Page 3

2

Summer

M y bedroom is a basic empty shell. There’s a bed sitting against the wall, a bedside table, and a desk. A faint smell of paint makes my nose burn slightly as I inhale. They must have redecorated before we newbies moved in, which was nice of them. I don’t fancy sleeping in a room with peeling paint and the smell of pot laced into the walls. The only personal touch is the thick packet with my name expertly written on the front lying on the nightstand. I dump my bag on the floor and pick it up. The bed squeaks faintly as I sit down on it, and the sound of paper tearing fills the room as I open the envelope.

Welcome to Avalon,

This is a time of upheaval and struggling to find your way in a completely new world. Many feel lost at first, adrift. I know I did when I was in your shoes many years ago.

There is a mandatory assembly at three pm today so take some time to figure out the campus.

Avalon can be a haven for the lost souls who have never felt like they belong.

Headmaster Emrys

Never felt like they belong, huh? From what I have seen of the student body, it doesn’t seem that any of them feel out of place. I put the letter to the side and look through the rest of the contents. There is a pamphlet about the amenities on the grounds and some information about the neighboring town. They have included a printout of my class schedule and a calendar for upcoming events on campus. There are endless leaflets about the various groups, and my eyes are drawn to the one for the Fair Folk. My fingers clench on the paper, crushing it in my fist. I drop it onto the ground and glare at it, the words having melted into nothing. Fuck the Fair Folk Club. Fuck the fae.

“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 word think . 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 silver A over 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 cheeks flush 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 word elite one 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.

“Wait! Come back! The tour—” Fallon shouts, but her voice is lost as we round a large, gray stone building.

“You think she’ll follow us here?” Alice asks, peering around the corner.

“And leave her group of frightened, little first years behind? I doubt it.”

“They’ve gone the other way. She practically has steam coming from her ears.”

I laugh, leaning against the wall. In just the few hours that I’ve known Alice, the sound has already become more familiar. Maybe this really can be a new chapter for me. Careful Summer, hope is not something afforded to everyone.

“Oh, this must be the library.” Alice looks up at the building, pulling me from my thoughts. My head snaps back, and I notice the pointed turrets of the building. She glances at me and snorts. “Okay, the light in your eyes when I said library is concerning. Do you have a book fetish? If you try to summon a golem made of books to fuck, I’m bouncing.”

I ignore her and walk toward the door, almost as if it is a compulsion. I am so desperate to smell the muskiness of knowledge. We walk through the door, and the scent surrounds me. Books have always been my solace, my haven, and there are so many here for me to choose from. I walk to the stacks, dragging my fingers over the spines of the tomes. I can practically hear them calling out to me, begging to be opened, to be read, to be learned. There is so much I don’t know. The few books I managed to get my hands on before Avalon only scratched the surface. I need more. I crave more.

Alice snickers, watching me, and then tugs at my sweater. I glance at her, and she points to a large wrought-iron gate. It is held closed with a thick metal padlock below a plaque that reads, Restricted Section. Please ask the librarian for a key. “Restricted section. Let’s go!”

I can already tell that this friendship is going to get me in a lot of trouble, but the pull to enter the space is almost undeniable. In this realm, knowledge is power, and no one knows better than I the danger of being powerless.

I stop behind Alice and bounce on my toes impatiently, staring longingly at the books. She grips the lock in her hand and crushes it, her vampire strength decimating the heavy metal.

The restricted section is darker than the rest of the library, the books feel older and darker. I push the door open and slip through, walking into the shelves. Carefully, I graze one of the spines, the words glowing beneath my touch.

The Dark Runes of Phineas.

“I don’t understand the idea of restricting books. I mean, aren’t we supposed to be learning?” Alice ponders, carelessly sifting through a pile of books, barely reading the titles. She clearly doesn’t share my reverence for books, but she probably hasn’t been starved for knowledge most of her life, so I can’t really blame her for that.

Take me, the book whispers to me. Read me. Claim the secrets I hold. I have power you need.

I start to pull the book from the stacks when the air shifts, and a dark voice fills the room. Power coils around me, and the air turns to lead in my lungs. The weight of my body triples as the gravity of the room turns oppressive. My knees buckle, and I grip the wooden shelf to keep myself from falling.

“You are far from where you belong.” The voice is deep and laced with frigid ice, vibrating with annoyance.