Chapter 11
SADIE
Inever did find out what our next class would have introduced us to because all afternoon sessions were cancelled.
I still found it odd they called it afternoon when the sky was pitch black outside, and the real afternoon clearly happened while we all slept.
If anything, this was the middle of the night.
But we had worse problems than the dark sky; someone had killed one of us.
No, not just killed. Mutilated. Her eyes cut out as a message, but one I had trouble interpreting.
If wolves couldn’t gain access to Lunova Academy, that meant Fioranna’s killer was human or vampire, and most likely a slayer. And probably still inside the building.
That explained why Sidonie gathered up all the new slayers and bade us to follow her like little ducklings down a long corridor, past the bat sculpture I was convinced would come to life, and through the rounded chamber where we were led yesterday, to a solid cherry-wood door.
Mortem’s crisp voice called for us to enter, and we were ushered inside. Not a single one of us was unrattled by the sight of Fioranna’s dead body hanging from the staircase, even if I was trying to act normal and Lawrence had set his sneer to its usual setting.
“There is reason,” Laura Mortem began the moment the door had snicked shut behind us, with Sidonie hovering in concern, “to believe the four of you might be at risk. Fioranna may have been targeted because she was a new recruit, as are you four. She was a full-blooded vampire, and would have been very difficult to kill, but you do not have that advantage.”
Great way to say we were weaklings and easy to pick off, one by one. I knitted my fingers together in front of me, gripping until my knuckles whitened.
“Do you know who killed her?” I asked, other questions burning in my chest. Are they still here? And when can I fucking leave?
She knitted her gloves hands together on the desk. “Professor Beaufort is leading an investigation, and I promise you it will be swift and ruthless. The culprit will be executed on the lawn for all to see.”
Making a spectacle was taking it a bit too far, but at least we’d be safe. And I supposed a school full of killers wouldn’t have lenient punishments.1
“I caution you to be on your guard,” Mortem added, as if that wasn’t common sense.
“How?” Paige blurted with a twisted laugh, her brown fingers knotted tight, knuckles light.
“We just got here; we don’t have any training.
I barely even know how to throw a punch, and I almost died out there.
I was this close to death.” She held up her thumb and finger, a millimetre between them.
“And you think I can hold my own against Fioranna’s killer? I don’t stand a chance.”
“Your training begins in earnest tomorrow,” Mortem replied, as if that was a comfort. Didn’t it take years to become a fully trained badass? “It will give you valuable skills you can use to defend yourself. I’ll make sure Reed’s lesson plan focuses on self-defence.”
So, an investigation and a self-defence class? Is that it? “What about bodyguards? Round-the-clock policing? Arming us with magical weapons so we can defend ourselves?”
“Magical weapons are rare,” Sidonie piped up. “Some of our vampire slayers have their own inherent magic, but it would be near-impossible to give everyone else a powerful artefact when there are very few in known existence and—”
“Thank you, Sidonie,” Mortem cut in, a twinkle in her eye.
Something fond about the look she gave the flaxen-haired vampire.
“Magical weapons are off the table. After your lesson tomorrow, you will be permitted one regular weapon. But if I catch you using them on other slayers instead of for your own personal protection…”
“Executed on the lawn?” I guessed, shifting my weight.
“Precisely,” Mortem agreed with relish.2
“In more positive news, I received feedback from Reed about where you all should be placed.” She glanced up at us. “Are you excited to learn your houses?”
“Mortem, a woman just died,” I said flatly.
She ignored that. “By satisfying coincidence, you all placed in different houses. Lawrence, you are now House of Silver.”
“Which means what?” he asked, dismissive. “I have to give up all my gold jewellery?”
Mortem levelled him with a look. “It means you are patient, wise, and cold, and will do well among others like you. Your sleeping arrangements remain unchanged, but you’ll find a new family in House of Silver.
Once you’ve passed basic training, you’ll take all your classes with the other Silver slayers.
You’ll find each house has their own strengths and methods of slaying. ”
Lawrence scoffed but said nothing else, so Mortem fixed her eyes on the rest of us.
“Paige, you placed in House of Blood, among our most ancient, commanding, and regal slayers.”
Paige threw Elix and me a panicked look. I gave her what I hoped was an encouraging smile.
“Elix, you now belong with House of Stone, where no grudge is forgiven, and no forgiveness is offered.”
My smile this time was easier. After what Elix had been through, I could picture her among grudge-holders and vengeance-seekers. She deserved revenge, with a grandfather as evil as hers.
“Sadie,” Mortem said, and I may have forgotten how to breathe when her attention settled over me. As if this was the most important thing that would happen to me.3 “You placed among the House of Sun, with our most passionate, powerful, and loyal slayers.”
Jesus. If she thought I was powerful, she was going to get a very rude awakening.
Loyal, though? I could do that. And passionate?
Well, I was certainly passionate about getting out of this office, back to our room, and hiding in the four-poster bed all night.
And at least the sun didn’t immediately make me think of gore and torture. 4
“You’ll discover more about your houses the longer you’re at Lunova Academy. For now, all you need to do is attach this pin to whatever you wear.”
She handed each of us a pin, and I was quite relieved to see the golden sun badge wasn’t a dismembered head as I pinned it to my shirt.
Elix got handed a silver pin in the shape of a tombstone.
Paige’s rose-gold pin was a drop of blood.
I didn’t get close enough to see Lawrence’s, but it was probably a silver spoon.
“That’s all,” Mortem said, and dismissed us without a warm, fuzzy speech about keeping us safe, driving out the killer, and ensuring our physical and mental wellbeing at all times. Why waste energy reassuring us when she could just buy another kidnapped slayer?
Had Gran got to the Maldives by now? Was she lounging by the sun, waited on hand and foot by a handsome young man with a waxed chest, perfect hair, and a sexy accent?
I tried not to let it get to me as we slouched out of Mortem’s office, Sidonie staying behind to discuss something with the headmistress.5
“How much faith do you have in this investigator guy?” Paige muttered. “Mine’s at an all-time low.”
I nodded, distracted by the sight of Fioranna’s body swinging from the staircase in my mind, then Suri’s empty eyes, staring up at me accusingly. Cold sweat beaded on the back of my neck.
“Yeah, exactly,” Paige said, and I glanced up as we walked—hopefully in the direction of our rooms—to see Elix’s written reply: I don’t think they’ll care if the killer comes for us next.
“Pretty sure they’ll care if they run out of slayers. It can’t be cheap recruiting newbies if they’re paying us and whatever shitty family member decides to sell us.”
As Elix wrote her reply, I tried to clear the vision of Suri’s empty eyes from my memory, at least until my head hit the pillow tonight, when I knew it would return and refuse to leave.
My heart hadn’t slowed, beating frantically, and the more I tried to control my breathing, the shorter my breath became.
So when an arm cut across me, the scent of cupcake-sweet perfume drowning all my senses, I wasn’t exactly in my right mind. And when I saw it was the It Girl—Reverie, I’d found out—and that she’d snatched the small book from Elix’s hand, I went completely still.
My feet stopped. My eyes narrowed. Lips pressed into a flat line that Reverie should have seen as an omen. Lava surged into my veins until my temperature sky rocketed. It happened in the space of a second, my temper a lit fuse.
I erupted. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?
” I snarled, not even trying to be nice as Reverie danced out of my reach, a twinkling laugh filling the air as she flipped through the notebook.
Her court jesters were present, I saw, Oona, her second in command snickering even if the third, Maveline’s eyes shifted guiltily from the book to Elix.
“Rev, maybe we should—” she began, but her ringleader spoke over her.
“We’re worthless to them,” she said, violating Elix’s privacy by reading her thoughts aloud.
This book was full of shit she’d shared with people she trusted, not power-hungry bullies.
“You’re right about that,” she quipped, her ponytail dancing as her shoulders vibrated with laughter.
“Your kind are worthless here.” Her sneer moved to Paige and I, as if humans were even less than worthless.
I ripped the book from her hand, the page in Reverie’s hand tearing, and the sight of that frayed paper fanned the flames of my rage. I’d been shaky and on edge all day, and all my instability came raging out now as I returned Elix’s book and shoved Reverie with my palms flat on her shoulders.
“You touch her book again, and I’ll rip that ponytail out of your fucking head,” I hissed.
There were two reactions I’d found bullies gave when confronted.
They were stunned at the audacity someone had to stand up to them, and their whole facade fell apart, revealing the shrivelled ego within.
Or they reacted with the same energy I gave, and it usually devolved into a fist fight, bitch fight, or a delightful combination of the both.
Reverie was the second. Her eyes flashed, a warning sigh I refused to heed. Her jaw set, mouth pursed with rage. “You dare—” she seethed.
“Oh, I dare.6 I’ve met women like you before. Dozens of them, actually. Where I’m from, there are girls like you in every school, and they’re nothing special. You are nothing special. Just a sad, little bully who makes other people’s lives hell to cover up how insecure you are.”
“Yeah, tell her,” Paige encouraged.
“You’re going to regret this,” Reverie threatened, then paused to search her mind. “I don’t even know your name. That’s how insignificant you are.”
“You’re projecting, sweetie.” At her scowl, I added, “Right, you might not know what that means, it’s an Earth term.
It’s what we call it when pathetic people with small brains are too cowardly to go to therapy to deal with their problems, so they accuse everyone else of having their sad little complexes to shift the attention. ”
I gave her a little smile when I finished being helpful, and watched her nostrils flare.
“Shall we go?” I asked Paige, linking my arm with Elix’s. “There’s nothing here worth staying for.”
It felt like such a power move, walking past the ringleader and her posse of brainless followers.
Okay, that was mean. I was sure the followers weren’t completely brainless.
If they were like the cliques in my old school, they were just pretending to be dumb to stay in favour with their capricious queen bee.
“I literally love you,” Paige said with a low laugh. “That was badass.”
“Well, you know us House of Sun slayers; passionate, powerful, and loyal.” I tried to keep a straight face while I spoke, and failed, a laugh bubbling up.
The moment we turned the corner, and the Brown Jacket Brigade were out of sight, Elix threw her arms around me and squeezed tight. Stunned, it took me a moment to remember to hug her back, the movement unfamiliar and awkward. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been hugged.7
It was… nice. Different and unexpected, but nice. A tightness in my chest unwound, allowing me to breathe deeper, easier. I’d forgotten what it felt like to have friends.
“Get the fuck in here, Paige. This is a group hug.”
With a laugh, she flung her arms around us, and the three of us stood there in the middle of the hall, hugging like weirdos. No, hugging like best friends.
I had best friends.
If this academy didn’t kill me, I might just grow to like it here.