Miley choked on her own snore. I thought she might wake up, but her breathing continued, accompanied by that unseemly sound.
I hoped that Miley would be more bearable tomorrow.
Six
Moping Miley never woke up.
I’d never gotten the chance to give her the talk I thought she needed. Strange thing was that she hadn’t taken away her own life. There were no hints of suicide around her. She’d just… died.
I was finishing getting ready for our breakfast at seven in the morning, and Miley hadn’t woken up yet. She was still huddled underneath her blanket. I considered leaving her to sleep because she might complain about my butting in, but I thought I’d be nice and wake her up. When I touched the blanket, it was unsettlingly cold. Her terrible snoring was no more, despite it keeping me up for a good hour last night.
When I saw that she’d stopped moving, I flipped her around to take a better look. She flopped over, lifeless. Her body had turned ashen and her eyes were completely glazed over with a layer of white.
My heart sank.
I wasn’t used to dead bodies, so I screamed like a little bitch. I rushed out of our room to call for help, unsure of what to do.
Agness arrived in my room shortly after, and a small group of girls tried taking a peek at what had happened. The brightlings who accompanied Agness forced the girls away, however. They seemed to want to keep the incident hush-hush.
“She was just fine yesterday morning,” I said, peering over a brightling’s shoulder. I watched as he covered Miley’s gray body with a white blanket. The deadness of Miley’s expression made me queasy. She’d been alive yesterday. Bawling, sure, and always trying to portray an annoying, pitiable state, but the sudden loss of her still unnerved me.
“It is an unfortunate incident,” Agness said. She studied the scene with her hands rested on her hips. “I’m sorry it happened.”
“Sorry?” I asked. “Someone’s dead and that’s all you have to say about it? How about investigating the cause?” Whatever had taken Miley could have taken me, too. I was right next to her.
The thought sent chills sprawling across my chest.
A deep cut etched in Agness’s brow. “This isn’t the first case of a sudden death.”
Wasn’t that more worrying? “Right.”
“So, we’re already carrying out investigations.”
“Any luck?” I didn’t want to be in a school where the kids were dying left and right. “Shouldn’t the other girls know about this? Their lives are at stake, after all.”
“Rest assured, we’re taking care of the situation. We have some ideas of why these deaths might be happening.”
“Ideas,” I said. “That’s all? Who are the suspects?”
Agness lifted her sleeve and glanced at her wrist. She wore a fine leather watch. She pressed her thin lips together, then said, “You’re late for class, Caramel. You should be going. Being late three times will require you to attend detention, and I hope you remember how distressing that experience was.”
“I haven’t gotten my answers.”
“You don’t need any.”
I gestured at the room. “My roommate just died.”
“As I said, we’re taking care of the situation.” Agness lifted her hand. Tiny vines coiled from her fingertips. “Please don’t make me use force.”
I stood my ground for ten awkward seconds. It was evident that Agness wouldn’t cave, so I sighed and turned away, grabbing my new backpack off the ground. A crowd had gathered in front of the scene. The brightlings stalked around their perimeter to keep them out.
Amongst the crowd, I spotted Danna. She waved at me exuberantly, wearing a large smile. I wasn’t sure what she was smiling about. This whole morning had been nothing but creepy and gloomy and worrying. I couldn’t shake off the image of Miley’s dead body. It was my first time coming across death in my nineteen years, partially because I’d never been close to many people with my orphan upbringing.
Danna bounced on her heels.
I frowned and moved toward her. “What are you so excited about?” I couldn’t share her excitement. Moping Miley had spread her glum mood to me through her death.
“They changed the curriculum today,” she said. “The brightlings were going about giving announcements.”
“To?”
“Instead of attending potions theory, we’re going to meet our boys.”
“The vassals?”
“Yeah.” She nodded vigorously.
Normally, I’d share her enthusiasm and drool over the situation too, but I couldn’t find it in me to perv over the vassals at the moment. I was going through the aftershocks of Miley’s death.
“Oh, sheesh,” Danna said. “Why the sour face?”
“I’m sure you heard about Miley’s death.”
Danna stopped fidgeting and settled. She gave me a hug and patted my back before pulling away. “Sorry about that.” I could see her energy pooling beneath her skin, ready to burst out of its bubble, but she was keeping it contained for me. “You can cry about it if you want.”
“Cry?” Ugh. I wasn’t that upset. Concerned and disturbed? Yes. But I didn’t have the opportunity to bond with Miley. “Fine, let’s go look at boys.”
Maybe after that, I’d get to the bottom of my roommate’s death.
Danna led the way to where we were supposed to gather. As the woman in front of the group made announcements, the brightlings passed out slips of paper, giving us instructions that were accompanied with a map.
Danna was better with directions, so she showed me where to go afterward.
She led me to a large hall. It had a glass dome right above it, and sunlight streamed through the dome, reflecting off the embellished white pillars that lined the interior. Everything in the Sanctuary looked like heaven, but the way they ran the school, kidnapping girls and then leaving them to die, left much to be desired.
“I’m wondering if this is the ‘special treatment’ Agness had talked about,” I said. “Making me face a dead body on the very first day.”
“It is an unusual experience.” Danna laughed sheepishly.
“Is that the cheerleader in you talking?” Calling it an “experience” sounded way too much like forced positivity.
“I hope it’s not affecting you too much.”
“I don’t think it is.” I kept telling myself not to care about what I’d seen, but as time passed, the incident grew on me, making me want to take action. I’d always had a strong sense of justice. Lydia had instilled it to me from the way I saw her treat her workers. Even though Moping Miley had been annoying, she didn’t deserve what happened to her.
Danna pursed her lips. “You need distractions. You’re in a semi-daze. I don’t like seeing that look on you.”
I shrugged with one shoulder. “It was an, uh… interesting… morning. I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”
“You’ll forget about what happened right after you meet your—”
The gate at the end of the hallway groaned, swinging open. The vassals entered again, still in their white uniforms. They were all so gorgeous they made me question whether I even deserved to be in their presence. My eyes immediately searched for Hansel.
“Who are you looking for?” Danna asked. She dragged a hand down her ponytail, neatening it. I was guessing that she probably wanted to look good for the boys.
“No one,” I lied. The girls in front were blocking my view. One of them wore their hair in a bun so high that I wanted to swat her away. I tiptoed to try to get a better look.
“Do you know one of them?” Danna asked.
“I’d met him before.”
“How?”
“Through dumb coincidence.”
Danna raised a brow at me. “You have to give me more juice.”
“It’s really not that big of a deal.” I chuckled.
“Fine,” she said. “Be selfish.”
Another woman—not Agness—who looked like a supervisor step
ped out in front of the vassals. Judging from the wave of her hands, she was barking some instructions to them, but I couldn’t hear her clearly because of how far we were away.
She spun back toward us, and a screeching sound played, as if coming from a speaker. I didn’t see a speaker on her. She was probably projecting her voice through magic. “The vassals will see you now. They already know who their half-bloods are, so stay put, and they’ll come to you.”
My pulse quickened. Excited expressions shone from the girls surrounding me. This was the best thing to have happened since coming to the Sanctuary. The beds weren’t even that comfortable—I thought they could use a little extra softness.
Danna squeezed my hand. When I glanced at her, she had her eyes closed and was muttering, “Please don’t let them be the ugly ones. Please don’t let them be the ugly ones.”
“What if they have hearts of gold? Surely that would be just as good?”
“Screw that,” Danna said. “I’m shallow and simple. Give me muscles and hunka hunkas.”
I couldn’t tell if she was being serious. Her vassals were the first to arrive. They were all tall. At least two heads taller than Danna, who wasn’t short herself. She winked at me, then skittered up to them like an excited child, leaving me to face my vassals alone.
My vassals walked toward me, and when they did, all I could focus on was them. Hansel led the group. My heartbeat quickened at the sight, and my insides tensed. Hansel really was on my team! I beamed at that, remembering how he’d treated me so nicely at the convenience store.
“Hey,” he said in a casual manner as he halted before me. I resisted the urge to toss myself at him and tell him that I’d missed him.
I blinked, surprised at my own enthusiasm. Had I longed for him that much? I didn’t notice till now.
“You missed me?” Hansel asked in a lighthearted tone. “I’m flattered.”
“Uh,” I said. “I blurted that out loud?”
Hansel smirked. I thought I died a little bit inside because of how attractive that looked. “You mention many things out loud. Do you do the same thing in bed, too?”
Normally, I’d have a snide remark to make to such an advance. Instead, I blurted the first thing that came to mind: “I like beds.”
Hansel gave me a confounded look. “Interesting.”
“Stop teasing her, Hansel,” another one of the vassals said. I hadn’t met him before. “She’s obviously a poor damsel who can’t handle teasing.”
“Excuse me?” I asked. A damsel? I couldn’t walk in a straight line sometimes, especially after one too many drinks, but I still prided myself on my independence. Somehow, I’d managed to survive up till now. I did burn down my kitchen once. I jutted a finger at the vassal. “Take that back.”
“Nothing wrong with being you,” the vassal continued.
“Are you implying that being me is a problem?”
He shrugged. “You can take my comments however you want.”
“Can I react by punching your teeth in?”
“I’d like to see you try.” He tipped his chin in a challenge. I held on to my anger despite his attractiveness.
“Lay off the teasing, Devon,” Hansel said, grinning. Hansel scrunched his nose up at me. “Ignore him. He doesn’t get around as much as he’d like to, so he teases girls whenever he gets the opportunity.”
“Does he?” I straightened myself and faced Devon. I couldn’t refrain from raking my eyes over him.
He had dark features—tan skin and short hair a deep shade of brown. His eyes were yellow. No, not yellow, but golden, with little specks of white in them that made them look like stars. He had high cheekbones that arched to a set of kissable lips. Devon stood two inches taller than Hansel. His shoulders were wide, seemingly dependable, but the cocksure and I-don’t-give-a-fuck expression on him made me want to take two steps away from his ego.
“Don’t mind Devon. He can be rude, but really, he’s soft-hearted like the rest of us,” another vassal said. He was the largest of the bunch. Just looking at him might crush me. The uniform he wore looked a bit too tight on him due to the size of his stature. His hair was a light, medium-length sandy blond, and paired with his sun-kissed skin and thick, untrimmed beard, he exuded exoticism. He had a slightly crooked smile that served to make him more alluring, and bright green eyes that reminded me of a bright, flourishing field. He neared me and offered a handshake. “I’m Theo, and you’re Caramel?”
“I keep hearing that,” I said. “Caramel. I don’t go by that. I prefer it when people call me Cara. Caramel’s too sweet, like a sugar overdose.”
Hansel lifted a brow. “And Cara sounds spicy.” His gaze travelled the length of my body, and I got a feeling that he was trying to undress me with his mind. My belly made a couple somersaults. “Because you seem like a fiery one, even if you do eat too much cake.”
Lingering at the back of the group was Liam. He was still standoffish, the same way I remembered him in the detention room. He looked at me with fuck-me eyes, or maybe I was just projecting that image on him, since his bad-boy demeanor made me keep thinking about him in bed with me.
I seriously needed to get myself together.
I searched around for Danna. All this attention from males who looked like demigods made me feel like an overbaked cupcake with too much baking soda in it. I might explode from just them staring at me.
Danna was too far away. She’d been distracted by her own team of vassals, and the hot blush on her cheeks told me that she’d found herself stuck in the same predicament.
She glanced my direction, and for a split second, we shared a look. I thought I could almost hear what she was thinking:
Please save me. These men are too good looking.
“So, uh, what next?” I asked, unable to stand the silence between us. The Sanctuary should have provided us with an icebreaker or something. Instead, I had to come up with one. “Would you rather”—I tapped my chin.—“have pizza cold or warm?”
“Warm,” Theo said.
“Warm,” Hansel echoed.
“Definitely warm,” Devon added.
Liam raised a brow at me. “I like mine cold.” Of course. I wasn’t even surprised. “You can taste it better that way. The warmness sometimes gets in the way of the flavors.” I’d never heard that one before.
“Cheese isn’t exactly a flavor,” I said. “It’s a force of nature and in its very own category. But I think it tastes better when slightly melted.”
Liam shook his head. “Nah. It’s important to relish it cold.”
We all looked at Liam like he was weird, because he was.
Hansel cocked his head. “Why the random question?”
Because you’re so handsome, and even though I’m an interesting person, your hotness makes me say uninteresting things that I put little thought into. Attractiveness encourages stupidity.
I waited a beat, regretting thinking those thoughts. I might have accidentally blurted them out.
When I was only met with blank, chiseled faces, I sighed in relief.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “No reason.”
“We have the whole morning with just Cara,” Theo, the hulking giant, said to Hansel. “To get to know her better.”
Devon’s eyes twinkled. “With or without her clothes off?” A knot formed in my belly. I probably wouldn’t mind either way, but I kept a good rein on my thoughts.
“With,” Theo replied, smacking the back of Devon’s head. “Come on, hotshot, we just met her. You don’t want to scare her too much.”
I bit my lip. “I’m not scared.”
Just really turned on. My ovaries needed a reality check, because this dream was getting out of hand. What was going to be next? Them, all naked at the same time? Thinking of that image made me hot all over.
Hansel stepped closer to me and placed a hand on my back. His friendly advance did little to make me calmer. His touch sent a trickle of heat down my spine, and a light buzz rang in my ears. �
�Let us treat you well, Cara,” he said. “It’s our job as vassals. We’re going to help you become a goddess worth worshipping.” His voice had smoothened and sounded like liquid over my skin.
I cleared my throat. “Good luck with that. I’m still having trouble with algebra. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to watch over mankind.”
Seven
While Hansel projected an effortless, teasing charm, Theo portrayed genuine, friendly kindness. They wouldn’t stop making jabs at each other, which I found endearing and oddly amusing.
The five of us strode down the hallway. They were leading me to my new room. Since I was getting special treatment, Agness had assigned me a room all to myself. She might have been attempting to make up for what had happened with Miley.
As we walked, I felt like I was surrounded by giants. The four men all stood over six feet and dwarfed my five-foot-two frame.
“Don’t spoil her too much, Theo,” Hansel said. “She needs to learn how to fend for herself. This is the Sanctuary, after all. Only the top ten percent of graduates become goddesses, and dear Cara has to shine.” Hansel’s green eyes twinkled as he spoke.
Theo laughed. “You’re telling me that? You’ve been wanting to be assigned to your goddess since day one of getting the vassal designation.”
“And I wasn’t wrong to be eager. Cara’s a gem.”
Liam snorted from the side of the group as we walked to my new room. The vassals were supposed to lead me to it. “Suck-ups,” Liam said.
Hansel pushed his foot out, getting in Liam’s way. Liam stumbled, but stabilized himself before he face-planted. Liam fell back slightly and scowled at Hansel, but Hansel ignored him, laughing heartily after watching Liam struggle.
“So,” I began, “did you already know about me when we met at the convenience store?”
Hansel winced. “Is there a problem with that?”
“No,” I said. Other than the fact that it might have been a little stalker-like. There was something more romantic about believing that our meeting was due to chance—that seeing Hansel had been some divine decision by the universe. Knowing that he sought me out on purpose made our encounter feel less magical.
Goddess Academy: The Complete Reverse Harem Collection Page 5