reasons. “Dessert is not a terrible use of your influence at all.” I laughed.
“If it runs out, like they did already today, they will always set aside extras for us—and for Levi. I haven’t seen him all day. He said he would help us study for Aura Reading, but he hasn’t been answering his phone,” she frowned while we headed through the courtyard.
“Well, I have to stop in my room for my books anyway. I can go see if he’s in his room.” “Ok, I’ll claim a table in the library. He’s in dorm B48,” she said, taking my tray from me.
I shouted over my shoulder as I rushed to cut through the courtyard. “Save me some of that dessert!”
“No promises.”
I gave her a look, and she laughed maniacally, heading for the library.
After grabbing my books, I raced up the steps that I never had a reason to go up before. Once stepping onto the second floor, it was only a little disappointing to find it nearly matched the first floor in every way.
The stairs opened to a spacious common room. Every bit of the decor matched the academy colors of black and bronze. Some students sat by the fire in the back, practicing magic within their hands or focused on their phones. Dorm room doors lined one wall, while two hallways flanked the fireplace, leading to more rooms. Bookshelves stood between the doors and were on either side of the lit fireplace.
I was hoping the second floor would have been more exciting for when I was a second-year, getting a room on this floor. My steps halted, realizing that was the first time I really thought further about my future here. The idea of joining Blythe and Levi for another year, staying in these dorms, wasn’t so bad. I did miss my uncle, but even the constant gloomy weather wasn’t getting to me anymore.
“B48,” I murmured to myself.
Lifting my hand to knock, the door swung open at the slightest touch, as if it wasn’t completely closed. The room was dim, but someone moved.
“Levi, I wanted to—” My words cut off when Levi jumped up from his bed.
“Shit,” Trevor’s voice called out.
Levi yanked me into his room, turning on the light. At that same time, Trevor raised his hand and air magic slammed the door shut.
Trevor’s face turned bright red, his lips puffy. Levi’s shirt was unbuttoned all the way down, his hair a mess.
It was then I realized what I had done. My hand flew to my mouth, partly from the extreme tension and that I had interrupted Levi—and that he was with Trevor of all people.
I wondered why I was pulled in instead of being told to come back later or something. The moment I opened my mouth, Trevor cut me off.
“You can’t say anything to anyone, Solace,” Trevor snapped. “This is a disaster.” He ran a hand through his dark, short hair.
Levi’s face was turning pink under his freckles. Instead of looking mad at me for interrupting, he was glaring at Trevor, who wouldn’t look at him.
I stood awkwardly in the room with them, suddenly feeling cramped. “I won’t say anything. ”
Trevor’s normally distrusting stare did not look like he believed me for a second.
“She won’t,” said Levi. He sounded unusually tired and stressed. He sat on the bed beside him. “She has her own things to deal with. She’s not going to spread even more rumors around the academy.”
“I wouldn’t. Even if you didn’t ask me to, I’m not much for gossip.” I tried to assure them. “I seriously wouldn’t have even knocked, Blythe just said you weren’t answering your phone,” I said to Levi.
Levi buried his face in his hands. “Faulty lock.”
“I don’t think anyone saw,” I added.
Trevor spoke up, “If my dad learns about us, he will freak out. I can’t be with someone who doesn’t have any prospects with the council, and we’re not mated, he would never approve.”
“As you’ve said before.” Levi’s voice turned cold.
Trevor’s shoulders dropped. “That doesn’t mean that this isn’t what I want. This getting out will make things so much harder on me. My schedule is already impossible to manage.” Trevor stood up and stared at Levi. “I should go.”
He rushed out the door, peering out first to make sure no one noticed, and nearly took off in a run.
“Harper, I’m so sorry to ask you to keep this quiet. It’s been a mess,” Levi said. He stood up, heading to his door but stopped, crossing his arms and leaning on his desk.
I touched his arm to reassure him, not knowing what to say, so I just listened.
“He just doesn’t want it out to anyone at all. I don’t think he’s even told Caleb, and they’re basically attached at the hip. ”
“That must be hard, to keep that a secret—to be kept a secret,” I stared down at the dried mud on my shoes from the rain last night. Old memories had slowly started to become clearer with the time spent at Ares-Valentine.
Levi looked at me like I wouldn’t know but nodded in agreement. “It is hard. I know it’s because my family, we’re not really well off. I’m the first person in my family to even go to an academy at all. His dad is set on no slip-ups from him. I’ve never seen someone under so much pressure. If his dad found out he was serious with someone on a scholarship, he would make his life even more hell, and I don’t want that for him.”
“So, it’s serious?”
He started doing the buttons back up on his shirt. “Yeah, it is for me. It started in the middle of our first year, at the beginning of Magical Combat.”
“Do you want to be public about it?” I asked.
He opened his door and we entered the common room. We walked past tall windows on one wall, looking out to gray skies and the tops of the black iron fence bordering the academy below.
He looked around, whispering, “It doesn’t really matter if the world knows or not, not to me. Though, it would make things easier. He’s just waiting until we graduate or until he gets an official invite to the council without being set up with another powerful family. I’m actually glad you know, so I can finally tell someone.”
“Does Blythe know?”
He shook his head. “It’s been too on and off, mostly off during the summer. It wasn’t serious enough to bring up before this year, plus he freaks out at the idea. ”
“Yeah… That’s understandable. But now I know, so you can talk to me about it whenever you want,” I said, thinking about how much I wanted to bring up my random evening with Mr. Ares. That was only one evening, Levi wasn’t feeling able to open up about a whole relationship. I was starting to hate calling him Mr. Ares after that kiss. Things did go back to normal, mostly, other than he was clearly following Caleb, maybe Trevor—now that I thought about it. It was also too much of a mess to bring up, so I understood.
He smiled a soft smile down at me. “Alright, so what did you need?”
“I came to check if you wanted to study for Aura Reading with us.” I sighed, feeling like it was so insignificant now. “Apparently, Blythe has dessert reserved for you. We can stop by the dining hall, but we need to be fast because she’s been waiting for me.”
“Sounds good,” he said. “I’ll text her we’re on our way.”
We headed down the steps in silence.
As we walked through the courtyard, he looked over his shoulder before asking, “Did it feel like Professor Douglas took too much during his reading?”
I frowned, remembering the force of it. “Yeah, did he do that to you?”
“He tried with me the day after what looked like a painful reading for you. I didn’t bring it up because we just met, but I also saw your face in Blythe’s reading on the first day. There was something dark all around you, and things I didn’t know how to make sense of.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“If I figure it out, I’ll let you know. Didn’t think you’d know what it was about once I got to know you. It was only the once. When I get your readings, they are darker than others, a lot darker,” he said.
“Oh,” I said, staring at the ground. That did not sound good. Perhaps it was my view of this school year. For some reason, a memory flashed in my mind and a chill ran up my spine. I wrapped my arms around myself.
He looked down at me, that same lighthearted face I was used to seeing on him came back. “Hey, I’m not judging you for it. I just thought you should know. That way you can be careful if it means anything, it might be nothing. Blythe’s readings are all over the place because the plans in her mind are constantly changing.” He threw his arms up toward the trees, exasperated. “Still, I think you shouldn’t let Professor Douglas try again. I don’t know what he would make of what I saw, and I don’t think it’s normal for them to pry so hard. He was definitely searching for something specific.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, unable to focus on the steps in front of me.
He bumped my shoulder.
After an evening of eating cranachan in the library, which was incredible and something I had never eaten in the States, we all headed back to the dorms.
My eyes were so tired after reading about the moon, aura readings, and learning the names of famous aura readers that I went straight to my bed. My phone finally buzzed as soon as I hit the blankets with the reply I was waiting for.
CALEB: Staying the night here. I won’t be back until tomorrow night.