Chapter 17 | Ravinica

Chapter 17

Ravinica

WHEN I RETURNED TO the dorm, black-and-white hair was splayed on the front counter. It was late now, so no wonder Dagny had fallen asleep at her post. With my limping gait and heavy footfalls, the RA raised her face at the first step I took into the longhouse.

She had skittish senses, that one. She blinked her bleary eyes, a piece of paper comically stuck to her cheek as she raised her face. "There you are."

I limped toward her.

"You look like shit."

"Feel worse." I stopped at the counter, bending to rest my forehead. Speaking to the floor, I said, "I'm guessing the mess hall is closed."

"Afraid so."

"Dammit." My stomach growled in protest.

"Here. I snuck you this."

My forehead lifted, hope lighting my face.

Dagny unraveled a closed napkin next to her on the counter. She shrugged. "It's not much. Cold cuts and cheese. Two most important food groups, you ask me."

I gawked. "What are you, a valkyrie sent to save me? Thank the gods for you, Dagny." I ravenously reached out and took the napkin, then slammed the food faster than I'd ever eaten anything.

She chuckled, watching me eat at the counter. "Don't forget to chew, woman, damn. And I thought I liked cheese."

"I would eat a bull's ballsack right now, Dag."

She smiled. "I hear that's a delicacy in some parts of the world."

I snorted through a full mouth, feeling infinitely better after eating. Still dead tired, though. With a heavy sigh, I looked at the girl square in the face.

Her smile remained, and she pushed her glasses up her nose. "So, you going to tell me what happened to you out there? You dripped blood into my lobby, you know." Her chin nudged past my shoulder.

I glanced back, seeing the thin trail I'd left in my wake. My calf was still gnarled. "Shit. I'm sorry, I can clean—"

"No, no, it'll give me something to do for the next hour until I get off and can hit the hay. You just keep me company and speak."

Over the next while, I sat on a comfy Ottoman while Dagny wiped up the blood and then mopped it. Before she did all that, she gave me a fresh rag to wrap around my calf.

I told her what happened to me in the woods, and how stupid I'd been to go through them in the first place. I explained how Sven Torfen and his familial gang ambushed me and was scared off by a menacing bear shifter. I also said I thought their motive was from an event on the Gray Wraith , when I'd seemingly offended Ulf Torfen.

"Those assholes don't need a motive," she said, finishing her mopping. She put the mop in the bucket, rolled it away, and poked her head out of the utility closet a few seconds later. "Grim Kollbjorn saved you, eh?"

I nodded.

"Careful with that one."

I threw my arms wide, sitting up in the sofa. "Everyone keeps telling me to be careful around these men. First it was Arne, now Grim."

"That's because us second-years know more than you," she said simply. "Arne Gornhodr is too pretty and slick for me, but I think he's rather harmless."

Didn't look too harmless when he encrusted Ulf's legs in ice and threatened to blow his shin bones through his kneecaps.

"Grim . . . he's a different animal altogether."

I furrowed my brow, leaning forward and resting my elbows on my knees. She had my full attention now. "Spill the tea."

Dagny rubbed the back of her neck, glancing away nervously. She wasn't good at hiding her emotions. I knew hesitance when I saw it. "Let's just say there's a reason he's a loner, Rav."

I blinked. "Let's say more than that."

Dagny walked over and sat on the couch next to me. She looked over her shoulders to make sure the coast was clear, then leaned in conspiratorially. "Something big happened last year, during the combat finals."

My heartbeat picked up. I wasn't sure why I was so interested or entranced with the topic. I hadn't even known Grim before tonight. Perhaps it was my want—no, my incessant need—to make friends and be accepted here. To be considered an equal. Of all the people I'd met so far, Grim Kollbjorn had been the only one to treat me like an equal, rather than an afterthought or a nuisance.

Dagny stood from the couch.

I grabbed her wrist before she could walk away. When she looked down at me, I said, "You can't just stop there, girl. The hell!"

She snickered. "I didn't take you for a gossip, Rav." Her eyebrows bobbed. "Might you have a bit of a crush on your huge, strapping savior?"

Gods, she didn't even know what I'd seen once Grim shifted from a bear into a human. When she said "huge" and "strapping," she didn't know the half of it.

My cheeks burned pink. "What? No!"

It was much more than a big dick that kept my interest with the bear shifter. I mean, that didn't hurt, but he was also more interesting than most men I'd met. Him and Arne both.

Though Grim talked little, he said much. Offering to escort me through the woods if I needed his assistance at night? It hadn't been a condescending "You can't protect yourself, so I'm going to do it for you." He had been embarrassed to even ask. In some ways it was . . . romantic? Chivalrous?

I couldn't put my finger on it. Part of me was awestruck I couldn't stop thinking about him nearly an hour and a half after the incident in the woods. Men typically didn't stay in my mind that long, which was how I knew he was something special.

Dagny sat again, facing me full-on. She put her hands on her lap and leaned forward. "Grim killed another student last year, Rav."

My stomach dropped, eyes fluttering in shock. "W-What?"

Dagny nodded vigorously, as if she was pleased to part with some of her juicy gossip. "Everyone knows about it, so it's not some big secret. It was, uh, traumatic, to say the least."

"How?" I choked out.

"It was during the final combat trial. If you're asking ‘how,' literally, it was with—"

" Why ?" I blurted, amending my question. "Other than him protecting me, he seems almost . . . peaceful."

Dagny snorted like it was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever said. When she noticed the look on my face, that I wasn't joking, her face grew serious again. "Well, that's where the rumor comes in, you see. Word is that Grim Kollbjorn is a berserker."

I scoffed, shaking my head. "Those only exist in stories. We're all berserkers if we're pissed enough."

Her hands flew up to her ears, palms out. "I'm just telling the rumor, girl. Don't shoot the messenger."

My brow creased with wrinkles as I tried to reconcile that news with the man I'd just met. Could it be possible? I mean, he was vicious in combat, yet he didn't show any sign of losing control like a bloodthirster of legend.

"Look, I don't know the guy well. He scares me because he's so huge. I hear he's uncontrollable. He has a state—a trance, if you will—that's ultraviolent and untamable." Her wrist twirled in a circle. "These rumors get more ludicrous the deeper they go, of course, as all rumors do."

My head reeled, snapping my neck back. "You mean there's more ?"

"Well, I heard that after killing his opponent, rather than simply incapacitating him like he was supposed to, he . . . he . . ."

I leaned forward, heart rioting. "Spit it out, Dag."

"He ate his opponent's flesh. Feasted on his blood."

My jaw dropped. " No ."

" Yes. " Another series of vigorous nods.

Gods above, the story just gets worse and worse.

"You're telling me Grim Kollbjorn is a berserker and a cannibal ?" I put my hands on my head, stressed as hell. "How the fuck is he still at the academy and not locked away in some cage?!"

Dagny laughed. "You kidding me? A soldier of that magnitude? He's like the perfect soldier, Rav. And what is Vikingrune training if not super soldiers?"

This was all too much. I didn't know what to believe. The man I'd met was nothing like the barbarian Dagny was describing.

"I mean, shit, I'm surprised he wasn't given an award for it," Dagny muttered, mostly to herself. She raised her hands and splayed air-words across the sky. "MVP. Most valuable people-eater."

She beamed at me.

I grimaced. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

Her smile vanished. "Sorry. My humor can be a bit twisted. I'm sure he's not so bad."

I shook my head, leaning back in the couch. I wanted to melt into it and disappear. Maybe Eirik was right, and I should just forgo making friends with anyone until I know more about them, this place, and what I'm doing here.

I couldn't lose sight of my true purpose for attending Vikingrune Academy, after all. Training and growing into my powers was high on the list, but I'd promised my mother I would discover who had ruined our family name generations ago, and I'd make it right.

My plan is revenge and assassination, I thought morosely. So can I even call myself nobler or better than someone like Grim Kollbjorn?

The answer came to me before I'd even thought up the question. Well, if he's a fucking cannibal , then yes. A resounding yes—I could call myself a better person than that.

I didn't know enough. I couldn't even think straight after everything that had happened today. What was supposed to be a boring, lazy orientation had turned out to upend my entire worldview.

Wobbling a bit, I stood from the couch with a groan.

Dagny bowed her head. "Sorry," she said, hands in her lap. "Did I ruin the mood?"

I put a hand on her shoulder. "It's not you, Dag. This place is . . . a lot to take in."

She smiled sadly up at me. "Believe me, you're taking it better than most. I was a completely innocent kitten when I showed up last year, all starry-eyed and dumb. You aren't that, at least. I'm glad I met you."

I squeezed her shoulder lightly, trying to offer up my best version of a smile. I felt sick even attempting it. "Same here, Dagny. Thank you for helping me"—I gestured at the rag wrapped around my calf, which was starting to stain through with a dark brown splotch—"and for telling me those things. I needed to hear it."

With that, I took off for the stairs, tossing a wave over my shoulder. "If you don't mind, I'm gonna go wail into my pillow while I try to dissect all this. I'm beat."

I reached the stairs to the sound of her chuckling. "Dissect? Sounds like something a people-eater would say."

My stomach lurched. Gods, this woman. Wouldn't know an appropriate joke if it smacked her in the face.

She kept snickering. "Don't be late for classes tomorrow, friend."

At the top of the landing, I said, "Wouldn't dream of it, Dag."

Stalkers in the woods? Bullies in the boats? Cannibals offering to escort me across campus? Magical men who speak of inflicting pain like they're discussing the weather?

This place is not what it seems.

I wouldn't get caught slipping again.