Page 34 of Theirs to Ruin

We need to talk.

God, I hated him for telling Ava about The Roost.

I sent him an emoji giving him the finger then blocked him.

It took me a minute to catch my breath and calm down, but when I did, I deliberately focused on my surroundings. It was a mindfulness technique Dante had taught me last year for when I had anxiety. Focus on what I could see, hear and touch rather than my racing thoughts. Given where I was, it wasn’t a hardship.

Even though I hadn’t wanted to come to CU in the beginning, I loved Crimsonvale now. The thing I loved most was the variation of seasons. Warm summers that slipped into crisp fall days that melded to snowy winters and burst into a balmy, flower-filled spring. Today was one of those clear, crisp days, cold enough for me to wear a jacket with my thick leggings and my favorite Burberry alpaca sweater.

I started walking again and was soon at the quad, a large grassy knoll that spread out in a diamond shape between the main lecture halls, where students gathered to hang out, before, after and in between classes. I was almost to the Student Union building when a group of students that had been hanging out at the edge of the quad broke up and…

A chill overtook my body when I saw a familiar face. Bronze hair. A lean body. It was Ty! My Ty, but instead of him being in Italy, he was here.

I started running, my heart in my throat, pushing past people in my way. I kept my gaze on Ty’s hair as he weaved in and out of the crowd and then finally caught him by the arm. I yanked him around.

“Ty!”

The guy whose arm I’d grabbed jerked it away. “What the fuck? What’s wrong with you?”

My cheeks flamed. The guy had dark hair with a bronze hue and a similar build to Ty, but his features were round and brutish, where Ty’s face was all sharp angles.

“Sorry,” I muttered.

The guy shook his head and walked away.

Slowly, I turned and retraced my steps.

So I’d thought I saw Ty. It was probably because I’d just been thinking of his drawings. Big deal. It didn’t mean anything.

I entered the Student Union building and found Simone, who was sitting with a couple of her friends, Mia and Ethan. She looked up and waved at me.

“Hey,” I said, sitting down next to her.

“Hey girl. We were just talking about tonight’s lake party.”

“I can’t wait,” Mia said, tossing her braided hair, her silver earrings catching the light. “You never know what's going to happen at parties like these or who you might end up with.”

I smiled and tried to hide my disinterest. While the idea of a party out at the lake, under the stars and with the moonlight glinting off the surface, sounded wonderful, I really needed to buckle down and get some studying done.

"You'll be there, right?" Ethan asked me.

I made a face. "I wish I could but there's a lot on my plate right now."

"You can't be cooped up studying all the time,” Mia said, like she was talking to a small child.

Simone shot me a look as if silently urging me to join in the fun. But I had already made my mind up. Dante had done that. He’d emboldened me with his kiss, as if he was the jumper cable that had restarted my engine after the damage that Kage and his sister had done. He made me realize I couldn’t control everything, but one thing I could control was my schoolwork, and I was determined to advance to Tier Two.

Before I could say anything, someone said my name.

“Camille.”

I turned and almost swallowed my tongue.

Theconciliantis.

She rarely interacted with students outside of the “matching” sessions. Yet here she was, dressed in a stunning, deep maroon wool gown, calling me out.

The room went quiet—until Silas coughed several times, then hurriedly excused himself. He strode toward the bathrooms, and Madam Sandrine watched him leave before she turned and pinned her eyes on me again.

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