Rooming with the Wicked

11 | theoretically speaking

Naturally, I inspected the rest of the room minus my roomies' private spaces, bent forward and nightlight in hand, hoping and praying none of them woke up and saw me sneaking around like Gollum looking for his precious.

And what did I find? Three similar but much less visible ones led away from my niche into the center of the room until they disappeared entirely.

Could one of my roomies be keeping a secret pet? No, that was pretty much impossible considering the harsh no-pets policy enforced by the university.

Even Ri hadn't been able to smuggle her nuisance of a Chihuahua in freshman year. And she'd tried multiple times. Her typical but I'm the daughter of Ambassador Jones hadn't worked either.

That left a different, much more likely possibility. Shapeshifter.

Since a certain shifter who happened to hate my guts lived right next door, it might just be that simple. Danox was my primary suspect for a reason. And if he also happened to shift into a dog or wolf, well, then I might just have my attempted killer.

And a dangerous enemy, who so happened to have access to my dorm room. And felt confident enough to sneak in here in the middle of the night.

Despite checking my traps multiple times before crawling under my fluffiest comforter, that thought kept me up. At some point, I had no choice but to accept defeat and use the quiet night to dive into more research—fruitful research as it turned out.

One of the countless times I adjusted the curtain after peering into the unmoving darkness beyond, my eyes landed on a black tome with a cracked spine. It was in between two herbology textbooks right there on the middle shelf.

Compared to the rest of Jaydis's books, this one was suspiciously worn. That wasn't all. Despite the dim violet light, the distinct outline of a black risolis flower was visible right along the bottom.

I blinked. Could it be that easy to find the stolen books?

I tipped the book back. The title on the front confirmed it. Soporis and Sanity. Jackpot.

Carefully pulling the tome from its place, I made sure none of the others toppled over. The last thing I needed was to wake someone.

Something about the placement of the book struck me as odd, though. Either it was hidden in plain sight, easily overlooked unless you knew it was there, or...someone had put it there...on purpose. For me to find.

This shelf was only used by Jaydis and myself. Kenas had his own, and Haze... Well, Haze's books were scattered between his desk, the floor, and the growing pile of laundry extending well into the room.

Not to mention, it was Jaydis studying alchemy. Jaydis who had an entire row of herbology textbooks—many more than I had.

But it was also Jaydis who had offered me a spot in alchemy class and wanted to help me with my curtain. Jaydis, who, unlike the Kenas, Haze, and Danox, actually made me feel sort of okay here.

Fine, I didn't want it to be him.

But I couldn't rule him out either.

Suppressing a tired sigh, I grabbed my nightlight once more, slipped beneath the curtain, and scoured the room for the rest of the missing books.

***

The sun shone inappropriately bright when I stumbled onto the courtyard. Birds chirped happily and the sweet smell of decaying leaves and pumpkin spice lattes hung lightly in the warm afternoon air. Fall was the best season, hands down, but I wasn't feeling it today.

Of course, I hadn't found the rest of the books. That would have been too easy—too lucky. They could very well be in Danox's room, or just hidden.

Not like I'd been able to check every corner and crevice last night. Especially with Haze being such a light sleeper. He'd almost caught me twice on his way to and from the bathroom.