CHAPTER 12 #3
Thorne moved. Lightning quick, he grabbed Blaze’s shirt collar and yanked him close before saying in a deadly rumble, “Your foul mouth is going to be the end of you, first year. Spout off like that again, and I’ll become your worst enemy.
Now get out of my face before I teach you a lesson you won’t soon forget. ”
He dropped his hands back to his sides, but his body remained rigid, prepared to fight. Blaze was equally tense, his chest furiously heaving from being publicly dressed down by the Head Prefect. He glared at Thorne for a solid beat, then must have finally realized how precarious his situation was.
His eyes flicked over the room, noticing that a crowd had formed, drawn to the possibility of an altercation. They looked eager, excited to witness a brawl between the Head Prefect and a first year. There was no doubt in my mind who they thought would win.
When I glanced back at Blaze, I found his attention now fixed on me. Instead of cowering at his hateful look, I returned it with equal intensity, channeling all the gall I felt at his lewd “sucking dick” comment.
He curled his lip at me, defeated for the moment but not done with me by a long shot.
Without another word, he brushed past us and stormed from the infirmary.
When the doors closed behind him, our audience continued to linger, staring at us with open curiosity.
I could practically hear their swirling, invasive thoughts.
Was Thorne protecting me?
Was I sucking his dick?
The silent speculation made heat crawl up my neck. Thorne ignored them, resuming his course as if nothing had happened.
“I need a bottle of Sano, Dr. Haywood,” he said upon spotting the doctor who’d practically shoved the pungent elixir down my throat a week ago. The middle-aged woman with graying brown hair brightened at the sight of him, but her smile slipped when she saw me.
“For her?” she asked, her lips puckering in disapproval.
“Does it matter?” Thorne rebutted, and the woman blinked at him in surprise.
“No, of course not, Mr. Hudson. I’ll get that bottle for you right away.”
She hurried to do his bidding, and I stared after her, more than a little disturbed by how quickly she’d deferred to him. They truly did treat him like royalty around here, a fact that annoyed me but would make Gran absolutely livid.
The Hudsons aren’t royalty, she would say. They stole our crown from us, those backstabbing traitors.
Even so, I couldn’t reinstate our position in the community by demanding special treatment.
I might have hated how Thorne had spoken to me earlier, but he hadn’t been wrong.
I wasn’t special here. If I wanted to be treated with the respect given to the Mayweather family for centuries, the respect they’d since lost, then I’d have to fight for it.
But earning anyone’s respect around here was proving to be harder than I could have imagined. After the chaos I’d just unleashed, I doubted even Professor Holt would look at me with kindness anymore.
Dr. Haywood quickly returned and handed Thorne a dark blue bottle. “Do you need help with the dosage?”
“No, I’ve got it, Dr. Haywood. Thank you,” he replied, earning himself another smile. A smile that soured again when she looked at me before moving to tend another student. “You sure have a lot of enemies,” he said the moment she left us, turning to head down the aisle.
You know why, I wanted to snap at him. Instead, I muttered, “Guess that makes me a special snowflake.”
A sound left him, a scoff that couldn’t hide his amusement. Look at me making my mentor laugh. Miracles did happen.
When he stopped by an empty cubicle, waiting for me to join him, I suddenly realized what was about to happen. Um, nope. We weren’t doing this again.
“You don’t have to help me,” I told him, reaching for the bottle he held. “I’m very familiar with Sano and know how to administer the right dosage.”
“Tough,” he replied, holding the bottle up just out of reach. “First years aren’t allowed to take potions without supervision, including Sano.”
I dropped my arm, frustration pricking my chest. “Seriously? I’m in the infirmary surrounded by doctors.”
He didn’t respond, his resolute expression saying it all. Get your butt in here or you’ll be dragged.
I dug my nails into my palms, narrowing my eyes to slits.
He didn’t even blink, his self assurance maddening.
Not wanting to make yet another embarrassing scene, I stalked into the cubicle and rigidly sat on the bed’s edge.
He sauntered in after me rather slowly, undoubtedly at my expense.
He was enjoying this. Enjoying how uncomfortable it made me.
As he grabbed a cup from a cart nearby and pulled up a chair way too close to me, I struggled to hold still. All it took was a featherlight touch. A glancing brush as he stretched his long leg out beside mine and ZAP!
“Would you quit it?” I hissed, squeezing my thighs together to make myself smaller. Why? Why did he have to zap me every single time? It wasn’t overly painful, but it threw me off balance, demanding my attention.
One corner of his mouth lifted. Not a lot, but enough that I suddenly knew, just knew he was doing it on purpose. He wanted me rattled. Wanted my attention. All of it.
Narcissistic sadist.
“I’m not the only one with enemies, you know,” I chose to say out loud, watching his sadistic little smirk only grow at my not-so-veiled threat.
“I know. But you by far have the most, and anyone dumb enough to ally with you will have to take them on as well.”
“Thanks for the reminder,” I muttered. “Will you get on with it already? I need to take a long shower after this.”
To wash off the feel of your hands on me, I said to myself but wished I had the nerve to say to his face.
He received the message clear enough anyway, and that stupid smirk disappeared.
Good. It was creepy seeing him smile. Distracting.
While he uncorked the bottle and began to carefully pour the dark elixir into a cup, a thought came to me, and I blurted, “How did you know where to find me anyway?”
“You left quite the mess in your Amplifying class, including a few drops of your blood,” he replied without looking up at me. “I had Oz use it to track you.”
Everything in me went cold. Blood rituals, no matter how small, were sacred. Sacred. I knew he hated me, but how could he do such a thing?
I was shocked, furious, but more than anything, I was terrified. Terrified of what else Thorne’s friend had discovered about me with that blood. Oracles could read you, see inside you, and he could learn more from one drop of my blood than anything Thorne could ever tell him.
“That’s sacrilegious. A complete invasion of privacy," I said, my voice trembling from all the emotions brewing inside me. “I didn’t give him permission to use my blood.”
Thorne stopped pouring to finally look at me.
I tried to keep the emotions from my face, but judging by how still he’d suddenly become, I hadn’t quite managed it.
Studying me for a beat, he quietly said, “Relax. He only used the blood to draw a map of your location on the floor. None of your blood was ingested, and he properly disposed of it afterward.”
I stared at him. Hard. Searching for a lie.
When his gaze remained steady on mine, relief shuddered through me.
I didn’t respond, too busy shoving down all my emotions again.
He handed me the cup of Sano, and I took it without comment, downing it in one go.
The foul-tasting potion speared down my throat like an ice cold vomit cocktail, immediately searching for injury.
Within seconds, it found the cut on my cheek and began to knit it shut.
As I reached up to touch it, Thorne grabbed my hand and murmured, “Wait.”
My eyes flew back to his, but his focus was on my cheek.
While he watched the cut heal, he continued to hold my hand as if he didn’t realize it.
Well, I sure did. Every inch of me was aware of his fingers wrapped around mine, not tightly in a demanding way, but firmly.
Securely. My hand started to warm under his, my skin humming in a pleasant way.
Unsettled by my reaction to his touch, I twisted my hand free of his hold. He let it go, slowly straightening when I abruptly stood from the bed and scooted away.
“Are we done here?” I asked, looking everywhere but at him as he corked the bottle and rose from his chair.
“Yes.”
“Good.” I whirled to get away as fast as I could, but I wasn’t fast enough.
“Training begins tomorrow,” he called after me, freezing me in my tracks. “What happened today can’t happen again, so you’ll be working with me to control your magic. Every day during your free period, we’ll meet at the glen. You know the spot.”
I nodded that I’d heard, then quickly fled the infirmary. Training? With him? I shuddered from head to toe, knowing without a shadow of doubt that Thorne Hudson was about to make my life a living nightmare.