1. Roman

1

ROMAN

PRESENT DAY

" D id you hear?" Tristan leaned against the door frame of our shared room, his eyes on his phone.

"What?" I stared at him impatiently as he tapped away on the screen.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. Did you hear that our queen of the elite, Quinn Farrow, is back?" He glanced up at me then, his eyes dancing with amusement. Fucker . Running a hand through his thick, dark blond hair, he smirked. "Not that you'd be interested in that news."

"Fuck off."

Tristan just laughed, shaking his head. While he was my complete opposite on paper—he was the head boy, and I'd always been labelled as a bad boy—somehow, we clicked. At the beginning of the previous school year, we'd been assigned the same dorm room, and now I counted him as my closest friend, along with the final member of our trio, Knox, whom I'd known since we were little kids. Together, the three of us were known as the "gods" of Hatherley Hall, the elite of the elite. That was a thought that constantly amused me because I'd always had a bad reputation in every single school I'd been expelled from. I never thought I'd be one of the popular kids—in fact, I'd aimed to stay under the radar. But I guess I could blame my current status on my two best mates, and there was the fact we were all on the lacrosse team.

I joined in with Tristan's laughter, but it rang hollow.

Quinn.

She'd been one of the elite back when I was on the fringes, but she'd been different from the other girls. The only girl I'd had more than a passing interest in. A friend—no, even more than that. She was once the person I'd been closest to, the person who dipped beneath the surface and actually liked what they saw. Except…she'd completely ghosted me after the term ended. All my messages went unanswered, and she'd never returned to Hatherley Hall. After a while, I stopped feeling rejected and instead started fucking stressing, wondering if something had happened to her. Tristan seemed to know everything about everyone, and so I'd asked him if he'd heard any news about her, and he'd actually taken the time to go and find out some information for me. It turned out she'd been transferred to a Swiss boarding school while her dad had moved to the Geneva offices for whatever his business was.

So, fuck her. She obviously hadn't cared enough to stay in touch, to even give me a heads-up to say she was leaving. Clearly, I hadn't meant enough to her.

And I couldn't help comparing her situation with mine. It would never even occur to my parents to take me overseas with them, even if I was at boarding school and they only had to see me during the school holidays. If I was lucky. Sure, my uncle, Arlo Cavendish, and my two older cousins, Caiden and Weston, were here in the same country as me. But they were down on the coast in Alstone, and I was stuck here in the Cotswolds in this boarding school. I was an afterthought for them, just as I was to everyone else I was related to.

I shook my head, derailing my train of thought, and turned back to Tristan. Ever since I'd confided in him, we'd become close friends, which had taken us both by surprise. Secretly, I thought Tristan liked living out his rebellious streak through me. He prided himself on his head boy status, but more often than not, he was the deviant. The one who came up with the pranks I did. Like the latest arson incident.

That had been fucking close. I'd almost managed to get expelled. Now, I tried to toe the line so I wouldn't have any more issues with anyone in authority since I was sure I'd been banned from ninety-nine percent of the elite schools in the country, and Hatherley Hall was my last hope now I was eighteen and in my final year of studies. But the need inside me to create chaos and get away with it was always there, and it would eventually grow too strong to ignore. That was when I'd end up risking my future to ease the craving.

When I'd started the fire in Hatherley Hall's outbuildings, it was only supposed to burn the empty building that normally housed the headmaster's Bugatti. How was I supposed to know the man had decided to store a load of fucking petrol cans in there? It wasn't like there was a fuel shortage. It had resulted in the fire getting a little out of hand, if you could call the explosion and flames spreading to three nearby buildings "a little." I'd been caught and suspended, and my uncle had had to get involved to smooth things over. Suffice to say, I was a lot more careful now.

"I'm not interested in Quinn." Flinging myself back on my bed, I stared up at the ceiling.

"Yeah, alright." Tristan reached out to grab the door handle. "Since I'm the head boy, I have to go and greet her, welcome her back to the school and all that. I'll just leave you here, yeah?"

I shot up from the bed. "Wait! Give me a second to grab my shoes. Don't even fucking think about leaving without me."

He laughed again as he straightened his already pristine school tie, adjusting his head boy pin badge. "Not interested? Keep telling yourself that, Ro."

"Fuck off."

I stopped dead, staring. My mouth even fell open. Quinn Farrow had been gorgeous at fifteen, but now, eighteen years old and a woman in her own right… Fuck . She was a goddess. Shining waves of rich brown hair, shot through with reds and golds, and those thickly lashed eyes that seemed to switch between blue and grey and green depending on the light. Her body was utter fucking perfection, even covered head to toe in the Hatherley Hall uniform—navy blazer with the school crest, a navy V-necked jumper with royal blue piping over a pale blue shirt with the school tie, and a navy chequered skirt and black tights. Her house pin caught the light as she turned towards the tall lead-paned window, talking with Mrs. Banting, the school secretary, and a grin tugged at my lips. Good . She'd been placed in Epi, with me. The school houses were all named after ancient Greek philosophers—Aristotle, Democritus, Socrates, and Epicurus—otherwise known as Aris, Demo, Soc, and Epi. Quinn being in Epi with me meant we'd be spending a lot of time in the same vicinity, with our house activities, meals, and shared common room, and maybe she'd be in some of my A-level classes, too. A grin tugged at my lips, but I suppressed it.

At my side, Tristan nudged me before moving towards where Quinn stood. I shot him a warning look, falling into step beside him. Quinn's head turned at our approach, and then she saw me.

Her eyes widened, her lips curving into an O. It only lasted for a few seconds before her fists clenched at her sides, and she tore her gaze away, a blankness coming over her features. Completely ignoring me, she greeted Tristan with a bright smile that was patently fake. Tristan's curious gaze bounced between us, and I gritted my teeth, unsure of what to do. Why was she blanking me? Eventually, after an awkward silence, I cleared my throat.

"Quinn."

She startled, but recovered instantly. "Roman." The way she said my name set my teeth on edge, so coolly polite it was bordering on icy. As soon as she'd completed the obligatory greeting, she turned away from me in a clear dismissal.

What the fuck? Tristan mouthed at me, his brows pulling together, and I shrugged, at a loss. Maybe she was doing this because the school secretary was here.

I needed to get her alone. When Tristan took her arm to give her a "refresher school tour," I leaned into his other side, speaking low in his ear. "Get me five minutes alone with her."

He gave a short nod before returning his attention to Mrs. Banting. Once he'd waved her away, he led Quinn towards the school hall. When the sound of the school secretary's heels had faded away, he bypassed the hall's entrance doors and turned Quinn in the direction of the doors that led outside, down to the sports facilities and lake. Not our lake, but the school lake that was used for a number of aquatic activities. She walked stiffly by his side, either uncomfortable in his presence or mine, and I would bet my entire inheritance that it was me who was affecting her. What the fuck was going on with her?

The school had had new, upgraded boat sheds put in while she'd been gone, and it was here that Tristan led her. Stopping outside the sheds, he opened the door of the nearest one, then gestured for her to enter. When she stepped inside, he shot me a pointed look, and I took the hint.

The door closed behind us, and we were finally alone. The part of the boat shed that opened onto the lake was currently open, letting in plenty of light, and when Quinn spun to face me, the sun's rays backlit her. My breath caught in my throat at how good she looked.

"Quinn," I said hoarsely. "It's so good to see you again. Where?—"

Her jaw tightened, and she crossed her arms over her chest. "Roman. Look. Whatever you're thinking…just don't."

"What's that supposed to mean?" My words came out more harshly than I'd intended, and she flinched away from me.

"It means." Gazing down at the floor, she took a deep breath. Then she straightened her shoulders and met my gaze head-on, her eyes completely expressionless. "It means that—that I'm not the same person as I was. I'm over my rebellious phase. I'm here to get good grades and surround myself with good people. And that—" Her voice cracked, and she took another deep breath. "—that doesn't include you. You're bad news, Roman, and I want you to stay away from me. Far away from me. In fact, forget I even exist. I don't want to know you."

With that, she shoved past me, wrenched open the doors, and was gone before her words even had a chance to sink in.

I slumped against the wall, rubbing my hand over my face. My head spun, and I sucked in a deep breath, trying to push away the sudden hurt that had shocked my body like a fucking lightning bolt. What the fuck?

"I take it that didn't go well." Tristan pulled the door open, eyeing me with what looked suspiciously like concern. And that was not a look I wanted directed at me.

"You think?" A humourless laugh fell from my mouth.

"She ran out of here like the fucking hound of Hades was after her or something," he informed me. "Lost your touch?"

"Apparently, I'm not good enough for her. She doesn't want to know me." The hurt that I'd felt only seconds before was fading away, replaced by a hot rush of anger that burned through my blood.

"Seriously?" Tristan stared at me for a second, his mouth open, and then he punched my arm lightly, which I guess was his form of comfort. "She can fuck off. If that's the way she thinks, you're better off without her."

The anger burned brightly, a ball of fire inside my chest.

"She thinks she's better than me? Wants me to stay away from her? To forget she exists? I'm going to make sure she regrets ever saying those words."

Triston studied me warily. "What does that mean?"

"It means…that Quinn Farrow is about to find out just what happens when you make an enemy of me."