Chapter Twenty-One Edith
The cold air stings as Amund leads me outside and lets go of my hand. My eyes fly open. Relief washes over me as I look around the abandoned seer campus.
I turn to Amund, laughing. “It worked.”
“It did,” he says, the words thick.
Guilt pulls my stomach. I have no idea what he had to face for us to leave. If it’s anything like mine, it couldn’t have been easy. Even if it meant being trapped there forever, I don’t know if I could’ve brought myself to open that door again.
But he was able to face his.
I look up at Amund, searching his face. “Thank you.”
A muscle in his jaw ticks. “It’s nothing.”
He’s quiet, less hostile than before. He just seems… sad.
Amund starts walking toward the central campus. “I’ll take you back to your dorm.”
Sighing, I join him. “Fine.”
Amund still must think I’m the killer, but I don’t want to be alone right now. The real killer might be following me. Why else would a berserkr chase me through the seer school? I didn’t find Emilía, but at least now I know I didn’t kill her.
Even if her killer could be after me now.
Yawning, I walk down the hallway on Monday, heading for Heightened Senses class.
After I barely slept all weekend, my senses are anything but heightened.
I missed my alarm—and my first class of the day.
Whenever I closed my eyes this weekend, I was back in the crumbling halls of the seer school, running from the wolf.
Except in my nightmares, the wolf was my dad.
I grip my backpack tighter. Whoever the killer is, they’re a berserkr too. Which means they should be taking Heightened Senses as well. When I finally reach the classroom, I stare at the door handle. The person who actually chased me through the seer school is probably sitting inside.
And I won’t know which one it is.
I smooth my skirt out along with my resolve. I have to find out who the killer is. Emilía’s death could just be the beginning. Which means we’re all in danger.
Gathering my courage, I head inside.
Maeve stands at the board, drawing a diagram of an ear.
Half the classroom is packed with berserkir, but the other half is all hunters.
I take a deep breath, inhaling the scents in the room—wait.
That scent. The one from Emilía’s bed is definitely here.
But I can’t tell who it belongs to. There are too many students.
I search the rows of berserkir faces. Emilía’s boyfriend is here somewhere. And possibly her killer.
I’m getting closer.
When I breathe in again, all I can smell is the hunters’ leathers.
Leather… isn’t that made from animal skin?
And there are so many hunters. On this isolated campus, where are they getting such a supply?
It couldn’t be… berserkr, could it? I shudder at the thought.
If that is the case, no wonder the berserkir hate them so much.
Tala waves me down. “Over here. I saved you a seat.”
As I pass Amund, I can’t help but remember being stuck with him on Saturday. I would still be trapped in the seer school if it weren’t for him. Valerie is sitting beside Amund, leaning back in her chair with her legs crossed. Dorian, the hunter who was bullying Nils, eyes me as I walk by.
I take the seat next to Tala in the back of the classroom.
The musky scent is even stronger than before. But there are countless berserkr boys. Her boyfriend could be any of them. I nibble on my nails.
If only I could isolate the scent—but I still have no idea how to do that.
I’ve been at Skallagrim for almost a week and haven’t made any progress.
I can’t control my transformation, let alone my heightened senses.
Except for my hearing. The sound of the hunters’ laughter is too loud in my ears, grating on my nerves.
I drum my fingers along the table. Jim and Patricia will be arriving in just under four weeks.
“We’ll be going over the auditory senses today,” Maeve says.
Dorian and some of the other hunters make a point of talking loudly, ignoring Maeve. “Yeah man, I totally kicked Amund’s ass in combat training today.”
I glance over at Amund, but he doesn’t seem injured.
“Keep telling yourself that, Dorian.” Valerie rolls her eyes. “Remember when I wiped the floor with you last week?” A smile slowly spreads across her face. “If you’ve already forgotten, I’m happy to remind you.”
Maeve clears her throat. “Quiet down, please.”
“Wait until Wednesday,” Dorian says, ignoring her. “I really won’t hold back. I’m going to humiliate both—”
Isaac gives a low growl. “Hey, Teach is trying to talk. Why don’t you shut up already?”
“Careful, Dorian,” Valerie says, grinning. “Wouldn’t want him to go wild on you.”
Tala slams her hand down on the table, startling me. Valerie clearly struck a nerve. I’ve never seen Tala get so worked up before. She shoots up from her chair, approaching where Valerie sits. “What did you just say?”
“That’s enough,” Maeve says, trying to regain control of the situation. She’s more annoyed than I’ve ever seen her.
Valerie rises, her chair scraping across the floor. She leans over the desk and brings her face closer to Tala’s. “I said I wouldn’t want one of you to go wild.” She repeats it slowly, her gaze never leaving Tala.
“Don’t you dare joke about that,” Tala says through gritted teeth.
Valerie arches an eyebrow. “Why shouldn’t I?”
They face off in the middle of the classroom.
As Tala and Valerie glare at each other, I can’t tell if they’d rather kiss or kill each other.
No one gets between them. Even Amund is watching the exchange without a word.
Momentarily, our eyes meet, but I look away quickly.
“I said enough,” Maeve tries again, but no one is paying attention to her anymore. Keeping the peace in a roomful of sworn enemies is even harder than teaching a bunch of bored high school students.
Tala snarls, showing off her fangs.
“Better calm down before you kill someone,” Valerie says, reaching for her dagger.
“Like you’re any different,” Tala shoots back. “A hunter killed my best friend.”
Valerie scowls at her. “We protect people.”
“Oh, is that what you tell yourself?” Tala scoffs.
“At least when we kill someone, it’s usually an accident.
Do you know why most berserkir go wild? Because of the guilt.
The pain from mistakenly killing. It’s easier to live as a wild animal than face what they’ve done.
But hunters?” Tala leans forward, her nose practically brushing Valerie’s.
“You choose to spend your lives hunting us. Killing us. So you tell me: Which is worse?”
By the time Tala finishes, she’s breathing hard.
Now Valerie looks bothered. “Yeah, well, my entire fucking family is dead because of a berserkr,” she says tightly. “But I’m so sorry about your best friend, Tala.”
The whole room goes quiet.
Maeve shouts, “Enough!”
“Whatever,” Tala mutters as she returns to her seat.
Valerie sits but leaves her dagger lying on the table like a promise.
“Now then,” Maeve says. “Like I was saying, today we’ll be going over enhanced auditory senses.
Some of you seriously need to work on your listening skills.
” She starts labeling the diagram of the outer, middle, and inner ear.
“This is what a human ear looks like, but for berserkir, it’s a bit different.
This part is more like what you’d find on an animal, which gives us our heightened hearing. ”
What was that all about? I write on my notebook before sliding it over to Tala.
She sighs and writes back, My best friend Adrian went wild. He was killed by a hunter.
Oh. Tala always seems so cool and collected and in control. It never occurred to me she could be faking it too. I always try to act like everything is okay, even when it isn’t. Maybe I have more in common with Tala than I realized.
“Wolves, boars, and bears all have much better hearing than any human,” Maeve continues. “Boars can hear a whisper a hundred yards away, while bears have increased sensitivity and frequency range. Wolves, however, have the best of all.”
Valerie is still fuming, and Amund is watching me. His attention sends a zing shooting through me, but I can’t let myself get distracted. His presence is a reminder of how important it is I figure out who is responsible for Emilía’s death. Unless I find the real killer, Amund is going to hunt me.
That is, if the killer doesn’t get me first.
My nose twitches, but I’m no closer to pinpointing the scent than I was earlier.
I raise my hand. “What about smell? How do you control that?”
“That was last month’s lesson,” Maeve says. “I’m sure Tala will be more than happy to share her notes with you.”
Tala starts flipping through her notebook until reaching a page with Olfactory System written across the top. She slides it across the desk. “Here.”
“Thanks,” I say, reading the page as quickly as I can.
Olfactory System
Smell is essential for animal survival. Animals use smell to:
· Find food (and prey)
· Detect danger
· Mark territory and ID each other
That last one must be what I smelled in Emilía’s room. I keep reading, hoping I can find out how to identify who the scent belongs to.
Animal vs. human
Animals can detect odors humans can’t + smell things from farther away.
· Wolves have 200m olfactory cells, giving them 100x stronger sense of smell.
· Bears have best sense of smell of ANY animal (ugh), 2000x stronger than human. Snouts contain billions of receptors (I can only imagine).
Okay, but what about berserkir? So far all of this seems focused on the animals.
Wait. Here.
Berserkr senses are most heightened while transformed but still have better senses than most humans (and hunters). They can:
· Detect minute traces of scents
· Isolate smells to significant degree
· ID prey, pack, potential threats
Isolate smells? That sounds exactly like what I need to do.
I can’t transform—I won’t—but hopefully my sense of smell will still be good enough.
I keep reading.