than the dorms on college campuses. We had a living area full of antique furniture with a patchwork rug spread across the stone floor. Two doors hung open, both leading into lofty rooms with four-poster beds.
“Have you been seeing strange things, too?” I asked.
“Seeing things?” She shook her head and sat next to me. “My ears got all pointy, and I kept passing out all the time when I touched iron. Went to the doctor and everything, and they couldn’t find anything wrong with me. In fact, they said I was healthier than the average eighteen-year-old. Why? What have you seen?”
“Ehm…” Should I try to explain it? And how could I? I wasn’t even entirely sure I knew how to describe the Redcap. Plus, introducing myself as someone wanted for two homicides probably wasn’t the greatest idea in the world, especially when I’d be spending who knew how much time with my new roommate.
Homicides. A fresh wave of pain smacked me in the face. My eyes burned with unshed tears, and the painful lump in my throat returned. Bree was dead.
My oldest friend in the world was dead.
And it was all my fault.
“It’s okay,” she said, giving my arm a squeeze. “I understand how you feel. It just started happening to you, didn’t it? I was scared to tell people about it, too. I thought they’d think I was crazy. And well…some did.” She let out a heavy sigh and gave my arm a squeeze. “I won’t think you’re crazy, Norah. When you’re ready to talk about it, I’ll be here to listen.”
I gave her a weak smile.
And that was when I decided that sharing quarters with another changeling wouldn’t be so bad after all.
An hour later, we entered the Great Hall for Orientation. The vaulted room was located on the ground floor of the academy, sandwiched between four wings that spread out like the long points of a compass. Golden light streamed in the arched windows along one wall while banners of gold, red, black, and green hung along the other. Our footsteps echoed as we drifted inside, and my eyes widened at the motes of glistening dust that drifted through the sweet-scented air.
At the far end of the room sat a wooden table, parallel with the small stage where a cluster of powerful fae stood watching. I spotted the four guys who had saved me in Manhattan. My stomach flipped as my gaze caught with Finn’s. He winked at me from where he stood next to the other three guys, along with about a dozen more fae. Some men, some women.
Five more tables stretched across the center of the Great Hall. Four held what I assumed to be other students. At each table, many had similar features, and they wore cloaks of similar colors. A cluster of deep red hair on one. Several students with gleaming black eyes on another.
The final, fifth table was full of nervous-looking students, cloak-less and confused. That would be where we would sit.
Sophia and I eased onto the wooden bench and waited while one powerful female fae stood and stepped to the edge of the stage, her lilac gown rustling around a lithe yet toned frame. Magic shimmered across her skin, and her deep golden hair gleamed beneath the sunlight that streamed in from the large windows. She looked no more than five or ten years older than the rest of us, but there was something ancient and wise in her dark eyes.
“Welcome to Otherworld Academy. I’m Alwyn Aldair, your Head Instructor,” she said with a wide smile that felt more eerie than welcoming. “As always, we have sixteen new changelings with us this evening, from four different origins in the human realm. So far, you may have realized that four is a common theme here. And that’s because we have four courts. From each human origin, there will be a Spring, a Summer, a Winter, and an Autumn amongst you, giving each Court four new changeling fae a year.”
We all nodded and murmured. The fae who had saved—or captured, depending on how you looked at it—me had explained most of this to me, though they hadn’t gone into much detail. I guessed it made sense, though I still didn’t understand the how or the why of it. It was also one more point in the Not-Spring column, since I was pretty certain my new roommate was the embodiment of all things Spring.
“For some of you, it will be quicker to determine your