Page 22

Delores

This place is drafty as hell. I’m glad I pulled my giant bunny snuggie thing on before I explored in the middle of the night. There wasn’t much in the rooms at the other end of the hall near the back stairs—boxes, dusty furniture, paintings, and a bunch of stuff that looks like it’s being used as storage space.

So much for finding something to occupy my brain until I get tired again.

I turn around, marching down my hallway to the stone steps they have given me permission to use. Technically, I’m only supposed to go down, but I’m not leaving the safety of this place at three a.m. It’d be risking my life and I’m sure as hell not that bored.

Tapping my fingers against my lips, I look around for a second before I take one tentative step up toward the third floor. No alarms go off as far as I can tell, so I grin to myself and start the hike up the spiral staircase excitedly. I wondered what the hell else was in this place from the minute Fitz moved me in and the whole ‘don’t go anywhere outside of your room’ shit was way too Beauty it’d be silly.

But why would each side of the hall only have one door? There’s only one way to find out, and my curiosity will not get sated until I do. So I quietly slip down the cold stone floors on silent bare feet, only stopping when I’m in front of two opposing doors. I wrinkle my nose—if either has security, I’ll only get to see one before I’m caught. It’s a literal Catch-22 and I don’t have the patience to weigh this out.

So I do what every mature adult in the universe does to decide between two options: eenie-meenie-miney-mo.

‘Mo’ turns out to be the door on my right, so I open it carefully, listening for movement. It’s still quiet, so I squeeze into the room and shut the door slowly. When I turn around, I cover my mouth with my hand. I’m standing in a huge formal dining room with a table for ten, cabinets full of fancy dinnerware, and a set of double doors at the back that l’d bet leads to a kitchen.

And I’ve been ordering out and microwaving noodles in my room because I can’t go to the dining room!

Sneering at the bullshit involved in not letting me come up here and use the executive chef level shit to nourish myself, I poke around the room looking for clues. I doubt the two loners have ever used this place, so I can’t figure out why it would have even gotten built.

Did they build this tower before the oldest pred still on campus arrived? If so, what was this Tower used for before? Is that what the prey tunnels were originally for? They do all connect under this building and spiral out, so it’s possible.

The nerd in me is having a field day, as I imagine preds in here over a millennium ago, using this building before it was even a damn school. Maybe it was an old church or part of one… how cool would that be?

A glint catches my eye and I walk over to the corner where I saw it, admiring the filigree on the mirror that takes up most of this wall. My reflection is messy as hell in it despite the layer of dirt and dust. It’s a gorgeous piece, and it feels weird that it’s in a dining room, not one of the bedrooms that I assume are plentiful in this mini-stronghold.

Though truthfully, men live here and they have very little use for shit like this, I guess.

I’m definitely cleaning this place up when I have some time. It’s wasteful to let it sit and not use all the beautiful stuff in here, especially that kitchen. And I’m fucking tired of ramen, so there’s that, too. Even if I set the place on fire, I’m going to teach myself to cook shit so I don’t have to depend on anyone else to take care of me.

Faces flash through my brain, and I growl under my breath. “Stop it, brain. I don’t need them to take care of me just…”

I don’t know how to finish that sentence and I throw my hands up in frustration at my own treacherous mind.

“Time to explore across the hall,” I mutter under my breath. “Otherwise, I’ll stand here and talk to myself all night.”

It didn't look like they had used the room for long enough to make me sneeze for three minutes straight. After I poked around, looking at the weird symbols and paintings on the walls, I left fairly quickly. Unfortunately, I’m still keyed up, so I made my way back to the front staircase. Exploring further into the Tower is the only thing I can do if I don’t want to head back to my room, so I climb to the fourth floor on quiet feet.

When I enter the archway to this floor, a myriad of scents hit my nose and I grin. Finally, I’ve found signs of life and my curiosity ramps up as I look at the two doors on either side. I started with right last time and this time, I’ll go with door number two first. Tiptoeing to the door, I note the smell of incense—heavy, fragrant scents I can’t put my finger on, but they definitely seem familiar. I put my ear to the large metal door, listening with the added skill of my bunny to ensure it’s empty.

Score—silent as a tomb.

There’s one glitch, though. This damn door has no knob—only large ornate knockers and a gentle push verifies that it isn’t unlocked. Puzzles are my jam, though, and I assume this either has a hidden latch somewhere or a particular order of operation to open the locks. I drop to the ground, feeling around the frame and lines of rivets, hoping to find buttons or spring catches I can use to get in. The stone below my knees is warm but not comfortable, so I fiddle a bit more, then rise to my feet again to look at the knockers.

What the hell—I doubt this will work, but it’s worth a try.

Taking a deep breath, I lift one knocker and tap out the most basic rhythm I can think of:—‘shave and a haircut’—and echo the second line with the other one. To my complete astonishment, the damn doors swing open to reveal an enormous room packed to the gills with books, cute stuffed animals, hundreds of squishies, and a giant bed covered in pillows. There’s a huge armchair in one corner with a lamp and piles of books around it and a door that I assume leads to an ensuite like mine.

I inhale again as I step inside, and my lips curve up in victory. This place is one I’ve been looking for and now that I’m here, nothing about it surprises me in the least. The furnishings are sturdy and look expensive, including various non-adorable artifacts and paintings that confirm my suspicions. Everything in this room screams who its owner is and I’m going to milk this for all its worth.

I, Delores Drew, have located the true horde of Apex’s one and only dragon.

And he’s a total simp for shit so pastel and cute that it looks like a Hello Kitty cafe in Japan.

Frowning, I walk around inspecting the fancier pieces, noting jeweled eggs and statues that must remind him of home. I never considered how much the exiled professors here could be missing their families or even their kind, but being in Aubrey’s space highlights how devastating it must be to be disconnected from those you care about. He’s obviously attached to them and he had no choice to come here; it must hurt his heart more than he let on.

However, the big question about this place, other than why he hides so much of himself from the others, is: where the hell is he if he doesn’t sleep here or in the cave under the library?

I walk over to the bed, noting it’s definitely custom made and would fit a small army of people. I’m sure he’s huge as a fully shifted dragon, but it’s not big enough for that. From what I gathered from my new friends, the grumpy book lover isn’t known for having any dalliances, either. Why is this so big? Maybe he’s just one of those bed hogs and splays himself out like a beached whale.

The picture in my head makes me giggle softly and I lean in to look at the small pile of stuffies in the middle of the bed. Based on my own proclivities, I’d guess these are favorites and my eyes pop open when I see a snow white bunny sitting at the top of the heap like royalty.

Oh. Oh …

Putting my hand to my mouth, I feel my cheeks get hot and back away, suddenly feeling like I’m being an absolute bitch for invading his space like this. I shouldn’t be here and even though they’ve been assholes about allowing me to roam this place, I’m violating that trust.

I back out of the room quickly, chewing on my nail as the doors shut on the lair of the serpent. My brain and my heart are warring about what I saw, but deep in my gut, another voice is screaming at me to climb the stairs and explore one more level before I give up for the night.

Is that intuition, or am I being horridly invasive?

The questions ping around in my mind as I walk back to the front stairs, and by the time I get to them, my bunny answers.

I need to find out what’s on the fifth floor.

A feeling of unease crawls through me as I climb the steps, and I don’t know why. Whether it’s because I’m snooping and I shouldn’t or something bad is hiding here, I don’t know. I haven’t learned to read the whims of my animal yet, despite the efforts of my prey friends this summer. Prey instincts differ greatly from the ones they taught me to expect as a pred, and I just don’t know how to read them yet.

Everything comes across as danger, and that’s not accurate.

Looking at the doorway to the new hallway, I square my shoulders and take a deep breath.

Whatever my rabbit thinks I need to find up here is important, and if I have to put myself in danger to find it, I’ll do it.

Lucille Drew didn’t raise a coward.

Of course, she didn’t really raise me at all. It was more Mattie, but…

Stop it, Dolly. Get your shit together and walk down the corridor until you sense what room you have to enter. You can do this .

My eyes burn as I feel a slight shift from my bunny and the top of my head aches briefly. Blinking, I notice my night vision has worsened, but my hearing is amplified so much that I feel like I can hear dust settling.

Perfect timing, rabbit. Confuse the fuck out of me while I’m worried about running into something scary.

When I reach the middle of the hall, I look at both doors, squinting until the gentle noises of breath call to me on the right side.

This is where I need to go.

I put my hand on the wood, hesitating before I finally give it a soft push and it opens.

The sight that greets me shocks me once more, and I have to cover my mouth.

I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. I’ve hit the mother lode.