Page 43 of Gothikana

‘Mr Deverell convinced the Board,’ Troy supplied, his mouth half-full. ‘Said it would make an excellent recreation room, from what I’ve heard. And I don’t actually disagree with him. We don’t have any space for just chilling, you know?’

Corvina ignored the little stutter in her heart at his name. ‘That doesn’t sound too bad.’

‘With the Black Ball in weeks?’ Jade shook her head. ‘The timing just feels… off.’

‘It’s not like the school stops people from going anywhere, Jade,’ Jax pointed out. ‘Locked or not, if anyone wanted to use that space, they would. People wander around here all the damn time. No one cares.’

‘You’ll learn after a little while how much power the legend actually has here, Jax,’ Troy corrected. ‘That’s the major reason the university doesn’t have a rule for students not wandering around at night or going into the woods. Nobody who’s heard of them would dare to anyway.’

‘Not unless you’re Mr Deverell,’ Erica chuckled. ‘I’ve seen him around at night from my window, and we all know he goes into the woods. I wonder why though.’

‘It can’t be for fresh air,’ Ethan theorised. ‘We already get plenty of that. And not for exercise either, since most of the faculty walks around the campus or goes to the fitness room.’

‘Wait, there’s a fitness room?’ Corvina asked, surprised since she’d not seen it on her map.

‘It’s in the staff wing,’ Jax said from her side, eating his sandwich. ‘You know the building behind this hall?’

Corvina nodded, her own mouth full.

‘They have a fitness room at the top of their tower.’

‘You saw him in the woods once, right, Corvina?’ Troy mused. ‘What was he doing in there?’

Smoking a cigarette. Fixing an old, damaged piano. Kissing the breath out of her.

She shook her head, her answer half-honest. ‘I was at the lake when I saw him. He told me not to be in the woods alone and then he left.’

‘Damn.’ Erica chewed on her food. ‘He’s so weird. Fascinating. But not gonna lie, I’m lowkey scared of him.’

Corvina could understand why. He had that air about him. But she’d learned years ago not to be scared of what she didn’t understand, and until she understood him, there was no room for fear. He’d hadmultiple chances to harm her, and for some reason, he’d made her feel safe instead. And Mo had told her something along that line.

As though she’d conjured him, she felt the weight of his gaze on her.

She looked up from the sandwich to lock eyes with him for a moment before he looked away. He tried not watching her much anymore, not the way he’d used to. Maybe he was over whatever had pulsed between them after their one time.

She wasn’t.

After that box had opened, Corvina just had to think of him and feel the desire pulse in her blood. She would sit in his classes and watch him teach and feel her breasts get heavy. She would watch him tap the marker on the desk and remember the way he’d tapped her pussy. One time, she’d gone to the staff room to give her history professor a paper and found her silver-eyed devil reading in the corner, wearing a pair of square black-framed glasses she loved him in, and almost jumped him before stopping herself.

Yeah, she wasn’t over him.

She was attached, and she didn’t know how that boded for her.

She saw his eyes flash to Jax beside her and realised she was sitting pressed to his side, something she hadn’t even thought about. Suddenly, she was hyperaware of it. She saw his eyes take in the places where she and Jax were pressed together before his eyes came to hers.

The silver was molten.

‘Can I take one?’ She heard Jax’s voice from the side, her eyes ensnared, her heart beating hard in her chest.

Mr Deverell turned and went back to the food.

Corvina inhaled, closing her eyes for a second to regain her composure, and extended her plate to Jax. ‘Sure.’

They all ate and talked about the classes. Troy and Ethan were seniors in their second year, so they had different classes and schedules, which kept the conversation about other faculty members interesting. Corvina liked how no one ever broached the subject of anyone’s past. It made her relax and open a bit more because all conversation with them rooted itself in the present or prospects of the future. She really, really liked that.

She also really liked how comfortable she had begun to feel with the boys. Having never really interacted with the male species in her previous life, she had been pleasantly surprised to find they were pretty nice. They loved to joke at each other’s expense and pull legs, but they were genuinely nice people.

After breakfast, they all made their way back toward the towers in the bright sunshine. Troy stopped to tie his laces, telling them he’d catch up, and Corvina stayed back with him, taking the chance to peek inside the windows.

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