If Orca wanted a real fight, I’d give her one.
Weirdest way of flirting I’d ever heard of, but it’d been nine months since my last time with Alicia, and I was starting to get desperate.
On his side of the room, my roommate was getting ready for another Friday night, his deep black skin doing a stellar job of hiding the bruises he’d acquired in his match with Paladin. Like me, Nikolai had been pairing Jeremiah up with the better fighters, and he’d been losing more than he won. At this rate, neither of us was going to make it to second-year.
Jeremiah finished buttoning his dress shirt—this one a deep maroon, though the jeans beneath it were the same ones he usually wore out—combed his beard and cracked his neck. I waited for him to leave but he turned my way instead.
“The second-years are having a party tonight; normals and Powers. Do you want to come?”
I blinked. Those two sentences almost matched the total number of words Jeremiah had said to me since becoming my roommate. “Nah, I’m okay.”
“Suit yourself.” He shrugged, and then paused again, one hand on the doorknob. “Pretty sure Orca will be there though.”
Maybe it was because she’d been on my mind since the fight. Maybe it’s because my crush on Gabriella had mostly fizzled out. And maybe it’s because my mind was suddenly conjuring an image of the sleek yet curvaceous Stalwart wearing something other than grey sweats…
Whatever the reason, I found myself on my feet before I even knew I’d changed my mind. I coughed. “Actually, maybe I’ll go after all…”
Against the darkness of his skin and beard, Jeremiah’s smile was brilliant.
First party I’d gone to all year. Hell, first party since I turned five and my parents invited some of the neighbors’ kids over for cake and ice cream.
Could’ve gone better. But I guess if it had… well, maybe other things would’ve turned out worse.
•—•—•
“I did tell you that Orca would be there, didn’t I? And other girls?”
I looked over—and up—at Jeremiah. “Other than Ishmae, they’re all eighteen; it’s okay to call them women. But yeah, you told me. Why?”
He waved a large hand at me. “Don’t you want to wear something nicer?”
Dressed in my Paladin tee and the cleanest pair of grey sweatpants that I owned, I looked like a college student trying to sleep off his hangover, not one headed out for a party. Not that I had much choice in the matter. This was the nicest set of clothes I owned, but if Jeremiah hadn’t realized that in three months of being my roommate, I sure as fuck wasn’t going to tell him.
“Women hate it when guys try too hard,” I said instead.
“I’ll take your word for it,” I barely heard him mutter.
The second-year dorms were next to ours, but we went in the opposite direction, heading to the south side of the campus, where one of the original Academy buildings had long ago been repurposed for student use. According to campus legend, it was the class of 59 that had pooled their money and paid to convert the place into a bar, The Liquid Hero. Since then, the responsibility for operating the bar had been passed down to each second-year Cape class.
“Why’d you invite me out tonight of all nights?” I asked my roommate, as we wove past students headed in the other direction.
“Dunno. Just seemed like an opportunity.” He shrugged uncomfortably. “Truth is, after all this time as roommates, I don’t know much about you.”
It was my turn to shrug. “As far as most people are concerned, all that matters is what I am.”
“Yeah. Don’t know much about that either. Crows, I mean.” We rounded the corner and our destination came into sight, along with the small crowd of people hanging around outside.
“I am a Crow, and I barely know anything.” I wasn’t sure why my roommate was being nice all of a sudden. Maybe Orca kicking my ass was helping break the ice? “As far as I know, I’m the only Crow in the city.”
“Did you grow up here?” A small line of people was snaking through the crowd and into the bar, and we attached ourselves to the end of that line.
“No… Bakersfield.”
The big man winced. “Ouch.”
“Fucking tell me about it.” As we neared the front of the line, I saw they had a Titan out front, taking money and handing out entry passes. “Oh uhm… I left my wallet back at the dorm.” My empty wallet, but that didn’t seem worth mentioning either.
“No worries. First-years get in free tonight. Guess it’s the second-years’ idea of a meet and greet.”
The Titan was even bigger up close; Nikolai’s size, if not larger. He turned to Jeremiah. “What’s up, Stonewall? Who’s this?”
“Hey Hektor, this is my roommate, Damian.”
“The Crow?” Hektor brought his enormous fists in front of him and slowly cracked each knuckle. “We’ve heard about you.”
“Half of it is lies,” I told him.
“Sure, but which half?”
Since I didn’t know what he’d heard about me, I just shrugged.
“As first-years, you both get in free tonight. Start any trouble though, and I can promise you’ll pay plenty.”
“No problem, man,” Jeremiah said with a smile. “Stop by and have a drink when you’re off shift?”
“Will do.” Hektor turned to the next people in line, and my roommate and I headed inside to be greeted by a blast of music.
“Stonewall?”
“What?”
I raised my voice. “He called you Stonewall. That’s your codename?”
“Yeah. Stone-shifter, so I figured… what the hell? No need to get overly creative or anything.”
The Liquid Hero was larger than I’d expected it to be. Most of the floor was open space—or would have been if it weren’t crowded by people—but a wooden bar stretched to our left, shelves of bottles behind it, and a handful of booths occupied the opposite wall. High tables at the far end of the room flanked a staircase leading up to the second floor.
There
