Page 9 of Eat. Prey. Love. (Apex Academy Capers #5)

The guys were right about this building; it’s not intuitively designed at all. Beautiful, maybe, but finding Rockland’s office in the winding maze isn’t easy, even with the map. None of us are pleased to find that it’s on an underground floor, tucked in a corner where no one can hear you scream.

Ominous at best and frighteningly specific at worst.

“We might be overreacting,” Chess says tentatively. “This might be the space they had or since she’s a carrion-eater, the admin may have internal bias, so they stuck her in a hole. That’s definitely possible.”

I frown, looking at the door and hallway leading to it. I’m not looking forward to navigating this on my own; it reminds me of the places I ran through when the Heathers set those dingoes on me, but there’s no escaping into the nurses’ office. “I’m not coming here without someone escorting me. You won’t have to coax me.”

Felix gives me a smile that promises rewards. “Good girl, Princess. I think we’re all in agreement about that assessment.”

“Fuck that, I’ll sit outside the door on the floor. This shit is dangerous,” Fitz says as he glares at the dim lights and heavy décor. “It might look fancy, but it’s like the haunted house level in a MMORPG.”

“Did you pin the location, ma petite ?” Renard asks. When I nod, he takes my elbow. “Then let’s get the hell out of here. Flames and I are less than excited about being trapped in such an enclosed space, especially when it’s under ground.”

“Speak for yourself,” Aubrey rumbles. “I like caves and hideaways. But this gives my dragon a weird feeling. He’s not sure why, but he doesn’t trust this space.”

They don’t have to ask me again. Rennie and I head down the hall to the elevator, waiting for the others before we all pack in. It’s old timey, but big enough to fit—barely. Creaking and squeaking noises make my anxiety spike as we ascend and I wonder how often they do maintenance on it. I’d hate to get trapped here, especially if someone is after me. My eyes rove around the cramped interior, then up to the exposed shaft and I’m surprised to find myself calculating an escape route without meaning to.

Apparently, my bunny is none too fond of this fucking building, either.

In comparison, the Alexandré is laid out like a more typical campus building. It has an interior map on the wall, letting know where the floors and sections are in bold fonts. Normal humanities classes are on the top floor, the arts classes are on the floor below, business below that, math and science next, and on the ground floor, there’s a plethora of lecture halls. The underground levels are all labs for various classes from languages to sciences. It fee l s much safer than the Dupreé Compound and I breathe a sigh of relief.

I’m a bad ass bunny, but I’m not stupid.

When people truly want to hurt you, they’ll find a way, whether it’s straightforward or by subterfuge. Someone could pop in and use magic or simply catch me off-guard and spray me in the face with fucked up drug; just because I can defend myself doesn’t mean I can’t be incapacitated. Swallowing hard, I shake off the bad thoughts as I find the exact locations for my Shifter and Theater History classes. The former is in the middle of a hallway—not a fan of that—and the other is near a fire staircase. I can get away from there if I need to, but the first one requires a lot of focus to make sure I don’t get pincer’d.

“Baby Girl, your brow is so furrowed you look like you’re going to get a crease,” Fitz murmurs as he comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist. His chin rests on my shoulder as he continues, “Why so glum, chum?”

“I don’t like being in the middle. It’s strategically shitty and I’ll have to make certain I’m paying attention every time I come in or out. Plus, it’s your damn cousin’s class. Think that’s a coincidence?”

The low snarl behind us tells me Felix does not think so. His tone is dark as he asks, “Do you want us to attempt to pull you from it?”

“No,” I reply as I lean my cheek against his twin’s. “That will only signal weakness to him and your father. They need to realize I’m not afraid of them. Sending spies to fuck with me will only result in finding out they’re this much closer to being kicked out of that hellhole when we get to that portion of our new list. ”

Aubrey grins at me, looking pleased as hell. “Exactly, bite size. We don’t back down—ever. It will send the message to everyone coming for you that we’re serious.”

Fitz snorts. “I’m always serious about carnage and anyone who thinks differently is delulu as fuck.”

“Yes, we know you’re crazy, love,” Chess chuckles. “But let’s save the rage for later? I’m getting hungry and we need to see these rooms, then the French version of the Shird.”

His logic is flawless, so we get in the more modern elevator to go to the top floor. The bank has three cars and is on the end of the building closer to Dupreé. When we exit, I note the bulletin boards advertising various paid research projects, side hustles, and events coming up this spring. The public juries flyer makes my eyes widen—the arts classes don’t have exams here. They must have year long projects that get presented at the end of the year for your final grade.

Motherfucker, I’m five months behind and so are my friends.

“What’s wrong, petite ?” Rennie asks as we head to the class number for Shifter History.

“They do juries. Rufus, Cori, and I will be almost half a year behind on large projects that get graded at the end. We could flunk out if we don’t catch up and fast . It’s going to make everything much harder, especially for me.”

Felix shakes his head. “Fucking great. How is that not something that could have been communicated once they reassigned you? You could have been working from Cappie.”

This stinks of Lucille, not going to lie.

“I’m sure they should have and shall we take bets on who might have neglected to inform me?” I give them all a wry grin. “It starts with a ‘L’ and ends with ‘ucille,’ if you ask me.”

“Ra save us from the glut of enemies trying to fuck you over, lunchable. It’s impossible to keep track of them all,” the dragon mutters. “We can figure it out with your loud friends after we speak with the badger barrister. All we need is a plan.”

“We need boards!” Chess says gleefully. “I’m on it.”

Smiling softly, I turn to him and kiss him softly. “Yes, we do, my knight. You’re in charge of organizing because you’re so damn good at it.”

He flushes bright red as Fitz gooses him playfully, bobbing his brows. “Look at that… a good boy and a good girl. We’re on a roll, gentleman.”

This time I turn red, so to hide it, I pull the door of the classroom labeled ‘A. Khan’ open to peek inside. “Shit.”

Felix pushes through the group to stalk inside at my muttered curse, and he growls as he sees what it looks like. “I’m going to murder him. You can’t stop me.”

“I can,” I say as I join him in the middle of the room. “And I will because it’s not time yet, baby. I’m not sure why this place is set up like some jungle themed pleasure den for a fucking history class, but I’m sure he pulled strings we’ll never be able to snip.”

“It’s like the room where…” he trails off and I feel the walls go up inside of him like a slap to the face. I know my fierce tiger doesn’t mean to hurt anyone, but this is obviously a trauma he’s never faced. The layout of this damn place is geared toward undermining his confidence and distract him.

Unfortunately, it’s working.

“Bro,” Fitz says as he strides over and shakes him. “Bro. Hey, Felix. Come back to reality, you dickhead. Don’t let that old prick win. He can send Asani to mess with your head, but he doesn’t get to win . ”

Moving quickly, I sandwich Felix in between me and his twin, resting my cheek on his strong back. The others close the distance, too, surrounding him in a circle of quiet strength until he stops shaking. When he finally turns to look over his shoulder at me, I can see the pain in his eyes. There’s a haunted expression that I haven’t seen before—this is not about the woman he loved before betraying him.

This is something else entirely and he’s too ashamed to talk about it.

“You don’t have to talk about it,” I murmur. “Not today and not now. We probably should so your cousin can’t use it against us—just like needing to understand Rennie’s past because of the magic people.”

“Fuck,” he groans as his eyes close. “You’re right and I hate it.”

Fitz clears his throat. “If it’s easier, I could?—”

“ No .”

Aubrey arches a brow, and Rennie looks similarly grim. “The Raj obviously needs to deal with this himself, Fitzgerald,” my dragon finally rumbles. “And we will allow him the time to figure out what that looks like for him. Right?”

Fitz rolls his head back on his shoulders and lets out a long suffering sigh. “ Why won’t any of you let me have any fun? I would be more than happy to peel this asshole like a banana and bring back his hide for the living room. In fact, I’m begging you to let me, Felix.”

The tiger laughs a little, stepping back from his twin. “I promise you can when the time is right. Okay?”

I tilt my head, looking at them both before I speak. “I want that rug and his balls in a jar, Fitzy.”

My crazy mate claps with glee and Rennie shudders. “ Merde, ma petite. C’est vicieux. ? 1 ”

“And sexy as hell,” Chess mumbles. I wink at him playfully and the gargoyle frowns at my cheetah. “What? Obviously it’s my thing; I’m mated to Fitz.”

Taking one last look around the grossly decorated room, I shake my head. “I’ll make sure I’m very careful here. I can make adjustments for this class in particular, much like I will for the Rockland sessions.”

“Not to be a downer, but it’s starting to feel like you’re going to have to make concessions in every class, lunchable. That’s also probably on purpose,” Aubrey says with a grimace. “I assume you won’t have many classes with your friends, either. Someone with a lot of pull arranged this shit.”

“Lucille could have,” I say thoughtfully. “But I’d bet she was busy working with Bruiser to arrange Bruno’s splatter jet ride.”

“Great,” Felix growls as he prowls around the room for a moment. “Has another player entered the game?”

We look at one another, and no one has an answer. I can’t stand here and let the fear of adding yet another plate to my stack, so I jerk my head at the doorway. Fitz grabs my arm, linking with me as we head down to the fire stairs. I’m pleased he figured out that I’d want to see what they look like and when he opens the door to the next floor down with a flourish, I giggle.

Fitz Khan is the best cure for the blues I’ve ever known.

“Let’s get this done, Baby Girl. My focus is waning, and Chess is hungry. Felix is nearly falling off the edge of Furious Mountain. The mopey monster is still brooding. All we need now is the Saucy Skink to set the whole place on fire and we’ll get kicked out on day one.”