They tried to pry his fingers off the other boy’s throat. Those hands were paler, more delicate in shape, but surprisingly strong.
“Let him go, you absolute nutter! He was trying tohelpyou!”
Caelum released him, all at once.
He sat up just as fast, gasping.
His heart slammed violently against his ribs.
He was in a bed. Three faces stared at him now, a witch and two mages.
The boy with the dark skin and tight, black curls sat on the mattress next to him. He was breathing hard, too, gasping, gripping his own throat in disbelieving panic. His hazel eyes had opened shockingly wide, their color visible in the flickering candlelight, and the fireplace on the other side of the room. He stared at Caelum like he really believed him to be a crazed lunatic––a dangerous, feral animal who might tear his throat out with his teeth at any second.
Caelum recognized him now.
He recognized all three of them.
He shared a dormitory with two of them. Six beds.
His, Caelum’s, was one. Voltaire, Panzen, and Maskey were three more. These two were the others in their year and shared the same sleeping space.
That said, in two years’ time, Caelum had never really talked to them.
The witch was his girlfriend, although he wasn’t sure what he thought of her, either. Elysia Warrington’s eyes were wide, panicked, as she looked at his face. It didn’t occur to him until a few beats later that she was speaking in a quiet, panicked voice, her words bordering on hysterical the entire time.
“We were just kissing,” she babbled now. “We were just snogging and then something happened. He did something, and it hurt, and I…” She hesitated, staring at Caelum’s face. “I don’t know what happened. I think I passed out. When I woke up, he was like this… I think he thought he’d killed me…”
Caelum winced, and glanced at the three beds where Voltaire, Panzen, and Maskey should be. He remembered then, and his jaw clenched.
It was Yule.
They’d left for the night, which was why he’d had Elysia up here in the first place. She’d implied she might let him shag her, if he put enough spells around the room and no one else could hear them or walk in while they were doing it.
He looked at the taller of the two mages, who still stood over him, by the bed, then back at the one with the wide, frightened eyes he’d just been throttling. Both were unusually handsome boys, but in vastly different ways.
The tall one, Lucifer “Luc” Mocking, had dark red hair, and a quiet, pensive, intellectual demeanor. Physically he was lean, angular, somehow removed and regal-seeming, but with sharp, all-seeing blue eyes. Alaric Greythorne, the boy seated next to him, rubbing his throat, had a disarmingly charming, boyish handsomeness to him. He could also look regal when he made an effort, but he often didn’t; Caelum had him pegged as an easily-overlooked genius who liked to pretend he was an idiot.
Both mages were younger than him, by at least two years, but everyone in his year was younger than him. Even Elysia was only fourteen. Caelum had known Alaric a lot longer, partly becausetheir fathers were friends, but they’d never been close. Then again, Caelum had never been close to anyone, not even Elysia.
He’d always respected the two boys, though.
They were his only serious competition in his academic courses. They’d always left him alone up until now, presumably because he ignored them.
Why were they fucking with him now?
“Are you all right, Elysia?” Greythorne asked the witch.
She blinked at him, still looking on the verge of hysteria. “Me? Yes. Yes, I’m all right.”
“Maybe you’d better go back to your dorm then,” Alaric suggested gently. His eyes never left Caelum’s. Neither did Luc’s.
Elysia huffed a bit, but got up, and walked out of the room. Despite her feeble protests, Caelum definitely got the impression she was happy to go.
Alaric watched her until she’d left. Luc never took his eyes off Caelum.
“I think he’s back,” Mocking said shrewdly.
Caelum forced his expression blank.
