20. Elyssa
ELYSSA
T he sound of the ticking clock was driving me mad. For some reason, it was the only thing I was capable of focusing on. Not the words streaming out of Professor McKinley’s mouth, or the incessant chatter of the girls in front of me, but that damn, loud clock.
This was my last class of the day and I hadn’t been able to focus on anything since I woke up this morning. The only thing on my mind was what happened between Konstantin and me last night. After he’d said what he said, I was left voiceless. I couldn’t speak, could barely breathe properly. I hated that his words resonated with me the way they did. Hated how true they were for me too.
But above all else, I hated how much I wanted to kiss him again.
And I was going to do it, too. Last night, I was about to get on the tip of my toes and join our lips again.
Thankfully, right before I could bury myself deeper into that mess, footsteps echoed from further inside the Church and his friend Rhodes came down from the loft, looking confused when he took in the state we were in.
I left before he could ask any questions, all but running to my room before night could settle.
My phone was blowing up with texts from my friends asking what the deal was with Konstantin and how I was feeling after everything that happened, but I only answered those second questions, promptly ignoring the ones about the Russians. Mia had gotten so curious that I’d had to turn my cell off to stop the incessant vibrations from her texts.
Today I’d been running from them, too. I spent all day trying to evade their questioning, so much so that I hadn't eaten more than a granola bar for breakfast and spent lunch hiding in the library.
But it wasn’t just my friends I was running from, Konstantin too. I couldn’t stand the thought of running into him and seeing his usual condescending, cold gaze settle upon me. Not after knowing what it felt like to have it burning into my soul.
As soon as the teacher dismissed us, I hightailed it out of the class. It was unusual for me, I was used to being the last one out, always lingering near the professor’s desk to ask questions, but not today.
My stomach was rumbling and I resigned myself to the truth, which was that I would not be able to get out of dinner tonight. I quite literally needed to eat because one granola bar in twenty-four hours would not cut it.
But I could hide in my room until dinner.
Entering the staircase leading up to my dorm, I heard the double doors fall shut behind me. I was lost in thought, thinking of last night at the Church when something hard bumped into me, causing me to fall on the hardwood ground and most likely bruise my knees in the process. My things got scattered all over the floor and of course, the person I had bumped into didn’t bother to stop and help me. When I looked up, I immediately understood why.
Luca Benetti stood there, looking down at me like my mere presence was intolerable to him.
“Watch where you’re going, scum.”
I gritted my teeth and reached for the papers I had dropped but that son of a bitch stepped on the one I went for, effectively pinning it to the ground.
I was fuming inside, and the fact that I couldn’t do or say shit to him without enduring consequences from my family was making my blood simmer.
The Benettis were royalty in our circle; Luca’s father was capo di tutti i capi, the boss of all bosses. He made my grandfather look like a shoe shiner. My family did everything to stay in the Benettis’ good graces and, last summer, they finally succeeded. There had been talk of not one, but two of my cousins marrying into their family.
Viola to Atticus, Luca’s older brother and future capo, and Mia… to Luca.
She hated bringing that up, especially since nothing was set in stone yet, they were only speculations. She still had that idea in mind that Dominik would eventually get his head out of his ass and realize he wanted her.
But Luca wasn’t aware of her silly daydreams, and he liked to act like she was already his.
A feminine voice ringing through the staircase brought me back to reality.
“Didn’t your mother teach you basic manners, bitch?” The words were said with so much venom I thought they came from me at first. After all, I loved calling grown men bitches.
But no, when Luca turned around, I saw who they belonged to.
Long brown hair fell around her shoulders, luscious and soft-looking. She didn’t bother with the tie of her uniform and her dress shirt wasn’t tucked in, mostly because she, just like the rest of her siblings, couldn’t care less about protocol or rules.
She was, after all, a Korolov.
Dinara stood there, glaring daggers at Luca, and I swear to God that I saw him gulp.
She might have been pint-sized and cute as a button, but Dinara Korolova was not someone you wanted to fuck with. Part of it was because she had scary older brothers, but most of it was because she was fucking crazy herself. Freshman year, she fought with a girl and bit off her nose before spitting it out on that girl’s friend.
The reason for that? The girl had called her sister Katarina a frigid bitch.
She took one step toward Luca and produced a small knife from her waistband. She didn’t hesitate once and started digging it softly against Luca’s stomach, smiling sweetly at him.
“You’re gonna pick up her stuff, then you’re gonna run off to wherever you came from. Understand me, daragoi ?”
Her voice was so soft but I could see she pushed the knife harder against Luca’s shirt, so much so that one small droplet of blood appeared on the pressed white fabric. He looked like he was seconds away from shitting himself. I couldn’t help the smile that grew on my face at the sight.
Without a word, he cast me one last glare, before he did as told and he and his posse turned around, opening the doors leading to the main hall to disappear in the sea of students.
Dinara was looking in that direction too, shaking her head in disgust, before she turned towards me. “You know, it’s my family they call savages but these guys are so much worse.”
Don’t I know it…
Then, to my surprise, she extended her hand towards me, and I took it, suddenly remembering I was still lying on the floor.
When we came face to face, she blatantly stared at me, her head tilting to the side in wonder.
“Thank you,” I decided to say when she still wouldn’t speak. Her eyes had been roaming my body, like she was analyzing every inch of me, but they came back up to meet mine when I spoke.
A small smile stretched her lips and she shrugged. “Any time. I’m always up to putting the fear of God into little pissants like Luca Benetti.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at that.
“Plus, I wanted to see you in the flesh.”
“Me?” I frowned. “Why?”
Dinara smirked, her fingers coming up to play with a strand of my hair. “I wanted to see the girl who put weed in my brother’s lunch in person. Crazy that after two years here, this is the first time we run into each other.”
I swallowed thickly, not expecting her to have known about the weed accident. Still, I didn’t want my discomfort to show; something told me she wouldn’t receive it well. After all, Korolovs only respected two things: strength and loyalty.
I had already proven I wasn’t very loyal when it came to her brother and putting drugs in his stuff when I knew there would be a search, so all that was left was strength.
“Well, I like my nose attached to my face so I tend to avoid you.”
Her eyes widened in surprise, clearly not expecting my retort, before she snorted a laugh. I couldn’t help the small smile taking over my lips; Dinara Korolova’s laughter was pretty infectious.
“Girl, everybody’s always bringing that up like I ate the damn thing. I spat it out as soon as it hit my tongue.”
I couldn’t believe the conversation we were having.
“It had no business hitting your tongue in the first place.”
She rolled her eyes, and fuck but she reminded me so much of Konstantin when she did that.
“Whatever, you Americans always act shocked for the most random things.”
It was my time to laugh because that girl was nothing like what I expected, but I had to admit I was pleasantly surprised so far.
“So tell me, Elyssa, what are your intentions with my brother?”
The smile fell right off my face and I frowned; my throat felt dry all of a sudden.
“You tricked him, yet you’re still alive. I mean, Korolov men do not go after women, they usually send me instead, but he didn’t even do that. He lied to my mother telling her the drugs were his just to avoid putting you on her radar, and I had to endure my brother Mikhail bitching about never cleaning up Konstantin’s mess again all night yesterday.” She took a step towards me but I didn’t budge. “So tell me, little Bianchi, what’s so special about you that he doesn’t want anything happening to you?”
I swallowed but, still, my gaze didn’t waver from hers. I couldn’t show weakness in front of her or anyone in her family.
Just as I was about to deny everything, a deep voice echoed from behind us. My breath caught in my throat when Konstantin appeared right behind his baby sister.
“Dinara. What are you doing?”
A little devilish smile spread on her face and she winked at me before spinning around and facing him. “Hey, dorogoy brat .”
Konstantin’s eyes settled on me for a beat and I did my best not to show how much that affected me. When he broke his stare to look at his sister instead, a stream of Russian words easily flowing from his mouth, I took that as my cue to leave.
I turned around, running up the stairs and towards my room. I couldn't resist peeking over my shoulder at him, though, and when I saw that his eyes were already on me, heat gathered in the pit of my stomach.
I was seriously fucked.
“So you’re telling me nothing happened between you and Konstantin after he all but kidnapped you?” Mia eyed me curiously, her blue eyes narrowed into slits.
I simply shrugged.
“Nope. I mean, I thanked him and he called me stupid for venturing through the woods alone when I knew people in the village hated us.”
“And he didn’t even say anything about the drugs?”
“No,” I lied.
“I never know what to think with these boys,” Briar confessed, putting her fork down. “He spent the first two years here trying to intimidate you, glare and take jabs at you, but then he goes and freaking…” She looked around, making sure nobody could hear her. “... Kills someone for you.”
My throat became a little tighter at that, not knowing what to say. Even I had trouble understanding what went on in Konstantin’s brain most days. Though Briar didn’t have all the information. She didn’t know how much time we had spent together the last few days. It felt like so much time and yet not enough at the same time. I hated how confusing everything was these days.
Last year, or hell, even just a few weeks ago, things were more simple for me. There was only black and white, good and bad, Konstantin’s craziness and me being dumb enough to be blackmailed by him.
But then he had to go and put my mind in shambles. He had to fucking touch me and make me forget about why I hated him in the first place. He fucking killed someone who was out to harm me, protected me from his mother’s wrath, and all that just didn’t correlate with the version of him I thought I knew.
A part of me hated admitting to myself that there was more to Konstantin Korolov than met the eye.
“I think maybe we should address the other elephant in the room,” Mia changed the subject, sensing I was getting uncomfortable. “There might be a fucking war brewing between the Village and the Academy.”
“I’m not worried about that. I mean you saw how Royal and Mikhail wiped the floor with those two dumbos yesterday.” Briar widened her eyes for emphasis. “And let’s not talk about what Konstantin did to their little leader.”
“I feel kinda bad though.”
The words flew out of my mouth before I could think them through. Both my best friend’s and cousin’s eyes were on me. Sinem hadn’t joined us tonight, she’d preferred staying in her dorm to recuperate. She didn’t handle yesterday’s scene well. I mean, I’m pretty sure Mia barfed after coming back to her dorm, and Briar had looked two seconds away from fainting, but still. All three of us were used to violence in some ways. None of us were strangers to witnessing men in our families come back home late with bloody clothes.
Lord knew Mia and I had had to patch up Lorenzo enough times that blood didn’t even faze us anymore.
“You feel bad? For that bastard who tried sexually assaulting you and mistook you for a punching ball?”
“Obviously not.” I rolled my eyes. “But I do feel bad for the one whose sister was taken.”
I bit my lip, staring at my plate. I wasn’t so hungry anymore.
“I mean, come on, guys. I’d probably go out of my mind if this happened to one of you. He looked so distraught.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Briar looked down. “But that’s not an excuse for what they tried doing to us. We didn’t do anything to his sister. Or her friend.”
“If anything, I feel bad for them. Knowing they’re dead and the Academy is hiding their bodies because they’re afraid of losing funding from our parents.”
I hummed, my fingers tracing the wood lines on the table.
“And Old Berthie saying this wasn’t the first time it happened too.”
Something clicked in my brain. Curiosity, or maybe the need to make myself useful. I thought about that damn journal again, the one I left in the secret room.
“I tried looking that up last night but couldn’t find anything,” Briar confessed. She too was done with her food, if the way she tossed it around in her plate was any indication.
“You think Berthie lied about that?” Mia asked and I bit my lip, keeping myself from answering.
Briar only shrugged, looking tired. “No idea. You know the Academy, you know their resources. They could have made any article covering it disappear for all we know.”
My cousin visibly shuddered. “Yeah well, I think it’s just another one of the school’s mysteries. Better left uncovered.”
But that didn’t sit well with me. I kept on replaying Old Berthie’s facial expression in my head. The fear and sorrow in her eyes. I knew in my gut that girls would only keep disappearing, turning up dead in our woods.
I had to put my hands back on that journal. Tonight.