Chapter 39
Surprise
Sinta
I was turning 19.
And I hadn’t told anybody.
Walking into the kitchen Sunday morning, I was hoping to see at least one of my guys and our usual Sunday breakfast of pastries and muffins.
But no one was there, and I couldn’t hear any movement in the House.
Frowning, I’d grabbed an apple and did some homework for Art class before leaving for my Combat session with Yelana.
Leaving the student village, ignoring the stares and whispering that had become increasingly worse in the last week, I strolled for the Rubble.
“Well, if it isn’t Imelda’s charity case.”
Halting, my good mood plummets into my stomach and explodes like shrapnel.
“Good morning, Grande.” I sigh and turn.
I don’t bow to her. Yelana and Imelda had both explained it was proper etiquette and that if Imelda hadn’t excused me, I would have had to bow to her as well.
But I don’t respect or care enough about Grande to offer her the submissive gesture.
I balk as I face her.
It's not just Grande, but Tremore and a mix of their friends.
“That’s Princess Grande to you, serpent bitch.” Tremore spits.
I don’t say anything, mostly because I don’t know what to say.
“I hear you are the newest resident of Rising House.” Grande announces.
She practically shouts it, and everyone within earshot immediately turns to stare.
“I have to wonder who exactly you fucked to get that room.” She croons, then laughs. “Never mind, everyone knows The Kings will fuck anything with a pulse and a hole. I’m not entirely surprised they decided to have a live-in toy.”
Tremore snickers, the expression creepy and leering, his eyes roving the minimal skin I’m showing in my work-out tights and loose T-shirt. “Neither am I.”
His gaze feels like a slime trail over my skin. I immediately want a shower.
“I don’t see how that’s your business.” I tell her.
The laughing smile drops, her expression turning stormy in an instant. “Everything is my business, girl. I own this fucking Academy.”
“Imelda would have something to say about that.”
“Imelda isn’t here.” She hisses.
I shift on my feet, because she’s right. I’m alone.
Everyone looks content to watch, not intervene, and it feels a little too much like high school all over again.
Memories flash through my mind like a flip book.
Beatings, food on my clothes, lumpy chocolate milk in my hair, my locker filled with shit, my books dumped in toilets, and my uniform shredded.
Its horrific, and I suddenly need to run from this. To get far away as quickly as possible.
Wearing a coy smile, Grande runs a flirtatious hand over Tremore’s bicep.
She glances at our spectators with a vicious sort of triumph in her eyes. “You know, normally I couldn’t care less about a gutter rat like you. Your kind never lasts long in our world. But for some reason everyone just can’t help but talk about you.” Lips thinning and turning her smile brittle, I see her diamond blue eyes turn hard. “And then I hear you have wormed your way into Rising House – and Fade’s bed, if that is to be believed. He’s usually more selective about his choice of bed mates; They tend to at least be supermodels.” She laughs.
People laugh with her; condescending and full of malice.
I flush, the reaction uncontrollable.
But I’m not ashamed, or embarrassed.
Maybe I’m frustrated?
Or just angry she can treat me like this. That she gets away with it.
Lifting my chin, firming my lips, I don’t give her the satisfaction of a reaction.
She doesn’t like that.
“Look, I don’t care if you want to fuck your way into a better life – the Gods know desperate females like you don’t have many options – but you will keep your filthy claws out of Rapid, Tomashi, and Bastien. They are mine.” She growls.
“I don’t answer to you.” I murmur.
“Yes, you do. Because I can have your pathetic corpse tossed from the nearest cliff and not one person on this island will say a thing about it.”
“No, you couldn’t.” I say, one hundred percent confident.
People stop laughing.
Because even if the guys didn’t look for me, even if Kenya and Natalie moved on, Imelda and Yelana wouldn’t.
It may not have been obvious at first, but they cared. I was sure they did, sure that I had bonded with the females.
So even if Grande did kill me, I knew Yelana would gut her for it.
I watched that bitch through hard eyes as she straightened up and tried to glare down her pert nose at me, her hand clenching on Tremore’s arm.
“You know, I don’t know why I bothered with a warning. Some gutter rats are too fucked up to understand when they are out of their league.” She titters, flipping her hair. “Better to just solve my problems the easy way. Tremore, dear, take care of that for me, will you?”
He grins. “With pleasure.”
My dragon rises in my middle with a fury, remembering this male and more than ready to smack him back down again.
We were stronger now, our power greater.
I would be more than happy to dent his ego a second time.
“You really want to get your ass kicked again?” I demand, watching his face harden. “You really want all these people to see you be defeated by trash like me again?”
He bears his teeth in a feral smile. “You won’t win this time. Last time was a fluke – I know little bitches like you have potions for that shit.”
Potions?
“Is that what you said as you cried yourself to sleep?” I scoff.
“Enough. Just kill her already.” Grande orders, her voice like a whip.
Growling, he storms towards me, reaching his hands out like he's just going to grab my neck and snap it.
I feel my limbs burn for a moment, my dragon fusing strength into my flesh – just like we’d been practising.
I slip his hold easily, rotating to the side.
He stumbles a little, whipping around.
I crack him across the face with a punch that echoes around the crowd, my knuckles smarting with the force of it.
I smell iron – his blood I think – but I’m already reaching out for the arm he swings at me and twisting it back by his thumb.
I’m merciful this time. I don’t break it.
I do however use his lack of balance and swipe his legs out from under him, my other hand striking his chest.
He slams into the ground on his back, gasping, winded, blinking up at the sky.
I silently thank Yelana for the hours she continuously knocked me on my ass until I could successfully perform a move.
Less than two minutes and I’d sacked him.
I’d never been prouder of myself.
Straightening, letting the energy funnel back into my dragon, I turn to face Grande once I’m satisfied Tremore is too winded to be a problem.
She’s fuming, her face flushed, her hands clenched around that hideous bright pink Gucci purse.
And people are looking around, gazing at Tremore on the ground and my stand-off with the Princess.
Her posse are gaping, shifting, stuck between glowering at me and exchanging unreadable looks.
I suppose they aren’t used to seeing this. Someone standing up for themselves.
I wasn’t used to doing it. I’d never been strong enough to do it. But I was now.
I was strong, I was capable, and I was done being a doormat.
I put every inch of that determined fury into my glare and pinned it on Grande, my hands fisting. “Are you done?” I demand.
“You little slut.” She seethes. “Why do I always have to do everything my Gods damned self?!” She screeches, tossing her bag behind her.
One of her posse dives to catch it, skidding along the pavement on their stomach but saving the bag.
Forming a series of complicated runes with her fingers, muttering beneath her breath, I realise she’s about to fling magic at me.
Physical defence I could handle, but I was nowhere near ready to combat magic.
My hands rise before me and spark with green flame as she flings a glowing blue sphere.
It hits me, exploding in a shower of sparks.
I land on my ass with an oomph and skid, crying out.
She’s already conjuring another. This one looked bigger.
Tensing up, preparing to take the hit, I watched the violent swirling mass of blues and golds grow before her outstretched palms.
It looked like a tornado contained to her hands.
And I knew it was going to hurt.
“Make peace with the Gods, snake. For they show your kind no mercy.” She sneers and thrusts it towards me.
My eyes snapping closed, my head turning away, I suck in a breath and wait for it to hit me.
Wait for the pain and agony of whatever deadly spell she’d conjured.
But nothing came.
And people began to gasp and mutter.
Wrenching my eyes open, my heart battering my ribs, I take in the scene.
“Tomashi?” I mutter, as shocked as everyone else.
He stood in front of me, broad shoulders eclipsing me from view, with a shield of red-black adamant before him.
He’d blocked Grande’s magic.
He'd protected me.
Disbelieving, I watched him release the magic constructing his shield to reveal an equally shell-shocked Grande.
“Tomashi.” She spits. “Why?”
“Because I can.” He says simply.
I scramble upwards, standing at the ready.
Her face crumples, rippling with a dark insidious fury. “You’d pick her side over mine? You would make such an obvious mistake?!”
“I’m picking no sides. I’m simply reminding you that you are not the only power on this island. Attacking a favoured of Imelda’s seems like an extremely stupid move on your part.” He sneers.
She straightens, a haughty mask slipping over her features. “You will regret this. And so will she.” Grande promises. “You cannot protect that runt forever.”
He shrugs and stuffs his hands into his pants pocket. “I doubt she’ll need protection at all soon enough.” Turning, his features smooth and unreadable, he flicks his eyes over me and the moaning figure on the ground behind me. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
Staring at him, seriously considering if he had been possessed or body snatched, I mutter some sort of affirmative and slowly turn away.
I glance over my shoulder as I leave, seeing him following, even as I push through the dispersing crowd and head towards the forest.
Grande is ranting, her words too low and enraged for me to decipher, but it’s obviously nothing good.
Entering the forestry, my steps echoed by a heavier gait, I almost trip on a tree root tossing glances back at him.
His hand snaps out, righting me before I can even stumble, and he glares at me as if I were a big inconvenience.
“Why’d you do that?” I demand, so utterly confused.
He raises a sardonic brow. “Not let you fall on your face?”
“You know what I mean. Why did you stop Grande from killing me?”
“Did you want her to kill you?”
“I was pretty sure you want me dead. I don’t understand why you didn’t just let her do it; it would have solved both of your problems.” I point out.
Something comes over his features, moving too fast for me to identify it.
Whatever it was, it changes his expression from closed off and indifferent to frustrated confusion.
“I don’t want you dead.” He murmurs, but he sounds confused.
Is he not sure? He can’t be confused about why I would think that – he literally threatened to kill me weeks ago. Twice.
“You could have fooled me.” I mutter, studying the torment coating his handsome features. “I don’t know why you did it, if this was like a bulldog saving its favourite chew toy or something……. But thank you.”
He blinks at me, looking just as lost as I felt.
“I still don’t fucking like you. Or trust you.” I sneer. “But thanks.”
Feeling confused and all sorts of off, my dragon still awake and watching the scene with just as much confusion – only she still had the extreme urge to gut him – I turn away and continue on to the Rubble.
I barely take a step through the archway before people are jumping out at me.
“Surprise!”