A nap that, I will totally admit, was the best sleep I’ve had in weeks.
I turn the corner and immediately realize that although the door to my dorm room is closed, loud, moody music filters into the hallway. I mutter a curse and brace myself for the scene inside.
Marielle is sitting on the carpeted floor. The twins, Cora and Claudia, are also there and with three guys, bent over, mixing drinks. Luke’s handsome face lifts to see who’d walked in the door, and he grins when he sees me.
There’s a group of teenagers in my room, drinking alcohol. I don’t care what realm we're in, this isn’t a good thing.
“Hildi,” Marielle says, getting to her feet. “I was wondering where you went! I wanted to have a little welcome party!” Her voice slurs and she waves the cup in her hand. “Get this girl a drink!”
“I got a little turned around on campus and I’m not sure I’m in the mood—”
“Well you’re here now.” She ignores my arguments and tosses a thin but strong arm around my shoulder. I get a whiff of her amazing scent. “Just one drink! I’ll make everyone leave after that.”
Truth be told, I need a drink. About twenty of them. I miss
Circe and the bar. I miss nightly dinner at the Nead with a good glass of wine and adult conversation. I miss Morgan.
The person I’m doing this for.
I sigh and say, “Okay. One drink.”
Her grin is wide and bright like the sun. “Guys! Make my roomie a drink—a strong one!”
She pushes me toward the guys mixing drinks and the hair on my neck stands on end as one of the guys spins around. Not Luke, no, he’s whispering in one of the twin’s ears. It’s another boy—well, man—that I know. Marshal faces me, and I pretend my stomach doesn’t twist when he licks a drop of liquor off his thumb.
“Hildi,” Marielle says, “You know Marshal, right? He just started here, too.”
We’d spoken more than once in public, so there was no reason to pretend like we didn’t know one another. Marshal speaks up before I have the chance. “The Valkyrie and I go way back,” he says, slipping his arm around my waist. He holds out the cup. “Drink?”
I freeze from his touch, both from instant desire and the immediate need to flee.
“Marielle! Come look at this!” One of the twins calls. My roommate spins on her heel and walks away. Once she’s gone I take the cup and gulp down the contents. It burns and tastes vaguely like cherry.
“Gods, that’s disgusting.” I push the cup back in his hand. “What are you doing here?”
“I was invited,” he says, casually. He eyes the twins. “And I figured it wouldn’t hurt for us to share the same social group.”
“Social group?” I frown. “Have you been reading sociology books or something?”
He laughs cinching his arm tighter. “Dylan isn’t the only one with eons of knowledge, Hildi. I can read, you know.”
I do not underestimate this man. Not mentally or physically, but intellectually? I may need to reassess.
“What—” he starts, shoving his nose in my hair. I push him back. His eyes narrow. “What is that smell.”
“I don’t smell.”
“You do.” He reaches for me and I step away. “It’s something familiar.”
“Stop being a weirdo.”
“Come on,” Luke says from across the room. “Just a taste—that’s all I’m asking.”
“It’s not going to happen,” Marielle says.
Marshal takes another inhalation and asks, “Is that—"
“Are we back on this again?” I ask, easing away from Marshal and his sniffing, over to the group sitting on the floor. They’re in a circle.