by Lola Gabriel
Well, if that gut feeling had been right, it meant that the second gut feeling she’d had would also be right. This place, against all of Aubrey’s expectations, held answers, and right now, that was what Aubrey needed the most.
Daxton’s friends had mentioned a party, right? A fraternity party would probably include the majority of the campus population, which meant that there would be at least several people who could help her out. At this point, Aubrey had nothing left to lose, so she figured she might as well try.
She ran to catch up with the varsity sports team and followed them at a proper distance, hoping that they would lead her to the solution to her problems.
3
Erik was having a phenomenal birthday. Not that he had imagined it would be anything less, of course, but it was still good to know that his expectations had been met. His fraternity brothers had really pulled off the greatest party Elite Magic University had ever had, and it was only fitting that it would be for the Dragon Prince.
It seemed like almost the entire campus was present and accounted for, including most of the other fraternities and sororities. Erik thought he saw a vampire here, a wolf shifter there, and even some fae folks, although he would probably do well to stay away from them. His father had always warned him not to get too close to them, and even if Erik had his disagreements with the Dragon King, keeping his distance from the fae was not one of them.
“Hey, prince boy!” Erik glanced at the entrance of the Dragon Fraternity and watched his best friend, Daxton, and a few other football players stride into the building, mixing themselves with the rest of the partygoers.
“Dax!” Erik greeted him, pulling him into a headlock. “You giant ass, I thought you weren’t gonna show up!”
“Yeah, and miss your first quarter of a century? Not a chance!” Daxton said, his voice slightly strained because of the headlock. He tried to get out of it, but Erik had a firm grip around him. “Whoa, hey, dude, have you been working out?” Daxton rasped.
Erik had, yes, because it would just be shameful if the Dragon Prince wasn’t one of the strongest—if not the strongest—dragon students in the university, but honestly, part of his strength came from both simply being a dragon and from his genetics. His family had always had strong dragons in it, and he had been lucky enough to inherit some of his ancestors’ best genes.
“Have you been slacking off, Dax?” Erik teased his best friend. “You used to be able to get out of this no problem!”
Some of the other dragons around them started to whistle and whoop loudly, until Erik decided to have pity on Daxton and let him go. He’d just have to push his friend to go a little harder on the weights and on his regular workout regimen, or they’d lose the next game against the wolf shifters, and Erik would be damned if the wolves defeated them and screwed up his perfect record.
“So, Erik,” said another of his fellow dragons, Chad. “How does it feel to be twenty-five?”
Erik shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing out of the ordinary so far. A year closer to stopping aging.”
As a magic being, when he turned 28, he would stop aging forever, effectively making him immortal. He could still die, but it wouldn’t be because of natural causes or a disease or anything that wasn’t specifically designed to kill him. Most magic beings that had never met him or the Dragon King often confused them for brothers, though they always correctly assumed that his father was older because of the regal air he carried, something Erik knew without a doubt he would also carry when it was his turn to become king.
Daxton slapped his shoulder and started saying something, but when he began speaking, Erik felt this… strange shift in the air, as if someone had left the door open and a breeze had traveled through the entire building, except Erik wasn’t cold, he just… He couldn’t explain what had just happened. He just knew something had happened inside the Dragon Fraternity; not necessarily good or bad, just… something.
He stared at the door—which had been left open so people could freely walk in and out of the fraternity and so that it wouldn’t suddenly feel enclosed and claustrophobic—when he noticed a young woman slowly walking in, looking around like she wasn’t exactly sure where she was or what was happening.
Erik had never seen her before, and he wanted to slap himself because of it. Whoever this young woman was, she was the most beautiful being he had ever laid eyes on. She had gorgeous red hair cascading down her back in long, loose curls, and the top of her head was decorated with a crown that was actually a braid tied with her own hair. She wore a stunning turquoise summer dress, which reached her knees and flowed freely around her with every step she took.
And her eyes… Erik didn’t think he had ever seen eyes like hers. He shouldn’t have been able to see their color at such a distance from her, but the green was absolutely mesmerizing, and Erik felt almost as though he were in some sort of trance, like the woman was pulling him toward her.
“I’ll be right back,” Erik muttered, not really caring if his friends had heard him, and then he made his way through the crowd, approaching the young red-haired woman.
She was still glancing around, seemingly lost, and Erik had to ensure that he wouldn’t scare her off. The last thing he wanted was to lose sight of her before he had even gotten to know her. He approached her slowly, carefully, until he was only a few steps away from her.
Just when he was about to reach out to tap her shoulder, he heard someone scream, “COMING THROUGH!” before he was violently shoved by a vampire—judging by the freezing cold Erik felt at the contact—running past at full speed. The vampire had managed to run right between him and the young woman, and Erik watched as she stumbled on her feet and then proceeded to fall backwards.
He rushed to close the distance between them and caught her right before she fell, grabbing her by the elbows. She unconsciously reached out to hold on to his arms to keep herself steady, and her touch, contrary to the vampire who had just slammed through them without a care in the world, was warm and soft.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she started to apologize, “I didn’t—” She looked up at Erik, their eyes meeting for the first time, and her sentence stopped short. Erik couldn’t blame her; he felt like the air had been completely punched out of his chest.
Her gaze was even more impressive up close. The green in her eyes had a few splotches of a soft yellow hue, and Erik could’ve sworn that they made a few freckles on her cheeks and on the bridge of her nose stand out. Her skin was rosy, and there was a certain warmth to her that seemed to course through Erik because of the point of contact between their arms.
“No problem,” Erik said, helping her straighten up. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” she said, “yes, thank you. I guess I wasn’t paying enough attention.”
“Ah, don’t worry about it.” Erik glanced at the vampire out of the corner of his eye and heaved a sigh. “Jerome is careless like that. He never worries about who gets caught in his path.”
The young woman laughed—a small, cheerful laugh—and Erik immediately wanted to hear more of it. So, she was clearly not a fae. Erik usually had an inherent desire to walk away from fae students, even if he didn’t personally know them, and rather than that being the case here, what he wanted was to look at the young woman more, to talk to her, to see how she looked when she smiled. She was also obviously not a vampire, and she didn’t seem to have the canines that most wolf shifters did, if her perfect white teeth were any indication of a lack of wolf genes. Was she an angel, maybe? There were a few of them at the university, much fewer than any of the other magic beings, so it wasn’t impossible to consider that she might be one.
“Isn’t that how most jocks are?” she asked. Immediately after she finished her question, her eyes widened. She let out a little gasp and brought a hand up to her mouth. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to assume that—well, that… um…”
She glanced down at his clothes, and Erik followed her gaze. He had completely forgotten that he was we
aring his team captain jacket.
“I’m so sorry, that was embarrassing,” the young woman mumbled, turning her head away, and Erik was going to reach out to touch her arm and tell her that it was no big deal, really, but he suddenly realized that they were still holding on to each other. She seemed to realize the same thing at the exact same time, because she chuckled nervously and lessened her grip on his arms until she had let go completely. Erik forced himself to release her elbows. It was surprising how much he wanted to keep touching her.
“Not at all,” he reassured her. “Don’t worry. Honestly, I’d say that’s an accurate assessment.” He held out his hand and straightened up into his ‘Dragon Prince’ posture: regal, assertive, and with an irresistible boyish cockiness that had driven other magic beings to cartoonish swooning. “I’m Erik. I don’t think I’ve seen you around, have I? Are you a new student?”
“No, I’m not a student here,” the young woman answered. “My name’s Aubrey,” she said, shaking Erik’s hand with her own and letting go much sooner than Erik would have hoped. “It’s nice to meet you, Erik.”
Oh, Erik had heard many people say his name, but none of them had ever sounded like Aubrey’s lovely, lyrical voice saying it. It was as though that particular combination of four specific letters had been made so that Aubrey could speak it, so that it could come out of her mouth.
“Nice to meet you, too, Aubrey,” Erik said. “If you’re not a student here, may I ask what brings you to our campus?”
“Honestly, I didn’t even know this campus was here,” she replied, which made Erik frown to himself. What magic being in the world didn’t know about Elite Magic University? It was probably the oldest university for non-humans, or at least one of the oldest, and definitely one of the best the magic world had to offer. Erik’s entire family had attended it, and he assumed any future generations in his line would as well.
“Really?” Erik raised an eyebrow. “Have you been living under a rock or something?”
For a moment, he thought that maybe he had gone too far—it could simply be that Aubrey had lived under circumstances in which the campus might not have been brought up for one reason or another—but Aubrey simply shrugged her shoulders with another chuckle.
“I guess so!” she said. God, her laughter was absolutely delightful. “I’ve been told this place has been here for quite some time, and I’d never noticed!”
One of Erik’s few wolf shifter friends, Aster, ran by him and Aubrey, followed by a few other football players from different teams. They were all whooping and cheering. Erik wondered if maybe Chad had gotten into a wrestling competition with another wolf shifter, or maybe a vampire. God bless his soul if he had managed to somehow piss off a fae student. Chad was always looking for trouble.
“Is this a normal occurrence in a campus party?” Aubrey asked him, her eyebrows furrowed, although she was smiling in what Erik recognized as curiosity.
“When it’s mine, it’s pretty much par for the course,” he told her.
Aubrey’s eyes widened. “It’s your party?”
Erik narrowed his own eyes at her. “Since it’s my birthday, yes.”
She was, so far as Erik could tell, something else. Even people who had never stepped into EMU knew him, or knew about him, or had at least heard about him somewhat. He figured that Aubrey would’ve connected the dots by now, but she seemed to have no idea of who he was or what his lineage was. Not that it was a bad thing, necessarily. On the contrary, he was finding this to be quite an interesting experience.
“No way,” Aubrey said, her smile growing until Erik thought it would light up the entire room. “Today’s my birthday, too.”
It was Erik’s turn for his eyes to widen.
“Is that so?” he asked. What an amazing coincidence this was. “Well, then! Since we both have birthdays today, would you like to join the party?”
Aubrey opened her mouth and took a breath to, presumably, respond. Then she pressed her lips into a thin line. She turned to the purse hanging from her shoulder and pulled out her cell phone, holding it in the palm of her hand.
Erik realized, to his utter surprise, that he feared Aubrey would say no. He feared that she would remember she had another birthday celebration to get to, or that she simply didn’t want to stay at a frat party with a bunch of strangers in a place she hadn’t known had been standing in New York City for longer than any human who had ever lived in the same geographical territory. He didn’t want her to leave, and if she decided she was going to, he only hoped he could come up with a way to see her again. Aubrey not being a student certainly put a dent in that plan, but it didn’t make it impossible, as long as she had no objections to it.
But Aubrey smiled that beautiful smile that made the blood roar in Erik’s ears, and he knew he would not have to say goodbye to her just yet.
“You know what?” She put her phone back in her purse. “Sure. I guess I can stay for a bit.”
Erik held out his hand again, and Aubrey took it without hesitation.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go celebrate our birthday, shall we?”
4
Aubrey had never done anything like this. She hated it when guys at dance clubs approached her and tried to drag her away from her friends, or when they were just looking for someone to hook up with for the night. She had nothing against one-night stands or against people who had them; it was just simply something that wasn’t appealing to her.
With Erik, though… Erik didn’t give her the kind of impression of someone who was just looking for a hookup. Something about him made Aubrey want to go with him, want to get to know him better, spend some more time with him. When he had caught her after that jock had just run straight past them, she had felt electricity coursing through her, the touch of his hands leaving a tingling sensation on her elbows that traveled all the way up and down her arms.
He was probably a really popular student in this mysterious campus, if his birthday party called for this sort of giant celebration. Perhaps he was even the head of this fraternity, whatever it was. Aubrey hadn’t really paid much attention to the building itself before she had followed the throngs of people inside. All she had been thinking about was finding someone who could help her contact her friends.
Her gut feelings, however, had been strangely silent since she had literally stumbled upon Erik. Talking with him, she felt no urgency to leave EMU, despite the tiny part of her reminding her that this campus had been completely unknown to her before today. When she shook Erik’s hand, something inside her had felt at complete peace. All the worries in her head had quieted down until Aubrey could barely hear them, and even then, they didn’t seem as big or as troublesome as she had believed them to be.
Erik invited her to join his birthday party—and wasn’t that a coincidence? That they shared their date of their birth? Aubrey was about to answer that she was actually looking for her friends and should probably not worry them longer than she already had, but then she recalled that her phone was useless at that moment, as any call she tried to make either failed or cut off after a few seconds. Instead of turning the matter around and around in her mind, she could relax, join the handsome, stunning man in front of her, and enjoy the rest of her birthday.
When Erik held out his hand to her, Aubrey didn’t think twice and took it, squeezing it lightly.
There were so many students dancing and just hanging out around them that Aubrey would’ve gotten lost if she hadn’t been holding on to Erik’s hand, and she tried to stay as close to him as she could while he led her through the crowd until they somewhere in the middle of the room. Erik pulled her close to him and placed a hand on her waist.
“Care to dance?” he asked, speaking in an accent that sounded kind of British and that made Aubrey laugh. She liked guys who knew how to make fun of themselves and not take themselves too seriously, though that didn’t take the boyish cockiness out of Erik’s smirk or the way he raised an eyebrow, expecting Aubrey’s ans
wer.
“I’d love to,” she replied, grabbing his shoulder. They started swaying in sync with the music, and despite the fact that Aubrey was aware of the likely hundreds of people surrounding them, she didn’t feel crowded or uncomfortably hot like she had the past few times she had gone to a dance club.
“Hey, Erik!” A girl with short black hair crashed into Erik, side-hugging him with so much strength that she nearly knocked both him and Aubrey down. “Prince boy, birthday boy, where have you been?! I hadn’t seen you around all evening!”
Prince boy? Aubrey wondered. Erik would’ve told her if he was a prince, right? He did hold himself with a regal quality that Aubrey had not seen in many people in her life, but that didn’t necessarily mean he was actual royalty. He’d surely have bodyguards and stuff like that if he was, wouldn’t he? Maybe that was just his title at the campus, as the head of this fraternity or something.
“I’ve been here all this time, don’t know where you’ve been all evening,” Erik said, stepping away from Aubrey but not letting go of her hand. She didn’t know why, but that made something flutter inside her chest, and she smiled to herself. Erik turned to her and said, “Leah, this is Aubrey. Aubrey, this is my friend, Leah.”
“Hi there, it’s so nice to meet you!” Leah immediately leaned forward to kiss Aubrey’s cheek in greeting, and Aubrey shivered at how cold she was. Had the poor girl been in a meat locker or something? “Are you like a transfer student?”
“Um, no, not really,” Aubrey said. Did everyone here know each other? Was it so obvious that she wasn’t part of this particular group of people?
“Oh, don’t worry, we welcome anyone who wants to have a fun time!” Not two seconds after she had finished her sentence, Leah grabbed Aubrey’s other hand—making Aubrey shiver at how cold her touch was—and dragged both her and Erik, who hadn’t let go of her, to a group of about ten or so people, all dancing to the music.