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Several other women follow suit, calling out their welcomes to me. My shoulders, which had tensed, now relax. Whatever caused that silence, the women here moved past it to make me feel comfortable.

“Thanks,” I call out to Charlotte and the others.

I cross the foyer and head up the stairs with my familiar at my side. The wooden stairs creak as we climb them.

I step off on the third floor and head to my right, my eyes scanning the brass room numbers until I get to mine.

Room 306.

The door has been propped open. Inside, there’s a single twin bed and a blue velvet chair next to it. Pushed against the adjacent wall is an empty bookshelf. Next to it is a large window that looks out onto a gnarled oak tree.

Across from my bed rests an ancient-looking desk with an equally ancient lamp. Sitting on the center of its surface is a massive iron key.

I walk over and pick up the key.

This is a joke, right? I mean, how am I supposed to put this on my key chain without looking like some old-timey prison warden?

I glance at my door with its ornate bronze doorknob and the large keyhole above it.

All right, so this isn’t a joke. The coven just hasn’t updated their rooms’ locks in a century or so.

Really hoping thoselamassudo a decent job protecting this place because my lock obviously does shit.

I pocket the key anyway.

“What do you think?” I say, glancing down at Nero.

My panther looks out at the room, then rubs his face against my leg.

My eyes sweep over the place. “I’m glad you approve. I love it too.”

CHAPTER12

“Fuck. Moving.”Fuck it so hard.

I collapse onto my bed.

My arms shake from carrying things up three flights of stairs over the course of the day, and my ass and legs are numb from the exertion. And that’s not even getting into the fact that many of the notes and labels I put on my stuff have fallen off. And Great Goddess of Earth and Heaven, everything isnotwhere it’s supposed to be, and my head hurts from it all.

But you know what? It’sdone.

I stare up at my ceiling, hearing the muted laughter of witches in nearby rooms.

A thrill runs down my spine. This is my life now. I attend Henbane Coven. No more waiting and yearning. I get to live here and learn here and lean into all my long-awaited dreams.

I survey my tiny room all over again, and my eyes eventually rest on Nero.

My familiar lounges on a throw blanket I’m pretty sure he dragged off my bed and onto the floor and is chewing on a bone I got him from the butcher’s. The bone makes a sickeningcrack; then I hear Nero’s rough tongue lapping up Goddess knows what.

“Can younotdo that on my blanket?” I ask him.

He ignores me.

Defective familiar.

“I should return you,” I say to him. “I bet I could buy like fifty cute, fluffy familiars for the price of you.”

Now Nero glances up at me, and he licks his lips. Pretty sure that was panther forsounds tasty.