Page 51 of Soulless Rivalry

“Hi.”

Her voice was soft and she couldn’t hold any of our gazes very long. She looked like she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her.

Glory Thompson was in our grade but had only joined the ranks of the Academy this year. Her father was some kind of rich oil mogul from Texas and deeply religious, from what I recalled. I only knew that because Dominik killed her uncle a few years back. We’d been paid by his wife—now a widow—when she learned he’d been sneaking into her eight-year-old daughter’s room at night. Needless to say, his death had been all over the news at the time.

Eventually, Glory cleared her throat, excused herself, and started walking back to the castle. Rhodes’s eyes never left her form until she disappeared past the gates.

“So… she’s hot.” Mikhail smirked and, to my surprise, Rhodes pinned him with a glare.

“Don’t look at her.”

“Why? I thought you shared.” Asher’s voice put a new layer of tension in the air, and for the first time since he joined us, Rhodes looked up at him.

His eyes were dark, not playful like before. All that was left in them was hatred. I saw Ace physically flinch at that, clearly not used to such treatment from his former best friend.

I knew Royal from before coming here because of our parents, but met Rhodes and Ace here at the Academy, whereas both of them had known each other since childhood. They’d gone to the same schools in Los Angeles and were best friends way before anything else. Ace’s father hated their friendship, but there wasn’t much he could do when faced with Rhodes’s family. They were richer, more affluent, and fucking crazy.

“Not her.” His tone was cutting and left no room for negotiations.

“Relax, man,” Mikhail chuckled, trying to diffuse the tension. “I’m not into virgins anyway.”

That was a blatant lie, he was into anything with a pulse.

Rhodes started to blush at that. “I—who said she was a—” he sputtered.

“Oh please, that’s Eddie Thompson’s daughter. The guy is a religious freak, it’s a miracle he let her attend here.”

Ace clenched his jaw, clearly hating the way this conversation was going, before forcefully relaxing his shoulders, giving himself a fake relaxed stature.

Then he smirked. “Does your little virgin prude know how much you liked sucking my cock?”

My eyes flew to Rhodes, expecting him to jump Ace and beat him to a pulp. Maybe that was what Ace wanted: for Rhodes to finally express something other than boredom and disinterest towards him. But to my surprise, he did none of that, choosing to retort instead.

“There’s a reason you used a past tense here. And she knows I’m bi. It doesn’t scare her the way it seemed to scare you. She’s not that insecure.” Then he walked off, checking Ace with his shoulder on his way to the trail leading up to the castle.

I sighed, feeling the headache coming. Ace’s smirk had been wiped clean off his face and he was left staring at the ground pensively.

“Well, fuck,” Mikhail breathed, looking between our friend and the castle where Rhodes had just disappeared.

I toldmyself I’d just check if she was in her dorm and then head back to mine. I wouldn’t try to interact with her, talk to her, or even look at her for longer than necessary.

And I would certainly not fucking enter her room.

So many rules… that I would end up breaking.

When I reached her dorm, I didn’t knock. Instead, I produced a key I stole a couple of years ago in admin that opened all the doors in this castle. It was dangerous having something so useful just lying around, because anyone who got their hands on it would end up with unlimited access to… well, everything.

It was past midnight, so Elyssa would probably be sleeping. I wasn’t concerned about waking her when I stealthily opened the door, slowly inching my way inside.

My eyes immediately found her bed, ready to see her there, soundly asleep, but she wasn’t. The bed was still made.

I frowned, looking at the small bathroom on the opposite wall where the door was open, giving me a full view of the dark room. Nobody was there either.

I closed my eyes and sighed in frustration.I swear to God, if she went to the kitchens again…

With a growl, I decided I would take this opportunity to rummage through her stuff. I told myself that I did it to get more leverage on her and uncover more secrets, but the truth was I wasn’t looking for anything specific. I just wanted something that felt like her.

When my gaze fell on her laptop, I stopped. It sat on her desk but wasn’t shut down completely and dim light shone from its screen.