“I usually have a fruit smoothie for breakfast, but they are probably going to put beans on toast and try to make me eat it,” Lucian sighed.
“You’re in luck,” Morgana said. “There’s a bar with fruit and a blender if you want to make a smoothie because that’s whatthe fairies tend to want. There’s also a coffee bar, so no one gets murdered because someone stayed up late to study.”
I moaned. I wasn’t allowed to drink coffee growing up. Icouldhave it even without preparation if I didn’t get the sugar loaded kind, but my father insisted it was a grown-up drink. I fell in love with it when I was backpacking in Italy and now, I couldn’t live without it.
“So, dining hall 101. There are several options. Several of us can shapeshift, but people who shapeshift into predators like wolves, bears, and dragons only need alotof food. You’ll basically be in a meat and carb coma after. Elliot does it all the time and never gains a pound. Sometimes, I want to kill him for that.
“A lot of fairies have diabetes like you. It’s something that happened when they left Fairy. Most of them are on insulin, but eating foods from Fairy that are grown here help. You’ll probably want to ask for the Fairy meals.
“As for you, Mister Dark and Snuggly, vampires don’t need food, but some of them enjoy the taste. It’s against the law to take blood from someone without their consent and not everyone has someone here willing to let them bite them. Since you’re technically feeding off the magic in the blood, you can’t feed off other vampires, but plenty of them like biting each other during sex.
“Fresh from the vein is best, but technically you can drink donated blood from a bag. Most of the vampires hate it, but they don’t have much of a choice. They get pretty fancy with it and mix it with sauces, drinks, and smoothies, so that’s an option.”
“Blood and mangoes sounds vile,” Lucian said.
“I agree, but I’m also not a vampire. Plenty of them like it. Let’s collect your other friends. After breakfast, I’ll need to show you where to get your books and where everything else is. This place is a bit of a maze.”
“Thanks. I’m so glad we ended up roommates.”
Morgana just shrugged.
“I would have ended up here on the supernatural side if I didn’t have the birthmark. My brother graduated from here four years ago and my parents are graduates. I already knew my way around before I got here.”
“Khalid is going to want to pick your brain and I can’t say I don’t want to, either,” Lucian said.
Morgana just winked at him.
“I have no secrets with men who snuggle my roommate naked while I’m in the room.”
“I want to hate you, but I find myself unable to,” Lucian said.
“I have that effect on people. Let me show you your new world.”
I should have been terrified. My father drilled into me all of this was a one-way ticket to Hell. I was associated with death and war in my first life.
I wasn’t. I’d never felt more alive.
Maybe I should have asked for a single, like Lucian. Headmaster Mykene seemed to have a plan for everything, even if she didn’t share. She probably put Sage with Morgana for a reason, but she put Liam and me with Morgana’s boyfriends and they were alot.
I thought I was misplacing things, but it turned out Petros just stole it. He’d give it back when I gave up looking in frustration. Elliot kept trying to give Liam a list of people to stab because he said he’d gone full trickster on them and they still hadn’t learned their lesson.
Elliot lit up, and I didn’t even want to know what he had planned when Liam told him Thor had been reincarnated andwas in our class. Elliot hadn’t even met the man yet and was already sure Ivar wasn’t the one who hurt Lola.
I was starving and ready for breakfast, but Liam hadn’t messed up his hair right. He wanted it to be perfect for Sage and she didn’t really strike me as being superficial. It seemed like she cared more about who someone was than if their hair looked like he just rolled out of bed looking that perfect.
There was a knock on the door, but it came in a certain rhythm like it was some kind of code. Elliot and Petros immediately perked up.
“That’s our woman. She probably has your woman with her.”
Yeah, Sage wasn’t ours. There was some kind of cosmic bond that connected us, but she didn’t really know us yet. We barely knew her as well. I liked what I knew, and I liked holding her when she was upset. It was probably stupid. She didn’t push me away, but she probably just needed the food Lucian gave her.
If anything, we would be hers. I was okay with that at everyone’s pace. I didn’t want to rush it now and ruin things later. We all just found out we were going to live a very long time. We should do this properly.
Sage was at the door with Lucian and Morgana. Lucian looked a little more rumpled than I would have expected now that he had access to proper facilities. Liam gave him a hard time, but I could tell Lucian was miserable roughing it in the tent. I loved camping with my baba, but it wasn’t for everyone. My sister went with us a few times and decided she hated it. My baba didn’t force her to go and found something else for them to do together.
Liam was in the bathroom furiously running his fingers through his hair like whatever look he was going for could be accomplished before everyone’s stomach won out and someone dragged him out. I took one look at Sage standing there looking beautiful and regretted not spending more time on my hair, too.
Morgana explained the dining hall options as we walked there. I could, apparently, shift into a jackal once I’d learned, but my dietary needs didn’t feel like they’d changed. I usually had FuulMedames or Taameyafor breakfast, but I already knew that wasn’t going to be an option here. I had a flat lined up when I was going to Oxford where I could cook my own food, but I’d never been a picky eater, so I wasn’t going to complain about the food here.
