My gaze flicks back up toward the roof. I can’t see the bird anymore, but I know it’s there. I would’ve noticed if it took flight again.
“Just what?” Asher’s brows draw together.
“Um…”
Oh Lord, I can’t believe I’m about to say this.
I have two heart-stoppingly handsome men in front of me who just rocked my world, who’d be more than willing to do things to me that I’ve only ever imagined in my dirtiest fantasies—and yet, when I open my mouth, the words that fall out are, “Can we go check out the roof?”
The guys both glance up.
“Why?” Cam asks, curiosity in his voice.
“I saw a bird land up there.”
Two sets of eyes—one pair sky-blue and the other mossy green—look at me in surprise.
“I’m sorry, are you saying a bird is more interesting than”—Cam clutches at his chest, feigning a grievous injury—“than us?” He shakes his head, eyebrows rising. “Elliot, I am wounded. I am betrayed, I am hurt, I am—”
I shove him in the shoulder. “You’re a dingus, that’s what you are.”
“Ouch! I haven’t been called a dingus since I was, what, twelve? Woman up, Sin, call me a dumbass like you mean it.”
“I thought you wanted to get laid sometime this decade?” I did too, damn it.
“Children, children,” Asher says, his voice weary but his eyes warm with amusement. Then he turns to me. “Do you really want to check out the roof?”
I nod, biting my lip. “I know it’s probably stupid, but…”
“No, hey, it’s obviously important to you. There’s always time for…” Heat flares in his eyes briefly, and I decide I really must be the dumbest person on the planet to not already be in our dorm room, naked in bed with these guys. Then he clears his throat. “We’ll have the whole rest of the evening to do whatever we want. Let’s see if we can find a way up there.”
“How?” Cam asks, his gaze already scanning the building.
The thing about Wellwood Hall, and a lot of the other buildings on campus too, is that they’re not your typical school buildings or dorms. I’m sketchy on the details, but once, this school was supposed to be some rich person’s estate. Or a couple of estates that made up some kind of rich person community. Something like that.
The point is, the architecture of Wellwood Hall is a little crazy. Whoever built it seems to have changed their designs several times while in the middle of construction, and they obviously drew inspiration from a variety of architectural styles, because the massive building has towers, crazy staircases, levels of various heights, and all kinds of crazy stuff. I think some of the original rooms and hallways were taken down to create the wider hallways and bigger classrooms that we need for a school, but you can still tell the space isn’t being used for its original intended purpose.
Roman told me once that was why the Griffin Academy founders ended up getting this place—it was a rundown failure, so the board was able to get it cheap and fix it up enough to make it a school, since the High Circuit wasn’t all that keen on spending a ton of money on Unpredictables.
Yay.
This all means that the roof is uneven, not one flat surface, so it’ll be a bit tricky to figure out how to get up there. But there is one round tower on the southwest side of the building that rises above the rest.
“There!” I point to it. “There are a couple windows in that tower wall. If we can make our way up inside it, maybe we can get one open, then shimmy out onto the roof proper from there.”
Asher looks a little doubtful. “I don’t want you to fall.”
“We’re all athletic,” I point out. “Plus, I’ve got my spider climb if I need to bust it out.”
That seems to set aside most of his fears, so we head back inside Wellwood Hall and poke around for a bit, trying to find the way into the tower.
“When was the last time anyone was up in that tower?” Cam asks as we search the hallway.
“Probably not for years.” Asher shrugs. “Prepare for a lot of dust. These places in the building don’t really get used that often—I think mostly it’s just people looking for a quiet place to make out.”
“Well, hey, if nothing else, we can use it for that,” I point out, still sort of kicking myself for dragging them along on this goose chase instead of