WELCOME TO MOON VALLEY UNIVERSITY!!!
“The dorms are state-of-the-art, the faculty is world-class, and the networking alone is worth the tuition. You’ll make friends in no time, Luna. Trust me, you’re going to love it.” My aunt Marissa continued to drone on as we sped toward Moon Valley University, speaking from brochures. Her hands gripped the steering wheel so tight her knuckles had gone white, a sharp contrast to the casual, breezy tone she tried to maintain.
I stared out at the passing woods. An itchy agitation prickled my skin. We were deep in the valley now, where the trees grew thick enough to swallow the light. I was a premium scholarship kid at a school for the global elite, and the math didn’t add up. Aunt Marissa claimed she had just submitted my name on a whim, but her forced cheerfulness felt like a mask. Ever since my mother’s heart attack six months ago, everything in my life felt like a carefully constructed lie. What I wouldn’t have given to be back at the house, nestled with a book and some hot chocolate. Instead, I was being shipped off to a high-end prep school that only the elite could attend because I was on a premium scholarship. Hell, I didn’t even know how I got it.
I kept quiet the rest of the drive, my anxiety gnawing at me until we finally arrived at our destination. Moon Valley University. A quirky name all around, but what could I say? It was free for me. The car halted before a gothic fortress of weathered stone and jagged spires. A massive wolf fountain snarled in the center of the courtyard, its stone eyes gleaming in the dying sunlight. Beneath it, carved in Latin, were words I couldn’t quite make out yet, but they felt like a warning rather than a welcome.
“Stop gaping. You have to settle in or you’ll be late for orientation.” Aunt Marissa tapped my leg, stopping me from daydreaming before she got out of the car. I followed her lead, and soon enough we had gotten all my things out of the back. I looked down at my stuff, wondering how I was supposed to carry all of this, navigate through the school, and find my assigned room.
Before I could work it out, she had roared away, the tires of her car screaming against the gravel. She left a cloud of dust and the distinct impression that she could not get away from this place fast enough. I watched the car disappear with a frown on my face and a twitch in my jaw. This woman wanted me to make friends as soon as possible. Damn her.
“Need a hand or are you planning to use telekinesis?”
I spun around. A tall Asian guy with an undercut and a dangerous knowing smirk leaned against a nearby pillar, watching me with an intensity that made the hair on my arms stand up. His brown eyes were focused on me specifically in the way that made me feel like he had been waiting for me to arrive.
“I’m Kai. Student advisor for Wellington Hall. You look like you’re about to tip over.”
“I’ve got it, thanks,” I told him, picking up some boxes. A total of four in all but I could balance them. Trying to see and walk at the same time might be the issue.
“You sure about that?” He nodded at my precariously balanced stack. “Because that top one is about to...”
The box tipped and before I could react, he caught it with impossible reflexes, steadying both it and me with one hand. His grip was like iron and his skin felt unnaturally warm.
“Fall,” he finished, looking entirely too pleased with himself. “I’m Kai, by the way. Student advisor for Wellington Hall.”
“Luna,” I muttered, trying to reclaim my box, a bit glad he was there. His grip didn’t budge.
“Luna?” His eyebrows shot up. “Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. My mom had a thing for astronomy.” And apparently a twisted sense of humor, given recent events. But I wasn’t sharing that particular detail with Mr. Perfect Hair.
“Well, Luna,” he said my name like he was tasting it. “Follow me. Wellington is a maze and the shadows here like to move.”
His smile widened as he carried the rest of my luggage in both hands. How did he do that? Inside the building the air was thick with the scent of old parchment and something wild underneath it that I couldn’t name. Students whispered in clusters and I felt their eyes tracking my every move. Never had I wanted to disappear more in my entire life.
“Incoming!” A voice shouted from behind us. A guy on a skateboard swerved through the crowd, his blond hair catching the sunlight. He pulled off an impressive jump over someone’s suitcase but his landing brought him straight toward us. He was intercepted mid-air by a hand grabbing his collar as though he weighed nothing. The man holding him was broad-shouldered with dark hair and grey eyes that could pierce into one’s soul. He occupied the space like a physical weight, tall and radiating authority like a force.
“Felix.” His voice was a low resonant growl that I felt in my teeth. “What did I say about skateboarding during move-in?”
“Sorry, Ash!” Felix grinned, blue eyes dancing with mischief. “But look. I found her. Just like you said.”
Ash’s gaze locked onto mine and the world seemed to narrow until there was nothing but the sound of my own thundering heart. He didn’t look like a student. He looked like a king in exile.
“Felix, help Kai with her boxes. I need to speak with her.” It wasn’t a request.
“I don’t need...” I started, but Kai was already handing off my boxes to an eager Felix.
“Trust me,” Kai winked. “You want to hear what he has to say.”
Before I could protest, Ash gently but firmly steered me away from the crowd. Up close he was even more imposing. All sharp angles and controlled power. A tribal tattoo peeked out from under his shirt collar, curling up his neck like flames and I stared at it until he led me into one of the empty rooms in the hallway. He left the door halfway open. Good choice.
“Luna Foster,” he said, not a question. “Welcome to Moon Valley University. We’ve been expecting you.”
“How do you know my name?” I questioned him while I took a step back toward the door, alarm bells ringing. “Who the hell is we?”
He reached for me, then stopped as I pulled my hand back. Something like pain flashed across his face.
“Do you remember your eighteenth birthday?” he said quietly. “The night your skin felt too tight for your body? The moonlight that felt like it was burning you from the outside in?”
My blood turned cold. “How do you know about that?”
“Because your mother didn’t die of a heart attack.” His grey eyes had begun to shift at the edges, gold bleeding into the irises. “She was murdered. And the people who killed her are walking this campus right now, waiting for you to understand what you are.”
I stared at him, at the absolute certainty in his eyes while my mind raced. Behind us I could feel Kai and Felix watching, standing guard. The sun dipped behind a cloud and in that moment of shadow I could have sworn Ash’s eyes flashed gold.
“Protect me from who?” I whispered, my nerves getting the best of me.
His answer chilled me to the bone.
“From the ones who killed your mother. And they already know you’re here.”
