Chapter 28

Julie

Getting out of this student housing was one thing. Getting enough distance from Grace was another. We had practically grown up together and in order to get a good foothold within the Circle, I had always stuck to her. This had worked well for a while until the cards turned, and next to the bright and powerful Earth Quatura, Grace, the daughter of the Domini, suddenly the small, unimpressive Julie had discovered her element. Air .

We had spent a lot of time together training our elements, and by now, I had gotten better, especially after she taught me how to properly use my natural inherent element.

And so, it had come to pass that we had hardly spent a day without each other since our early childhood, which was no wonder when you lived under the same roof.

For this very reason, I had gotten up half an hour earlier today and had fortunately been able to get out of the way to head straight for the already lightly filled campus. I needed more time for myself, even if that usually triggered unwanted thought carousels in my head.

In my jacket pocket, I felt my cell phone calling for me with longing.

I reached for it and opened Erik's chat.

I had spent all night on the couch in the student accommodation debating with Erik about this woman. He thought she was a goddess, but for the first time since I'd known him, he hadn't been able to provide any clues.

I typed my message.

I felt the entire time that Erik wanted to tell me something, but didn't. Like he wanted to share a theory but didn't dare. Was he afraid I would judge him?

The thought of her story sent a dull feeling through my stomach and I felt sick. I barely manage to suppress the trembling in my hands.

No answer, but he was still online.

My fingers were tingling because I wanted to know his thoughts, what was going on in his head, and what moved him.

With that, he dropped the bomb.

Unsure of what to answer, I slid the phone back into my pocket.

Of course, I would love to drink with him and philosophize about antiquity for hours, even in real life. But that was not possible.

As I walked, I took a quick look around and spotted Vivienna with her forty new Quatura friends, she hadn't even known by name before this semester. Now she, the other two goats, and all these Quatura were sitting under a large gazebo that until yesterday had belonged to the prayer group, acting as if this were their personal temple.

The girls were talking excitedly, laughing loudly, especially the Air Quatura. Yet they all shared the same emptiness in their eyes. The same fate. But Gloria's serum seemed to work better on them than on me.

Because I was running so fast, I bumped into a guy in the crowd. Startled, I looked up and jumped back.

"Excuse me..." That's all I could say, as the confused student had already collected himself and continued walking.

And for a moment I had played with the thought that it could be Erik. But this thought was absurd.

I turned around again, but he was already gone.

What is wrong with you, Julie?

I would recognize him immediately if I saw him, wouldn't I?

With questions now overwhelming me, I sat down on the old bench by the stone table, unpacked my laptop, as well as some binders that made me look busy, and entered my password.

However, I couldn't help looking around again when suddenly my cell phone vibrated. I winced, not at all ready to answer, when I read who the new message was from.

Of course.

Grace wasn't used to me leaving without her, and that I actually could had surprised me a bit myself. But I couldn't do what I was about to do in her presence.

So, I quickly texted her back.

Reassured, I left the chat.

I had pretty much always been readable to others, especially to Grace. Another thing I didn't like about myself. She could read me, but I could not read her .

My cell phone buzzed again. This time, it was Erik.

My heart leapt. He wanted to meet with me. God , what was I supposed to say to that?

Until now, he had never asked me to meet simply because we both preferred texting. We were open-minded, just J and Erik , two nerds in their bubble.

I had to smile.

It was a relief for me, even if I immediately felt bad. He was open to a meeting, and I was already having a panic attack at the thought of him being on the same campus as me.

I wonder where he was right now? I wonder what he was doing right now. Maybe he was still in bed, had just woken up...on this campus? I wonder if he was sitting in a lecture right now? Or if I was most likely to find him on the athletic field or in the library?

All these unanswered questions made me put the phone aside so I could turn to my laptop undisturbed and a little too nervously. All the while, I couldn't suppress the burgeoning feeling of excitement in my chest.

What was wrong with me?

This guy had literally triggered something in me, but I didn't know what it was.

Interest in meeting him after all this time? Curiosity to see what he was like in real life? It had to be because, after all, my fingers moved as if automatically on the keys to get to the student lists via the university website.

It was forbidden, I knew that, but this was Erik and I just couldn't live with the uncertainty that here every guy I ran into could be Erik, let alone that I attended the same university with him without ever having seen him.

My chest tightened at that thought.

What was this feeling? Almost as if I wanted to see him, as if I wanted to have all those conversations, we'd had in the form of text messages while walking across campus or spending time at the library.

A little further away from the responsibilities he had to carry through his complicated family circumstances . Like he sometimes implied.

We both had always wanted to escape the responsibilities imposed on us by our backgrounds, but with him, it had been a bit more complicated, he had said, without wanting to explain it to me in more detail.

I hardly believed that. His family could not make his life more complicated than mine did for me .

I turned to the list of names, which had just opened and brought me back to the present, and immediately entered Erik in the list.

A whopping twenty-five Eriks were located at Vanderwood, with seven of them spelled with a k . Of those, however, only two were in my semester, like Erik, who had just recently started studying at Vanderwood.

Thoughtfully, I looked at the two Eriks that were displayed to me: Erik Moos and Erik Finchland .

The first was the ungifted son of an Earth Quatura, but I didn't have much to do with him, since he had been kicked out of the Circle because of his non-existent powers and was now, as far as I knew from Amara, devoting himself to his art studies. Normally all male Quatura babies ended up in orphanages or with foster families, but he had been thought to be one of the rare male Quatura, which in retrospect had turned out to be false. His memories had been taken from him.

So that left Erik Finchland , who even took the same minor as me.

Could that be a coincidence?

Erik Finchland.

I clicked on the picture, where there was a curly redhead with a plaid shirt and lanky shoulders.

I didn't know why, but somehow, I was disappointed by his outward appearance. I had imagined him completely different: Brown hair, well-trained body. He had said himself that he was very active in sports.

Nevertheless, I decided to take a closer look at this Finchland. He actually looked quite nice and like a gentleman. Maybe he hid his second side well. The one he showed me every day.

" There you are."

I startled so badly that I slammed the laptop shut and stared at Grace, who had appeared beside me out of nowhere with a raised eyebrow, a black dress, and her cardigan decorated with orange and black Brazilian patterns.

"What is my little cousin hiding from me?"

With a gleeful grin, she eyed my laptop, sat down next to me, and finally flipped it open.

Luckily, there was such a thing as passwords, otherwise Grace would have come across a red-headed curly-haired man with freckles by now and bombarded me with awkward questions.

"Julie?" Came the question now, with the familiar and often applied puppy dog look, usually used for any favors within temple lessons or if she wanted me to do anything for her.

"No, Grace... There's nothing there," I finally said with a little too much hesitation. "I just got scared," I quickly added, fortunately benefiting from the noisy Copelands and their pack followers who were now also entering the campus and handling a football like savages.

My mind was back on Erik, who was also playing football, maybe even at Vanderwood?

There was a bang and we both looked around for the source of the noise.

"Holy Shit!" it came from one of the Copeland guys that I didn't really know. He had to be new. And not only that... I instantly disliked him.

"Marten, you idiot ! Can't you throw any better than that?" it now came from Nash, who was the only one of them all who not only had the biggest muscles and wore the tightest top, but also had the smallest brain.

He looked at his buddy who was trying to justify himself, but unfortunately nothing could be heard as they were now talking more quietly and retreating from the open lawn near the parking lot to their oak tree while the other guys from the pack were laughing at this Marten .

"Ju..."

"By the way, where are Bayla and Larissa?", I directly interrupted Grace, who stared at me, but then responded.

"Bayla is still asleep and Larissa wanted to spend the morning with her because she's getting seriously worried," she said, looking back at the Copelands, probably because nothing else exciting was going on here yet.

"Do you believe Julian?" I asked, because that thought had been on my mind since the moment he had shown up in our doorway, holding Bayla in his arms before laying her down in her bed.

I knew him from high school, but we had never exchanged a word there. Of course we hadn't. He was one of them...

Grace's expression filled with skepticism.

"I don't trust any of them at all, and you know why..."

"But Julian isn't part of the pack. His father even has a contract with..."

Grace raised both brows. "You think that changes who he is and what he has done?"

Indeed, what was heard about the Bardots in the Circle was nothing good, and yet my aunt tolerated their existence in exchange for their distance from the pack and because Graham Bardot was the town's police chief. This was because of some stories that lay far in the past and were none of our children's business , as Aunt Amara always said. I hadn't inquired further, although I was interested to know if things had been as tense in her student days as they were now.

"Julian is a Senseque. He belongs with them, no matter how far away his father lives from them." Grace sat down with a shrug. "But him living apart from them won't hurt, as long as he doesn't screw anything up."

I remembered my aunt's words. "Your mother said that the young wolves would have to join the pack at some point, otherwise they wouldn't learn about controlling their powers and would tend to run wild."

"What?!" Grace looked at me in horror.

"Yes..." I continued. "That's why I'm asking you if you think Julian..."

"Oh my God, we need to talk to Amara..."

"To your mother?" I asked skeptically. After all, she was the one who tolerated the Bardots and who had told me about the Senseque and how their pack structure worked. She had probably already thought about it.

"We can't keep this to ourselves. He might have done something else to her..."

"Did you see any bite marks?", I asked, scrutinizingly.

"No..." she replied with hesitation. "Let's go check on her later, okay?"

A sinking feeling spread through my stomach.

Would Julian be able to do this? Did he have the alpha gene ? As far as I knew, only one percent of victims survived this torture from hell. Just the thought of it...

"We need to talk to Julian," I whispered in shock.

"We should stay away from him, Julie." Grace responded quickly.

I looked thoughtfully across campus.

She was right. Julian was one of them, and we did, despite everything, need to be careful. We weren't on our territory, which theoretically meant it was none of our business, but there was this contract for everyone that was supposed to prevent exactly such things from happening, so I didn't want to believe that Julian would just hurt a person like that without fearing consequences from all sides.

He must have done something, though, because Bayla Adams was in bed for almost three days with an extremely high fever now, and not even Grace's herbal tinctures had shown any effect.

My cell phone buzzed again.

Now he was present again, and if I wasn't mistaken, he would even be very present to me very soon, because I had decided to sit down right next to him as soon as I entered the biochemistry seminar. And I already knew that my shyness would put a spoke in my wheel.