Ravage (Royal Fae Academy #1) - Lacey Carter Andersen Page 0,10

room.

I move slowly to the doorway of my bedroom and freeze. Dwade is storming through the living room. He barely casts Harold a glance before his gaze skids across me, then back, freezing. The warpath he was on momentarily before tearing across the room has stopped. Instead, his eyes widen and his entire demeanor changes.

“Hi, Dwade,” I say, leaning against the doorframe.

Harold is out the door in an instant, and Dwade’s eyes sweep from my booted feet, up my legs, then lingers on my breasts, before stopping at my face. “Esmeray.” He says my name like he’s been waiting to say it all his life.

“Welcome to my dorm,” I say, keeping my tone light and trying not to betray the fact that I have no idea how he found me so fast.

“Your dorm?”

So he didn’t know I lived here. “Yes. I’m a new student.”

He points a finger to the fourth door. “That’s my room.”

Every muscle in my body clenches. How the hell am I supposed to figure out who killed my brother with Dwade watching my every move? “You’re kidding.”

He shakes his head, and I hate that my eyes roam over the muscles in his neck and down his massive body. Dwade was always a big boy. A giant dwarfing even my brother and their friends, but here, alone with me, he seems even bigger. But more than that, there’s something strangely appealing about seeing a light fae with neatly shaved black hair and pale brown eyes. It almost makes me imagine that he’s got a little darkness inside him.

I wonder if I could corrupt the rest of him.

“Well,” I say, choosing my words with care, “I hope you don’t mind, but I’m a bit of a night owl.”

He shrugs those big shoulders of his.

Taking a deep breath, I close the door of my bedroom and lock it. Then I pause and look at him again. “I’m going to go explore campus a bit.”

“Okay,” he says.

I walk toward him, casting my eyes down. When I’m about to pass him, he surprises me by catching my arm.

“What are you doing here, Esmeray?”

My heart hammers as the heat from his touch moves through my body. “I didn’t exactly get a choice… since I’m… since I’m the new heir.”

He doesn’t say anything else until I slowly look up to meet his gaze. “I’m so sorry about your brother.”

It’s hard to swallow around the lump in my throat. “Accidents happen, right?”

He suddenly refuses to look back at me.

Hell, does he know it wasn’t an accident?

“Dwade?” His name comes out more sharply than I intended.

“It’s good to have you here,” he says, then releases my arm and heads toward his room.

I can’t seem to move as I watch him go to his door, unlock it, and disappear inside. It feels like I just watched a ghost. A memory of the boy who used to sit and talk with me for hours. Both of us tended to be quiet, but together we seemed to always have something to say. Is there any part of the boy I once knew there? Did I imagine his reaction to my brother?

Heading back outside, a troubling thought follows me as I wind down the outdoor staircase. What if my brother’s friends had something to do with what happened to him?

For the first time in my life, I find that I miss my home. At least there I had the ghosts and monsters to keep me company.

Here? I had no idea who I could trust and who I couldn’t.

And even though I’d planned to keep a distance from Dwade, Bron, and Lucian, I’d never imagined I’d be adding their name to my list of suspects. But I was. A fact that killed me.

6

Esmeray

It’s late at night as I sit on the tall wall that surrounds the school. Outside the wall, a forest spreads out around us, enchanted to discourage humans from accidentally stumbling onto our world. A ghost of a young fae woman sits beside me on the wall. I could tell that she was initially frightened of me. Knowing I could see her meant that I was a dark fae, which scared her, but her curiosity at having someone who could see her slowly seemed to overwhelm her nerves.

“Why do you sit out here when you should be sleeping?” she asks, her question hesitant.

“Because.” I search for the words. “I don’t need a lot of sleep. And…I like the nighttime. The moon paints the world in a kind of peaceful