Gothicana

“Introduce yourselves now,” he ordered the class, crossing his arms over his chest, and Corvina looked up to find those mercurial eyes ensnaring hers.    

“Jax London,” the good-looking guy at the front who’d been hanging around with Troy started.

“Erica Blair.”

“Mathias King.”

Followed by the next, and the next, and the next.

And the entire time, the silver-eyed devil nodded at them while keeping his eyes on hers, as though he could flay her open and delve into the deepest recesses of her mind. He wanted her name. He wanted to hear her voice. She knew it in her bones. And for some reason, her stomach felt heavy at the thought of directly addressing him, at the thought of giving him her name. Names had power, as her mother told her.

“Jade Prescott,” her roommate spoke from beside her and Corvina knew she was next.

She swallowed as he nodded at Jade, before giving the entire ferocity of his focus to her. Palms clammy, she rubbed them on her skirt and wet her lips.

“Corvina Clemm,” she voiced softly, grateful that her voice didn’t reflect her i

The boy from the front, Mathias, turned to look at her. “That’s a cool ass name. Does it mean something?”

Corvina, who was still trapped by silver eyes, saw his jaw clench at the boy’s interruption. “Crow,” he spoke, addressing Mathias. “It means little crow.”

“Raven,” she corrected him automatically.

His eyes flared. “Raven and Clemm. Your parents liked Poe?”

“My mother did,” Corvina said, her eyes stinging remembering how much her mother had loved the poet. Her nose twitched involuntarily.

She saw his eyes linger on it for a second longer before he moved on to the next student, and she breathed a gulp of relief.

“Alright, let’s get started,” he clapped his hands, and the rest of the class passed in a blur, mostly with her keeping her head down and focusing on taking notes. Before long, the bell rang.

“We’ll discuss this tomorrow,” he said, picking up his brown leather-bound diary, and left the room, taking that charge of electricity in the air with him. Corvina slumped slightly, a breath escaping her just as Jade turned to her.

“What the hell was that?” she hissed as the other students began to leave the room.

Corvina looked at her with a frown. “What?”

Jade’s eyes were troubled. “Whatever that was between you two. The air was pulsing, Cor. I’m not even kidding.”

Corvina shut her notebook, chuckling. “That was probably all the ovaries in the room melting for him.”

“No,” Jade stood with her. “That was the two of you. It felt... hot. And that’s not okay, not in this place. Just be careful, okay?”

Corvina huffed as they made their way to the door. “He’s our professor, Jade. I know that.”

“Damn,” they turned to see a tall, gorgeous black girl who’d introduced herself as Erica, walking behind them. “That was some peak sexual tension. Bottle it, and you’d be the richest fucking girl this side of Tenebrae.”

“See,” Jade pointed to Erica. “It’s not just me.”

Corvina shook her head at them. “I don’t know what you guys are talking about.”

“Girl,” Erica said, crossing them to the corridor outside, “from where I was sitting, it was lit up so bright aliens could see it probably. Mr. Deverell looked like he’d eat you alive. No, it looked like he’d feast on you if given the chance.”

Corvina clutched the strap of her bag as they exited into the corridor and Erica went to greet someone else.

Jade began to walk towards the stairs just as the man in question ascended on the other side.

Her friend turned to look at Corvina seriously. “You don’t understand, Cor. He’s just so... unknown. Like we all have our secrets but he takes it to the extreme. He’s the only one who goes into those woods all the damn time. No one knows where he comes from. He doesn’t have any friends, only his colleagues. Then Alissa hooks up with him against the rules and jumps off a tower? It’s just. Weird.”

Corvina couldn’t deny that as she watched his black-clad form disappear up the staircase. It was weird.

“And you wa

“What?” Corvina asked, realizing she asked that a lot to this girl.

Jade looked at her, her green eyes somber. “The last girl who went missing at the Black Ball five years ago? She was with him at the time. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”