Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 121534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 608(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 608(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Instead, she lifts her head slightly, scanning the buildings. Her gaze never reaches this window, but I take a step back anyway.
Not because I’m hiding.
Just habit.
Everything about her stance is the same as I remember—guarded, purposeful, almost cruel. She’s a monster dressed up like an angel.
I don’t look at Rey as she passes closer. My father always told me not to stare at storms—especially the ones that wear a human face.
I learned that too late.
The last time I ignored the warning signs, it cost me everything. My parents are a memory now—scattered in ash and silence.
And the man responsible for that silence raised her.
I exhale, long and slow, until my shoulders relax, then look down at my phone. It’s only day one, and she’s already affecting me this harshly. Maybe she’ll ignore me the way I plan on ignoring her.
Why the hell is she at Endir? Her of all people? The daughter of the antichrist?
I hate her father.
I hate her.
I despise everything their family stands for and everything they did to hurt mine. Haven’t they already done enough? Now they have to infiltrate the only peace I have left?
She turns, and the sunlight streaming through a cloud behind her casts her in an otherworldly glow. She glances up and, in an instant, she’s looking right at me. Right through me. But no, I already took a step back. She can’t actually see me.
I’m going to give her a wide berth and pray she does the same for me. I’ve worked hard for the peace this place gives me. I’m not about to surrender it now.
One thing’s for sure. Rey Stjerne can burn in hell.
And maybe she will.
If I keep my distance. If I can stay in control.
Although, with my heart hammering like it already knows what’s coming, neither feels likely right now.
Chapter Four
Rey
My father’s car fades into the distance, but I don’t look back. I keep my eyes shut to center myself. I’m equipped for this. The air shifts, subtle but undeniable, and I can feel the charge beneath the surface. There’s a storm coming.
I open my eyes when a group of students walks past me. I need to get moving before more rain hits.
I grab my bags and start toward the dorms. I haul the trunk behind me, its wheels dragging over the stone like it resents being here as much as I do.
Just then, a breeze kicks up, lifting strands of hair across my face. The lake on my left doesn’t ripple. Doesn’t move at all.
I follow the shoreline with my gaze and finally take in the campus buildings, really see them—and what stares back doesn’t belong in this world.
Endir’s campus rises out of the landscape like it was never built—just unearthed. It’s a mixture of buildings from the eighties scattered in between older-looking ones that aren’t even dated. Most of the questionable buildings are carved from some unnamable black stone, slick with age and myth, rumored to be the last thing the Gods or Giants shaped before the world tore itself apart. Behind them, the mountains loom, massive and unyielding, like sentinels keeping watch over something too old to name and too dangerous to forget.
My father says the oldest structure can’t be carbon-dated, but considering the source, I file that under maybe true, maybe propaganda. Either way, it doesn’t matter. The place feels ancient in a way that makes my skin itch.
This isn’t a normal campus.
And most of the students walking across it aren’t normal, either—even if they think they are.
A few, like Aric, are here for reasons they’ll never understand. The rest? For the most part, trust-fund humans pretending their bloodlines didn’t buy them a seat at something holy.
I walk along the stone pathway with my bags and almost trip when a wheel gets stuck in a groove. Looking down, I see that etched into one of the small cobblestones is a mark shaped like the rune Thurisaz. Wow, fantastic. I’m only a few minutes in and already I’m greeted by the rune that represents destruction.
My father always said there were twenty-six runes, each with different meanings and abilities. Humans, of course, are only aware of twenty-four of them. Regardless of the number, though, I’m really not a fan of running into this specific one.
It’s not like I needed a reminder of how dangerous this is.
I can’t help glancing around to see if I’ve triggered some sort of waiting trap, but no. Just another cool breeze hitting my skin greets me. Thank the Gods.
Is this how the entire semester is going to be? Wondering what’s safe and what’s not? Always looking over my shoulder, doubting everyone and everything? I didn’t expect even the air to taste different here, but it does. My father said the bag he gave me had all the information I’d need to complete my mission. Yet I’m only a few minutes in and already thinking he exaggerated.