Chapter 26
SADIE
Fioranna’s murder had clearly caught the professors and tutors by surprise, because our classes were cancelled that day.
The same courtesy wasn’t extended to Soria Runel.
She was murdered only last night, but by morning, it was business as usual.
Breakfast was tense as slayers considered there was a hunter among us whose prey was their kin, not just wolves.
Then instead of a morning training session, the four new recruits were swallowed into a larger class of students for a poison brewing class.
I spotted Maveline slouching into the tower room ahead of me, the moonlight slanting across the classroom like gauze making her resemble a ghost, deathly pale, sad-eyed. Here was my chance.
Adopting an expression of concern, I moved closer to her and breathed, “Are you okay?”
She startled at the sight of me. Right, I should have been dead. It was an effort not to smile.
“Am I—what do you—what?” she stammered. Guilt probably corroded her insides. As it should. She threw me off that cliff to my death. She truly murdered me, but she didn’t know that.
“I know there’s bad blood between us,” I said, keeping my tone sympathetic. “But you’re not like the other two; you tried to save me. And I think it’s just so cruel, what they said about you.”
She drew back, her shoulders by her ears. Rev and Oona were in the second poisons session this afternoon, so it was the perfect time to sow seeds of discontent and separate the army of skanks.1 “What did they say?”
I reached out to rest my hand on her arm. “It’s nothing. They’re wrong—you’re not too much of a wimp to be their friend, you just have a heart.” I arranged my face into a warm smile. “They wouldn’t know what that’s like.”
“They said that?” she asked in a small voice. “What else did they say?”
“I’m sure they didn’t mean it. You’re their friend. Who cares if you don’t have the nerve for murder. Where I come from, that’s a good thing.” I squeezed her arm and stepped back. “Don’t let it get to you.”
No, please do.
“Right.” Maveline looked crestfallen, but she made a show of raising her head, pushing her shoulders back. “Don’t let it get to me.”
It was a lucky guess, based on how they spoke to her when she tried to spare me, but it seemed I’d hit the bullseye.
When she crossed the room, her eyes glossy, expression distracted, Paige slid closer. “You’re evil.”
My smile this time was genuine and sharp. “Aw, you say the sweetest things.”
I could have lived the rest of my life without being surrounded by so many different kinds of poison.
Hemlock. Nightshade. Raven Eye. Death Caps and Destroying Angels.
2 Plus, a whole bunch of flora, fungi, and minerals native to Lunova that would kill someone if touched without gloves.
And of course, killing methods specific to wolves, which was our current session’s focus: silver.
That was exaggerated, right? Silver being lethal to wolves. They weren’t serious about that? I had sterling silver rings at home. Should I have been grateful that the necklace my dad gifted me before he ditched us was gold? Would it have poisoned me if it was silver?
Beaufort taught this class, and he was every bit as stern and no-nonsense as he’d been last night in the forest. He didn’t have an empathetic bone in his body.
Didn’t have an iota of warmth in his brutal face.
He’d made all twenty of us stand at the front of the room, clustered around the large table, far too close to a vial of silver that made my skin crawl when I looked at it.
“You’ve seen the demonstration,” Beaufort barked when we hovered. “What are you waiting for? Take your seats and recreate it. The first pair to distil a pure silver solution can leave early.”
“What about house points?” someone asked, a slayer who’d been here far longer than me. I didn’t think any of us newbies would dare. Well, maybe Lawrence who took a seat in the back row, all puffed up with purpose and self-importance.
Beaufort’s mouth thinned. Bitterly, he said, “Five points to the winner.”
“But Sidonie gives us twenty—”
“Do you see Sidonie standing here?” Beaufort retorted.
“No, sir.”
Beaufort grunted. “Well, get on with it,” he ordered. “And do try not to burn yourself on the flame. My last session was full of imbeciles.”
I found my name on a marker beside Rogue’s. It seemed Elix, Paige, Lawrence, and I had been strategically placed with experienced slayers. Probably to reduce any chance of us being imbeciles.
“There’s no way this water actually turns into silver, right?” I asked Rogue, dropping heavily onto my stool and immediately regretting it when tender pain shot through my pussy. Right, fuck, I forgot I got the absolute life pounded out of me by huge, inhuman dicks.
Rogue gave me an odd look, pulling her red hair back into a ponytail. “You don’t have alchemy in your world?”
“Not unless you count turning hops into beer.” I peered at the stoppered glass bottles of clear liquid sitting on my side of the desk, a shallow dish set over an unlit candle on hers.
I shifted on my stool—carefully this time—but all the ache did was remind me of the way Verne and Leander touched me, kissed me, fucked me. I groaned.
“I know,” Rogue sighed, misinterpreting the sound. “I’m sick of hearing about the Hunter’s Ball, too.”
Ah, that. Between conspiracy theories about the murders and tense discussions about how to protect ourselves from a killer in our own classes, those words had cropped up again and again.
The Hunter’s Ball. As far as I could tell, it was a prom-style party thrown at the Hunter’s Moon, which was only a few days away.
It seemed Lunova’s new crop of slayers had arrived just in time for the fancy shindig—but too late to get any good dresses made, Paige had lamented, thrown dramatically over Elix’s lap as she channelled her inner Kitty Bennett.
Now that I was aware of it, I heard those words crop up time and time again as our classmates discussed how to transmute water into silver. Some pairings had given up on the lesson entirely, and were swapping hair and makeup tips.
“Tell me no one gets murdered, or sacrificed to a dark God at this ball,” I said, throwing a desperate look at Rogue. I’d been murdered once, so if it was just an excuse for more violence and murder, I’d give this one a miss.
“Not usually,” Rogue replied, knocking her shoulder into mine, the coolness of her skin startling me. “Although you never really know with Lunova Academy. Don’t worry, kitty. I’ll protect you.”
“Thanks,” I drawled, lifting the stopper off one of the bottles and taking a delicate sniff. It didn’t smell like silver, and my wolf didn’t start howling and scratching inside me. It just smelled like water, fresh from a spring.
“Are you sure we can make silver from this?” I asked. “Not to be a Debbie downer, but I doubt my crappy high school education lends itself to alchemy.”
“Don’t worry, kitty, we’ll make a slayer out of you yet. I’m a very thorough instructor.”
I dropped the stopper back on the bottle before I could knock it over, willing the heat to leave my face. Damn these seductive vampires, making me all flustered. It was bad enough having two wolf mates and a wolf who wanted me dead, let alone a vampire who looked at me with bedroom eyes.
I was ninety percent sure I was imagining it, and this was just Rogue’s default state, but that didn’t stop me turning into a bumbling fool. She propped her chin on her fist and smirked at me, completely aware of the heart tripping in my chest and the nervous pulse in my neck.
“You’re supposed to be instructing me,” I reminded her, shifting in my seat and immediately regretting it.
Memories came at me from every direction.
I had to choke down a whine as my slumbering wolf began to wake, her interest piqued at my reaction.
She didn’t just want a rerun of last night.
She wanted to sprint right back into the forest, plant herself on the ground on all fours, and shake her ass at them.
Luckily, I had enough dignity to fight the urge, but there was no escaping what those memories did to me. I kept circling back to Verne’s refusal to bite me. There was no reason for that to hurt, but it did hurt, both in my chest and in my neck where my wolf wanted to wear the mark of his teeth.
I’d never wanted a man to bite me in my life. Actually, if anyone had tried, I would’ve rammed my boot right into their dick and never come back. But my one night hook-up didn’t bite me, and suddenly it was the worst thing in the world.
You’re being ridiculous, I thought in the general direction of the wolf I sensed circling, restless. Why would you want to be bitten by some guy you barely know?
No, it was worse than that. She wanted to be bitten by both of them.
All of them. Her irritation spiked through my chest; I rubbed the spot over my heart. Hell would freeze over before I allowed him to touch me, let alone put his teeth in my neck.
But Verne and Leander… I had never been looked at the way they looked at me. Had never been touched the way they touched me, not by one night stand, not even by a boyfriend. Certainly not by Derek.
Fucking Derek.
I hate that I kept thinking of that bastard, but he’d done such a number on my self-esteem that I couldn’t even entertain a casual relationship without him barging his way into my head.
“Did you hear me?” Rogue asked, making me jump.
“Yeah,” I replied automatically.
“Okay,” she agreed with a smile pressed in the corners of her mouth. “Then repeat what I just said back to me.”
Shit. Um… “You think I’m smart and funny and the most accomplished slayer you’ve ever seen. That’s what you just said right?”
She’s snorted. Which was rude, but okay. “Yeah, sure,” she agreed. “But shall I repeat what I actually said now that you’re listening?”
My face grew even hotter, but I managed to nod, and this time I actually paid attention when she picked up the dropper and began the process of turning water into silver