Astrid
The grand hall was louder than I’d ever heard it, first-years packed shoulder to shoulder while the Headmaster waited at the front, letting the noise build before he raised a single hand for quiet.
"Every group this semester will consist of three students," he announced once the room settled. "You’ll research one topic together and present your findings before the semester ends. To encourage genuine collaboration, each group will share an academy apartment during weekdays. Weekends may be spent back in the dorms."
The hall exploded into chatter instantly.
"I’ll pick you!"
"No, you’re with me!"
Ivy grabbed my arm so hard I nearly lost my balance. "We’re definitely teaming up. Obviously. There’s no version of this where I let you get stuck with someone boring."
I actually smiled, the first real one in what felt like days.
Then I noticed the seniors along the back wall weren’t saying anything at all. They just watched the chaos with the kind of patience that made my stomach twist.
The Headmaster let it run a little longer before speaking again. "Finished deciding?"
The hall quieted, expectant.
"Excellent." A pause, long enough that I felt the dread building before he even said it. "Because none of you will be choosing your teammates."
The seniors laughed, clearly having sat through this exact moment themselves once. The first-years groaned in near unison. Ivy dropped her forehead into her hands.
Names started getting called. Ivy was paired with Rowan and a girl I didn’t recognize, and though she pouted for exactly three seconds, she perked right back up when Rowan waved at her from across the hall.
Then, "Astrid."
A pause.
"Reed Ashwood."
Another pause, longer this time, long enough that the whole hall seemed to lean forward.
"Xander Ashwood."
Dead silence.
I turned toward the twins without meaning to. Even Reed looked briefly startled, his composure slipping just enough for me to catch it before it smoothed back over. Xander blinked twice, like he was waiting for someone to announce it was a joke.
Whispers rolled through the hall like a wave breaking.
I raised my hand before I could stop myself.
"Sir." Every head turned toward me at once. "There has to be some mistake."
"And why is that?" the Headmaster asked, entirely unbothered.
"Being assigned with one prince already seems unlikely." I gestured toward the twins, both of them watching me now with matching expressions of interest. "Being assigned to both can’t possibly be a coincidence."
A few professors near the wall hid smiles behind their hands.
"Academy groups are determined using placement results, compatibility assessments, and faculty recommendations," the Headmaster said, calm as ever. Then, almost as an afterthought, "You placed among the top candidates, Miss Astrid."
The hall erupted.
"She’s top three?"
"The scholarship girl?"
"Seriously?"
I stood frozen while the noise crashed around me, because I hadn’t taken any placement exam. I hadn’t sat for anything. I’d arrived at Moonshade with a stolen name and a scholarship letter I still didn’t fully understand, and now apparently I’d tested into the top three students in my entire year.
Someone had arranged this. I just had no idea who, or why, or what it meant that they’d wanted me sitting across a table from the two people I was most desperate to avoid.
By the time we made it back to the dorms, the hallway was chaos, suitcases dragged out of every door, students shouting names and room numbers over each other. Ivy hugged me hard enough to lift me half off my feet.
"I’ll visit constantly," she promised. "You won’t even miss me."
"Please do," I said, laughing despite everything.
Packing took less than ten minutes. A few changes of clothes, my notebook, the satchel with my mother’s letter folded carefully inside. I owned almost nothing, which for once made something easier instead of harder.
The apartment building sat at the edge of campus, all marble floors and floor to ceiling windows, nothing like anywhere I’d ever lived before. Even the hallway leading up to it smelled expensive, something faintly like cedar and money. I found the right door, took a breath, and let myself in.
Xander was sprawled across the couch like he’d already claimed it as permanent territory. Reed stood near the far wall, unpacking a neat stack of books onto empty shelves, each one placed with more precision than the task really required.
Neither of them had expected me quite this soon, judging by the way both heads turned at once.
The silence stretched long enough to feel deliberate.
I set my bag down by the door, straightened my shoulders, and decided I wasn’t going to spend the entire semester tiptoeing around two people who’d apparently been handed the same fate as me, whether any of us had chosen it or not.
"If we’re going to live together," I said, "I have a few ground rules."
Xander lifted his head off the couch cushion slowly, one eyebrow arching. "Who exactly do you think you are?"
"Someone who likes peace and quiet," I said, holding his gaze without flinching. "And someone who isn’t planning to spend the next few months cleaning up after either of you."
Xander grinned, clearly delighted rather than offended, propping himself up on one elbow like he’d just found the entertainment he’d been missing all week.
Reed set down the book in his hand and finally looked over, his expression unreadable in the way I was quickly learning to expect from him.
"Let’s hear them," he said.
I glanced between the two of them, my heart still hammering from everything the day had thrown at me, and thought, not for the first time since stepping off that train, that surviving Moonshade was going to be a great deal harder than surviving anything that came before it.
But I squared my shoulders anyway, because backing down had never once kept me safe, and it wasn’t going to start now.
"One," I said. "Whatever mess you make, you clean up yourselves. I’m not anyone’s maid."
Xander opened his mouth, something teasing already forming, but Reed spoke first.
"Agreed."
Xander shut his mouth, looking mildly betrayed by his own brother’s cooperation, and I allowed myself the smallest flicker of satisfaction. "Traitor."
"Two," I continued, emboldened. "Knock before you walk into a room that isn’t yours. I don’t care whose apartment this technically is."
"Fair," Xander said, recovering quickly, though his grin hadn’t dimmed at all. "Anything else, Your Highness?"
"Don’t call me that."
"Noted," Reed said, and something in his tone almost sounded like amusement, though his face gave nothing away.
This was going to be a very long semester.
"Which room is mine?" I asked.
Xander pointed helpfully. "The one between ours."
I immediately froze. "...Between?"
He smiled innocently. "So if you snore in your sleep, we’ll both hear it."
I frowned. "I don’t snore."
Xander shrugged. "We’ll find out."