Page 36 of The Stone Initiation
My toothbrush sat in a holder by the sink.
I’d barely had time to unpack my bag last night before I’d passed out, so this had to be the ghost’s doing.
I wasn’t sure whether to shout thank you or warn it to stay out of my stuff. But the coffee though…That was sweet of her. Fuck it, who was I to turn my nose up at a little help?
I shut the door and stared at my bedhead in the bathroom mirror. I looked like I’d wrestled a rhino in my sleep. My white-blonde hair was a halo around my head and the skin around my eyes was slightly red, making the blue flecks in my slate-gray eyes stand out.
“If you’re in here I suggest you leave. Trust me, you do not want to see what happens next.”
Silence greeted me.
A thirty second warning was enough. I really had to go.
Bathroom business complete, I went back to my coffee. No sign of the resident ghost, Maybe, she only hung out at night?
There was a knock on my door. “Walker, you up?” Touron called.
I unlocked my door and tipped my head back to look up at him. He’d donned a set of sweats and smelled of citrus body wash. His forest-green eyes brightened when his gaze fell on my mug.
“You made coffee?” The hope in his tone was almost potent enough to be guilt inducing.
“Sorry. Nope. A ghost got it for me.”
His brows flicked up. “Parker? No way.”
“Yep,andshe unpacked for me.”
He peered into my room cautiously. “Is she…in there?”
“I don’t think so.” I studied the wary lines of his face. “Touron, are you…scared?”
He balked. “Pfft, Scared? Gargoyles don’t get scared. We have the power to extinguish terrors.”
“Uh-huh, we do, we do, but ghosts aren’t terrors. They’re untethered souls.”
He rubbed the back of his neck looking surprisingly sheepish. “Ghosts give me the creeps. My aunt has a couple at her estate.” He shuddered and then his eyes widened. “What if she comes to my room?”
I bit back a smile. “You can come get me. I’ll protect you.”
He exhaled through his nose. “You know what? I refuse to be embarrassed about this. Everyone has some aversion. Mine happens to be ghosts and odd socks. I can’t stand it when people wear odd socks.” Another shudder. “I’m heading down to the kitchens. There’s some pasta left over from last night. You want some?”
It hit me that I had no clue what time it was, or when induction would take place. “What timeisit?”
“It’s early, like eleven. Class is at four. The others probably won’t be up for a while. We went to bed a couple of hours ago. I did knock for you when I made pasta, but you didn’t answer, and Shar pointed out that with your half human constitution you probably needed more sleep.”
“I thought she’d gone to bed.”
“Nah, she showed up in the kitchens last night and devoured three tins of tuna, two plates of pasta and a jug of juice.”
Goyle metabolism was a bitch.
“I’ll have to work on getting my body clock in sync for this place. But pasta for breakfast sounds great. I’ll see you down there. I got to shower and change.”
“Sure.”
I closed the door and stifled a yawn. I needed more sleep than a pure blood, but five hours usually was enough for me, except last night I must have slept at least ten. That was not normal, and it was totally not like me.
The trial must have taken a lot out of me.
