Gothicana

CHAPTER 10

Corvina

She managed to avoid him for the next few weeks.

She tried. He absolutely did not. 

She had stopped going to the ruins and started escaping to the library, curling up with her studies or a good book or her journal, simply spending time hidden away in the beautiful dungeon with coffee and books, and Mrs. Suki, the librarian, for company. And almost every time, he had been there in one of the armchairs with lion heads carved into them, wearing glasses and doing some work of his own. She spent time with her friends, and somehow he was somewhere in the vicinity, crossing over, walking around, or just watching from a window. She loved and hated his attention in equal measure.

Jade and Erica, both of them although very different from her, had become her friends. Jade had started hooking up with Troy again so the boys had begun to hang out with them more and more. Corvina didn’t mind, especially Troy. He was what she imagined brothers could be like – occasionally irritating, hugely protective, and mostly nice. She was more restrained around Ethan and Jax, even though they brought a nice energy to the whole group. She was still the quiet one, but she had begun to trust them enough to relax slightly around them.

Jax especially had become interested in her from what Erica said, but she liked that he never pushed. He respected that she wasn’t into him and didn’t make it awkward, and she liked that about him. And the silver-eyed devil noticed it all. He was the one she was very, very into and she shouldn’t have been, not after the weeks that went by, not after that disastrous look of regret on his face after their kiss. Thankfully, she was good at pretending all was usual.

She never looked at him in class and he never singled her out, even though she felt his eyes on her. She saw him in the dining room and around campus, and she walked away in the other direction, ditching her attempts to pretend she wasn’t avoiding him, even though she secretly caught a glimpse of his darkly beautiful form sometimes.

She also ignored the pang she felt at never hearing the sound of the music drifting to her from the tower again. She didn’t know if he simply stopped playing that particular piano and spent his night repairing the one in the ruins, or if he was avoiding her tower, but she missed the music.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she entered the Admin Wing for the first time since getting her books that first week months ago. The weather had gotten considerably colder over the weeks, enough for her to begin wearing her thigh-high boots for warmth under her woolen skirt. Troy had told her it would stay cold for a few weeks before it got warmer again.

A young man with glasses sat behind the reception desk, flipping through a book.

“Hi,” Corvina greeted him with a slight smile. “I have a letter I need to post.”

It was her twenty-second birthday, a fact nobody knew except the recipient of her letter.

The young man frowned. “Today is Saturday.”

“Yes,” Corvina kept her smile. “I heard someone takes the letters to town on Sunday. I just wanted to drop mine off.”

The man looked at the envelope in her hand, then up at her. “That was last Sunday, miss. I’m sorry but the next delivery will be in two weeks.”

Sweat beaded on her brow. “Um. This is slightly urgent. It can’t wait two weeks.”

The man glanced down at her, giving her a once over. “I’m sorry but I don’t know how to help you.”

Fuck.

Fuck.

She couldn’t be late. She had until a week after her birthday. Desperation gripped at her throat. “You don’t understand. This is very important. Is there any way I can go to town to post it in that case?”

“I’m sorry-”

“You can ride with me,” the deep voice from her back made every nerve in her body snap to attention in a way it hadn’t done in weeks, something inside her rejoicing, the feeling oddly like coming home after a long time away. She didn’t understand it.

Bracing herself for the sheer havoc his presence wrecked on her insides, Corvina turned around and saw him in a black trench coat, a shadow of scruff on his face, that distinguished streak of grey swept back in his disheveled hair.

She’d forgotten how the cells in her body realigned in his field when he focused on her, the electric shock going through each one of them making her entire body warm.

God, she wanted him.

“You’re going to town?” she asked hopefully, ignoring the desire singing through her system.

He gave a terse nod, his eyes taking her in. “Meet me in the driveway in five minutes.”

“Wait,” she stopped him, throwing a worried look at the young man at the reception. “Am I allowed to go with you?”

He shrugged, unworried. “Under special circumstances, yes. I’ll inform Dr. Greene.”

A thrill shot through her. Biting her lip, she assented and exited the building, ru

She cleared her throat.

“Hey, Purple,” Troy greeted her, his lips shining.

Corvina rolled her eyes and looked at her slightly dazed roommate. “I’m going to town to send a letter.”

Jade frowned, her eyes clearing. “Wait, you can’t go alone. You need someone– Oh no. Not him.”

“I’ll be fine,” Corvina reassured her. “It’s important, and he’s the only one going down.”

“He who?” Troy asked.

“Mr. Deverell,” Corvina answered, seeing Troy’s brows go up. He whistled. “Lucky. He’s got a sweet ride.”

Jade still looked apprehensive. “He’s a teacher, and I don’t trust him.”

She just touched her friend’s shoulder, initiating contact, something she didn’t do at all. The silver-eyed devil probably didn’t even realize how unusual it had been for her to initiate their kiss. She shook off her thoughts and addressed her friend. “Then trust me. I’ll be okay.”

Reassured enough by that, Jade and Troy waved her away as she picked up her navy woolen skirt and ran to the driveway, her flat brown boots smacking the cobblestones with each step, the envelope clutched in her hand.

A black, sleek SUV was purring in the driveway, its driver waiting for her.

Rounding the front, she opened the passenger side door and climbed in. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Put on your seatbelt,” he commanded.

Corvina glanced at him, taken aback by the light grey Henley he was wearing, sleeves pushed up his forearms.

“I’ve never seen you in non-black,” she commented, putting the envelope in her lap and her bag between her feet, and clicking the belt in place.

“And I’ve never seen you light,” he muttered casually. That was true enough.

“I like dark colors,” she shrugged, watching as he navigated the curved road towards the large gate. “Is this your car?”

He glanced at her for a second. “Yes. I got it two years ago.”

“So, you’re allowed to leave campus whenever you want?” she asked, settling in her seat.

“The entire faculty can,” he informed her, pausing as the main gate came into view. Clouds rumbled in the distance, a blanket under the sun, casting the entire view into a misty grey that looked both mesmerizing and menacing.

A guard checked Mr. Deverell’s card and opened the gate, letting them through. After two months on the campus, Corvina realized how free it felt to suddenly be out.