The Ravens (The Ravens #1) - Kass Morgan Page 0,27
she’d want to join? Yet as she stared at the elegant sorority house, she knew she wouldn’t turn back around.
Although the past few days had been a whirlwind of orientation activities, classes, parties, and appointments with various advisers, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the invitation. It hovered at the edge of her thoughts during her first neuroscience class, which she’d gotten special permission to take as a freshman. She felt a shivery thrill of excitement down her spine in the museum-like rare-books library where, to Vivi’s amazement, anyone was allowed to study. The only thing threatening to dampen her enthusiasm was the memory of how foolish she’d been in the dining hall with Mason the other morning. A cute boy had been nice to her for five minutes and Vivi had somehow managed to convince herself that he was interested. Her stomach clenched as she recalled the look on Scarlett’s face when she’d approached their table, her cloyingly sweet, condescending smile. She hadn’t liked Vivi from the start, and this clearly wouldn’t help. The question was how much it would hurt her chances in the sorority.
The Kappas’ four-story gray house was set far back from the street, nestled among the live oaks that cast long shadows in the twilight. The tea lights she’d thought had been strung up for the rush party still hung in the trees, though they created a different effect without the buzz of music and laughter.
Vines curled up the wrought-iron balconies that adorned each floor, and Vivi couldn’t keep herself from imagining what it’d be like to sit out on the wraparound porch with a mint julep. Whatever that turned out to be.
As she waited for Ariana, whom she’d promised to meet outside, Vivi looked at the neighboring houses. Although they were all enormous, they couldn’t have been more different from the sterile McMansions that constituted luxury in Reno. There were sprawling Victorians, a few stately Georgians, and one Greek revival complete with marble columns, all of them with the wrought-iron balconies that Vivi had come to associate with Savannah. Most had ivy covering at least one of the walls, and a few had flaking paint, but while these details might seem shabby in other neighborhoods, here they only added to the feeling of decadence. The houses reminded Vivi of the eccentric British aristocrats she’d read about, the ones who wore designer clothes with muddy boots and let their priceless oil paintings fade in stuffy attics.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” a breathless voice said. Vivi turned to see Ariana hurrying up the walk looking harried but gorgeous in the black cocktail dress Vivi had seen that morning. The night before, when Vivi admitted that she didn’t have any formalwear, Ariana had insisted she come to her room the next day to borrow an outfit—she had half a dozen party dresses left over from her cousins’ recent quinceañeras.
“I wasn’t in any rush to go inside, trust me,” Vivi said. “So should we knock?”
“I guess so.” Ariana eyed the door warily.
“This doesn’t really strike me as the walk-right-in kind of place,” Vivi said. All the shutters were closed, and there were no sounds of activity coming from inside.
As she and Ariana stared at the door, it suddenly opened, revealing an empty vestibule. “Who did that?” Ariana asked.
“Maybe it was the wind,” Vivi said, wondering why the wind always insisted on behaving strangely whenever she was around. She and Ariana exchanged a look of wordless agreement, then stepped inside.
The recruitment party had been mostly in the garden, and Vivi realized she hadn’t gotten a good look around the interior. Paintings lined the walls; some featured women in old-fashioned clothes while others depicted beautiful but slightly melancholy settings: a forest shrouded in mist, a raven perched on a barren tree in a lonely field. Yet the house itself conveyed elegance and warmth, from the candles flickering on random surfaces to the overflowing vases of flowers scattered about.
“Whoa,” Ariana said under her breath. “Look at this.” She was pointing down a hall that led to an enclosed greenhouse. Moonlight filtered through the glass, illuminating a tangle of plants, potted trees, and vines climbing up the walls.
“I guess the Kappas are into gardening?” Vivi said.
Faint conversation drifted from another room. Vivi gestured for Ariana to join her and followed the sound to the living room, where two girls sat on a pair of couches facing each other. Jess, the Kappa who’d quoted Dorothy Parker at the party, was leaning