CHAPTER 11
The center of Thorne Hudson’s attention was a very bad place to be.
Professor Seacrest hadn’t even batted an eye when he’d ordered me to leave the arena with him. It was like the warlock had jurisdiction at this school beyond that of even a professor. I knew he was Head Prefect and all, but this kind of power far surpassed that.
The minute we were alone in the hallway, he threw over his shoulder, “Why didn’t you shadewalk when that fireball was coming at you?”
Caught off guard by the abrupt question, I slowed, only to pick up the pace again when he didn’t stop, his long strides nearly impossible to keep up with.
When I didn’t respond quickly enough, he bit out, “Answer the question.”
Despite how nervous I was to be alone with him, my eyes narrowed on his broad back.
He might intimidate me, especially after that astounding demonstration, but I’d already been pushed around enough for one day.
So instead of giving him a satisfactory answer, I simply replied, “I didn’t think of it. ”
His shoulders noticeably tensed at that, a sure sign of his disapproval. We were certainly getting off to a great start. At this rate, we’d be best buds in no time.
Not.
Whatever his title at this school was, whatever notoriety I could gain by having him as my mentor, I had no intention of sucking up to him like everyone else.
There was a volatile history between us, and despite the guilt that continued to haunt me, I wouldn’t allow a Hudson to treat me like a doormat.
We walked in silence for a charged beat, then he said, “Not doing anything made you look weak.”
“I’ll keep that in mind for next time,” slipped out before I could catch it.
His entire body went rigid, and I slowed again, certain I’d gone too far. It was one thing to give him evasive answers, but ones dripping with sarcasm? Bad idea. Very bad idea.
This was Thorne freaking Hudson. What was I thinking?
For the next several minutes, neither of us said a word.
Every time it was on the tip of my tongue to ask him where we were going, I forced the words back down.
He was piping mad, his body fully charged with electricity like a loaded battery.
One misstep, and he could turn that deadly energy on me, pactum by damned.
Not wanting to push my luck, I silently followed him down hallway after hallway like an obedient little shadow, a shadow that he seemed to have completely forgotten about.
A few minutes later, we entered the dormitory building, and my nerves started to fray. Where the hell was he taking me? To his room?
Sure enough, he headed straight for the wing reserved for third years. Right before stepping over the threshold, I came to a dead halt.
Thorne finally slowed, casting me an impatient look over his shoulder. “What are you doing?”
“First years aren’t allowed in Sapphire Wing,” I said in a way that silently communicated he should already know this. I just couldn’t seem to help myself.
“They are if I say they are,” he replied in an annoyingly perfunctory way, not at all snotty like the words would suggest. “I’m your mentor now, so where I go, you go.”
Clearly done with the discussion, he faced forward and took off again, leaving me scrambling to catch up.
I’d been here once before during the campus tour with Professor Birch, but she’d explicitly told us that first years couldn’t enter upperclassmen wings under any circumstances.
Guess that rule didn’t apply when I was with the almighty Thorne Hudson.
Still, I felt more than a little uncomfortable being in a restricted area.
I’d always been a rule follower. Well, almost always.
But the one time I’d dared to break the rules had ended in disaster, so I didn’t plan on breaking any more anytime soon.
Being in the third year wing felt too much like crossing a line, and that feeling worsened with the knowledge that I was doing it with Thorne.
He was my mentor, but we were alone and heading toward his room. Everything about this situation spelled disaster.
I should leave before something awful happened, before he found a way around that pactum and killed me without any witnesses.
The dorms were empty this time of day. We were utterly alone.
Alone. Would he kill me swiftly or draw out his revenge with a little torture?
He could torture me for hours, and no one would hear my screams.
Thoroughly convinced now that I was walking to my death, I nearly jumped out of my skin when Thorne abruptly stopped. He started to turn, and I went poker straight, the darkness within me stirring at my anxious state.
Use meee.
Yeah, right. Even if I finally allowed the darkness to defend me, speed wasn’t on my side. A single lightning bolt from Thorne could have me down faster than I could think, let alone act. No, in a stand-off fight, magic that could travel at the speed of light would always win.
Knowing that, I pushed the darkness back down and braced for whatever Thorne had in store for me.
But as he turned, he only did so halfway.
Without even looking at me, he lifted a hand and muttered something under his breath, so low that I couldn’t hear it.
The sound of a lock scraping pricked my ears, followed by the slight creak of a door opening.
One step, and he disappeared inside . . .
His dorm room.
Oh.
I blinked a few times, trying to convince myself that this wasn’t a trick to lure me inside. He hadn’t killed me yet, so maybe . . .
Maybe his room was protected by a sound-blocking spell, which would ensure no one heard my screams.
Frustrated with my paranoia, I huffed and took a step forward.
As I did, Thorne emerged from his room again, this time with a huge bird on his shoulder.
At the sight of me, the hawk screeched and flapped its massive wings.
I stiffened again, suddenly aware that I’d made a grave mistake.
Thorne had sworn a pactum with me, but his familiar hadn’t.
The bird of prey might not be able to kill me faster than I could blink, but he could do some irreparable damage, like peck and scratch out my eyes.
Imagining how painful that would be, I warily stared at the agitated hawk, certain Thorne was about to unleash him on me. The bird stared right back, its deep yellow eyes fixed on me like I was his next meal.
“Settle, Comet,” Thorne told his familiar before securing the door with another muttered spell and wave of his hand. The bird protested with another shriek, yet he immediately pulled his wings in, his eyes all but daring me to try anything.
I stopped breathing when Thorne turned to walk back down the hall toward me, the addition of that blasted bird making him look like a Viking pirate god—if such a being existed.
Well, he does now. I was gawking right at him like a tiny schoolgirl about to pee herself.
He stalked down the center of the hallway like royalty, looking for all the world like he didn’t see me.
Certain he was going to plow me right over, I stepped sideways.
But not enough.
His arm brushed mine, and—zap!—a startling amount of energy shot from him and into me.
A sharp pop announced the exchange, the electrical transference making all the hair on my body stand on end.
As a startled gasp escaped me, I could have sworn he made a noise as well, something that sounded a lot like a scoff.
Upset by the unwanted burst of energy, I snapped before I could check myself, “Stop doing that.”
“Doing what?” he tossed back without even slowing.
The hawk swiveled on his perch to face backwards, those penetrating eyes watching me like a—well, a hawk, as I turned to storm after them. “You know what. Stop zapping me.”
“Stay out of my way, and you won’t get zapped.”
Why, that infuriating, egotistical—
“The pactum might consider that intentional harm, you know.”
Comet shifted his feet as the line of Thorne’s shoulders went rigid. Guess he didn’t like being reminded of our pactum. Too bad. After a tense beat, Thorne rumbled back, “If I try to harm you, there won’t be any ‘mights’ about it.”
My throat closed. Okay, that sounded way too much like a threat. Or a promise. Time to shut my mouth before I angered him further.
Deciding not to ask him if there was a point to this little fieldtrip, I lapsed into silence once more. We exited the building but from the back this time, then climbed a steep stone pathway that led us away from the school and toward a grassy glen. Once again, no one was around but us.
It was no longer raining, but the sky was still glum, a layer of thick gray clouds snuffing out the sun.
Wisps of fog clung to the wide open field, growing thicker near the edges where the trees met.
The woods were dark, and as I stared at them, a foreboding chill crept up my spine, reminding me of what had happened during my Initiation Trial.
Only one student had died so far, but my intuition warned me that he wouldn’t be the last. Whether by the hand of future trials or fellow students, the occupants of this school would be visited by death again. I could only pray he wouldn’t be visiting me any time soon.
Distracted by my morbid thoughts, the sound of flapping wings startled me. I jerked my eyes to Thorne again just as Comet launched off his forearm and into the sky. The hawk climbed higher and higher, shooting above us until he was a tiny speck.
Thorne watched him go before saying, “I didn’t want him caught in the storm earlier.”
Realizing he was giving me an explanation for why we were out here, I simply nodded.