I cross the foyer and head up the stairs with my familiar at my side. The wooden stairs creak as we climb them.
I step off on the third floor and head to my right, my eyes scanning the brass room numbers until I get to mine.
Room 306.
The door has been propped open. Inside, there’s a single twin bed and a blue velvet chair next to it. Pushed against the adjacent wall is an empty bookshelf. Next to it is a large window that looks out onto a gnarled oak tree.
Across from my bed rests an ancient-looking desk with an equally ancient lamp. Sitting on the center of its surface is a massive iron key.
I walk over and pick up the key.
This is a joke, right? I mean, how am I supposed to put this on my key chain without looking like some old-timey prison warden?
I glance at my door with its ornate bronze doorknob and the large keyhole above it.
All right, so this isn’t a joke. The coven just hasn’t updated their rooms’ locks in a century or so.
Really hoping those lamassu do a decent job protecting this place because my lock obviously does shit.
I pocket the key anyway.
“What do you think?” I say, glancing down at Nero.
My panther looks out at the room, then rubs his face against my leg.
My eyes sweep over the place. “I’m glad you approve. I love it too.”
CHAPTER 12
“Fuck. Moving.” Fuck it so hard.
I collapse onto my bed.
My arms shake from carrying things up three flights of stairs over the course of the day, and my ass and legs are numb from the exertion. And that’s not even getting into the fact that many of the notes and labels I put on my stuff have fallen off. And Great Goddess of Earth and Heaven, everything is not where it’s supposed to be, and my head hurts from it all.
But you know what? It’s done.
I stare up at my ceiling, hearing the muted laughter of witches in nearby rooms.
A thrill runs down my spine. This is my life now. I attend Henbane Coven. No more waiting and yearning. I get to live here and learn here and lean into all my long-awaited dreams.
I survey my tiny room all over again, and my eyes eventually rest on Nero.
My familiar lounges on a throw blanket I’m pretty sure he dragged off my bed and onto the floor and is chewing on a bone I got him from the butcher’s. The bone makes a sickening crack; then I hear Nero’s rough tongue lapping up Goddess knows what.
“Can you not do that on my blanket?” I ask him.
He ignores me.
Defective familiar.
“I should return you,” I say to him. “I bet I could buy like fifty cute, fluffy familiars for the price of you.”
Now Nero glances up at me, and he licks his lips. Pretty sure that was panther for sounds tasty.
I sigh.
After heading over to the window, I shimmy the pane up, letting in a gust of cool air.
Outside, the giant oak tree I saw earlier looms like a dark shadow. One of the tree’s thicker branches tees off just beneath my window. The location and sturdiness of it is so convenient that some previous witch must’ve spelled the branch to be that way, either for herself or her familiar.
I turn to Nero. “I’m going to leave this window open for you so you can come and go as you please.”
In response to my words, my familiar rises to all fours. After giving a satisfied stretch, he hops onto the bench seat beneath the window.
“Now, remember, no hunting humans or house pets, okay?” I tell him. “They’re not on the menu.”
Nero glowers at me.
“Oh, and no eating other witches’ familiars,” I say. “Oh, and definitely do not attack lycanthropes. It won’t end well for you.”
Nero gives me a disgruntled look, like I’m the world’s cruelest master.
“Just about everything else is free game. I’ll leave my window open so you can get back inside.” I chew on my lower lip. “You can climb, right?”
He gives me another disgruntled look.
“Geez,” I say, holding up my hands. “No offense meant.” Well, maybe a little offense meant. He is an ass, after all. “I just wanted to make sure.”
With that, Nero springs out of my room and onto the oak branch. Without a backward glance, he slinks down the tree before silently dropping to the ground and prowling off into the darkness.
I worry my lower lip as I stare after him. That oaf better not get himself hurt. And he better stay warm.
I sit on the edge of my bed. I’m utterly spent from a day of moving, and I need to take a shower and try to unwind, but my body still buzzes with energy. Now that I have a moment alone, I want to explore. There are new smells, new sounds, and a heady thrum of power in the air itself that I want to acquaint myself with.