Page 4 of Blood Oath
2
MAVEN
The moment I enter my new dorm, a shrill squeal assaults my eardrums.
“Oh my gods! You’re here!”
A tall legacy jumps up from the pillow-filled bed on the right side of the dorm, dressed in a fuzzy blue crop top sweater and shiny yoga pants. My attention immediately goes to her hair. Light as straw and naturally as curly as corkscrews, it creates a pale halo around her head.
It looks exactly like Lillian’s hair.
She beams at me and holds out her hand to shake. “I’m Kenzie. Lion shifter. Artist. Slut extraordinaire. I’m kidding about that last one—I’m just a normal slut. In a good way. Damn, is your hair naturally that dark? It’s so pretty! What House are you in? What’s your name?”
I glance down at her hand, sliding my own into my pockets. “Maven.”
“Nice to meet ya, Maven. Can I call you May? I’m gonna call you May. Did you just get here? Where are your things?” She glances into the hallway behind me with a frown.
“I pack light.” As in, everything I currently own is on my person.
“Well, then, it’s a good thing I’m a terrible student because I’m so down to play hooky the rest of the day so we can go buy you all the essentials. We could hit up one of the university stores here, but honestly, the drive to Halfton is so worth it because they have the most darling little boutique there, and we could get some boba tea?—”
Gods. Does she even breathe between words?
Tuning her out, I walk past her to observe the undecorated left side of the room which is now mine. It’s small, just one twin bed with a desk at the foot of it and a dresser under the window. It’s soothingly bare and simple, especially compared to Kenzie’s very busy, very artsy side of the room.
When she sees me eyeballing one of the many erotic paintings on display where two abstract women are literally melting together, she practically preens. “Yep, I’m helplessly raunchy. I’m usually inspired to paint after a very memorable sexual experience.”
“That’s a lot of paintings.”
“Did I not make the slut thing clear? I’m very open about it.”
“Most legacies seem to be,” I muse, thinking of the orgy I’d passed.
She tips her head, curls falling to the side. “Compared to what? Humans?” Then she gasps hard. “Oh! Did you grow up around humans? What was that like? I think they’re so fascinating, but obviously, my moms and dads were against me having human friends growing up. I mean, us legacies are all supposed to keep to our own kind until we’re graduated, bonded, and considered legal in the eyes of the human government, blah blah blah.”
She waves off all the legality talk and grins. “But I know some legacy families are a lot friendlier with humans anyway! Is that how you grew up? What are your parents like?”
“Dead.”
That shuts her up. Her face falls. “Oh. I—I’m sorry. I put my foot in my mouth a lot.”
Easy to do when it always seems to be flapping open.
I was already planning on getting rid of whatever roommate I ended up with, so finding out I’m stuck for two weeks with this energetic chatterbox should motivate me further. I should be plotting to stuff her pillow with bundles of spider eggs or something equally entertaining.
Instead, my attention slides back to her hair. And her eyes. They’re like Lillian’s, too—a bright, happy blue. Their personalities seem similar.
She’ll probably be so fucking annoying as a roommate, but it feels too much like I’m looking at a younger, taller version of Lillian, so I decide to hold off on the spider eggs.
For now.
Walking to the window on my side of the room, I close the thick, dark curtains to make the bright lighting less harsh on my eyes. I’ll need to blend in here until Headmaster Hearst returns. Which means I’ll attend my classes and draw absolutely no attention to myself. Keeping my head down is the best strategy.
If I have to endure Kenzie as a roommate until the Seeking, I should at least get an idea of how dangerous she is as a legacy.
“So. You’re a lion shifter.”
She nods, but her smile is less bright as she perches on the side of her bed. “Yeah, well…I’m supposed to be. I mean, I am, because I can sense my inner lioness, but my curse…” She makes a face and then leans towards me in a conspiratorial whisper. “I know it’s taboo for legacies to reveal their curses, but mine is really obvious—so I’ll just tell you since everyone else already knows. I can’t shift until my curse is broken.”
