Chapter 21
Footsteps sound on the stairs.
“Theo?”
Willow comes running towards me. “What’s wrong? Are you alright?” My new friend squats down at eye level, putting a gentle hand on my arm. “Theo?” Her gaze is filled with concern.
Am I alright? No. No, I’m not.
I wish I could tell her what just happened, but I just can’t.
Gods. All the secrets crammed behind my lips are choking me.
I finally have a real friend, and I can’t even talk to her properly.
Why does everything have to be so hard? How is it fair that Elites can command their lessers to silence?
Or that they have parents on school boards, so can assault whomever they like?
Willow puts a second hand on my other arm and pulls me towards her. “Deep breaths, Theo. Come on, breathe with me.”
Am I having a panic attack? Maybe. After a few minutes, I begin to feel more together. “Sorry, Willow,” I mumble, aware that I’m a complete mess. The front of my shirt is wet with tears.
“Oh, Theo. Why on earth are you apologizing? What’s upset you?” She loops an arm around my waist and helps me to stand. “Come up to my room, come on, I’m not taking no for an answer.”
I nod, grateful to have someone making decisions for me—my mind doesn’t seem to be functioning.
Willow chatters about inconsequential things as we climb the stairs, and my legs shake with fatigue all the way to her third-floor room.
Opening the door, she ushers me in. “You sit on the bed, I’ll make us hot chocolate. ”
I blink away the tears and take in my surroundings.
Willow’s room is not particularly large, but it is still twice the size of mine.
The walls are painted a delicate primrose yellow, and the brown school-issued bedding is covered with fluffy cream and white throws.
The room has one large window, through which I can see the lights of the main school building.
There’s a state-of-the-art coffee machine sitting on top of her dresser, and Willow’s room also boasts a mini fridge at the foot of the bed.
Willow notices me studying her room and makes an embarrassed face.
“My parents had a decorator come out last week. We’re not allowed to change out the Defectivum furniture, but Mom could have it spruced up a little. ”
“It’s great,” I tell her. No wonder she was so shocked by my basement.
Willow proceeds to create two massive mugs of steaming chocolate. She’s about to pass me one when she tilts her head to one side, opens a sock drawer, and brings out a glass bottle. “I think you need a splash of rum as well. My grandad swears it’s a cure-all.”
She passes me a mug and tucks a blanket over my knees. “You don’t have to tell me what’s wrong, but I’d love to help if I can. A problem shared is a problem halved and all that.”
“Thanks,” I whisper, taking a sip. “Things have gone a little to shit.”
“Then tell me how I can help. Where does it all start?” she asks.
Huh. I have a moment of clarity. Cosmo forbade me from talking about the twins to anyone in authority, but Willow? She’s just a dud. “This time last year at Validus Vale…” I say, then pause.
“Go on, but only if you want to tell me.”
I appreciate her trying not to be nosy, but it’s a relief to share some of this with a friend.
Wrapping the blanket tighter around my body, I nod.
“I’d like to, thanks. Maybe we can have a little more rum, and I’ll tell you what happened to me when I was here for the lottery intensive.
And also what I found out tonight, which, I have to admit, has knocked the stuffing out of me. ”
Willow gives me a reassuring smile and a slug more rum. “Spill those mysterious Theo-beans. Whatever it is, I’ve got your back.”
“Ok,” I say, “Settle in, this is a bit of a ride.”
My friend gets comfortable, and I pull the blanket closer around my body, then begin. “I arrived as a new lottery student, and I’d only been at Validus Vale for two days when I met Wes and Donovan Hart. They were sophomores and already top Elites.”
Sitting on Willow’s narrow bed, scenes run through my head like a TV show recap.
My face breaks out into a smile when I remember tripping over Donovan’s sprawled legs and landing directly in Wes’s lap.
I’d been walking by the lake in my lottery student uniform, nose in a book, next thing I knew, I’d gone flying.
Suddenly, I was gazing up into a pair of laughing turquoise eyes, surrounded by a mess of unruly, chocolate-brown curls.
The boy looking at me had full, pouting lips, which widened into a crooked grin as he laughed. “What do we have here?”
I quickly pushed myself off him, hair falling all over my flaming, embarrassed face.
“Don’t move,” another voice said, and I heard the click of a camera shutter.
I twisted my head, and there was another boy.
He was very much like the first, but with a darker, more intense stare.
This one looked at me from above the viewfinder, his face breaking into a smile.
“Hello, little witch,” he said. “Glad you could drop in.”
That broke the tension, and I sat back on my haunches. “Sorry about that. I’m a klutz.”
“Please don’t apologize,” the ocean-eyed boy said.
“Your klutziness is our gain.” Even though it was said lightly, both boys were gazing at me intently, bringing more heat to my cheeks.
I reached out to rescue my paperback, but the dark-eyed boy beat me to it.
He picked it up, and amusement spread over his face.
“Want to tell us what you’re reading?” he asked, and raised an eyebrow.
I very much did not want to do that. I’d been reading a romance novel set in Ancient Rome.
It featured gods and goddesses (along with the occasional human) engaging in all sorts of sexy behavior.
I tried to snatch the book from him, but he held it out of my reach.
Not in a bullying way, more teasing. “Sorry, babe. You’re not getting this back until…
” he looked at the other boy (who must be his brother) with a speaking glance.
“Until...you agree to go on a date with us.”
Huh? A date? And with us. Like the two of them?
“Tonight,” the blue-eyed boy added.
I wasn’t sure what to say. A date with both of them? Not to mention these two were completely and overwhelmingly gorgeous. Way out of my league. They were probably just taking the piss. “But you don’t even know me,” I stammered out.
“I’m Donovan, and that’s my twin, Wes. Tell us your name and we’ll no longer be strangers.”
I looked from blue eyes to gray-brown, then nodded. “I’m Theo.”
“Theo,” Wes said, rolling my name around his mouth. “Perfect. OK, we’ll pick you up by the lottery student wing at six.”
It was obvious where I was rooming by the color of my uniform. “B-but only upperclassmen can leave the academy grounds,” I replied, still not sure if this was for real. Gorgeous boys did not ask me out on dates, ever.
Donovan grinned as the clock tower bell chimed the hour.
“No problem, Theo. We won’t make you break any rules—or make you late for class, we’re responsible like that.
” He put out a hand and pulled me to my feet.
As he did, a tingling sensation erupted at the point of our joined fingers, then moved all the way through my body.
“Enjoy your afternoon classes, and we’ll see you soon. ”
We split up, heading in different directions, and I couldn’t help but look back at the retreating figures of Wes and Donovan.
A shiver of anticipation ran up my spine.
I’d been on a few lackluster dates before and had the odd crush, but I’d never felt such an instant attraction as I did with those twins.
And now I had a date with them.
It may be on school grounds and wearing the academy uniform, but I’d never looked forward to something more in my life.
Dashing back to my dorm room after the last class, I pulled all my clothes from the closet and spread them across the bed.
There wasn’t a huge choice, but in the end I dressed in thigh-length burgundy socks and a matching short plaid skirt, but wore it with my white gym shirt, which was fitted and cropped.
I’d put my hair in a messy bun and added some eyeliner and mascara to my eyes.
I’d never been the Victoria’s Secret kind of sexy, but dressed like this, I thought I looked cute.
At six on the dot, I stepped outside and found Donovan and Wes waiting there for me. They were both in the Elite uniform of slim-fitting midnight blue pants and white shirt, but had discarded their blazers and ties.
Several undone buttons were giving me an eyeful of matching tanned, muscled chests.
“You look beautiful,” Donovan told me. “Dark red really suits you. We need to find you some matching lipstick for those delicious pouty lips of yours.”
I wasn't used to such extravagant compliments and felt my cheeks grow warm. “Turn it down a notch,” Wes told his brother, giving him a shove on the shoulder. “We talked about this. We are not going to say or do anything that makes you uncomfortable,” he added to me.
Donovan looked a little shamefaced. “Sorry, Theo, but it’s difficult to hold back when you’re so gorgeous.” Wes clipped him around the ear again, then shook a paper sack in my direction. “We got a delivery of WizBurgers, if you haven’t had them, they’re the best in all Havengard City, sound OK?”
“Um, yes,” I replied. “Sounds amazing,” though in truth I thought I was probably too nervous to eat a thing.
Wes took my hand, and the three of us walked for twenty minutes to a small grove in the woods. There, the twins laid out a couple of rugs, then dished out our food.