Page 107 of Class Studies

“Do you need something else?” Abe snapped.

I quickly leaned back. “Are you okay?”

Abe hissed and slammed the door in my face. I stood there staring at it before readjusting my grip on the awkward box.

I carefully made my way up to my tower. When I opened the door, Ashe stopped pacing. Relief filled his face before he scowled. Behind him, Saffron sat on a small bed, stuck between my stairs and the folding table. I didn’t see Beryl or Tanwyn anywhere.

“Beryl’s sleeping in his fucking bed tonight,” Ashe answered my unasked question. “Hopefully, Nitis doesn’t stab him in the middle of the night. Fucking Tanwyn went back to his dorm as you fucking asked.”

I blinked. I hadn’t asked him to do that, had I?

Ashe shook like a dog. “I’m not sure if I’m madder they’re gone or madder you made me fucking mad they’re gone.”

I lifted the box to cover my face, guilt flooding my gut. “I didn’t mean to ask any of you to do anything.” I peeked around the box. “Beryl’s been sleeping in my bed. Why would he go back to his?”

Saffron snorted and shook his head. “Every night.”

My arms shook from the weight of the box, and I lowered it. “Beryl shares a room with Nitis, and last I checked, they needed space.” I wrinkled my nose. “There’s only two sides of the bed! What? Do you expect me to ask Wyn to curl up on the bottom like a dog? He’s the only one of us who can sleep peacefully in his dorm. He doesn’t need to fear his peers. His summons would eat them alive!”

Ashe grabbed the box from out of my hands, threading past the new bed, and dropped it onto my workstation. “As fucking logical as that is…it’s fucking wrong.”

I followed my box, ready to dig into my project, but Ashe blocked my path. “Saffron and I are going to sleep. It’s fucking lights out, Kitten.”

I shook my head, scowling at him.

“Yes.” Ashe leaned down, flexing his chest. “I’ll fuck’n carry you up there if you don’t start moving, fucking now.”

I squared my shoulders, but the weight of Ashe’s anger bore down on me. I dropped my gaze. What energy I had drained out of me as another wave of guilt churned my stomach. Saffron caught my gaze and shook his head. He hadn’t slept in my bed once.

Tanwyn said he trusted me to balance my guys, but I didn’t know where to start. I was trying to leave them to work their problems out. All I did was mess things up when I got in the middle.

Under Ashe’s watchful eye, I climbed my stairs. At the top, I looked back down just as Ashe turned off the lights. He made a little ball of bright magic, just big enough for him to see by, and slid into a second small bed, wedged between my stairs and the workstation.

I undressed by feel before gripping the crystal around my neck. “Keith.”

Good night, Aphy, Professor Garnet said with finality.

I let go of the crystal. I didn’t even have my phone to text Roisin.

After briefly considering inviting Vac to at least sleep on the bottom of the bed, I decided his proclivity for licking me wasn’t worth it. I curled up alone.

Sleep did not come easily.

Chapter 20

The next three days felt like the longest of my life.

I stumbled up to my tower from Martial Arts Coterie with Vac at my heels. Bruising on my arms and legs made me ache, and my eye throbbed. The swelling around it threw off my vision, though it could be worse. I wished someone had actually punched me. I’d run into Derek’s elbow while trying to do something; I couldn’t even remember what now.

I wasn’t sure what hurt worse, the pain from the injury. Or Derek’s cold gaze as he watched me pick myself up while the students around me laughed. My friend was gone, caught up in the wave of hatred overtaking the Institute.

My new keycard beeped, and I pushed into my tower. The Director hadn’t given Tederwinkle access, though she probably would if he asked her now. Those two had become thick as thieves. The Director used to be an invisible presence I only saw when in trouble. Now she and Tederwinkle walked the halls, talking to students and getting them excited for the reenactment.

Fortunately for me, Ashe requested the new key card before the Director lost her mind.

A wave of unease washed across my stomach as I surveyed my messy tower. Not that I smelled any better at the moment, but everything reeked of man, and not the good kind.

Uniforms hung on every surface. A pile of dishes filled the sink, and I spotted three mugs which hadn’t moved in two days. Taking another step into the room, I tripped over a shoe which fell out of the massive pile next to the door.

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