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I had the best of intentions, so it wasn’t my fault Shadow chose that moment to move between Verity and me, thus causing the hat to land onherhead, rather than Verity’s.
Everyone froze for a solid minute, then Verity exploded into movement, leaping for Shadow’s head.
Shadow lunged to the side and they were off, tearing around the garden, playing a crazy cat version of keep away.
Professor Dewar sighed. “Very well, Miss Smith. I suppose we’re done for the day.”
“Thank you, Professor. See you next week!”
I whistled for Shadow, who whirled and tossed her head, sending the hat spinning through the air.
Verity lunged and caught it in her mouth, landed and flopped over onto the ground, where she proceeded to wrestle the hat into submission.
“No, no, Verity, don’t chew on those threads. No, no, give it here now.” The sounds of Professor Dewar’s crooning followed us back into the shadows that led us into the castle and eventually up to our suite on the fifth floor.
CHAPTER3
I hadthe same roommate this year as last—Jasmine—and we shared a suite with two other women, Mikaela and Leslie, not that we ever saw Leslie.
She had a boyfriend down on the second floor and spent most of her time with him.
Mikaela said she rarely even spent the night in their room, which theoretically was against the rules, but none of us were going to report her.
Anyway, we’d moved down a floor over the summer and were now on the fifth floor. Rumor had it, when we reached Level 2 our fourth year, we’d have actual living quarters in our suites.
For now, we simply had two dorm-style rooms with a bathroom in between.
I wasn’t sure I believed the rumor. It was tempting to find out, but sliding uninvited into the shadows of someone’s private quarters was a great way to get caught in a magical castle full of monsters, so I’d resisted the temptation so far.
Even though I’d managed to discover the location of a certain beast’s room and wasdefinitelytempted.
Though that seemed a bit extreme when Icouldchoose to stop being such a coward andstop hidingevery time he scented me and went hunting.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t seem to help myself.
Instinct had me hiding every single time, simply because I knew if he found me, my life would never be the same, and what I couldn’t predict was whether that would be a good thing or not.
What if he was hunting me because he recognized the scent of a shadow monster and wanted to exterminate me like all the others of my kind?
There was another option, of course.
We’d all heard about fated mates and I wasn’t on board with that whole business.
And so, I avoided Jahrdran for that reason as well.
Because I was just twenty-one when I first caught sight of him a year before and though I was now twenty-two, almost twenty-three, that still seemed entirely too young to have to deal with an overly possessive fated mate.
Ialmosthoped he was hunting to kill me instead.
Either way, I was avoiding the entire situation by hiding in the shadows whenever I sensed him nearby.
I was thinking about Jahrdran—something I did on the regular—as I approached our suite on the fifth floor, Shadow at my side.
I was reaching for the doorknob when Shadow shoved in front of me and snarled at the door.
Not again.
What’s wrong, Shadow?
