Page 17 of Wild Fury (Fallen Royals 6)

I learn all of this in the first fifteen minutes of being here.

The resident assistant leads the way down the dorm—ah, residence hall, apparently—and tells me everything I need to know about LBU’s West Campus. LBU West, as she keeps referring to it.

“Here you are.” Felicity stops at a door halfway down and pushes it open.

We step inside, and my jaw drops. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. The room is huge. There seem to be two very clear sides to it, though, like the old residents drew a line down the middle. Two desks, two chairs, two beds and dressers. Two closets, even. But the space allows everything to be spread out, and it’s not as claustrophobic as I would’ve expected.

Because you live in a castle now, Lux.

It has tall, arched ceilings, and the windows seem straight out of a movie. We’re on the opposite side of the quad, facing a forest. It’s so different from New York City, and from what I expected of a Boston school. The fact that I can leave this little campus and walk ten minutes to a T stop is a bit mind-boggling.

“It’s a conservation area,” Felicity says behind me. “It has nice walking paths.”

Pass.

“That’s good to know.” I swallow the spike of fear.

“Your roommate is Ruby Devereux.” Felicity pauses. “I think you’ll like her.”

I raise my eyebrow but ignore the clear hesitation. Whether or not I’ll actually like her isn’t something Felicity can predict. My RA has known me for less than an hour, and I haven’t said all that much. What could she know about me, other than strings—a lot of them, I’m starting to imagine—were pulled to get me here?

Beth Alistair, Theo’s mother, always struck me as a nice woman. But I think she might have a steel spine, since she raised Theo and dealt with whatever antics he was always getting into.

“When do students arrive?” I ask.

“Tomorrow morning.” Felicity smiles. “If you want to be roped into manual labor, we’re always looking for volunteers for our move-in crew.”

I grimace, and her expression falls.

“Maybe,” I hedge.

“Well, I’ll leave you to unpack,” she says.

“I just have this.” I pat my bag slung over my shoulder. “I should’ve probably grabbed bedding…”

She eyes me. “Your stuff was delivered just an hour before you arrived. It’s there.”

I follow her finger to a stack of boxes by one of the beds. I had assumed that was my new roommate’s side, but apparently, it’s mine.

“Thank you,” I say softly.

She hesitates and raps her knuckles on the doorframe. “It can get lonely at night. Especially your first night at college. My friends and I are getting dinner, and we’ll probably go to one of the frat parties…”

Drinking seems like a great idea to forget the last twenty-four hours. “I’d like that.”

She grins. “Okay. I’ll swing by to grab you around six.”

Felicity presses two keys into my hand—one for the outside door and one for my room—then disappears. Keys. We haven’t even graduated to swiping cards.

A step back in time, indeed.

My phone chirps. This is the first time it’s made noise all day, and I scramble for it. Over the summer, my friends from high school seemed to flake away. It wasn’t anything I actively did, but not seeing them, or trying to see them, every day just… loosened my hold on them.

The text is from my sister. Shocker.

Ames: Excuse me, you left for COLLEGE and didn’t think to tell me you were even going???

I wince.

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