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“Ready?” Alice’s soft voice pulls me from my staring contest with the crumpled ball of paper. I glance around at the room again, realizing I didn’t get anything unpacked. Not that I really have anything to unpack.

I look at Alice, her pixie-like face pulled into a tentative look of hope. Is she hoping for a new friend in this unfamiliar place? Maybe we’re not as alike as I thought because if a friend is what she’s looking for, she has come to the wrong person.

Yet I can’t help but feel at ease with this bloodsucker. It’s disconcerting and altogether nauseating. However, it is there. I thought my walls were impenetrable, but somehow, this petite vampire is scaling them, digging her obsidian claws into the stone simply because her pained aloneness is familiar. I should be scrambling for any reason to keep her at a distance and excuse myself from going with her. But…

I stand up. “Ready.”

The grounds are still bustling, but there is an obvious ease from the lack of parents now wandering around. The feel of the campus has shifted, the frenetic energy almost palpable. It practically reverberates through the ancient halls. I curl my shoulders in slightly, letting my hair fall forward to hide my pointed ears and freaky eyes.

Alice stays close as we navigate through the quad, trying to figure out the various buildings littering the perfect green space. She pushes a little more into my side as the crowd thickens and people get too close to her. Though it doesn’t feel like it’s from fear, it feels like she’s seeking comfort.

“I swear, back home, these people would be dinner,” Alice murmurs. She watches with barely contained distaste as a couple of cheerleaders cling to a pair of muscle-bound males dressed like members of a sports team. “They’re so careless,” she continues, and I can practically hear her roll her eyes.

Something in my chest tugs, loosening a little. She feels it, too. That everyone here is part of some understanding we’re not. I thought she just started scaling the walls of my impenetrable fortress, but it seems she’s also found a microscopic hole in the stone, allowing her to peer inside. Are Alice and I cut from similar cloths, full of torn pieces we desperately stitched together, hoping no one would notice how mismatched they are? I wonder how many tears and rips were in Alice’s, probably nowhere near as many as mine. I’d lost count of mine. Maybe this place, this realm, will be different. Maybe I can be different.

“What?” Alice asks, glancing at me, a slight uneasiness in her eyes. Perhaps she thinks she’s said too much.

My lips twitch. “You know, you’re all right, vampire.” Alice’s eyes widen in surprise, but she leans a little into me, relaxing a little more. “What? It’s true. I mean, we have blood rivers. Where do you think they come from?”

A girl smiles at Alice and walks toward us. Alice hisses at her, and the girl pales before hurrying in the other direction. My lips twitch, and my shoulders lose some of their tension. Something about this feral vampire resonates with me, and neither of us is comfortable being surrounded by people.

Alice points at a group of equally lost-looking first years. “I think that’s our tour. Oh, Drac. Do not leave me with them.”

“Please, you’re the only interesting person I’ve met so far.”

“Same. I think I scare people.”

I laugh at the absurdity of the use of the wordthink. She’d just flashed her fangs at someone who smiled at her.

“All the best people do,” I reply.

Alice chuckles as we join the group. A woman who appears to be in her early thirties looks over the group, her lips moving as she silently counts. She’s dressed in a black polo and slacks with a proud silverAover her heart. That must be the Avalon insignia. I expected something more ornate from a school with such an ominous motto.

“Okay, that’s everyone! I’m Fallon. I’m a senior here, and I’ll be taking you on your tour of the campus.” She walks backward down the hall, and we follow her like sheep. “Avalon was established in the year 303CE and was the first school in all of Annwn. It’s why we call this realm Avalon instead of its true name, Annwn. It was originally only for the education of sorcerers until the current headmaster took control a little over a hundred years ago. Until then, other species were only allowed to attend Avalon, thanks to a very competitive exchange program. However, now we have members of almost every magical race!”

Alice rolls her eyes, and I sigh. There’s being excited about a place and having a boner for it. This guide is already on the more over-the-top, annoying side, and the tour has just started.

“As you all might have noticed, we have a rather unusual motto.” Fallon chuckles. “A fun historical fact is that Merlin originally put the first part of the motto, fear, fire, and fury, in place. When Avalon University was founded, persecution of sorcerers was at an all-time high. Merlin hoped the motto would serve as a warning to all who would come for the school. He wanted it known that anyone intent on such an attack should fear because it would be met with fire and fury.”

Well, that explains it. I keep my expression of boredom in place, but I had wondered about the motto.

Our little group follows Fallon like ducklings as she continues the tour. “If you look to your left, you’ll see the main building, Manananggal Hall. It is home to the main auditorium, a few classrooms, and the headmaster’s office. This is also where you will find the administration offices. Oh, and the lockboxes.”

Lockboxes?

I glance at the building. Emerald-green ivy almost completely covers the dark stone. It looks dangerous and a bit foreboding. The stone steps leading up to the large wooden door do not inspire thoughts of comfort or safety, yet I’m not afraid of the building or the power it contains. Knowledge, forbidden and ancient, awaits me within those walls, along with the dangers of knowing too much. It pulled at me, begging me to come, touch, taste, learn, and devour. I’ve always had a voracious appetite for learning, and the place where I grew up had very little to offer when it came to accurate information about the other realms. Most had been reduced to myth and legend, and it was hard to determine what was fact or fiction. It was partly why I accepted the offer of admission. It isn’t the only reason, but it is a definite perk.

“As many of you already know, there are many esteemed, one-of-a-kind professors at Avalon. But the most elite is, of course, our headmaster.” I don’t miss the way Fallon’s cheeksflush when she mentions him. They have done so every time she has brought him up. I guess everyone has their kinks, but an old sorcerer with a long white beard is not my type. “He has a bit of a cult following, and though he rarely teaches classes, they are always packed when he does. His only course offering this year is a fourth-year capstone with the most distinguished students.”

Alice makes a gagging sound, and Fallon’s gaze snaps to her, giving her a reproachful look. Fallon’s face transforms slightly, her cheekbones becoming sharper and her skin turning slightly green and mossy. She is a dryad, a fae subspecies, one of many. I bristle at her aggressive response. Were fae or their subspecies always going to be underfoot here?

“Moving on…” Fallon contains her ire with visible effort and points out numerous other buildings, spouting rehearsed, boring facts about them. Elite training fields. State-of-the-art facilities. Elite faculty. The headmaster did this. The headmaster that.

“Want to bail? Cause I’m pretty sure if she uses the wordeliteone more time, I’m going to kill her.” From the way Alice’s eyes turn blood red, I know she is not joking.

“Fuck yes.”

Alice grabs my hand and yanks, pulling me into a sprint and away from the group. Again, that pang of familiarity strikes me. What is it about Alice that is already making me comfortable? Normally, if someone acted this familiar with me, I’d be running in the opposite direction, not muffling a laugh of joy as I kept up with their mad race through the halls.