AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I hadn’t realized until that moment how much I’d missed my best friend.
We’d been suite mates since our first year at Blackthorn when we’d bonded over our strange roommate situations.
Jasmine was rooming with Kasi, who never socialized, mostly because at the time, she’d been trying to keep her status as a shadow-beast a secret. Meanwhile, my roommate, Leslie, kept clothes and other things in our room, but she mostly stayed with her boyfriend.
Or so she said.
It had taken me almost the entirety of my first year at the Academy to realize that the second floor, where she claimed to be staying with her boyfriend, was nothing but classrooms.
In other words, I had no idea where Leslie was really staying.
She’d show up every once in a while to grab more clothes and leave more stuff behind before disappearing again.
I suppose I wasn’t a very good roommate since I honestly didn’t care enough to question her, mostly because I didn’t want to find out she was sleeping with one of our professors, especially if it was happening in one of our classrooms.
So I just ignored the entire situation. Besides, I liked having the room to myself.
With Kasi spending most of her time in the Shadow Realm, Jasmine and I used to joke that if she and I had been assigned the same room, the other half of our suite would have been empty.
“So how are you,really?” Jasmine asked.
I shrugged, not wanting to admit what I was thinking: that between the struggle to control my leopard, not to mention my powers, and the fear of Zowen returning, life pretty much sucked.
“That good, huh?” Jasmine asked. “Well, come on, then.” She grabbed my hand and dragged me through the bathroom into her room.
Kasi was sprawled across her bed, but bolted to her feet the minute she saw me. “Mikaela! I’m so happy you’re here. I know you told us you were coming back, but, well?—”
I’d spoken to both Kasi and Jasmine numerous times since waking and had confided in them about all the struggles at home, so I knew exactlywhat she was thinking.
“You were worried my parents would change their mind,” I said.
She nodded.
Technically, since I was an adult, it wasn’t really up to my parents, but since they were so traumatized by everything that had happened, I really didn’t have the heart to return without their approval.
“They were afraid to send me back, but honestly, I think they were more afraid to have me stay.”
A knock on the door prevented me from oversharing about how my parents had both cried when saying goodbye, but when I’d glanced back for one last look, all I’d seen on their faces was profound relief.
Kasi opened the door to Jahrdran,who immediately pulled her into his arms.
Jasmine rolled her eyes at me as the two of them began heating up the room.
Seriously.
Kasi practically climbed him like a pole.
Jasmine cleared her throat. “Um, hello? Didn’t you guys spend most of the summer together? What the hell?”
“Not the last ten days,” Kasi said as she pulled away from Jahrdran.
“Longest ten days of my life,” Jahrdran rumbled and kissed her again.
Damn. “Maybe we should—you know,” I gestured to my room.
Jasmine let out a huff. “We’re supposed to go to dinner together. Hello? You guys?”
“Maybe they’lljoin us tomorrow.” I hooked arms with Jasmine and dragged her through the bathroom back into my room, closing both doors between the two rooms along the way. “If they’re still going at it when we get back, you can hang out in here. I don’t know if Leslie plans to continue pretending to room with me this year or not.”
