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My eyes met Alarik’s, and even though for a second it seemed as if something shifted in his gaze, as if he wanted to warn me about himself, I was sure that I wouldn’t die in the next hour and a half.

Alarik looked down and chuckled quietly while he reached into the ivy. There was a click, then he pressed his hand against the wall. Branches cracked, sand crumbled lightly to the ground, but he kept pushing, stepped forward, and... opened the wall.

I blinked, looking at the wood that appeared as he pushed the ivy vines aside.

A door?

He pushed it open, stepped through, and I stared into the neglected, overgrown courtyard that revealed itself to us.

“Don't worry, nothing will collapse here,” Alarik said, holding the rotten wooden door open so I could climb over the pile of stones and massive woody vines.

He took my hand, and I instinctively let mine slide into his, but it wasn’t until he helped me through the door and over the roots that I noticed how unnaturally warm his skin – as with every Senseque – and how gentle his touch was.

I was glad I had put on my brown leather boots, otherwise I would have fallen victim to the sudden, dizzying sensation that swept through me and slipped.

Fascinated by this secret courtyard, I stepped out of the colonnade into the center, looked around, and examined the dried-up fountain, where moss lined the basin and ivy threatened to swallow the white-gray weathered statue of a naked woman who wore a vase on her head and had a snake wrapped around her body.

The courtyard looked derelict, with a few stones lying on the cobbled ground covered with moss and old grass.

Ravens immediately landed in the courtyard and on the woman's shoulders, but I tried to ignore them to keep Alarik from noticing that I was suffering from bird paranoia.

“Why is this part of Vanderwood hidden?” I asked, filled with fascination as I turned to Alarik and met his gaze.

“The heart of the university seems to want to hide from the eyes of the fast-paced world,” he said with a slight smile and stepped toward me.

“The heart of the university is your office,” I chuckled, but immediately bit my tongue.

Shit. He couldn’t know that I knew about the secret room. I hadn't even meant that detail about his office.

“Are you implying something?”

Alarik looked me over with a slightly raised eyebrow, both hands behind his back.

“That the director should be the heart of every university,” I tried to talk my way out of it with another truth, wanting to sink into the ground when Alarik's gaze fixed on me and his smile vanished.

“Sometimes I think that after all these years, I still can't live up to that title.”

There was something thoughtful in his gaze, and he looked around, walked past me, and slid his hands, crisscrossed with prominent veins, over the edge of the fountain.

“I like to come here to read.” He looked up and smiled, lost in thought. “Feel free to join me.” The mere idea of sitting here in the summer and reading... A dream. “Just promise me one thing.” His gaze became more serious. “Don't tell anyone about this place.”

Confused, I watched him continue on his way to a passageway that led to another courtyard.

I felt honored, but wondered why he had shown this place to me of all people.

“Are there bodies buried here?”

Alarik chuckled softly. A pleasant, deep sound.

“I’m sure Nathaniel Vanderwood had quite a few bodies walled up here. But who knows?”

Nathaniel Vanderwood? The architect of this massive building?

“But back to why you wanted to talk to me.”

Alarik had managed to make me suppress my feelings, had distracted me from reality.

“I...”