Page 51 of Architecti
“Boy is gay,” Vetch says.
Bastien snorts.“Bisexual, actually.So, no points for you.”
Vetch huffs, and both Lex and I glance at him.
“What?”He sticks a hip out in the most camp display I’ve ever seen.“Because I look like a jock, I can’t find men attractive?Shame on you pair of judgy bitches.”
That makes all three of us laugh.
Vetch grinds on his teeth.“Well, boy is holding a secret.Vetch can smell it.”
Bastien’s throat bobs.“Maybe that secret isn’t for you.”
He boinks him on the nose and shoves open the door, promptly shutting the goyle up, and together the three of us enter House Inferos.
The warmth of open fires and winter blankets and hot chocolate envelops us as we step through the doorway.
But that fucking voice ceaselessly calls my name.
Midnight.Midnight.Midnight.
I freeze.I swear the letters of my name skitter across the walls, but when I blink, it’s gone.
Will it plague me until I reap Lucy?Will I get no respite?
“You okay?”Lex says, touching my arm and making me jump.
“Umm, yeah.”I pull a hand through my hair and wipe my palm over my face.
“Convincing,” she says.
They stride further into the house, and I rest my fingers against the wall.Maybe I’m losing it, but I don’t know any other way to communicate with the campus.
I lower my voice to a whisper.“We made our deal.I told you I’ll reap Ignatius’s daughter.You don’t need to remind me.I’m not even in my room yet, for demon’s sake.It’s not like I’ve forgotten.”
The wall pulses under my touch.Or maybe it was the vibration from Bastien closing the door.
I need to get a grip.I’m imagining the fucking campus talking to me?I’ve been here a day, I can’t lose it yet.
Our foyer walls are a deep red, the colour of aged blood.A silvery filigree pattern of lace and spears and abstract moths adorn both the fabricked walls and the tasselled black velvet curtains framing tall windows.
Large lanterns perch in sconces, their flames flickering and sending ember glows and that homely winter warmth around the foyer.A grand staircase sits at the heart of the space, split to allow passage to those dormitory wings.
“Close your eyes,” Bastien says.“Can you feel that?”
My eyelids fall shut and I breathe slow and steady, letting my senses stretch and sing.There’s a heartbeat here, a thick drumbeat that reverberates around me, inside me.It sounds like sugar and waterfalls.It smells like bonfires and coffee, and it tingles over my skin like a femme’s freshly manicured nails.
Fuck.It’s addictive.It’s power.And now it’s home.
“That’s our magic,” Lex says, then abruptly jumps into a stride across the foyer.“Our rooms.”
“How do you know where to go?”I ask.
“I don’t know, I just do.Don’t you feel it?”
“Actually, yeah,” Bastien answers and strides after her.Then I feel the tugging too.I follow after them up onto the first floor and down the corridor to an apartment door.
I’m the last one in.Lex and Bastien have halted in the hallway.
