There was no way Lewis Williams liked me. 

It didn’t even appear that he liked anyone at all. 

Sure he had his own circle of friends, but they, like Lewis, did not have the best reputation in the school. And honestly, most of the time I’d seen him alone, like, almost as if he preferred that over everything. 

But anyway, that didn’t excuse the fact that he acted more suspiciously at night. What was he? A werewolf? Well, we had fought a werewolf in our first year. 

So . . . what was Lewis doing? Did he simply just like the night? Did he have insomnia? 

Or was he a vampire? 

That last thought had me reeling. 

Lewis wasn’t anything but himself. He was a sorcerer, his family was from out of the country, and he was an excellent academic overall. From another person’s eye, he’d have been the perfect boy, if not for the fact that he liked to experiment with dark magic. 

“Experimenting is quite fun. Is it not?” he’d once said to me, with that wicked smile I’d grown to know. 

He was a reckless scholar if he thought that playing with such magic was fun. It was dangerous. 

That was another thing—I didn’t want Lewis to get hurt by playing with dark magic. 

Because . . . well . . . 

I cared about him. 

What kind of hero was I, if I could not look after my rival as well? 

When I wandered the halls that night, to avoid the Weeping Tower, I’d realized that I couldn’t continue on doing so. That was why I’d given up and listened to Cherry’s advice. I needed sleep, I needed to have more faith in Lewis, and I also needed to get ready for the competition. I had to give Lewis my full strength and competitive attitude. He wouldn’t have settled for anything less. 

So why did I always stiffen whenever I was in his presence? Why did I automatically reach for the sword, hidden in the form of a flash drive, stashed in my pocket? 

The bespectacled boy crossed his arms, nearly sneering at my arrival, “You’ve finally come, Hallow.” 

“Waiting for me, weren’t you?” I answered back. 

He faked a laugh and raked his fingers through his dense, inky black hair, as if already done with my cautious air. “Yes, because I have all the time in the world to wait for an imbecile.” 

“Williams—” I began, striding towards him. He knew exactly how to get me angry. 

The boy raised a hand, still not reaching my height. He was tiny. “Hallow, before you throw that rusted sword at me, I need you to know that wandering the halls won’t guarantee you’ll catch me casting dark magic.” 

Instantly, I froze, “So you are messing with dark magic—” 

“Do you think I walk the corridors at night hexing poor first years?” he asked me, raising a sharp brow. “Because if so, then you’re right. I do love a good hex in the evening.” 

I glared at him. Sometimes it was hard to know if he was lying or not with that permanently mischievous face of his. I simply had to accept that I’d never really know if he was in fact evil, or just really good at pissing me off. 

“Williams . . .” 

He stopped me once again, glancing behind my shoulder. I wondered if he’d seen something I hadn’t. Silently, I pulled at the flash drive, but he dropped his hand as I did so. 

“It’s late,” he pointed out. “We must rest.” 

“The competition,” I walked over to my side of the bed, casting a look at where I was just standing. The lady imprinted on the floor was prone to moving around. At that moment, I’d noticed what Lewis was so hesitant about. The lady had stopped where I was originally at. “What will the first test be like?” 

Lewis sat on his own bed. He’d already dressed in his pajamas. They weren’t the school pajamas assigned to us all. Instead, he’d brought clothes he most likely owned already. They were made of silk, black, with blue lining and gold buttons. 

He answered without looking back at me. “We’ll have to see.” 

Absentmindedly, I opened one of my drawers and brought out a few old T-shirts and sweatpants, throwing them onto my bed. 

“Have you found out anything?” I asked him, taking my shirt up and off over my head, and then unbuttoning my school pants. 

Lewis continued, as if unaware of my presence. He was as still as stone where he sat. Unmoving.

“Do you really believe I know information like that? Ridiculous.” 

I stopped pulling the weathered T-shirt over my head to stare at him. “That’s not what I was saying.” 

He looked at me from the corner of his eye, face unreadable. “Whatever.” 

I closed my eyes and sighed, abandoning the shirt altogether. It was unfairly hot in the room. Only pants would have to work. Like Lewis, I never chose to wear the school pajamas. It made me feel like I was farther away from my family. Therefore, old sports jerseys and sweatpants were a necessity. 

“Are you really going to be indecent all night?” Lewis said, so softly I could’ve missed it. 

“What?” 

He threw me one last glare before dropping his head on his pillow, bringing the covers over his face. He took his glasses off gingerly to set them down on the nightstand beside his bed. 

“Nothing.” 

I looked down at myself. Had he never roomed with anyone before?  

After a while, I gave up on him. There wasn’t any use in trying to figure Lewis out. He was like a riddle I couldn’t decipher. 

When he dimmed the lights, most likely with some sort of spell, I followed suit and got into my bed as well. There was no time to waste in attempting to discover the first task. Professor Eva was going to fill us in on the details of it all, right? 

I was afraid she wasn’t. I was afraid that Lewis and I were going to have to find everything out on our own, without any help. We usually received aid from everyone, even from the students. At Hiraeth, one was never alone. 

Like at that moment, I wasn’t on my own. I had Lewis, even if I couldn’t bring myself to trust him. Damn . . . 

Could I trust him? 

“Hallow,” he called, from his side of the room. 

I raised my head up to see him better, “Yeah?” 

He didn’t turn over to look directly at me. I’d seen him without his glasses on. He was gorgeous with them, on or off. Though it was always a shock when I saw him without them. 

Luckily, I wouldn’t have such a heart attack if he remained with his back to me. 

“Aren’t you afraid?” he asked. 

That was an easy question. I was always afraid. But fear seemed to bring on excitement and adrenaline. My aunt said that it ran through my blood, through my family’s blood. 

I leaned my head against the headboard of the bed, “Are you?” 

This time, he did turn around, giving me that heart attack. His eyes looked shinier without the glasses. And I could see how wickedly beautiful the grey color was in the absence of that glass covering them. The moonlight did wonders to his eyes.

“No.” 

“Well, I am,” I admitted, drinking in his face. 

He scowled at me. He probably couldn’t see me very well. That was fine, it gave me the opportunity to admire him without being found out. “Hallow, you’re scared? What does that make me?” 

“Brave?” I suggested. 

Lewis gave me a look of disgust. Clearly, that wasn’t the answer he wanted. “Bravery is for imbeciles,” he said smartly, hiding his face behind his bed covers again. 

I chuckled. “Are you calling me brave?” 

He didn’t respond, which was what I assumed was a sort of answer. Lewis was indeed calling me an imbecile. He usually called me that, shamelessly, confidently. 

I was an imbecile. I really was. I was stupid enough to fight vampires and werewolves, I was idiotic enough to risk my life for people I hardly knew, and all for the sake of wanting to be heroic. I was an imbecile for a lot of things, but most importantly, I was an imbecile for not confessing to the boy I loved. 

I thought over this as I watched his dormant form. “Good night, Williams,” I said, even though I knew he wouldn’t say anything like that to me, ever. 

Lewis would never know what I meant behind my words. That’s why he was right about me. I was hopeless. 

The lady on the floor glowed eerily in the darkness. She moved from me, and then back to Lewis, much like she was attempting to show me something I could not understand. 

As I fell asleep, I grew curious as to what she was trying to say.