Sam’s Reviews > In These Hallowed Halls: A Dark Academia Anthology > Status Update

“But she held his gaze as she got up, went around him, her thigh touching his knee as she grabbed the bourbon from his desk. His eyes didn’t leave hers as she pulled the cork cap out with a plink! too loud for the dark room. “Then catch up,” she said. “And tell me what to do.”

3/3

“It was as if he’d confirmed every misplaced feeling she’d had. “Have you been drinking?” he asked now. She raised an eyebrow, brain fuzzy. “Do you disapprove?” “No. I’m wondering if I should catch up.” She was probably too drunk for this conversation, still buzzed on adrenaline and the toxic punch.”

2/3

“Once, she had thought she’d do anything he could ask of her – and now, she still wasn’t sure. She’d looked up at him on that night, ages ago, blood thick in her mouth after she’d pulled out her own tooth, amazed at her capacity to let him unmake her. And then – then he’d lowered himself onto his knees, level with her, and wiped the blood away from her lip with one beautiful thumb.”

1/

“And Gamble’s mouth thinned to a line, the revelation of you’re going to hate this, I’m going to hate this written so clearly between chin and philtrum that it was almost worse than him speaking the words to her out loud.”

2/2

“You okay?” Mila asked, the briefest break in propriety. Gamble was their mentor, their leader into the secrets of the Order – he did not need their help, nor their support, and he reminded them of this constantly. He was superior in every way. But Mila was his favorite.”

1/2

“He was the kind of boy she could’ve fallen in love with, Mila thought every time she looked at his bitter-coffee eyes. New England stock, hair the color of freshly turned earth, handsome in the way of those who never really had to worry.”

“I think,” said Charlie, “that if you keep bending over that desk I’m going to get out of bed and come over there.” She put down the dictionary. “You have a one-track mind, you know that?” “I like to think of it as intellectual focus. Come back to bed.” “Alright,” said Phoebe. “As long as you promise to help me find out what it is.” “Anything,” promised Charlie.”

2/2

“Then he sat up and stared as she got out of bed and padded over to the desk. “You really want to know, don’t you?” “Mmm,” said Phoebe. She leafed through the dictionary. “It’s not in here.” “Well, who cares?” “I do. It’s kind of… odd. A whole department and it’s so obscure.” She looked at him. “Don’t you think?”

1/2

“Lou came in late, leaving her car parked a few blocks away, counting on the stumble back to sober up before she got behind the wheel again. She’d never been very careful with her life; life had never been very careful with her.”

“Daniel woke too early, stretched out as much as the cabriole allowed, the ceiling coming slowly into focus. In the weak light the chandelier was freckled with tarnish, and a long, osseous crack branched out from the canopy in a web of reticulated tributaries – the contour map of some imaginary river system.”