He opens the door, holding it for me to pass through, and then lets it slam shut behind us. We emerge into another gathering room. Couches and armchairs are set up around a fireplace. A puzzle is half completed on the coffee table.
“This is one of the academy’s common rooms. It’s open to everyone, regardless of what house you are in. Students come in here to study or just hang out.” He points to a set of double doors across from us. “The library and conservatory are through that corridor. They shut down for the night at nine PM.”
I slow as I walk through the common room, trying to take everything in. It’s dim, with the only light coming from the dwindling fire. What looks like board games are stacked on a dark wooden bookshelf behind one of the couches, and an odd-looking music box sits in the corner.
“If you go through this doorway,” Maxon says in a rushed voice, like he just wants to get this tour over with, as he points to a large arched doorway centered in the wall across from the fireplace, “you will enter the lobby. There are two meeting rooms there, as well as Headmistress Messor’s office. We are going this way.” He takes me through another arched doorway, which opens into another large corridor with multiple staircases and halls branching off. I’m going to end up lost in this place, I can already tell.
Feeling like I’m in a maze, I follow Maxon through winding hallways until we get to the supply room. Maxon lifts a lantern off the wall and holds it up, shining light on the different shelves. He gives me the lantern to hold once he’s found what he’s looking for, and hands me a surprisingly heavy parcel wrapped in brown paper.
“I’m not sure about your sizes for clothes,” he says, looking at the shelves again. “If these don’t fit, you can come back and get the right sizes in the morning.” As if using it as an excuse, he turns, holds the lantern up, and looks me up and down.
“Try these,” he mumbles, quickly turning away. He stacks a uniform and a pair of boots on top of the parcel in my hand. “Come on, if you want food we better get going.”
I readjust everything in my hands and pad along the hall after him. “Is everyone asleep?” I ask.
“They’re in their rooms,” he replies. “Whether or not they’re asleep is a different question. There is an eight-thirty curfew. You need to be in your house by then, and can stay in the common room until ten. Then you must go to your dorm, and it’s wise to sleep. Training is intense and takes a lot out of you.”
We go up a set of stairs and I struggle to keep the stuff from falling out of my arms. Maxon notices and stops, taking half the load from me.
“Thanks,” I tell him. He merely nods, barely looking at me.
We walk in silence the rest of the way to the mess hall. Like everything else at the academy, it’s large and ostentatious. The floors are polished marble and dark paneling covers the walls. Moonlight filters through thick glass windows.
Maxon holds out his hand in front of his face. “Solis,” he says, and a bright yellow ball of light appears in the dark, hovering an inch or so above his hand.
“Whoa,” I whisper. “That’s so freaking cool. Will I be able to do that?”
“All reapers can.” He holds his hand up and the room fills with light. “It’s one of the simpler spells you’re taught. You’re made up of energy, Addy, and learning how to manipulate and control it is the basis of spellwork.”
“Holy shit, that’s awesome.”
Something flickers in his gaze, and his expressions softens slightly. “I can imagine this is overwhelming. You were a mere human yesterday.”
The insult immediately negates any sympathy he was trying to engage. “It is, but not in a bad way,” I say, a little stiffly. We stop at a table in the middle of the large cafeteria and I put my supplies down. “I never quite fit in before. Being able to communicate with spirits…like you said. It’s rare. Saying I felt alone even when I was in a crowded room sounds so cliché, but that’s how it was. And then half the time when I didn’t feel alone, it was because someone was reminding me how much I don’t fit in.” I bring my hand to my chest. “It hurt to have that emptiness inside me, and even though I tried to pretend like it didn’t bother me, it did. So being here…it’s almost like this was how things were supposed to go all along. Like I have a purpose.”
His eyes meet mine and something indiscernible passes between us, almost as if he knows about the emptiness of which I’m speaking, which seems impossible that someone like him could relate to the poor, orphaned weirdo back in the human realm.
“Humans aren’t meant to be alone.” His eyes meet mine and he takes a step closer. “Or at least that’s what we were taught in Human Studies.”
I hold back a snort. Human Studies? “True, but not everyone is lucky enough to have family or friends.”
“You didn’t have a family?” He pulls out a chair and takes a seat. I follow suit and sit next to him, resting my hands on the table.
“I did at one point, obviously. But my mother died when I was only nine months old, and my father was killed in a car accident when I was fourteen.”
“I’m…I’m sorry.” He slides his hand across the table, as if he wants to brush his fingers across mine, but then he jerks it back, seeming to think better of it. “Take a seat and I’ll bring you food.”
I clench my teeth as he stalks away—his behavior is infuriating! I can’t understand why he acts like he loathes me, and yet goes out of his way to get me fresh clothes, food, and spend all this time explaining everything to me when all he was ordered to do was put me to bed. And they say women are complicated!
I stare around the mess hall as I wait for Maxon, trying to take everything in. I’m sitting in the center of a large room, surrounded by dozens of other circular tables. There’s a long rectangular table at the front of the room, saved for the professors, maybe? There are two doorways behind it, and I can see another faint yellow glow coming from inside.
That’s the way Maxon went, making me assume that’s the kitchen. I wrap my arms around my body, fighting a chill that wants to run down my spine. There’s a large fireplace on either side of the mess hall, and without a fire going, it’s chilly in here. A big cast iron lantern on the mantel of one of the fireplaces, and what looks like fireflies, swirl around inside of it.
Turning my eyes back to the ball of light in the lantern on the table, I focus on it, not able to think about anything else or I’ll risk going into shock.
“Addy?”
I jerk up, blinking rapidly to focus my vision. Maxon is standing next to me, holding a tray with two bowls of steaming soup.
“The bread might be a little stale,” he says as he sets a bowl in front of me. “It was left out.”
“That’s fine. Thank you.” I slide the bowl in front of me. It looks like some sort of vegetable stew and smells amazing. Yet, not surprisingly, I have no appetite.
“You should eat,” Maxon urges, again seeming like his time spent with me can’t end fast enough, and breaks his bread in half. He dips it in the soup before taking a bite.
I had a frozen burrito during my break at work before I died. What a great last meal.