Page 207 of Sigils & Spells

When Ravyn arrived at her dorm, the door was wide open. She paused and peeked her head around the doorjamb to look inside. She didn’t see anyone there, but the room had two twin beds on opposite sides from each other, raised quite high off the floor for maximum underbed storage. Two desks sat side by side with a slight divider in the middle, facing the one window in the room.

Curiosity won out and she stepped inside. There were two closets on the walls at the foot of the beds, and on the wall with the door to the hallway, a minifridge and microwave, as well as some shelves.

“You must be Ravyn,” someone with a lilting voice spoke from right behind her.

She jumped, slightly, and turned, hand over her heart. “Yes, that’s me.”

The girl behind her looked to be roughly the same age as her, with pale skin and white-blonde hair. She had some freckles, but they didn’t stand out dark against her skin. She was tall, close to six feet, and she wore a pair of black leggings with an oversized lilac sweatshirt.

“How did you know?” She assumed this was her roommate, but she hadn’t gotten a notice containing her name or anything of that nature.

Giggling, the tall blonde pointed at the open door with a dry-erase board on it. Transcribed in blue marker was her name, Ravyn Corvus, and another name she wasn’t even going to try to pronounce aloud, because she could already tell she’d butchered it in her mind. Aoibhe O’Ceallaigh.

“Aye, I’mveryIrish. We’re descended from an old family. Some say we go back as far as the Milesians that forced the fairies underground.” The girl laughed again. “If you believe in that sort of thing. It’s pronounced Ey-va O’Kelly, by the way.”

“I never would have figured that out.” She laughed with her. “It’s a pretty name though.”

“Thank you. Yours is too.” Grinning, Aoibhe added, “Though your family has a sense of humor, I wager.”

“What do you mean?” she frowned.

“Isn’t a Corvus the genus for a raven? They named you Ravyn Raven.”

The tension eased out of her as she realized Aoibhe wasn’t attempting to insult her. Ravyn snickered. If the girl only knew. Corvus women could turn into ravens or crows, and on some occasion…rooks. There was every chance she would not turn into a raven at all when she finally did come into her shapeshifting ability. Now that would be ironic, indeed. “Yeah. Lots of bird names in the family tree with a last name like that.”

Aoibhe leaned in closer. “Have you gotten your class schedule yet? Maybe we have some classes together and can help each other study.”

“I did. Give me a moment to find it.” They entered the room together and Ravyn looked back and forth at the beds. It appeared that Aoibhe had claimed the bed on the right by the green suitcase shoved underneath.

“I can take the other one if you want.”

“Nah, I have no preference.” And she really didn’t. Setting her bag down, she riffled through it until she came across the envelope that had contained the schedule and other paperwork she needed. “Found it.” As she turned around, Aoibhe was pulling her own out of her back pocket where she’d folded it up.

“Okay, let’s see what we’ve got.”

They put their heads together and looked down at the two slips of paper. Ravyn had chosen the introductory English Literature course, Biology, Ancient Civilizations and one elective course for fun. Aoibhe had chosen Pre-Calculus, Chemistry, Geography, Gaelic and…the same elective.

“Looks like we’ll be taking World Mythology together,” Ravyn said. “Sounds like it should be interesting.” All myths held a grain of truth in them somewhere. She would know, since she was basically a figure from mythology herself. Plus, there was something about it that just…called to her. It had been hard to select her other courses until she checked the box for that one.

“As soon as I saw that option, I knew I had to take it.” It was like Aoibhe read her mind. “And I was surprised they offered a Gaelic language class. You’d be shocked to know, given my name, I don’t know a lot of the language. My family moved to the United States several generations ago. Things get lost.”

“It sounds cool!” Ravyn would be terrible at it. She still couldn’t figure out how a name with anOand aBin it sounded like Ava. Then again, her heritage was a mixture of Greek, Scandinavian, and she wasn’t sure what else. Maybe some Irish somewhere, but definitely not enough to torment herself with Gaelic unnecessarily.

Crap. I don’t have to take a foreign language for my Marine Biology degree, do I?She was going to have to check her paperwork later. She knew what language she wouldn’t be picking if so.

“Hey, I was about to lock up and go check out the cafeteria for some food when I saw you poke your head into the room. Wanna come with? I can’t wait to learnallabout you.”

Ravyn’s stomach growled, loudly. “Food sounds great.” Although some things about her would have to remain a secret, for everyone’s sake.

CHAPTER2

Daniel O’Connor had barely gottena wink of sleep. It was the first day of classes, and he’d stayed up all night thinking about that new girl.Ravyn.She was gorgeous. A little awkward, but he hoped he saw her around campus, maybe even had a class with her. If she didn’t take only introductory courses, anyway. It was his sophomore year, but that didn’t necessarily mean they wouldn’t share classes.

His first class of the day was one that he picked for fun, but also because he hoped to shed some light on a family mystery that had been plaguing him the past year. Something regarding a figure from Irish folklore. His mom and twin brother would speak in hushed voices when he returned home, but he heard bits and pieces that didn’t make sense outside of stories. Maybe the professor would be knowledgeable to help him. Eventually. He wouldn’t throw it on the man right at the start of the semester.

Frowning, he grabbed his navy-colored backpack and a bottle of water out the mini-fridge. His roommate had disappeared before the sun had come out—he wasn’t very social, but that was okay—so he didn’t have to worry about waking anyone up for his eight AM class. The walk across campus from the dormitories to the academic buildings wasn’t too tedious. When the weather grew colder, it would be less fun, but it also didn’t get uncomfortably warm on Kasper Island.

Ducking into the class five minutes before it would begin, he took a look around the small lecture room. Stairs cascaded from the doorway to an open space at the bottom with a large dry-erase marker board, podium, and desk. On each step, a row of gray counter-like desks extended across toward the wall with black rolling chairs behind them. Each had multiple outlets built in for laptops to be plugged in. The standard for most of the lecture halls on campus, but it was a far cry from the high school classrooms he had attended back home. Wobbly individual desks with chairs attached to them. Good riddance to those.

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