Hollow Valley University.
I read the words with a frown twisting my features. The sign itself was bigger than your average community college administration office, and yet the campus would have been completely invisible unless you were standing right before it. It had taken us half an hour to drive there, through half-hidden, mountainous roads; and in half an hour, we had left the unsuspecting human world behind. While the school had a breath-taking view of the natural beauty surrounding Mount Baker, the fa?ade was cleverly painted in neutral greens and earthy browns, becoming almost invisible behind the screen of towering pine trees that converged over the mountainside. The campus stepped up into the mountains, naturally settling into its surrounds as though it had been there for centuries. In some places, tree roots had even begun to smother the outsides of the buildings, holding the structures together in a vice-like embrace, sending out smaller roots to feed into the cracks created between the mortar. Steel reinforcements had been added to prevent the buildings from collapsing, but even those were beautiful, in their own way. Moss-covered vines had been sent forth from the invading trees to capture the unyielding steel, winding down to the ground and disappearing into the gaps in the pavement.
As ancient as the outside looked, it was clear that this college had been well-endowed with the gift of Zevghéri fortune. The conservation of some of the buildings alone would have cost a fortune.
“Pretty, eh?” Poison trudged up the path beside me, slinging a duffle over her shoulder. “Remember what I told you about pretty things, cupcake?”
I chuckled, shaking my head at her. “I think it was me telling you, but I’ll heed your warning, Wise One.”
She smirked. “Pretty illusions usually exist to cover up something dangerous; it’s nature’s bait… but that doesn’t mean that all dangerous things are bad. I intend to make the most of my time here, and since you’re my unwilling comrade in arms, you’ll also be making the most of your time here. Now,” she hoisted the duffle from her shoulder and lugged it at me, “help an illegitimate bastard out, would ya?”
I wouldn’t say that I caught the duffle so much as the duffle caught me, but after I picked myself up off the ground and shouldered the thing, the result was more or less the same.
“I don’t intend to just go to college and have fun like nothing else is going on,” I grumbled.
“Did I just hear the mouse squeak the forbidden words?” Clarin groused, appearing at my other side carrying the amount of luggage a small family might have packed for a month-long camping trip.
Despite the ease of his tone, he shot his eyes to me in anger, and I lifted my chin at him, daring him to start another fight on the subject. The previous few months were a blur of sorrow, pain and confusion. I didn’t remember our graduation. There were many things that I couldn’t remember. There wasn’t any room left inside my head because my every waking thought was occupied trying not to think about the look on Silas’s face as the bullet had torn through my shoulder three months ago. He had known that he would be forced to shoot me. He had revelled in it. He had wanted to convince himself that he was too dangerous to be allowed freedom. That thought alone would make it easier for him to stay locked up with Weston. He wanted me to think about the fact that he had shot me, instead of thinking about all the ways in which I could possibly save him.
He was an idiot.
One of the bags stuck halfway up Clarin’s arm began to slip, dragging on the straps of at least five other bags hanging beneath. If it had been my arms, they might have popped off, but Clarin bunched up his biceps, hauling the bags up again. He looked like an angry, Mayan warrior, his tattoos glistening with a light sheen of sweat.
“Nope,” Poison interjected, breaking our stare-off. “Not today. We won’t have this fight today. It’s our first time on campus. I’ve been dying to get out of high school ever since high school started, and now I’m finally, finally free, and I will not have Seraph’s suicide-mission-talk, or Clarin’s overprotective act get in the way. Understood?” Instead of allowing us to answer, she jostled her bags into her arms and stormed off toward the campus, her head high, her silky blond hair brushing against the exposed skin between her shoulder blades.
“Peace?” Clarin cut his eyes to me sheepishly.
“Peace.” I sighed, setting off after Poison. “Why did you bring so much stuff?”
“I’m gay,” he needlessly informed me, as he was wont to do—especially after my valcrick had made him question his sexuality for the briefest moment of time. “Gay people have a lot of baggage.” He waggled his brows at me, and I laughed.