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A washstand waited in the far corner: green marble veined like bruised meat, silver basin holding water so still it mirrored the ceiling beams. I took a deep sniff, immediately identifying the smells of citrus and clove, a mixture I hated.

It was the same soap we had in the dorm.

This room appeared fancy, but the comforts were minimal compared to what could be provided. This was not a room one gave to a visiting equal you wished to impress. This was luxurious at first glance, the way an evergreen forest is in the winter, green and gorgeous, but lacking in the abundant resources that came with sun and tender loving care.

I turned to the window and brushed a fingertip along the sable-lined drapes. There were small signs of wear and decay on the fabric, as well as worn patches. Outside, wind knocked the shutters; inside, the cloth drowned it. I yanked a panel just wide enough to see that the room faced inwards in the caldera, and there was no glass on the window, just wooden shutters I could see across the campus, and see the glimmering dome of the commons as it caught the moonlight.

I let the drape fall.

"I could go back," I murmured. "I don't have to go with him."

I could run back to my dorm and try to hide until the visiting Rí Túath left. I could stay out of sight, be unnoticeable, just like I always tried. I could remain small and unimportant, and continue to live out my life working in the fields and avoiding the dangers that lurked around the campus. At least I could try. If I went to the commons at the wrong time and caught the wrong eye, I could end up with a lycan following me back to my dorm.

You punched the overseer in the jaw, Zeph reminded me.You took him down with one blow.

I let out a sigh, and Zeph swooped over to my shoulder, landing on it. Zeph nuzzled my cheek, and I stroked my hand down over their soft feathers.

I didn’t have any way to know if Crystallo was telling the truth at dinner about forcing himself on me. I had heard rumors about angeldick. The Aetheriani were rumored to be one of the higher-risk bed partners, and that was saying a lot at a school filled with men who shapeshifted into mini kaijus whenever there was a blood moon. Not that I could be certain. There was only one Aetheriani on campus that I knew of, and no one had ever claimed to have bedded him. There was a serious risk that Crystallo was going to come in here after dinner and prove to me just how big the mistake that I’d made in asking for his help was.

I wrinkled my nose.

I wasn't a small woman in any sense of the word, maybe I could take it.

My stomach quivered, in a mixture of disgust and excitement, the wet heat between my legs a byproduct of my thoughts.

It was possible to feel two different emotions at once. Being turned on by a threat and also being appalled by it was a natural physical response that maximized survival. It had been a hard lesson to learn, but it was one of the few lessons that this school offered in spades.

I turned back to the bed, frowning as I sniffed the air again.

There was something wrong in this room, more than the fact that it was far too shabby for someone of Crystallo’s rank. The silk coverlet looked innocent, white, perfect, so I pinched a fold. Pearl beads clicked under my nail, like teeth against bone. I let go of the fabric and crouched down, my knees and palms pressing against the floor as I leaned down to peek under the bed.

There was the source of that strange smell of old iron.

Thick, heavy chains lay coiled under the bed, and runes were painted on them with dark red paint. I could see that the runes were fully charged with magic, shimmering with unspent magical energy. They were waiting for something, some sort of trigger. I could see the trigger rune written on the chain, one that I recognized. It was similar to the spell I learned to trap rodents in the fields that were damaging the crops.

The door creaked open behind me.

I sat up, looking back over my shoulder to see Rí Túath Crystallo crouching through the doorway, bending at the waist to fit his wings through the too-small frame of the door, another product of the slights against him in this room. There was no reason to give him a room with a door that was too smallfor him, not unless there was more at stake here than the microaggressions of the room.

“Wait!” I threw up a palm towards him. “It’s a trap!”

He stopped, still on the outside of the doorway, his eyes slipping briefly to my backside before jerking abruptly to my face.

“Is it?” he asked.

“There is a spelled chain under the bed,” I said, standing back up to my feet and turning to face him.

“What is it spelled for?” he asked.

I looked down at the ground, my arms hanging down by my sides as a slight burn came to my cheeks. Of course, he wouldn’t believe me. I was a filthy, uneducated, mundane. I was nothing to the monsters of this world. It was foolish of me to think that someone of his rank would even tolerate me speaking in his presence.

“Forgive me,” he said, sending a shiver of surprise through me. I looked up to see him staring back at me with his soft blue eyes, the golden curls around his chiseled features making his next words seem all the more angelic. “I forgot for a moment that they limit mundane’s education.”

"I'm not limited," I growled, clenching my fists as I glared at him.

He looked at me for a long moment.

My heart pounded in my chest. I realized I should look down. I should drop to my knees. I should ask him to forgive me. I should ask all these things to get what I wanted, which was an escape route out of here. I had done everything I could to get out of this place. I had taken the time to learn on my own. I had learned from other students. I had spent late nights at the library trying to find any knowledge that would help me grow into the kind of person who could escape here. I had climbed the walls and seen the unforgiving landscape on the other side. Iwas determined, strong, and intelligent, but it wasn't enough to escape.