The gorgeous male chuckled, flashing unnaturally sharp canines, as the sound caused a warm vibration in my chest. “Nothing to apologize for, Red.” He winked. “I don’t mind a little gawking.”
“I was not gawking.” I retorted.
He took a few steps toward me, closing the distance between us and gently tugging a wet tendril of hair that escaped the towel on my head. “It’s alright. It’s normal betwee—”
“Did you fall in there, B?” Shadrie’s voice called through the bathroom door, interrupting the man. I jerked away from him and turned to find the tiny goth girl looking at us with a frown. “What are you doing in the fourth-floor showers, Dante? Don’t you and the prince have special quarters upstairs?”
“Shadrie,” Dante drawled. “I see you’re still as annoying as ever.”
Shadrie flipped him off and moved to grab my elbow, tugging me toward the door. “It’s not my fault you’re such an asshole, you bring it out of me, Dante,” she retorted. “Come on, B. Let's get back to our room, some stuff showed up for you.”
I shot Dante a puzzled glance over my shoulder as Shadrie dragged me through the door. The smirk on his face told me whatever transpired between us before she interrupted was far from over.
“Stay away from him, B,” Shadrie warned once we wereout of earshot. “Dante Vazgurr is incapable of being decent to anyone except Prince Vallynn, and between the pair of them, I’m not really sure who’s worse.”
“Wait, what? How do you know him?”
“My uncle was part of the King’s council when I was growing up. We’d summer with him, and I spent a lot of time with Dante and Vallynn as kids. They were nice at first, but then they hit puberty, and if you weren’t one of their little groupies, they made it a point to terrorize you.”
“I take it you weren’t a groupie?” I snickered.
“Nope. I had no problem telling Vallynn and Dante just where they could take their egos and shove them. Unfortunately for me, that meant I was the target of some pretty cruel pranks, and one of their little followers even tried to drown me one summer.”
“That’s horrible, Shadrie.”
“Yeah, I know. Just stay as far away from Dante and the Prince as you can. You really don’t want to end up on their radar if you can help it,” she said as she opened the door to our dorm. “Anyway, enough about those assholes. There’s like four boxes that showed up while you were in the shower. I had them put in your room.”
“Weird. Did they say who they’re from?” I asked. Shadrie just shrugged and shook her head. “Okay, I guess I’m going to deal with the boxes, and then I need to crash.”
“Cool, cool. I can wake you in time for dinner or something. I think we’ve already missed lunch.” Shadrie replied.
I agreed and made my way into my room to find four large boxes surrounding my bed. Shutting the door behind me, I moved to the first one, looking for anything to tell me who they were from. All I found was my name listed on the label. Opening the boxes proved just as fruitless. There wasn’t a note with any of the items in the boxes. Instead, I found a bunch of clothing and sleepwear in my size, uniforms, brand new bedding that looked extremely soft and expensive, and a myriad of school supplies, including a laptop. Shaking off thecreepiness of someone I didn’t know sending clothes in my size, I put the last of the items away, telling myself ithadto be something from the academy and climbed into bed.
Chapter Five
Dante
I didn’t need a shower, but it was the only thing I could think of to escape Vallynn’s vapid fiancé, Daena and her crony, Maera. It was a small miracle they hadn’t brought the third musketeer along before I managed to escape Maera’s obsessive clutches. I’dactuallythought she was desperate enough to follow me to the fourth-floor coed bathrooms, but instead I found myself staring at a lean redhead.
The brief moment when our eyes met, electricity shot through me, and I knew I was looking at my mate. She’d seemed embarrassed to be caught staring at me, but before I could reassure her that it was more than okay, Shadrie Nightshade stole her away. The petite white-haired mage held a grudge.Vallynn and I became real assholes to her when we became interested in impressing girls. We’d both apologized, but Shadrie was having none of it. I’d have to get creative if I wanted to get to know my mate as long as the little ice mage was around.
I took my time showering after my mate vanished through the door with Shadrie, working to direct my thoughts back to the most recent disappearances. We’d missed them for so long, it was a wonder we’d caught on at all. The memory of Vallynn’s ashen face and trembling hands as he told me what his father was doing fought its way to the surface of my mind. He still hadn’t told me how he’d learned his mother was one of his father's victims, but even I'd been suspicious of her sudden retirement to the countryside. The Royals didn’t just retire. I’d grown up being groomed to protect Vallynn with my life;most of my kind served the royal family in the same manner. I knew how things at court worked, and I knew the Queen. She wouldn’t have left her son or her ladies behind. I still woke up to Vallynn's haunted cries from the night he discovered what the King did to her. It was one of the few things I hadn’t been able to protect him from.
Vallynn was pacing the living area of our suite when I returned from the fourth-floor showers.
“The blonde banshee and her familiar gone?” I asked, causing him to stop pacing and look at me.
“There you are. Where in the seven hells did you disappear to?” Vallynn replied, ignoring my question.
“I went to shower. I had to do something to get away from Maera. Selir knows that harpy would have followed me if I tried to escape to my room or worse, the en suite.”
“Fine, whatever. You’re here now,” Vallynn said, resuming his agitated pacing.
“Vallynn, what’s wrong? Something has you out of sorts, and I know it’s not just Professor Walyon’s disappearance.”
He sighed heavily, raking a hand through his short hair before collapsing onto the sofa. “You’re right. Daena informed me that the rituals to prepare for our marriage have been moved up.” Vallynn grabbed a rolled-up piece of parchment from the coffee table and handed it to me. “My father has sent word confirming what that soulless bitch said. My father has decided they will begin at the end of the academic year. I can’t bind my life force with hers. I just can’t. But until we find a way to deal with my father, I don’t have a choice.”
My brows raised in alarm. Vallynn was set to wed Daena after his schooling was complete on the king’s orders, with the extra demand that they complete the Fae soul bonding. The rituals to prepare them both for binding their souls took time and focus when the couple weren’t fated mates. The practice was something that fell out of favor because of the danger that came with exerting the amount of power, during each ritual, required to complete it. Even with a Fae’s fated mate, it took alot of power to seal the bond. With a chosen, it took so much more. Vallynn would be nearly depleted and weak after each ritual required to forge the sacred connection. That knowledge was enough for me not to envy the Fae’s way of solidifying their mating bonds. I was grateful that, as a gargoyle, all it took was a claiming bite.
