15 #2
“You only have to sit next to the instructor,” Calix says. “It’s not dramatic to anyone who doesn’t spend an hour every morning preening their hair.”
“What you fail to mention, dear Cousin,” Sin says, “is that the seat beside the instructor is underneath a perpetual leak and some of our hair tends toward frizzy in any sort of humidity.”
“You haven’t been frizzy a day in your life,” Calix mutters. “In fact, I’d consider your hair rather flat.”
Sin spins around, his mouth open in shock. Claws explode from his nails. “Et tu, Brute?”
I glare at the rows of stairs above us. “What is wrong with both of you?”
“A very long list, Vanessa. Where would I even start?” Sinclair’s claws retract perfectly, all at once, and he doesn’t even flinch from the pain.
Then he joins me on the step beneath his, effectively blocking Calix’s path.
“I enjoy long walks on the beach, rainbows at sunset, and old-fashioneds with extra bourbon. My father died when I was seven, and Queen Sybil made me engage in my first kill the day after my Drowning. And Calix ,” he emphasizes, “well, he’s my first cousin on my mother’s side. ”
I blink at Calix then. Sin’s tunic is pressed and perfectly starched, but Calix’s is wrinkled, his hair messy. He looks as if he shouldn’t be related to Sin at all. “You… you’re a prince?”
Sin laughs before Calix can answer. “Absolutely not. Well, he should be, but his mother—”
“Wore the most horrid perfume,” Calix says quickly. “Can you two move any faster?”
“I thought you didn’t care about being late, Cousin,” Sin says.
“I care about you falling to your death, and since I’m about two seconds away from picking you up and hurling you to the bottom of the stairwell—”
Sin clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Calix, Calix, Calix… whatever will we do with that temper of yours?”
Calix glares at him, but Sin smiles brightly as he slows his steps further. “Besides, even if you didn’t love me as family, it would be illegal to kill me, and the entire world knows how enamored you are with the law.”
“The law,” I echo dumbly.
Sinclair stops me on the second to last step and says, “ Do not expose your wolf to humans. Do not speak court secrets to outside ears. Do not bite humans without direct permission of the regent. Under no circumstance will you ever kill a fellow wolf. These are the laws of the Seven Courts.”
“But I was Bitten without permission,” I argue. Unless… “Wasn’t I?”
“Yes.” Sin and Calix exchange a quick glance—one I would’ve missed pre-transformation.
They’re not telling me something. I wait for them to elaborate, making it clear that I’m not taking another step until they do.
Finally, Sin clears his throat. “Your eyes, Vanessa. If you’d turned into a Delta or an Omega, your survival wouldn’t have been assured.
There is nothing Queen Sybil values more than strength; she pardoned your transformation because of those two beauties alone. ” He gestures to my gaze.
I lean against the wall, mulling over the rest of the laws—mulling over everything that is making my head spin and my heart race—when two kids run up the stairs past us, a boy and a girl with white-blond hair and brown eyes.
Deltas, then. They bow to Sinclair, but they don’t even bother glancing at me.
Or at Calix. When they reach the hallway, I hear their whispers.
“Did you see her? Freak!”
“See her? Did you see him ? Bastard is suspect as hell. I heard his father was a human.…” Their voices drift as they race through the castle. I glance at Calix, expecting him to look away, but he meets my stare. Holds it. Challenging me to ask more.
So I do. “Golden eyes. That makes you a Beta, doesn’t it?”
Sin snorts, Calix glowers, and I grin, proud of standing up for myself. Unfortunately—or maybe fortunately—Calix isn’t as petty as I am. He doesn’t rise to the bait.
“You should train,” he says. “If you’re to protect yourself from threats, you need to learn combat, transformation, astronomy, history.…”
It sounds so close to regular school that I almost smile.
But it isn’t. Dad won’t be sending me off.
Celeste won’t be inside, waiting with an extra caramel iced coffee for me.
I won’t be able to lend her pencils that she’ll lose the same hour she gets them, and we won’t sit in the cafeteria, splitting mediocre pizza and cookies as we scour social media for new pictures of our crushes. Like Max.
The thought of his name hits my chest like a pellet.
Not as painful as Celeste’s—not a bullet.
Just a bruise. A reminder of the life I’ll never have again.
Max is a boy. He woke up in his own bed, and he’ll go to school today.
He doesn’t know it’s my birthday. He doesn’t know Celeste will never make me a mud pie again.
He’s going to move on. And I… I’ll be stuck here forever.
“Fine,” I say. “Take me to class.”
Calix and Sin both lead the way, and I trail after them, leaving the girl I was behind me.