Page 8 of Malice in e minor

Yeah, maybe I moped a bit when they broke up. I’d never be able to afford to see them after they blew up, but I could watch the snippets they posted on social media. You could also buy albums of their music and prints of Azriel’s art.

But yeah, it was also weird I couldn’t pick my classes. I got the app downloaded and found my dorm assignment. I’d look at my classes when we found my room. Orion gave us just the basic layout of things and abandoned us, but it was pretty easy to find once I knew what building. The dorms were the biggest building outside of the theatres.

I decided to take a detour and check out the theatre because we had to pass by it. I didn’t tell JaToya what I wanted to do. She knew I was going to want to see it.

And, wow. It was gorgeous. It looked like an art déco take on the Roman Empire. There were frescoes and sculptures everywhere. Even the ceiling was painted. I’d never played in a theatre this big before. It looked like the stage was set for a musical or play instead of an orchestra right now.

“When you graduate, I’m going to be here with my family and yours to watch your final performance. You’re going to be amazing.”

“This is fucked up, right?”

“Totally. But it could be the universe testing you. That guy was sexy. Orion, was it?”

“Completely out of my league. And I don’t think he likes me. It’s weird he’s here. I don’t know if his partners are, but they are hot too.”

“Artist sandwich?”

“JaToya! I’m here to study, not get laid. Besides, he was grumpy.”

“What? You spent undergrad either locked in a practice room or terrorizing men. You should cut loose in grad school.”

“I’ll take it under consideration. Want to see my dorm?”

“I know you want to get up on that stage and stand there with your arms out picturing your audience.”

Yeah, I did. The theatre lights were on, but the place was empty. I could get as stupid as I wanted up there because JaToya had probably seen me act dumber. I took a step forward to try to find away up to the stage when I heard something get knocked over backstage. Shit! We weren’t alone. I grabbed JaToya’s hand and hauled her out of there. I didn’t want to make an ass of myself on the first day.

JaToya just laughed at me, but she didn’t give me a hard time. We made our way to my dorm building and tried to find someone to give me the key. I found someone right away, and they were pretty nice. I could tell she was in love with my best friend after five minutes. Most people were, but JaToya wasn’t into women and had particular taste in men. She introduced herself as Rue.

“My roommates name wasn’t on the app.”

“They’re all singles,” Rue said. “Blackvale only takes the best, so we aren’t packed to the rafters all the time. I do see where you got one of the nicer rooms. Lucky girl. You must have a patron or just rich folks.”

“I thought patrons had fallen out of fashion for the most part. I thought it was mostly to launder money now.”

“Oh, we have a few people here being sponsored. Not to launder money but because they actually believe in the student. There are also a few scholarships. I’m here on scholarship, so I’m working as a dorm monitor. Others are TAs.”

“You look more like a dancer than a musician.”

Rue beamed at me.

“Keen eye. I am a dancer. The dorms are mixed. You’ll have dancers, actors, visual artists, and writers in this building. The common room is through that archway and your room is on the top floor. We all gather there to talk about art when we can.”

I nodded.

“I remember Orion saying something about that.”

“You met Orion Hart? Were Azriel and Misha with him? They are usually joined at the hip.”

So that answered that. Immortal Nightmare was all here. But what were they doing here if they weren’t teaching?

“Orion was my tour guide, though he didn’t so much give a tour as tell us the general direction of everything and tell me to download the app. He said he wasn’t a teacher.”

“They aren’t. They all enrolled as new students at the beginning of the semester.”

“Isn’t that weird? They are famous.”

Rue just shrugged.