Rooming with the Wicked

9 | icy shower and charged light show

By the time I made it back to the dorm, it was way past midnight. Armed with a backpack full of supplies, a large tube of super adhesive glue, ten feet of clothesline I'd snatched from the laundry downstairs, and one of those cheap plastic hooks, I slipped through the door. Glass clinked softly, reassuringly, as I shut the door behind me.

Some might think spending the night in a room with someone who wanted me dead was a pretty brainless thing to do. Well, maybe. But unbeknown to my attempted murderer, I was armed to the teeth and ready to obliterate his ass. Sort of.

All three of my roomies were still awake. Kenas sat at his desk, bent over a textbook that looked almost normal in his hands. His hair was messy like he'd run his hand through ten too many times, and those golden eyes of his were barely open. With a brief nod and a tight smile, he greeted me.

In true sloth fashion, Haze lounged on his desk wearing nothing but sweatpants and a loose tank, his back against the wall and both feet resting comfortably on top of his desk chair. His crimson eyes zeroed in on me and he raised a dark brow provocatively but said nothing.

Jaydis stood next to the bookshelf, one hand on a particularly ancient-looking tome, and grinned at me. "Hey, Ari." Rubbing the back of his neck, he added, "You almost had me worried."

"Why?" I asked as I crossed the room. "You bet against me again?"

He laughed, his yellow eyes following my every move. "Not this time." He cleared his throat, his smile suddenly sheepish. "Just, uh, felt bad thinking maybe we scared you off for good."

Carefully lowering my backpack onto the floor, I said, "It's gonna take a little more than that."

He nodded slowly. "Good to know."

Haze, who'd been following our conversation closely, crossed his arms. Something that looked suspiciously like a frown flashed across his face, but the reaction was so brief that I might as well have imagined it. When he saw me staring, he narrowed his eyes and muttered, "Do you need something?"

"Actually," I said, my best screw-you smile on my face, "yes."

He blinked at me. "That was a rhetorical que—"

"I need you to pick up that safety hazard over there." I nodded at the pile of clothes, textbooks, and food containers between his niche and the bathroom door.

He yawned, stretching his arms high above his head. "Maybe later. I'm kind of busy right now."

"Oh, yeah? With what?"

"Theorizing." He smiled that taunting smile of his and then slowly closed his eyes.

I'd never been so tempted to toss an instant paralysis potion at someone in my entire life. Preferably one with a little zap. Too bad I needed all mine for my little setup.

Grinding my teeth, I grabbed the large midnight purple drape I'd taken from the penthouse and got to work. Gluing the plastic hook to the brittle outer wall and connecting the intractable clothesline turned out to be harder than expected. It took almost the entire glue and ended up looking like a three-year-old had tried their hands at abstract art, but this was not the time to be picky. It held, and that was all that mattered.

Kenas had turned in for the night, but Jaydis kept glancing over to me from his spot on the fridge. When I lost my balance and nearly fell off my desk trying to tie the other end of the clothesline to the bookshelf, he crumpled up his bag of cheeseballs and hopped onto the floor. "Need some help?" he asked.

"I'm good," I wanted to say, but then the surprisingly heavy drape slipped through my fingers and a muffled curse escaped my lips instead. Not wanting to drop the clothesline too, I extended a leg, toes angled up in an attempt to keep the curtain from sliding to the floor, but of course, it fell anyway.