Only now did I notice Bayla’s concentrated look on the car radio.

“Who are these Copelands?” she asked.

I wanted to be honest with her, but I also knew not to tell her anything wrong. This was her mother’s job, and I wasn’t going to mess with Diana.

“People you don’t want to have anything to do with, trust me.”

Bay looked at me, but I didn’t take my eyes off the road.

“So, you know them?” 

“Old acquaintances.” That almost sounded like a compliment to this scum.

“And the DeLoughreys?”, Bay probed further.

God, how long would I be able to lie to this nosy girl without her noticing?

“Dangerous rich people, better to stay away from...”

Luckily, that was her last question, even if her look revealed that she was far from satisfied with my answers.

I steered the car along the sweeping curve that, after five minutes, led me into a street – or rather a long double-lane driveway – where deciduous trees decorated with green and white flags, as well as metal and very noble-looking lanterns adorned with the Vanderwood crest framed the street at regular intervals on the left and right.

I had been here many times before and by now found it unimpressive. 

Bayla’s attention, however, was focused on the huge Gothic-style building that loomed directly in front of us, in the middle of the campus, with its tall tower in the central nave. This was the main building with its two magnificent side sections of the university, which had been built during the founding times.

Behind the large parking area, on which cars were already massively jammed, stretched the spacious campus lawn full of oaks, framed with isolated buildings, such as the campus bar, the Law School, also in Gothic style, and the traditional housing complexes for the master’s students. 

This was possibly the most beautiful university in this country, the heart of this cursed city. Neither Oxford nor Yale University came close to Vanderwood in the aesthetics of their buildings. 

I almost laughed bitterly. Yale. The college I had actually wanted to go to. But then Granma had died, and my father had started sitting in front of the beer bottles again, staring at them.

If I had left, Mia would have had to take care of him, and I couldn’t put her through that. She was fifteen. But I knew that she was the one of the two of us who held everything together.

I pressed my lips against each other and concentrated on finding a decent parking spot. In the process, I noticed the row of dark Jeeps near the campus path and knew immediately that they had to be the Copelands and their pack.

Of course, Nash and his guys got their private parking spaces. 

Unfortunately, things like that didn’t impress me at all. They should get their family bonus, though.

There were a lot of – sometimes overly hectic – students on the road, so I had to be careful not to run over anyone. Although I would have liked nothing better than to carefully nudge any pack members with my car.

I steered my pickup truck into a gap that two other drivers were fighting over. Both gawked at me in disbelief, but I skillfully ignored them.

These students here were all so ignorant when it came to parking. It had been like that back when I had been in high school with all of them.

But now I only knew some of the faces here.

Bay wanted to get out right away, but I stopped her when I remembered that I still had something of hers.

“Wait a minute...” was all I said, reaching into my back pocket. “I found this in front of your mum’s car. Is it yours?”

Bayla, who had just tried to get out with her impenetrable mine, audibly gasped. Her horrified look spoke volumes.

Hastily, she reached for the pendant as if I had taken it from her and stared at the necklace for a moment before looking at me again.

“Thanks,” she mumbled barely audible, and quickly got out of the car.

I did the same and opened one of the back doors to take out her suitcase this time, which would have otherwise fallen on her feet again. She just groaned in annoyance but, wisely, allowed herself to be helped.

“Do you want me to show you where your room is?”, I asked and after a few seconds of thinking, I guess she saw that it was better that way.

“Whatever,” she replied, scratching her wrist impatiently.

I shoved the suitcase at her before getting my travel bag out of the car. Unlike Bay, I hadn’t packed like I was about to travel for three months. Maybe it was a girl thing to always have all kinds of stuff with you, but as I watched two giggling blondes strut past us with four large hard-shell suitcases, I knew that Bay’s suitcase, in contrast, was a cinch. 

Shaking my head, I closed the door, then followed Bay, who was already heading straight for the widest path to the main building. Her gaze was fixed on the towers of the largest university building.

“Is there anything here that attracts these animals?”

I followed her gaze. She could only mean the dozens of black birds that circled the towers and perched on the rooftops.

I remembered that just yesterday she had been hit by one of them. 

There were plenty of ravens in Blairville, but I had never seen them attack people. Probably the poor fellow had simply gotten lost.

“Bardot, what a coincidence to see you here!” a bawling male voice rang out.

I looked up, but immediately regretted it.

Was it impossible to enjoy a day without these motherfuckers?

Nash and his guys, seven of them, were sitting under a large oak tree – the largest on this campus to be exact – on stone benches that formed a half circle similar to a rondel. As always, they had picked a spot where they could keep track of everything.

So…high school days haunted me after all.

“Nash!” a girl with dark brown, almost black hair in matte black jeans and a khaki T-shirt, hissed, and I knew immediately it was Emely. She boxed her older twin brother in the side, who seemed distracted by her for a second.

I used that second to mingle with Bayla and the other students walking by.

“Who are they?” Bayla asked suspiciously. 

“Idiots,” I snorted curtly, and we turned down a side path.

“Best stay away from them. Where they are, there’s only trouble.”

Bay didn’t say anything else, however, I could sense questions burning on her tongue once again.