8. Fated Roommates
EIGHT
fated roommates
Professor Correll leads Lila and me down to the first floor. It’s a cheery exchange between the two of them while I follow numbly along down the dark corridors like I’m still a ghost looming on the outskirts of the realm of the living. I know I belong here, call it intuition or just a stupid lucky guess, but I belong in this place. Maybe I even belong with Aelix or Arcane, but I just don’t feel like I do yet.
I especially don’t know how to feel like I fit anywhere when more and more life altering news keeps being dropped on me. Like the mating quarters.
My lip curls once more at the idea of sharing a dorm room with Aelix Deces: a man I don’t even know. It’s starting to feel like a hostage situation here at Death Rider Academy.
This has gone too far. I need real answers, and I need them now.
“Has anyone ever died at the academy?” I interrupt the two of them with my blurting words, and their pleasant smiles and small talk of the weather literally dies on their lips.
Real smooth, Haunting.
“Well,” the professor starts as she opens what appears to be a large walk-in closet. She rummages through a stack of white button-downs before passing three to me and then three to Lila. She does the same with several solid black ties before moving down to a shelf of black skirts. “It’s to be expected, honestly. We’re going to trials next week. There will be three in total before our training completes and our students are set out to defend Dragon’s Lair. There usually aren’t too many deaths during the beginning. A few a week, I suppose. The real loss of our riders takes place after they leave the academy, during the defense against the raiders from the eastern coast. It’s quite frankly war on those who think they have a right to steal and sell dragon eggs. Unfortunately, defending dragons is not for the faint of heart, Miss Haunting.”
A few a week. She said not many, but then corrected it to a few. A. Week. My lips never close as I take in that information and find that there’s no way to know if I randomly died in a place that has made dying into a sport.
A heavy pair of black boots sit on top of the overflowing bundle of clothes I’m now holding, and my arms only drop lower and lower as she piles on a few pairs of tactical-looking pants, straps of leather that jingle with silver scales all across them, a small dagger, a thigh holster, a belt, a sword, and . . .
“What the hell is this?” I ask with a look of concern focused intensely on the silver skull that’s staring me in the face atop the mountain of gear.
“Face shield. It’s fire resistant and very much meant to intimidate your opponent.” Correll tells me, her hands settling on her thin hips as she tilts her head at me with that same sweet smile. It’s coming off as manic instead of kind, but now is not the time to tell her that.
“Fire resistant ,” Lila whispers. “That’s reassuring.”
Professor Correll looks at Lila and then me and then back again before shaking her head and closing up the closet. She locks the handle before ushering us back the way we came.
“Clothing cubbies are hidden all around the school for any accidental shifting that may occur. If your mate is new and isn’t familiar with camouflaging, you may need to aid them with spare clothing.”
“Camouflaging?” I ask slowly, but at this point, I don’t know if my brain could retain another fun dragon fact at this time.
“Yes, it’s like—how some reptiles can shift colors and blend into their surroundings. Our training teaches them to also mimic clothing.”
My mouth opens, then closes but I can’t stop the words from falling out one after the other.
“So they’re just naked, pretending to wear pants then?”
Lila giggles softly, but Correl is entirely too serious as she says:
“Quite often, unfortunately.”
A grimace slides over my features, and Lila’s tinkling laughter falls into her hand as she tries to cover her mouth.
All I can think about is how confidently Arcane stood right here in these halls, and the whole time, he was naked. And you’re telling me I didn’t know! Are all of them just walking around here with their dragon ding dongs out, and I’m happily oblivious? Just how good is this camouflaging we’re talking about?
“I’ll take you two up to the mating quarters. Aelix and Clawd should be waiting to get you situated in your new rooms. Please test out the journals to try to seal your own marks and advance yourselves and your mates in time for next week’s trials. I’ll see you both in the morning at the first bell to finish up our history lessons this week.”
My eyes close slowly at the very thought of how my life is turning out. Things were looking a lot brighter when I was dead, I’m just saying.
I stumble at the first step, but the professor is already nearly to the second floor by the time I’ve even started. The bundle of items in my arms is awkward and hard to see around. Something keeps poking my ribs, and I contemplate for a long moment if I should just give into the urge of possibly impaling myself on what might be my academy-assigned dagger.
By the fifth floor, I’m literally leaning into that urge.
“Ah, here we are,” Professor Correll says cheerily as she gestures forward with a wave of her slender hand. I peer around the top of my creepy little skull mask to see a dark hall of endless doors. “Lila, you’re in room 555, and Hollie, you’re in 556. Neighbors. How fun.” She does a weird little happy scrunching of her nose before turning on her heels and jogging back down the stairs.
“Great,” I whisper once she’s gone.
“So weird, isn’t it?” Lila asks once it’s just the two of us.
We walk at a slower, less enthusiastic pace. Just two women walking to their deaths.
“What do you think of Aelix?” Lila adds, her gaze flicking to mine for only a moment before peering around her clothes and weapons to look ahead and, you know, make sure we’re not about to walk off a random cliff or something.
“He seems sweet,” I tell her honestly. He does seem kind to me. But it’s easy to be nice to someone for a few minutes, isn’t it? First impressions are easy. It’s keeping up that impression that seems hard for people. Speaking of . . . “What do you think of Clawd?”
“He’s so sweet,” she says with a big smile that makes all this newfound nervousness rise up in my chest.
Because she said exactly what I said. And if she’s wrong about her mate, I might be too.
I try to ignore the pounding of my heart and the crawling of my skin that tell me to run. Run far away from this death academy and never look back.
“Oh look, this is us!” From beneath a pile of clothes, she reaches out her hand and bumps open room 555 without dropping a single boot. “See you tomorrow?” she asks, and I nod a meager little nod of my head before she closes the door on me and leaves me to my own demise.
Etched on a center stone above the black door are the numbers, reminding me not to lose this dorm room this time.
My palm lifts, and I squeeze the bundle in my arms against my chest with my forearm, holding it together with just the pressure of my right boob and thigh as I balance it all. My fingers strain for a grip on the metal handle of room 556. My breath turns ragged. I lean into the glossy wood and try to shove it open, but it doesn’t budge. I can’t turn the handle properly. As a last-ditch effort, I angle my head and knock with one solid thump of my temple. Nothing happens. Once more, I lift my head and bang it against the smooth door before struggling again to find the cold metal against my hand but the stupid sword, it slides from beneath the mask. The leather straps tangle around it, and I hug the entire length of my body to the surface of the wood to try to keep it all together. And I’m successful. Pathetically successful.
Until the door pulls away.
Without warning, I freefall forward. Metal clanks to the brick. A sword clatters at my feet. Two boots tumble through the room. A tangle of ties floats to the floor. And one mess of a girl falls face-first into the one man I had really hoped wouldn’t see me in all my catastrophic glory.
“Wow. Really know how to make an entrance,” Arcane whispers across my messy hair that’s tangled around my face.
My eyes are tightly closed, and I . . . yeah, I don’t think I’m going to open them. I can’t look.
Warm palms grip my wrists to support me, but it’s the uncomfortable way my face is smooshed ungracefully against his button-down shirt that has me grimacing. It would have been less tragic if I’d impaled myself on the stairs rather than having to look up at the most talented Death Rider in the entire academy.
“What are you doing here?” I ask as I shove out of his arms.
He lifts his hands from his sides. “Just catching whatever falls through the door.”
My lips purse, and I narrow my attention on his smug mug.
The jerk.
“I meant, what are you doing here? In my room .”
His smirk slips away, and the pink of his tongue slides out to slowly trail over his lower lip like he’s buying time or possibly avoiding the question altogether.
“Reign doesn’t think you’re Aelix’s mate. He still hasn’t shifted. You still haven’t sealed your mark.”
He lifts his hands lightly from his sides and looks away. The muscle in my jaw is painful as my teeth clench even harder.
“So, he’s assigned me a mate? He just gets to pick and choose, and obviously, he knows better than Fate, right?” The length of my spine is like steel. My arms fold hard over my chest, but the stance isn’t really as strong as it would be if every possession I owned wasn’t lying at my feet right now.
“No.” A heavy breath releases from his lips, and he shoves his hand through his messy hair hard before meeting my glare once again. “I don’t want to be here either, okay? He’s ordered me to stay until Aelix shifts. Once Aelix shifts and proves he’s deserving of a mate, the headmaster will see I’m not bonded to you.”
“What about the in-between stuff?”
“What about it?”
“If we’re not linked, why could you see me when no one else could?”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” he says, that cruel smile of his kissing his lips once more. “You’re not my first haunting.”
I take a daring step closer to get right in the captain’s face. His lazy smirk makes my fingers twitch against my palm with the urge to slap it right off his arrogant face.
“You think—” But my storming words halt on my lips as heavy boots resound behind me.
And I turn to meet the other Deces brother. The other wheel to our third-wheel party I’m living in.
“I take it you told her the good news.” Aelix slips past me, his hand lingering on my shoulder as he shoves through the mess in the room like it’s not even there.
At the middle of the room is a large black bed. It’s a circular pod of feathers, really. The shape of it steals away every inch of space, leaving only a single writing desk with a little chair in the far corner. The old square window above it isn’t as pretty as the windows in the previous dorm.
“Why is the bed like that?” I ask, my boot lifting to give the fluffy bag of feathers a small kick.
“Because this is a mating room,” Aelix answers carelessly, and he flops down on his back against the pod. “It’s meant to encourage a bond in every way possible.”
“Oh,” I whisper as the image of the three of us curled up on the weird little bed together flashes through my mind. I shake it from my thoughts and decide the left half of the room is mine and mine alone. I need to draw a line here and now with these two before the academy forces me to accidentally fall in love with one of them.
Undead rule number two: don’t fall in love with the living . . . even if you’re also living now.
“That half is mine. If we’re going to be roommates, we need rules.” I lift my chin with authority, but Aelix’s smile only grows before a tremble of laughter sneaks out.
“Whatever you say, darling.” His words are a deep hum of lazy syllables that does something strange to my insides. His eyes are still closed, and that’s the only saving grace I’m given as a tremble races through my body unexpectedly.
He looks luxuriously lazy. Like the bed is the softest mattress known to all of mankind. And dammit if I don’t want to find out too.
To avoid looking at the sliver of smooth skin peeking out at the bottom of Aelix’s button-down shirt, I turn myself toward the pile of supplies I’ve littered our room with. I pick up the sword and place it awkwardly against the wall, catching it from sliding back to the brick several times before balancing the onyx handle properly. And then, I’m left gathering the rest. I kneel to the hard floor and reach for the black belt.
But warm fingers clash with mine. I freeze in place as that small touch blazes a fiery trail up my arm, leaving a shiver in its wake. Pale eyes lock with mine as Arcane scoops up the tangle of leather before I can.
He’s perched before me, balancing on the toes of his boots with ease. There’s a light in his gaze as he looks up at me from beneath thick lashes, a spark of demented interest that can’t be good. He folds the black leather once slowly, setting the end against the metal clasp like he’s trying to teach me something. I watch him with confusion. His gaze holds mine as he widens the two straps by pushing the ends slightly closer together. And then, he brings them down fast and hard with a threatening snap.
I don’t know why I feel the sound of that suggestive snap race across my flesh with an eruption of goose pimples up my arms.
I blink at him before jerking the suddenly sexy piece of school property from his hands. That cannot be what the intended use is for this strappy piece of armory . . . can it? How messed up is this school exactly?
“It’s a school uniform, Arcane. Not a toy,” I mumble, but his deep laughter rumbles through him on a delicious sound. Just for good measure, my palm meets his shoulder, and that smile wipes from his face as his feet wobble. He falls backward, landing solidly on his pretentious ass with a satisfying thud.
“I got you ungrounded, by the way,” I say rather casually to Aelix, picking up my uniforms and opening the only door in the room.
I hear the bed move behind me as I roam around the wooden hangers and begin sliding the fabric in place over them.
“What—what did you just say?” Aelix asks carefully, and I barely contain my smile when I spare a glance at him from over my shoulder.
Bright eyes watch me as I move around the room, stepping over his brother as I pick up my things like he’s nothing more than a pile of dirty laundry. Knowing they’re both following my every move, but trying intensely to appear unaware and uncaring is far harder than Arcane makes it look. Confidence isn’t effortless. Unless you’re a Deces. Their heavy attention on me causes a fluttering feeling in my stomach. It feels like butterflies, but it’s probably just a ghostly hunger.
Fates, when do they feed us in this prison of an academy? I haven’t eaten . . . ever !
At that thought, a gnawing sensation growls through my belly, and I mentally add “eat a bit of food and try not to die” to my new never-ending priority list.
Fates, living truly is the worst.
“I told Reign I would only stay if he ungrounded you,” I tell him. “We need a real chance if we’re going to make this work, and I couldn’t see how we could do that if you’re banned from shifting.”
“And he just . . . agreed ?” Aelix asks with watchful puppy dog eyes.
“Yep.”
Storming feet that sound all too similar to the heavy footfalls of Arcane’s rage fill the room. I’m instantly on high alert, my body tensing for what’s to come. I’m too new to the emotions of the average living being to realize it isn’t anger at all. Then strong arms are wrapping around me. His scent and warmth seep right into me. My body absorbs every ounce of it like it’s the only thing keeping me alive in this world.
Maybe it is.
“Hold it right there.” I slip my palm against Aelix’s chest, and I hate how long my fingers take to remove themselves from the solid feel of his pecs beneath my fingertips.
I take a full step back from him before I give in to the urge to just dive in and drown myself in the heat of his body.
“I have an angle,” I tell him flatly.
“An angle?” Aelix repeats slowly.
“Ah, there it is. She isn’t kind, Brother,” Arcane tells him with a pat on his back as he narrows his conniving eyes on me. “She just needs us.”
“Actually, you can go. I don’t need you, Arcane.” I hold his gaze with a challenge, but his smirk never wanes. Arrogance doesn’t take a day off, I suppose.
“That’s not what you said last night,” he whispers cruelly.
The corded muscle in Aelix’s arms jumps beneath the smooth skin, and I have to look away from both of them before continuing.
“I’ve heard there are ghosts in this school,” I start carefully, doing my best not to reveal to my possible Fated mate that he might very well be fated to a corpse puppeteering as a real live girl.
“Some say there are. Just stories, really.” Aelix shrugs his shoulders, but his gaze lingers on mine, waiting.
“Hardly just stories,” Arcane corrects.
“I need to—” I pause, unsure what I need and how best to ask without sounding absolutely insane. “I need to see one. I need answers that only the dead can provide.”
Arcane’s dark eyebrows lift high, and a stupidly impressed look crosses his features that I shouldn’t feel smug about, but I do.
“What kind of answers do you need?” Aelix asks.
“Yeah, Hollie, what kind of answers?” Arcane nags like the little twat that he is.
From the corner of my eye, I look at him and his obnoxious ass-eating smile.
The jerk.
“I—”
“I know where you can find a few ghosts,” someone says on a shy voice.
The room quiets and I turn. Black boots touch together at the center, and her long legs hold her in perfect posture as I meet Lila’s curious blue eyes. Clawd looms behind her small frame, but I can’t even glance his way. I can’t take my eyes off of the one person offering to help me in all of this. Her skin is so pale against her long ebony tresses that she looks like a ghost herself.
A smile touches my lips softly.
I knew one of the Deces was actually worth something. It turns out, I was just asking the wrong ones.