Chapter 52 Sable
SABLE
Cillian may be an absolute freak, but I’m not going to let him ruin my day.
Though after that interaction, I might be willing to let the guys ruin his.
Cillian’s words stay in my mind as I make my way through the castle and the anxiety he hoped to sew inside my blooms in Technicolor.
My Uncle Carl also said something about my mother at Bellthorn before he died, and I fear that everyone who wishes me harm knows more than I do.
A few things are obvious. He hates me. When Lex pulled off that exhibitionist shit in front of Cillian, I thought for an egotistical second he might be into it.
A lot of guys have been into me in a superficial way.
After a couple of times of him playing nice, I seriously convinced myself he wasn’t that bad, but this interaction has violently corrected my opinion.
There’s no faking the kind of hate I saw in his eyes.
He also obviously knows that my mother came to Bellthorn, and it makes me wonder again why this is such a secret.
It’s understandable why my parents kept me away from Bellthorn.
This place is unhinged and lawless, but why did they lie about Dad being the only one attending?
After Nina’s remarks about me not asking many questions, this feels like salt in the wound.
I need to learn much more than what I know.
The time of preservation is over. I can’t enter a snake den and wish for the best.
Besides that, I can’t do much about Cillian.
He’s obviously respected and trusted to teach in his professor’s name.
Something tells me taking him on wouldn’t be as physical or as open-and-shut as the boys would like to convince me.
In fact, I’m pretty sure Lex has been a bit negligent in dealing with him.
Too trusting, I decide, and then laugh aloud because I never thought I would think that about Lex of all people.
Cillian’s little stunt makes me late for my next class, and I don’t have time to cross the castle in the normal fashion.
Keeping my head low, I push through the med students, finally making a turn at the west wing.
I reach the door I’m searching for, slipping quickly inside and turning left.
Lex dragged me through this passage several times last semester, and I remember the turns well.
The path requires me to backtrack, first going all the way to the top floor and then back down.
Despite the fact that I’m doubling back, it will cut through the whole castle in no time.
I’m so lost in my thoughts that I jump halfway out of my skin when someone yells my name.
I turn, with my hand at my throat, heart pounding, and find Nina leaning against the stone wall between the second and third floors. She has an oversized bag of popcorn like you would get from a club store and is happily munching.
“What are you doing in here?” I ask.
“Hi, Nina, how are you?” She mocks my lack of politeness.
I roll my eyes back instead.
“Are you enjoying your bedroom?” she asks, offering me some popcorn.
“No, thanks.” I almost chuckle. “It’s been nice, but I wish you would tell me how you got that key.”
“I wish for fifteen minutes alone with Keanu and Angelina.”
I laugh. “Is this where you’ve been hanging out?”
She lifts a shoulder. “Eh, I don’t like the crowds.”
She’s clearly no longer a student here, not taking classes, and not eating in the cafeteria. So what is she up to?
“Are you hiding?” I ask straight up.
“I’m passing time,” she replies carefully, starting to walk down the stairs. I follow her. “After your boyfriends’ little stunt, people seem to realize I’m not exactly who I say I am.”
“You mean everyone knows you’re a lying cunt?”
My wording doesn’t ruffle her feathers at all. She throws her head back in a laugh. “It made people look my way, so I’m buying time until I know where to go from here. I have many options, money train and all.”
A thought pops in my head, and it’s out of my mouth before I can think better. “What do you know about Cillian, Lex’s little helper?”
“Hmm,” she says. “Not much.”
Nina has proven many times that she knows a lot about this place, so I can’t stop myself from feeling disappointed that she doesn’t have anything juicy to tell me.
We move in silence until I see the exit, thankfully still in time for my next class.
I know she’s not following me to the main hall, so I turn over my shoulder and send her a smile that surprises even me.
“It was strangely nice bumping into you, Nina.”
My words seem to catch her off guard, and I chuckle at the surprise taking over her face, even when she quickly curses too, destroying the almost nice moment.
“Sable?”
“Yeah?”
“The journalism department created genealogical trees of the founding families right before it was shut down. It’s still up there.”
“Okay?”
She rolls her eyes. “I said you should ask more questions, right?”
Yes, she told me that. I don’t know what learning about the guys’ families will help, but maybe that’s what she means. I need all the information about Bellthorn to understand where I am and why everyone is a creep who knows more than I do. I nod, showing her I got it, and leave her behind.
Eyes stick to me the moment I’m within the crowd, and I instantly miss the secret passage and the weird feral Nina. I fear that Arabella, as the new Offering, is adding a layer of attention that had faded before I left. She’s obviously running her mouth.
People were starting to get bored, but now they are just as interested as they were on day one.
They love drama in Bellthorn, and I see the center of everything.
This is by far the most people I’ve seen since I’ve been back, and much to my surprise, a few of them wave to me, like I’m no longer infected.
That’s strange.
I finally reach the fashion department, aching to have Orion at my side as a buffer against all of this, but the attention here is a lot different.
Almost no one looks at me, and it feels incredibly intentional.
As I’m searching for the classroom, a girl I’ve never spoken to before falls into step with me.
I recognize her as one of Orion’s students.
She’s never been hostile to me, but she’s certainly not been friendly either, so I’m not sure what to make of her approaching me.
“Hey, Sable,” she says like we’ve met plenty of times, and this is a normal day.
“Hi, uh, I’m sorry. I don’t actually know your name.”
“That’s fine,” she says like it really is. “It’s so hard to find you without one of the guys, but I guess now that Arabella is the Offering, that shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
Ah, she’s fishing for drama. That makes more sense than a sudden urge to befriend me.
“Yeah, good for her, I guess.” I only just manage not to laugh. There still doesn’t seem to be much sense to be made of what Arabella is getting out of being the Offering. “So what’s your name?” I ask again.
“You’ve seen this, right?” She continues talking like I never said anything.
She pulls out her phone, cues something up, and hands it to me.
When I don’t immediately press play, she presses it for me.
At first, I can’t tell what I’m seeing. Everything is a little dark and a bit blurry, but I quickly recognize Soren’s moans.
They don’t sound quite right, and the female ones on top of them are far louder.
This is the fucking recording Arabella made of her raping Soren.
Anger like I can scarcely understand thunders through me.
Shock keeps me in place as she giggles by my side.
My eyes lift from the video to her happy face and finally to the people around us.
Everyone holds their breath, waiting for my reaction.
She reaches for the phone when it ends, but I grip it too tightly and pull it to my chest. The biggest smile, the fakest one I have in my arsenal, spreads across my lips.
Then I throw her phone at the ground as hard as I can.
“Hey!” she screeches.
“Oops.” I stick out my bottom lip.
When I killed my uncle, I never felt bloodlust, just an unyielding need to survive, overcome, and avoid getting raped. What I learned about myself in the process, though, is that I am capable of murder. I’m not prey at Bellthorn anymore, and they should be careful what they do to provoke me.