Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
B riony
I screw my eyes shut.
I’m going to split my skull or snap my spine. Either way, I’m going to die. I only made it to the second day.
Except rather than hit the floor, my body stops flying through the air, and instead, it’s yanked violently. And then I’m hanging upside down by the ankle, my left foot caught in the netting.
I hang there, swaying slightly, other students clinging to the net and staring right at me.
Realizing hanging around like this so that some other fucker can come at me and try to kill me, I grit my teeth and pull myself upward, free my foot and start climbing again. Only it’s even harder than it was before, because now, as well as the pain in my ribs, my ankle is throbbing too. When I try to bear weight on it, I have to chomp down hard on my lip to stop myself from crying out.
I climb the rest of the net on my knees, the measly tracksuit doing nothing to protect my skin from the harsh rope, my legs and hands sore with burns by the time I reach the top.
The brunette is long gone – obviously not bothered about watching me die.
I straddle the top of the net and catch my breath. From up here, I can see the end of the course, people crossing the line and collapsing in heaps, the gruesome twosome making a note of their times.
If I peer back in the other direction, the one I’ve come from, I realize I’m right at the back of the group now. Only a few stragglers behind me.
I swing my leg over the top of the net and start my slow descent. There isn’t any point in hurrying and anyway it hurts too much. Then I limp the final four hundred meters, towards the finish line.
The two twins watch me come, making no effort to help me and grunting my time at me as I finally stumble over the line.
“If you’re injured, get yourself to the infirmary,” one of them yells at me as I collapse down on the cold ground. “You need to be ready for this afternoon’s assignment.”
I don’t move. I can’t, not yet anyway.
“Did you hear me?!”
“Yes, I heard you,” I mumble. “I’m going.”
“Sir!” he yells. “Yes, I heard you, Sir !”
I roll my head to the side and stare over at him. He’s glowering at me, his two beady eyes bulging. “Yes, I heard you, Sir,” I mumble, as I roll up onto my feet and hobble away.
I don’t have that map with me so I have no idea where the infirmary would be. Instead, I limp in the direction of my room. I can bandage my ankle myself with one of my shirts and run my injured fingers under the tap; I don’t need any help.
I’m halfway across a courtyard with an ancient oak towering in its center, its heavy boughs sprawling over the cobbled stones, when someone calls out my name.
“Briony!” Fly comes jogging towards me. He’s already changed out of the tracksuit and into the actual academy uniform.
“What happened to you, Cupcake? I waited ages. They sent me away in the end. I was just coming to find you.”
I point to my leg, pulling up my pants to show him a now purple and swollen ankle. We both wince.
“Ouch! Did you trip over?”
“Nope,” I say, “some girl tried to push me to my death.”
“Ahhh,” he says, eyes flicking from side to side in their sockets. “Figures.”
“It does?” I say. “I know this place is meant to be brutal. But … I don’t know … I didn’t figure …”
“They’d come for you?” Fly wraps my arm around his shoulder, encouraging me to lean my weight against him before we start walking together. It’s a little awkward. He’s way taller than I am and is forced to crouch low to make this work, but I appreciate the help.
“Well, yeah.”
“They come for everyone, Cupcake.”
He’s right. They came for Amelia, didn’t they?
Maybe it’s inevitable they’d come for me too. I just didn’t expect it to happen quite so quickly. I need to be a hell of a lot smarter, especially about the people I trust.
“Plus,” he adds, “you’ve given them more reasons than others.”
“I have?” I say, racking my brains to understand what those reasons could be. Sure, there’s Amelia but that girl couldn’t know about that. I was last back to the academy yesterday morning. And I missed out on a beating by hiding out in a tree. Can that really be the reason?
“Beaufort Lincoln.”
“Huh?”
“The hot shadow weaver who picked you to be his and his brothers’ thrall yesterday.”
I dig my good heel into the cobbles and lean all my weight on Fly, forcing him to stop.
“Could you speak English, please?”
“Seriously, Cupcake?” he says, examining my face. “You telling me you don’t know about this stuff? You knew about the first night.”
“I know some stuff,” I say cryptically, “not all of it, obviously.”
“Obviously,” he says, rolling his eyes, then starts up the walking again. “The most powerful shadow weaver siblings are given the privilege of picking a thrall for their time at the academy.”
“And what is a thrall exactly?” I ask, my stomach churning. I have a bad feeling about this. I already knew this place was trouble. Perhaps I had no idea just how much.
“A thrall is like a servant, I guess. Someone who serves and obeys those who have chosen them.”
“What the hell?” I snap. “Then why did that girl nearly kill me?”
“Because in return for your …” his eyes dart my way, “service, the siblings will offer you protection. If you’re a thrall, no one else at the academy can touch you. You’re safe.”
“Siblings?” I ask. “That shadow weaver has brothers and sisters here?”
“Two brothers. But not regular brothers – not brothers by blood. Brothers by bond. Shadow weavers who are bound to each other by the forces of fate for the entirety of their lives.”
“What?” I say. I thought I knew everything I needed to know about shadow weavers. Seems I was wrong.
“Please tell me you know about bonds.” I hesitate, then shake my head. “I mean, I don’t understand it exactly. I’m not a shadow weaver, myself.” He draws his hand down his body. “Obviously. But from what I understand, it’s when individuals find their other parts.”
“Other parts?”
“Like a soul mate I guess. Although, it’s not necessarily romantic,” he muses, “or sexual. Although I’m gathering sometimes it can be that way.”
“But what does it mean?”
“It means they’re linked together for life. Their magic becomes bound together.”
“And these other two boys are bound to Beaufort Lincoln? Are they happy about it?”
Fly laughs. “I have no idea, Cupcake. But considering they’re three of the strongest shadow weavers the realm has seen, I doubt they care too much.” He lowers his voice and adopts a mysterious tone. “They call them the Princes.”
“Not obnoxious at all,” I sniff, then glance towards my new friend. “What kind of service?” I ask next, my stomach turning sour.
Fly doesn’t answer, which tells me everything I need to know.
“Well,” I say with a frown, “I don’t care who they are or how powerful they may be, there’s no way in hell I’m being their thrall.”