Drowning Studies (Artemis University Book 2)

by Erin R Flynn

  “I thought we could groan in relief that it was over together and have some fun. I can’t fit a hundred bucks in my budget right now or I would pay.”

  “I really don’t mind paying but yeah, I don’t want to be invited because I will pay.”

  “That’s not why, I swear it.”

  I believed him. Darby might confuse the fuck out of me but he wasn’t a liar.

  My phone started vibrating with responses but before I could look or reply, he reached across the table faster than I could keep up with and grabbed it.

  “You’re fucking nineteen, not a toddler,” he grumbled. “I don’t care that you’re unknown, you’re with me and I know the world well. We’re fine and you don’t need a fucking babysitter every fucking second with how powerful you are. You took out a mountain. Fuck, you can get food without a posse.”

  “Bad test?” I asked, thinking that was a lot of cussing from Darby.

  “Mm-hmm.” He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “And some extra bull that I’m telling you to be honest, not to point flak at you.” He waited until I nodded. “I’m getting tapped to TA next semester since my tutoring schedule is only you and that’s not fair to the others.”

  “Except I need extra help to finish high school but no one knows that,” I groaned.

  “Exactly.”

  I tapped my fingers on the table. “What if we got you a few more people? Izzy would take you editing papers quickly. I could find a few more I’m sure.”

  “You really are the nicest rich person I’ve ever met,” he muttered after a moment.

  I burst out laughing. “That’s hysterical because most people think I’m a friggin’ bitch.” I downed my water when it came and Darby his beer, which really told me how bad of a time he was having.

  “I’d use the bathroom before your food gets here. You only have an hour to eat it,” he warned.

  I nodded and slid out of the booth. I’d never done a food challenge before. I’d wanted to with how bottomless my stomach was but they normally cost a lot of money if you failed and I couldn’t afford that.

  It was sort of a fun reward he found for me that wasn’t like some food eating competition I would hate all the attention from.

  I stepped out of the bathroom to see our server holding a massive fucking burger on a plate that was big enough to be a food tray. The plate looked more like a serving platter for a whole fucking turkey and was loaded with fries.

  “Please tell me that’s coming to our table,” I whimpered, hurrying after him. My stomach grumbled obnoxiously loud. “That will so heal my hurt from midterms.”

  “It’s your burger,” he chuckled as we reached our table.

  “I take back everything bad I’ve ever said about you, Darby, especially behind your back,” I blurted as I quickly sat down. I grabbed a cloth napkin and tucked it in the front of my shirt. “How big is it really?”

  “It’s five pounds of ground beef on a fourteen-inch bun,” he answered. “You have an hour to eat all of it, sides, and toppings, so clean plate. If you do, it’s a five-hundred-dollar prize. Oh, and you’ve got to sign the waiver.”

  “Yeah, cool, sure, just don’t judge me for eating so much,” I moaned, the smell heavenly. I quickly signed the sheet, thinking I should have made sure I didn’t just sign my soul away, but I doubted that for a burger.

  No matter how big the burger.

  “Wait, get a picture first,” Darby cut in, looking lighter as his eyes danced with mirth.

  “Just hit the timer when you start and it cannot be stopped,” the server told me. “And no helping.”

  “No, all mine,” I promised him. I kissed the burger and hugged the plate for Darby to take a picture, but then he took a few normal ones.

  His food arrived and he took the timer. “Ready?” He counted down when I nodded and told me to go.

  And frowned when I started with the fries.

  I shrugged. “I have to eat the whole thing and cold fries suck. Plus, I’m thinking of how to cut into this beauty.” I moaned at how good the fries were. “I’m going to need ketchup and lemonade if they have it.” I decided to try the aioli sauce and moaned. “And more sauce.”

  “Of course your request is more,” he chuckled, shaking his head at me. Still, he flagged down the server and asked for it along with another beer.

  I decided not to ignore the burger and started pulling off toppings to put on my fries, so one handful I covered with cheese, another a few slices of tomatoes or pickles. “I want to live here. Can I just come back and get this again without the challenge?”

  “Yes, it’s a real menu item meant to feed eight to ten adults,” he told me.

  “Shhh, don’t let him think others can have him too. He’s all mine,” I teased.

  The server brought what I wanted and I was not graceful as I started dipping fries and grilled onions in their sauce or cheesy fries in ketchup. Then I cut off a slice of the burger and did my best to get as much as I could in each bite.

  “Oh fuck, it’s better than it smells. Darby, this is the best reward ever.”

  “I thought you’d like it,” he chuckled quietly. “This lobster roll is fantastic. I could eat like three of them.”

  “Order another,” I said with a mouthful of food.

  “They’re twenty-five dollars each.”

  I rolled my eyes as I swallowed. “You said we need the afternoon off to just fuck school and eat our fill. Get what you want. Really, I don’t care.” I took another bite and realized something. “Do they have a dessert menu?”

  “If you have room for dessert I will officially bow down to your bottomless pit,” he drawled.

  I didn’t make it to dessert, but I did clear my entire plate of all that yummy, yummy food. It was maybe the first time I ever felt completely full in my life.

  It made me smile that night as I passed out into a food coma.

  23

  Thursday morning I aced my runes midterm and was relieved it was all over. I’d made it through my first college testing crazy and it was another step in feeling like I could really handle Artemis and what I needed to.

  Sure, there were still doubts, but it was a good step.

  One that left me exhausted and ready for the curry party. I headed to our room to drop off my stuff and get Izzy so we could make our way over to get started. I felt something odd as I unlocked the door and stepped inside.

  In a flash I dropped my keys and reached for the man approaching me, flipping him over me and tossing him across the room.

  But he wasn’t alone. I pulled my knife from the sheath I had on my lower back and shoved the second guy against the wall, holding the blade to his neck. “You picked the wrong room to come fuck with.”

  “What was that?” Izzy shouted from the bathroom. She opened the door before I could answer and let out a yelp. “Down, Tamsin, they’re my brothers.”

  “You said tonight,” I reminded her.

  “They came early,” she sighed. “I’m sorry they startled you.”

  “Startled is fine, but they reached for me and were hiding on my side of the room over where we are now for when I walked in the room,” I seethed as I flipped the switch on my telepathy.

  “I just wanted to know what you were,” the guy I was holding snapped. “I was just going to get a read on you.” But that wasn’t all. “There was nothing to find that told me what she is.”

  “They were snooping through my shit to find out what I am. What the fuck, Izzy?” I slid my phone out of my pocket and hit the recording app, making sure I got this all on the record.

  “Seriously, guys?” Izzy growled. “I told you to leave it alone. I don’t know and she wants to stay undeclared. Fuck. Tams, can you let go of Jonathan, please? The other you tossed is Alberto.”

  “Did you steal anything?” I demanded, growling when I heard the other pocketed something I had from the Townsend estate, thinking his parents could figure out what I was from there. “Give it back, Alberto, or you
will not like what I do next.”

  “You stole from my roommate?” Izzy screeched, bounding over to her brother in a towel. “Give it back now!”

  “Mom and Dad want to know what she is so they can announce it,” he argued as he jumped to his feet.

  “I don’t give a fuck what your parents want,” I cut in, moving Jonathan away from the wall and shoving him towards Izzy’s side of the room. “Give it back or I’m calling campus security and having you arrested.”

  “I’ll get it, Tams,” Izzy muttered, shooting me a look like that was overkill.

  I thought I was on the right level of worry. Stealing from me just so their parents could be the ones to solve the mystery and be the ones to announce who I was severely disturbed me.

  Which was why when she started arguing with him, pausing to quickly yank on clothes in her closet, I pulled out my phone again and sent Claudia and Craftsman a text that I was in deep shit with Izzy’s brothers and I needed backup.

  “I cannot get into your head at all,” Jonathan seethed, narrowing his eyes at me. “You’re like a vault. How are you so good at shielding already?”

  “You were trying to invade my mind?”

  He shot me an amused smirk. “You were just pulling thoughts out of my head. How is it different?”

  “I catch thoughts you put out into the world, that’s a telepath,” I snapped. “You were using your magic to get in my head. That’s assault.”

  He snorted. “Welcome to our world, little girl.”

  I sneered at him. “Well, this ‘little girl’ easily kept you out so maybe you need some education.”

  I went over to Alberto and before he could try and block me, I kicked his feet out from under him and pulled the fairy crystals out of his pocket. Then I stepped on my side of the room and thought of a barrier. I flung out my arms and put one up, floored it worked but hoping it didn’t scream it was a fairy one.

  Then I stepped behind it, blocking my whole side from them but keeping the door fair game.

  Alberto jumped to his feet and came to get the crystals back, bouncing off the barrier and catching himself before he fell. “How the fuck does a freshman unknown learn a barrier so fast?”

  “Because I’m smart enough to ask about them given you’re not the first who have tried to force me to declare what I am,” I snapped.

  “No matter, we’ll get it from Izzy,” he chuckled darkly. “You might be able to block us, but she’s been watching you all these weeks. She’ll have the clues to tell us.” He glanced at her but then frowned. “How are you blocked too?”

  Izzy looked at me with wide eyes.

  I shrugged. I wasn’t going to tell her in front of them that I bought a charm to cover us both in the room so no one tried to read us in our sleep when we were defenseless.

  It seemed a good idea when seniors were trying to learn what I was so they could drug and rape me.

  “You’re seriously going to mind rape your sister so your parents can be assholes and announce what I am to everyone?” I demanded, the words sounding insane even as I said them. “Do you not get how fucked up that is?”

  “Very,” Claudia said from the doorway, relief instantly filling me. “And it breaks several rules at this school and a few laws that trained adults cannot mentally attack any supe in training for information.”

  “Who are you?” Jonathan demanded.

  “My lawyer,” I answered, shrugging at Izzy again when she gave me a wide-eyed look. “Dude, your brothers were snooping, stole from me, and tried to invade my brain because your parents want to be the ones to announce what I am. Yeah, I called for backup, Izzy.”

  “You will tell us and now,” Jonathan snapped. “We deserve to know who our sister is rooming with. “And drive up our stock as the ones who were able to penetrate her mental shielding that no one can get through to find out.”

  I disgustedly told the rest of them that last part he thought.

  “You were supposed to find out, Izzy,” Alberto bitched.

  “What?” I gasped, giving Izzy a hurt look.

  She gave me a pained one in return. “I’ve not been snooping or done anything. I told my parents I didn’t know. They asked me last time and said I needed to find out.

  “I figured they’d ask me again on break but that was it. I didn’t know they were going to announce it or something. I don’t know and I was telling the truth I think it’s cool you’re going undeclared.”

  “I think you’ve been a very bad influence on our little sister,” Alberto chuckled darkly again. “You’ve started a lot of trouble, unknown, and pulled her stock down when she was sent here to raise it.”

  I snorted. “She came here to learn, it’s what happens at schools. You act like she’s one of those husband-shopping idiots.”

  “Tams…” she warned me, giving me a glance as if begging me to stop. I glanced between her and her brothers as I felt Craftsman join us. “My family thinks it’s a phase and I’ll grow out of it.”

  I snorted. “Well, that’s ignorant and disturbing. Lesbianism, the new college fad, huh? Yes, because there’s none older than mid-twenties.”

  “Who are you to judge us?” Jonathan snapped.

  “Well, I wasn’t the one stealing from your sister’s roommate and snooping through her stuff for personal information, so yeah, I think I get to judge here,” I drawled.

  “Mom and Dad aren’t going to let you keep rooming with her if you don’t find out,” Alberto told her. “You’re in enough trouble being on her side over the Wards and others.”

  “She’s a fucking adult,” I cut in. “And for the record, the councilman Ward was on my side of what happened with Blake. He apologized to me. Your parents don’t own her and as her brothers, it’s disgusting you’re siding with them.”

  “Tams, stop,” Izzy whispered.

  “Well, they decide who she’ll mate so she clearly agrees with them too,” Jonathan announced with a smirk.

  I gave Izzy a horrified look but she wouldn’t meet my gaze.

  “It was the only way they’d let me come here,” she whispered quietly. “They wouldn’t let me come to Artemis unless I signed a deal they could pick who I mate.”

  “That’s not the only way, Izzy,” I rasped, horrified her own parents took advantage of her. “There’s the scholarships and—”

  “They did it after I was accepted based on them paying,” she explained. “I wouldn’t qualify for scholarships with what they make just as in the human world and they were bragging to all their friends I got in and the tuition was no problem. I didn’t see it coming. If I tried for scholarships later—Artemis doesn’t give you a year to defer or another chance. It was my one shot.”

  “But—”

  “What other option did I have, Tams?” she demanded angrily. “Not all of us are as strong as you and can just flip off everything on principle, okay? I had no backup school as I’d turned them down. They said if I didn’t go to college, they wouldn’t acknowledge me and kick me out. I get the human world has progressed but this world hasn’t and most of us get mated off like we’re the property of our parents.”

  “And you’re messing with her chances for the right kind of mating our parents would approve,” Jonathan jeered. “You’ve pissed off half the elites that would be promising matches for our little Izzy and raise our family’s stock. So now you’re going to tell us what you are so our parents can be the winners who announce it and fix the situation.”

  “For your parents and their bullshit, not Izzy,” I seethed. “Nice blackmail, you asshole.”

  “Call it what you want, but that’s where we’re at. Be the loyal friend you claim to be, judge all others for not being, and help her when she needs it.”

  I took in a slow breath and then let it out. “No, not like that I won’t. I won’t cave, because once I do you will fucking have me bent over and grabbing my ankles. Next you’ll want something else so you don’t mate her off to some asshole or whatever sick twisted shit you wi
ll use your own sister in.” I glanced at Claudia. “Can you get her out of whatever deal she made?”

  Claudia snorted. “Did you record this like I told you to if there was a problem?”

  “Since before I texted you.”

  She smiled evilly at the brothers, who were standing there with their mouths hanging open. “Tell your parents I’ll be in touch along with Mr. Geiger, who is my boss. Not only will they let Isabella out of her deal, but if your family ever comes after my client again, I will give that recording to the authorities and the witch’s council and you all will lose your standings and face charges.”

  “Wait, I—” Izzy started to interject.

  I held out my hand to her over the barrier. “Come on, Izzy, don’t let them own you. I promise we’ll help but you have to make the call. They’re not family if they’ll use you like this. You’re family with Mel and me and you know it.”

  To her brothers’ shock she nodded and took my hand. I pulled her on my side of the barrier and looked at Claudia.

  “Cut a check to her parents for her tuition they’ve paid so far and make it known they only paid it to sell their daughter like fucking sex traffickers. Send whoever to pack her stuff and we’ll find her a room at my place. Pay her tuition and whatever when you pay mine.”

  “Tams, you can’t do that,” Izzy rasped.

  “Yeah, I can, because you asked me to be your friend and not bail on you,” I whispered as I hugged her to me. “I promised I would as long as you didn’t gossip or spill my secrets, remember? You kept your end and I’m keeping mine.”

  “We ride or die in this family, Izzy, welcome to it,” Mel said from the door. Then she came in the room and grabbed Izzy’s brothers, snarling in their faces. “And tell your parents they not only fucked with someone under the protection of a Rothchild but the Vogels, and they’re going to have a fucking mess to clean up.”

  “I will escort them off campus and have them banned,” Craftsman said, taking them from Mel. He about growled when they argued. “Trust me, you prefer this than the dragon, who looks like she might take you out to the woods and eat you.”