Page 129 of The Blairville Legacies

Chapter 29

Larissa

If I had knownthat, I definitely would have stayed with Bay.

The sign that read“Lecture canceled”made me groan and kick away a rock that seemed as out of place here in the hallways of the university halls as I was. The sound that emerged was deep and somehow scary because the place was empty, and I had no idea why my lectures were always canceled.

An icy breeze brushed the back of my neck and goosebumps spread across my skin. I turned and looked out through the arched windows onto one of the many courtyards that existed here. This one was abandoned.

Actually, I would have had art history now, but that fell into the water...like the ravens here liked to do.

Hopefully, Bayla was feeling better by now. If I was lucky, maybe she was already awake, which was about time.

Even though it would cost me some effort, I had decided to call Ms. Adams after the next seminar, who, I should point out,absolutelydisliked me. And when I saidabsolutely, I didn’t just mean minor disagreements. Ever since she knew me, she had always been suspicious of me because I was good at involving Bay in things she should stay away from. Bay was hersensitivelittle angeland I had suspected that she had moved away to keep her daughter away from me.

I wondered how she would react when she found out that I lived in Blairville from now on. I had to smirk.

But the smirk disappeared from my face when I heard the echo of distant footsteps on the stone floor in the hallways, and shortly after, an all-too-familiar laugh ringing through the hallway.Miles.

I looked around frantically and spotted a smaller, wooden door labeledAtelier and Design Workshopa little further away from my seminar room. I sped to the door’s handle, only to be relieved to find that it was open, perhaps offering me welcome salvation. I quickly slipped through the crack and closed the door behind me.

To my surprise, I found myself in a somewhat darker room with large windows that faced another courtyard, which was decorated with white stone benches as well as columns and round arches overgrown with ivy.

It looked almost like a fairy tale, and I decided to take a closer look at this until now unknown part, maybe even together with my camera and Bay, who usually always tried to resist my forced photo shoots. However, she still owed me something...

I meandered around the tables, on which art flyers and self-made posters lay, right to the large window. Once I was there, I enjoyed the view outside.

This building had to be ancient and yet it had held up over the centuries. On the dark green hoodie the Bardot guy wore and the one I had bought in the Vanderwood Shop, I had read 1866 under the white wolves yesterday, which didn’t explain to me why the building looked like it came out of a fairy tale.

To make matters worse, I didn’t have my camera with me today.

“Hurry up, please. David is waiting for you in the surveillance room. When you’re done, you come back here, understand?”

When I heard Adrian’s voice outside in the hallway, I automatically disappeared behind the dark green velvet curtain at the window. Just in time, because the door opened and someone entered the room.

Shit...I was stuck here, and to make matters worse, withAdrian DeLoughrey. Something about that thought made a tingle rise inside me, but the footsteps approaching me wiped out that feeling and made something else rise inside me:Adrenaline.

Adrian seemed to be pacing back and forth, very impatiently, because his footsteps quickened until he slowed them down again.

“What’s taking so long...” he muttered loud enough to be heard.

Only now did I realize that I had completely forgotten to breathe and took a silent breath. A mistake, as it turned out, because Adrian’s footsteps instantly paused, and I immediately held my breath again. The adrenaline in my blood rose, and I couldn’t deny that I liked it.

Relax, Larissa. He couldn’t have heard you...

I didn’t manage to calm down at all, because his footsteps had stopped, and I couldn’t place where he was.Damn it!

I paused.

Whoosh!

Within a split second, the curtain was ripped away from under my nose, and I was staring into the glowing red eyes of Adrian DeLoughrey.

This time, I wasn’t scared, but filled with pure fascination and a touch of curiosity.

It looked like his irises were playing with me, trying to pull me into a maelstrom.

Adrian’s expression was filled with suspicion, just like last time, but there was something else....