Chapter 31
Sylph: An elemental creature that can become invisible to the naked eye. Suffocates its prey by stealing the oxygen from its lungs. Soulless creatures, sylphs are said to sometimes slip into the skins of their victims, desperate to feed on the lingering vestiges of a soul.
THE COMPENDIUM OF HORRORS
My blood was still simmering by the time I got back to Bramble Tower. Dori, Clary, and Benedict were in the sitting room, gathered around the coffee table by the fire, a deck of cards spread between them. The chatter died when I entered, and they looked up at me with enquiring expressions.
“How did the training go?” Dori asked.
“Training was fine,” I bit out.
“O-kay…” Dori shot Benedict a look.
I let out a frustrated growl, threw myself onto the sofa, grabbed a cushion, and screamed into it.
I resurfaced to three faces staring at me.
“That good, huh?” Benedict quipped.
I set the cushion down. “Sterling grabbed me on the way here.”
“What?” they said in unison.
“He threatened me.” I filled them in on the encounter, a prickly heat needling my cheeks at the memory of his hands on me. “I hate him. I fucking hate him so much.”
“We have to report this,” Clary said.
Dori rolled her eyes. “Yeah, because that’ll make a difference.”
She was right. “Reporting him won’t help. I have to deal with him myself.” I needed a weapon. Something small and easy to hide on my person. Something I could use to poke out his pretty eyes—and a glass jar filled with formalin to keep them in.
“Um. Ana…” Clary said. “Why are you smiling like that?”
Shit. I tucked away my murder smile. “I need a weapon. Something small.”
“Only Hunters are allowed weapons on campus,” Clary said. “Ours were taken when we were Unwoven, so we can’t help you.”
“Yes, but…” Benedict sat up. “If it doesn’t look like a weapon…” He jumped up and hurried across the room.
I twisted on the sofa as he ducked into his room.
“I’m intrigued,” Dori said. “Nut?” She held out a bowl of peanuts to me.
I took a handful and shoved them into my mouth, chewing out my frustration.
Benedict emerged a moment later, something clutched in his hand. “Here, you can borrow this.” He handed me a hairpin with a shell design on the end. It was small and delicate, but the pin part was wicked sharp. “It belonged to my mother. It’s one of the few items I have of hers.”
I turned the pin over. I could coat the end in some of the toxin I had. It would only hurt someone if I jabbed it into them hard enough to draw blood. But…it was a keepsake. What if I lost it?
“I can’t accept this.” I tried to hand it back, but he gently covered my hand with his, curling my fingers over the offering.
“My mother is gone,” Benedict said. “She didn’t care enough to stay. If it can keep you safe, I want you to have it. So that you can stay. I want you to stay…”
A lump formed in my throat. “I… Thank you.” I wanted to hug him. Instead, I dropped my gaze. Get a grip, Ana.
“Okay, now that’s settled, how about we play some cards?” Dori said, breaking the strange tension.
“I’m in!” Clary said.
“Yep, me too.” Benedict reclaimed his seat.
Once again, all eyes were on me. I couldn’t allow myself to get too invested in these people. Nightsbridge wasn’t my home, and this trio…I could never be a real friend to them, but there was no denying that in that moment, there was nowhere else I’d rather be.
“What are we playing?”
* * *
I had counseling with Miss Snap first thing the next day.
We’d switched our biweekly sessions to the mornings so we could have breakfast together.
Mandy made the best scones, and our sessions had become the highlight of my week.
Sometimes we just chatted about random things, nothing to do with classes or my feelings, and I’d learned that Miss Snap was an orphan.
Her parents had passed away when she was fourteen, and she’d been forced to live with her aunt, a cruel woman who’d made her life miserable.
Mandy had made it her mission to help other young women like herself. She worked with an orphanage for almost a decade after she turned eighteen, helping children to find new families, while studying to be a counselor. Eventually, she petitioned to be recruited to Nightsbridge.
I feel that the children forced to be here need someone they can talk to about their fears and their doubts. Someone who doesn’t want anything from them. Someone who values them for who they are and not what they can do. I want to be a safe place.
Just like me, she’d chosen to come here. She’d explained that not all the staff here were conscripted. That some had volunteered to work here. Even though I was the only student here by choice, I wasn’t the only supernal here because I wanted to be.
Mandy Snap was a genuinely sweet woman, and I enjoyed our time together. I was eager to get to our session, focused on the building looming ahead of me, so I didn’t register the figures hurrying toward me until it was too late.
It was always quiet on the Main Building grounds before nine in the morning, so no one saw when I was grabbed and hauled off the path and into the bushes.
A hand covered my mouth. More hands on my body holding me tight as I thrashed and kicked—and then suddenly, I was free, crashing to the ground.
I scrambled up—but a blow to the head slammed me back to the earth. My ears rang, and the world swayed.
“Hello, Anamaya, I think it’s time we had a little chat.”
Tamina…
I slowly raised my throbbing head to look up at her and the three Phages surrounding me. I guess it had been too much to hope that she’d simply forget about Ruspin. But after three weeks of no contact, I could be excused for thinking that she had.
“Do your chats usually involve fists?”
Tamina shot one of her companions a glare. “Theo gets a little protective of me, don’t you, love?” Theo bared his silver-capped teeth in a snarl. “But no. We’re not going to hurt you. Consider this a warning.”
“A warning for what? Ruspin? Kind of late for that, don’t you think?”
Her eyes narrowed to slits. “You have no idea who you’re messing with, Onyx.”
My stomach grumbled. “Fine, hurry up and warn me so I can go get breakfast.”
Her left eye twitched, and she clenched her jaw. “You think this is a joke? You think taking him from me is a fucking joke?”
“No. I think you’re a fucking psycho bitch who belongs in a cage.”
She sneered. “You have no idea!”
I slowly pushed myself up and dusted off my uniform. “I think I do.”
A cacophony of emotions flitted across her face. “I want him back.”
“Tough shit.”
She took a step toward me. “You’re going to get him back for me.”
“Um…how about go fuck yourself.”
“You’re going to assert a claim on Ruspin. You made a deal to free him, and so he owes you a debt. You’re going to cash it in by asking him to offer himself to me once more.”
She was delusional. “Why in the world would I do that?”
“Because if you don’t, everyone you care about will suffer.”
Seriously? I laughed. “That’s perfect because the only people I gave a shit about are dead. Everyone else is one-hundred-percent dispensable. So have fun with that.”
A few weeks ago, those words might have been true. Now? A bald-faced lie. But Tamina could never know.
“You think you’re stonehearted?” she hissed. “You think you’re above feelings? Well, we’ll see about that.”
A shiver ran up my spine. “Get a life, Tamina. Better yet, get some psychiatric help.”
I made to shove past her, but Theo grabbed hold of my arm and hauled me back. “You don’t get to disrespect the princess and walk away.”
“Theo?” Tamina said sharply. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to teach this bitch a little humility. I’m going to break her.”
I yanked at my arm, but his grip was steel. He threw me to the ground and covered me with his body.
“Theo!” Tamina cried.
“Get off me!” I bucked, trying to get in a position to roll him off, but he was too large—his limbs in all the wrong places for me to enact the move.
“Stop fighting, and you might even like it,” he said, breath hot on my cheek.
Horrific realization flooded me. I twisted, yanking a hand free to reach for the pin in my hair—but he was knocked off me before I could use it.
I scrabbled to my feet. Tamina was on top of Theo, her fingers curled into claws as they swiped at his face over and over. “Never! Never, never, never!” she screeched, eyes wild, blood-spattered across her face.
“Tamina!” Her cronies tackled her, prying her off her minion.
What the actual fuck? I backed up. She was chaos. They all were chaos. I grabbed my backpack and ran.
* * *
I washed my face and straightened my clothes before seeing Mandy.
My stomach quivered from Theo’s attack—and the knowledge of his disgusting intention.
I would have jabbed that pin into his throat.
Would have killed him. He wouldn’t have succeeded.
Still, it took a few minutes for the horror of what could have happened to leave me.
It wasn’t the first time I’d been attacked, and it wouldn’t be the last, but the kind of violation Theo had intended might have broken me. Tamina had saved me.
I guess the crazy Phage had boundaries. I had to respect that, which left me feeling all kinds of conflicted.
I left the bathroom and hurried to my session with Mandy, determined to put the incident out of my mind because I didn’t want it to dominate my session.
An hour and a half already felt too short.
I rapped on the door then slipped into the room. “Morning.”
Mandy looked up from her desk with a smile that dropped when her eagle eyes zeroed in on the bruise on my jaw.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Tamina and her cronies happened, but I’m fine.”
Her eyes flashed. “This is unacceptable.”
“I can handle her. Don’t worry. Now, please, can we eat? I’m starving.”
She looked ready to argue, then sighed and nodded. “Fine. But we will talk about it.”
I groaned. “Fine.”