Kai hadn’t made it to my dorm last night. He also couldn’t text me since I had no phone or a Telvice, as they called it here. I figured he didn’t want to wake me and had let me get some good sleep. I had kind of missed him in my bed, though.

I’d checked with Skylark, and she had no problem with him staying over. She casually added that she would have a problem if I took home one of her twin brothers, which was kind of a weird statement. For one, I didn’t know them at all. They were about ten years older than me and my professors.

Why the fuck would I go there?

The first class of the day was Geography, which I was looking forward to since I still didn’t know enough about this world. It made me realize that our Galaxsleaze teacher was busier with her cookie than with our education for all those years of “Rainer class.”

The teacher was an old Rainer, with big red glasses on his generous nose. He was wiry and smelled like musk and whiskey.

Skylark and I had this class together, so she walked me to the correct classroom. It was a small auditorium, like everything at this college, dunked in a white paint bath and lined with metallics and silver. Upon entering, I spotted Melixes and one of Sebastian’s goonies with bright red hair in the far-right corner. I learned from Sky that his name was Dexar, and he was one of Sebastian’s most loyal friends since childhood.

Dexar, Sebastian, and Kai used to be an inseparable group of three. Now, he was replaced by another one named Otto, the one with black hair I’d also spotted last night on the dancefloor.

That one was not in this class, though. There were only twelve students, and none of the others I remembered meeting last night.

I sat down next to Sky, grateful for her bubbly presence in my life, and tried to learn as much as I could from this first class of my college year. Which, the Fae had timed perfectly, I might add—destroying Earth right before a new term started.

I must admit most of this introductory Geography class had been covered by our earthly Galaxsleaze teacher.

There are three continents on Caros. I was currently in Terra, the largest continent, which stretched as far and wide as if our entire America had been combined with Oceania. It was also called the Earth Continent, and Rainers born in Terra were more likely to go to Earth than all other Rainers of the other continents combined.

We were on the far right of the Caros map, which looked like a giant heeled boot. Rivellin was apparently in the lowest region, the tip of the shoe. Smack in the middle of the world map was a continent called Sheo. This one actually looked like Australia but was ten times its size. Surrounded by nothing but oceans, it was nicknamed the Water Capital of the world.

On the left of the map lay a narrow, L-shaped continent connecting the two “Arctics” of the planet. That was the continent of Yuna, the Fire Continent, as they called it. Apparently, temperatures were always high, and strange things lived there.

I noticed a smaller island underneath our boot, as if it was standing on a box, which our professor hadn’t mentioned at all. I nudged Sky and pointed.

She hesitated before answering, “That’s Faerie, Lux.”

“We live right at the border?” My eyes widened; I had no idea.

“We do, but…” Sky glanced forward briefly before turning back to me. “What you see on the map isn’t all of Faerie. It’s much bigger than that box-shaped thing. Way bigger.”

I couldn’t press her on that since the professor suddenly had me in his sights, and I couldn’t continue, but I’d ask her about it later.

The lesson continued and focused on Terra. I already knew we had thirteen regions on Terra since their senate was called the Tertin. Maddox had already told me that. Rivellin was the capital city of the state of Moira and had four districts. All four were ruled by, you guessed it, the Paramores: Skylars, Welkins, Briareves, and Barringtons. I found it strange that I happened to have met two of Moira’s four Paramores on Earth.

At noon, Skylark had to sign up for her favorite sport, called Helix—something similar to our cheerleading, I gathered from her explanation. I had no such ambitions yet; I needed to adapt to this new planet before deciding to try any weird new sport.

So, I decided to find Kai. Since I had no Telvice yet, I couldn’t text him. We’d agreed to meet at the courtyard bench at midday. As I waited, Jax joined me.

“Here you go.” He handed me a Telvice that looked like a mixture between an iPad and an iPhone. Way too big and way too fancy-looking. It had a bright pink cover, and I hated Jax for this. I was not a pink type of girl at all.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Now you can reach us. I’ve already programmed all our numbers. In case of emergency, you dial 1, and it’ll send an SOS to me and Kai. We’ll come running. I’ve given your number to Sky as well.”

I stared at the gadget, trying to figure out where the contacts were and how to access them.

“Thanks, Jax!” I added, but he was already gone.

Great.

I got my first text immediately.

Kai: Babe, I’m running a little late. The first class of the day was a hoot.

Lux: Don’t worry about it. I’m on that bench in the main courtyard enjoying the two suns.

Kai: 😊😘

I beamed at it, glad to have that form of contact available to me again. Then another text came through.

Sky: Girl, we need to check out that bulletin board next to the stadium. They have some crazy group outings we can join, like a trip to the Sapphire Bank or the Snowmountains.

I had no clue what any of that was, but I answered that I’d love to check it out when a shadow fell over my Telvice, and I looked up, blocking one of the suns with my hand.

The cigarette smoke drifting toward me was my first clue. “What’s the little human up to?” Sebastian smirked, sitting way too close to me, his unruly brown hair flopping over his temple, brushing his cheeks. His thighs were touching mine. He was clad in a dark red suit with a flamboyant red and dark blue paisley silk shirt underneath, slightly open, revealing some chest hair, more tattoos, and a gold bird necklace. He was also wearing dark brown leather formal shoes with a long tip.

I scooted a little further down the bench. My heart clenched at the strange feeling he gave me. I didn’t feel unsafe, but I felt…seen somehow. It was difficult to explain. It felt like he could see straight through me, reading me like a book, and I didn’t like that one bit, not with my emotions so all over the place.

Melixes was probably on her way too, to add more insult to this peculiar situation. He grabbed my Telvice out of my hands, and I started to protest. He put a tattooed finger on my mouth, which smelled like cloves and smoke. It was strangely both exciting and a violation of my personal space. “Hush now.” His English-lilted accent gave it a strange twirl.

He went through it in silence and threw the Telvice back at me so suddenly I gasped. Only then did he remove his finger from my lips. I saw his blue eyes flick to them quickly and back up to my now widened eyes. “Now you have my number. Please do stay in touch, little bird.” His smile turned cheeky, and he flicked a cigarette from his jacket pocket, placed it between his full lips, and lit it. He glanced my way once more, tucked one of my stray hairs behind my ear, and whispered, “Little bird, the way you’re staring at me all flabbergasted…” He sighed. “You’re very attractive, I must say. For a human girl.” His English accent heightened each syllable, making the hairs all over my body stand up. I couldn’t repress a small shiver, which he definitely noticed but didn’t comment on. With that backhanded comment, he left me on that bench, completely stunned. Sebastian Barrington, the emotional vampire. The perfect description for that man. Rainer. Whatever.

A text came two seconds later. The sound was like a plane taking off.

Sebastian: Little bird, I wouldn’t mind a pic now and again of that pretty face or body of yours. Or both. Preferably without those clothes on.

I was instantly offended by his crude behavior. As I tried to find the block contact function, Kai arrived.

With a sigh of relief, I slid close to his side and hugged his arm tightly. I’d missed him. He laughed and put it around me, kissing my forehead.

“What’s wrong, babe?” I showed him the text, and he rolled his eyes. “That dude, really? Next time I’m letting Jax pummel him into the ground.”

“Good choice.” I snorted.

“What class do you have next?” He took my list from my backpack, clearly done giving Sebastian any more attention, which was fine by me. “Oh, you have that private session with Oak next.”

“I do? I thought that was tomorrow?” I grabbed the paper and confirmed that indeed I had a lesson with Oak. For some reason, I found Ash easy to talk to, but Oak gave off a more standoffish vibe, even though we’d had that heart-to-heart by the pool at that party. It may be the black hair and tattoos that reminded me of Sebastian, or the very neat, polished English vibe he had going on—a strange duality of extremes that made me uncomfortable.

Kai walked me to Oak’s office, where I would be having the private lessons, and kissed me goodbye. I was ten minutes early but decided to knock anyway.

“Come on in, Miss Elmrose.”

I couldn’t help but suppress a slight giggle at the fact that his white-haired twin brother was the exact opposite of him, from the way he spoke to the way he looked. He was always so formal, while Asher was so open and coarse with me.

“Please call me Lux,” I said. He nodded and offered me a seat in front of his neatly organized desk. It had a few papers and a paperweight on it—nothing else. Yet his bag was stuffed with papers, some crumpled, some folded in half, and wrappers from half-eaten candy bars were sticking out. Duality, I’m telling you.

“So, Lux…do you know what we’ll be doing here for the next year?”

I shrugged. “I have no clue, sir.”

“Oak…you can call me Oak. No need for sirs.”

I blushed, and he continued.

“I’ll be teaching you all the basic things you need to know when living here. We’ll cover some of our history, geography, languages, and customs. In my brother’s class, you’ll be receiving some defense training.”

“What? Defense classes? As in fighting?”

“Yes, indeed. I suppose that won’t be a problem since I’ve been informed that you’ve been trained from a young age.”

It was true that Jax and I had taken Krav Maga classes since we were six. I dropped out shortly after our falling out, but I’d had nearly eight years of training and had reached a brown belt level. Jax would be a black belt by now, I assumed.

“Why would I need fight training?”

“Lux, we live in a world where there are constant threats. We’re still in a long war with the Fae, and while there haven’t been many incidents on our planet recently, it’s not completely safe. Your being human is an extra motivation to get your training back on track.”

I understood, and I knew I still had much to learn.

As the lesson progressed, I learned a bit about their origins and how they became what they are now. We would first dive into history before learning the other basics.

I left the private lesson with my mind swirling with new information. I really needed to take it easy because, at this pace, I’d crash soon.